Amy A. speaking at an OA Meeting "Treatment of Eating Disorders"

One Day At A Time - May 3 2026

STEP ONE

“The cause is hidden, but the result is known.”

Ovid

When I went to my first meeting and was told about Step One, that I was to admit my powerlessness, it was somewhat of a mystery to me. I thought powerlessness was weakness. It was obvious that the result of my compulsive overeating could be seen by everyone, but to me, I was not sure that powerlessness was the answer to the problem. As I kept going to meetings and listening to people share about powerlessness, read the literature, and talked to my sponsor, I learned that powerlessness was not weakness. In fact, to admit my powerlessness, was to connect me to a power that was greater than I had ever experienced before in my life.

The paradoxes of the program, such as we “lose to win” and “give to receive” are true of admitting my powerlessness to find a greater power. In The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Over-eaters Anonymous on p. 5 it reads, “Later we discovered that, far from being a negative factor, the admission of our powerlessness over food opened the door to an amazing new found power.” What a blessing it is to now know that I am powerless, and have opened the door of a new found power through the steps, the tools and my Higher Power.

One Day at a Time . . .

I will freely admit my powerlessness and gladly open the door to the new found power in my life.

~ Carolyn

A DAY AT A TIME #essentialsofrecovery

Reflection for the Day

When we first stopped drinking, using, overeating, or gambling, it was an enormous relief to find that the people we met in the Program seemed quite different than those apparently hostile masses we know as “They.” We were met not with criticism and suspicion, but with understanding and concern. However, we still encounter people who get on our nerves, both within the Program and outside it. Obviously, we must begin to accept the fact that there are people who’ll sometimes say things with which we disagree, or do things we don’t like. Am I beginning to see that learning to live with differences is essential to my comfort and, in turn, to my continuing recovery?

Today I Pray

May I recognize that people’s differences make our world go around and tolerate people who “rub me the wrong way.” May I understand that I must give them room, that some of my hostile attitudes toward others may be leftovers from the unhealthy days when I tended to view others as mobilized against me.

Today I Will Remember

Learn to live with differences.

© 1989 by Hazelden Foundation 

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A TEENAGER’S PRAYER

“I felt as if angels were pushing.”

~ Adolf Galland – on his first flight in a jet aircraft ~

Sometimes I feel I really can’t take anymore, I really can’t do it. I feel so alone. I feel no one cares. I just want to hide away and eat and eat until I am so sick I can’t eat anymore.

A minute at a time I got through my day, and it was so hard. Didn’t anyone understand how hard it is to get thru school with the teachers giving me a hard time. The other kids laughing at me in a corner, I know they are, I can feel them. They don’t know what it’s like to be me. And when I get home, I get even more of a hard time.

But sometimes I feel so bad and I come here on my computer and share or I go to an online meeting, and I know I’m not alone after all. Someone cares, they really do.

I feel heaps better and I suddenly realise that angels had pushed me through the day. And even though the day had been hard, I HAD got through it! I had a whole day of abstinence!

Suddenly I feel so much better about myself, about you and about the world in general.

One day at a time …

I will remember tonight. An angel walked with me today, and if I close my eyes and sleep, maybe, just maybe an angel will walk with me in my dreams.

~ Marl ~

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Reflection for the Day

When we first stopped drinking, using, overeating, or gambling, it was an enormous relief to find that the people we met in the Program seemed quite different than those apparently hostile masses we know as “They.” We were met not with criticism and suspicion, but with understanding and concern. However, we still encounter people who get on our nerves, both within the Program and outside it. Obviously, we must begin to accept the fact that there are people who’ll sometimes say things with which we disagree, or do things we don’t like. Am I beginning to see that learning to live with differences is essential to my comfort and, in turn, to my continuing recovery?

Today I Pray

May I recognize that people’s differences make our world go around and tolerate people who “rub me the wrong way.” May I understand that I must give them room, that some of my hostile attitudes toward others may be leftovers from the unhealthy days when I tended to view others as mobilized against me.

Today I Will Remember

Learn to live with differences.

© 1989 by Hazelden Foundation

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FR.LEO'S DAILY MEDITATION #essentialsofrecovery

OVEREATING

“Obesity is really widespread.”

~ Joseph O. Kern II 

To overeat compulsively is to be lost. It is the result of addiction, like alcoholism and drug abuse. Compulsive overeating and other eating disorders are widespread. Sometimes they manifest as one recovers from another addiction. Cross addiction would be a tragedy for me. Today I stay focused and aware. I reach out to others and avoid isolation. I may be tempted to overeat or abuse sugar, but this can be changed. People can and do recover from food compulsion by surrendering to reality.

