Conference rocks::weight_control

479.0. "4 months abstinent in OA: 50 pounds gone!" by SUPER::HENDRICKS (The only way out is through) Tue Jul 11 1989 12:18

    I'm happy to be celebrating a 50 pound weightloss today!  It's taken me
    just under 4 months in OA to do it.  Throughout this time I have
    maintained "back to back" (daily) abstinence as recommended by OA.  I'm
    realizing the power of abstaining *just one day at a time* from the
    foods that I used to obsess about. 
    
    I eat 3 planned meals a day except for days where there is an unusual
    schedule. If I change my food for the day, I go over my food plans in
    detail with my OA sponsor.  It's very powerful for me to decide what I
    will eat in a day, tell my sponsor, and let go of any decisions about
    eating for the rest of the day.  I'm learning how to plan to have the
    foods that will make me feel good available so that planning is
    nurturance, not deprivation!   I couldn't do this program without
    my food sponsor, and without my friends in AA who are helping me
    learn to live this program of recovery from addiction.
    
    I go to 3-5 OA meetings every week.  This is a key part of my program
    for right now.  I hear recovery at every meeting, and talk with
    people who are maintaining long term abstinence from their binge
    foods as well as very large weightlosses.  I have met lots of wonderful
    people in OA who know what I've gone through with food!  There are
    some things it's very hard to talk about except with another food
    addict.     
    
    I am grateful that I am no longer dieting...that I am not going
    on or off diets.  I am just living and eating the way I need to
    one day at a time.   I am asking for and getting all the help I
    need, free (!), and not isolating.  I am sharing my program with
    other compulsive overeaters, something that the early founders of
    AA found was a key factor in keeping one's own sobriety.
                                
    Some people really do need to lose a few pounds, and are basically not
    compulsive overeaters or food addicts.  Diets do work for people who
    are not *addicts*.  If anyone out there is feeling despair about food
    addiction, binging, bulimia, or compulsive overeating, though, I
    hope you come to OA at some point.  It's been a miracle for me,
    and I'm very grateful.                            
    
    Holly

    CONGRATULATIONS HOLLY!   I know exactly how you feel and I 
    too have lost 50 lbs. since January. It is just a mircle for
    me.  Someone wih no will power at all.  But one day at a time
    really does work  plus put down the flour and sugar and binge
    foods.  I just came back after a wonderfull getaway weekend with
    my husband in Lincoln NH and I had lost 3 lbs over the weekend
    alone. Writing the food down so that it is planned relieves your
    mind of "what shall I eat or what can I eat" It is great.
    
    Keep up the good work and coming to OA meetings is the best medicine
    for anyone out there eating compulsively. I can't wait to go to
    my next meeting.
    
    Barbara
    

    Don't you mean  "keep on.. taking off!!"
    
    ;^)
    

    You bet!!!!!!

    You are an inspiration!  Congratulations!