FOOD FOR THOUGHT/OA - SEPTEMBER 2014

[MajestyJo]

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought
Understanding

The understanding, which we gain through the OA program, is a source of constant amazement and gratitude. First, we begin to understand our illness. Then, we grow in understanding of others and ourselves. Finally, our eyes are opened more and more to the spiritual aspects of our existence.

Hearing someone else's story gives us insight into our own behavior. We act as mirrors, reflecting each other's problems and solutions. As we act, we are given greater understanding of why we do what we do and how we may function better. In order to gain more understanding, we must first act on the knowledge we have. Intellectual awareness alone will not enable us to control our disease.

The empathy and understanding, which we receive from fellow OA members, give us the strength and hope to recover. We begin to see where our attitudes were wrong and how to go about correcting them. As we acknowledge the Power greater than ourselves and give our lives over to Him, we open a new channel of spiritual insight and understanding.

May I understand.

Not only into my disease, but insight into myself and an understanding of my God and my relationship with Him.

[MajestyJo]

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

God Is Here

The Power, which restores us to sanity, is not something remote and abstract, which we must search for by reading books and performing great feats. Our Higher Power is with us constantly and is involved in the minute details of every day. We do not have to wait and work to become acceptable to God. He accepts us now, just as we are.

What gets in the way of our awareness of God is self. If we are narrowly focused on the concerns of ego and self-will, we ignore the presence of a Higher Power. Then we become weak and confused in our aloneness.

To be aware of the presence of God in our lives every day, all we need is the willingness to be open to Him. We find that He is indeed "closer than breathing and nearer than hands and feet." What we may have spent years searching for or denying turns out to be the ground of our existence and the Power that sustains us every minute.

Increase my awareness of You, I pray.

Never fear God is here.

[MajestyJo]

Thursday, September 18, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Bad Days

There are some days when we wake up in the morning knowing with a sixth sense that the day is going to be a hard one. These are the days when it is difficult to get out of bed, when we would prefer not to face whatever awaits us. There is no way around these days; we must get through them the best way we can.

Our most useful tool for coping with a bad day is abstinence. Nothing is impossible when we are abstaining from compulsive overeating. Often our problem lies not in the external events of the day but in recognizing a part of ourselves that has been hidden and repressed. We resist facing honestly what our Higher Power is revealing to us about our inner life.

When we are determined not to escape into food, we will come out of a bad day stronger than we were before. We reinforce our new way of living, which is to turn difficult situations over to our Higher Power and then act as He guides us, step by step.

May I be closer to You during the bad days.

Thanks to recovery, those are the days, I feel closer to my God. If I didn't get close to God, I would end up using. When I am close to my God I may nibble or taste, and I am empowered to quit and know that food isn't the answer, and that I need a spiritual solution.

Those bed days, are prayer days for motivation and even if I don't get out of the house, I make sure I get out of my bed.

[MajestyJo]

Friday, September 19, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought
Know Yourself


The OA program fosters self-knowledge on a practical, physical level as well as on the more abstract emotional and intellectual levels. We come to know what foods we can handle comfortably, how we can arrange our day so that we do not get exhausted, and which people we need to avoid if we are to maintain our serenity.

We had so little self-confidence when we were overeating that we were inclined to accept other people's ideas of who we were and what we should do. By trying to be and do what others expected, we may have lost sight of our inner selves. The emptiness caused by not knowing and respecting ourselves led in turn to more overeating as we tried to fill the inner void with food.

Self-knowledge requires courage and honesty. It involves admitting our weaknesses and mistakes, rather than pretending to be perfect. As we come to know ourselves - our preferences, needs, and goals - we gain strength and integrity. The Power greater than ourselves gives us the insight to know who we are physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Thank You for self-knowledge.

We can gather all the knowledge we can, and yet if we don't follow thought with action, it doesn't get us very far, except an overload of information that overwhelms us.

Believe in yourself, a day at a time. Discover the new you, each day is a new beginning. All we have is today, and all we are asked to do is try. The failure is in the not trying. Get to know yourself. What does your body, mind, and spirit need?

