For Today: August 1st

Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth.

Aesop

Appearance is not everything, but it does tell the world how I feel about myself.  As my days of abstinence increase, my appearance improves.

Before OA, physical attractiveness presented problems I didn’t want to deal with.  As I practice the steps of the program, these problems diminish.  I gain spiritual fitness, mental health and physical wellbeing.  Giving one hundred percent of myself to the tasks before me each day, and applying the principles of the program in all of my affairs drives out both the obsession with food and the preoccupation with my looks.  I lose weight without making it my primary goal.

For Today:  OA promises me threefold recovery as a result of working the program to the best of my ability.  This is the only way I know to attain both outside attractiveness and inner worth.

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What good is outside attractiveness if I feel horrible on the inside? This is what led me back to obesity time & time again: inner turmoil.

I could never understand why I was feeling so horrible on the inside, either. My primary focus in life was to lose weight and to look thin, so WHY hadn't my life changed once I reached that goal?

The Steps taught me what was wrong with me on the inside.  How my behaviors led to self-hatred & my physical appearance had NOTHING to do with how I felt about myself.

I thought I didn't have a life because I was fat; turned out, I was fat because I didn't have a life.

OA taught me how to carve out a satisfying life for myself where I am not obsessed with food, or weight or outside appearances. OA taught me to give up the scale as my master & accept God as my master instead.

When I feel good on the inside because I am abstinent, working the steps & giving back, my physical appearance isn't quite as important as it once was.  Although my body looks slim, it's even more apparent that my soul is at peace & feeling content.