Newcomers Pleased to Believe I just attended my first and second ever OA meetings. In 2013, I lost 80 pounds (36 kg) in seven months using powdered food, veggies, and prescribed medicines under a bariatric doctor’s care. That diet was not sustainable, and now I’ve gained all the weight back, plus 10 pounds (5 kg) more. I knew all along that I could not … Read More
Let's Meet at Convention Empty Chairs, Full Heart I sat at the table waiting for someone to show up for the meeting. No one came. I’d felt angry before, but tonight was different. I was feeling afraid—afraid that this meeting would fall by the wayside as others had done through the years. Afraid that the people I had come to know and love through this small-but-mighty meeting were … Read More
Abstinence Nights Free Nighttime was always hardest for me when it came to overeating. Before OA, the only tool I had was to starve myself throughout the day. I would skip breakfast and sometimes lunch because once I started eating it was hard to stop. When I got off from work, however, that’s when the party started. I was a junk food junkie, … Read More
Atheists & Agnostics I’m Not God When the OA speaker said, “I lost a whole person,” it shook me to my core. I needed to do that. Not a whole adult person, just a 30-pound (14-kg), scrawny three-year-old. His picture looked at me from 1951, sitting in the wagon with his two younger siblings, them looking like kids, him looking like desperation to please the photographer. … Read More
