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| May 26, 2004 |
addiction2food
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V olume 1 Issue15
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| Please forward a copy of this newsletter to
your friends! |
Offering helpful information,
insights,
articles, tips,
recipes, humor and motivational tools to assist you in finding recovery
from your addiction to food.
No longer
living to eat, we now only eat
to live.
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| IN THIS ISSUE |
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- Just for Today
- From the Editor
- Here's a Plan
- Food for Thought
- Humor
- Sharing
- Recovery Speak
- Classified
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- Subscribe/Unsubscribe
Information
Please check out
the changes to my website: www.addiction2food.com. In the next
few days I will be
adding a message forum and a web journal as well as a chat room and
some other nice features so that we as a community can share our
experience, strength and hope.
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| SPONSOR |
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| From the Editor |
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Procrastination
vs. Recovery
by B.J.
Reid
I never ever procrastinate about doing something "fun" or eating
something I like.
Why is that?
For the longest time I put off my recovery because I wasn't
ready. I remember saying that "I'll start on Monday" or" ...
after Aunt sally has her birthday because they're planning a dinner for
her." When it was November I used to say "I can't start now
because the holidays are just around the corner and it will be too hard
to stay on any diet or food plan." I hope this sounds a little
familiar 'cause I know I'm not alone in this.
Time passed, and before long, years had gone by and I still found
myself putting off the inevitable. I stopped looking at myself
from the neck down and was able to deceive myself into thinking I just
had a little food problem. I didn't neglect the problem entirely
during this time because I recall trying numerous diets but never
really putting my heart and soul into them. I always seemed to
find a reason to quit and though I felt guilt surrounding my decision I
allowed myself to ignore it and chose not to dwell on the bad feeling.
This pattern of behavior led to an unhealthy way of life and the direct
result was that I gained a tremendous amount of weight and suffered
from depression and shame. I also experienced joint problems and
shortness of breath. And I also began to isolate because it was easier
to stay home, for many reasons. This was not a good time in my
life. I was approaching bottom but I still was not ready to do
what I knew in my soul I needed to do-- ask for help.
I needed help and I did not know how to get it. Then I heard
about this nurse who worked on another floor and had had to go into
treament to get help with her problem, a problem that sounded strangely
familiar to me. Thankfully someone I worked with put me in touch with
her and she shared her experience, strength and hope wth me. I
knew I needed to act while I was willing because at that particular
moment I had found the willingness to do whatever it took. I made
some calls and was in treatment within a few days. That changed
my life!
So I understand procrastination and what some of you may be going
through. Please, reach out and get some help. I know it's
not easy and sometime what little pride we have left gets in our
way. But don't let it. We never know if we'll get the
chance at recovery again. So if you are even just a little bit
willing right now do somethng about it----NOW!
Special Love and Energy!
addiction2food.com
Food problems? Weight problems?
Yo-yo dieter? Feeling overwhelmed? Need some help?
"Compulsive
Overeating: Find Recovery Now!" -it has the answers you're looking for!
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| Just
for Today |
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By-and-by is easily said.
-William Shakespeare
Before I turn a problem over to God, I am reasonably sure that God
expects me to take a stab at doing my part. This is called
footwork. I know when I am procrastinating and when a task is
truly impossible for me. It is not impossible to be honest
with someone, to make amends, to ask another person for help. It
is not impossible to try to curb my temper and my tongue.
For today: What
action that I have been putting off can I take? I pray for
the willingness to do what it is possible to do.
(exerpted from "Just for Today",
a publication of:
Overeaters Anonymous, Inc.
Torrance, California)
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Here's a plan
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10 Ways to
Kick the Procrastination Habit!
Copyright 2004, Julie Plenty
I recently read about a survey (by the University of
Chicago)
which suggested that those who relish challenge are more likely
to live up to 10 years longer than those who spend their lives
inhibited by timidity.
Trying to realise our ambitions, even if we don??™t always meet
them, is preferable to not having the courage or motivation to
take the risk. So not making any resolutions because we fear
that we??™ll break them is having a defeatist attitude, as we
allow procrastination to become an insidious habit which stops
us from leading more fulfilling lives.
The following offers 10 ways to kick the procrastination habit!
1. Personal values development. Take the time to find out what
you really want in life, what your personal values are. Do
you want more time, more money, better health, greater
self
esteem and confidence, more fulfilling relationships, a
different career, set up a business? When we procrastinate
it??™s often because what we are planning to do is not
really
aligned with what we truly want. We may be scared of our
skills (or perceived lack of) or fear ridicule from others.
2. Make health a priority. Without good health we are less
likely to have the energy and dynamism needed to make
positive changes in our lives and it??™s easier (and
necessary
if you??™re very ill) to procrastinate. So ensure that you
have a nourishing diet, sleep well, exercise and meditate.
