FOOD FOR THOUGHT - OA OCTOBER

[MajestyJo]

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Being True

Without rigorous honesty, we do not recover from compulsive overeating. We need to be honest about what we eat and honest about how we feel. In the past, we covered up pain with sugar frosting and tried to drown our inadequacies in carbohydrates. The time has come to deal with truth.

Alone, we are not perceptive enough to see the truth, nor strong enough to bear it. It is through our Higher Power and the OA fellowship that we are able to become true to the best that is in us. We admit that we have been living falsely, and we turn over our muddled lives so that God may straighten them out. His spirit is truth, and the light of that truth is what we need for our recovery.

Our Higher Power shows us how to be true step by step, as we are ready to progress. Each day we become more in touch with our real selves and each day our strength increases. Being true sets us free from compulsive overeating and free from the false values, hopes, and expectations, which have inhibited us.

Lead me into truth.

Just for today, I ask that I have self-honesty, without the justification and rationalization of my addiction that allows me to cover up my habits with denial.

[MajestyJo]

Thursday, October 2, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

The Power of Faith

A very small amount of faith is all that is required to begin the OA program. Hearing the stories of those who have changed and found new life gives us faith in the program. Coming to the limit of our resources makes us willing to try believing in a Higher Power, or at least acting as if we believed.

Sometimes we resist believing because deep down we do not want to change. When we honestly want to stop eating compulsively more than we want anything else, we will be given the necessary faith.

Faith grows as we work the program. As we see results, we are encouraged to keep trying in spite of setbacks. When we are able to stop eating compulsively through OA and our Higher Power, we come to believe that we can succeed in other areas of life, as well. Faith spreads to include other accomplishments, which before had seemed impossible. Through the power of faith, we are able to become all that God intends us to be.

May our faith grow daily.

When my faith waivers, it is because I forget to ask and do my part.

[MajestyJo]

Friday, October 3, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Being Committed

Success comes with commitment. We cannot maintain abstinence, or a marriage, or a profession, or anything else without being committed to it. Genuine commitment is the attitude required of us if we are to benefit from OA. The program is not something we pick up and put down when we feel like it. If abstinence is not the most important thing in our lives, we will not be able to maintain it.

Sharing our commitment out loud, with another person, reinforces it. We need to stay in contact with our OA friends. It is during the busy times that we especially need to remember our priorities. A phone call plugs us in to the group strength, which sustains our individual efforts.

The physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits, which come to us every day as we abstain and work the Twelve Steps, are what nourish us. Being committed to the OA program is our strength and our recovery.

Make firm my commitment to Your way.

The program doesn't work without commitment. As it says in AA's Big Book, half measures avails you nothing. What good is one foot in the door and the other one outside.

What good is eating a healthy meal and dinner and raiding the refrigerator at night? Commitment is honesty!!!

[MajestyJo]

Saturday, October 4, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Friendship

Through this program, we learn that we have choices. Not only can we choose what we will eat and what we will do, but also we can choose our friends. As we become honest, unaddicted people, we are able to relate to each other on a level of mutuality and admiration rather than out of dependency and fear. We gain the self-confidence to choose those with whom we enjoy spending time and sharing, rather than slavishly catering to anyone who will notice us.

Friends in OA have a special bond, since we share a common problem and a common solution. By putting principles before personalities, we avoid dependency and childish demands. Though we love and support each other, we do not cling together, since we are each dependent on a Higher Power. Our friends give us the gift of themselves, which shows us who we are.

Thank You for friendship.

It sure makes a difference when you have a support group to help you when you are going through rough times. It is especially helpful to have a friend and/or a sponsor, or a sponsor and a friend, to go through things with. You don't have a person to get one opinion and another person to have another opinion, and then you chose the person, who tells you what you want to hear. It is good to get input, but the decision has to be yours. Friendships can be spoiled by comparing instead of identifying. Take the person for who she/he is, not who you would have them be.

[MajestyJo]

Sunday, October 5, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Being Before Doing

What we are comes before what we do. In order to produce good fruit, the tree has to be a good tree. If we are not whole, integrated, and in touch with our Higher Power, and ourselves the actions that we take will not be satisfying.

For us compulsive overeaters, being abstinent is more important than anything we do. When we are abstinent, all things are possible. We still have to make choices, deal with frustration and conflict, and accept some defeats, but we are coping with reality rather than escaping.

