Saturday, November 14, 2026
Eight-year-old Naomi was given a responsibility. She now had a key to the family residence. However, being alone gave birth to a problem that Naomi Joseph, now married with three children, has battled for 40 years.
Left alone the youthful Naomi began eating – binge eating – defined as consuming unusually large amounts of food in one sitting often and then feeling that eating behavior is out of control. Doubling up on the impact, her father was a binge and sprint eater.
Dealing with the problem has been a lifelong fight. Receiving medical help beginning in 2018 and the support of her family has helped.
Naomi has written a book “Binge and Sprint: From Endless Cake to Recovery” and had a book launch at Blue Door Books in Cedarhurst on Dec. 15. The book was published by WriteLife Publishing on Dec. 1.
“There are so many friends, this is so good,” she said, addressing the audience in the Central Avenue book store. “This was a very difficult book for me to write.”
Dr. Ira Sacker, who runs the Sacker Center with offices in Jericho and Manhattan, treated Naomi and wrote the book’s foreword.
“I think what is different about Naomi’s book is that she has personalized it, so that readers will get an inside look at what it’s like to really binge,” Sacker said.
He said that people take binge eating disorders for granted and do not consider it a big deal.
“What they don’t realize it’s all part of the spectrum with anorexia on one end and binge eating on the other end,” Sacker said, noting that Naomi was taking notes throughout her treatment and was passionate about writing. “And this book brings to light what some of the real trials and tribulations are of an individual who really struggles with this.”
Laura McDonald, the Sacker Center’s clinical director, assisted Naomi with editing the book during the summer of 2020.
“Her journey is just an amazing journey,” McDonald said. “She dealt with infertility, so many different things that she dealt with, but through humor and through storytelling that’s the bottom line of this whole book.”
Naomi, who calls herself a Modern Orthodox Jewish person, was referred to the Sacker Center through the Jewish Orthodox community and McDonald noted that the book shows that reaching out for help is not taboo. “It can help people feel not a lone,” McDonald said.
Bulimia Center in Manhattan founder Dr. Ellen Haimoff was the guest speaker and a person that Naomi knew, sort of, for 20 years. Naomi saw Haimoff at a wedding two decades ago and referred to her as “Marilyn” for Marilyn Monroe, and then finally met her.
“It’s raw, it’s potent, I think her journey with eating disorders will reach a lot of women who are shamed in the closest,” Haimoff said. “She addresses a lot to the reader and I love how she tells the real story and quotes from the Torah.”
Sacker said that readers who have binge eating disorders will find the book illuminating.
“They will find that they themselves fall into the many categories that Naomi has fallen into, and they will find out that there are certain things they can do to actually recover from this.”
“Binge and Sprint: From Endless Cake to Recovery” is on sale in book stores and online.
