I grew up on the same farm that was homesteaded by my pioneering relatives in the mid-1800s near Fort Wayne, Indiana. Early on, I displayed talent in the visual arts and right through high school painted murals in homes, schools, churches, and businesses.

But, ever since I was six-years-old, I had struggled with a food addiction on top of a burgeoning eating disorder—even though no one had a clue what it was back then, including my parents. I was especially addicted to sweets and became chubby in childhood and then underweight in my teens.

After graduating from Purdue and a brief cowboy adventure out West, my husband Kurt and I settled back in the Midwest to start a family. In the busyness of mothering little ones, I increasingly turned to food to unwind from the days’ stresses. By the time I was forty-one, I was obese and experiencing chest pains and shortness of breath. I had a heart catheterization and was officially diagnosed with coronary artery disease—and by this time I had five children to raise.

I wanted to get healthy, but I had already tried every diet imaginable and nothing worked long-term. In fact, I always gained more weight back afterward, so I just quit trying to lose weight altogether—not realizing that food addiction, combined with a binge eating disorder, were the root causes of my problem. . .and no amount of dieting was going to fix it.

Five years later, I was more than 100 pounds overweight and had developed prediabetes on top of the heart disease. I was also lethargic and becoming increasingly immobile.

In March 2008, just before my forty-seventh birthday, while waiting for a prescription to be filled, I put my arm into one of those blood pressure machines that are in many pharmacy waiting areas. It registered my blood pressure at 157/94.

Seeing those numbers was my wake-up call. I knew that I had to change, because I knew I was sitting on a ticking bomb—not a matter of “if” I’d have a heart attack or stroke. . .but “when.”

A few days later, I visited my friend Audrey’s art studio. She and I had met two years before, on a university-sponsored trip to study the art renaissance of Italy and Greece. On that trip, when I had stepped into the vault of the Sistine Chapel and looked up at Michelangelo’s masterpiece, I was totally unprepared for the emotional experience of viewing it in person.

Gazing up at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, I felt in-congruent as an artist.

As a painter, I wouldn’t think of smearing mud on a masterpiece painting, yet for years I had been smearing mud on the greatest artwork of all—my own body—by the destructive food I was putting into it.

I had an idea: What would happen if I used food as an artistic medium? Just as a painter uses paint, or a sculptor uses metal, or a potter uses clay . . . to use food to make my body into the work of art that it was originally created to be? An art exhibit was born. I would create an online exhibit that would use food as the artistic medium and my obese body as the point of departure. I named the exhibit Transformation.

I’d read a book by a physician that claimed when the body is properly nourished, cravings for unhealthy foods dissipate, and then eventually go away. I knew that if I’d get rid of the cravings for the foods that were destroying my body, I’d be able to reclaim my health.

I started on the morning of July 10, 2008 with a visit to my family physician. He ordered a blood test for me to have baseline numbers.

So, I documented my month-to-month progress online.

Within a year, I lost 100 pounds, but more importantly, I got rid of the food addiction that had been holding me back from living life to the fullest. I also eradicated the coronary artery disease and prediabetes—and became athletic–and finally, for the first time in my life, I was free from food addiction!

And, for the first time in my life, my focus was on EATING instead of NOT EATING. . . which caused my lifelong struggle with an eating disorder to dissipate as well.

However, eventually the eating disorder became active again.

Today, more than fifteen years later, (including the death of my 21-year-old son by suicide) and psychotherapy—I now have lived experiences in both trauma / grief recovery and eating disorder recovery.

Some of my milestones have included:

• invitations to appear on national media and podcasts

• a speaker for organizations and health conferences

• studied and earned certificates in Basic Nutrition and The Science of the Nutritarian Diet from the Nutritarian Education Institute.

• published book Starved to Obesity; it provides inspiration, education, and practical tips for anyone who wants to escape food addiction and reclaim health: young, old, fit, or obese.

• I continue to make art--although I’m no longer painting murals. I work primarily in the mediums of oil, acrylic, and watercolor paintings.

 Championing freedom from food addiction!

—keeping it simple, sensible, sustainable—