Saturday, August 31, 2013

Food for Thought: August 31st


Accepting Guidelines

Some of us have gone through life thinking that we did not need to follow any guidelines. Somehow, we got the idea that special circumstances placed us above the rules. We looked for shortcuts and rebelled against the tedium of discipline. Considering ourselves exceptional, we decided to make our own guidelines. These were usually based on doing what we felt like when we felt like it.

When we get to OA, we may spend a short or a long time experimenting with the program, adjusting it to suit ourselves. Sooner or later, we discover that our adjustments do not work. The OA program works, provided we follow the rules and work it as it is, not as we might like it to be.

Once we accept the rules at a gut level, they lead us out of negative restraint into positive freedom. By following a few simple guidelines, we become free from slavery to compulsive overeating and self-centered confusion.

Thank You for Your guidelines.

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

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Yep, I was exceptional...........able to make ALL of my own rules and do exactly what I pleased, particularly when it came to food and drink.

And so, I wound up progressing my disease to the point where I ate and drank continuously.

When I found Medifast is when I was able to embrace abstinence AND sobriety, because I made a commitment to avoid trigger foods entirely, and to never take another sip of booze again *one day at a time, of course*.

I'm done experimenting with 'my way'. I'm finished trying to manipulate rules and adjusting them to suit my needs. Instead, I adjust MY needs to suit the RULES that are in place to preserve my sanity!

For today, I accept the rules.  THIS is true freedom, not what I insisted was 'freedom' for all those years when addiction held me in its grip.

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