The best things that we do are those, which our Higher Power does through us. Our role is to be ready and available, a sharpened tool which He may use. Often we do not see the ultimate results of our actions. We trust that what we do will be acceptable and according to His will.

May I be what You intend.

Love this! In order to give, we have to become a giver. In order to be honest, we have to become honest. In order to eat healthy, I have to be willing to want to be healthy and willing to make healthy choices. I believe there is a saying that you can't put something healthy and good into something that is not 'healthy' because it gets absorbed by the rot! Not a very pretty picture, but unfortunately vry true.

As my sponsor said, "You need to clean up your body, mind, and spirit, not that kind of spirit."

[MajestyJo]

Monday, October 6, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Staying with God

God never forsakes us; we forsake Him. We become so involved in our concerns and activities that we forget to open our eyes and our hearts to His presence. We may be physically abstinent, but still allow food to have the most important place in our lives. If our Higher Power is not at the center of our lives, we will find it difficult (if not impossible) to be emotionally abstinent.

Emotional binges occur when we wander away from our Higher Power into self-centered preoccupation. Without His control, we lose our serenity. There will always be cause of conflict and frustration in our daily lives. How we handle these situations depends on our spiritual condition.

By ourselves, we cannot manage our own lives. Our behavior can be insane. It is through the Power greater than ourselves that we are led into order, sanity, and recovery. To stay with this Power is our salvation.

May we not forsake You.

God doesn't go away, we do. What came to mind was the following:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4a_1UhwgFU

[MajestyJo]

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Old Anxieties

The causes of our past anxieties may no longer be operative. Compulsive eating behavior, however, brings back these anxieties in full force. Our weight may be normal, but we are never safe from the danger of personality disintegration brought on by a return, however slight, to compulsive overeating habits.

If we are to maintain our sanity and our sobriety, we must continue to abstain completely from all patterns of thinking and behavior associated with overeating. We have become new people. Daily we grow stronger and freer from old fears and anxieties. The new behavior, which gives us this new freedom, is abstinence. Without abstinence, we will again be overwhelmed and incapacitated by irrational fear and anxiety.

To be alive is to experience a certain amount of anxiety. We will never be completely rid of all fear. As long as we are abstaining, however, and relying on our Higher Power instead of ourselves, we will be given the confidence and serenity we need.

I turn over to You my anxieties.

We will never be completely rid of all fear. As long as we are abstaining, however, and relying on our Higher Power instead of ourselves, we will be given the confidence and serenity we need.

There are healthy fears, they are manageable with God at our sides when we walk in faith and stay clean and sober. Sobriety is clean and sober and I look at my food addiction the same way as I did my alcohol abuse. I didn't have soundness of mind when I used food to deal with my feelings and issues at hand. The thoughts of more were applicable to food, pills, alcohol, attention, etc. always feeling like I never had enough.

Fear is a normal feel, it is how we handle it that makes the difference. Eating a carton of ice cream or a bag of chips is not the solution. God answers knee-mail.

[MajestyJo]

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Learning from Mistakes

We can learn from our mistakes so that we do not have to make the same ones over and over again. If a particular attitude or situation consistently makes it difficult for us to follow our food plan, then that attitude or situation needs to be changed. Slips do not just happen. They indicate that something is wrong with our program and that we have not yet learned what we need to know about ourselves.

Being aware of the circumstances, which make us vulnerable to overeating, helps us to be prepared for temptation and to find ways to avoid it wherever possible. If there are certain foods, which we cannot resist, thy onen we should not have those foods available. If trying to do too much makes us tired and emotionally upset, then we need to be less ambitious and learn to delegate responsibility. Compulsive overeating or emotional bingeing indicates that we are not living in a way, which satisfies our basic needs.

Lord, may we learn from our mistakes.

Had a wee smile when I saw this, I thought, "You don't have my memory."

One thing I found that with recovery, when I go to a meeting, everything is repeated, and if I listen, the words are there, and I am reminded and I don't have to rely on my own shortcomings.

When I turn my day over to my Higher Power, the words and thoughts are given to me, and if I am in tune with my God and living in the moment and not using things to escape reality, then I will learn and not have to repeat the old, and the new will be a natural part of my being.

[MajestyJo]

Thursday, October 9, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Abstinence, Not Punishment

By abstaining from compulsive overeating, we are doing ourselves the biggest favor imaginable. We are literally saving our lives, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We should never think of abstinence as punishment. Eating too much food and the wrong kind of food was the real punishment.