[MajestyJo]

Saturday, September 20, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

A New Self-Image

As we lose weight, our self-image needs to change along with our body. We may have had a mental image of our self as a thin person, but this image probably did not go beyond the physical. If we continue to think of our self as the same confused, compulsive, childish person we once were, we are not facilitating our emotional and spiritual growth.

The OA program gives us the power to become a new person. If we see ourselves as daily growing saner, more serene, more confident, reality will reflect our inner vision.

Perhaps the most important change in our self-image involves our relationship to our Higher Power. Before, we probably saw ourselves as the center of our world and devoted our energies to protecting and building up our fragile ego. We were all alone in an unfriendly world. Now, we see ourselves as God's creation, subject to His purpose and plan. As we yield to His authority and accept His love, we find strength, security, and peace. By losing ourselves, we find ourselves.

Create in me a new self-image.

Like this, we so often see ourselves as only fat or thin. We have to remember that our body is comprised of much more than that. We also remember that we have a disease of perception, and so often how we perceive ourselves, is often not a true one and certainly not a healthy one. My son would say, "Mother! You are not fat." When I look at skinny people, I was fat." If I looked at obese people, I was skinny." I had to stop abusing myself, and accept me for who I was in today, know it was subject to change.

[MajestyJo]

Sunday, September 21, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Trusting Gut Reactions

Since we could not trust ourselves where food was concerned, we had trouble trusting ourselves in all aspects of life. We became divided internally and unsure of what we thought or how we felt or how we should act. We may have depended on other people to tell us what we liked, what to do, and how to do it.

It is with a great sense of joy that we become aware of our own individuality and preferences. If we experience a negative gut reaction to a certain person or activity, then we need to examine our reasons for continuing the relationship or activity. We do not have to like everyone, nor do we have to do everything. The sooner we become selective, the more we develop as individuals and the more integrity we possess. If we continually force ourselves to do things, which violate our inner integrity, then we are frustrated and growth is slow.

Gut reactions need to be examined calmly and intelligently. They are there to tell us something about ourselves.

Give me a healthy respect for my gut reactions.

Like the title, as I have said many times, my co-sponsor a Native American woman said, "If you are doubting yourself, you are doubting your God."

I missed out on so much by not trusting that inner self, that word that guided me to do and I pooh hooed it. Sometimes little things like, "Take meat out for supper" and I didn't act on it, and when dinner time came, no meat taken out for dinner. Felt like I wanted to go to the library, didn't need books but insisted that I go and ended up missing a very important phone call.

Then there are the time, we get all the green lights to where we are going and God and I are on the same time table.

[MajestyJo]

Monday, September 22, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Scales

During our dieting days, we probably spent much time getting on and off the scales. In OA, we are advised not to weigh more than once a month. Though we want to get rid of excess weight, we do not want to be obsessed with pounds and ounces. This program involves much more than weight control, and to make the scales our ultimate judge is to miss the mark.

If we are honestly abstaining from compulsive overeating and working our program, we will lose weight. The rate of loss will vary from person to person and from week to week. Even, and especially, when the scale registers what we want it to register, we continue to honestly abstain and work the OA program.

In OA, we are more concerned with the progress we make in controlling our disease than we are with our specific weight on any particular day. If our illness is under control, weight control will follow. Scales are useful for measuring physical progress, but they are not a god.

May I use the scales wisely?

We can be as obsessive compulsive about scales as we do about food. We don't want to step on one or eat food, or we always want to eat and we always want to check our weight.

It all comes down to the thinking and turning it over to our God.

[MajestyJo]

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Positive Leads

As our serenity grows, the clamour and confusion inside our heads die down. Instead of being pulled in many different directions and uncertain of which way to turn, we gradually discern the positive voice that leads us forward. Rather than trying to analyze all possible alternatives intellectually, we gain the confidence to choose the positive way without agonizing indecision.

To worry and speculate about the roads not taken is counter productive and wasteful of our energies. We pray that we may know the will of our Higher Power for us, and then we act according to the best of our knowledge. The more we practice listening to the still, small voice within, the more positive direction we will receive.

The mental calmness which we experience as we abstain from compulsive overeating clears away our former confusion. We may make mistakes, but as long as we can admit them and stay in contact with our Higher Power, we will continue to follow His positive leads.

