I Forgive Myself for Being Human

I think sometimes I avoid writing here because I feel I need to be reporting on “how I’m doing,” which, in terms of consistent abstinence from overeating, is not so great. 

I have been coming to OA meetings since the end of September 2012, so two years and a month or so. Shouldn’t I be sailing smoothly in my abstinence thus far? I think so. But then I remind myself of the process it took for me to become abstinent from marijuana.

That process began in 2010 when I had to stop using in order to find a job, then once I acquired a job I decided to only allow myself to smoke pot every two months. And what I mean by “only smoking every two months” is that I would buy a bag of weed every two months and binge on it until it was gone.

At one point I managed longer than two months of marijuana-sobriety, and then finally a family situation (involving a family member’s addiction to synthetic marijuana to the point that she became a danger to her own child) scared me into sobriety. Even a few months after that scare, around Halloween 2012 I found myself in some situations where marijuana was being smoked and I participated. 

It was a process. Now at my two year sobriety mark from smoking pot I feel I’ve come a long way and feel strong enough to maintain my sobriety without too much trouble (though I know I will always be a pot addict and that I need to stay vigilant against the disease). But becoming sober was not at all like turning on a light switch. It was trial-and-error.

So why do I expect food abstinence to be any easier, especially considering that it’s so much more complicated of an addiction? With food abstinence, after all, half the battle is figuring out what “abstinence” is to begin with! And even then, we will be surrounded by our addictive substance on a daily basis. I do not have to be confronted with cheap, easily available marijuana when I drove down the highway or enter a grocery store. My co-workers do not hold marijuana potlucks. There are no holidays where people hand out marijuana to children, give marijuana to express their romantic love, or gather around the table with family to smoke a bong (unless, of course, you’re a very enthusiastic celebrator of the 420 Holiday, I suppose).

And of course, unlike with food addiction, we don’t need to smoke marijuana to stay alive. I need food, but I do not need the foods I am addicted to. But knowing which foods those are exactly, and then avoiding them when they’re all around? That is hard.

I do feel I’ve had some good insights lately regarding my food addiction. Reading about the science of sugar addiction has lead me to understand that I probably am a sugar addict. When I recently cut sugar out of my diet completely (which is difficult to do, by the way, because it’s in almost everything you eat, and simple carbs turn almost immediately into sugar when you eat them so those have to be avoided too as they trigger the brain’s reward system the same way sugar does) I stopped having cravings. In fact, I stopped being hungry most of the time (maybe more on that in a future post). 

I made it about a week without sugar, then slipped and then sprawled. Today is no sugar day one again. One day at a time. As many times as it takes.

Thoughts from Morning Commute: I Deserve More than What Food Can Do for Me

I deserve more than what food can do for me. On my commute this morning I was thinking a lot about how I've been consciously shifting toward a more positive perspective and how doing that has brought me to greater happiness. I was thinking that even though I have not been abstinent for much of this shift, my general movement towards greater happiness is making me stronger and more capable of being abstinent. 

Likewise, though perhaps I could be happy without abstinence, I know that I deserve more, much more, than what food could ever do for me.

Just as a side note, isn't that a beautiful image? #crowlove #crowmedicine ;)

Back, from outer space

         I have been thinking a lot lately about allowing for God's will to guide and direct me. OA recommends submitting one's own will, with the suggestion that personal willpower will not heal us. Sometimes that can be confusing, don't we need willpower to stop overeating?

I think it's good to admit confusion with OA principles (or with anything), but I do also know that in general when I'm worried or fearful I always feel better the more fully I am able to "give it to God." So it makes sense to give the fear that causes my overeating over to God.

When I overeat, it is out of fear and worry. Sometimes I eat because I'm happy, or seemingly that's why I'm eating, what I've realized is that I often run into fearfulness that I'll lose happiness. So even happy times cause great anxiety. I'm often waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Returning to this blog a little over a year later, I would like to focus more on the positive. I think when I began in OA it was important to me to feel like I was being honest about my shadows, acknowledging my compulsive behavior, looking my addiction square in the face.

And of course that is still important. But I also want to be honest about my strengths, my joys, about the progress I've had.

