Keep Coming Back Relapse Twinkle in My Eye Most folks who know me only see my weight loss over the last few years, but the most significant changes in my life happened on the inside. It’s what cannot be seen, but seems to be sensed. It’s all due to OA. I came to OA in 1994 looking for a solution to my recent weight gain. I had kept … Read More
Tools & Concepts Whatever It Takes I am writing this as one of the assignments my sponsor gives me. She asked me to write on the action plan Tool. As I understand this Tool, it means using whatever it takes to help me achieve and maintain my abstinence. What actions have I started to take to help me do this? I make sure I get to … Read More
Traditions Suggestions for Tradition Five Tradition Five: Each group has but one primary purpose— to carry its message to the compulsive overeater who still suffers. Tradition Five is clearly stated. It’s the follow-up question that’s important: how are we supposed to do that? Here are some suggestions: Attend meetings regularly and participate by sharing and helping out when you can. Read OA literature and the … Read More
Higher Power Spirituality My First Prayer My personal first spiritual experience was my first weight loss in OA. I came in because of desperation and rage. My family was crazy (so was I), and I had nowhere else to go. I had just been on a fast of water and diet soda, but when I weighed myself, I had gained ten pounds. I felt empty and … Read More
Gratitude Recovery Home Truths Here am I thinking, now that I’m an abstinent member of OA, it automatically means I’m an outstanding citizen within my family. But eavesdropping on a conversation between my wife and son lands a bombshell of a home truth in my lap. My son asks, “Mammy, do you ever wake up grumpy?” My wife replies, “Sometimes!” Then, after a substantial pause, “And sometimes I let him sleep on!” Dumbfounded, … Read More
Tools & Concepts Baby Steps Up the Mountain Recently I learned I needed to change my plan of eating for my health. Okay, how do I do that? Power through, right?! If I could control my eating I would never have come into Overeaters Anonymous almost thirty years ago. Before that, I tried: I tried every diet in every magazine. Every night, I planned to start this or … Read More
Atheists & Agnostics Reliance, Not Defiance When I came into Overeaters Anonymous almost twenty-one years ago, I came for a diet. I needed to lose a lot of weight and keep it off! Countless doctors had assured me of the dire necessity of this; plus, my weight was impeding my interactions with my husband, children, friends, and professional life. What I didn’t think I needed was … Read More
Diversity Recovery Around the World As Written and with Urgency I am nine months into recovery in OA and more happy, joyous, and free than I could ever have imagined. And I do mean ever. My heart bursts with the love I have found for my HP through working the program as written. Yet, at the same time, I am almost crying with pain. It’s pain not unlike the pain … Read More
Anorexia & Bulimia Diversity Could and Would For thirty years, I was bulimic, but I have not purged in almost eight years. When my weight reached an all-time high of 293 pounds (133 kg) at 5’11” (180 cm) two years ago in February, I decided I’d had enough and was going to get weight-loss surgery. But the surgery center didn’t want to operate on me because of … Read More
Keep Coming Back Relapse The Freedom Fifteen On February 6, 2018, I will celebrate fifteen years without a binge. My biological birth date is December 16, 1955, but in truth my life began some forty-eight years later. I don’t know what happened on that day, February 6, 2003, but I became empowered not to binge, and I’ve continued to be binge-free to this day. It is simply the … Read More
