For Today: December 7th

The highest point a man can attain is not Knowledge, or Virtue, or Goodness,  or Victory, but something even greater, more heroic and more despairing: Sacred Awe!

Nikos Kazantzakis

One of the greatest blessings a compulsive overeater can hope for is a capacity for awe: to be filled with a sense of mingled wonder, gratitude and reverence for that awesome Power in each of us that heals us of suffering no human skill or medicine could touch, and turns around the most wretched of lives.

For those who are so blessed, the first priority of each day is to give thanks.

For Today:  I alone was responsible for dieting and losing weight---and then reversing the process.  I alone am NOT responsible for being abstinent, thin and free of the symptoms of my disease.  This is the great, central, awe-inspiring fact of my life today.

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The program has allowed me the capacity for awe......to be filled with a sense of wonder, gratitude and reverence for the simple things in life.

What could be simpler and more awe-inspiring than abstinence? The ability to stick to a food plan that allows me freedom and relief from compulsive overeating?

Being released from obsession enables me to appreciate my life instead of finding fault with it.  I am able to appreciate and love others for who they are, instead of trying to mold them into the people I think they ought to be.

Abstinence allows me to live, one day at a time, without dwelling in fear, negativity and excess.

For today, I am awe stricken by the beauty of this program & I thank God for leading me to it.

For Today: December 6th

There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.

George Sand

A sense of loving and being loved is not restricted to one’s spouse, children, parents, friends or associates.   It can be applied to everything and everyone in God’s world.  To love and feel loved is nothing less than to have a reverence for life.

Recovery in OA means regaining the freedom to love without conditions and without expectation of return.  As a speaker once put it, “I love you; I don’t care whether or not you love me!”

To love unconditionally is a difficult concept for many.  Only spiritual recovery can give us an understanding of what it means.

For Today:  Has my thinking about love changed in OA?

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By following the principles & practices of the OA program, I have learned to separate the person from his behavior.

I may not like your behavior at a given moment, but that doesn't mean I don't like you.

I am not my behavior.  Because, if I am my behavior, then I am not lovable or worthy of being loved. 

In OA, I've learned to follow a food plan of abstinence.  Abstinence from sugar & refined carbohydrates.  Following a plan of abstinence allows me to be all I can be, instead of just an addict behaving like an addict.


I am, therefore, capable of feeling unconditional love for myself and for others.  I am able to forgive myself as well as others, for mine & their perceived imperfections.  As human beings, we are not expected to be perfect, yet, we tend to force that impossible task upon ourselves.


And thus, we continually fall short.  We're never 'good enough' because, when held up to standards of absolute perfection, such a thing is not possible.


In OA, I am able to love myself in spite of the fact that I'm not perfect.  God loves me no matter what & that means I am good enough, even when my behavior may say otherwise.


Bad behavior can be fixed; when I follow the 12 Steps, I have a proven plan of action in place to deal with myself & others, and a sure-fire way to keep my behavior & thought processes in a good place.


For today, I will love & feel loved in return.

For Today: December 5th

You find in solitude only what you take to it.

Juan Ramon Jimenez

If I force preconceived notions onto a problem, what can I learn?  To learn something new, I need an open mind, a trusting mind which can wander into places that once frightened me.

Rather than suppress thoughts and feelings, it is better to give them a good airing, to look at them in the clear light of day.  Unattended, hidden feelings, like illusions, once defeated me.  Today, I know that feelings cannot hurt me as long as I’m willing to look at them and see them for what they are.

For Today:  What I bring to my moments of solitude, when I look inward at my feelings and attitudes, is self-honesty and openmindedness.

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If I'm certain I know all the answers, I close my mind to the possibility of change.

When I examine my feelings honestly & openly is when I realize that emotions will not kill me......but obesity & compulsive overeating can & will.

Living in denial & illusion prevents me from accepting my adulthood; it keeps me in a child-like state where I stomp my feet & hold my breath until I turn blue when I don't get exactly what I want.

OA has taught me to live in the grown up world & to act accordingly.  When I say No to my inner child, I am  learning self-discipline and setting boundaries.  Just because I 'feel like' overeating does not mean I must overeat.  Just because my inner brat wants to run the show doesn't mean I am going to allow her to do so!


For today, I will be honest & forthcoming with myself.  I will treat myself as an adult & I will accept the responsibilities I face.  First and foremost, I will accept the terms of my food plan today, without altering it one tiny bit.

For Today: December 4th

We are healed of suffering only by experiencing it to the full.

Marcel Proust

When I’m hurting, I look for distraction: go here, run there and keep on running until there is nowhere to go.  Whatever I use as an escape---whether it’s hyperactivity or retreat into isolation and compulsive overeating---it takes what it takes to be brought to my knees, to experience whatever it is I’m avoiding, to turn my will over to my Higher Power and, in an instant, be free.  I walk away feeling light and joyful, and I wonder why I fought so hard.

Will I do the same thing next time?  Possibly.  But each experience confirms what I have learned:  my pain may last a minute, an hour, a week or a month---but allowing myself to feel it is relief in itself, and the beginning of freedom.

For Today:  Avoidance of suffering is natural, but as a compulsive overeater I am alert to my tendency to try to escape what most people accept as part of living.

