So after a particularly bad, stress-induced, destructive night of binging, I went to my first ever Overeaters Anonymous meeting today. And cried. There were only three other people in this meeting, and I cried in front of them, telling them about the past three years, my WW goal and losing 80 pounds, only to gain 15 of it back when we moved back to Pittsburgh. I also told them about how WW does a great job of supporting you while youa re losing weight, but that I couldn’t find what I needed after I made Lifetime. There are rarely other Lifetime members in meetings or specific meetings just for Lifetime members.
It was interesting. Similar to an AA meeting that I attended with Butch a few years ago, but (actually) less whiny. There were two women who had been going to OA for almost 30 years and one that just started in December. It is not a weight loss program and then don’t have a recommended diet plan. In fact, they suggested that I could continue attending WW meetings and following the plan as it is, but use OA as a support group to talk about the things that WW doesn’t address like how to continue to live at your goal weight and how to overcome binge eating disorder.
All of my weight gain is due to binge eating: 90% of the time, I’m fine. And 90% of each day, I’m fine. But 2 or so days a week, I consume close to 2000 calories in one evening. And over 7 months, it has led to a 15 pound gain.
I will attend another meeting next week and see if I learn more. There are also online meetings & conference call meetings when I can’t get downtown on Wednesday at noon. And there are meetings around the world, around the clock, so if I’m about to lose control, I could jump online and find an online meeting instead of gving in to the binge.
I’ll let everyone know what I’m learning and share as much insight as I can.
Amy, I’ve just started attending OA meetings, both face to face and online and have also found them to be a wonderful group of people. My hometown meeting is small with just a handful of members, but I sometimes think that makes things more intimate than a larger meeting. You may find the online meetings helpful as well; I do. 🙂 I can so relate to what you wrote about binging — that’s 90% of my problem, too.
Here’s a link to the online meetings if you’re ever interested — they have several a day. http://oa12step4coes.org/welcome.html This site will tell you everything you need to know to join in.
Good luck!