When I came into Overeaters Anonymous almost twenty-one years ago, I came for a diet. I needed to lose a lot of weight and keep it off! Countless doctors had assured me of the dire necessity of this; plus, my weight was impeding my interactions with my husband, children, friends, and professional life. What I didn’t think I needed was …

Working my program by attending special-topic meetings that use the OA-HOW meeting format has taught me how to create an action plan. I’ve also developed the muscle to sustain it and the self-discipline to follow it. Here are ten things that help me work my action plan: Remember abstinence. Abstinence is the most important thing in my life without exception. …

Step Three: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. When I first joined Overeaters Anonymous, the first three Steps annoyed and frustrated me. What were these Steps that could not be proven with any tangible evidence? I wanted to be writing my inventory in Step Four so …

Ten things that help me most in achieving serenity: Step One. I admit I’m powerless—over food and other people (their emotional well-being and their opinion of me). I’m powerless over war, famine, poverty, natural disasters—powerless over everything outside myself, and a lot of what’s inside too. Action plan. My action plan includes morning exercise and meditation. When I wake up, …

I am nine months into recovery in OA and more happy, joyous, and free than I could ever have imagined. And I do mean ever. My heart bursts with the love I have found for my HP through working the program as written. Yet, at the same time, I am almost crying with pain. It’s pain not unlike the pain …

It was the end of the month, so I attended business meetings for the two groups I regularly attend. Business meetings can be challenging because we all care about our meetings but often have different perspectives and opinions. When a sensitive issue affecting the group is on the agenda, the discussion can become intense. I have an action plan for …

I work my program every day by doing a morning routine. First, I say the first three Steps. Then I say program prayers: the Serenity Prayer, the Third Step prayer, the Seventh Step prayer, and a shortened version of the Eleventh Step prayer. Then I say a prayer from my religious tradition for me and everyone I’m having trouble with, …

After two years of denying I needed OA, I surrendered. Attending my first meeting was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but I was desperate and out of ideas. I had reached my goal weight with a commercial weight-loss program a year prior; at first, I thought I’d solved all my problems. But the struggle to keep the …

For me, the disease of compulsive eating is like the best friend you love to death and stick with no matter what, until you notice she is crazy, hurts you, lets you down, and doesn’t give you the support you once got from her. Then it hurts so much that you want a “friend divorce,” but you also can’t believe …

Step Twelve—Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to compulsive overeaters and to practice these principles in all our affairs. The Step Twelve chapter (pp. 99–106) in The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous talks about being no longer controlled by or afraid of food. The fact is God …