Out of the Pantry

Pre-teen Ronni is a seemingly normal girl growing up in the suburbs, until the day her mom hides cookies. Soon after, Ronni has an unexplainable compulsion to eat more and more and more junk. In secret and shame, she overeats and binges through tween years, high school, college, an abusive first marriage, and even a loving second marriage. Over thirty years, she steals food, eats food off of others' plates, and scavenges food out of the trash, until one night, once again stuffed after a binge, on TV, she hears the words "compulsive overeater." She searches and she learns she has an eating disorder, a mental illness, a disease. Armed with this knowledge she attacks her compulsion full throttle. She goes to therapy, Overeaters Anonymous meetings, read books, and namelessly blogs in an attempt to gain power over food. A brutally honest glimpse into the trials, pervasive thoughts, and heartbreak of a compulsive overeater, discover how Ronni gains the courage and strength to live her life without being a slave to food.

Ronni Robinson is a writer and indoor cycling instructor in the suburbs of Eastern Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband in their newly minted empty nest, as both kids are off to college.Ronni has been freelance writing since freshman year in college (a long time ago) and has appeared in aSweatLife, Ravishly, The Temper, 50 Shades of Aging, Healthy Women, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Courier-Post, The New Brunswick Home News, and Parents Express magazine.Ronni's passion is helping others who are struggling with eating disorders. She lives on Instagram, and also does public speaking about eating disorders and emotionally abusive relationships.She has competed in dozens of triathlons, including three IRONMAN triathlons and four half distance IRONMAN triathlons. When not writing or perched in front of her laptop, you can find Ronni in the gym. Out of the Pantry is Ronni's first book, but hopefully not her last.

Prologue 1. Can't Wait For The Cookies 2. The Eating Disorder Takes Hold 3. Help Yourself: Stealing, Burger King, And High School 4. Food Freedom, College, And Emotional Abuse 5. Leaving Rutgers, Trying to Leave My Abuser 6. Tea Leaves, Marriage, Divorce 7. My Real Adult Life Begins 8. Hoovering, Babies, and Running 9. Um, More Compulsive Overeating 10. Oh, I Seem to Have a Problem: Attacking Recovery 11. Therapy and My First Big Breakthrough 12. Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Therapist #2 13. Telling My Young Daughter, and More Breakthroughs 14. One Ending, A Two-Year Abstinentiversary, and a Big Beginning: Triathlon 15. What I Lost and Gained, Where I am Now For Further Reading About Eating Disorders and Recovery Eating Disorder Resources About the Author