What in the world is spirituality anyway? I’d had a good upbringing in my family’s religion, but had no more spirituality than I had control over my eating. The God I grew up with was not personal to me, more like an ethereal image that I couldn’t grasp or really even believe in. He was from a book, rather than …

I began Overeaters Anonymous in February 2014 after becoming desperate. I was scheduled for a double knee replacement later in the year. At 240 pounds (109 kg), I was told I must lose at least 50 pounds (23 kg) for a successful recovery. I tried and I couldn’t, because I was depressed for three years after being fired from my …

After almost ten years in OA and a physical abstinence of my own definition, I struggled with the fact that I was still stuck in obsession and compulsion around food. I had a way of eating that was more or less nutritionally balanced, but I still obsessed about knowing exactly what I was going to eat. I was alternating between …

The AA Big Book outlines “the spiritual answer and program of action” (4th ed., p. 42), which hundreds had followed with success at the time it was written. Now millions of people follow the Twelve Step path with miraculous stories of recovery. Ours is a spiritual program. What exactly does that mean? I grew up in an organized religion. As …

Sometimes, I have resentment about being in this program. I say the Serenity Prayer daily, follow a food plan, and try to give myself ten minutes each day to pray or meditate. I go to a strength and flexibility class three times a week and walk three to five times weekly. I read the literature, listen to podcasts, go to …

I certainly was selfish. I wasn’t present to do things with my friends and family, preferring instead to isolate with my best “frenemy”: food. I spent my whole life refusing to accept I was powerless to control my compulsion to overeat, and I’d eat anything I could get my hands on—a lot. I was able to lose lots of weight, …

One of my favorite OA literature quotes is from the chapter on Step Three in The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous, Second Edition: “Once we compulsive overeaters truly take the third step, we cannot fail to recover” (p. 23). I find it a promise on par with any other; however, I understand that promise in the context …

As a newcomer in OA, I have been very grateful for all the members who write for Lifeline and create our OA books and pamphlets. Reading the literature produced by these members and attending my weekly meetings is helping me find my way, one Step at a time. One particular article that speaks to me is “Peaceful Progress,” the Spiritual …

After being a full-time mom to four children, I find myself at a new stage in life; I am now able to travel with my husband when he travels for work. It is wonderful, yet at every hotel or motel, every resort or lodge, big or small, fancy or casual, I consistently find myself confronted with one kind of furnishing: …

I thought I was living the dream— smack-dab in the middle of OA Paradise! I was abstinent, I’d lost weight, I attended meetings, and I was working my program. All was good. I remember hearing about the “honeymoon” abstinence, that one day I would take a step backward before I would be able to move forward again. I felt it …