For Today May 18
Don’t let life discourage you.
Everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.
Richard L. Evans
As newcomers we look at recovering compulsive overeaters who tell us of the happiness, freedom and joy in their lives, and we can hardly comprehend that they were not always this way. Those miraculous recoveries seem unattainable for us.
One suggestion made to...
Hey folks! You'll see more from me after next Wednesday (the 22nd). That date is my last day of class, and I'll have more time to write after it's all over.
Still abstinent, but I am having more slips. Not with binge foods, but with inappropriate volume and the occasional extra snack. Last night I had a small binge, and it scared the crap out of me. It seems I still believe at times that extra...
For Today May 17
Everything intercepts us from ourselves.
Ralph Waldo Emmerson
How well do I know myself?
“Pretty well, I suspect,” I answer. But there are so many distractions to keep me from learning more, from seeing who I really am. I am completely preoccupied with work, family, friends, the economy, the daily events taking place all over the world and brought to me in the news...
5/16. Does my “yesterday” sometimes crowd out my today? Do I waste today’s energy and time tangled up in worry about tomorrow’s “what ifs”? What are some examples? Today I am caught up in how I'm going to tell my Principal and Head of School that I have to take the rest of the year off for surgery. Not worried about the surgery - just my job. On the other hand, if I don't receive a...
For Today May 16
It is better to begin in the evening than not at all.
English proverb
A day can begin anytime. That was a notion I didn’t want to hear in my compulsive overeating days. If I promised myself I would straighten up “in the morning,” I could go on eating in peace.
This kind of self-delusion can be used to avoid making a start at almost anything. But, as any member knows, OA...
5/15. Do I do what is necessary every day to have a relationship with HP? How do I explain my answer? I wake up with gratitude and work hard all day to count my blessings. If I am having trouble I ask G-d to show them to me. I continue to tell G-d that i am here for His service and ask how I can help others. If I feel a twinge for non-appropriate foods, I remind myself and (-d that I give hi,...
14. There is abstinence, or there is compulsive eating. Abstinence stops the war within and frees me to live fully. Am I willing to do whatever I must to stay abstinent? What examples can I give? This question focuses on abstinence way more than I do. I am finding the more effort I put into recognizing my character defects and praying them away as well as asking for guidance and G-d's will,the ...
5/13. Other ways may exist to arrest my food problem, but I know from others that the OA program works. How am I working it? Working the OA 12-step program of recovery means that I do just that....work the 12 steps. As recovered members of OA say, "The day I stop step-work is the day I relapse". For drinkers that might mean that that's the day they die, for us it's slower, possibly more...