Here I sit, self-quarantined in the middle of a viral pandemic after returning home from the teeming petri dishes of an airport and airplane. I’ve been advised to stay put for two weeks, which is just as well since some of my meetings are closed indefinitely. So, what’s a compulsive overeater to do? Isolate? I think not. Last time I …

I’m a group fitness instructor and have been for more than ten years. If someone told me when I first came to OA that I would be a fitness instructor, I wouldn’t have believed it. Not only was I a compulsive overeater, I was also a compulsive overexerciser. I had lost control of my food intake and overexercising was one …

God has blessed me with more than twenty-five years of abstinence, and I am still grateful every day. The most important day for me to be abstinent is today. I was in OA seven years before I got abstinent, and I’ve been abstinent ever since, praise be to my HP. During those seven years, I experimented with abstinence and also …

I began using the Tools of Recovery before I even knew they were the Tools. It started with the Tool of meetings: I attended my first one, then my second. As I listened to others’ shares, I kept hearing, “Find a sponsor.” When I made the decision to jump in, I found a sponsor (a second Tool) who had what …

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. …

Stanley is my “new” 10-year-old cat. He keeps my action plan in line and helps me work my program: trust God, clean house, and help others. Since he is the purrfect lap cat, I am reluctant to shoo him off when he joins me for morning tea. While I wasn’t willing before to sit quietly for prayer and meditation, I …

New Year’s resolutions are magical thinking: Tomorrow I’ll lose weight, quit overeating, exercise, eat only low-fat, or only fat, or only whatever else is the fad of the day. By July I’ll lose 100 pounds (45 kg), life will be perfect, and other insane fantasies. An action plan is sanity: Today I’ll follow a food plan, exercise, and use the …

I joined OA in 2009. Below is a list of behaviors and actions I took (in addition to getting a sponsor, working the Twelve Steps, and using the Tools) in the past eighteen months that helped me stay abstinent and spiritually and emotionally recover. Without the program, I don’t think I could have done these things for myself. I live …

This is the first year that I am not making New Year’s resolutions. My resolutions usually lasted only through New Year’s Day anyway before it all got too hard or my desire waned. The action plan is something that I use every single day, and I only have to use it for today. There is no expectation other than in …

I am writing this as one of the assignments my sponsor gives me. She asked me to write on the action plan Tool. As I understand this Tool, it means using whatever it takes to help me achieve and maintain my abstinence. What actions have I started to take to help me do this? I make sure I get to …