Does one just show up at a local meeting, or should I call first?

Hi Ann,

Good to read your posts - I can relate to a lot of what you wrote about the black/white mentality. I don't promote OA, but can share my experience of it with you. Like you, I'm on a search for a way to be balanced and healthy around food. Personally, I need help with this - food for me is very tied up with stress and emotion. I'm only learning about this now, through OA.

But OA also gives me the freedom to connect with my own intuition regarding a good food plan. These days, I can actually trust my intuition because my compulsive overeating is not blocking my true instincts, if that makes sense.

Like I shared before, I avoid sugar for the most part, but don't consider it a major relapse if I have a little bit in an appropriate context. Same with wheat and flour. I also need to lose weight, so with OA's help, I'll be soon looking at portion control. I'll put an example of my food plan today at the end of this post, which may help.

I just showed up at the meeting Ann, and got a warm welcome. I've been to a few around town, liked them all, but feel very good about the meeting I found on Saturday. I wish you well on your search. I've tried a very rigid food fellowship, where I became more obsessed than ever - spent half my life reading the small print on small packages in the supermarket frantically trying to suss the various terms for sugar. While I'm glad to be aware of marketing ploys, I was so frightened of 'relapse', I didn't know what to be buying!

These days, I'm much more relaxed about it. It's tough, not eating my trigger food, or the processed carby starchy stuff I'm drawn to, but like someone else said on this site, even the rough days are better than the awfulness of being powerless around bingeing.

Breakfast) 1 cup porridge made on water with stewed apple and 3 ounces of chicken breast.

Lunch) Caesar salad, no croutons, low fat dressing.

Dinner) poached salmon (apx 6 ozs - not weighing at present, getting used to 3 structured meals first) green beans, brocoli, carrots. small portion of brown rice.

Snack) natural yogurt, small banana.

I drink about 2 cups of coffee per day, usually black or skim milk, sweetener. I don't drink soda but lots and lots of still bottled water.

Wishing you well Ann,

Hi Ann,
Just go on the OA website and find a meeting in your area, call the contact person to make sure they are still a group that is meeting. Start with a food diary, just write down on a notepad everything you eat in a week. No judgements, just write it down. At the end of the week review and see what foods are addictive for you and get rid of those (the red column foods) keep the yellow and the greens and monitor portions. Fairly soon you will see which foods you need to get rid of.
Good luck,
Bumps

Thank you both so much for your support. I plan to call tomorrow to find a local meeting that is appropriate for me.

Bumps--I really don't know if I can deal with seeing what I'm eating down on paper right now. I can't even begin to tell you what I ate today. I guess I need to face it all head on, right?

searsha--So glad that your experience has been so positive with OA. You definitely sound like you're on the right track. I hope I can look back in a few months and feel as good as you do.

-Ann

I find the act of writing down what I am eating makes my binging seem real and I am more capable of avoiding a binge. It might help you - remember, you aren't writing everything down to beat yourself up about - just to help you understand and learn what affects your body.

I also make a weekly plan of what to eat - for me, that takes away the times when I go 'looking' for what to eat when I am 'emotionally hungry'.

Best wishes x