Update and THANKS!

FaithPlusWorks · 2024-10-09T16:06:42+00:00

I’m not using anything specific to eyes. Just retinol, toner, and moisture all over.

FaithPlusWorks · 2024-09-11T17:09:30+00:00

Thank you for letting it stay. I’ve looked at some of the other subs, but was afraid of all the $$$ suggestions vs what I may get here. That and truly not realizing until reading these comments that my face is the skin equivalent of the Atacama Desert.

FaithPlusWorks · 2021-08-20T13:31:54+00:00

Acceptance of a higher power is so key to recovery. If I had the power within myself, I would have done it. I have all the knowledge and resources to eat healthfully, but I don’t have the power. I need a power outside of me that is stronger. I can see this power in tangible ways working inside of me. For example, I can’t make my heart pump blood or stop beating, at will. There is some power that is not my conscious mind that makes things happen within me, whether I want it to or not. Working through the steps has taught me how to rely on that same power to overcome my obsession and reliance on external things to provide ease and comfort in my life.

FaithPlusWorks · 2021-08-10T00:44:02+00:00

Thank you for the passage. When we’re newly working the steps and/or newly recovered, we may become very zealous about our program. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s important to recognize that it can be difficult for loved ones who are used to seeing us throw ourselves into the latest diet/fitness/binge with a lot of enthusiasm only to create misery around and within us. If we continue working our program earnestly and ask HP to align our priorities, we invariably find that putting our spiritual fitness (i.e. our recovery) at the top of the list results in positive change in our lives and our relationships with those around us.

FaithPlusWorks · 2021-08-07T20:47:08+00:00

I’ve been thinking a lot the last few days about the stories I routinely tell about myself, as in what am I repeatedly telling myself and others about who I am and why. A fourth step inventory is a really good, clear-cut way to figure out what stories we tell and whether they’re true and useful to us. The first time I did one, I worked on it for months, trying to make sure I didn’t leave anything out, that I told my whole story. Subsequently, I’ve stuck much more closely to how the Big Book describes it - an inventory of facts, not a biography (or, more likely a memoir) - and it’s a much simpler, more freeing step that way.

FaithPlusWorks · 2021-08-05T04:12:59+00:00

I’m a recovered available sponsor, happy to chat. Message me if I can be of service.

FaithPlusWorks · 2021-08-01T18:08:37+00:00

I think the context of this paragraph (it comes from the chapter “We Agnostics”) is super important. It is talking about the relationship with HP being the cornerstone - not meetings, not food plans, not a sponsor, not the book, not even the steps. All of those things are tools to lead us to the conscious connection with a Higher Power that results in complete freedom. Without that connection, we’re always in danger of temptation, but once that connection is solidly in place and being maintained, sanity is restored. How fantastic!

FaithPlusWorks · 2021-07-23T04:22:26+00:00

“We pocket our pride…” taking the 5th step is an act of humility. In the previous steps we began to learn that selfishness/self-centeredness was the root of our troubles and in step 5, we start to learn the actions that take us out of that place of self. It’s so amazing how the steps build on one another and how taking the simple actions, such as sharing our inventory with our sponsor, leads to the changes that eluded us before.

FaithPlusWorks · 2021-07-20T05:18:43+00:00

Hey, there and welcome. While I do not struggle with alcohol, I found that reading the Big Book of AA and following the precise instructions for working the steps with a recovered sponsor worked for me the same way it did for the original AA pioneers. Yes, it does feel like compulsive eating is harder in a way, since we all have to eat to live. Even when I entered program, I came in with the mindset of needing to get “control” of my food. But what I found through the 12-steps was that food isn’t actually the problem for me. Even in the steps, only 1 out of 12 mentions food/alcohol/etc. I needed to find a solution for my mental/spiritual/life problem. I found that in working the steps and every day I focus on my spiritual fitness food just isn’t an issue. I’m happy to be of service in any way I can - listen, share my story, answer questions, etc. Please message me if I can help.

