Overeaters Anonymous?

gettheweightoff · Post by **gettheweightoff** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 9:11 pm

Has anyone ever tried this? The reason I'm wondering is just because I'm very open to getting over this whole diet mentality and was wondering if it would help.

I understand that they do 3 plates of food a day like us - of course no S days...

I don't want to look at myself as an "addict" because it contradicts the purpose of no-s from what I understand and I don't know if I am so much an addict as I am a product of "diet head".

Anyways, just curious.

exdieter · Post by **exdieter** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 11:20 pm

I haven't tried it, but I do want to recommend Linda Bacon's book, Health at Every Size, as a starter in kicking the diet mentality to the curb.

http://www.amazon.com/Health-At-Every-S ... 885&sr=8-1

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 11:29 pm

I haven't tried OA, but I have friends who have. From what I've heard, I'm not really sure that it gets rid of the "diet head." But that's second-hand information.

NoSRocks · Post by **NoSRocks** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 11:51 pm

This is in response to your earlier reply to my thread and not related to this one! Just wanted to make sure you saw it hon! : Gosh gettheweightoff! Thanks so much for your great message! So insightful and you know, just what I had been thinking myself in regard to the weight club. I think sometimes we (as in "dieters:) just get desperate and in turn do very impulsive things ... and I should have known better than to rejoin that club for as you quite rightly say, even if I were successful with their low calorie plan/foods, what happens next? That's always been my question/bugbear with that particular club. The gal I spoke to was really very nice and I feel a bit sorry for letting her down, but at the end of the day - it is my hard earned cash that is going down the drain! So again, a big THANK YOU honey for making me see the light. You see, I have a problem of a sluggish thyroid as well as the Change which - whilst not making excuses - as I'm learning, makes it harder to lose. The reason I got so panicky yesterday was I'm frightened by how high my weight is getting whilst I don't seem to be overeating! I'm scared that by this time NEXT year I'll have gained another 20 lbs. and so on and so forth. Anyway, enough said ! But I have to say, I feel MILES better after reading your post! And btw - I also enjoy reading your posts and can closely identify with the way you're feeling. It is great to know you're not alone, even though I don't like to think of others' struggling - if you know what I mean!!

I may not post here regularly but I can assure you I'll be here everyday as always reading everyone's insightful and interesting posts. Thanks again, gtwo!!

Oh and btw not wishing to be a bummer/put a damper on things but I have tried OA and from my own personal experience, unfortunately it didn't help me, but that's not to say that you wouldn't benefit from it. I guess it wouldn't do any 'harm' to go along to one of their meetings with an open mind. Everyone's different and I know many have had great comfort/help with the OA. From memory, we all sat in this large room where we talked about our experiences and admitted to being compusive over-eaters. Again this is my personal experience/opinion and NOT to influence anyone else's decision: I felt that I was just repeating what everyone else was saying parrot fashion with regard to admitting I was a compulsive overeater. Perhaps I just wasn't in the right frame of mind and I should have given it more of a chance.

gettheweightoff · Post by **gettheweightoff** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 2:47 am

Sitting around talking about a food addiction and doing 12 steps for it is not my idea of resolving this problem. I think I should spend my time more wisely and get my focus off of this stuff instead of staying in it all the time.

Thanks for the insight all!

BrightAngel · Post by **BrightAngel** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 12:32 pm

More than 20 years ago I was an active member of OA for 5 years.
I was a member because I wanted to lose and maintain weight-loss.
It didn't do that.

However,
I've come to realize that while it didn't resolve my food issues, or help me lose weight,
working the 12 steps for that time was invaluable
in the way it taught me how to better live a satisfying life in general.

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 12:43 pm

BrightAngel wrote:

However,
I've come to realize that while it didn't resolve my food issues, or help me lose weight,
working the 12 steps for that time was invaluable
in the way it taught me how to better live a satisfying life in general.

I remember seeing a book some years ago -- I have no idea what the title was or who wrote it -- about using the 12 steps a guide for life.