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Being a compulsive overeater means that I have quite a few behavioral patterns that need changing…..not just the overeating.  What most people accept as a normal part of life, I have a tendency to over-dramatize, internalize, and obsess over.

OCD……….obsessive/compulsive disorder…………….means a whole lot MORE than just overeating.  For many  years, I thought that 'all' I had to do was stop eating so darn much, and all my problems would be solved.  Little did I realize that I overate because I was unhappy with myself.  Consuming excess food was only one symptom of a much larger issue.

If I am to get a grip on my disease, I must accept the things I cannot change and learn how to deal with the unpleasantries of life. Period.

If I reach for food or booze as a means of coping with my life, I doom myself to a lifetime of obesity & alcoholism.

The only way OUT of an issue is THROUGH it, one day at a time.

For Today: December 3rd

Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.

The Bible: Psalms

I go to meetings because it is where I feel at home.  Here I meet friends, join in warm conversation and express my feelings.  Here I am accepted.  OA seemed strange to me in the beginning, but people reached out and said, “You never have to take another compulsive bite again,” and I believed them.  They listened when I talked, comforted me when I was distressed, cheered my newfound abstinence.  Before long, I was seeking out newcomers to welcome them as I had been welcomed, to listen with patience and understanding.

Yes, I am at one with my sisters and brothers.

For Today:  Thank God for OA meetings, where compulsive overeaters don’t have to explain or defend or try to be something they’re not---they just share themselves as they are.

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The disease of compulsive overeating tends to make me feel alone and isolated; more comfortable with a book and a bag of chips than sharing myself with others.  OA meetings give me an outlet......a place to go where I feel accepted because I am accepted.  I no longer feel all alone with my disease because I know there are lots of other people in the same boat as I am.

With my fellow compulsive overeaters, I am free to be me.  I don't have to put on airs or a happy face to insure that others like me.  My fellow OAs like me for who and what I am, period.  I don't have to make believe.......I don't have to perpetuate a false front..........I just have to share my struggles & my triumphs!

What a deal!

That old saw, Birds of a feather flock together, is quite true.  Why should I force myself to be alone & isolated when I don't have to?  

For today, I am grateful to have a merry band of ELFs to share my life with. Wink-wink.

For Today: December 2nd

We shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it.

Abraham Lincoln

It is impossible to hurry some things.  If I am abstinent, I will lose weight.  If I push and shove and spin my wheels, it is only an appearance of activity that accomplishes nothing.  When I want a defect removed before its time, when I want more growth, when I want things to go my way, I remember that life is on God’s timetable, not mine.

Patience is a part of humility, of tempering “I want” with a willingness to wait.

For Today:  I remind myself that drawing up a timetable can doom me to failure, just as goals of perfection have done.  I do not set myself up for this anymore.

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Impatience was my middle name.  I was always in a hurry........always wanting things done MY way and on MY timetable.  When I decided to become abstinent and start working the steps, I also made a decision to become an adult and to grow up, finally.

Growing up means I agree to do the footwork and allow God to do the rest.  It means cultivating patience and the willingness to accept life on life's terms, not MY terms.

Accepting myself as an adult means I put aside my childish ways and quit stomping my feet and throwing temper tantrums when I don't get what I want.


Being an adult means sticking to a regimented food plan because if I refuse to do that, I remain obese and out of control with my entire life.  I agree to do the job before me, whether I 'feel like' it or not.  That's part of adulthood.


When I put my Ego in check is when I humble myself to God's will and when I accept the fact that I'm a compulsive overeater who will never be 'cured'. 


For today, I accept the terms of recovery by staying true to my food plan and working the Steps.  I may be an addict but I don't 'have to' act like one.

For today, I choose to act like an adult.

For Today: December 1st

 All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart.

Nikos Kazantzakis

Happiness is not a spectacular production, introduced with clashing cymbals and blaring trumpets.  It comes quietly, unexpectedly to one who would not dream of chasing it.

Happiness makes its own terms.  The world likes to think happiness is a corollary of success, fame and wealth, and that may indeed be true in some instances.  The greater likelihood, however, is that happiness arrives as the unannounced guest of some humble heart.

For Today:  What is my idea of happiness?

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My idea of happiness is much simpler nowadays than it once was.  Back in my youth, I DID think happiness was defined by clashing cymbals & blaring trumpets.  I was always waiting for some spectacular production........some huge event that would let me know what happiness felt like.

Maybe wealth & social standing would bring me that elusive thing called 'happiness'? 

Nope, all the money in the world only bought me stuff.


Today, happiness means that I stay abstinent & truthful with myself.  It means I stay connected to God and to the principles of integrity that I so strongly believe in.


Today, happiness means something entirely different than it once did.  Today, happiness is hanging around with my husband, even if we're cleaning the house or grocery shopping. 


Today, my happiness hinges on taking care of myself as well as other; no longer putting MY needs aside to accommodate someone else. 

Today, I derive happiness from giving OF myself, not from devoting my life to someone else & calling it 'caring'.


For today, I pray to recognize that true wealth comes from the abundance of simplicity & appreciating the small blessings that enrich my life.