Congratulations on Day 6 Peaceful. Thats pretty cool :) :c011: :nyaa

I have a dream of setting up my dining room as a yoga and exercise room. It already has a huge mirror at one end which makes it look like a gym and some very nice floorboards. At the moment it's covered in the wreckage of my drinking past, but I'm dreaming!

I had to smile at all the anon groups. When I was doing my 90 in 90 I also tried out debtors, food, OA, CA, NA, ACoA, codependents, and SLAA. I'n coming up for 9 months nicotine free too. My sponsor wants me to focus on AA whilst I do the steps which is a fair enough comment. I loved the concept of "emotional anorexia" in SLAA and I loved the adult children literature. That's probably where I felt most at home.

Good Day to you Peaceful!

A big thank you to you, glad you are walking alongside me. That is an admirable assortment of groups you have attended.

I was a bit restricted as where I live there isnt the full selection available. Meetings here are few and far between.

Yes, ACoA is beautiful. The literature is like a warm cup of tea. Lovely, warms the body and soul. When they read out their Laundry List I was nodding to all of the traits. Such a weight off my shoulders.

Turning your dining room into a Yoga room would be fabulous. I find Yoga quietens my loud mind.

I had 2 mini corn tortillas with cheese, eggs, and veggies. First complex carb I've had in a few days. All my carbs are coming from veggies and a bit of fruit. But I just wanted to get some energy to go do some cardio and not feel like I'm dragging. Hope it doesn't spiral out of control. Will report back later.

Me too Peaceful. I hiked with Dog for a couple of hours in the glorious shady forest. Have done 20,000 steps according to smartphone. Hungry when I got home. I hung on and made chicken and boiled potatoes and salad. All good. But... there is an apple pie left over from last binge and just like an alcoholic, I cant throw it out. Someone said today alcohol isn't a precious substance, we can bin it. Anyway, I didn't eat the whole thing. It's progress.

Prof, maybe you won't react as badly to the corn as you would to the wheaty ones? Let us know how it goes. Sending some of that force of love to you :hug:

That sounds heavenly, weaverbird! I've been insisting on going on hikes every weekend with my husband and dog. It's so nice to get outside and relax. Somehow I think it's especially helpful for addicts.

So far so good with the tortillas. I had a great time on the treadmill (too muggy outside to run). Felt good to work to exhaustion. I definitely burned the tortillas off and I don't have the panicked binge feeling so far...so maybe I'm in the clear.

Day 6 done. Amazing how quickly the cravings stop once sugar and refined carbs are removed.

My cravings were totally controlling me and now nothing. Completely gone. So my job is to keep them gone by not picking up.

Day 7 begins. I feel good about it.

Food plans for the day are 1500 calories of high protein foods. Protein to bring stability to my body.

My goals are a peaceful mind and peaceful life. I am learning to step back from things I am better off not being involved in. I notice by not acting impulsively but instead sitting with the ideas, they fade away and I did not have to act out on them. If I don't act in the first few seconds of the thought popping up in my head, it is likely I won't act on it at all.

I then have no self induced regret or shame to have to deal with. Or cleaning up a financial or emotional mess I have caused.

Things that are right for me to do just seem to flow. Is completely different feeling.

With toxic people, places and things, I get a nervous fluttery feeling in my tummy which is warning me to step away. Things that are right and healthy feel comfortable and right. They feel sort of "warm" inside my body.

AH has been up all night drinking, when I woke and got my coffee first thing, he appeared to want me to go sit with him. I opted not to do that as from past experience it was have been listening to a list of his complaints. This would have both infuriated and upset me.

Instead just for today, I made the coffee. Poured us both a cup, made a pleasant comment about the weather and removed myself back upstairs. My serenity intact. I also now understand that listening to a drunk person have a pity party is "enabling" so I can see it does neither of us any good. AH pulled faces to express his annoyance that I wouldn't listen to his complaints but I chose to ignore that.

When I drank, there was nothing more I liked than a grand pity party as I chugged down my alcohol. Grateful to have left this behind.

PW - I had the same experience when I simply stopped consuming sugar: within a few days of abstinence, the cravings completely disappeared. At the church where I work, I walk right past plates of cookies with no regret or longing. It really drives home the chemical nature of sugar addiction.

Now, someone waving a steaming bowl of mac and cheese under my nose might risk losing an arm! I will always miss potatoes and pasta, which might as well be sugar for my metabolism. For my birthday, I don't need a cake; I'd rather celebrate with some buttered starch!

PW, good on you! Great work. I can perfectly visualize the scenario you explain, and I think you made the right choice for sure.