Keep me on Your positive path.

As my spiritual adviser says, "If you don't know, then it isn't the right time. If you pray and ask, you will know."

I like the word clamour, haven't heard it for a long time, maybe because I am old. I get a picture that includes symbols, and all the noise that goes on inside my head at times, that I have trouble hearing the good orderly good direction when it comes, because I don't make time to to find a quiet time to listen. There is even more chaos with our own voices saying, "Should I, shouldn't I? or the infamous, what if? etc. that keeps our minds so busy that if the voice came our way, we wouldn't hear it. Everything and everyone is clamouring for attention, and we shut down and shut off, and we hear, see, and all our senses are shut off. That is when we say, "Did you ring?" Like my father use to to me, "When you have your head in a book, the house could burn down around us and you would not be aware. You completely shut down and you hear nothing."

[MajestyJo]

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Accepting Where We Are

Wherever we are when we come to this program is where we begin. Some of us have further to go along the road to self-actualization than others. No one of us ever arrives in this life. There is always more work to be done.

Believing that our Higher Power has a plan for each of us, we accept the place where He has put us right now. We do not expect to stay in this place, but it is a necessary part of our growth and development. We cannot move on until we understand where we are now and how we got here.

Our Fourth Step inventory gives us an opportunity to examine past actions, which have led to our current situation. We may not like what we discover, but an honest appraisal of our weaknesses and faults as well as our strengths is preparation for constructive change. Accepting where we are frees us from morbid obsession with the past and enables us to move on into the future.

May I accept where I am as the best place for me to be today.

The key to recovery for me. I don't have to like it. I just have to accept it. I am where I am suppose to be in the moment, knowing everything is subject to change. Having said that, "I have to be willing and give my permission for the change to take place."

[MajestyJo]

Thursday, September 25, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Don't Hang On

As long as we are alive, we will experience times of joy and times of sadness. Trying to hang on to the periods of elation and avoid the inevitable depression which each of us feels from time to time causes us to seek artificial stimulation. Using food to try to stay on cloud nine did not work, and neither does anything else.

By turning over our lives, we become willing to let go and move through the periods of joy and sadness as we come to them. Trying to hang on arrests our progress. Nothing is certain in this life except change, and when we stop overeating we are better able to deal with the variations in our feelings and circumstances.

Whatever our current mood or situation, we can remain abstinent. Abstinence gives our lives stability and order, in spite of changes. Being centered in the Power greater than ourselves keeps us from being overly affected by either elation or depression.

By focusing on You, may I move calmly through the times of joy and the times of sadness.

A good message, that artificial memory, those times it seemed good and we thought they were good, forgetting that we had stimulated our thought process and clouded and shut down our reality. Rose coloured glasses made everything look good.

Don't hang onto the past, make new memories and live in the now, which is the true reality.

[MajestyJo]

Friday, September 26, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Character Defects

Beginning the OA program, we are inclined to feel that our problems and difficulties are largely due to circumstances and other people. The enemy seems to be outside. The more we work the Steps, the more we realize that our troubles are within, rather than without. Furthermore, we learn that the only person we can change is our self.

We see that the root of our difficulty lies in being centered on self instead of centered in our Higher Power. Our egos can take us only so far before we reach a point where continued growth demands that we begin to abandon them. What a relief to get rid of the anxiety, frustration, and fear that goes with an ego-centered life!

Our Higher Power removes our character defects as we become willing to let go of them. Honest awareness is our first task, and this is facilitated by maintaining abstinence from compulsive overeating. Abstinence gives us the honesty and the energy to change. As we change, circumstances and relationships improve.

I ask that You remove my character defects according to Your will.

Had the thought, "Just think of how many of our defects of character came out on Friday night when we were using." In today, we have a choice. We can continue to act out in our disease, or make changes in our life. Thy Will, not mine!

[MajestyJo]

Saturday, September 27, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

We Admit

Three of the Twelve Steps have to do with admitting. We admit that we are powerless over food and cannot manage our own lives; we admit our wrongs to God, ourselves, and another person; we continue to take inventory and admit when we are wrong.

