Other LAIG Speakers Links
  L.A. Event Speakers   Classic Virtual Speakers
Other OA Speakers Links
  Boston Speakers   Kansas Speakers
  Mill Creek (Orange County, CA) Speakers   Region 7 Speakers
  Omaha Speakers   Inland Empire Speakers
  Sacramento Valley Speakers   Northern Virginia Speakers
Mill Creek OA 100 Pounder Speaker Meeting
Speakers who have lost 100 pounds tell their stories.

If you want to work a successful spiritual program and are not sure how to do it, you will really enjoy Jim’s pitch.  He talks about how his doctor friend suggested the OA program and how he originally resisted it. He talks about getting a sponsor and following directions, his first spiritual experience, doing the 11th step during his daily exercise program, and much, much more. Jim believes that a food plan is a critical part of the program and that compulsive overeating is a spiritual disease and there is nothing a doctor can do to fix it.  He says that he needed to get a food plan that set up a spiritual boundary between eating and compulsive over eating.  He daily commits his food to both his higher power and his sponsor.  He uses the 12 steps to address the chemical reaction in his brain toward food.  There are no foods that he is addicted to, only foods that are triggers and he eliminates them or reduces them at once after a discussion with his sponsor. Jim has his own contract with his Higher Power and shares each and every meal with Him.   He stresses how this time with his Higher Power is very important and how safe, serene, and enjoyable it is. Today is Jim’s 15th birthday in OA and he stresses that a food plan has to have spiritual content or it isn’t going to work.  Happy Birthday, Jim.

Direct download: Jim_F_2013_07_28.mp3
Category:speaker -- posted at: 6:30pm PDT

Kari is and has always been a very athletic person and didn’t start gaining eight until she moved far away from home to go to college.  She found that in college her mom wasn’t monitoring her weight weekly and she could eat as much food as she wanted whenever she wanted it and with no punishment.  She chose not to go home during school breaks for fear people would notice her weight gain.  Kari liked to travel and found that being an obese person in Europe was a very humiliating experience.  Apparently pointing and laughing is what they do.

Kari is quite the storyteller and you will be rooting for her as she tells of her journey from out of control eating and weight gain to the peace and serenity she has found by following the tools of recovery in OA.

Direct download: KariB_2013_07_21.mp3
Category:speaker -- posted at: 6:30pm PDT

Kelly shares her inspiring story of how she went from eating sugar, flower, and grease all day to maintaining a weight loss of 75 pounds. She tells what it was like to be a compulsive overeater since she was five years old, how she felt as the only chubby sibling, and what it was like when her mother tried to get her to lose weight. She shares what it was like being without hope and disgusted with herself as she unsuccessfully tried every diet she ran across, and why her goal is no longer just about losing weight. She describes the key reason why her first encounter with OA in 1990 failed, and what it took for her to get OA to work for her. Kelly also recounts what it took for her to” get busy” with the OA program, who she thinks God is and how she discovered this, what she things regarding OA versus AA, what she continually asks God, what happened when she tried to make amends to people she had offended, and what spiritual conditioning requires from her. Come and let Kelly share her life with you. 

Direct download: KellyH_2013_07_14.mp3
Category:speaker -- posted at: 6:30am PDT

Tony talks about and names specific foods so he will not forget the compulsion he had for those foods for so many years.  At age 7 he started to gain weight very rapidly.   His parents created an abstinent household but when they would go out he would steal their money and go to the local market.  When he didn’t have money he would go to the same market to steal whatever he fancied.  Whatever it took to get his fix!  He liked sweets because of the effect the sugar produced, even though it only lasted a few minutes.  In those few minutes he felt as though all of his troubles were gone.    At age 11 he went to his first OA meeting but felt uncomfortable around all of the adults.  He didn’t return to meetings until he was 21. When he began to sponsor other people he found that the people he sponsored gave him exactly what he needed to look at in himself.  Today, going to meetings, the tools, prayer, meditation and sponsorship are a very big part of his life. He realized that through the years he has been able to get through so much and has been given so much thanks to the OA program.  He is a very grateful, and very happy recovering compulsive overeater.

Direct download: TonyP_2013_06_30.mp3
Category:speaker -- posted at: 11:30am PDT

Bob H. will give you a smile and some things to think about as he shares with his folksy, open, and practical style about his struggle and success with compulsive eating. He talks about what he used to eat in gallon cans, and the unpleasant kind of chocolate he ate before he went to Hometown Buffet. Bob tells how a non-OA 12-step group member offered to sponsor him, even though he didn’t like Bob at the time! Bob shares his wisdom on the 12 steps, such as why a diet isn’t enough for us, an unusual analogy of what it is like if we don’t follow the steps will following a food plan (hint: it has to do with apes), what he uses to follow the steps, why many people in 12 step don’t talk about their higher power, why following the steps is the most loving thing you can do for yourself, what happens to your issues if you don’t follow the steps, and how he develops the discipline to follow the steps and tools. Finally, he shares what he believes character defects are, and the wonderful benefits you will receive by being willing to have them removed.

Direct download: BobH_2013_07_07.mp3
Category:speaker -- posted at: 6:30pm PDT