Weekend Footwork

Of all the OA slogans, “It works when you work it” is the one I find myself falling back on the most. I have been abstinent for two years and am maintaining a 65-pound (29-kg) weight loss, but it still amazes me how my life goes much more smoothly when I am being diligent about my program.

To me, being diligent means using the Tools and working the Steps every day: writing out Step work or journaling, making and sticking to a food plan, praying and meditating, reading literature, and using the telephone either to make outreach calls or to talk with my sponsor or sponsees.

Another phrase I often think of in  tandem with “It works when we work it” is getting a “daily reprieve” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., p. 85) from my character defects and food obsession if I just do the footwork. A good example of this concept is the difference between my weekday and weekend routines. Because of my work schedule, I need a pretty firm routine during the week for my work, exercise, and program. But when the weekend rolls around and there’s less structure, it’s much easier to skip my morning meditation, skip that call because I am out running errands, and ignore my food plan in favor of grabbing something while I’m out. And lo and behold, the times I’ve struggled have been during or after a weekend of not working my program! As my sponsor likes to say, my disease does not take the weekend off! And I’ve found that it is much harder to get back to my program routine than it is to just stay on it in the first place. On the weekends that I do my meditation, follow my food plan, journal, and read, I am a much saner and calmer person come Monday morning.

It works when I work it. I just need to do a little, and HP will take care of the rest.

— M