My people-pleasing must be addressed. Feelings I bury behind food must be expressed. Recovery happens when I love and believe in myself.

Dear God, You hear the prayers of all Your children; please hear my prayers, too. 

© 2008 Leo Booth

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FR. LEO'S DAILY MEDITATION #essentialsofrecovery

OVEREATING

“Obesity is really widespread.”

~ Joseph O. Kern II 

To overeat compulsively is to be lost. It is the result of addiction, like alcoholism and drug abuse. Compulsive overeating and other eating disorders are widespread. Sometimes they manifest as one recovers from another addiction. Cross addiction would be a tragedy for me. Today I stay focused and aware. I reach out to others and avoid isolation. I may be tempted to overeat or abuse sugar, but this can be changed. People can and do recover from food compulsion by surrendering to reality.

My people-pleasing must be addressed. Feelings I bury behind food must be expressed. Recovery happens when I love and believe in myself.

Dear God, You hear the prayers of all Your children; please hear my prayers, too. 

© 2008 Leo Booth 

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OTHERS

“In the deepest part of a compulsive eater’s soul …
is the realization that recovery begins when we find one another.”

Anonymous

Growing up in the deep South in the 1950′s, I witnessed things I never dreamed could happen. It taught me lessons I have never forgotten. Little did I think that someone like me could ever be discriminated against. After all, I was the right color, the right size, the right religion and lived on the right side of town.

Messages began to be taped early on in that little girl’s brain … into the psyche of that teenager who worked so hard to achieve … and into the young woman who had the world by the tail. In adulthood those messages began to play … and food made the messages easier to hear. So began the life of a compulsive eater. So began discrimination because of my weight.

Years later I would be grateful for my life as an overweight adult. I would look back and see that the God of my understanding was preparing me to see discrimination as a disease of the soul. But what happened to give me serenity and peace and contentment? I found another compulsive eater. And then I found another … and another. And recovery began.

One Day at a Time . . .
I will overwrite those taped messages; I will not regret the past; And I will cherish my fellows forever.

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PERFECTIONISM

“The wise man, the true friend the finished character
we seek everywhere and only find in fragments.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Like a spider, perfectionism builds its web through every fiber of my life. My perfectionism leads me to a host of other character defects. When I expect people to be perfect, I can be plagued with self-absorption. When I think of myself as “better than them,” I practice being judgmental towards others ~ especially when I see behaviors that I’d never do. It also leads to my defects of self-criticism and self-loathing. I begin to hate myself for all the things that I can’t do perfectly. I’m afraid to try things for fear of not doing them perfectly and looking like a failure.

Perfectionism leads me to procrastination and sometimes paralysis. This obsession for my wanting something to be just right — or put in just the right place — causes all sorts of feelings that can overwhelm me. Mostly it’s a fear of what another might think of me if I owned this thing or put it in that illogical place. I learned as a child that being perfect meant that I was validated as a human; therefore my perfectionism is hard for me to be willing to let God remove.

One day at a time…
I will become willing to let God remove my defect of perfectionism. I will forgive myself and others for not being perfect. I will focus on a person’s best moment instead of zeroing in on a person’s defects.
~ Pam 

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PAIN

“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.”

Kahlil Gibran

There was much to be unhappy about in my childhood. There was also a lot of unhappiness in my adult life. Until I found The Recovery Group online, that unhappiness was the driving force in my life. That force robbed me of the ability to see and enjoy the many wonderful things that I had experienced. I wore a cloak of sadness, bitterness and resentment ~ I had been short-changed. It was the old glass-half-empty, glass-half-full story….poor me.

Being able to share the pain and unhappiness I have known has freed me from the power it had over me. Clearing away the wreckage is enabling me to see my part in some of the unhappiness I’ve known. It has enabled me to see more clearly that there is so much for which I can be grateful. It has enabled me to see that I truly AM the person of value which I had represented myself to be towards others. I am integrating that person into the “unacceptable” being I carried within. I have seen others here endure challenge, pain and hardships with so much grace. I have learned that pain is, indeed, inevitable. I have the choice whether to dwell on the pain morbidly, or to instead focus on the joy of this day.

One day at a time…

I will live in the joy of this day and I will strive to share this wonderful gift of self-acceptance to others in program.

~ Karen A. 

