Abstinence Taking Inventory By my age, I’ve learned that setting down New Year’s resolutions is a hopeless and futile exercise. Last year, however, as a new calendar year began, I realized that I needed to take inventory of my life and my whole program, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. I needed to be honest and admit that something I had been rationalizing was a … Read More
How OA Changed My Life Recovery Guilt Free Freedom from the guilt of overeating—what a concept! Before OA, guilt wrenched me. It was my fault I was fat and unable to do something about it. I’m glad I jumped out of that depressing cycle. Without the guilt I can focus on recovery, which should have been my primary concern anyway! The path of recovery led me to eat … Read More
Steps Amending Fear and Shame Step Eight: Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. For so long, I’ve felt like I lived on an island inside a stone fortress. I lived this way because I believed that people wouldn’t like me and would eventually try to harm me. I hid my feelings, actions, and … Read More
Steps Stepping to Freedom Entering the rooms of OA nearly three decades ago, I anticipated that I’d be given a diet based on restriction and deprivation. I never dreamed I’d be given a life-enriching recovery program and the freedoms in each of OA’s Twelve Steps: Step One. Admission of my powerlessness means freedom from my mental obsession with food, allowing expanded space in my … Read More
How OA Changed My Life Better Now I have changed my focus: I used to say to myself, when I was about to overeat, “This will add half a pound (.2 kg) to my weight.” That consequence was not effective in stopping me from overeating. It seemed too distant, too much like “I will deal with that later.” I’ve now identified something that is affected the moment … Read More
Higher Power Asked and Answered Seven and a half years ago, I was lying in bed with my abdomen pressing down on my diaphragm and a CPAP mask over my face, and I prayed, “God, see me through to morning, and I promise I’ll go on another diet.” Yet when morning came, I couldn’t diet past breakfast. I had hit bottom. I tell this story … Read More
How OA Changed My Life Oh is One Syllable Driving to my OA meeting this morning, I felt a sense of calm about this past week. An authority figure had made an inappropriate comment, and I spoke my truth without becoming belligerent, without thinking obsessively about the situation afterward, without gossiping, and without stuffing down my anger with food. Someone else asked me for a favor that carried the … Read More