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Michelle

Literary, Non-Fiction, Performance, Performance Art, Poetry, Prose

About the Artist

Michelle Petties is a TEDx speaker, Food Story coach, and author of the award-winning, Amazon best-selling memoir, Leaving Large – The Stories of a Food Addict.  For years, Michelle was a top performer for the most influential brands in media, including Radio One and Disney/ABC. Finally, the stressful and competitive media advertising space took a toll on her mental and physical health.  After gaining and losing over 700 pounds, she finally discovered the “secret” to quieting the battle between her mind, body, and hunger – her “story.” Michelle’s memoir, a category winner in The 2022 Memoir Prize for Books, explores the deep emotional and psychological connections to food and how these "food stories" shape our eating behaviors and weight management struggles.   Michelle developed a Prescriptive Writing Process to make peace with her mind, body, and food. Her approach emphasizes that the battle with weight isn't just about food but about the stories and emotions behind why we eat. She conducts healing-through-reading-writing-and-storytelling workshops where she teaches others how to find their food and personal truths. She speaks to organizations, large and small, sharing her insights and stories of hope, healing, triumph, and transformation. Her latest ebook, Mind Over Meals: 7 Secrets to Rewire Your Brain for Healthy Eating and High Performance, reveals her core principles for losing weight and keeping it off for good.  

Michelle website Michelle Petties Michelle website Leaving Large

Featured Work

Videos

  • A Food Addict's Lesson: Confusion. Clarity. Recovery

    See more information about A Food Addict's Lesson: Confusion. Clarity. Recovery
    In "A Food Addict's Lesson: Confusion. Clarity. Recovery," Michelle Petties weaves together powerful storytelling and transformative insights to illuminate how narrative exploration can break the cycle of food addiction. Through the lens of a pivotal food story about her uncle's relationship with watermelon, she demonstrates how our earliest experiences with food shape our eating patterns, often in ways we don't recognize.
    Drawing from her 40-year journey of gaining and losing over 700 pounds, Michelle reveals how healing-through-reading-writing-and-storytelling became the key to her recovery. By examining and rewriting her food stories, she discovered that sustainable transformation begins not with another diet, but with understanding the emotional connections we form with food.
    This compelling talk shows how creative writing and storytelling can:
    Uncover hidden emotional patterns around food
    Transform limiting beliefs about eating
    Create new neural pathways for lasting change
    Build a healthier relationship with self and food management skill
    Michelle's presentation isn't just a speech—it's a masterclass in using narrative exploration for healing. Her powerful demonstration of how clarity through storytelling led to her recovery offers hope and practical tools for others struggling with food addiction.
    As she shares her journey from confusion to clarity, Michelle illustrates how the creative process of writing and storytelling can illuminate paths to healing that traditional approaches often miss. Her talk inspires and invites us to explore the transformative power of our own stories.
    Medium: Stage
    Year: 2024
    Details: 15 minutes

Written Works