Recovery Working the Program Ten Things Here is what has helped me get abstinent: Planning out my food for the next twenty-four hours and making my lunch and snack night before. Making a commitment to my OA sponsor (by phone or email) of what I will eat for the next twenty-four hours. If I need to change it, I call her ahead of time. Being rigorously … Read More
Abstinence Top Ten . . . Ways I Achieved Abstinence My sponsor asked me if I was willing to stop throwing up. I said yes and made a commitment. I knew that if I wasn’t going to throw up anymore, then I needed to quit bingeing too. God gave me the willingness and ability to keep my commitment. He continued to do so every day for the past twenty-three and … Read More
Relapse Relapse & Recovery One Thing I Did Right I’m sorry to say I’ve had many relapses during my twenty-two years in program. But the last five years have been much better: back-to-back abstinence based on putting together a program that uses all the OA elements. My program reminds me of my first relapse, how I got into it and how I got out. I had come into OA … Read More
Abstinence Clear and Free 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 … Read More
Relapse Relapse & Recovery Help Through the Tools As I sit here at day forty-five of my abstinence, I am amazed and grateful for what has turned out to be like a joyride! I’ve had a couple days of waking up crabby, but I told my sponsor, put it out on calls, surrendered it to God, and soon found myself back on my joyride again. When I think … Read More
Meetings Tools & Concepts Q&A Soirée Last year in January, I decided that a good OA service I could provide would be to offer a newcomers’ question-and-answer session every three or four months. (I’ve been an abstinent member of Overeaters Anonymous since 2000, and I’m maintaining a healthy body weight.) I simply kept a list of all the newcomers who attended the meeting I go to … Read More
Telephone Tools & Concepts Call, Read, Write, Share I was sitting at my kitchen counter doing job-related work. I’d been struggling with food, and I had spent a lot of that day crying as I thought to myself, I am never going to be free. My phone rang, and I didn’t recognize the number. I contemplated not answering, but something prompted me to pick it up. I was … Read More
Diversity Newcomers Search Support It was May of 2015, and I was up 30 pounds (14 kg) after a yearlong sugar binge. Although I’d been on a constant roller coaster of losing and gaining, this was the biggest weight gain I’d experienced in seven years. It was also the low point when I began to realize my powerlessness over food. I had not yet … Read More
Relapse Twelfth Step Within Twelfth Step Share It was 4 p.m., and I was experiencing food cravings. What to do? The Big Book instructed me to throw myself into helping others. “I could not expect to keep what I had gained unless I gave it away” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., p. 253). I needed to call some program people and ask how they were doing. I got … Read More
Telephone Tools & Concepts Mountain Call I’ve always loved hiking and being in the mountains. When I gained enough confidence after three years of working an OA program, I signed up for a seven-day mountaineering trip. We would hike over snow and ice in the Canadian Rockies, carrying all our equipment and food and staying in alpine huts along the way. I was one of the … Read More
