Today's reading reminds me of my first sponsor who taught me the 3-0-1 plan, which really helped me grasp the concept of a food plan versus a diet. Letting go of the idea of needing snacks was difficult, but I saw how it was the root cause of my compulsive eating. I was taugjt as a type 2 diabetic that I needed to eat every 2-3 hours to regulate my blood sugar, which turned out to be false. Now, under my doctor's supervision, I eat 2 low carb meals a day (no snacks), and intermittently fast for at least 18 hours daily and have been at my best health.

I'm Felicia, a grateful compulsive overeater!

Food For Thought
January 10

Decision

Someone has said that the hardest part of the OA program is making the decision to follow it. You can do just about anything once you make up your mind to do it! But the decision has to be firm and it must be the kind of commitment, which involves our deepest self.

Many of us who are compulsive overeaters have spent our lives looking for an easier way to lose weight. We feel that there should be a magic solution somewhere, which will enable us to eat our cake and be thin at the same time. Our first reaction to the OA program is often one of dismay. It seems so drastic, and we protest that there must be an easier way.

The OA program is not easy. Life is not easy. Rather than solving the problems and difficulties in our lives, overeating multiplies them. We in OA have been offered a new way of life. Each of us decides every day - and many times every day - whether or not we will choose the new life.

May I decide to follow the program today.

Food For Thought
January 17

All We Have Is Now

We can only live now, this moment. We cannot erase the mistakes we made yesterday or bring back the good times we had. We cannot know what tomorrow will require of us, nor can we ensure future security and happiness. Now is what we have, and now is everything.

We can follow our food plan now. We can abstain this moment. We can deal with the problems, which confront us today as best we can, trusting God to guide us. We can be in touch with our Higher Power only in the present.

As we focus on the present moment, we live it deeper, and we derive a satisfaction that we did not know when we were regretting the past and worrying about the future. Whatever happens now is all I can manage and all I need.

Thank you; Lord, for this present moment.

Father Leo's Daily Meditation
January 18

GLUTTONY

"Gluttony is not a secret vice." - Orson Welles

The unspoken disease of food: hide in food, bury anger with food, cry
behind food. Food addiction --- eating, forever dieting, starving --- is the
hidden disease that is becoming more obvious. But are we talking about
it? Recovering alcoholics minimize it and get lost in ice cream and
doughnuts. For many people the pain around food is as real as alcohol
or any other drug. And the family and relationships suffer.

Today I am willing to talk about it. Spirituality affects all my life and
this involves my eating habits and body weight. God does not make
junk and so I choose not to eat junk. Today I choose to talk about the
buried emotions that I am stuffing behind the food. That is a step
towards living.

When I bless the food at meal time, may I also bless my abstinence.

Food For Thought
January 20

Avoiding Binge Foods

Most compulsive overeaters react to refined sugar and flour the way an alcoholic reacts to alcohol. One bite and we sooner or later go on a binge. We find it impossible to eat a controlled amount of food, which contains refined sugar or flour, and we inevitably end up with a hangover from our excesses.

Many of us have other binge foods as well. We have learned from sad experience that it is easier to avoid these foods entirely than to try to eat them in reasonable amounts. We have to be rigorously honest with ourselves in order to determine which food plan is best for each of us as an individual.

No food is worth the anguish of a binge. Once we accept this, we can accept the necessity of abstaining from personal binge foods. Abstinence means freedom from the obsession with food and from the compulsion to overeat. Freedom to live without overeating is the reward we gain when we avoid the foods that trigger our compulsion.

May I realize that avoiding binge foods is a small price to pay for freedom.

Food For Thought
February 16

Meetings

We have proved that we cannot control our eating alone. Through OA, we have found a way that works, provided we work the program. If we become careless about attending meetings, we are thrown back on our own weakness.

It is the OA meeting which gives us the hope and enthusiasm we need to continue in the program. The sharing and fellowship of the group provides strength and encouragement. In times of difficulty, most of us find that the more meetings we attend, the better able we are to cope.

When we don't feel like going to a meeting, it may be because our old overeating habit is trying to surface. We are never cured of our disease and we never outgrow our need for the strength, fellowship, and love we receive from OA meetings.

I give thanks for OA.

Food For Thought
March 20

Peeling Off Layers

As we work our program, we peel off layers of old, worn out thoughts and habits. OA gives us a place to share old hurts and fears so that we are able to get rid of them. Our OA friends accept us and give us the benefit of their experience. With their help, we are able to leave the old layers behind and move ahead.

We never stop learning and growing. When we are ready to accept it, our Higher Power reveals just as much truth to us as we can assimilate. He directs our progress through the Steps of this program as we are prepared to take them.

If we are sincere in our efforts, the right help will come when we need it. It may come through another member, a piece of literature, a new insight, or even a difficult experience. Peeling off and discarding worn out layers of ourselves is hard work and is often painful. But when we look back and see how we have grown, the satisfaction more than outweighs the pain.

Guide me as I peel away and leave behind the useless thoughts and habits I have accumulated.