For Today: June 18th

Man is made of ordinary things, and habit is his nurse.

Johann Schiller

Yes, even the cunning, baffling and powerful disease of compulsive overeating began as habit. It was comforting to eat “a little something” to tide me over till dinner---or to give me something to do after school.  In time, it became a snack after homework and another one before bed, progressing to two or more helpings at mealtimes, with candy or cookies in between.  Thus does habit turn nasty.

Neither habit nor compulsion, however, is immune to the twelve-step program. It has relieved millions of their obsession with alcohol, food, drugs and other addictive substances and activities.

For Today: I am not obliged to keep habits just because I’ve had them so long. If compulsive overeating can be removed, so can habits.

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I was in the habit of overeating for so long, I didn’t think it was possible to stop.  Compulsive overeating was a part of me just like my hands or my legs.  I thought it was who I was.

The Steps taught me that I was really someone totally different, who was hidden away behind the overeating. I was afraid to find out who I was….who would that person be?

But, when the pain of compulsive overeating outweighed the pain of self-discovery, I became willing to lift the veil of denial & start living life as God intended me to live it!

Yes, it can be quite difficult to feel emotions, and sometimes even harder to identify them, since I had stuffed them down so effectively for so long. 

But once I became willing to get honest with myself, I began to see myself differently: as an addict who was powerless over food. Once I accepted that truth, only then was I able to embrace a program to change.

The Steps are a blueprint to living an addictive free lifestyle of honesty & truth. I no longer need excess food to push back my feelings; I am able to feel them & know they will not kill me, but that compulsive overeating can and will.

Today, I can honestly say that I don’t care to eat excess food nor do I require it to thrive. In fact, I thrive much better with less food than I did with more.  I feel better, I look better, and I have a much more open mind when it comes to letting go & letting God guide me.

When I ask for help & guidance, it comes, every single time!

For today, I pray to lean on God when I feel like I can’t cope with a problem; I realize that I can only do so much and then I have to let the problem go and rely on God to do the rest.