John Kiernan was born in New Rochelle, NY in 1955. He grew up in the suburban New York City area. A child of two alcoholics who divorced when he was one year old, his formative years were spent in the depths of his parents' alcoholism. He became a compulsive overeater at an early age and while smart, could do nothing to lose the weight brought on by his disease. At the age of 19, he found alcohol and was able to lose weight for the first time in his life. Unfortunately, the alcohol quickly took over and within a short time he was a full blown alcoholic -- and also back to being a practicing compulsive overeater. In December 1980, John was admitted to an alcohol detox in Norwalk, CT at the weight of just under 300 pounds. In a short time, he found recovery in the 12 Steps for his alcohol problem and later he found 12 Step recovery for his food addiction as well. Since then, he has continually attended meetings. He had spoken at Conventions, and led Retreats across the U.S. and Canada. His focus of late has become Relapse. A survivor of Food Relapse himself, John tries to impart what he has learned over the years about what works and what does not work while trying to get abstinent and more importantly, stay abstinent.