by TammyWaldoch
Health & Fitness Diet & Nutrition / Weight Loss Humorous Memoir
Date Published: 07-29-2025
Publisher: BookBaby
Studies have shown that laughter and music are proven ways to facilitate
healing. Author Tammy Waldoch uses this potent secret sauce in her book Plight
of the Pudgy: Stories, Inspirations, and Preposterous Parodies for the Slim at
Heart. From weight loss drugs, chronic diets, and toxic body shame, the book
is an open invitation to connect authentically with someone who deeply
understands the plight. Her own pilgrimage to finding self-love and a place to
“fit in” includes a near-death car accident, a bipolar diagnosis that turned
her life upside down, and a lifelong struggle with poor body image.
Waldoch authentically pours her heart and soul into sharing raw stories and
songs filled with deep faith, side-splitting humor, and a resounding message
that we are all perfectly made in God’s eyes.
Tammy writes this book not only as a testimony of her faith but also to share
her private path of redemption and healing.
Among the pages, readers will also enjoy fiction stories designed to encourage
laughter and reflection, along with some preposterous (and creative!) parodies
that provide a backdrop of humor to lighten the burdens of The Slim at Heart.
Early Review
Heart Felt And Honest – This book will make you laugh and cry.
The lament of
women who struggle with body image applies to a good majority of women.
Excerpt
A Mountain of Never Good Enough
I guess you could say it all began in childhood. By “it,” I mean
my destructive habit of looking down on myself and hating my body no matter
how good I looked. The years of damage I inherited as a child compounded into
a mountain of never feeling “good enough” as a young adult and
adult. I believe that the scars from the aftermath of my Dad’s
infidelity only deepened my emotional pain, but the emotional ramifications
were not addressed. I did not know what to do with the grievous shackles of
insecurity that had bound me. Much of it was a severe reaction to my
Dad’s actions and how he treated my mother like an object. My Dad was a
salesman and a real-wheeler-dealer type. They used to say he could sell ice to
Eskimos.
Unfortunately for my mom, her sweet-talking man used that charisma
unprincipled. He was quite the Casanova who seduced multiple women with his
flattering tongue and lips dripping in honey. To be fair, my parents were only
teenagers when they married and welcomed their first child. They were babies
having babies and were still trying to figure out how to be adults when they
were pulled together in holy matrimony. But my Dad’s cheating ways broke
both my Mama’s heart and mine as he strayed from my mom time and time
again. Gone was the sanctity of sexuality and the sacredness of marriage. Even
as a child, I experienced my mother’s pain and hurt as if it were my
own. Even though there were four of us kids, I had always been
“Daddy’s little girl,” so his actions felt like a betrayal
to me as well. I had, and still have, so many questions I’d like to know
the answers to.
About the Author
Tammy Waldoch is an imaginative author/singer/songwriter/painter with a
degree in Liberal Arts from the University of Wisconsin, Lacrosse, emphasizing
Aesthetic Education—teaching using the creative arts. She did just that
in The Plight of the Pudgy, combining musical parodies with literature to
teach others how to overcome obstacles and rise above adversity. She is
actively involved with the Writer’s Well at the White Bear Center for
the Arts and gathers with other inspiring writers of all ages to explore their
creativity. She also consults with the Springboard Center for the Arts in St.
Paul, MN for further resources.
She and her husband of 38 years share a dynamic love for better for worse, in
sickness and in health, that has endured all things.
She is also a proud parent of two sons and has two beautiful daughters-in-law
who share life’s joys and challenges. Her faith is at the heart of
everything she does, and this book is a testimony of her Lord and
Savior’s incredible loving kindness toward her. Gilda Radner once said,
“Life is full of delicious ambiguities.”
Tammy invites everyone to share those ambiguities with her!
Contact Links
Facebook
Goodreads
Blue Book Shelf
Instagram
Preorder Links
https://mybook.to/ThePlightofPudgy
Amazon
BookBaby
M.C.V. EGAN ❧Defining Ways❧ 