Dead web sites

http://www.featherish.com/ is now dead, taken over by a spam link company.

http://www.moritherapy.org/religion-vs-spirituality/ is even better than the site was before, so not everything is dead.

http://thedepressedchicksstory.blogspot.com/ is dead and ready for a spambot to move in and take over

http://jujuju.org/ is no longer relevant. It is more entertaining

Compulsive Eaters Anonymous-HOW -- well worth a visit. They are a group that gets success. http://www.ceahow.org/hist.htm for more about them. "It is important to note that all H.O.W. groups are sugar and flour abstinent and committed to weighing and measuring their food. However, there are regional differences in some of the abstinence programs. "


Overeaters Anonymous Very Low Carbohydrate Food Plan: Greysheet Recipes by Anonymous Members of Greysheet Recipes and Member of OA & Greysheeter's Anonymous (Paperback - May 2, 2008)
Buy new: $24.95 $22.45
13 Used & new from $22.45

http://wordpress.com/tag/overeaters-anonymous/

• http://blameful.wordpress.com/2008/09/07/gone-nowhere/ -- terribly sad.
• http://blameful.wordpress.com/2008/09/06/time-of-day-and-purging/
• http://recoveringanorexic.wordpress.com/2008/09/06/lowest-of-low/

Wishing people hope and strength.

Food is a drug to me

I just want to thank you for your suggestion for some folks to seek out OA meetings. I am only speaking from my own experience.

I fell off the "Shangri-La" wagon several times and for the same reasons I have been unable to maintain any healthy changes in lifestyle or adhere to any weight loss plan or "diet", regardless of how well I was losing weight. I would hit my "wall of fear"--I guess I cannot concieve of what life will be like once I lose a fair amount of weight - I am going to be vunerable and scared. Overeating food and being overweight is my personal cushion between me and the world. This is why I sought out the OA program. I need to deal with my emotional eating issues. What Shangri-La does for me is shut off the "screaming" of my body for unnecessary, unneeded extra food. Food is a drug to me. I would "inject" my drug every night before bed alone in front of the TV until I was overfull and wakeup every morning "hung over" and sick from all the crap I ate the night before, and my drug worked less and less and I would have to eat more and more. The comfort was fleeting. Having AS, I am more clearheaded and able to work on my emotional eating issues without succumbing.

There are many types of OA groups - there are beginner groups. If you go to the OA site, the groups will have descriptions of who they are meant for.

There are OA groups for bulimics and anorexics, though from what I understand they seek out additional one-on-one therapy. Everyone needs to seek out what works best for them.

"We admitted we were powerless over food--that our lives had become unmanageable."

Well, she was thanking someone else, but she hit it right on the head:

http://boards.sethroberts.net/index.php?topic=5351.msg74073#msg74073

Bad extrapolations, silliness in diet books

Too many diet experts extrapolate from very, very small (tiny) population samples.

For example, if you exercise more than twenty hours a week, you will lose weight much differently than a normal person does.

Then there are the people whose set points are loosely held and who don't regulate their weight well by just eating until they have cleaned their plates. They can just go "hey, I've gotten fat, I guess I'll eat less" and they'll lose weight.

Then there are the "walk a mile every day until you are thin" types who do not respond to needing more calories by eating more. How many fat walkers have you seen? Women's magazine editors talk about those types of articles in terms of "if I read another one I'll puke."

Most people do not fall into one of those narrow groups. On the other hand, almost all personal trainer types are the "work out more than twenty hour a week" types. Big surprise -- their experience and observations are useless for their clients, most of whom stay fat.

The other two groups may have some benefits, walking reduces tension and is good for keeping mental acuity (for real, real studies show that walking on a daily basis preserves mental function as you get older -- it just doesn't make you thin), but as for a diet, if it really worked we would all be walking.

But at least half of the diets and health books out there make bad extrapolations and result in silliness. Nothing more.

Some good links:

http://www.featherish.com/

http://www.moritherapy.org/

http://thedepressedchicksstory.blogspot.com/

http://metrowestoa.org/wsbc2008/

http://jujuju.org/

Fourth and Fifth Steps in OA

Part of a twelve-step program is working the twelve steps. For most programs, many people have real problems with the fourth and fifth steps, which have to do with taking inventory of yourself and making things right. The reason for them is to start to unwind the complex of behaviors, habits and issues that feed addiction.

OA is really different from other twelve step programs at this point. Most alcoholics and drug addicts have been unfaithful to spouses, stolen and lied to support their addictions and done a lot of other things in the grip of their compulsions.

People who overeat have as the most important thing that they get from the fourth and fifth steps is that they should love themselves.

Instead of fear and loathing, most feel relief and joy.

So, is everyone a carb addict?

No. Not even. Think of the Pima Indians. Sure, 50% have bloated up -- but 50% of them haven't!

