For Today: December 17th

Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come.

Carl Sandburg

For compulsive overeaters recovering in OA, war is a thing of the past.  Before finding this program, we struggled long and hard to be like normal eaters.  The war with ourselves, fought with diets, pills, shots and an array of formidable but useless weapons, brought us to OA’s door.

It was here that we surrendered—admitted we were totally defeated and powerless over food, that we were not now nor ever could be like normal eaters.  That was the beginning of freedom.

Those wars are, tragically, still being waged.  But we veterans aren’t having any.  We watch with compassion the cruel and needless suffering of our fellow victims, and work toward the day no compulsive overeater ever again has to die in that kind of war.

For Today:  To keep what I have----freedom from fighting myself and my food-----I lose no opportunity to do twelfth step work.

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On Wednesday, I gave up another battle: the scale.  I’ve decided to stop weighing myself and to simply rely on my food plan of abstinence to stay at a healthy, normal weight. 

The dieters I know probably think I’ve lost my mind.  In reality, I’m finally in POSSESSION of my mind!!!!!!

Why do I have to use a scale to judge myself? To decide whether I’ve had a ‘good’ day or a ‘bad’ day, when adherence to my food plan is the ONLY criteria I should need to meet?!

That’s what OA is all about: giving UP the obsessions………ALL of them, and agreeing to live a peaceful lifestyle.  My food plan allows me to do just that, while the scale tends to drive me to under-eat (before a weigh in) or to over-eat (after a weigh in). 

So…………..in spite of the fact that some people are feeling sorry for my ‘lack of judgment’………and thinking I’m back on the road to re-gain…………I am feeling GOOD and EMPOWERED and STRONG like BULL! :)

With God on my side, my food plan strictly enforced, and support from those who really know me and love me, I am finally FREEING myself from the burden of the scale.

Finally. After fighting a battle with it for 40 some years.

What a relief.

For today, I am grateful for the courage to do what I HAVE to do,  the serenity to accept the outcome, and the faith to know I’ll be just fine, one day at a time.