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Magnificent Obesity: My Search for Wellness, Voice and Meaning in the Second Half of Life
Lose weight, calm down, find God.
Priorities fall quickly into place for a 55-year-old compulsive overeater with a panic disorder when a heart attack accelerates a midlife crisis into a furious race to close the gap between where she appears to be going in life and the very different place she wants to be.
Hindered by numerous longstanding obstacles to wellness and wholeness-from an obsessive fear of death to a two pack-a-day smoking habit-writer Martha Moravec turns crisis into opportunity, loss into insight and the pain of her past into a means for growing up in time to grow old with grace.
A woman living alone, Martha recruits a support team of doctors, therapists, and priests, helpers, healers, and friends from the grid of small town life. The patience and dedication of the people she calls “angels we can see” proves that it takes a village to raise a self-actualized adult. As she addresses childhood trauma, multiple addictions, severe panic attacks and phobias, Martha walks an often painful but always illuminating path toward recovery, reinvention and rebirth.
Magnificent Obesity depicts one woman’s effort to look honestly and compassionately at her obesity through a kaleidoscopic lens of anxiety disorder, addictive behaviors, agnosticism and the onset of aging. Her conviction that it’s never too late to grow up, that it is possible to feel born again at any age, and that there is no expiration date on dreams will inspire anyone who yearns to rewrite their story and take their own magnificent leap into a life lived with passion, purpose, and authentic power.
Priorities fall quickly into place for a 55-year-old compulsive overeater with a panic disorder when a heart attack accelerates a midlife crisis into a furious race to close the gap between where she appears to be going in life and the very different place she wants to be.
Hindered by numerous longstanding obstacles to wellness and wholeness-from an obsessive fear of death to a two pack-a-day smoking habit-writer Martha Moravec turns crisis into opportunity, loss into insight and the pain of her past into a means for growing up in time to grow old with grace.
A woman living alone, Martha recruits a support team of doctors, therapists, and priests, helpers, healers, and friends from the grid of small town life. The patience and dedication of the people she calls “angels we can see” proves that it takes a village to raise a self-actualized adult. As she addresses childhood trauma, multiple addictions, severe panic attacks and phobias, Martha walks an often painful but always illuminating path toward recovery, reinvention and rebirth.
Magnificent Obesity depicts one woman’s effort to look honestly and compassionately at her obesity through a kaleidoscopic lens of anxiety disorder, addictive behaviors, agnosticism and the onset of aging. Her conviction that it’s never too late to grow up, that it is possible to feel born again at any age, and that there is no expiration date on dreams will inspire anyone who yearns to rewrite their story and take their own magnificent leap into a life lived with passion, purpose, and authentic power.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
About the author
Martha M. Moravec
1 book5 followersMartha M Moravec is the author of the memoir Magnificent Obesity: My Search for Wellness, Voice and Meaning in the Second Half of Life, (Hatherleigh Press/Random House). She is also the author of two novels: an epic historical fantasy, The Secret Name of God; and a sci-fi eco-fable for young adults, The Odd Body Vanity Squad. In addition, she wrote the book and lyrics for 5 original full-length musicals, all of which were successfully produced in southern Vermont and Boston.
Martha blogs at Mad Genius Bohemians about the mysteries of the creative life. She also blogs at Magnificent Obesity about the hazards posed by anxiety, addiction, aging and agnosticism to personal growth and transformation. She can be found at home in Vermont working on her next 7 novels, 4 novellas, 2nd memoir and a sweeping revision of the musicals. She is currently seeking further publication opportunities, a hundred more years and God.
Martha blogs at Mad Genius Bohemians about the mysteries of the creative life. She also blogs at Magnificent Obesity about the hazards posed by anxiety, addiction, aging and agnosticism to personal growth and transformation. She can be found at home in Vermont working on her next 7 novels, 4 novellas, 2nd memoir and a sweeping revision of the musicals. She is currently seeking further publication opportunities, a hundred more years and God.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 8, 2014
This book was a page turner! The author bravely tells her story with wit and wisdom with respect to all who have influenced her life. Martha's book resonated with me on so many levels. Please don't let the title scare you away from reading this. It's not all about Obesity. I look forward to reading anything this author publishes in the future. She has my attention! Thank you Martha!
September 11, 2025
I persevered to the end of this book but found it hard work. Moravec is so self absorbed and it seems that no one else in the world matters except herself. Having lived and worked in poor areas of Cambodia for many years I found her complaints and worries to be trivial. I wanted to say stop thinking of yourself and look outside. Do something for others!
September 9, 2014
I understand a lot of Martha's pain and feelings. It seems as we get older we reflect more about who we are and how we got there. Anxiety can overtake your life, and it takes a lot of work to get through it. I like her statement at the end, "The struggle to loose weight, calm down, and find God goes on".
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews