It is so easy to go wrong, especially when it is an old tape and feels comfortable, even if it doesn't feel right.

If I take an easy wrong, the consequences have hard results and makes right even harder.

Narrow/Wide or High/Low, recovery is a journey not a destination.

http://www.darachweb.net/SongLyrics/LochLomond.html

Don't jump from the frying pan into the fire. Don't substitute one drug for another.

Don't jump to conclusions, just because you did the first 3 Steps or all 12 of the Steps, doesn't mean you are finished. It is a living program. The 12 Steps are applicable to all areas of my life, those I know and those I haven't discovered yet.

A good one, I do know what is right and that gives me the power to say "No!" When I choose wrong over right, I am back into Self and not following God's Will.

A friend of mine says that she goes to take some pills, she thinks of me, and takes them anyway. The same thing when I go to eat brownies, should I or shouldn't I, yesterday and the day before I walked by them. Last night I made some. :(

Amen!

Do not be in such a hurry to move on.

This was especially true for me, I had so many depths of feeling so deeply buried it took time to surface.

I was also told it was okay to work the steps and take off the top layer as long as you go back and do them again. As I healed, I became more aware and I became more honest. This is a disease of perception.

I was quite surprised in recovery to find that I still had issues with authority. All my life it seemed people told me what to do and how things should be done, but seldom saw them walking their talk. In my head was the message, "Rules were meant to be broken." If I didn't break them, I bent them very badly to fit my way of thinking.

Have to love it! What a difference a day makes when I am clean and sober. When I put the wrong foods in my body, I contaminate it. When I don`t get the right vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients in my body, I don`t respect myself. I need to be the best me I can be. I needed to stop abusing my body and thinking that I am less than and not worthy of recovery.

As the saying goes, "We can not serve two masters.

Getting a second chance at life, is indeed a privilege and one to be enjoyed.

When I came into Treatment, I was told that thoughts of suicide was being cowardly.

I chose to live!

Friday, July 25, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Gifts

The OA program is a gift to us from our Higher Power. Without it, we would still be bogged down in compulsive overeating with no solution in sight. Our fellowship gives us the hope and love we need to sort ourselves out and begin to live a new life.

Recovery through abstinence is the gift, which we are offered every day. In order to receive it, we need to be sincere and earnest in our efforts to work the program. We can count on God's support if we are willing to go to any lengths to stop eating compulsively.

With gratitude for these gifts from our Higher Power, we are able to give back what has come to us. We share our program and give our time and abilities where we see a need that we can fill. The more we give, the more we receive. God's abundance is inexhaustible.

We thank You for Your gifts.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Doing God's Will

For a long time, most of us tried to achieve happiness by serving our self-will. We figured out what we wanted from life and then went about trying to attain it. When our efforts were frustrated, we turned to food and overeating.

The idea of giving our self-will to God and following His direction makes us fearful. We fear that we will lose out and be unhappy. We are reluctant to give up our illusions of autonomy and power. We wonder if there really is a Higher Power who can direct our way. We pray for guidance and then forget to listen for the response.

When we are willing to trust a Higher Power in even one small area of our lives, we begin to see results. As our faith grows, we become confident enough to relinquish more and more of the concerns, which by ourselves we are unable to manage. The more we work this program, the more sure we are that our peace and happiness lie in serving God, rather than ourselves.

I pray for courage to follow Your will.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

OA Unity

When we come into OA, we are amazed to find so many other people with the same problems and difficulties. We are even more amazed at the stories we hear of the successful solution of these problems, which have defeated us for so long.

We are united in our common illness - compulsive overeating - and we are united in our common program of recovery - abstinence and the Twelve Steps. What we could not accomplish alone, by our own efforts, becomes possible through the strength of the group and the Higher Power.

Each of us is responsible for the life of OA. We each have a role to play and an area in which to serve. If we do not do our part, the organization as a whole is weakened. By our service to the common goals, our own program is strengthened. "Letting someone else do it" will not work. Saying yes when there is a job that I can do is what maintains OA unity and my own recovery.

May I contribute to OA unity.

Trust that care and put my life in His Care each day.

Abstinence for me meant two things, "Learning to say 'No,' not only to myself, others, and food" and changing my attitude ftom, "Don't tell me what to do."

A women in a Fibromyalgia study with me, invited me to her place to taste her home made wine. She was quite offended. She said, "A little glass of wine won't hurt you." I was about 8 months sober. Her little glass of wine could have put me back on the vicious cycle of more, with alcohol, pills and food. They all went together hand in hand.