Incidentally, it is thought that regular meditation helps
delay the worst effects of the ageing process.
3. Visualise your life without procrastination. See and feel
the benefits in your life if you didn??™t procrastinate.
What
could you do and achieve? Begin to act as if you??™re not a
procrastinator. Write down, draw, imagine your life as a
film. Use affirmations to help you.
4. Banish the Gremlin. That little voice which runs on auto in
your head ??“ that dismisses any idea that you might have.
It
says things like ???I??™m not in the mood??? ???I don??™t have time???
???I can??™t do this???. Stop running on auto, replace the
???should??™s??? ???oughts??? ???have tos??? with ???want to??? ???desire???.
You
have a choice. Acknowledge your choices and banish the
Gremlin. Again, using affirmations can help you replace
the
Gremlin with more positive alternatives.
5. Overcommitment. Saying ???yes??? to everything ??“ often leaves
you feeling tired and without the energy to focus on what
is most important to you. This leads to procrastination as
projects and tasks are dropped. Identify what is most
important to you and only focus on those areas which will
make the biggest difference to your life. It will enhance
your focus and motivation.
6. Setting personal professional goals. It??™s hard to motivate
yourself when you don??™t have a good idea of what you want
to
accomplish. So when setting goals think about what you
want
to achieve in the short term and long term. Techniques
for
doing so include the SMART strategy. S = specific M
=
measurable A= Action R = Realistic T = Time based. Use
goal
setting software to help you in goal planning and setting.
7. Prioritize Your Goals. Develop a plan or schedule to help
you reach your goals. In doing so you will begin to
identify
whether some elements need to be included or enhanced
or
dropped completely. Also remember to be flexible,
revisit
your goals regularly and modify or drop if appropriate.
Just
because a goal is written down doesn??™t mean that it is
set
in stone!
8. Divide and conquer. Once you??™ve prioritised your goals,
divide them into smaller chunks. Sometimes we
procrastinate
because a project seems really large that the scale of
it
overwhelms us and puts us into a temporary form of
paralysis
??“ you don??™t know where to start, so you don??™t start at
all!
Approach each project ??“ especially large ones ??“ on a step
by
step basis.
9. Reward yourself. Once you start to complete tasks, reward
yourself by giving yourself something that you want.
So
instead of seeing a film before you complete a task,
see
it afterwards and make it a reward for you.
10. Just get started. No excuses. Don??™t wait until you??™re ???in
the mood???. The mood never comes! It is a clever
camouflage
and a delaying tactic. What you resist persists! Start
with
what is easiest, so that you experience immediate
success,
which will give you the fuel and motivation to upgrade
and
take on larger projects.
Do any of the above and you??™ll be well on your way to
Kicking
the Procrastination Habit. And if you??™re procrastinating over
doing any of the above :.), then remember that life is the
biggest deadline of all!
Julie Plenty is a Personal and Business Coach who coaches self employed
creative professionals to live more creative, fulfilled lives and
increase the success of their business. To sign up for the Life Design
newsletter and register for a special offer on her forthcoming ebook on
Kicking the Procrastination Habit! visit: http://www.self-help-personal-development.com
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Food for Thought
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Procrastination
exerpted from "Days
of Healing - Days of Joy"
Daily Meditations for
Adult Children
from the HAZELDEN MEDITATION SERIES
Confusion is often a
cop-out. Usually we know very well what needs to be done about
our lives and we even know how to do it. As they say, "Working a
program is simple ... but it ain't easy." If we are honest, we
have to admit that "What am I supposed to do?" isn't the real
question at all.
Any young athlete knows how to work a program:
practice times are not to be missed, after school entertainments are
given up, and new techniques are drilled again and again until they are
natural. Students, too, work their program by sitting down with
their books no matter how they feel. They practice good study
habits until they have good study habits.
Achieving a new way of life consists of
concientiously repeating positive actions --- nothing confusing or
mysterious about it. We must be willing to exercise the
discipline if we want to reap the rewards of a healthy lifestyle.
Today, I will welcome the
patterns that lead to success.
exerpted from "Days of Healing - Days of Joy"
Daily Meditations for Adult Children
from the HAZELDEN MEDITATION SERIES
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| Humor |
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A Diet Prayer
Lord, My soul is ripped with riot
incited by my wicked diet.
"We Are What We Eat," said a wise old man!
and, Lord, if that's true, I'm a garbage can.
I want to rise on Judgment Day, that's plain!
but at my present weight, I'll need a crane.
So grant me strength, that I may not fall
into the clutches of cholesterol.
May my flesh with carrot-curls be dated,
that my soul may be poly unsaturated
And show me the light, that I may bear witness
to the President's Council on Physical Fitness.
And at oleomargarine I'll never mutter,
for the road to Hell is spread with butter.
And cream is cursed; and cake is awful;
and Satan is hiding in every waffle.
