The 12 Steps of Recovery

Take Out The Trash

I wanted to share the following beautiful illustration I heard at a meeting a couple weeks ago about the way one fellow member describes what it is like to do the 4th step: He compared it to what we would do with a pile of garbage. We have two choices: The first is to put all …Continue reading →

10,011

May

No Raffle Tickets For Me!

At an OA anniversary meeting several months ago, a good friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go up and buy a couple raffle tickets with her. I casually blurted-out my standard line, “I don’t buy raffle tickets,” and didn’t think anything of it. I noticed that she wasn’t getting up to buy …Continue reading →

3,923

May

“Hoarders” Lesson Learned

Several months ago, I walked into the living room to find my husband watching a show called “Hoarders: Buried Alive.” It is a documentary/reality-tv style show about people who are obsessed with filling their homes with “stuff” with no regard for the effect this behavior has on their family members, their health, and their finances. …Continue reading →

May

Step 2, Part 1: “Came to believe…”

When I first came into program, I considered myself to be an atheist. Through going to meetings and reading The Big Book, I discovered that I was really an agnostic. This meant that I believed that the existence of God could not be proven, but that I was at least open to the possibility that …Continue reading →

6,500

Apr

I Can’t Blame My Family

Coming back to OA after a 100-pound-plus weight-gain was not easy – I’m not going to lie. But once I was there, because I was a lot older and more worldly (I can’t honestly say “wiser”), I found it to be much easier this time to make friends. Due to the inherent stunting powers of this …Continue reading →

5,959

Apr

“I can see it in your face.”

I can’t tell you how many times I have lost large amounts of weight (I am talking over 50 pounds, here), only to hear these fatal words. At first my hopes soar as someone says, “Hey! You look like you lost weight!” Then they crash and burn when I hear, “I can really see it …Continue reading →

4,522

Apr

“But I DESERVE it!”

This lie has lessened in me, but still lingers to this day. There is still a small part of me that thinks that I should be “allowed” to eat whatever I want – or maybe a better way of saying it would be that I think I should be “exempt” from having to eat healthy, …Continue reading →

5,720

Apr

Gum-Chewing (And Other Abstinent Obsessions)

The very first time I became abstinent, I developed all kinds of other weird obsessions without even realizing it. The first one was eating sugar-free mints. I specifically remember asking my mom to get me a whole bunch at Christmas & Easter time so I would have something to pop in my mouth instead of …Continue reading →

1,773

Apr

“Only ONE pound?!” – Pt. 1

My abstinent food plan calls for me to only weigh myself at my counselor’s office. Since I only see her roughly once every six-to-eight weeks, I have been forced to give-up the majority of the obsessive behaviors related to getting weighed, like getting on the scale daily (or more), using calories to try to calculate …Continue reading →

Apr

God Loves YOU!

Before I could even begin to approach the subject of believing in a Higher Power that loved me, I had to break-through a much more basic philosophical argument: why would a Higher Power be interested in helping me with something as mundane as my battle with weight? Didn’t He/She/It have better things to deal with, …Continue reading →

6,526

Apr

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