Eating My Way to Heaven

Book excerpt: Denise Martin grew up in a nice, upper-middle-class family, with a loving stay-at-home mom and a successful dad who served as a church elder. But beneath this perfect picture lay a dirty secret, one of incest and abuse, deceit and denial. To protect herself, Denise tucked her memories away, but she couldn't shake the hurt, confusion and shame she felt. To compensate for her lack of self-esteem, she indulged her unhealthy obsessions with food, drugs, and danger, always living life on the edge. Yet she never sunk into oblivion. Bright, compassionate, and tenacious, she also created responsible roles for herself as an innovative businesswoman and an advocate for children. Eating My Way to Heaven is the sometimes outrageous, often comical, always entertaining story of Denise's long, hard journey from a damaged past to a healthy, promising, productive future. This candid, no-holds-barred account illustrates so well that, when we have the courage to admit our denial and confront our demons, what we will find can set us free. Book jacket.