Making Connections It’s as simple as this: I settled for food. To block the pain of my love starved existence, I used food and sugar until my carefully constructed façade of beautiful well-being began to bloat from the excesses I needed to eat to feel safe. But I had to do something to keep from losing my looks, the one thing that … Read More
Wondrous Experiences I write this with mixed feelings because by the time this is published, I will have stepped down not only as chair but also from my intergroup. The reason is a positive one: I was elected to another service position as a general service trustee of the OA Board of Trustees. Because of this, I will be doing service at … Read More
Elect to Serve! The next time you see upcoming nominations and elections of your intergroup’s board members, I want to encourage you to participate in the nomination and election process. Do it for your fellows and do it for yourself. Here are some of the benefits that I have received in the past year doing service at the individual, meeting, and intergroup level. … Read More
Leap of Faith Having come to OA weighing 330 pounds (150 kg) at age 38, I just wanted to look normal and be thin. When I finally plunged into the program after watching from the sidelines for six months, I chose a sponsor who had a large weight loss, which was what I wanted. We focused on a daily schedule, a workable food … Read More
Service Put Me There Service above the group level was never in my plans, but as I write this, I am the treasurer for my region. Thanks to my region-level service, I am about 30 pounds (14 kg) lighter! After twelve years of recovery and maintaining a 40-pound (18-kg) weight loss, I thought my weight-loss days were over, and I was comfortable with that. … Read More
So That’s What the Tools Are All About After five years in program, it was just this year that I came to understand the Tools. For a long time, I thought they were the program. If I wanted to be working the program, I just had to be using the Tools. A little farther along, I believed my abstinence rested on whether I had used the Tools that … Read More
Sponsorship Lift Before I joined OA in July 1992, I had never heard of the Twelve Steps or the Twelve Traditions or other fellowships. I knew literally nothing about OA. But I walked into the rooms over twenty-seven years ago, and I stayed. I’ve stayed the entire time despite an imperfect abstinence, a brief relapse, and a difficult time finding the right … Read More
Anonymity: The Great Equalizer I just completed a specific-topic meeting on anonymity. Some aspects of anonymity came up that I’d never thought of before. For example, OA doesn’t care how much money I have or don’t have. Other members value me regardless of whether I’m poor or unemployed or famous or an executive. The member who just binged is as important as the one … Read More
My Action Plan: A Checklist I’ve been in Overeaters Anonymous for decades to help me deal with the many facets of my compulsive eating, including bingeing, dieting, starving, using laxatives, and overexercising. Before I joined OA, my weight ranged from a high of 150 pounds (68 kg) to a low of 89 (40 kg). At my lowest weight, I thought I looked fat, and at … Read More
Plan of Honesty I have been a member of OA since October 2009. I knew I could not pursue a graduate degree while compulsively overeating. Food ran my life; I had to plan everything around it. I walked through the OA doors looking for relief from the pain of compulsive overeating. My HP paired me with a sponsor right away. My sponsor asked if I could … Read More