Mon, 25 June 2012
Carrie shares her inspiring OA success story with you--how she tried OA 20 years ago and dropped out, then came back in 2010 and lost over half her weight, dropping from 305 pounds to a normal body weight of 149 pounds. She describes how she did it, a key point being that she just followed her sponsor's guidance no matter what. She shares how she achieved success in mental attitude adjustment--how she changed from focusing on the negative, which cause resentments, to now focusing on the positive. She shares how she succeeded in her spiritual life, starting with being a member of a religious organization at age 17 that resulted in being a depressed agnostic and a feeling of being in a tiny windowless room, but today reaching peace with her higher power. By the time you finish hearing Carrie's story, she hopes that no matter what struggles you've had you will realize that you can succeed in overcoming compulsive eating by doing the same things she has done. She shares how she doesn't understand the mystery, but she understands that there's a life outside the box that she wants to live in, and that has given her hope. A couple of key points she gives are "she learned the power is not her", and "decided to do what others succeed in". |
Sun, 17 June 2012
Sue will have you in tears, both from laughing and from her bittersweet challenges on a long path to abstinance that led her from a top weight of 425 pounds to 145 pound weight loss. She has a number of humorous stories many of us can relate to, such as what happened when she was stuffing food in her mouth while a cop pulled her over, what she did when she dropped cookies while she was driving, and how she rationalized eating an entire pumpkin pie was the same as eating vegetables. You'll be inspired by hearing how OA, AA, and NA allowed her to overcome difficulties such as a life of being overweight in dealing with a verbally abusive family. You will share her sorrow as she tells the story of how she dealt with the death of her seven-year-old son. She will share some of the wisdom she has gained, such as how she overcame "planning and plotting to get food", how she learned to "put down the fork" to lose weight, how she realized that when food "calls to her" that there's something wrong spiritually, how no one says on their deathbed "I wish I had eaten more", and how to overcome temptation by using OA tools rather than fall back into using food for comfort. She shares how being married to another compulsive eater has affected her, and how OA has healed her relationship with him and positively affected them both. Her most heartfelt tip to overcoming compulsive eating is "if you're struggling, don't stop coming to OA" |
Sun, 10 June 2012
Come along with Broscilla (A.K.A. “Cooky”) as she takes you on her journey from being 342 pounds overweight before OA to maintaining a 130 pound weight loss today. She describes her first short visit to OA 21 years ago when she heard the word God mentioned and thought OA was a cult. Later she realized something had changed inside her and her higher power was in her heart watching over her, especially during the hardest time of her life when she got sick and had 19 surgeries. Cooky we’ll tell you how she changed from being a loner to being part of a happy family even though she is divorced. She describes how she broke a cycle of food binging--eating on her bed watching TV--causing “sugar comas”, and throwing expensive food out due to guilt. You may relate to her story of her family food dysfunction, including how her brother died young at 300 pounds, how she carried around a bag of candy which she refilled by stealing money, and her fear of a domineering family in which she could never be herself. She describes the cycle of gaining and losing weight at a facility that gave her amphetamines. She relates the message of hope, where she learned to let go of the past, and how to deal with family stress better. She says she doesn’t understand OA completely, but she knows it works because better things are happening now than she ever thought would. |