Recovery Working the Program Up to Speed I am a compulsive overeater. While not every day of my thirty-nine years in OA has been an abstinent day, for many years now, I’ve been gratefully recovering and maintaining a healthy weight. Being a teacher by profession has led me to watch for ways to boil things down to their simplest form. I look for little tricks to help … Read More
Tools & Concepts Tooling through Recovery Please keep stepping. I am following you, watching. Please keep serving. I am needing you, calling. Please keep sharing. I am learning from you, listening. Please keep praying. I am kneeling with you, awakening. Please keep reading. I am quoting you, speaking. Please keep confiding. I am counting on you, protecting. Please keep planning. I am writing with you, abstaining. … Read More
Abstinence Preparation and Perception Recovery in the workplace certainly has its challenges for me. I’m the receptionist for a big organization with a large lobby area. Constantly, lunch spreads and snacks are placed right in front of my desk area. Having to see and smell these items, which are usually off my food plan, can make workplace abstinence a real battlefield for me. I … Read More
Tools & Concepts My Side I’m abstinent and quite fired up this morning! I’m fired up and a bit frustrated because, at the moment, I seem to be surrounded by fellow members who are struggling with abstinence and sharing excuses for why they can’t be abstinent. I know this program teaches me to focus on my side of the street, which requires a daily cleaning … Read More
Recovery Working the Program Traveling Recovery Traveling away from home over the holidays can be a difficult time for a compulsive overeater like me. Surprisingly, I am still compulsive away from home! Because I travel often, I’ve developed some techniques that help me stay abstinent and in recovery on the road, especially over the holidays. To set up recovery before my trip, I do these things: … Read More
Abstinence Simple and Sane After more than five years in OA, I can look back and see the grace of my Higher Power in the early actions of my sponsor when she immediately suggested we work through The Twelve-Step Workbook of Overeaters Anonymous. One of the earliest benefits of our work together was that I became aware of how much time, energy, and effort I’d … Read More
Fellowship Let's Meet at Convention Truly Empowering I have been a proud member of OA for more than thirty years; I’ve had many relapses and also a lot of recovery in this Fellowship. I attend my region assemblies each year, but last year I was thrilled by the opportunity to go to Boston, Massachusetts USA in September 2016 for my first World Service Convention. I had booked my … Read More
Service Once I’ve Started I have been in program for twenty-seven years. When it comes to using a food plan, I used to have rules for what to eat, what not to eat, how much to eat, when to pray, and more. But I’ve found that the more I complicate my food plan, the more loopholes appear for my disease to discover and exploit. … Read More
Steps Step 12: Someone to Protect Having had a spiritual awakening in this program, I now view myself as a unique and precious child of God. It has transformed my approach to myself. But when I compare myself to others, I feel “less than.” Since I am unable to eat the foods they eat and perform the simple behaviors they do, I conclude there’s something wrong … Read More
Recovery An “I Can” Plan Early in my recovery, I often heard longtimers say, “If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.” My first sponsor drove home this idea by always encouraging me to call ahead and plan ahead for meals and events and to make backup plans, including knowing who to call for support. This instilled in me a desire to keep … Read More