Food for Thought: January 8th

The Bottom Line

For everything worthwhile in life, there is a price to pay. The price is the bottom line. There is no free lunch. While we have learned that we cannot overcome compulsive eating without the support of our Higher Power and the OA group, we also know that OA is not a free ride to ideal weight maintenance. Each of us must look at the bottom line.

The price of freedom from compulsive overeating is the avoidance of all personal binge foods. It is the discipline of measured meals every day. We cannot have a new life of freedom from compulsion if we continue to cling to our old excesses. We cannot be free and overeat at the same time. We must be willing to pay the price.

As we move along each day in abstinence, we form new habits and we become accustomed to living without extra, unnecessary food. We begin to change in positive, constructive ways. One day at a time, in small installments, we pay the price of our new growth and progress. What we gain is infinitely more than worth the cost!

May I be willing to pay the price today.

From Food for Thought: Daily Meditations for Overeaters by Elisabeth L. ©1980, 1992 by Hazelden Foundation.

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If there was a 'free lunch' in life, I'd have found it years ago, eaten it, and I'd be thin & healthy without having to work for it. Instead, I have to face the bottom line: I can avoid my personal binge food & use discipline with my Food Plan, or, I can stay immersed in the disease of  compulsive overeating.  It's just THAT simple.

It's never easy, though, is it? What price am I willing to pay for freedom from my disease, and maintaining a healthy/trim figure?


It seems to me that this disease is a no-win situation.........it extracts a hefty price from me, one way or another. I can be miserable overeating, or I can be miserable sticking to a structured Food Plan.  Either way, there IS misery involved.  Certainly, there are fewer days of 'misery' while practicing abstinence than there are practicing compulsive overeating............but it doesn't always feel that way.  Some days I'd be willing to cut my arm off for a binge, or a cigarette, or a bottle (or 4) of wine.  When 'those days' pop up, I tend to feel plenty of self-pity and resentment for my 'lot in life.'  And it sometimes FEELS like a sorry lot in life, too.

Misery practicing the disease of excess, and misery practicing the habits of abstinence.  Which one is more costly?  Practicing the habits of excess are certainly more costly..........I've proven that to myself for decades.

What I have gained through abstinence IS infinitely worth the cost.........this is true.  So I plug along, for today, choosing to be free from the habits that bog down my soul & keep me immersed in disease instead of recovery.

For today, I will stay in recovery..........only for the next 24 hours, however.  I will not worry about tomorrow, but just focus on today.  For 24 hours, I can do ANYTHING.