Mandira's Works
I am a writer and artist. Learning more into the business aspects of art and my creative nature. Sharing my book and art through my own visual lens. 

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

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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
Michelle
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.
Adedayo Kosoko
About “There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment.” — Robert Frank
Mike E Arts
Fine artist attended Corcoran school of art, Art institute of Pittsburgh and Prince George's Community College.
Deb Taylor
Hi! I am an ESOL teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools. I live with my husband, Adam, and our three cats: Luka, Kira, and Amos. Publishing a book has always been a dream as reading and creative writing have been two pastimes of mine since Kindergarten, and I want to inspire that same love for reading in more young readers! I’m hoping that my books give readers a taste of mystery and adventure!
Shaawan Francis Keahna
Shaawan Francis Keahna (b. 1997) is an enrolled member of the White Earth Band of Minnesota Ojibwe and a Meskwaki descendant. His visual art has been to the Miikanan Gallery at the Watermark Art Center, All My Relations, Giizhigen Artists Incubator, the Walker’s Point Center for the Arts, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The short film “a place on the edge of breath,” which he co-produced and was featured in, won best documentary at Bushwick Film Festival. His words are in Same Faces Collective, Tension Literary, Hoxie Gorge Review, Unstaged, and too many others to list here.
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