Using Tools that Work!

When it comes to caring for our bodies there is a lot of contradictory information out there, but I am here to tell you that there are FREE tools available to help!

According to the Overeater’s Anonymous 12-step community, there are *8 tools of their program that ensure freedom from obsessive /obsessive overeating or any dysfunctional relationship with food and body image. Here are the tools they recommend:

A Plan of Eating- Creating a guide for our food choices to define what our individual abstinence is

Anonymity- Freedom of public participation or association with membership unless we decide to tell others; Confidentiality of all                                    sharing, writing, and interactions in all meetings and between meetings

Meetings- attending regular OA meetings

12-Steps & 12 Traditions- Working the 12 steps & 12 Traditions of OA, adopted from AA (Alcoholics Anonymous)

Sponsorship- Enlisting the help of a fellow member who has completed all 12 steps, is abstinent in their recovery and can assist you in                              working the steps yourself

Literature-reading OA and AA approved literature to stay focused on the program & mostly the solution

Telephone- reaching out to other members for support

Writing- Journaling feelings, food, and any situations that arise that trigger obsessive or compulsive behavior as well as writing our                       personal inventory and other step work

Service- reaching out to others who are still suffering and passing on the message of OA recovery

** For more information visit: http://www.oanova.org/Abstinence_Worksheet.pdf

http://www.oa.org/new-to-oa/

http://www.oanova.org/tools.html

http://www.oa.org/meetings/find-a-meeting.php

http://www.oa.org/new-to-oa/tools-of-recovery.php#meetings

As you can see, these tools are so much more than a “weight loss” strategy or “diet” plan. In fact, OA believes  weight is merely a symptom of the disease of compulsive overeating or any eating disorder. I’ve learned it’s really about control and unhealthy coping behaviors related to eating, body image, exercise, and feeling our feelings. Believe it or not, there are even more tools and rewards than this such as the Promise’s of OA: http://www.oahouston.org/oa-12promises.htm

1. We know a new freedom and happiness.

2. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.

3. We will comprehend the word “serenity”.

4. We will know peace.

5. We will see how our experiences would benefit others.

6. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.

7. We will lose interest in selfish things.

8. Self-seeking will slip away.

9. Our whole attitude and outlook on life will change.

10. Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us.

11. We will intuitively know how to handle situations that used to baffle us.

12. We will realize that God is doing for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves.

Derived from the AA “Big Book”, pp. 83-84