16 Days and Counting

Well, it's been 16 days since I joined CEA-HOW (Compulsive Eaters Anonymous - Honest, Open-minded and Willing) and I'm still doing it! This is a miracle. There is no way I could have had the discipline and control this program demands without God doing it for me.

It's actually been easy though it took a lot of time to get organized and going the first few days (actually the first 16 days :) I do think I'm getting it down now, though. I find making the meals time consuming especially for someone who often would just grab a peanut butter sandwich when I was on the run. And eating 5 cups of vegetables a day just wasn't something I would ever have even considered until now. I've done the "no sugar" thing for months at a time but no flour, either? Forget it!

I also have to make three "outreach" calls a day (calls to cheer on someone else in the program or to receive encouragement yourself) besides calling my sponsor and writing the answer to one question a day about the 12 Steps.

So why would I do this to myself? Just look what I've done to myself by gaining so much weight over the years. And when I go to their meetings and see 3 women who have lost over 100 lbs and everyone else who has lost from 30 to 86 lbs each, well it convinces me that this is the answer I've needed. And I only have to do it one day at a time.

Like I said, I never could have lasted more than 3 or 4 days on a diet like this before now. I had to absolutely trust Heavenly Father that he would give me the discipline I needed because I was convinced by years of failure at any other diet or self-improvement program I've ever tried that this, too, would be just another one of my high hopes that crashed.

One of the women in the meeting own Coldstone. She's the one that has lost 86 lbs. I asked her how she does it when she works there every day. She said remembering the 23 years of being fat and miserable makes it easy. She is super busy with work and 4 teenage kids and yet she works this in. There are simpler meals she fixes and she eats out a lot but still she is amazing.