I made my husband espresso this morning, too :) He got to drink it in bed before getting up. Not sure I would have been a big enough person to do that if he had been drinking, tho :)

I tend to wake up earlier than Nick and I must admit (corny as) I really like making him an espresso and taking it to him in bed.....but then I have only been married for 8 months. :)

I would love to hear from Sunflowerlife this morning......hope we do soon. xx

Good morning sweet Weev- I think that is an AWESOME idea and inspiration from the Divine to make that a special room! Maybe you could just start with clearing out a corner of it for now- a place to sit still and breathe, when those food urges come up. I know for me a lot of my mindless eating is when I am not connected to my body and to source. I find myself just reaching into the cabinet for nuts and the fridge for a string cheese before I have even established the fact that I am or am not hungry.

Are you still going to the gym? If not you could also use that space as a workout room too! So many workouts can be done with just bodyweight. I know you used to love those gym classes last year...It could be a workout/yoga room!

Congrats on the nicotine free! You have made some amazing changes over the last year. I am so, so proud of my dear friend...
Have a beautiful day...:You_Rock_

Good morning! I am really happy to hear that your tortilla experiment ended well :) We really just have to find what foods work well for our bodies and minds and it sounds like you are working on that process with a lot of grace and patience.

Have a wonderful day!

I can relate so much to this post PW- you inspire me to really check in with myself and step away before reacting, something I still struggle with!

I do well with a lot of protein too- some people feel better with super high fat and for me it's the protein which signals my body to stop eating.

I wish you an amazing day 7- you are really doing this!

Good morning Arp- ah, walking past that plate of cookies must feel so good! If we can just give ourselves time to make it a few days of being sugar free, we start to feel like a totally different person- really cool, isn't it? That's my biggest issue really- I give up before the actual magic begins and the cravings subside.

Have a great day!

Good morning everyone. I’ve been reading through this thread and I think I’d like to join.
Ever since I quit drinking I have replaced it with food. I’ve always had an unhealthy relationship with food and I want this to change. I’m not sure how to change my binge eating habits but maybe by posting here I can begin to change the way I look at food. 💕
Thank you for this thread.

AAPJ- just want to publicly apologize for my comment yesterday, which was spoken out of irritation when I could have just let myself not react. I already knew I was in a bad mood and in these times it is best for me to just sit back and process information rather than feed off of my emotions. I hope to do better next time :)

Hi Sunflower79! It's lovely to have you here. There are lots of resources out there and I can share with you the ones that have helped me:

Podcasts: Brain Over Binge (there is also a book/ workbook)
Overeaters Anonymous- Los Angeles Intergroup seems to have the most speaker podcasts.

websites: https://foodaddictioninstitute.org/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWXXvOJ4SKI

You are so sweet to do that for Nick- have I ever told you that my husband's name is Nick too??

I'm here- been trying to wake up/catch up this morning. I didn't get home until 12:25 am and I was able to sleep in until 8, something I haven't done in years!

Thank you 🙏🏻

Day 2
 

Good morning my friends.

Last night was my last of an 8 week spiritual development class. I hung around until almost midnight giving hugs and having some final conversations with friends. It was the first time that others talked to me about their experiences with AA and OA and it was amazing how it kept popping up. 2 people were really surprised that I was able to get sober without AA (I heavily relied on SR for that and still do) and 1 guy has been going to OA since August, another wants to come with me to the meetings as he's too scared to go alone. This particular friend also wants me to sing on his next album which he is going to be writing all about the experiences we had during this class on awakening.

I thought I would leave sad but I left inspired and feeling loved- and excited to see where my path will next lead. This year has been amazing for me- it started with me taking a Reiki class (Level 1) in March and through that class I learned about the Awakening class which I just completed. I am thinking about moving onto the next class which is a 1 year Spiritual Apprenticeship - I haven't decided yet if that is the next step.

I wanted to share with you an experience I had last night in class- we do a lot of "integrative breathwork" which is a breathing technique which brings about healing and transformation, wherever it is needed. Last night we were tuning in to to get a message from the Divine and mine was:

"The choice is yours- you don't have to suffer anymore."

This was mind blowing, life changing and completely healing for me. I finally realized that my constant engagement in these eating behaviors is indeed my choice and that I can make different choices if I truly want to. One of the guides had also made a comment earlier about how we suffer "until we choose not to anymore." My ego likes to convince me that I am powerless over my choices, that the binge eating is going to happen no matter what but it's simply not true. I may be powerless over my brain chemistry and over the fact that I am an alcoholic and food addict but the choice whether or not to binge/eat compulsively is mine. It may sound simple to some of you but it was very eye opening to me because I had forgotten or convinced myself otherwise over the last few months for some reason.

So here I am, day 2. I don't know how I am going to do this other than to take one hour at a time and keep remembering who I am (I am The Light)- what I am (I am Essence) and what I am capable of (I am responsible for my choices and free to choose the life that I want. I can create a life- it's okay for me to be FULLY ALIVE!)

Thanks for listening, thanks for being here. I love each and every one of you- It's OK for all of us to be FULLY ALIVE! It's okay to make the choices your soul is asking for. It's okay not to give in to the urges. It's okay to live a life of self love, peace and grace. WE can do this...:tyou