I am newly abstinent again. I've moved back to eastern Ky to be near my family, and that's been a great change. Partly due to OA, and additionally from getting back to my roots and my sense of rootedness, I'm happier at this point of my life than I've ever been. At the same time, even while continuing to become happier and better adjusted following a major depression in 2006, I haven't been abstinent for a long time.

Abstinence itself doesn't bring happiness. But I know, that as a fairly calm and contented person (these days! and believe much I'm much happier and more centered even than when I started this blog) that I deserve, in my contentedness, to be treating myself with good health and with the continued mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being that comes with abstinence and the freedom from the insanity of compulsive eating.

Irrational and Self-Destructive

"As I look with complete honesty at my life, how have I acted in an extremely irrational and self-destructive manner where eating is concerned?" --Step 2, Question 1, OA 12 Step Workbook

I've made myself physically sick, pushing myself close to having problems with diabetes. I've caused myself to gain enough weight that my knees have had difficulty bearing my weight. I've found it difficult to do things that people of a more moderate size can do (like fitting into an amusement park ride, an airplane seat, finding pantyhose that fit well, finding clothes easily).

I've eaten so much that I've made myself constipated, and then still ate more. Once I ate so quickly I started choking, and then tried to take another bite while still choking on my last bite.

I've convinced myself I couldn't afford "healthy" food but then spent a ton of money on unhealthy food. I've hidden how much I've eaten. I've stolen food, putting myself at legal risk.

I've gone to a buffet before, thinking to myself "I bet these people think I'm just stuffing myself, but they don't know that I'm actually losing weight because I'm exercising." I've convinced myself on multiple occasions that I could be losing weight even though I was overeating.

Fake it 'til you make it?

Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though it's breaking
When there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll see the sun come shining through for you

Light up your face with gladness
Hide every trace of sadness
Although a tear may be ever so near
That's the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what's the use of crying?
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile

That's the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what's the use of crying?
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile

--"Smile," Nat King Cole

"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.

Being Rooted in Real Love

I love the poet Rumi. I think many of us who tend toward addiction also tend toward desperate, chaotic attempts at "love," which in the end are not true, real, pure love from the heart. Love that comes of pleading and coercing is not real love. We cannot truly love another until we learn to truly love ourselves. How can I love myself today?

Love

Are you fleeing from Love because of a single humiliation?
What do you know of Love except the name?
Love has a hundred forms of pride and disdain,
and is gained by a hundred means of persuasion.
Since Love is loyal, it purchases one who is loyal:
it has no interest in a disloyal companion.
The human being resembles a tree; its root is a covenant with God:
that root must be cherished with all one's might.
A weak covenant is a rotten root, without grace or fruit.
Though the boughs and leaves of the date palm are green,
greenness brings no benefit if the root is corrupt.
If a branch is without green leaves, yet has a good root,
a hundred leaves will put forth their hands in the end.

--Rumi

Breaking Abstinence: Firming Faith

After four weeks of abstinence I overate yesterday. I didn't feel sad prior to overeating, in fact I felt happier and more content than I had in awhile. I'm forming bonds with people, creating a social/emotional net for myself that I have not had in a long time and it feels good... but perhaps even these good feelings are scary at a mostly unconscious level. I mean surely something was going on to make me feel the need to numb.

Though the voices (devil saying eat eat eat! angel saying don't don't don't!) battled in my head for awhile, the devil won out in the end and I ate everything I wanted, which was neither a healthy nor a moderate meal.

And today I feel fine. I feel calm, no food obsession, the train did not derail from the track. I don't say this to give myself permission to overeat, I say it as an example of how the program has strengthened me. I amletting the higher power move through me and I am seeing beautiful, positive changes in all areas of my life.

I have gone a month without overeating. I have had to learn a lot in that time about my body's hunger/satiety cues (which have been largely ignored for 30 years!) about myself, about the program, etc. I still have much more to learn but I'm well, and happy, and full of gratitude for my recovery and for what I am learning, and for my increased strength.

I have hope and faith where I did not before, and I will take that with me moving forward.

What is a "Trigger Food"?

I know there are foods that, if they are in front of me, I will have great trouble eating in moderation. I'm not sure that necessarily makes them trigger foods.

I do find that soda (whether diet or regular) tends to be a trigger for me, which means that when I drink them I want to eat, overeat specifically, and usually not healthy foods at that. So I avoid sodas.

