Overeaters Anonymous Big Book Style?

On June 17th, 2013, I walked in to a meeting of Overeaters Anonymous. I weighed 596 pounds, I was too heavy to get gastric bypass surgery, I'd lost my job to a combination of severe clinical depression and basic insanity. What caused which is up for debate, and I truly don't care. What is important is what has happened since I found OA and the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. 

Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over food. - That our lives had become unmanageable.


By the time many people walk in to any 12 step program, most people feel at some level they have completed  step one. I know when I walked in to OA on June 17th, 2013, I "knew" I had. Then I started to do step one as described in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, I learned I was clueless. On June 17th, I was at step zero, I knew I needed help. What brought me to that room was a life of complete inability to control my food. I didn't yet realize my absolute lack of control.


A few years ago I lost some 70 pounds.  I then gained almost 140 back, topping out at some 624 pounds I wanted to get Gastric Bypass Surgery.  "Loose 50 pounds." Says the surgeon. I loose 80. I then gain back 50 without even thinking about it. I realize I need real help. So I go to OA. I receive a warm welcome.  And I stand around and said "What next?"  Somebody suggested I read the Big Book Of Alcoholics Anonymous (BBoAA). I picked up the 2nd addition for my Nook and started reading. I also continued to go to OA meetings.

As my first week progressed I noticed two important things:

1) The BBoAA spoke of being "recovered" and OA promised I could be "in recovery."

2) Many folks feel the solution depends on planning a menu and/or reporting your food to your sponsor and measuring your portions diligently. In other words: the secular solution would teach me how to obsess about food. This "tool" is a good one, but it is only a tool, not a solution.

I was already obsessed with food and I wanted to have that "position of neutrality-safe and protected" (BBoAA page 85 top paragraph) about eating I read about. I wanted my obsession "removed", I don't want to be "fighting it nor avoiding temptation." I want to live as normal a life as I could. I know from my studies I will never be a "normal eater" but I believe I can be a happy eater. Not through my efforts alone, that can only lead to obesity and death, but through learning to live with the outside help of a Higher Power.

Enter the Big Book Awakening. A group of people who strangely feel the methods that worked for 75% of the original 100 alcoholics in 1939, can still work.  And not just for alcohol but for any addiction/obsession.

I have come to my WOPR moment! In the 1983 movie WarGames, a military computer named WOPR (War Operations Programed Response) figures out the futility of Global Thermonuclear War from strategic games like Chess and Tic Tac Toe. The computer played these games, against itself, always loosing. The computer "Joshua" realized one side or the other might survive but Joshua always lost.

Of the 12 steps, a thorough step one will show you, if you are honest and really are a compulsive _____ (eater, drinker, addict etc.) that there is no way you can quit on your own. Why? Because "Remember we deal with alcohol (food, drugs, nicotine etc) cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too powerful." (BBoAA pg 58) The reason our addictions are so "cunning, baffling, powerful" is we are fighting ourselves. The only real solution is an outside influence or a higher power.  Anything less is just another diet club.

On my own I am playing Chess against my self. Pixar explored this in a short called Geri's Game:

Meet Geri, this kindly old gentlemen with glasses is my addiction, my spiritual malady.  I know he looks harmless but just watch what lengths "he" will go to to win! His opponent is my own personal ego looking to get "clean.".


When ever "I" think I'm winning, my spiritual malady will cheat.  I can't beat a game against my self, especially since "I" will cheat. The only way to win is for me to not play.  A common catch phrase used by AA/OA is "let go and let God." Sounds great, and how do you do that? As a religious person myself, I've never been able to do that.

A true alcoholic or eating disorder victims became drunks, addicts or food obsessive  because they wanted a level of "control." As spiritually infirm people being in charge is what we thought we were doing in being obsessive. But in truth we controlled ourselves into what ever oblivion we chose. Why? Because we are not capable of clearly thinking, by any definition we are insane.  We over or under think, we "misremember" our personal experiences so when we pick up the we are "We'll do it better" or "it wasn't that bad last time" so we push on. Last time you gained 140 0pounds, were so depressed you lost your job and your house, or worse.  "But this tine is different......"(Note: A Lie)

Left to my own devices I will screw it up again.

When do you know you are ready to move to step 2? When you reach that WOPR moment.  When you realize the only solution is for you to stop playing the game.

Gregor - Back from the brink! From there and back again. A spiritual Hobbits journey.

My Secular Job as a Christian.

Was Christ a political figure? 
Was the first century church a political force?
Is that what God intended?