Each day we plan three attractive meals consisting of foods, which we enjoy. We do not exaggerate our efforts to make the meals enjoyable, since we do not want to reactivate our former obsession with food. At the same time, we choose foods, which appeal to us and do not punish ourselves with boring, unappetizing menus.

The refined sugars and carbohydrates with which we rewarded ourselves in the past are no longer a reward but poison to our systems. Overeating any food punishes us through loss of both control and peace of mind. We maintain abstinence from compulsive overeating in order to take care of ourselves and feel good.

By Your grace, may I maintain abstinence.

So much of recovery is about changing our attitude. When we look at not eating our favourite foods as a healthy choice instead of punishment and a way of getting back at us or an act of revenge, we can heal.

This morning is a good example. I was hurting and I realized I was back playing the martyr, I had to do these darn readings, so I did all the greetings to everyone, instead of going right to what is important. The reading are a backbone of many people's daily recovery, and I was being a smuck! For that I am sorry, yet what goes around comes around. I got a head ache, I realized I hadn't had breakfast, I hadn't taken morning medication which has my Metformin for my Diabetis and my Ramipril which I think is for my blood pressure. So I had to take a time out and eat and now I have to wait for my head to clear, and hopefully what comes off my fingers is God's Will not mine. I am going on faith because I said the Serenity Prayer.

[MajestyJo]

Friday, October 10, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Powerless

I am powerless over food. By myself, I am unable to control what I eat or manage my life. Thanks to OA, I have found a Higher Power by which I am learning to live a new life.

So that this Higher Power may live in me, I surrender myself. No longer do I try to live by my own efforts; no longer do I try by myself to control what I eat. Since I am powerless over food and cannot manage my life, I give myself to God as I understand Him and ask that He live through me.

When I surrender, my Higher Power takes over. Then, instead of being weak and powerless, I become strong through His strength. So very simple. I wonder why it takes so long to learn? The only requirement is, in the words of T.S. Eliot, "a condition of complete simplicity, costing not less than everything."

May I remember that without You I am powerless.

Something I must never forget. My God is only a prayer away. A thought is a prayer.

[MajestyJo]

Saturday, October 11, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Feeling Deprived

If I allow myself to feel deprived, sooner or later I will overeat or react with negative emotions. I am a human being, a child of God with the same rights as all of His other children. I have needs and preferences, which, if denied and repressed, will surface in a destructive way.

If those around me are eating a special meal and I eat leftovers, which I do not particularly like, I will feel deprived. I may become bad tempered and I may overeat later to compensate. I do not need to have what others are eating, if it is not on my food plan, but my meal should be pleasing to me. I do not need to have and do what everyone else has and does, but I can recognize my desires and preferences and satisfy them when doing so does not injure anyone else.

By overeating, I deprived myself of good health, peace of mind, self-respect, and an attractive appearance. By abstaining, I am making amends to myself for the deprivation. By working the program, I am learning how to satisfy my legitimate needs.

I trust You to supply my needs.

Just love that feeling deprived feeling, sure to take you to that next morsel every time. Doesn't matter whether it is wet, dry, powdered, and for me, I use to say, the flesh and blood variety, because I would look to a man and his attention to make me feel better, along with some chocolate. If he caused the deprived feeling, then it was more chocolate or some wine to go with it. I am so hard done by don't you know. Look at what HE DID TO ME! Nothing about me putting myself in the position to be deprived, looking for him to fix me, when it was my job in the first place.

[MajestyJo]

Sunday, October 12, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Moving Forward

Time past is gone forever, and we can never go back to it. Even our disease progresses forward. We cannot expect to control it by a return to measures, which may have worked for a time in the past. Those methods eventually failed, and trying them again will only bring us to the same point of failure.

The only way to avoid repetitious failure is to move forward creatively as our Higher Power leads us. Each day is a new creation, and each day brings new lessons and opportunities. We build on what is past, but we do not need to repeat it.

Moving forward involves risking what is unknown. The old, familiar rut, depressing as it is, is a known quantity. Moving out of it requires that we have courage and that we trust in One who knows and cares. To move on, we must act. Insights do not produce growth until they are accompanied by specific actions.

May I risk new actions as You lead me forward.