Out of honest admission of our weakness comes strength. We are able to see ourselves realistically and with clarity. When we are humble enough to admit our wrongs, we get rid of the false front we had tried to maintain. This frees us to be who we are, without pretense.

When we admit our faults, we are cleansed. We no longer have to try to hide and cover up our weaknesses and mistakes. Instead of pretending to be perfect, we can be human and satisfied with progress.

We admit that we have a progressive disease, and we learn how to control it. We do not pretend to ourselves or others that we can eat like everyone else, because we are compulsive overeaters. We cannot manage our own lives, but there is One who can.

I admit that I am powerless, and I am grateful for Your Power in my life.

Love the last line. We surrender to win. When I say I can't, with God, I can. I am empowered to do, each day what I need to do, not just with food, but with any life situation.

[MajestyJo]

Sunday, September 28, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

My Own Body

My body is where I live. Its size and shape is a matter between my Higher Power and me. No one else is responsible for my body. In the past, I may have permitted other people to influence what I ate and how much I weighed, but I now take full responsibility.

Other people may think that I am too fat or too thin, but that is their problem, not mine. I am learning what my body needs in order to operate at peak efficiency. I am learning to avoid the foods, which I do not handle well. What and how much I eat depends on my own preference and the requirements of my metabolism.

My body is a gift to me from my Higher Power. Maintaining it in the best possible condition is my response to God's gift. No one else can tell me how best to maintain my body, since no one else is living in it or receives its inner signals. If I honestly interpret the signals, which come from my body, I will stay abstinent and healthy.

Thank You for my body.

This reminds me of yesterday when I was fooling around with a guy who I knew years ago when he came into recovery. No one believed in him, I did and he did too and he has 16 years of sobriety. I told him. "This is what 72 years is suppose to look like." "This is what 23 years of sobriety is suppose to look like." My spiritual adviser in early recovery said, "If you have recovery, "Show it."

When I started eating responsibly, trying to keep a routine and have balance in my life (that is hard for me because of fibromyalgia), the excess weight just came off, with a little help with some exercise) Being a couch potato made me look like one.

[MajestyJo]

Monday, September 29, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

The Satisfaction of Work

Using our God-given talents and abilities to do the work He assigns us brings deep satisfaction. Many of us used to eat a lot of "idle bread" which we did not need. Now that we are eating less, we find that we derive satisfaction from working more.

Work is an opportunity to give away the gifts we are given. It is sharing which requires effort and discipline. If we do not work up to our maximum level of ability, our satisfaction is reduced. As we give away our gifts, we are given more.

Maintaining abstinence improves the quality of our work and increases our output. Instead of doing just enough to get by, we are challenged to give the best that we have. Abstaining from compulsive overeating can give us the courage and confidence to change jobs when necessary.

When we are emotionally upset, turning to a task, which absorbs us physically or mentally, or both can have a healing effect. Rather than a curse, work can be a blessing, especially when we realize that ultimately we are working with and for our Higher Power.

We give thanks for the satisfaction of work.

Posted on this and lost it.

This is so true, much better to do than using my arm to shovel food into my mouth. Better I use my finger to tap on the keys and use them to carry the message of recovery, and share my experience, strength and hope and how the program worked for me. My primary purpose is to carry the message of recovery. It give me a purpose and a reason for being. When I am feeling down, coming to the site, it lifts me up.

[MajestyJo]

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Perspective

When our vision was clouded by self-will, our perspective was narrow and subjective. We saw people and events only as they fostered or frustrated our egotistical concerns. The world was a frightening place, since we thought that our welfare was entirely dependent on our own efforts.

Coming to believe in a Higher Power gives us a new, broader perspective. We learn the security of trusting eternal values and moral principles. When we pray only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out, we begin to see ourselves as serving rather than surviving. Particular acts may or may not be successful from our point of view, but we can move on in confidence, knowing that our past, present, and future is in His hands.

The new perspective, which comes to us as we work the OA program, enables us to accept defeats as well as successes and irritations as well as satisfactions. All experience is for our growth and development.

Create in us a new perspective.

Always like this topic. I always try to remember and ask for new perspective each morning, especially when I feel like have been the last few weeks. How do I feel? Numb and dumb!