FOOD FOR THOUGHT - SEPTEMBER

[MajestyJo]

Sunday, September 1, 2013

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

We practice the OA principles in all our affairs, twenty-four hours a day. Ours is not a diet program but a way of life. When we were eating compulsively, food occupied the central place in our lives every day. Abstinence replaces food as our prime concern, and maintaining abstinence means working the program.

When we do this, we are amazed at how well the day goes. Our work is easier and more productive. We spend less time and energy hassling with ourselves and other people. Best of all, we do not always have to be right. Being able to admit mistakes delivers us from egocentricity.

Being straight with ourselves enables us to be straight with others, and they in turn respond more positively. We are less concerned that everyone likes us and more concerned about growth in the program. By placing principles before personalities, we get less snarled up in confused, game playing relationships.

May You be foremost in my mind, twenty-four hours a day.

From Food for Thought: Daily Meditations for Overeaters by Elisabeth L.

[MajestyJo]

Was thinking how many new beginnings I have in a day and I start a new 24 hours. I really have to watch my eating. i.e. Waking up at 2 p.m. and thinking breakfast and give myself an excuse to eat. The old thinking can come back and one of my biggest defects was justification and rationalization as to why I should, and end up shoulding all over the place.

[MajestyJo]

Monday, September 2, 2013

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Stop Overeating, Start Living

Physical abstinence is just the beginning of the new life OA offers to us. When our Higher Power controls our life, we become free of the mental obsession with food. Then we are able to get down to the business of living, which we avoided with our illness.

Rather than reaching out with both hands to grab and hold on to all we can get, we begin to think in terms of giving and serving. We may start by sharing what OA has done for us with newcomers to the program. It is the newcomer who is our reminder of who we were and where we came from.

We find that though we can never eat spontaneously, we can live much more spontaneously than before. Because we feel less guilt and fear, we can experience the joy of acting from the center of our being. Knowing that our Higher Power is in control, we have trust and faith that the results of our actions will be okay. Each day becomes less of a trial and more of an opportunity.

Today, may I experience the spontaneity that comes with Your control.

[MajestyJo]

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Friends and Enemies

Sometimes our friends or members of our family urge us to eat food that is not part of our plan. If we allow ourselves to be manipulated into eating something to please someone else, we are in danger of losing the most important thing in our life - abstinence. Anyone who tries to make us feel uncomfortable because of our illness is acting as an enemy, rather than a friend.

To some people close to us, an explanation of our food plan may be helpful. Repeated discussions, however, are usually unnecessary and unproductive. We alone are responsible for what we put into our mouths. If those around us cannot or will not understand, then that is their problem, not ours.

When confronted with food, which we know is harmful to us, the simplest response is a firm "No, thank you." When we ourselves are determined to maintain abstinence, no one else, whether friend or enemy, can prevent us from following our plan.

Protect me, Lord, from my friends and enemies.
Know it was easier to blame others for my actions, instead of being responsible for myself. I had a big resentment against my mother when I came into recovery and I remembered her saying to me, Look at what you made me do. I didn`t know that I didn`t have the power to make her do anything. She died from her eating disorder 28 days before her 41st birthday.

In early recovery, many people didn`t believe I had a problem, and some thought I was cured after all this time. Another person thought that if I chose to use, they could stop me. As it says in Al-Anon, `Let it begin with me.`

[MajestyJo]

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Too Thin?

After losing weight, we may find ourselves being told that we are getting too thin. Often, the people who tell us this are not particularly thin themselves. Their comments are ostensibly made out of concern for our health, but it is more likely that they arise out of envy. Another reason could be their own personal fear of losing weight. Then, too, a thin person will sometimes feel threatened when we, who were formerly fat, come down to normal weight.

Whatever the reason, it is not the responsibility of anyone else to tell us how much we should or should not weigh. We alone are responsible for our own body.

When we turn our will and our life over to the care of our Higher Power, our body is included. The God who creates us will show us how He intends our body to look. We do not need to be concerned or swayed by the remarks of those who may not have our best interests at heart.

I trust You to take care of my body.

Have this saying, "I had to wear tights to hold my skin on. It is a good day when I feel comfortable in my own skin. I don't like it when bones stick out and my flesh doesn't cover them, not that it happened too much for me except in my teenage years. I went from flesh and a few curves, to too much flesh covering my bones. Instead of thinking thin, I would look at myself and think fat, and that would change my mind set. It was eat what I want it doesn't matter, you are already fat. I would think fat even when the swelling from my arthritis was the cause. In some cases it was don't eat, because you are fat. Yet, I heard that not eating, bloats you and puts on more weight. It was an ever ending battle. For me to gain weight was to die, yet when my son saw me losing diet, he thought I was dying.

