Recovery How Far I’ve Come I’ve come from being a screaming, hitting mother to a calm, effective grandmother. From a yo-yoing binger and dieter to an abstinent maintainer. From an insecure, scared victim to a confident leader and performer. From someone who didn’t know how to say no, to someone who says yes when the service will benefit me and others. From a doubter to … Read More
Relapse & Recovery Craving Sanity Over twenty-two years ago, after six years of being in OA, I finally accepted that there were certain foods I could not begin to eat without developing uncontrollable cravings. My six years of recovery/relapse cycles and my thirty-five years of yo-yo dieting were suddenly explained. It was clear: In order for me to be abstinent, I had to eliminate those … Read More
Higher Power Ready for the Journey I am a 58-year-old male. I have been on the “diet yo-yo” five or six times in my life. Each time, I lost weight and kept it off for about a year; then I gained it back plus more. I’ve learned this is a progressive disease. Before OA, I was full of despair and frustration. I was hiding in my … Read More
Newcomers Fortune Telling Who would have thought, when I entered my first OA meeting six months ago, that my life was going to change in every conceivable way? After almost forty years of yo-yo diets and spending most of my adult life on diet pills, I was about to discover my weight problem had nothing to do with willpower. What an eye-opener that … Read More
How OA Changed My Life Growing Up in OA No one comes to a Twelve Step program on an upswing, and I was no exception. I was overweight and felt certain foods were the problem. I asked my husband of eighteen years to move out; I thought he was the problem. I wasn’t communicating well with my adult children, so they were the problem. Meanwhile, an acquaintance from another … Read More