My name is Mack, and I'm an alcoholic. My last drink was 7/24/14, so my sobriety date is 7/25/14. My last SAD binge was 8/6/14, so my abstinence date is 8/7/14.
I feel that AA is the ideal approach to alcohol addiction and I went to a very good AA meeting this morning. However, I am having lots and lots of trouble being a 100% LFRV in AA because the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous (AABB) recommends that an alcoholic, "...carry chocolate at all times...and depend upon sweets...coffee...cigarettes...," whenever the craving for alcohol raises its head. In practice, this recommendation means that alcoholics simply transfer their addiction for alcohol to a dependence upon SAD.
There are chocolates, sweets, coffee and cigarettes in the meetings, and there are people who are addicted to SAD in a militant way. In fact, I believe one could say that about the American society in general. There are sick people in AA. There are people who suffer from cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease(s) and some 20 or 30 obesity-related, chronic, degenerative diseases (ORCDD's)--and they are militant defenders of their addiction--because they can point to the AABB (written in 1935) and say they are doing what is recommended to stay sober!
This practice and these people make it very difficult for me to get sober and become a 100% LFRV in AA! In fact, I have a tough time doing either of these things anywhere in the USA because there are many sick, alcoholic, SAD-addicted people everywhere in the USA.
So I would like to start my own discussion group; my own 12-step meeting; my own support group. I hope that I can allow anyone and everyone to share his own experience, strength and hope without becoming self-righteous about my own beliefs. I hope that I can learn from others; help and be helped by others; and thereby find the support that may help me become a 100% LFRV.
However, many will say that I am an extremist. I hope to bring the 12 Steps of AA to this discussion, and to practice them with SAD the same way I am learning to practice them with alcohol in AA.
Replies
Can you elaborate some on the 12 steps? I've never been to a meeting, but I've always thought that the basic principles could help me with my addiction to food. Also, doing more positive things, like volunteering at my local animal shelter (which I've been slacking on). I think replacing bad habits with good ones would help.
My problem is that I live in Fresno, CA and I don't know anyone who eats even remotely healthy. My only real friend thinks that school lunches are super healthy. I am so good at talking myself into eating crap, but I really do care about changing. I haven't been on this site for a while, but I think this is the only place I will get support. My boyfriends family is italian, but not the healthy-ish kind. The American Italian (everything is filled with meat and fat). Family get togethers are the worst.
I've been doing pretty good now for a couple of weeks, but I would like to know more about the 12 steps and applying them to food addiction. I don't know about others, but I am an emotional eater. I also eat when I'm bored, and thats really a bad combo, especially since I usually reach for a snack bar or something quick (like a quesadilla). I'm doing pretty good right now, but I'm worried that I will go for the crap when I go to see family, or go out to eat.
Hey Danae, im in a twelve step program( cause of a drug addiction), but if i were you i would check out durianrider on youtube on emotional eating, the 12 step program is for addicts who ruin their lives and that of everyone around them with their behavior, like step 1 says : we admitted we are powerless over our addiction and our lives had become unmanageable..
If you still think you need the program check out overeaters anonymous, you will find a meeting near you
Greets. Thijs
I'm sensing you have problems keeping friends... Being plant based won't help that Mack. Later, bro!
I'm out....lol!
Everybody has an opinion, right.
I must say, that you certainly must be in good condition if you don't drink, smoke or eat junk food, and you've held to that practice for the past year!
I'm a 70 y/o male. 5'9" tall; 189 lbs. (with a 40-lb. paunch around my middle). I look athletic when I stand next to another 70 y/o man, but I'm not. My belt is comfortable at 46", but I wear it at 44". My large shirts are tight, and my XL shirts are loose. I have clothes in my closet that are everywhere between 34 waist and 48 waist; 42 chest and 48 chest. My goal is to get back to a 32 waist and a BMI of 19 or 20, which is where I was in high school, when I was the co-captain of the Varsity Basketball Team in 1962.
I go to the Y daily, but I have a herniated disc in my lower back; a torn rotator cuff in my left shoulder, arthritis in my shoulders and hips, and a big beer gut around my middle. I can curl about 70 lbs. press about 100, and dead lift about 70 lbs.
There was a time when I ran half marathons, dead lifted 200 lbs. (which is how I hurt my back) and could ride a bike all day and all night with very little rest. I thought I was immortal, but animal products, processed food, sweets and foolishness have crept up on me over the last few years!