Other than soda though I'm not sure I really have trigger foods persay. Maybe fast food is a trigger food. If I have fast food I definitely always want more. Other than Subway, I have not eaten fast food since I've been abstinent. Subway does not trigger me in the same way McDonald's or other ones do, perhaps because the choices there are somewhat healthier in general (well, I choose the healthier ones) and also because you have to actually walk in the door (gasp!) to get your food which lessens the whole "instant gratification" trigger. So anyway, although I have chosen to avoid fast food, I do not include Subway on the "avoid list" for these reasons.

Maybe chips are a trigger food. At least, if I have a large bag I'm likely to eat way more than a serving. There have been two times when I've eaten chips since abstinent though, and haven't had too much trouble with it. The first time I was at a coffee shoppe with a friend and I ordered a curry chicken salad sandwich, which I did not realize came with a side of potato chips. I gave the chips to my friend, but ended up eating 3 or 4 of them and was surprised to find they had no major affect on me.

Then today I was getting new tires and an oil change at Wal-mart and they said it would be an hour or maybe longer, so I decided to go ahead and eat my dinner at the Subway in the store. I threw caution to the wind and got the side of Sunchips. I did not feel especially triggered by these chips either, perhaps because they were in a pre-portioned bag.

If I get a container of cheese dip or cheese spread (Kroger has some store-made ones that I loooove) then I definitely will eat the entire thing, which I'm sure is like 1000 calories at least (plus the calories of the crackers or chips I have eaten it with). So I definitely stay away from cheese dips/spreads. Does that make them a trigger? They don't trigger me to just eat anything and everything in sight, but it is almost impossible not to eat the whole thing itself. But that in and of itself is enough of a reason for me to know to stay away from them.

So really maybe soda and cheese dips are major danger foods for me. And fast food. For the most part though I honestly do not relate to the whole "trigger food" concept. I've read multiple accounts of people eating just one piece of candy and then spiraling into a binge. I just don't get it--I mean, I can certainly understand that this happens to people, but for the most part I do not recall having these experiences. But then because I know I have a diseased mind, I wonder if I really don't have these experiences or if my disease has confused me into thinking that I haven't? I wish I could trust my logic about food a bit better. :)

I think my triggers are more emotional. I'm bored? That's a MAJOR trigger for me. I'm angry, frustrated, sad, also triggers. I want to celebrate something? Time to go out for an extra special overeat! ;)

So even though I don't drink soda, yesterday I tempted fate a little bit by drinking part of a flavored seltzer that my roommate had in the fridge. It has no calories, no sweeteners, so it should be a relatively safe food, but once about a month and a half ago (before I became abstinent) I drank one of these after having been soda-free for 3 weeks and it put me into a two-week binge. I do think this might have been less about the seltzer and more about the fact that I really wanted to "live it up" before finally truly getting abstinent. Why do I think that? Well, because I kept *thinking it* as the binge progressed. I don't know that I've ever had quite that degree of binge before. Generally I'm more of an overeater/constant snacker. I think I was having a strong emotional reaction to the idea of becoming abstinent for life, for real. (Pretty scary!)

Still, though the seltzer water did not inspire any kind of binge this time it was likely still a stupid thing to do. Something about carbonation to me says usually says "eat eat eat." It didn't this time, though.  I just had a neurotic mind-loop about how scary and self-destructive it was to be tempting fate by drinking that seltzer. I did end up eating 3 Oreos later (that I've had in the house since pre-abstinence), but I can't really say it was overeating or bingeing either. Three cookies is a fairly moderate, quote/unquote "normal eater" choice I think.    Today at work one of my co-workers offered me some of her Oreos and I turned them down without any difficulty. So... while I've never considered cookies/pastries a majorly difficult food for me to avoid this seems to confirm for me that I can eat such foods in moderation. Still would be better to eat them seldom though, and leave more room in my tummy for higher-nutrition foods, but an occasional treat is a-okay I think.

I dunno. I guess I'm writing this post because yesterday I drank some seltzer water, ate 3 cookies (not at all a trigger/binge food for me generally as I'm not a sweet binger unless that's all there is, but still out of character), and today I chose the bag of chips as the side for my 6 inch sub.

