For Today: January 8th

The process of changing a lifestyle is more important than reaching a goal or measuring a performance.

Theodore Isaac Rubin

There are many fundamental differences between diet clubs and Overeaters Anonymous.  But perhaps the major difference is that in OA preoccupation with diet and weight loss is replaced by the vastly more interesting, satisfying, and rewarding process of changing ourselves from the inside.

We begin this process with step one: surrender.  For some of us that is impossible at the outset, so we do what we know has worked for others. We go to meetings, we make an effort to express our feelings openly, and we act as if the power to change, to abstain from compulsive overeating is already ours.

For Today:  I reject the idea that I can deal with compulsive overeating with diets, scales and weight charts.  I do not have to measure my progress in this program.

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For 40 years, I did measure my ‘progress’ with diets, scales and weight charts.  My weight losses, of course, were always temporary.  I’d diet/starve myself for a while, until I’d had enough, then go back to my old ways of compulsive overeating.  I was only so good for only so long……….and then the disease took control of me once again and I was back into the depths of despair.

OA has taught me to follow a pre-determined food plan; to NOT take that first compulsive bite, which starts the whole cycle in again. 

OA has taught me to STOP seeking my self-worth from a piece of metal, or a new fad diet, and to find it INSIDE; from my behaviors and my commitment.

OA has taught me that I am NOT a number on a clothing tag or on a scale surface; I AM a child of God and worthy of happiness and joy, regardless of what number the scale reveals.

If I am true to my food plan of abstinence, I AM doing the footwork ………I AM doing all I CAN do to achieve a healthy body.

If I work the Steps and pray to my Higher Power, then I am doing the REST of the footwork that heals me from the inside out.

If I keep my environment free from trigger foods, I am taking insurance to guard against compulsive overeating, even if I ‘feel like it’,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I CANNOT do it.  Control my environment or have my environment control ME.

For today, I am grateful for the progress I’ve made in this marvelous program……..withOUT diets, withOUT scales, without weight charts & various ways to ‘chart my progress.’  My progress is noticeable in my behavior and how I treat others.