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Jane McClaren
Jane McClaren is no stranger to failure. Nearly flunking out of Kirkwood High School, she sabotaged her entrée into the universities with fine art schools she had thought she might...view moreJane McClaren is no stranger to failure. Nearly flunking out of Kirkwood High School, she sabotaged her entrée into the universities with fine art schools she had thought she might attend. In fact, at the time of her high school graduation in St. Louis, Jane was overweight and depressed.
This failed matriculation sent her off on a long journey of depression, up-and-down weight problems, and emotional overeating. More failures—flunking out of college and leaving two short marriages—hardly raised an eyebrow at home. Throughout her twenties, Jane harbored thoughts of death.
In 1975, her friend Patrick asked her to go with him to a health school in San Antonio. Patrick suffered from obesity, and his doctor considered this a last resort. Jane jumped at the chance to lose weight. “I’ll lose this weight even if it kills me!” With that steely vow, her path took a merciful turn, beginning Jane’s thirty-five-year study of food and health.
In 1986, Jane moved to Minnesota with her beloved horse, Binski, and her dog, Nicholas, and studied literature at the University of Minnesota. The love of words, writing, and a curiosity about life led her to this choice, and the craft she learned there led her down the road to this book.
The next year Jane joined a therapy group, Dreikur’s Relationships, based on the family-placement theories of Austrian psychiatrist and psychologist Alfred Adler (1870–1937). Jane had always yearned to understand why a young, beautiful, funny, intelligent woman like herself had wanted to die. Working with this group began an understanding that would eventually change her life.
Twenty-six years after barely graduating from high school, Jane earned her B.A. in English from William Woods University. And two years later, in 1993, she earned her M.A. in English from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Jane had discovered desire and perseverance.
Once overweight and depressed, Jane teaches us in You Can Love Food, Love Yourself, & Love Life that we can be healthy and still maintain a positive, even “lusty” relationship with food. She also teaches us that we are capable and ready.view less