Am I tempting myself? Gauging myself? Self-destructing? Probably I'm just gauging myself. I like these foods. I want to be able to eat them in moderation because I want to be a "normal" eater. You know Ghandi says "be the change you want to see in the world," well, I'm trying to be the eater I want to see myself being? I want to be able to eat in a way that's realistic for a lifetime, I guess, which includes the occasional treat. I also am really trying to understand if I truly do have trigger foods because all in all the concept still befuddles me.

Anyway, this is me processing. I still know that it's likely best not to eat certain foods. Fast food for instance is getting easier and easier to say no to and that's great because there is very little fast food that is truly a redeemable nutrition choice. ;) And cheese spreads/dips... also a great idea to avoid and thankfully I've done a good job of doing so. Sodas: better not do it. Even the seltzer was likely a bad idea, though I ended up taking only a few sips because it just wasn't very satisfying (I really was just getting tired of drinking water and looking to drink anything with a little more pizzazz!). I know I cannot buy a full-size bag of chips and expect myself to eat a moderate amount so it's also a good idea to stay away from doing so.

So I understand, in a way, the concept of trigger foods. These foods may not necessarily throw me into a binge (except for that seltzer water the one time before I became abstinent, but like I wrote before I think that was more coinciding with an emotional trigger), but they still can potentially be a threat to my abstinence, so I either avoid them altogether or if I am to eat them (such as the single-serving 200 calorie bag of Sunchips tonight) I do so in a way that is manageable (eating a pre-portioned bag). Even eating that pre-portioned bag will need to happen very seldom so that it doesn't start becoming a bad habit though.

This is a blundering, confusing, confused post. But... in its blundering confusion it is an accurate portrayal of how I feel about my disease right now. It makes me feel a little neurotic to totally avoid a food for fear it might be a "trigger," but since I don't totally related to the trigger concept I also feel that I might be neurotically just trying to fit in with the ways many of my OA compatriots identify with their own disorders. Hmm. I dunno.

You are Worth Your Health and Sanity!

On Checking the Scale

I checked the scale at the very beginning of my abstinence and told myself I would not check it again until end of January 2013 (which will be 6 weeks into my abstinence). Why did I do this?

Because... the scale is an ally of my food addiction.  In the past when I have tried to lose weight, I would get discouraged when the scale didn't move downward, thinking "But I'm eating less and/or exercising more, why isn't the scale going down? Or why isn't it going down faster?" Then I would get discouraged and give up, and eat (read: overeat).

Or, I would check the scale and see a good loss and think, "Great! So I can sneak in a nice buffet meal and it'll be okay to indulge now!" Uh, no. So obviously this lead to a cycle of the weight bouncing up and down. Not a helpful cycle.

When I became abstinent, I had just found a sponsor who is also very open in meetings about having "insanity" about the scale. This is one of the reasons I chose her as my sponsor: I knew she would understand.

So when I started out in my abstinence I knew that for the strength of my recovery, especially in the beginning when I'm more vulnerable to relapse, it would be very important NOT to be weighing in all the time.

The 6 week no-weighing has been great for me so far (I'm at the end of week 3 now). There is definitely a curiosity to check the scale. I'll admit when I visited my dad for Christmas (in the middle of my second week of abstinence) I actually did try to use his scale, but because I'm so heavy it just gave an Error message. ;)

I've also had a few times at the gym when I was very tempted to weigh-in but didn't, reminding myself that I made a commitment to ME for my OWN SAKE not to do it. Would it ruin everything if I did weigh in? Well I hope not, but I also know that, though I feel so much stronger than I did when I first began my abstinence, I still have a long way (my whole lifetime) left to go and I don't want to shoot myself in the ankle just when I'm getting started.

But regardless of not knowing the number on the scale, I do know that my body is changing. My clothes feel different. My body looks and feels different. My fitness level is improved (I can walk up the hill to the street I live on with ease when before I had to take several huffing, puffing breaks). I really don't even need the scale to verify that my weight is dropping, because I can SEE and FEEL that my body is smaller.


These changes are all so much more tangible anyway than the number on the scale, which can vary due to the time of the month (read: bloating!), how much water is in my system, how much muscle I've been building or not building, whether or not I've had a BM that day, the time of the day, etc.