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SUCCESS

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.

~ Winston Churchill 

(1874 – 1965) a highly decorated British politician who served as Prime Minister of the U.K.)

My life before program consisted of one failure after the next. I could never master success with my eating, much less with my life in general.

Once I came into these rooms and started working the Twelve Steps, with a God of my understanding and the knowledge that God is in control of all in my life, I began to realize that life is NOT a series of failures, only slow successes.

One Day at a Time . . .

I am a success if I keep on trying regardless of the outcome, because it is truly God’s will for me.

~ Linda K.

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RECOVERY

Survival is nothing more than recovery.

~ Dianne Feinstein ~

As a very young child, I had a loving relationship with my Higher Power. I talked to God all the time about the things I didn’t understand. I asked for His help in making me a better person, daughter, granddaughter, etc.

Then, as happens in dysfunctional families, things got worse. Being the youngest, I became the scapegoat for people who didn’t know how to express anger and pain properly. I, too, learned inappropriate ways to express my feelings. I also began to turn against my Higher Power. Why wasn’t He helping me? Why was He letting me be so unhappy? Why wasn’t He answering my prayers? Why hadn’t I awakened thin yet?

It took me many years to destroy my relationship with God, but thankfully, it only took a few years of the Twelve Step program for me to rediscover my former relationship with Him. As my eating disorders have been lessened and abstinence has become the norm in my life, I am very grateful for the Higher Power in my life today. I truly feel as if I’ve gained something I once lost. Thanks to recovery, I’ve also gained things I never had or don’t remember having. I have a peace, serenity, acceptance, understanding and love that I can never remember experiencing before. The more I trust in my Higher Power, the more rewards of recovery become mine.

One Day at a Time . . .

I will work my program and be grateful for the level of recovery I’m currently experiencing. When I feel a lack of growth within myself, I will look at how far I’ve come and trust that my growth is in my Higher Power’s time, not mine.

~ Rhonda H. 

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CHANGE

”If you would truly wish to understand something, try to change it.”

~ Kurt Lewin

There is nothing more powerful to me than this one thought. My entire program teaches me to change the fellow who came in or he will surely drag me back out. Without change there is no hope. Without hope there is no peace or serenity.

The “how to” is simply and strongly told in the Big Book of AA. On page 28 it is plain that we must find and maintain a spiritual fitness in order to survive. Change is the key to open the door, and change is impossible without a power greater than ourselves. This, truly, is the easier, softer way. May you find Him now.

One day at a time…

I am willing to allow the God of my understanding to change the person I was into the person He wishes me to be.

~ Danny 

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SEEING CLEARLY

If your eyes hurt after you drink coffee,
you have to take the spoon out of the cup.
~ Norm Crosby 

For so many years I had trouble seeing the obvious. I felt blind when dealing with emotions. I didn't know how to express anger properly. I was either furious (and eating) over little things, or emotionally void (and eating) over big things. I was told my feelings were hurt too easily, so I began to stifle my rightfully hurt feelings, using food to stuff the pain. But the worst was happiness. I was hysterically happy over the stupidest little things, and felt immensely unworthy of kindnesses done for me. Neither felt comfortable, so I always ended up eating.

It all began to come clear in the program. For once I could see my actions and my reactions and begin to understand myself and my motives. As I have worked this program, I no longer feel like my emotions swing on a pendulum from one extreme to the other. I can see things as they really are. I no longer make big mountains out of small hills or make small hills out of big mountains. I can now feel happiness, and express it, in complete comfort with myself. The nicest part is that while I may not be well-acquainted with my new behavior yet, it feels very comfortable, and I no longer have to practice my eating disorders to cover up my feelings.

One day at a time…

My eyes are opened by the program to the truth of what is and the feelings that are.

~ Rhonda H.

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RESENTMENT

“You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.
Anger will never disappear so long as thoughts of resentment are cherished in the mind.”
~ Buddha 

It was not until I came into the program that I learned that resentment is just another name for anger. There are some areas in which letting go of resentment is not so easy, especially when dealing with hurtful words. Word wounds have a tendency to fester. The program shows me how to approach someone and make amends to them for saying something hurtful. That can be extremely healing. Unfortunately, there is no step in the program which makes provisions for others to make amends to me when my feelings are hurt.

I have learned something that has helped: telling others how I feel when my feelings are hurt. Instead of internalizing my feelings, I am beginning to speak up and ask, “Why did you say that? I felt hurt when you said that.”

