Tools & Concepts Professional Planning When I came into OA in July of 1995, I was working for a weight-loss company and terrified of losing my job because of my weight gain. I was following a diet plan, which is quite different from a plan of eating, and I had to report my food to my manager and weigh in each month. I was in … Read More
Gratitude Recovery Follow Through I came into the OA program after being in treatment. I was an insane compulsive overeater, anorexic, and bulimic. I took diet pills, narcotics, and alcohol to the limits of insanity and self-harm to control my compulsion for food. I was in rehab, two psychiatric units, and OA for four years before I understood this program. I have maintained abstinence … Read More
Working the Program OA For Visual Thinkers A target and a fork in the road: these mental images keep me focused on the goal of continued abstinence and recovery. The target image reminds me to aim for the center in my food planning and eating decisions. When I find myself pondering whether or not a particular food or eating behavior is within my definition of abstinence, I’m … Read More
Tools & Concepts Miracles to Me The word “abstinence” comes from “abstain,” which means “to refrain from.” Since we cannot completely refrain from eating, we have to figure out a food plan that meets our nutritional needs but does not include trigger foods or things we’re addicted to. “Keep it simple” is the best advice anyone has given me when it comes to my food plan. My food … Read More
Abstinence Threefold Abstinence Keeping things simple is helpful. Using OA’s definition of abstinence, I had to decide what I could refrain from, one day at a time, no matter where I was or what was happening. Two ingredients that repeated in my food inventory were sugar and white flour. So my definition of physical abstinence was simple: no sugar and no white flour. (My food plan … Read More
Abstinence The Beginning “Abstinence is the beginning.” This sentence, one I have seen and heard many times since entering the rooms, popped out at me like never before as I read page 272 in Voices of Recovery this morning. Abstinence is the beginning: of connecting with Higher Power, with self, with others who have this disease of connecting with others who don’t have … Read More
Abstinence Tools & Concepts Understand, Appreciate, Implement, Reflect I came to understand abstinence initially by doing what I saw other recovering OA members doing. This included: weighing and measuring food; following a food plan created by a registered dietician who tailored it for my body’s needs; avoiding sugar and wheat products; doing OA outreach phone calls; attending meetings; doing service; reading OA and AA literature; journaling daily; studying … Read More
Recovery Relationships Team Effort I just returned from the last professional car race of the season. Gosh, no more racing for a while! I look forward to the weekends and car racing, but I will have to be content with American football until racing resumes. You’re probably thinking, “What’s the big deal about racing? A bunch of cars go fast around a track.” But … Read More
How OA Changed My Life Recovery Clean Clothes, Balanced Life OA has improved how I look, and not just with weight loss. I look better in my clothes now that they’re not covered in food and drink stains. When I was eating compulsively, I was reckless. I ate as much as I could as often as I could. I wasn’t careful or dainty, so I sure didn’t eat like a … Read More
Keep Coming Back Uncategorized Freedom of Choice It is easy to be misled to think That freedom is entitlement to obtain Whatever we want, when we want it, Be it pleasing or wasteful or vain. Yes, we’ve been given free will, But that doesn’t mean absence of price For choosing that which is not for our good, For rejecting virtue for vice. For what is the opposite … Read More