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
Sponsoring Tools & Concepts Great Big Hurdle I am grateful for my wonderful sponsor—that’s what this is about. But first, I have to point out that we are not all alike, and the longer we are in OA the less alike we become. What is so wonderful about my sponsor is that she is a good listener. It is very hard to be a sponsor who really … 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
Sponsoring Tools & Concepts Thank-You Notes My sponsor had me start sponsoring at thirty-days abstinent. I was working Step Three by that point, so I could help newcomers getting started on Step One. My sponsor gave me ten minutes every morning for my first three years of abstinence. Now, I carry on that pattern, offering a daily ten-minute slot to someone newly abstinent and starting on Step … Read More
Ask-It Basket Connecting to Recovery Q. How can I feel hopeful about recovery when folks at the meetings I attend have been going to meetings for seven, ten, even twelve years, but still haven’t got thirty days of food sobriety—abstinence—under their belts? I need to see abstinence at work. A. Actually your question feels less like an inquiry, more like an expression of your desire … Read More
Sponsoring Tools & Concepts Healing Connections Sponsoring is working one-on-one with another compulsive eater to uncover and release whatever separates us from a loving Higher Power of our understanding. We use and share about OA Tools and slogans, study and apply the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of OA in our lives, and reach out to each other on a daily basis to share our learning … Read More
Recovery Working the Program Many Forms of Footwork I am a compulsive eater and have been in program for thirteen years, but abstinent consistently, if not perfectly, for only the past year. I don’t like to count numbers and days, but I consider my first twelve years in program as vital to me and my recovery as this past abstinent year has been. For me, recovery isn’t a … Read More