Here I sit, self-quarantined in the middle of a viral pandemic after returning home from the teeming petri dishes of an airport and airplane. I’ve been advised to stay put for two weeks, which is just as well since some of my meetings are closed indefinitely. So, what’s a compulsive overeater to do? Isolate? I think not. Last time I …

Looking back to my life one year ago, I would have never thought that I would be as content as I am now. In fact, I do not think that there ever was a point in my life where I felt this way. I was always longing for something comforting, and for twenty years, food provided that comfort. I’d always …

I see that I have been going through the motions, paying lip service to the program and making contact with HP in a superficial way. When I ask, “What is distracting me?” I am thankful for the awareness God gives me. The answer? “Nothing!” In this moment, I realize that what I have been labeling “worldly distractions” is actually me …

After five years in program, it was just this year that I came to understand the Tools. For a long time, I thought they were the program. If I wanted to be working the program, I just had to be using the Tools. A little farther along, I believed my abstinence rested on whether I had used the Tools that …

I began using the Tools of Recovery before I even knew they were the Tools. It started with the Tool of meetings: I attended my first one, then my second. As I listened to others’ shares, I kept hearing, “Find a sponsor.” When I made the decision to jump in, I found a sponsor (a second Tool) who had what …

My perspective on the Tools has changed, and I’ve been reflecting on why that’s happened. When I first worked the Steps with my sponsor, I realized that the Steps were what would bring recovery. But I also learned that I needed to look after my spiritual condition lest I be enticed by food. Whenever I had a food thought— and …

Sponsoring is working one-on-one with another compulsive eater to uncover and release whatever separates us from a loving Higher Power of our understanding. We use and share about OA Tools and slogans, study and apply the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of OA in our lives, and reach out to each other on a daily basis to share our learning …

My first sponsor, M., passed away last month. He was one of the first people I met in OA, but it was a year before he became my sponsor. He was one of the few men I’d met and one of very few OA members who identified as a sponsor. I wrote down his number, but at the time, he …

It took me thirty years to get a sponsor—really. That’s how hardheaded and faithless I am. But when I finally did surrender to having a sponsor, it made all the difference. I finally was accountable; but more than that, I had a guide, a friend, and a sounding board. My recovery grew exponentially, so much so that I even took …

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 …