Hi ladies!

Well, no ultrasound for me this time. Her machine isn't good enough (it's tiny). So I have to go to a special place - hopefully sometime this month.

Skippy, I think you asked me about finding an online sponsor? Here's one place where you can.

Tracy, I hope the kids are feeling better!

Thanks Kat, I couldn't get through with the yahoo groups of The Recovery Group, so I went to the OA Website and got through with www.therecoverygroup.org I'm thinking(hoping) it's the same group? I joined it, but it's kind of hard to understand, but I'm working on it (the format of it I mean), I'm used to formats like this one here, or Msn communities, but I'm sure after I browse around it I'll catch on....anyway, thanks for the recommendation, and hopefully I will find a sponsor through it (if I joined the right thing, I think I did, lol) .....Have a great day! oxo (thanks again!)

Hello...
i am new here, but hoping to get to know others. i am at the beginning of the end of a long journey i hope...i want to get well. My 'puter is a bit challenged at present, not allowing me to access a lot of sites, including therecoverygroup.org site, and a sponsor is something i would really appreciate as i begin my work through OA and wrestle with my ED'd behaviours at the same time. I hope it is okay to post here in the April Check In thread...being new to this sort of thing, i do not really know the Etiquette associated with posting and threads and forums...i barely know what those terms mean..lol. Happy Spring Everyone!

Welcome Nebula! I am looking for an online sponsor, too. One email group you may want to check is the Recovery Group's OA Newcomers group. To subscribe, send a blank email to OANEWCOMERS-SUBSCRIBE-REQUEST@*LISTS.THERECOV*ERYGROUP.*ORG

Skippy, I think they have changed from Yahoo since I was on their lists. So I do believe you have it right!

I am doing OK. Really burnt out at work. I am looking forward to summer break but that's more than 2 months away. ODAT...

The email link is broken for some reason, I think. Just copy and paste the email address in to a blank email.

Hi ladies, glad to see Chris checked in on another thread.

Kat - do you have a gut feeling about the baby's sex? If so, you'll probably be proved right. I was right with both of mine.

I'm doing okay, getting back into exercise since the stomach viruses, not eating as "lovingly" as I should be - praying daily for help there. I want to be free. But there's work I need to do.

Anyway, hello Nebula, hello Skippy! Ya'll take care.

Hi all, I'll check in too. I'm new here, and planning to stick around, I'm looking for a supportive community as part of my OA program. I'm doing OA mostly through the recovery group www.therecoverygroup.org and thank God for it every day.

What else to say, I've already blabbed all over the place in other posts Oh, I will add we are trying to conceive baby #2. i have a 2 yo DD and I'm 40 so time's a-wastin'.

Thanks to you all for being here. ((hugs))

Tracy, DH and I both "feel" girl. But who knows!

Cackydoodle, welcome! I am looking for a new sponsor and am going through the Recovery Group's site.

I have been giving a lot of stresses up to HP lately. Been catching myself getting bogged down in obsessions, so it's soooo helpful to have HP there to take it all away. Makes living a lot easier.

I just wanted to say a quick hello, and hope all of you are doing well. I am having a really good last few days, and feel so blessed by them! I also have an online sponsor now, and that is going great! I'm attending in person OA meetings once a week, and have tried a few online meetings as well. I've been reading my OA literature/devotions, and that has been a really good thing for me. So that's how I am doing "today", and feeling very hopeful and blessed.

Love, skippy oxo

Skippy, good to hear that you are doing well!

It's nice to read about the online sponsors. I'm part of a very small church choir that meets on the same night as the only OA group within 60 miles. So I've missed going to meetings since choir resumed in October...and I miss it desperately.

The group is very small as well...with only two or three regulars, so I'm not sure I can find a good sponsor there.

I guess I'm confused sometimes by the instructions for finding a sponsor..."find someone who is the way you want to be and ask if they will sponsor you"...all of the people in that group seem to still battle constantly. I want to be in a place where the battle is at least an ebb and flow, not a constant flood.

In addition, not one person in my OA group is even moderately thin. They are all at least fifty pounds overweight even after 15+ years in program. I know I would not be comfortable in that place, nor healthy. Am I being stuck up in feeling that way?

Hi Laurie. Maybe you should think more about an online sponsor, you might find you really enjoy and benefit from the experience. The Recovery Group is an excellent place to search and be encouraged in (www.therecoverygroup.org) There is a link about sponsorship there at the site....

In addressing your concern about the other OAers being overweight and being in the program for a long time, this is the best way to describe my personal feelings about it:
There are many wonderful doctors that are great surgeons and medical advisors, but yet some of them still eat unhealthy, smoke, drink...etc knowing that these things are not good for them, and could be causing problems in their own health and life, but for whatever reasons they still do them....but if you needed surgery or medical help, would you refuse their help if you knew they were an excellent doctor, but had their own flaws and weaknesses in their personal lives? I know for me personally, if I needed medical assistance, I would not think about their personal lives as much as I would how good of the doctor they seemed to be, and especially if it were an Emergency, I wouldn't even think about anything other than receiving the help I needed. I think we have to think that way in this situation too, that there are people with lots of wisdom and knowledge in OA, but that doesn't mean that they do not have weaknesses or flaws, because we all do, we are all human....but we can still use the knowledge, experiences, and learning we have to help others.....that's really the best way I could think of to describe my opinion.....and really, someone who does battle with the addiction of food for that long, and does continue to struggle, probably understands even more than the person who didn't find it such a struggle, and was able to lose weight right away....the one who struggles, understands how hard it is all the more, and therefore can probably relate all the better, not saying that someone who is thin cannot relate, it's just that our struggles are in different ways and different areas, but it all comes down to the same thing for all of us no matter what our size is, that we all want healing and we all want to feel good about ourselves.

I hope my opinion was not offensive to anyone, I was just trying to think of the best way to describe it.

Thanks for your honesty, Laurie, and you raised very good questions and concerns.


Hang in there, don't worry about tomorrow, live for "today".


skippy oxo

Skippy, what a wonderful post!

You are so right. I often put myself down when comparing myself to others. I've gotten over the "feeling superior because I imagine I'm in a better place than they are".
I agree... it doesn't matter how intelligent we are, or how learned. We're only human, and we can fail.
It hits home hardest here at 3FatChicks, because I'm a moderator who has lost and gained weight. I have a lot to lose again, and sometimes I wonder what other people are thinking of this "failure of a mod" who can't seem to lose a pound to save her life. Someone who is supposed to be helping others.
On the other hand, if I was slim, I wouldn't be here.
When I went to my first OA meeting, I was truly humbled. I thought, "What am I doing here with all these struggling, fat women?!" Some of whom were making little, if any, progress.
And then I realized that that was me, too! I wasn't any better than them. And I gained tremendous respect for those dear ladies.
And something has just hit me as I'm writing this. I gave up on OA (mostly out of sheer laziness), but I know that those women haven't! Maybe they're not losing weight, but they're still there. Still struggling. They have not given up.

That does it! I'm going back to OA next week. I deserve to take an hour out of my (albeit busy) life, just for me. I'm worth it.

Thanks, Skippy.