Thanks for sharing, each has to find what is good for them. Eating disorders take many forms.

Exercise doesn't work if I am not eating properly. It is like alcohol, I don't think we metabolize food the same way other people do.

Like most programs, it is a thinking disease. I had to stop thinking 'more' and telling myself 'enough.'

It was a combination for me, portion size, making healthy choices, reading labels because I am diabetic and there are a lot of sugar content hidden along with chemicals and color.

I try not to eat processed food and limit packaged foods. Like diet pop, it is filled with mega chemicals to replace the sugar, which is more harmful than the sugar.

From the book: Food for Thought

March 17

Vulnerability

When we stop doping ourselves with unnecessary food, we become vulnerable. We have been using extra food as a defense against our feelings. Without it, fears and anxieties surface and new energies are released. Instead of retreating into the refrigerator, we can learn day by day how to live with our exposed selves.

Making an overture of friendship to someone we would like to know better involves the risk of rejection. Saying no to a family member when a request conflicts with our program may make us feel guilty. Asking for help when we need it means admitting our weakness. Exposing our needs destroys our facade of self-sufficiency.

To be vulnerable requires courage, but only as we are able to live without the defense of overeating are we able to grow emotionally and spiritually. When we stop turning to food to cover up our feelings and needs, we are able to be more open with other people. We are nourished by them and by the Higher Power who allays our fears and directs our new energies.

May I not fear being vulnerable.

Thought for the Day
Wednesday
MAR23

From the book: Food for Thought

Awareness


To be aware is to be focused and alive. If we are truly alert to what is going on within and around us, we will never be bored. Through working the OA program, we develop greater awareness of ourselves, other people, and our Higher Power.

Sometimes this new awareness brings pain; we realize that we have been hurt and that we have hurt others. Through our daily inventories, we recognize shortcomings and mistakes, which we may have ignored in the past. Often it is too late to undo all of the damage, which has been done by our compulsive overeating and general self-centeredness.

Here is where we pray for acceptance of what we cannot change and courage to make amends where we can. It is then important to put what is past behind us and concentrate on being more aware now, today, so that we do not make the same mistakes again.

When we are not dulled by too much food and the wrong kinds of food, we are more perceptive and aware in every aspect of our lives. Our experiences are richer and we are better able to grow and change.

I pray for increasing awareness.
This is something that I ask for regularly in prayer. Just yesterday, I shared with a friend that I don't eat to be full. I eat to fill myself and give myself the energy that I need. Eating proper portions as well as making healthy choices as to what I need to put in my body. Each life cycle begins with clarity and introspection, and there are circles with circles. I need that awakening and awareness in order to grow.

Sometimes I have found that it is better to lose inches than pounds. Love the skin you are in. It is up to you as to how to wish to portray it.

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I have always been my own worst enemy. No one was harder on me than me. As it say, "I need to do my part and allow my God to work His Will in my life, through me, not around me. As a sponsee told me one time, "Is your God hitting you over the head again with His Spiritual Cast Iron Frying Pan?"

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Didn't know how to communicate in early recovery. I wasn't in touch with my feelings and it was only by going to meetings and posting on recovery sites, then I learned to identify them.

This girl in treatment kept saying, "...but how do you feeeeel?" I was extremely annoyed, especially after hearing for several weeks and I couldn't get away from her. I finally said, "If I knew how I was feeling, I wouldn't be here." I had a lot of childhood trauma and learned to shut down and stuff for many years. Food and cigarettes were great stuffers. I am hungry, no I don't want to eat, and would pick up a cigarette. When I found myself reaching for that second or third helping, I knew I wasn't hungry, I was just in the state of mind, "More...!" and acting out in my disease (dis-ease).

I use to get hit if I was told to shut up, so I didn't talk. When AA got me talking, they couldn't get me stopped. AA took me to other areas, because the 12 Steps are applicable to ALL parts of my life.

I was told that when the time is right, I will know. If I don't know, then it is time to wait on the Good Orderly Direction that I need.

A good one for me to remember after pigging out at the buffet of food at my sister's 70th birthday party today.

Had to have a little bit of everything, but it was a little bit of everything all afternoon and then I came home with a doggy bag, and had a wee bit of what I brought home.

The sandwiches were okay and the fruit was good, but it was those date squares, lemon squares, and brownies that will catch up and grab you, especially when you are diabetic. I kept telling myself, "Your doctor says your blood sugar is fine and you are okay." It wouldn't be fine if I did what I did today, every day.

Can't beat acceptance of who we are in the moment. As my sponsor use to say, "Don't worry dear, that is where you are at in today."

Today I was angry after seeing my sister and came home and hate three big chocolate chip cookies. I was hungry, but that doesn't make eating them right. When I saw her hooked up to all the machinery and oxygen, I wanted to cry. Just because I have a feeling, doesn't mean I need to act on it. I meant to come home and do a healing meditation, instead I ate the cookies and the meditation is still waiting for me, even though I spoke to a couple of people and said some prayers.

This is why I say, when I get needy, I get greedy. My drug of choice is more.

Surrender is a principle of the first step. When I surrender to the program, the process begins and I am empowered to do what I need to do for my sobriety (soundness of mind), one day at a time.

Never thought of this. My mom was a great cook and made everything from scratch. When I think of my mother, I think of chocolate cake, butter tarts, and butterscotch and chelsea buns. Not a healthy thought, certainly not good for a diabetic.

She cooked on a wood stove, which made everything taste better and then we got a gas stove when I was 10. She saved up her money from her baby bonus to buy it. My alcoholic father was seldom home and she was left out in the country, in a big farm house with three girls, and not able to drive and go for what she needed. So much I didn't realize about what her life was like, and I am sure she had fibromyalgia, which was not even thought of then let alone diagnosed. I couldn't wait to get off the farm and then when I came out of recovery, I wish I had it to go home to. My dad sold the farm 30 years before I found recovery.

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This is one of my favourite reading of all times. Just the title in itself speaks volumns. This little guy reminds me to breathe, keep breathing in what I need, breathe out what I don't need. I need to be willing each day to draw the breath. I need to be willing to be willing to do what I need to do for my recovery in today.



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Unfortunately, the link doesn't go to the topic discussed but good that it takes us to todays's reading.

Post made on another site in 2011

The reading isn't the same, but today's link can help me to accept me as I am and where I am at in today, knowing that all things are subject to change. I like the changes, losing another 5 lbs. makes me feel better. I am not sure if it is an answer to prayer or me being sick and losing the 20 odd pounds. I just have to accept what is in the moment.