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 11:52 pm

I went to OA meetings years ago and the version of abstinence they recommended was three moderate meals a day with no eating in between. (Other people told me they went when there were all kinds of restrictions, but not at the meetings I went to.) I could not convince myself it was possible, no matter what ancillary explorations we made. Twenty-five years later the thought that I would be at the mercy of food every day for the rest of my life made me commit to No S for two years. I've finished one year. This is the year to fine-tune. Just as a few members here choose to combine No s with calorie-counting, I may have to modify so that every day is like a weekday, perhaps with dessert on S days. I know Reinhard says it's important to have free rein, but I still eat too much on weekends and yet haven't been able to get rid of the feeling that I have a right to overeat then. I would hope that at this point, with all the freedom I've had this year (and in fact in previous years, as I tried intutive eating, too, and pretty much allowed myself all kinds of foods for years), I would be ready to give in and follow some stricter rules to keep me from that awful feeling. Well, I'll just have to wait for the weekend to see.

NoSRocks · Post by **NoSRocks** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 12:44 am

Great post, oolala! My sentiments entirely. Unfortunately, I'm a few steps behind now since I ALMOST made it to the one year mark on No S, give or take a week or so (just before Christmas when I was more or less having a rich dessert every night after dinner!)
.... Not going hog wild or anything but enough to add on 10 pesky pounds in addition to what I already had to lose.

Anyway - I love your plan and I think I'm going to commit to No S this year as well. WILL TRY MY BEST - fingers crossed! After all, as many have so wisely written here, what else is there to try? It really is the only way, as far as I am concerned.

Granted, I know come spring that I will have to up my exercise and whilst I don't want to add on too many 'mods' right now, like your good self, I will definitely have to take a look at my weekends which first time around I really could not get a handle on.

Here's to a great and worry-free 2011 to us ALL (especially as far as food and I are concerned cos I think all my hair will fall out if I continue to let myself get stressed like this for much longer - LOL!! )

Have a great week everyone!!

osoniye · Post by **osoniye** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 2:58 pm

I lost 20# in an offshoot of OA and kept it off for 9 months, but now have gained a number of those # back on a recent vacation (yeah, I know, how stupid was that!). The branch I was in restricted what foods you could eat, so it increased my diet head tendencies a hundred fold. Maybe regular OA isn't like that.

BrightAngel · Post by **BrightAngel** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 3:43 pm

osoniye wrote:I lost 20# in an offshoot of OA
The branch I was in restricted what foods you could eat..
Maybe regular OA isn't like that.

During my own experience in OA,
although compulsive overeating was viewed as a "spiritual problem"
there were two distinctly different sub-viewpoints.

One was that members' difficulties were primarily of the mind and emotions.
The other was that member's difficulties were primarily of the body,
that certain foods were addicting and abstinance from them
was necessary,
...just like in AA where one must abstain from alcohol...
and the mind and emotions were secondary.

All focused on the 12 steps as a philosophy,
however, the two groups differed as to eating behaviors.

The "mind" group worked to eat a "balanced diet" in smaller amounts.
The "body" group followed a diet called "grey sheet"
which was similiar to the Stillman diet; reducing total food intake;
eliminating refined sugars and starches along with some complex carbs.

Years after I stopped attending OA meetings,
I learned that those groups had split into two factions of OA,
with the "balanced diet" group, continuing as OA,
and the "low-fat, low-carb" group adding the word "HOW" to the OA name.

I was one of the "balanced diet" members, and
could not get myself to believe in the bodies' physical intolerance for carbs.

I find it personally amusing that now more than 20 years later,

having lost from 271 lbs down to 115,
and maintaining around that weight for the past 5 years,
I have now become willing to consider that possibility,
and to experiment with a low-carb way-of-eating,
due to the historical and biochemical information I've learned
by reading Taubes' books,
Good Calories Bad Calories (2007), and
Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It (2011).