After being abstinent a few years and keeping off 75 pounds (34 kg), I needed to include another amends in my Eighth Step: making amends to you, my body. I need to make amends for those thirty-five-plus years of stuffing and starving you, shaming and scolding you, shutting you up, shutting you down, disregarding your cries, trying to cut myself …

A sponsor has what a newcomer wants: abstinence! I wouldn’t be able to sponsor if I was in the food. It would be like a drunk sponsoring someone in AA. We’re crazy when we’re in the food, whether we know it or not, and it would be a disservice to OA and the newcomer to pass on that insanity. There …

When I came into OA, I was on the edge of a mental breakdown. I’d tried everything to stop my food obsession and my destructive food behaviors. I’d done a lot of work on myself and learned lots of self-help tricks, but nothing was working. I was numbing my feelings 24/7 and could not see a way out. That was …

There are many different ways to share experience, strength, and hope in the OA Fellowship. As two OA members in recovery, we would like to share a way that has worked for us. We have been calling our relationship “Partners in Recovery.” Together, we have developed a unique relationship that is separate from a sponsor/sponsee relationship, although we still continue …

Along with other OA literature that I read daily, I have developed a habit of reading the Step for each corresponding month in the AA Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. This morning, I started reading the first page of Step Seven, and two phrases stood out. “The attainment of greater humility is the foundation principle of each of A.A.’s Twelve …

I am on my intergroup’s public information committee. We make flyers with a tear-off portion and give them to members to post on bulletin boards at supermarkets and libraries in their neighborhoods. If space is limited, we use business cards and sticky notes. A couple of months ago, I started sending OA advertisements every two weeks to my free local …

Here are a few ways I carry the message to other compulsive overeaters. I print out OA’s Courier newsletter and give copies to my health care practitioners. I let them know I’m available should one of their patients or clients want to learn more about OA. I tell close friends I’m happy to talk to anyone they know who wants …

I was listening to a commentary about obesity on our local radio station. The commentator said one of the usual criticisms about people who are obese: “Why can’t they simply stop overeating?!” It made me upset enough to send in my own commentary, which was read aloud by one of the radio hosts the next day. Another person called in, …

Recently, I had the honor of working the OA booth at a local fair. The fair ran for many days, and it gave several intergroups the chance to reach out and help change the lives of strangers. Another OA member was working the booth with me, and I and recall her sharing the following: “Three years ago, I was wandering …

A doctor, a nutritionist, and a weight loss clinic gave me three opportunities to carry the OA message of recovery while maintaining the Traditions. What a gift. Several years ago, my nutritionist, who had not worked with anyone with food addiction prior to me, asked me to talk to a group of medical students as part of their nutrition curriculum. …