This reminds me of what a friend said yesterday about repetition and same old, same old. It was his old grouse and I didn't say anything. Yet it is up to us, to take that risk and broaden our horizons, step out of that same old same old, strengthen our boundaries, and take a step forward and allow ourselves to become vulnerable. Forget what was and what had been, and remember that our God is with us, and we are armed with faith and the tools of recovery, and where ever our God takes us, He will guide and direct us through it. I didn't need bars, I was a prisoner of my own mind for years. I didn't like so it wasn't any good. I was fearful of tasting and of trying, I tried it once and didn't like it. I tried it once and got sick, never going to touch it again, and fear shackled us. So many scenarios, that with a little bit of imagination, a little bit of hope and investigation into new things and alternatives, we can get out of an old rut and try new things that are healthy.

[MajestyJo]

Monday, October 13, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Rigorous Honesty

As we work the OA program, we find that we cannot be rigorously honest about what we are eating unless we are rigorously honest about our other actions as well. Once our Higher Power takes charge of our lives, a general housecleaning occurs. Gradually, we see that the attitudes and activities, which undermine our integrity, have to go.

The housecleaning process can be painful. It involves facing aspects of ourselves, which we would prefer to remain hidden - our dependency, pride, selfishness, and avarice. Sex and money are often areas where our attitudes and practices need revision. What we are doing is shifting from an ego-centered to a God-centered orientation, and the shift is not always smooth.

Rigorous honesty shows up harmful relationships for what they are. It illumines our motives, which are not always the best. The love and care of our Higher Power support us as our weaknesses are exposed. Through His healing power, we are strengthened and made whole.

Grant me the ability to practice rigorous honesty in all areas of my life.

The meaning of rigorous honesty: If it didn't hurt, you need to dig deeper and peel back a few more layers of the onion. I was told that recovery was peeling back the layers of the onion to find the real you. I am thinking now I was a dunderhead, but knowing I had Fibromyalgia, I probably did think of it back then and forgot it, bit had the thought NOW, why the onion? Because it stinks and represents all the stinking thinking and all the crap buried under the skin and all the lies, half truths, the lies by omission, and the ones that got pained up to look pretty you have trouble recognizing them. Self truth, not the ones you told to others but the ones you told yourself.

[MajestyJo]

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Surrender

Continuing to take the first three Steps enables us to become increasingly surrendered to our Higher Power. Our goal is to let our egotistical selves be dissolved in a greater Self, so that the Higher Power lives through us. The loss of ego frightens us and attacks our illusions of self-sufficiency.

Here is where we can be grateful for our disease. If we were not convinced of our helplessness in the face of our obsession with food, we would not be desperate enough to surrender to a Higher Power. Only after we have tried and failed over and over again in our battle with compulsive overeating are we willing to accept the OA program.

We surrender in order to stop eating compulsively. We gain infinitely more than we had expected. Not only does our Higher Power give us abstinence from compulsive overeating, but also more than that He gives us Himself. No longer do we live as an isolated, weak self, but in us lives the Power of the universe.

May we surrender completely to Your power.

We wonder why we keep failing and we say the program doesn't work, when in fact we don't work the program. We try to God's Work for Him/Her, if we even given it to the God of our understanding in the first place. We may go through the motions, but in truth we truly don't let go and surrender.

[MajestyJo]

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Cutting Cords

Often we are bound in unhealthy ways to parents, husbands, wives, children, and friends. When dependency and manipulation are masked as love, it is difficult to cut the cords that bind us. By ourselves we are unable to break free.

Listening to other compulsive overeaters helps us to see our own situation and ourselves more objectively. Working the steps builds emotional and spiritual maturity. Abstaining from compulsive overeating gives us the perception we need to see unhealthy relationships for what they are. Our growing self-respect motivates us to make changes.

We ate because we were too weak to face our problems. Now that we see where we have been manipulated and where we have manipulated others, we need the strength to cut the cords of unhealthy dependency. This strength comes from our Higher Power. Since we recognize our complete dependency on Him, we are no longer weakened by pseudo dependencies on those close to us. We learn to relate to them positively, out of God's strength rather than our own weakness.

By Your power, may I cut the cords that bind me.

This is something that we need to keep remembering, that cord has many roots to many things. We use it to justify and rationalize a lot of things, especially the one about "that is how my mother did it." It applies to many things and stretches to many things and is applicable to many body memories.