Hey to the fellow posters of Overeater's Anonymous. Like a lot of the other posters in this forum I have a serious problem with over eating. I have been doing a great job of portion control over the last two months and have lost 40 pounds, but today I just lost control. I went to a church dinner with my mother and my sister and just absolutely could not say no. I ate plateful after plateful of food, and now I'm hungrier than ever. Will all my control come to a loss because of one day of binging? I feel like such a failure now, but it helps to read about others keeping in control.

Sweetie, progress not perfection. You had a fall. You broke your abstinence. Find a peaceful place, have a chat with your Higher Power, call your sponsor, and start again. Abstinence can begin at any time. Use your tools to begin it now.

And no, all your control won't be destroyed by one lapse. It's only all lost if you LET it all be lost. You can have it back any time you want.

Yep, we do this one day at a time. Today is over. Tomorrow is new, brand new. Tomorrow morning you can commit to your abstinence, and turn the day over to the care of your HP.

We can't remake the past and we can't predict the future. What we can do is LIVE each day in the present. That includes not wasting a whole day feeling bad about yesterday. Instead, get refocused on program, your HP, read some literature, make a meeting, write a gratitude list, make some outreach calls.

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I couldn't get ahold of my sponsor last night and just felt like I needed to make some sort of outreach. I've been binging for years and just like everyone else, take each day at a time. Last night I just could not stop eating even as hard as I tried, but your right in saying that yesterday is over. It's scary to think that you can loose control of yourself so quickly and not even realize how to get back to normal at the time.

First of all, congrats on losing 40 lbs, it sounds like you were/are on the right track. Don't let one day get you down. I know it's hard not to, but just remember, it was one day. I know I've had one day of bad eating which would then lead to days and days of bad eating because I thought I no longer had controll anyways. You have controll of this, look how far you've come!!! Keep at it, we're all rooting for you

Probably the worst part of binging is getting the craving for the food again. Where I've kinda weened myself off the pizzas, the fried food, the sugars, then I binge eat all of those foods! The next day thats all I can think about. I know I should probably focus on exorcise or anything else other than food, but its really hard for me. Reading encouragement how others overcame their binging helps a lot though. Pretty much everyone I know never has had a problem with overeating or real weight problems in general, so its difficult to find someone to talk to that understands.

Tehluckster,

Sidhe wrote my very favorite OA quote above... "Progress not Perfection". One day will not make or break you. It's the daily diligence in working to better your physical, emotional, and spiritual health that leads to serenity and freedom from food.

It's great that you reached out here when your sponsor wasn't available