"the more total our surrender, the more freely realized our freedom from food obsession"

The quote in the title of this entry is from the OA "Invitation to You." I have heard from my fellow OAers that many OA meetings begin with this invitation. For some reason at the meeting I attend the original creators decided to omit that, so today I read it for the first time. Good stuff!

I still feel sometimes as though I am slowly wading into recovery, taking my time. I'm learning to eliminate processed foods as I know they are triggering foods for me, but honestly that's a major transformation for someone who's been eating primarily processed foods their whole life! So, I treat it as just that, it is a transition. For some people cold turkey works best, for me I find phasing into healthier ways and out of unhealthier ways to work best.

That's how I stopped smoking marijuana. Just fyi. I used to be a pothead. I think I've written about this in a previous post.

Today I also stumbled upon the AA "Promises of our Program" from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. These were so helpful that I will post the list of promises in its entirety here:

If we are painstaking about working our program, these are the amazing promises that will come true for us:
We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.
No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
Self-seeking will slip away.
Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us.
We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us - sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.