Every year at this time, I watch the neighborhood kids walk, bike, and skateboard back to school. They’re dressed in the newest styles and carry backpacks filled with colorful notebooks, art supplies, and new books to read. Maybe we can recapture some of that back-to-school feeling and boost our OA recovery program at the same time! With school supplies on …

I am a compulsive overeater. While not every day of my thirty-nine years in OA has been an abstinent day, for many years now, I’ve been gratefully recovering and maintaining a healthy weight. Being a teacher by profession has led me to watch for ways to boil things down to their simplest form. I look for little tricks to help …

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 …

I’m juggling a lot of stressful family and work responsibilities right now. It’s easy to get lost in the potent stew of “must-do’s,” worry, and expectations (both mine and others’) and find myself trying to control events, people, feelings, and outcomes and make everything “right.” (Right, of course, means “my way.”) That’s how I used to live, on the adrenaline …

Most of my life, I have lived in the extremes of my insanity. I have starved myself, used pills that are known to cause heart attacks, exercised for hours daily, and binged to the point of purging. I thought if I looked a certain way, weighed much less than I did, and acted nice and polite, then others would see …

At a recent OA speaker meeting, I was struck by a question asked during the Q&A session: “What did you do first?” My own answer is: First, I trusted that OA had a solution. I came to OA in either 2004 or 2005—I really cannot remember because I was in a food fog. I do remember that my ritual of …

We recover together or not at all. This is the “we” in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. OA is not an “I” program. I tried the “I” program. It was all I knew; wasn’t I supposed to apply my will to problems and overcome them? But my food issues were impervious to my efforts. I was stuck. And I …

I have been working with the Voices of Recovery Workbook and my sponsor suggested I submit my response to the questions of January 8: “How would I describe my recovery tapestry? What are the program threads I’ve used to weave it?” (p. 4). I am so lucky to have found this program. I would have to describe my recovery tapestry as …

My moods and emotions definitely relate to the weather report. Sometimes I have poor visibility around my food plan. Other times, I see through partly cloudy skies. Widespread wind currents can blow me into forgetting I have a fatal disease and blur the hours ahead. Hazard reports of drifting snow, slippery ice, and strong blowing rain can take over any …

When I first became aware of the Traditions, I could see how important they were. And without Tradition Seven, we would have no OA, because how can any organization run without funding? When one member of OA is not able to contribute much, all of us can contribute more to ensure that the expenses are met. The whole concept of …