Despite our best plans, there are times when the food still calls to us. What then? One of the greatest benefits of working this program is that, for today, we have been given the ability to choose not to overeat. Our addicted brains told us that we had to eat, so we ate. One thing to remember when we feel like eating; it is much easier to stay abstinent than it is to get abstinent. Once we start abstaining from overeating, eating sanely becomes a habit with inertia of its own. After the initial withdrawal passes, we feel good about ourselves and about what we are eating. But getting started is not easy. If you get back into overeating now, you never know how long it will take to eat sanely again.
As one person said at a meeting, “I know I have another binge left in me, but I do not know if I have another recovery.” Today, I know that overeating is not an option. No matter how difficult life gets, I realize that there is no problem I have that binging my brains out will help By working all the Tools and Steps of the Program, the compulsion to overeat disappears, for the most part. Accepting my eating disorder, doing my best to deal with the emotional damage it causes, and working with others who have my disease have brought me to a point where I no longer crave excess food. The intense cravings to stuff myself with junk food are long gone. Now I consider it a bad day if I start counting the hours until my next meal.