What messages are we feeling ourselves? Fat or Thin! What does the word mean to you.

[MajestyJo]

Thursday, September 5, 2013

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Sponsors

Most of us never outgrow our need for a sponsor. Someone who has had similar experiences can give us the understanding, which we require in order to continue to grow in the program. A sponsor who maintains current, clean abstinence and who seriously works the program is someone who inspires us to follow. We could not control our disease by ourselves. As we recover, we continue to need help.

With a food sponsor, we can discuss our particular menus and problems. When we make a mistake, we need to share it with another person in order to profit from it and put it behind us. A program sponsor gives us encouragement and insight as we work the steps. When we are maintaining our desired weight, a maintenance sponsor helps us make any necessary adjustments. Sponsorship is one of the most important OA tools, and we are foolish if we do not take advantage of it. Alone, we are powerless over food.

Thank You for sponsors.

[MajestyJo]

Thursday, September 5, 2013

You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go

Step Ten

Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
—Step Ten of Al Anon

Once we have worked our way to this Step, we can maintain and increase our self-esteem by regularly working Step Ten. This Step incorporates the process we have gone through in Steps Four through Nine. We do not work this Step to punish ourselves or to hold ourselves under a constantly critical and demeaning microscope. We do it to maintain self-esteem and harmony in our relationship with others and ourselves. We do it to stay on track.

When an issue or problem emerges and needs our attention, identify it and openly discuss it with at least one safe person and God. Accept it. Become willing to let go of it. Ask God to take it from us. Have a change of heart by the willingness to make whatever amend is called for - to do what is necessary to take care of ourselves. Take an appropriate action to resolve the matter. Then let go of the guilt and shame.

This is a simple formula for taking care of ourselves. This is how we change. This is how we become changed. This is the process for healing and health. This is the process for achieving self-responsibility and self esteem.

The next time we do something that bothers us, the next time we feel off track or off course, we don't have to waste our time or energy feeling ashamed. We can take a Tenth Step. Let the process happen. And move on with our life.

God, help me make this Step and other Steps a habitual way of responding to life and my issues. Help me know that I am free to live, to allow myself to fully experiment with and experience life. If I get off course, or if an issue arises that demands my attention, help me deal with it by using the Tenth Step.

This step made a big difference in my recovery. I started using it around 6 months, even though I was still on Step One. I used it to the best of my ability, and as clarity and new awareness came about as a result of working the other steps, I was able to see how my whole sobriety was geared around this step. They call it the maintenance Step, I call it the survival Step. By making the decision to work this Step daily, ALL day long, I choose to live and stay clean and sober. As a result of the alcoholic and addicts in my life, I needed to work it in my life, and something that I can be lax on, until I am hurting and I wonder why.

[MajestyJo]

Friday, September 6, 2013

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

The Pause that Refreshes

For strength, we are learning to lean on our Higher Power instead of food. We have undoubtedly taken many "breaks" which involved ingesting one or another addictive substance. Instead of making us stronger, those substances eventually made us weaker. Thanks to OA, we are finding a dependable source of refreshment.

Starting the day with a few minutes of contact with God enables us to draw from His strength that which we need. Throughout the day, when we become weary or perplexed or pressured, we can pause to renew that contact. It is a constant source of Power whenever we open ourselves to it.

Allowing ourselves to become too busy is asking for trouble. We can concentrate actively for only so long without a period of rest and relaxation. Frequent time out each day to consult with our Higher Power makes our work more effective and our leisure more creative.

I seek Your presence, Lord.

[MajestyJo]

Saturday, September 7, 2013

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

I Am a Compulsive Overeater

The one fact, which I need to remember constantly, is that I am a compulsive overeater. If I forget it, I will eventually break my abstinence. There is no way that I can eat "normally," like most other people. I either eat according to my OA plan or I eat very abnormally, according to my compulsion.

Because I am a compulsive overeater, I do not take tastes of this or that, and I do not have snacks. I have found from sad experience that this kind of uncontrolled eating is impossible for me to handle. I know that I need to plan every day the three measured meals, which I will eat.

Because of the new life that OA has given to me, I am grateful for my disease. Without it, I would not have found the measure of peace and serenity, which comes to me every day as I work the program.

May I remember I am a compulsive overeater.

[MajestyJo]

Sunday, September 8, 2013

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Amends to Ourselves

By our compulsive overeating, we ourselves have usually been hurt more than anyone else. Because we could not trust ourselves, we had little self-respect or self-confidence. In many cases, we actually hated ourselves for what we thought was weakness and now know to be a disease.

