At 45 years old chronologically, my body felt much older than that. I weighed 277 pounds and had every possible complication of obesity. I had been a Type 2 diabetic for eight years, had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, arthritis in all of my joints, fluid retention in my legs, and reflux. The arches in my feet were flattening out because of the weight on them, and I was on 14 different medications to keep me as healthy as a morbidly obese person could be. I knew that I would be dead by the time I was 60. How did I get into this situation? I exercised several days a week, and ate mostly whole grains, low-fat dairy products, and some fruits and vegetables, etc. I wasn’t overweight as a child and addiction is not rampant in my family. I believe that it all started in late high... Continue Reading
I was sitting on my bed, talking with him on the phone, awake far later than usual. We weren’t having a fight; we were just having a discussion. When I asked, “Do you want to break up with me?” I wasn’t asking a serious question. I was expecting him to say “No,” so that we could establish that we both wanted to be together, and carry on with the conversation from there. When his response was, “I don’t know,” I felt as if my heart stopped. I’d thought we were both in it to win it. We’d been friends since elementary school. He was even my boyfriend in seventh grade. He’d seen me at my best and my worst. He’d seen me at my highest weight and my lowest weight. He’d seen me get abstinent. I was sure that any problems we were having were temporary. I couldn’t believe that... Continue Reading
As a younger person, my two main addictions were food and any attention I could get from men. It started with being a daddy’s girl and always acting like the princess of the family. This pattern continued with male teachers and later with boyfriends and dates. Then, each time a male’s attention to my problem or drama of the moment wasn’t “good enough” for me, I went to the best friend, the one I could always rely on: sugar, flour, and quantities. This disappointment in men happened quite a lot. So whether I was predestined as a food addict or made myself one by eating too much, too often when men let me down, the habits of my addictive ways were ingrained in me very early on in life. I’d have an uncomfortable feeling, get mad, and eat. It was as simple as that; get angry and use a drug... Continue Reading
To get the real joy of the program, you need to give away what you have learned and experienced. You can pray to your higher power to send you people to talk to about this program. When I came to FA, I was desperate, sick, and very discouraged about the way my life was going. In the previous four years, I had gained 50 pounds and was up to 295. I prayed a simple, desperate prayer to God for help. Through my hobby of old cars, I unknowingly met an FA member. He saw my distress and told me about FA. I started immediately. By the first weigh-in, I’d already lost 10 pounds and I was elated. I knew I had the answer to my desperate prayer and was going in the right direction. I felt like hitting the streets as an FA evangelist. (I soon forgot that idea, after... Continue Reading
When I was new in FA, I heard over and over, almost to the point of the ridiculous, “Just weigh and measure your food and everything will be okay.” It seemed trite and a bit simplistic to me, and it got a little irritating after a while. Little did I know that those words would be coming enthusiastically out of my own mouth a short time later. After only being seven months abstinent, I had an opportunity (I can call it an opportunity now in retrospect) to understand first-hand how weighing and measuring my food and working the tools of my program can change everything. I have a 22-year-old daughter who was diagnosed with bipolar rapid cycling seven years ago, at age 15. Her descent into mental illness at first, before we got a diagnosis, was more than I could handle emotionally, and my addictive eating got completely out of... Continue Reading