Mephistopheles lurks in provolone;
the Devil is in each slice of baloney,
Beelzebub is a chocolate drop,
and Lucifer is a lollipop.
Give me this day my daily slice
but, cut it thin and toast it twice.
I beg upon my dimpled knees,
deliver me from jujubees.
And when my days of trial are done,
and my war with malted milk is won,
Let me stand with Heavenly throng,
In a shining robe--size 30 long.
I can do it Lord, If You'll show to me,
the virtues of lettuce and celery.
If You'll teach me the evil of mayonnaise,
of pasta a la Milannaise
potatoes a la Lyonnaise
and crisp-fried chicken from the South.
Lord, if you love me, shut my mouth. |
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| Sharing |
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"HOPE"
Program has given me a lot of hope. I am finally at a point where I am
grateful for discipline in my life and my program. Without the
discipline of daily prayer, a daily link with my sponsor and other
members of OA, and daily reading and writing, I forget where I came
from. Even after just one day of abstinence, I can forget.
Yesterday I told my sponsor that I felt like I was pounding on the door
of the program, screaming for help, and no one would let me in. She
said that I was the only one who could open that door and that I had to
open it with my willingness. As soon as she said it, I realized how
true that was. I was stepping into it with one toe only. I was still
trying to do it my way. And I wasn't really sure that I was willing to
give up the binging. I was not afraid that I would fail but instead was
afraid that I would no longer be eating. And how would I live my life
without the food. But now that I have plunged in with both feet, I
truly understand that abstinence is full of gifts while food just
shatters everything I have.
I have had a pattern over the course of my three years in the program.
I am abstinent for about one or two months and then lose it. I used to
struggle for a day or two, then get back into abstinence. During my
last relapse, it took me almost two weeks to open myself to my Higher
Power again. I used to want to be abstinent longer than two months
because I thought it would give me some kind of status in the rooms.
Now it is important to be not because it gives some perceived status,
but it does two other things. It shows my willingness to be with God
and do God's will, even after the honeymoon of the first euphoric month
of abstinence is over and the daily routine of real life returns. Also,
I realize more fully that withdrawing from sugar makes me an emotional
basket case, and it lasts at least one-two months. So I realized that I
have spent my entire life either eating sugar and being crazy or
withdrawing from sugar and being crazy. I have been so afraid to stop
eating because I am so terrified that I am a completely crazy person
and that I will never be able to handle my own emotions. I take it for
a month or two, and then eat again so I won't care that I am crazy. But
I am filled with hope that after the sugar withdrawl is over, this will
change. I just need to be willing to have a little more patience.
I want to keep writing and talking about my relapse because I don't
want to forget. I really want Saturday to be my last binge. It was so
horrible. I actually was teaching a workshop at my office and spent the
entire time that I wasn't actually up there giving a presentation
trying to sneak food. I left the room while my coworker presented so I
could rummage in the kitchen. I even roamed the entire office opening
everybody's drawers and eating whatever I could find. I kept stuffing
the workshop food in my pockets when my coworker wasn't looking and
running off to my car to eat them. I can't believe how my job and the
workshop was so completely unimportant to me in the face of that food.
At the end of the workshop, there was stuff left over. My coworker and
I cleaned up everything and got into our cars. She pulled out and left
right away. I went back and unlocked the building and the security all
over again so I could eat all the leftover workshop food. I also found
some more stuff in the freezer and refrigerator and ate that, too,
locked up in the office kitchen. I knew no-one would be there on
Saturday, but I was still terrified someone would find me. After that I
came home and had company come over about 15 minutes later. Then we
went out to eat and I sat down and ate a full meal. At the end of the
evening, I ate all the rest of the binge food I had in the house. That
whole day was pretty demoralizing. I am just so grateful to God that he
reached out to me and pulled me out of that abyss.
Today I am doing well. I am on my third day of abstinence, one day at a
time, with God's help. I have to work my program and use the
tools every day. It is hard work, but the reward is hope, and the
ability to recognize the miracles that God works in my life every
minute of every day. I just know I can't do this footwork without help.
Thank you for helping me stay abstinent today.
Leah M
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Recovery Speak
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HELPFUL OA SAYINGS
Switching from one compulsion
to another is like switching seats
on theTitanic.
Only God can turn a mess
into a message.
We aren't bad people trying to get good.
We're sick people trying to get well.
The disease is progressive.
So is recovery.
You don't have a problem.
You have a solution you don't like.
If you want what the winners have,
do what the winners do.
If you feel like taking something to feel better,
take one of the Steps.
I was living in the pollution
instead of the solution.
It was one of those meetings
where they carry the mess instead
of the message.
I traded a lot of pain, fear, and despair
for my seat in Overeaters Anonymous.
If you're not doing enough for OA,
you're not doing enough for yourself.
My life is none of my business.
