“The major difference is that in OA preoccupation with diet and weight loss is replaced by a vastly more interesting, satisfying and rewarding process of changing ourselves from the inside” — For Today, p. 8.
I’m E.C., and I have been in and out of these rooms at least three times since 1987. I finally found a good sponsor in 2009. Four years later, in 2013, I retired from my last job and stopped attending meetings for approximately three months. I moved to a small city in the southern United States and returned to OA meetings. After a few years of emailing or phoning my sponsor who now lived some distance away, I found a new Step sponsor for Step work. I also found another food sponsor to call daily to commit my food plan.
In December 2016, I finally dropped out of a fee-based diet club. Then I started using a dietician’s approved food plan, which was paid for by my health insurance. This dietician approved of me attending OA meetings and encouraged me to continue.
I can now happily state that I am addressing all physical, emotional, and spiritual parts of the program, all Twelve Steps, and the Tools and Traditions of OA as well. By attending three meetings a week, calling at least three people daily, and talking and sharing, I am strengthening my recovery in OA. I am also praying, meditating, and reaching out more both to newcomers and more experienced OA members, especially in turning my food list over to my food sponsor daily. I receive excellent guidance from my new Step sponsor, who encourages me to write my experience and views and send my pieces in to Lifeline.
By attending three meetings a week, calling at least three people daily, and talking and sharing, I am strengthening my recovery in OA.
By maintaining my abstinence daily, just one day at a time, I think and feel that I have a clearer mind to express my experience in this Fellowship and can offer some service to others in my meetings and telephone calls. This assistance is good for me as well as for the newest person coming to our meetings.
All the service I can do will encourage new people to return to a meeting, give them hope, and offer them a start on the road of recovery. I can give assistance by leading a meeting, setting out the circle of chairs, putting out needed literature, and even just by coming. It all provides the needed support for our Fellowship.
Remember that this OA program is one of attraction rather than promotion—that’s a valuable statement for our membership. The meetings I attend all have a strong sense of fellowship and open doors.
The plan of eating Tool can be adjusted, whether between sponsor and sponsee or in relation to medical instruction given by a dietician or physician. Using it in this program can lead to abstinence, one of the cornerstones of recovery, which is essential to the miracle of living a better life just one day at a time.
Welcome to Overeaters Anonymous—welcome home!
