The people in my OA group are fabulous!!! I like and admire every one of them!
Yesterday at the meeting, one person talked about how she used to overeat until she was stuffed and uncomfortable in any position. But that ever since she fully accepted she's powerless over food, it became easy to not overeat or binge. She went on to say that another woman then in the group, who was successful in not overeating for a long time, inspired her when she was new to it. She said, "I want to be like her. I want to be "clean and sober" (not overeat) for a whole year." Today she has met and exceeded her goal.
I certainly recall many instances of stuffing myself until I was in agony. Just recently (March) my husband and I were on vacation in Arizona. Twice in three days we went to a casino near where we were staying to have their "all you can eat" dinners. Both times we stuffed ourselves mercilessly to the point where we had to unbutton our jeans on the way home, take multiple tums and anti-acid tabs and were grossly uncomfortable for the rest of the evening and into the night. Twice we did it!!!!
One of the other members of my OA group talked about how "normal" stuffing ourselves has become in our society. How families take it for granted that at holidays, parties, potlucks, church events, etc. everyone gets stuffed and nobody thinks anything of it.
Anyway, in 43 days of abstinence, I can happily say that I've not been stuffed once. I like it!!! My sanity is returning!
Since the meeting, I've been thinking about the possibility of one year of abstinence and whether or not I want to identify it as a goal. So far, it's worked well for me to think of my food plan as "one day at a time." Just for today, I can stick to it. It seems that setting a goal toward one year of sobriety sounds a little like "one year at a time." Just for this one year, I can stick to it.
Hmmmm... I'm not so sure I can embrace a whole year... Not that I wouldn't love to be there at the other end of 365.242199 days, looking back and saying, "I like it!!! My sanity has returned!"
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I do the "one day at a time" thing, too! It still feels great after a year. But you'll see that for yourself! :)
ReplyDelete(Thanks for your lovely comments. I'm not really surprised that many people don't use the HG cookbooks. She uses lots of canned goods and other processed foods, which some folks don't like (I try not to use *too* many of them), but there are some really good recipes in there, too.
I think you are doing so well one day at a time that you should just keep on keeping on and before you know it the year will take care of itself!
ReplyDeleteI was in my OA meeting Saturday and as they went over the chips, I remembered I have the silver chip for 1 mo of sobriety from when I was in OA before. I may put it on my keychain as a reminder. There is a part of me that is scared when I see people caught up in numbering the days of sobriety, but then I remember that each person's definition of sobriety / abstinance is different. It might mean being binge free versus being in a perfect calorie range or sugar free or whatever. Make sure to collect your chips at chip meeting because they do mean something.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cammy and Karen. One day at a time has exceeded a month for you already, and it can easily become a year by taking it one day at a time.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with PJ that the chips matter.
Who is a mocking bird?