By ourselves, we cannot control the illness, but through OA and our Higher Power, we are able to recover. With recovery comes a new attitude toward self. We see that we find happiness by abstaining from compulsive overeating and seeking every day to do God's will. New power and order enter into our daily activities, and we begin to approve of ourselves.

The best way that we can make amends to ourselves for self-hate and failure to develop our abilities is by maintaining our abstinence each day. We then gain the confidence to say no to those things which are not in our best interest. Instead of destroying ourselves with too much food and the wrong kind of activities, we are building a new life fed with the nourishment from our Higher Power.

Thank You for new opportunities to grow.

[bluidkiti]

September 9

You are reading from the book Food for Thought.

Amends to Others

The people most affected by our disease were undoubtedly the members of our own family. Then came our closest friends, if we had any when we were overeating. These people were directly affected by our negative moods and by our withdrawal away from them into overeating. They also may have been affected by not getting food which should have been theirs, but which we had eaten. Some of us stole money to buy food that we did not need but had to have. Some of us stole food.

Making amends is sometimes embarrassing and often difficult. It involves much pride swallowing. A simple, sincere apology may be all that is necessary. There may be concrete acts, which we can perform. As with making amends to ourselves, the best way we can make up for the hurt we have caused to family and friends is by abstaining from compulsive overeating. As we abstain, we reach out to those around us instead of withdrawing. Our own sanity is the best gift we can give to others.
May I have the courage to make amends.

[bluidkiti]

September 10

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Listening

As we learn to listen to our Higher Power, we also learn to listen with more awareness to others and ourselves. Being willing to spend time alone, in quiet, is essential to listening. We often fear silence and being alone, and we escape into distractions and busy work.

Prayer is not so much telling and asking as it is listening. Prayer in this sense may be practiced continually during the day. By taking Step Three, we are giving up our will and becoming receptive to the will of our Higher Power. We focus less on our egotistical concerns and more on God, as we understand Him. That understanding grows through listening.

By listening, we become aware of needs, feelings, and responses within ourselves, which we had previously ignored. Knowing ourselves better, we are more direct and honest with others and more responsive to them. The communication which develops with our Higher Power is on a level deep enough to relate us more meaningfully to everyone around us.

I will listen today to Your voice.

[bluidkiti]

September 11

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Praying Only...

In Step Eleven, we are "praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." How that simplifies our prayer! We do not have to worry about asking for the right things in the right way. We simply pray that we may know God's will and be given the power to do it.

This Step is closely related to Step Three, since we are leaving the decisions up to God. He knows better than we what is best for us to have and to do. We make ourselves available to His direction without attaching conditions and clauses about what we will and will not do.

This kind of prayer frees us from much worry and anxiety. We accept abstinence as God's will for us, since without abstinence we are powerless to do much of anything. Beyond that, we are prepared to live each day as our Higher Power gives it to us, trusting that He will show us His will and supply us with the power that we need.

This is my prayer, Lord.

[bluidkiti]

September 12

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Carrying the Message

We do not keep our program unless we give it away. Our participation in meetings is a means of sharing with others what OA has given us. We are genuinely interested in newcomers, because they remind us of where we came from and because they give us an opportunity to strengthen our own program by sharing what we have received.

Sometimes we carry the message by providing transportation for someone who otherwise would not get to a meeting. Sometimes we give of ourselves by simply listening when a newcomer needs to talk. Practicing the OA principles in all areas of our life is carrying the message, even to those who are not compulsive overeaters.

Abstinence and the OA program now occupy the central place in our lives, the place which was once held by food. Following the will of our Higher Power means that we carry the message as He directs us. We are willing to be used in whatever way God moves us to give away our program.

May I serve You by carrying the message.

[bluidkiti]

September 13

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Hungering

Deep within us is a hunger, which is not satisfied by food. We hunger for love and fellowship with each other and we hunger for communion with our Higher Power. We were not made to be alone and isolated. Withdrawing into compulsive overeating makes the deep hunger even worse.

As long as we are alive, we will never be fully satisfied. There will always be more love to give and receive and more steps to take on our spiritual journey. In this sense, we will always be hungry. Spiritual hunger is a good thing, as long as we recognize it for what it is and do not try to appease it with material substitutes.

Our Higher Power has created us with a hunger, which He alone can satisfy. As our progress through the Twelve Steps brings us closer to Him and closer to each other, we experience a fulfillment, which we had not known before. We are learning to hunger for spirituality.

Bless our hunger, we pray.