TamWiki

<< | Life Style | Tamara'sWeightLossDiet >>

Update: No longer in FA.

FA is a very difficult and demanding program. It isn't for everyone. There are factions that will not let you take psych medications and participate in certain programs. This is a very dangerous thing!!

Food Addicts In Recovery Anonymous, aka "FA", is a 12-step program designed to give people who have little or no control over their eating the discipline needed to eat well. FA is an offshoot of Overeaters Anonymous, via 90-day OA and something that people pronounce like "how" -- I don't know anything about the latter.

The main reason I sought FA was on a recommendation from my therapist. My blood sugars were topping 220 and staying high. I was desperate to drop them. The next step would have been to put me on insulin, which I wanted to avoid if at all possible. She said she had a couple of other clients who benefitted greatly from FA and thought the discipline would do me good in my general overall healing processes as well.

FA is working well for me. I started the program September 10th at 297 lbs, dropped to 291 by the 4th day after starting, and as of January 1st, 2005, have lost a total of 47 pounds, a little over 10 pounds a month. If I can maintain the weight loss of 10 pounds per month, I will be at my goal weight in 7 months. The main reason remains getting my blood sugars down, however. I'm happy to say that on that 4th day weigh-in at 291 I was at the diabetologist's office and my morning fasting reading had been 105! She immediately cut one of my medications in half, which is decidedly the direction I'd like to be going, down rather than up!

Here is my progress to date re: weight loss:

! Date	! Weight	! Delta	! Total Loss
00 Jul 2004	303	(Top Weight)	0
07 Sep 2004	297	-6	-6
10 Sep 2004	Start Program
13 Sep 2004	291	-6	-12
01 Oct 2004	274	-17	-29
01 Nov 2004	266	-8	-37
11 Dec 2004	259	-7	-44
01 Jan 2005	250	-9	-53
31 Jan 2005	239	-11	-64
01 Mar 2005	235.5	-3.5	-67.5
02 Apr 2005	228	-7.5	-75
03 May 2005	222	-6	-81
27 May 2005	220	-2	-83

Goal Weight: 190-195
Pounds to go: 25-30

In FA, we only weigh ourselves once a month.

FA combines a food plan that is pretty strict with other disciplines. Here's what my day is like:

1. at 5:30 am, I get up, get on my knees and pray to my Higher Power for an abstinent day and any other help I am going to need that day
2. shower and get dressed
3. read the daily page from the book _24 Hours A Day_
4. spend a half an hour in quiet meditation seeking my Higher Power and to quiet my mind
5. at 6:45 am spend 15 minutes on the phone giving my sponsor my food plan for the day
6. eat an abstinent breakfast consisting of 8 ounces of plain, non-fat yogurt, 6 ounces or 1 piece of fresh fruit, and 1 ounce of oatmeal
7. at noon, I eat an abstinent lunch consisting of 4 ounces of protein, 8 ounces of a raw vegetable (garden salad) with 1 Tbsp oil, and 1 small piece of fruit (6 oz)
8. sometime during the day, I make 3 outreach phone calls to people in the program, only counting live people, not answering machines
9. at 6 pm, I eat an abstinent dinner consisting of again 4 ounces of protein, 6 ounces of a cooked vegetable, and 8 ounces of raw vegetables (garden salad) with # Tbsp oil
10. at night, I prepare my meal plan for the next day
11. I write in my journal
12. I read 2 pages from the Big Book of _Alcoholics Anonymous_
13. go to sleep by 10 pm

They have a web site, at http://www.foodaddicts.org/

Prayers

SERENITY PRAYER' (expanded)

Lord, Grant me
Clarity, amidst confusion
Hope, amidst despair
Faith, in the world and in myself
Serenity, to accept what I cannot change
Courage, to change what i can
and the Wisdom to know the difference

THE PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS'

Lord, make me a channel of thy peace,
that where there is hatred, I may bring love;
that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;
that where there is discord, I may bring harmony;
that where there is error, I may bring truth;
that where there is doubt, I may bring faith;
that where there is despair, I may bring hope;
that where there are shadows, I may bring light;
that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;
to understand, than to be understood;
to love, than to be loved.
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.
It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life.

<< | Life Style | Tamara'sWeightLossDiet >>

Categories: Food, LifeStyle