The first OA meeting I attended had all the elements of a strong meeting, and it still does seventeen years later. I continue to attend the Saturday morning Back to Basics meeting in Oakland, California, with about forty other compulsive eaters. We study one Step and its corresponding Tradition for an entire month, and each week, we read from OA-approved …

We call ourselves “The Regulars,” although there’s nothing regular about any of us, except this: we keep coming back to our 7 a.m. meetings, Monday through Friday, week after week. Many of us come every day, some only on certain days, and several core members have been showing up for many years. What, you may ask, would drive us to …

About ten years ago, my home meeting was dealing with talkative, unruly, and sensitive newcomers. The meeting was beginning to feel unsafe. We regulars, being the people pleasers we are, considered just letting them talk without a time limit. Luckily, sanity ruled that out. We considered removing them from the meeting by having a special “newcomer time” in another space. …

I love my Saturday Abington meeting because it is so strong. The following qualities all contribute to its strength: The meeting only uses OA-approved literature and material downloaded from the oa.org website. Newcomers and returning members are acknowledged and given a Serenity Prayer coin and newcomer literature or a Welcome Back, We Care! packet. Greeters make a point of talking …

After a twelve-year absence from OA, I began to admit that I was back in food obsession and my crazy thinking about food was my only tool for handling life. Even though I was down a little from my all-time high weight of 212 pounds (96 kg), I was hovering just below 200 pounds (91 kg), well above a healthy …

My heart just dropped into my stomach—did yours? On page 168 of The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous, Second Edition, it says we “accept responsibility for our actions, looking only at our own faults and taking no one’s inventory but our own.” A list of questions follows, under the heading “In what ways do we act ‘to …

My very first OA meeting demonstrated the Principle of unity. The OA website provided me with info about a local meeting and a contact person’s phone number. When I called, she invited me to a 10 a.m. meeting and also to a book study group that met half an hour before. I thanked her. On May 28, 2017, at 9:25 …

Like many compulsive overeaters, I entered the rooms of OA only to lose weight. I’d tried dozens of weight loss programs and lost weight, only to gain it back plus more. I came for the vanity and stayed for the sanity. I really listened to the Big Book promises when they were read aloud at OA meetings, and I realized …

I remember when I first started coming to OA meetings. I felt like people were looking at me differently, like they knew I was new and ignorant of their “OA ways.” I felt like an outsider. They spoke in a different way and had so much self-awareness. I only knew how to talk about the food, not emotions or the …

I’m abstinent and quite fired up this morning! I’m fired up and a bit frustrated because, at the moment, I seem to be surrounded by fellow members who are struggling with abstinence and sharing excuses for why they can’t be abstinent. I know this program teaches me to focus on my side of the street, which requires a daily cleaning …