Woman pens book about faith journey

Cindy Staton, 61, has a picture of herself sitting next to a heaping pile of bags of potatoes. They equal the amount of weight she lost - 145 pounds - during a journey of faith and struggle that she recently turned into a book.

'Landscapes of a Sacred Journey” documents the Hiawatha woman's experiences and the role of faith in her life, including in her weight loss journey.

'I realized I did not have a healthy relationship with food. It was running my life, it was my god,” she said. 'I realized I could never fully enjoy the plan God had for me if I didn't address that.”

She started working out six days a week and meeting with a life coach. It wasn't easy.

'Discipline, perseverance and prayer, that's how I did it,” she said. 'Kind of in the back of my mind, I wondered why have I been given this perseverance, this grace.”

She decided to share what she had been given. Self-published through WestBow Press, which focuses on Christian books, she started working on her book last March.

'Many people encouraged me for years to write a book,” she said. 'The weight loss somehow gave me the confidence and the courage to do it.”

Her mother is very ill, and Staton said that drove her forward as well.

'I felt so driven to accomplish both of those things, the weight loss and the book, before she died,” she said.

The book's name is meant to describe the low and high points of her journey. They have been many, including two suicide attempts, marriage, divorce, traveling and singing in Europe, recording Christian music albums and finding her calling as a massage therapist. She is the massage therapy coordinator for Hospice of Mercy.

Along the way, her faith didn't always stay strong, a fact she said was important to share.

'I really hope people will glean that God is in their life at all times, whether they know it or not and that we all fall short,” she said. 'God spoke to me and said, ‘Paint the landscapes of your story with your words - the mountains and valleys.'”

Book signing

When: 1 to 3 p.m. Feb. 27

Where: Barnes & Noble, Northland Square SC, 333 Collins Road NE, Building 1, Cedar Rapids

More information: cindystaton.com