So for my sanity, weighing once a month or less is helpful for my recovery. Being in Overeaters Anonymous is not primarily about weight loss. That is not my goal. My goal is to be relieved of the insanity of bingeing and eating past fullness; the compulsion to snack for no reason, or for any reason; the devil on my shoulder that convinces me I'm *hungry* and need to go through a drive-thru on the way home because I'm obviously WAY too hungry to have the strength to prepare myself food at home, which is all a lie because I'm not hungry in the first place.

I must say though, the physical changes I'm experiencing are nice. And it is a nice confirmation that I really am eating less. So many times before I've tried to convince myself I was eating less when really, calories accounted for overall, I wasn't. One of my OA sisters puts it best: "How is it that we are the ones telling ourselves these lies, and we're also the ones believing those same lies?"

Haha. Ah, addiction.

Hunter S. Thompson--Hungry for What?

Someone posted this on my Facebook newsfeed today. It's an article that sums up a biographical account of Hunter S. Thompson's life. Who knows how accurate this is, but accurate or not, it is sadly believable. The drugs were of no surprise to me, given his reputation, but the food bingeing caught me by surprise.

It surprises me somehow to think that Hunter S. Thompson was a food addict, but it is not surprising to see food addiction occurring simultaneously with drug addiction. Why? Because I've been there! I know firsthand about getting high and overeating. Former pothead, right here. I would definitely combine a marijuana binge with a food binge (that's shocking right?). ;) Though the pothead "munchie" stereotypes prevail, we don't hear as often about cocaine and other drugs being combined with food, but here it is.

Like I said, it's not clear if this was Thompson's actual reality, but it has been more or less reality for many people in the world: wake up, take drugs, take drugs, take food, take drugs, etc. Throw a drug down the throat, be it food or alcohol or a pill, or inject it into a vein, or snort it up your nose. What is with the incessant drugging? What are we trying so hard to fill or to avoid? My first reaction to seeing this schedule was "God, that's someone who really just needs love." All of these things, cocaine, weed, fettucine alfredo... they are not love. This man needed to know that he was loved. I doubt that he lacked love, but certainly he did not recognize the love that was being given to him. And I relate to that one too.


FYI: Because I am also, on top of  being an addict, a very neurotic person, I did find this link that confirms that the correct spelling of bingeing is, in fact, BINGEING and not BINGING. I offer up this indefatigable proof beforehand to protect my fragile ego should anyone dare question my spelling choices. Spell-check, for instance, does not think bingeing is a real word. But it doesn't seem to think binging is a real world either, so what gives? What would the 12 Steps say to me about this ego-tripping? Ugggghhhhhh.

Healing with Food vs. Comforting with Food

This is day 3 of my chest cold. All in all, it hasn't been the worst cold ever, but I had it in my mind I would get through this cold season unscathed. Not so, my friends, not so. The worst I guess is not being able to sleep well the past two nights. The best was calling in to work today and actually having a valid excuse (though let's be honest, isn't it more fun to call in to work when you're NOT sick? Then you can actually enjoy the off-time). I guess blogging and lounging aren't horrible pastimes though.



Anyway, a couple times with this cold I've craved fast food to "make me feel better." Well, what I really want is something to temporarily distract me from my sickness. Or to numb me, or to help me pass out. Did you know you could pass out from overeating? Sure you did. Some people call that the yearly tradition of Thanksgiving. I call it the multiple-time-weekly tradition of being a compulsive overeater. Not being able to sleep last night, I was definitely craving a fast-food binge. But wanting food to knock you out or divert you from your pain is *not* the same as using food to heal. Obviously a Big Mac isn't going to boost my immune system.

There are foods that will though. Citrus fruits are great (had a tangerine earlier) of course because of the Vitamin C. Also drinking lots of liquids (water, licorice tea, green tea). I've been eating chicken broth which (due to its high sodium content) is questionable in terms of helping my body repair itself but at least it's a hot, soothing liquid.

Supposedly ginger is really great for colds though, boosting the immune system. So my dinner tonight will be a chicken/veggie/ginger/garlic stir-fry (garlic also helps kill bacteria so that's a good one too).

I hope you have not been touched by sickness as I have! If so, get well soon!

