Full: How I Learned to Satisfy My Insatiable Hunger and Feed My Soul

Description

In this inspiring and captivating memoir, Kimber Simpkins captures vividly-with piercing insight, raw emotion, and often humor-the all-consuming hunger she felt on a daily basis as a result of an eating disorder. Sick of dieting and hating her body, Simpkins decides to get to the bottom of her unhappy relationship with her body. That's when she discovers the healing power of yoga and Buddhism. Along the way, Simpkins realizes her hunger isn't simply physical, but that it comes from a place deep inside her. Through the wise teachings of yoga and meditation, Simpkins discovers she doesn't have to live in a prison of self-dissatisfaction. In fact, by understanding the root of her pain and learning to love herself in body, mind, and spirit, Simpkins is able to truly set herself free. As she wrestles with her inner demons of hunger and perfectionism and learns how self-acceptance can soften even her toughest inner critic, Simpkins takes us along on her voyage of self-discovery. At its core, this book is a journey to find true self-fulfillment that will inspire readers in their own search to create a full and meaningful life.

Kimber Simpkins is a certified Anusara (R) Yoga instructor and has trained with Judith Lasater as a Rest and Renew Instructor. She offers restorative yoga to her students, and is continually inspired by and grateful for her teachers, her students, and that great teacher of us all, life. A resident of the Bay Area for more than sixteen years, Simpkins moved to Berkeley to attend law school, and eventually became a lawyer. After practicing civil rights law for a couple of years, Kimber decided to pursue a more spiritual path that left time for family life, and began practicing yoga intensively. She comes from a family of lay preachers, teachers, singers, and healers, and is happy to have found an occupation that seems to blend all of these roles. When not on her yoga mat, Kimber may be found playing, working, writing, or hula hooping in her backyard garden.

"I fell in love with Full's honesty and its humor. Kimber writes with a passion conveying her experiences intimately. I felt her presence, her struggles, and her success as if she were sitting next to me whispering into my ear! This book is certain to be a refuge and bible for all women struggling with body image." --Angela Farmer, world-renowned yoga teacher "If you can read only one memoir about eating disorder recovery, read Full. Kimber's writing is generously dosed with humor and wisdom, filled with marvelous insight, and never shies away from the difficulty of the undertaking. She brings the struggle and recovery alive on the page and makes it feel possible for all of us." --Tamara Gerlach, author of Cultivating Radiance "Kimber's courageous memoir fills a gap in the literature, exposing both the preoccupied suffering of an eating disorder and the healing that occurs when she satiates her spiritual hunger with the practice of yoga. As a therapist who works extensively with these issues, I highly recommend Full to anyone struggling with an eating disorder or who desires to strengthen their relationship to food, body, and self." --Signe Darpinian, author of Knock Out Dieting "Full beautifully illustrates that anorexia is starvation of the soul as well as the body. The author portrays with hope and humor the labyrinthine path of recovery from an eating disorder, one that ultimately must include a loving partnership with one's own body." --Tamara Traeder, LMFT, LPCC "Full is an exceptionally raw and honest sharing of Kimber Simpkins's struggle with anorexia, body image, and relationship with food, and how she overcame her negative thinking and found freedom and happiness within her body. I could relate to so much of what she wrote. If you have ever struggled with food or body image issues, I recommend Kimber's book as an insightful, inspiring resource for you!" --Dina Proctor, author of Madly Chasing Peace "As insightful for the person with an eating disorder or the clinician, Full gets you inside the underpinnings of the illness and its challenging recovery. Ms. Simpkins astutely walks you through her successful integration of opposite parts of her Self with passion and humor. A testimony to the power of imagination and a must-read for everyone who desires to love his or her body for what it is." --Eric Bottino, clinician at the Young Adult and Family Center's eating disorder program at the University of California, San Francisco "In Full, Kimber Simpkins opens her heart and offers her experience in an honest and heartfelt memoir. It will serve as a support and guide for all those who feel less than good enough. Anytime you pick up Full, you will be reminded that you are in good company on the path." --Sharon Salzberg, cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and author of Real Happiness and Real Happiness at Work "Kimber Simpkins is an authentic force for change on this planet, and this book is her torch. She leads the way in a new generation of women committed to removing the veil of shame and secrecy around our relationship to our body, food, and feelings. This book resonated with me on a deep level as a woman and a spiritual practitioner. I highly recommend Kimber's book for any woman who is ready to let down the burden of food and self-esteem issues. It has the potential to act as a catalytic force toward healing, and ultimately to living a more authentic life." --Katie Silcox, author of Healthy, Happy, Sexy "Step away from the scale, ditch the measuring tape, and chuck the BMI chart. Then settle in with a cup of tea and let Kimber guide you on her humorous and touching journey to leave diet talk behind and learn to listen to--and love--her body. Full is a nourishing feast for the soul." --Linda Bacon, PhD, coauthor of Body Respect "There is a hunger in all of us for satisfaction, and in this beautiful book we follow Kimber on her Odyssey through the actual hunger of the body, only to discover that it lives in the mind as well. This is a very moving, and often funny, story about Kimber's struggles with her 'inner anorexic'; a story which points all of us toward healing. Full is stuffed with wit and wisdom." --Wes "Scoop" Nisker