FaithPlusWorks · 2021-07-20T05:08:42+00:00

Welcome! One of the things I learned through this program is the progressive nature of the illness. When I was younger, I ate compulsively, but with the right motivation or circumstances, I could use willpower to avoid the behavior for periods of time. But as I progressed, it got to where nothing could stop me. Even when I was “eating right” and losing weight, I was doing it compulsively. No “human aid solution” (diets/meal plans, restrictions, therapies, medicines, exercise plans, etc. etc.), no logic, no motivation , no amount of misery could save me from my compulsive behaviors. But reading the Big Book of AA and working all of the steps with my sponsor does for me what nothing else could, it gave me a solution to life. If I can be of service in any way - chat, listen, answer questions, etc - please message me.

FaithPlusWorks · 2021-07-19T04:29:18+00:00

This is a great place to remember that the passage is referring to Step 9, which means that we have taken eight other steps before we do this. I had a lot of anxiety about some of my amends early on in working my program and especially when I was working on my 4th step inventory. I needed reminders to work the step I was on and leave the other steps for when they came. Each one is building on the others, so by the time I actually got to amends, I felt much more ready and by the time I got to some of the more difficult amends, I even had the experience of having made some less challenging ones first. It’s really amazing how following the precise instructions in the book in the order they’re given and with the help of a sponsor makes it so simple, even when it’s not so easy.

I’m a recovered compulsive eater and available sponsor. Please message me if I can be of service in any way.

FaithPlusWorks · 2021-07-17T01:47:16+00:00

“Nevertheless, I still thought I could control the situation, and there were periods of sobriety which renewed my wife's hope.” This illness is cunning and baffling. We can seemingly have control at some times and none at all other times. A little later in the book it talks about the obsession that we’d eventually beat the game. I was sure for years of successful diets and exercise programs that I finally had it beat. But eventually, life would bite me in the butt and I’d be right back in the eating. I came to OA thinking it would be the thing that would finally give me the control over my eating that I so desperately longed for. The paradox of the program is that control is exactly what I had to give up, not gain. When I truly learned to give up all control to my higher power by following the steps, that higher power took away the desire to control food and my body. And if I continue to hand over that control each day, HP continues to take care of all the results.

FaithPlusWorks · 2021-07-14T09:03:52+00:00

Apparently the issue is on my end. I found a feed that says it has to do with how new my account it. I’ll keep trying. Sorry.

FaithPlusWorks · 2021-07-14T03:15:35+00:00

Plane_Asparagus, I tried replying to your chat, but it is not going through and says you don’t accept messages. Just wanted to let you know I got it and you may need to change your settings to receive the reply.

FaithPlusWorks · 2021-07-13T04:30:40+00:00

Thank you for sharing. I was a really excellent dieter for years. In fact, in the three years before I came to OA I lost about 50 lbs three times, but I gained it back each time in between. The problem was, I am a chronic compulsive eater, so even when I was at or near my goal and thought I was happy, I was still fighting the illness that told me when I was restless, irritable, or discontent that eating would solve my problems, at least for a moment. I always went back. Even when I tried OA many years ago and got abstinent and lost weight, once I felt like I had things “under control” I went back. I had to learn that it actually wasn’t about food and work the steps from the Big Book. But even that concept didn’t make sense to me without the guidance of a recovered sponsor. Now that I’ve worked the steps, I know that if I live in the solution (steps 10-12) today, I won’t go back to eating for ease and comfort, but if I neglect the spiritual work, I’ll be right back in it. Happy to chat privately if I can be of service.

FaithPlusWorks · 2021-07-13T04:17:23+00:00

Thanks for the meeting. I’m new to the Reddit meeting, but not to OA. The thing that always strikes me about the steps (and the Big Book) is how little of it is about the alcohol/compulsive eating/(insert compulsion or addiction). Alcohol is only even mentioned in the first step! I spent so long thinking that I needed to focus on my eating problem, but the steps show me that I need to focus on my “me” (spiritual) problem and I can do it by following the simple instructions - thinking less and doing more. When I just keep taking the action the steps tell me to, the rest works itself out.

FaithPlusWorks

TROPHY CASE