Conscious Contact

Step 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

I don't necessarily think of God as a "him," but that particular wording issue aside, this is one of my favorite steps. I believe very strongly, and have for several years before joining Overeaters Anonymous, that there is always guidance available to us from "spirit," our "higher selves," from "God" or "the Universe" or "source" or whatever word you might want to use. We can all connect to this and be in-tune with God's energy, or "will" for us. 

I have a bit of a cold, and kept coughing last night and wasn't able to sleep, so I decided to do a Reiki healing on myself. Reiki is a form of energy healing, wherein through meditation you tap into healing energy from God. In Reiki you work with your energy centers, or chakras. I learned somewhere along the way also that it helps to ask for healing assistance from Arch angels or other beings.

Last night as I was doing healing, I decided to call upon what I know as the 4 Archangels: Michael, Rahael, Gabriel, and Uriel. For some reason as I was saying their names, instead of Uriel I said "Azrael." And then immediately I said, "No, no, not Azrael, unless indeed he is here to help me," because though I didn't really know anything about who Azrael was, I had a sudden half-memory that maybe he was a "bad angel" or even a demon.

The next day, on my facebook feed Doreen Virtue posted an Angel Card reading for the week, which I'm posting below:



I find it very interesting this synchronicity that Azrael comes up TWICE in this reading! I do not always look at her weekly readings. I think I've only viewed one of hers once before. So what an affirmation that the day after the name Azrael comes to me unexpectedly, I see this reading and he happens to be pulled *twice* in the same reading.

Not only that, but her interpretation of the reading all relates to detox, getting a sponsor, and she even specifically mentions 12-Step programs. Cool, eh? I think this is definitely an affirmation from spirit that I am going through a transition that is very good for me and that I have heavenly support for my transition out of using food to numb myself.

Here is another great website that explains Azrael and his role not just as an angel of death, but more importantly as an angel of transformations: Archeon Azrael

Finding Strength in Admitting Weakness

There were a couple times early in the week that I had major difficulty staying abstinent. I even had the thought at one point, "What would be the big deal really of having a 'minor' binge? I could get right back on track."

Then immediately afterward I thought, "But then you'd just be back in the very spiral/cycle that you have been in your whole life. You deserve better than that."

If I ever did binge again I would have to go right back to Step One, admitting my powerlessness over food. Why not just continue to reinforce that to myself now and use that admission as a way of preventing a relapse?



I am so powerless over food that my disease wants to convince me that I could have "just one binge here and there" and that that would be okay. ???? Funny disease, silly addiction-wired brain. Might as well fess up to my insanity here too while I'm at it (see Step Two). :)

One Small Step

When I first came to OA and saw the steps I thought I could just mentally check them off. ;) (Nowhere to go, but always in a rush to get there.)



I've had a sponsor now for a little over two weeks. She tells me that working the steps is the way she learned to be and stay abstinent. I am already abstinent, but I do feel a little bit like what I think AAers mean when they call someone a dry drunk. In other words, perhaps I'm not overeating or bingeing, but I certainly am clinging on for dear life at times. I certainly don't feel like I've had any moment of great surrender. The only way to get to that, though, I suppose, is working the steps. Maybe not the only way, but a pretty tried and true way it seems.

I didn't really understand at first what "working the steps meant," but through talking to my sponsor I came to see that a part of it is about spending time studying literature on the steps and responding to what I am reading--responding by talking to my sponsor, by writing about what I've been reading, and by contemplating what each step means to me as I gain greater understanding of what it means to others who have written about it.

Of course, for some steps, there are also actions to be taken (such as the "moral inventory" making required by Step 4). I am in no particular hurry to get to that one. ;)

To me, Step One is about a.) realizing that I cannot do it alone b.) fully recognizing the degree to which I am addicted to food, and the spirals I will continue to go through if I do not seek help for this addiction.

It's kind of humbling. Easy to get a little down on yourself thinking how unmanageable your eating has become. I know though that what I want more than anything is to be able to eat normally. I don't have the ability yet to do that. Do I know about nutrition? Yeah. Do I know what a healthy amount of food would be? Yeah. But I am a compulsive eater and what I know about healthy, moderate eating I am too weak to put into practice.

Even now, though I may be abstinent, I am not by any means "eating normally." Normal people don't have to go to meetings about their food addiction! They don't have to submit their daily food plans to a sponsor. They surely do not feel so neurotic about every meal and bite as I do in my abstinence so far. Their brain is not still consumed with thoughts of eating even between meals, as mine is.