These are questions I have pondered over the last 20 years.  As I have admitted, I fell away from the church  and some of these questions are what kept me away.  One of the things I did when I worked the 3rd shift behind a computer, was to study the Constitution of the United States of America.  I read the broadsides used during the drafting of the Articles of Confederation and Deceleration of Independence, as well as the Federalist Papers, a collection of essays written in newspapers at the time to educate or convince folks regarding the wisdom of a Constitutional Republic versus a Confederation of Free States.

The founding fathers all believed that a Christian moral society was capable of freedom.  John Adams went so far as to say that moral behavior by the individual is required for a free society:

"Salesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the principles on which freedom can securely stand"  - John Adams

Some of our greatest founding fathers were focused on a government that would allow for individual freedom.  To that end, they trusted in their Creator who granted the liberty to us. Some even felt as if it was a given that America was always to be a Christian Nation:


"Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian Nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."
-John Jay

Mr. Jay was a founding father, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Chief Negotiator with Britain in gaining or independence. 

On the other hand, God wants us to NOT be concerned regarding the ways of the world and focus on what we need to do to be His children. Does our history indicate we should be a theocracy or a true bastion of freedom and welcome all?  Part of the brilliance I see in our origin as a nation is how the founding values are completely applicable and just as important today as it was 230 years ago. So what am I to do today as a Christian with the moral legislation that has been passed or overturned in recent history? Simple - Be a Christian!

Christ Jesus Himself set the tone back in the early days of his ministry in an exchange with the Pharisees (Hebrew leaders at the time) who were trying to "entangle him in His words" (Matt 22:15). In hopes of getting Rome to arrest Jesus and take him off of their hands, the Pharisees  asked about tribute or taxes.  Now Jesus had just described his church as a Nation coming.  The thought of an earthly kingdom ruled by Christ was treason to Rome.  Christ looked at the tribute, a penny with the image of Caesar on it and said "... Render unto Caesar that which Caesars." (Matthew 16:19).

Was Christ a political figure?  No.  At every opportunity, Christ had people looking at themselves individually.  It was not Christ's purpose to overthrow Rome, or the physical Nation of Israel.

Was the first century church a political force? No, not really.  Not until about 300 AD when it was starting to be acceptable to allow and tolerate those crazy Christians. How much of that was the first century church and how much was the beginning of the Roman Church, I can't tell you.  You'll have to decide.

Is that what God intended?  Was it God's intent to create a nation in spirit and in Christ that had no earthly  kingdom? More than that, I would propose that God always had a view of His nation where He alone was king. The entry requirements changed over history. At first you walked with God, then you were born to his family and now we have a right to become citizens of God's nation.  There are duties to follow his design, and like previous methods, we are then born in to God's Nation through our belief in Christ being strong enough
to support the action of baptism first, then living  in God's will.

Paul teaches in 1st Corinthians that we are not to associate with immoral people inside the church:
1st Corinthians 5:9-13
9  I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people.  10  Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.  11  But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner--not even to eat with such a person.  12  For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside?  13  But those who are outside God judges. Therefore "put away from yourselves the evil person."

Notice that Paul does not say we should condemn people "in the world". Paul stresses that we are to associate with the world, folks outside the church. If we do not associate with   "9...sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world." .  From a practical point of view, how can we share Christ with folks if we hid in a christian commune some place? No, if we are to share the gospel we are required to participate in the world.

As for immoral behavior outside the church Paul says: "12 For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 13  But those who are outside God judges. Therefore "put away from yourselves the evil person."

So as is consistent throughout the Old Testament, it is God's job to decide on what is to happen  to those outside of Christ . God is the only judge.

Note Paul commands us to not associate with continually immoral brethren in the church. Why is it fair to judge our fellow Christians but not those in the world?  As Christians we have each chosen to hold ourselves to a higher standard.  We as individuals would still not be judges, we as Christians hold our bretheren to the standards of God's law. The principles of Christ.

So as a Americans what do we need to do with the immoral?  The Constitution of the United States restricts the Government from infringing on individual liberties. The law of the land was never intended to be a moral compass.  As John Adams said "... but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the principles on which freedom can securely stand." As is stressed by our founding fathers and by God through the prophets and apostles, individual responsibility is what makes a great society. Individuals need to tend to their personal morals and through that we honor the values of freedom and liberty that this country was founded on.

I am sure like Paul, our founding fathers did not imagine the world we live in. today.  However God does know.  And God asks us to look to our family in Christ and to teach (not judge) the people outside of the family of Christ.

Gregor - Back from the brink! From there and back again. A spiritual Hobbit's journey.