Doing this releases the negativity and turns it into a positive action for me. Rather than just reacting to a bad situation, I am taking positive action. When I begin to take positive action, I find myself surrounded with positive influences and I am letting go of those friendships which are unhealthy.

One day at a time…

I will take positive action and surround myself with positive influences.

~ Marilyn S. 

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FEELING OVERWHELMED

The social workers have named a new syndrome.
It’s called “compassion fatigue.”
Why does it sound so familiar?

~ Anne Wilson Schaef 

For most of my life I have always cared for others, and have always been in the caring professions. I didn't think that was a bad thing until I was brought to my knees and arrived at my first program meeting. One of the character defects that I found I had was people pleasing. Because I was always trying to help and fix others, I also knew that I had a problem with control and lack of acceptance.

One of the things I am learning in the program is that, because for so many years I had hidden my emotions in food, there are still many layers of the onion that I haven’t even begun to peel away. The amazing thing is that it is only when I reach a rock bottom of some sort that I am forced to look deeper at many issues that I have blocked for years. What I realize now is that I have spent so many years of my life taking care of others that I have forgotten to take care of me. No wonder I feel so overwhelmed!

I’m a compulsive caregiver, but in doing that, I have often neglected to see to my own needs. I am so grateful that I have become open to looking further into why I have always put others’ needs before mine, and to being able to detach with love from many issues over which I am powerless, so that I can take better care of me.

One Day at a Time . . .

I will remember that in order to be able to care for and love others, I must first learn to care for and love myself.

~ Sharon S. 

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ONE DAY AT A TIME

Life Is Worth Living

“These, then, are my last words to you:
Be not afraid of life.
Believe that life is worth living.
and your belief will help create the fact.

~ William James (1842 ~ 1910) ~

I have lived my life as a compulsive eater and I have known many other compulsive eaters. I believe I can say unequivocally that life is much more difficult in so many ways for us than for many others. I denied that what I suffered from was a disease; yet I watched as over the years it robbed me of so many things others take for granted. Most of us will acknowledge early on that the manifestations of compulsive eating affects us spiritually, emotionally and physically. Volumes have been written about each of these so most reading this know the devastation it causes. When I began to inventory my life and saw how much the quality of it had suffered, it saddened me greatly.

I believe one of the most difficult ways the disease of COE, or any compulsive illness, affects us is the way society looks upon us. Because I have experienced life both ways, I know how behavior and attitudes change in interacting with a COE vs a non-COE. We wear our disease on the outside … but the extensive damage is far more wide-spread than just the physical. The disease wrecks havoc in every area of our lives as we silently go about our life doing the things expected of us. We don’t dare scapegoat the disease. After all, this is not a cancer … or heart disease. Yet it can be just as serious.

Many decades ago, a group of alcoholics gathered and, as a result, life began to change for those of us who struggled with the disease. When I reached the point in my life that I could actually acknowledgement that compulsive eating was affecting it and that I had done everything possible to stop it and couldn’t, it was one of the most freeing moments I’ve ever experienced. I learned that I was as powerless over this as I would have been suffering a heart attack. I also learned that I couldn’t handle it alone. I learned that there were twelve steps that were absolutely necessary if I were to survive emotionally and, perhaps even physically.

I went from fighting the disease to acknowledging it. Because of the Steps I learned that there were tens of thousands of others exactly like me and that we all spoke the same beautiful language. I learned not to be afraid of life … and that, despite this despicable disease, life is truly worth living. I was told to “act as if” and by doing this it became no longer an act.

One day at a time …

I affirm that my life is worth living. One day at a time, I affirm that I will not be afraid of anything that makes me feel otherwise.

~ Mari ~

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FR.LEO'S DAILY MEDITATION #essentialsofrec #OVEREATING

 22
November

OVEREATING

“Obesity is really widespread.”

~ Joseph O. Kern II 

To overeat compulsively is to be lost. It is the result of addiction, like alcoholism and drug abuse. Compulsive overeating and other eating disorders are widespread. Sometimes they manifest as one recovers from another addiction. Cross addiction would be a tragedy for me. Today I stay focused and aware. I reach out to others and avoid isolation. I may be tempted to overeat or abuse sugar, but this can be changed. People can and do recover from food compulsion by surrendering to reality.

My people-pleasing must be addressed. Feelings I bury behind food must be expressed. Recovery happens when I love and believe in myself.

Dear God, You hear the prayers of all Your children; please hear my prayers, too. 

© 2008 Leo Booth

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