Step One is humbling also because it asks us to admit we are "powerless." I had a lot of trouble with this at first. In fact, I am just now kind of coming to understand it. We are powerless. It is just a simple admission of the truth. If I had the power to change my compulsive eating, I would have done it a long time ago. I know this is true because I have wanted to stop eating compulsively, but all my efforts to do so have failed. So if I've wanted to stop overeating, but have yet to do so, then obviously I do not have the power to do so (at least not on my own).

If we stopped just at the admission of powerlessness things would look a bit fatalistic, but fortunately peeking ahead to Step Two we see how a Higher Power greater than us has the power that we do not, and we can trust that Higher Power to deliver us from our addictive behaviors, and even more than that, to deliver us from the "insanity" that goes along with it.

"It followed that, if we had no power of our own, we needed a power outside ourselves to help us recover." --Overeaters Anonymous, published 1980, pg. 3. *

*(I have a masters degree in English and know this is not any formally correct way of citing a source, but I don't care enough to remind myself how to do it :P ).

H.A.L.T. Who goes there to the kitchen?

In Overeaters Anonymous there's an acronym called H.A.L.T., which loosely signifies, "Don't let yourself get too Hungry, too Angry, too Lonely, or too Tired." In other words, halt before you H.A.L.T. There's a great AA blog I have started reading lately also called Mr. Sponsorpants who mentions H.A.L.T. in relation to AA as well, so it likely originates from that organization, but still, I learned it first from one of my OA sisters.

Anyway today I had to halt. Or rather, eat. And of course I felt guilty and confused. But here's the deal, I had a long, busy day, I did not plan enough calories for the day (and especially for the first part of the day) and so come dinnertime I wanted to eat everything.

I didn't eat everything. I did add about 200 calories to my dinner, and then after an hour of crazy food urges and neurotic fear that I was going to overeat, plus some use of the phone tool that did not work in squelching the food urges, I ate a boiled egg. Finally, the hunger was tamed.

I just feel guilty for some reason when I change my food plan too often. And since I had already sent my sponsor my next day's food plan, which already included some changes I had made for the day, I felt like a loser for having to email her again to say "Ok here are some other changes."

But changes aren't bad. They're normal. And often beneficial, hell, becoming abstinent was a BIG CHANGE. I am just understandably fearful of losing said abstinence.

Logically I know there's no reason to feel like I'm a failure because my food plan changes in little ways (substitutions, additions, subtractions). Even my final calorie count for the day was very reasonable: 1565. But the irrational, fearful, self-doubting side of me went into a tizzy. I do not know how to trust my instincts in regards to food because they have been so overwhelmingly wrong in the past. So of course, this fear and confusion is completely understandable.

In this instance, I was not sure whether my hunger was emotional or physical. My brain knew it wanted more food. My stomach didn't *feel* like it was hungry, so I assumed my brain was working on behalf of my emotions at the moment. I dunno.

There's also another saying in O.A. to "Do Whatever it Takes" to avoid a binge. Well I did that. You certainly cannot claim that I overate for the day. I never, at any point, ate past the point of fullness. My total calories are completely reasonable.

But I sure did have a binge of neurotic self-blame and worry!

Opening My Heart in Recovery

I have been attending Overeaters Anonymous (OA) meetings since late September 2012, so for three months now. In the beginning I had spotty attendance, however, and there was only one meeting locally that I have been able to easily fit into my schedule. And of course I've resisted the process all along (from my reading I find that many 12-steppers do resist and rebel).

Image source: http://theopenheartstudio.com/

But anyway, I've stuck in there. A little over two weeks ago I finally got a sponsor (something that had really frightened me to do, but I've been learning to face the fears, realizing that what's on the other side is not really so scary after all) and became abstinent the next day.

