Vanity versus Sanity



There are so many valuable lessons to learn from working the steps.  One of the first lessons I learned is willingness.  I learned how to be willing to be teachable.  This was very challenging.  Although I consider myself a very good student, this was different from anything I've ever had to learn.

The first thing I found hard to grasp is that OA was not about weight loss.  "We are not a weight loss program," it says in some of the literature.  I also found it difficult to wrap my arms around that fact that compulsive overeating really wasn't about the food.  Eating, the food, is simply the symptom. 

Through step 3, I become willing to adopt a new attitude about weight control, body image, and eating.  Truthfully, I am still working on this one.    There's a slogan members like to say...I came for the vanity and stayed for the sanity.

At first I really didn't understand what it meant.  I knew they meant they came into the program to lose (or gain or maintain) weight but then stayed because of other reasons.  Once I understood OA is a spiritual program, I understood the meaning of this slogan.  I came into OA to lose weight but instead stayed because I found freedom from the insanity of compulsive overeating. 

I eat to live, not live to eat.  I go to the gym and exercise because it keeps my stress level down.  It also feels good.  Exercising is helping not only my body but my spirit and my mind.  I see myself as a whole person now.  I treat myself as a whole person.  I attend to my mind, my body, and my spirit on a daily basis. 

Now, this is not to say that I still do not want to lost weight...because I do.  I just have a new attitude about how to get there.  It's not about dieting.  It's about making lifestyle changes.