Ten Things

Here is what has helped me get abstinent:

1. Planning out my food for the next twenty-four hours and making my lunch and snack night before.
2. Making a commitment to my OA sponsor (by phone or email) of what I will eat for the next twenty-four hours. If I need to change it, I call her ahead of time.
3. Being rigorously honest with my sponsor.
4. Attending at least two Overeaters Anonymous meetings per week, praying for the willingness to go to any lengths, and attending one OA event outside of my area per year.
5. Praying for people whom I resent for thirty days. (I’ve been praying.)
6. Praying first thing when I wake up: saying the first three Steps in present tense; saying the Third Step Prayer; asking God to help me be divorced from resentment, dishonesty, selfishness, and fear as well as some of my other major character defects like self-pity and procrastination; asking my HP to help me be entirely ready to let God remove all my defects of character; and saying the Seventh Step Prayer. God gives me the strength and the grace to walk through my day abstinently, no matter what happens.
7. Taking fifteen minutes in the morning to meditate. If I don’t have fifteen minutes, then I take five minutes. Even driving without the radio on and thinking about what I’m grateful for is a way to meditate.
8. Studying the Steps using The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous, Second Edition; AA’s Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions; Alcoholics Anonymous; and by attending Step study meetings and doing a written Tenth Step at night.
9. Calling other Overeaters Anonymous members every day and calling an OA member before overeating.
10. Doing some form of service for OA, such as intergroup rep, treasurer, secretary, or newcomer greeter. I’ve been treasurer, an intergroup public information chair, and an imperfect intergroup secretary. We cannot keep it unless we give it away. Doing service has helped me overcome my shyness and become more confident.

— Anonymous