Today is the 17th day of my abstinence. Confetti? Oh thank you. You're so kind, really it was unnecessary. Oh and a celebratory cake? It's too much. Really. Too much. ;)

One thing I noticed big time when visiting my family last week for the holidays was how much abstinence (other 12-step programs might just use the word "sobriety") really affects my interactions with others. My heart is much more open and loving and patient. I'm more willing to hug, more willing and able to be a positive and uplifting presence for others rather than a selfish drag on their energy. Consequently, family time this past week was terrific. It's amazing how much better your interactions with others become when you own your part of the negativity. I had one situation this week where I could have responded to someone else's bad mood with my own anger, which is what I would have done before, but I successfully sidestepped it. Instead of reacting by igniting a bomb of anger within myself, I deactivated my "inner bomb." No explosive reactions from ego? That's a nice side effect to abstinence, for sure. This family member's own bad attitude also fizzled out much more quickly than it would have if I'd reacted as I used to, and she apologized.

There was another situation when I did find myself responding to someone from a place of ego, but quickly apologized myself when I realized what I was doing. A good lesson from that particular instance is, "Don't automatically assume the other person is trying to be mean." My ego wants to protect itself, and so ego wants to assume everyone is a danger to itself. Well, ego is wrong, more often than not.

I am changing not only in how I related to family and close friends, but also in the way that I find myself much more easily looking people in the eye (even strangers). I had always attributed this to social anxiety--this unease around people in general--but it's interesting to see how recovery/abstinence allow me to be so much more open to others all around. "Thank you's" and cheerful "Hello's!" to strangers are so much easier. It's not that I didn't want to be friendly before, but it's coming much more easily and naturally now. :)

If you're reading this, and you're in recovery, what changes have you noticed in your interactions/relationships with others? Has your heart been opening up too?

First Step, First Post

The first step in Overeaters Anonymous is:

     "We admitted we were powerless over food — that our lives had become unmanageable."

I had finally come to believe that I was powerless over food in July of 2012. My concern and heartbreak over the situation of one of my close family members triggered my food addiction in a major way, not that it really needed much triggering (I was letting my desire for food run rampant enough already), and I finally had to be honest with myself that this was an addiction, and it needed to be treated as such.

Even so, it took me 2 months to finally show up to my first meeting! After the first 3 meetings, I almost gave up. I had convinced myself that "those people" in O.A. were just in it for weight-loss. Well who was I kidding, it's not like I didn't also want weight loss. But what I wanted (and what everyone who comes to and sticks with O.A. wants really) is an end to the insanity of it all.

We are not just powerless over food, we are powerless over our weights, over the actions of others, etc. Does this mean we cannot act, or choose? No, it simply means that we cannot control, force or contrive the world into being what we want it to. We surrender control.

I have been overeating since at least the age of 3. I've eaten entire pizzas by myself washed down with 2-liter bottles of sugary soda. I've eaten hefty restaurant meals and come home afterward only to immediately begin snacking. I've stopped by multiple fast food restaurants on the way home. A recent favorite binge of mine before getting abstinent involved picking up a bag of chips, perhaps something sweet as well, 2 16 oz. bottles of soda, and a big bag from a fast food restaurant on the way home, melting Velveeta onto my chips, making a mayo/chopped onion/sriracha "dip" for my fast food items and then bite-by-bite eating it all. When it was gone I wanted more.

Like many people who overeat, I am obese. I topped the scales at 400 lbs. I was about 385 when I entered O.A. I've spent plenty of my life focusing on the outward problem of weight rather than the inner problem of addiction and have not had much even in the way of weight-loss to show for it. I lost 45 pounds once by eating a high-fiber diet combined with regular exercise. Then I moved to a different state, started graduate school, and gained every pound back in the course of two years.

I've gone on low-fat diets, low-carb diets, taken pills that were meant to prevent the fat from my food from entering my body (which made for some great oily poops, and zero weight loss), taken "herbal" weight-loss pills that left me feeling jittery. All in the name of some superficial change in my appearance.

I have struggled in my relationships, eventually coming to the point of isolating myself from others to the point of nearly being a hermit. I have had toxic relationships, have instigated unnecessary drama, have failed to see where others are coming from. I have been utterly selfish.

Taking the first step in O.A. seems to be about admitting that you have a problem. In my case, my problem is overeating: eating entirely too many calories, eating past the point of fullness, and binge-eating. My problem is not what I look like. My problem is that one of the ways I react to stress, happiness, sadness, fear, anxiety, etc. is to eat. Food is my go-to for everything, but overeating solves nothing. I guess I'm kinda powerless over this addiction, right? Sounds a bit "unmanageable" huh?

Hello, my name is G.K. and I am a compulsive overeater. :)