So, a lot of people would be a lot better off without any sugar, without any white flour and with reduced carbs.

But some people lose weight while eating half a cup to a cup of sugar a day (like this guy) and others do just fine in their blood work (like this one) but it doesn't usually hurt to start that way. South Beach Diet guidelines are an easy way to do that.

Bottom line:

So many folks are looking for a miracle program that has every nutrition and lifestyle choice under a microscope. Something to "guarantee" results, as it dominates all aspects of their life.

That article goes on to explain:

4. Low Carbs or High Carbs? Make a Choice.

Everyone knows that in order to lose fat you need to cut your carbs, right? Not so fast. Certain studies have shown that some people lose almost twice as much fat on high carb diets as they would on low carb diets. However, others will lose twice as much fat by doing the opposite and keeping their carbs low (3).

This is due to variations in insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance. In many ways, insulin and glucose have a stimulating effect on the body. In people that are insulin sensitive, carbs increase sympathetic nervous system activity (think natural amphetamine), which translates into a boost in metabolism.

However, the thermic effect of carbohydrate ingestion varies greatly between different people. Insulin resistant people don't get the same metabolic stimulating effect. But people that are more insulin sensitive often feel like crap on low carb diets for this reason. Their metabolism quickly drops like a rock in response to low carbs, while more insulin resistant people will enjoy greater energy and mental clarity.

So, how do you tell which VIP club you're in? If you feel like death after a few days of low carbs and find that you don't lose much fat, you're probably more insulin sensitive. You can likely succeed with a diet as high as 50% carbs. If you feel on top of the world, you're probably more insulin resistant and will do better keeping carbs to 30% or less.

If you're still not sure which group you're in, test yourself. After eating a fairly high carb diet (at least 150 to 200 grams) for three days, and going at least 24 hours without exercise, have 50 to 75 grams of medium glycemic carbs, such as oatmeal, for breakfast.

Scroll down, ignore the advertisements and you will eventually get to a test to figure out what kind of diet will work for you (instead of making you balloon up even bigger).

If after an hour, you feel sleepy and are hungrier than you were before eating, then carbs aren't for you. If you feel more energetic, then carbs are your new training partner.

What about surgery?

First thing they will tell you is no sugar and no bread. Ok.

Second thing they will tell you is that it only works if you join and attend a support group. Most people are back to where they were (except disfigured and scarred by surgery) within seven years.

Bottom line: you have to live as if you were strictly part of OA-HOW and they also want $14,000 or so from you.

Try OA HOW first, see if you can handle it for a year. If you can, then weight loss surgery is for you, if you still need it. If you can't, the surgery isn't going to work for you, just screw you up really badly. The surgery is as bad for you, or worse, than being fat. That isn't much of an improvement.

• http://www.foodaddictsanonymous.org/faq.htm
  
• http://wordpress.com/tag/oahow/
• http://oahow.squarespace.com/1a-oa-how-questions-ii/
• http://www.oa.org/faqs_page2.html#18
• Recipes and eating plans
• www.foodaddictsanonymous.org -- the guys who agree with Gary
  Taubes and science. Still not reconciled, guess because they are right, kind of.
  

Harder to find than I thought. At least OA HOW has reconciled with OA these days even if food addicts hasn't.

Try them for a year, figure out if you want HOW or FA, and see how it holds together. Costs a heck of a lot less than surgery.

Good stuff

People who are involved in personal development of any kind do exactly these things. When it first starts, they recognize that they are powerless over their limitations.

This does not mean that there is nothing that can be done about the thing that they want to change. It simply means that, as things stand right now, they don’t have the necessary knowledge or ability to make the change that they want to.

But there’s always hope.

Whatever limitation you are currently powerless over, it’s always possible to find the necessary power if you follow the directions of those that have done what you want to do.

SLD gave me power over my appetite. There was suddenly something that could be done that worked.

But that is the quote that made me provide a link to http://creatingabetterlife.net/

I feel so judged and so judged. At the same time, I can’t help that and whatever I think is only that, it’s what I think. It may or may not be true. One the most moving parts of this meeting, was hearing the story of a really strong Israeli woman who has been through so much.

From http://muslimahinprogress.wordpress.com/

There is no quick fix.

From http://recoveredbulimic.wordpress.com/2008/04/19/normal-eating/ "I am so grateful that I survived those days as a young woman struggling in New York City — a walking toothpick, bingeing and vomiting incessantly, sometimes even vomiting blood, depressed and alone, paranoid and afraid, having blackouts and hearing voices as I walked to work. I wanted to live, but I had lost hope and was waiting for death. Instead, I recovered."

My definition of humanity – of being a human being – of the human condition – is that we all have something. Behind our masks, underneath our strategically chosen clothing and in the shadows of our carefully selected words, we all struggle.

From http://serafina00.vox.com/

Good stuff.