I just show up every morning
and report for duty.
If you're working your own program properly,
you won't have time to work someone else's!!
My relationship isn't my problem ~ ~
and it isn't my solution.
I'd better be careful when I say I'm grateful.
Gratitude can Only be expressed in deeds, not words.
If you want to see how grateful someone is, ask them to help you.
Some folks think God sets up the chairs and cleans up after the meeting.
We get a *daily* reprieve,
based on what we do *today*
for our recovery.
We earn today's abstinence today.
We can't stay abstinent on meetings we
attended last year,
12th Step calls we did last year,
Steps we worked last year.
We cannot keep what we have
based on what we
gave away last year.
OA didn't tell me what would happen
if I kept eating compulsively so much
as it told me what would happen if I stayed abstinent.
There's no problem that cannot become a crisis
and no crisis that cannot
become a disaster -- if I eat to try to escape it.
I was sick and tired
of the high cost
of low living.
If you'd rather die than go to OA,
you probably will.
Food never really made me happy ~
but it made me think I was going to BE
happy in about 15 minutes.
Once I admit that I
cannot manage my own life (Step One),
I relinquish the
right to try to manage someone else's.
A smooth sea never made a good sailor.
God loves me where I'm at,
but "he" loves me too much
to leave me there.
OA meetings are an archipelago of sanity
in a lunatic sea.
I've been driven to a good attitude by being hit over the head by
self-will.
You can complain about the same problem three times.
Then you'd better be in the solution.
If you have to talk to more than three people
about the same problem,
you don't want help,
you want attention.
If you're too busy to go to OA meetings,
you're busier than God wants you to be.
We have to change completely
when we get abstinent.
The me who ate compulsively
will eat compulsively again.
I get lots of messages from God,
but most are in my own handwriting.
The reason I don't say "no"
when asked to do something for OA is
that invariably I'm being asked to do something that might save my life.
If I say"no" often enough, they'll stop asking.
He gave his almost.
I came to OA not only to start living,
but to quit dying.
Gratitude is the hinge
upon which an abstinent life swings.
If I'm truly grateful
for today's abstinence,
I'm making a down payment
on tomorrow's.
I don't have relationships ~
I have Close Encounters.
Not everything that is supposedly "normal"
is appealing to me.
I'd rather be stung by wasps
than play golf!!
Instead of praying
"God be with me,"
I pray "God bear with me!"
God doesn't close one door
without opening a better one.
God doesn't close one door
without opening a better one ~ ~
BUT ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
we've got to get our fingers
out of the closing door. The reason you're in
pain is because you have your fingers
in a door God is trying to close.
When in doubt -- don't.
I ate because I was depressed.
I ate because I was happy.
But mostly I ate because I was awake.
I was pole vaulting over mouse turds.
If you don't want to follow time-honored guidance, you're welcome
to shop around for an opinion.
You break bad habits
by breaking bad habits.
You form good habits by
forming good habits.
Just going to meetings
without working the Steps
is untreated compulsion.
When you smile,
your brain thinks you're happy!!
We'd be surprised
what people think of us
if we knew how seldom
they do!!
If you're going to pray,
don't worry.
If you're going to worry,
don't pray.
PAIN: The effort required to cling
to old ideas and old behaviors.
The only way you could possibly
get more ready to take the Fourth Step is
to keep eating compulsively.
An unwillingness to take Step Four
is a direct desire to eat again.
Don't place a question mark
where God has placed a period.
There are two kinds of people in OA ~ ~
those seeking the truth ~ ~
and those afraid of it
If you don't take a chance,
you don't have one.
Hatred destroys the hater.
If you like everyone in OA,
you're not going to enough
meetings!!
I may not be responsible
for being a compulsive overeater,
but I *am* responsible for my recovery.
Stop watering the weeds!!
It's really hard for God to guide you
if you keep running out ahead of him!!
How about letting three people off the hook today?
Anger may identify a problem,
but it will never solve one.
Gossip and criticism
do not belittle the other person;
they belittle me.
Sometimes we don't get what we want.
Sometimes we don't get what we need.
Sometimes we get what we get.
I was always comparing my insides
to someone else's outsides.
A person singing her own praises
is usually singing solo -- and out of tune.
Luck is living under correct knowledge.
I was giving permanent reality
to temporary things.
I need to stick with the winners,
not with people who co-sign my bullshit.
Any day above ground is a good day.
The MIRACLE happens when we get abstinent.
The MAGIC happens when we apply
the principles to all our affairs.
Letting go of others
will lift my own spirit high today.
Coincidence is God's way of
remaining anonymous.
My serenity is inversely proportional
to my expectations.
These sayings are not
officially OA Conference approved,
but many are common in
our OA culture.
For a complete
food plan you may purchase my e-book:
Compulsive Overeating:
Find
Recovery Now! |
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