Sun, 23 September 2012
Bob’s good natured, humorous, and plain speaking story will give you hope if you think you are hopeless. He tells of his childhood having to deal with family dysfunctionality in West Virginia, who had poor food habits such as following an “ate to celebrate” lifestyle. This made him feel like The Beverly Hillbillies when they moved to Southern California. His success in high school football provided him with a lot of free food to “bulk up”, as his coach taught, leading to his top weight of 340 pounds. He tells how he started to lose everything and finally got the “gift of desperation” when he hit new lows as he was constantly arrested and didn’t care about anything. A member of OA guided him into the program where he stumbled around for a couple of years but learned much wisdom that is necessary for him to maintain a normal weight. He shares with you his definition of a character defect and how to deal with it, what is necessary to gain and maintain abstinence, how to deal with multiple compulsive behaviors, and much more. |
Sun, 16 September 2012
Doug tells how he was a compulsive overeater and using food for comfort from a very young age, when at two years old he drank large milkshakes. His compulsion led him to steal money to buy food, dig in the trash for food, and follow many failed diets. He shares memories of his mother looking at him disgusted when he was in second grade because he was overweight, bringing him to OA at 16. When he moved away from home he didn’t work the program so he shot up from 190 to 325 pounds, damaging his health and relationships. When he rejoined OA, he followed the program and today has achieved many benefits: he was able to redefine his higher power into being approachable, overcome his fear of social interaction, overcome his anger, maintain friends and relationships, and has dropped 175 pounds and been able to maintain it. He is working toward having his higher power be all that he needs. He says that to be successful, you should get a sponsor, start calling people, and attend meetings--your success will happen eventually. |
Sun, 9 September 2012
Roy shares his success in dealing with compulsive eating. |
Sun, 2 September 2012
Carl K. tells his humorous and powerful story that led him to 21 years of abstinence, being able to maintain a normal weight and “wear the same pant size for 20 years". He tells how before OA, he was always eating, including a daily 3-pound binge of chocolate food each day. He tells how being non-athletic and gay resulted in being an outcast with few friends, so he used food as a friend, eventually stealing money for food binges. He describes the endless diets he tried, eventually meeting a woman who became his binge buddy but joined OA and began developing her spiritual side. Carl shares how this was the beginning of his spirituality--since he was brought up religious without the spiritual side—because he wanted the calmness she developed, even being willing to give up being “general manager of the universe”. Carl shares the wisdom he has learned, including how to shut up to avoid having to make amends, how to stay in his own business, how to be calm in high stress situations (he has a humorous traffic example), how to confront people in a constructive way, and how he realized that there is no off switch for food insanity so he uses the big book as a volume control. |