Read Obsessed: America's Food Addiction--And My Own for Free Online

overweight,your outfit’s wrong, and what’s that on your arm? Go drink some water, lose some weight, and call me in six months.”
    I was devastated, because I needed to get off overnights so badly. But I thought, My God, she’s right. This is TV. I’ve got to look my best, and I don’t . The message I sent the second I walked into her office was “Hi, I don’t take care of myself and I am not happy.” The second message, if she cared to take another look, was “I don’t like how I look.” And if she wanted to give me one minute more, you know what that network executive would have seen? That my life was a mess.
    When you walk through a door that can change your life, you had better send the message that you have your act together. I did not. So I just sat there, horrified by what she was saying, and equally horrified with myself, because everything she was saying was true.
    That network executive may have saved my career. My value was reflected in the visual message I was sending. To pretend I wasn’t sending it would have been my biggest professional mistake. To ignore her would have been mistake number two. I needed to learn from her tough talk and take action to become a healthier person, inside and out.
    I went back home and took a hard look at the reality of my life—working overnights, raising two small children, and trying to keep a big house together—and felt a surge of self-pity. I thought, How am I going to do this? Everything is working against me. I’m exhausted. I don’t sleep. I don’t have enough money for a trainer to help me get in shape or for cosmetic surgery to take care of this double chin. How do I do this ?
    And then, suddenly, I had the answer. You just have to . It was a pivotal moment in my life. I wasn’t immediately surewhat I had to do, or how to do it, but I knew I was taking the first step in the right direction. I was done abusing myself.

    It was time for some major changes, starting with making a commitment, no matter what else was going on, to set aside ninety minutes a day for me—to get healthy, eat right, and work out.
    It was time for some major changes, starting with making a commitment, no matter what else was going on, to set aside ninety minutes a day for me—to get healthy, eat right, and work out.— Mika
    This was a heavy lift because as an overnight anchor in New York City, I was already away from my kids too much. It meant that I had to let others take over some of my parenting duties while I took time to rebuild myself. Call me selfish if you want, but my feeling better and doing well at work was also going to benefit my family.
    I suffered the judgments of stay-at-home moms in my neighborhood who shook their heads and tightened their lips at the plight of my poor babies. That didn’t matter to me. The equation was simple. This would be a tough time for my household, my children, and my husband, but there would be a better mother and wife at the other end. It was going to take a while—I wasn’t sure if it would be six months, a year, or even two—but I was going to change.
    It was a tall order for a woman who felt empty at the core,but I was determined to take control of my life. It began with making significant changes in my eating behavior. I did just what that network executive said. I drank a lot of water—all the time. Water, water, and water. I also started to eat healthy salads, with garbanzo beans and other low-fat protein. I cut out sweet cereals and replaced them with shredded wheat, granola, and Bran Chex. All of that paid off physically, and soon enough I began to look and feel healthier.
    The mental and emotional correction took much longer, because true health doesn’t come from the mathematics of eating (counting calories, calculating fat grams, measuring minutes of exercise) but from crafting a complete lifestyle that leads to an overall sense of well-being. My compulsion to overeat was still there. I could still eat an entire box of