Now I have obstructive sleep apnea, which means that I can't get restful, restorative sleep, so obviously I can't run, bike, lift and all that stuff anymore--because I can't sleep well enough to repair the burn in the muscles from even a gentle workout! What I do at the Y is to watch the news until the commercial comes on; then work on a Nautilus machine during the commercial, and return exhausted to the T.V. when the commercial is over, so I can rest enough to go to a different Nautilus machine when the next commercial comes on.
All my problems are caused by ORCDD's. I hope and believe that I may reverse them all by reversing my obesity; my insulin resistance, high cholesterol, high B/P; high serum glucose; even my atherosclerotic deposits inside my arteries! But most of all, I hope to reverse my OSA by losing about 40 lbs. of weight.
I just re-read your post, and decided that you describe yourself as an Olympic athlete and/or muscle-man. You are solid muscle. You can't pinch up even an inch of fat on your stomach, your triceps, your legs or your butt! You are incredibly healthy and you don't have an ounce of fat anywhere on your body. You can lift a horse and knock out an Angus bull with once punch. Your belt is 36" and your chest is 55". Your fists are like steel.
Is that right?
Jay,
Listen, Buddy, at 6'4" and 260 lbs. your BMI is 32. You are obese! It sounds like you are also young and athletic--but you are obese. Obesity is a very dangerous condition, because it causes cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease(s), and some 20-30 obesity-related, chronic, degenerative diseases (ORCDD's).
I was young once, so I know how easy it is to deny insulin insensitivity, atherosclerosis, and other "normal" health conditions--such as a blood pressure of 120/80, etc. which are actually very dangerous! But those things work quietly for years and years and around the age of 65 they become physical imperatives; the predecessors of all kinds of horrors, including death in a nursing home.
A BMI around 20 is healthier. However, If you live in Burleson, I can imagine the society that influences your thinking. Texans are "big." Everything in Texas is Big!
At 189 lbs. I feel 40 lbs. overweight. I am aware that I have most of the 20-30 "conditions" related to obesity, but they have not yet been diagnosed by a doctor; and frankly, I don't intend to wait until I have a heart attack or stroke to have some doctor tell me that I have cardiovascular disease(s) and must take 28 medications the rest of my life.
This whole country is crazy, in my opinion! We think that we're healthy until our doctor tells us different. This whole country has been brainwashed by the fast food industry; the sugar industry; the beef industry; as well as Big Medicine, Big Insurance and Big Drugs!
What "health benefits" are you talking about? OOOPPS! It's none of my business.
At my 6a.m. AA meeting today I asked the two guys I had been 12-stepping for the last two days if they had looked up the website I recommended to them (30BAD). One of the guys is a 240-lb. fat slob (I say that because most of his weight is in his paunch, between his belt and his heart. It is not athletically distributed to his arms, legs, back and butt. Rather, he is a walking stomach). The other guy is fat all over. He probably weighs 260, maybe 275. Not surprisingly, they both had acceptable excuses for not searching for 30BAD, and I realized that they were both in such denial about their weight that I needed to mind my own business.
Have you ever seen Harley? Ever hear him talk? Does he weigh 260 lbs? Is he sick?
I don't want to preach to you, but I will tell you that I am not really impressed to hear you say than you have been vegan for 1 year and weigh 260 lbs. But I need to mind my own business.
I'm not vegan to impress you....lol
Dispensary?
Ok, I've had enough!
Good luck Mack. You need a meeting! lol
One of the guys at my AA meeting, who said they were interested in "dieting" did not show for the meeting this a.m. I gave him the web address for 30BAD yesterday. The other guy said he did not want to borrow a copy of Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, so I'm guessing these guys are not serious. But I am, and I seem to be doing well! So let us continue!
Step One
Admitted that I am powerless over SAD--that my life is unmanageable.
As I see it, this step can mean anything I want it to mean, on any particular day. Today it means that I am 99% LFRV. I had a salad this morning with a peanut sauce and a balsamic sauce on it that contained no oils, no HFCS, no serious toxins, etc., but it was not strictly raw. I also had sliced red, orange and yellow peppers, two bananas and datorade smoothy.
While I ate this breakfast I sat in an AA meeting full of alcoholics who were slurping coffee and stuffing doughnuts. However, I noticed two people eating bananas today! That is something new. Perhaps I am changing the basic codependency of this AA meeting. What I mean by that is that I have apparently shown two people that they will not be ostracized for eating something more healthy than a chocolate-covered doughnut and a cup of coffee with cream and sugar in an AA meeting full of sick and codependent people!
But the importance of my demonstration is that is was good for ME! Not them! It was good for me!! The salad helped me--not them! The honesty helps me--not them.
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
of 5 Next