A Requirement for Recovery In addition to having a sincere desire to stop eating compulsively, rigorous honesty is possibly the most important factor in success in recovery. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous clearly states: Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people […]
Category Archives: Accept the challenges of the day
Falling Into My Higher Power
I am sitting in the shade of a tree overlooking the water of the Niagara River as it rushes toward the American Falls. It’s the last day of my vacation, so I came back to this park to meditate for a few minutes, to connect with serenity, and capture my thoughts before I finish getting […]
Miracles of Recovery: Following Doctors’ Orders
A recent conversation with a fellow OA member had me thinking about the miracles of recovery in Overeaters Anonymous. One of those miracles enables us to follow doctors’ orders regarding changes to our food and action plans to support our health. Even after 30 years of abstinence in OA, I still can resist making changes […]
Levels of Competence in Recovery
I’ve been in OA for 30 years. Over time in recovery listening to speakers at meetings, retreats, and conferences, I’ve heard many ways to express the levels of competence in recovery. One of the ways I marked my early progress was to notice my turn-around time. I had a long history of overreacting to the […]
Two-Way Prayer
Two-plus years into my abstinence and recovery, I began to struggle. My food was in order, I was attending meetings and sponsoring, but something was missing. Using food to manage my emotions was pretty much a thing of the past, my life was much simpler and less stressful, and I found more possible to accept […]
Achieving Fit Spiritual Condition
OA’s 12 step program of recovery from compulsive eating promises members “a life beyond our wildest dreams.” While that promise appears in various forms in our literature, the expression “fit spiritual condition,” comes at the end of the 10th step promises on pages 84 and 85 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous: “And we […]
Living Life in the Solution
I’m a compulsive overeater; what some might consider a “garden variety” overeater. In my disease, when I start eating, I cannot stop. I would graze constantly throughout the day, take multiple servings of food at mealtimes, and nibble on leftovers during clean up. Of course, my day wasn’t complete without something sweet before bed. I’m […]
My O.A. Story – Love Notes to Myself
What was it like What happened And how it is today. My story starts straight forward But gets more complicated As I proceed. How do you explain the ins and outs From my first beginnings in the program To now, this very fruitful life. I’ve evolved and changed Through the course of years. At first […]