OA Blog Links

I'll comment on these later, but wanted to put them up:

http://humantermination.blogspot.com/2008/05/over-eaters-anonymousno.html

http://blameful.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/one-more-day/

http://recoveredbulimic.wordpress.com/2008/04/25/the-blessings-of-bulimia/

http://www.balancedlifecenter.com/298-surrender-powerlessness-and-other-bad-words/

http://overeater.podbean.com/2008/04/27/friday-night-live-is-on-the-air/

http://cherishedmisery.blogspot.com/2008/04/snot-anyone.html

http://overactivefork.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/avoiding-food/

http://weightloss.homeofimprovement.com/where-to-get-obesity-help/

http://sandeek.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/abstinent-recipe-of-the-week-bacon-jicama-melt/

http://phcblog.com/haroldprince1700/2008/04/21/struggling-issues-for-your-teens/

http://serafina00.vox.com/library/post/our-invitation-to-you.html

http://recoveredbulimic.wordpress.com/2008/04/19/normal-eating/

http://muslimahinprogress.wordpress.com/2008/04/18/balance/

http://creatingabetterlife.net/2008/03/24/powerlessness-hacking-the-12-steps-of-alcoholics-anonymous/

Why doctors hate fat people

Perhaps I've put it wrong. It should be, why doctors really, really, really hate fat people.

It seems stupid. Any doctor with half a brain knows that diets don't work. The studies are clear. But, medical professionals can't help themselves from seeing that:

• half of all health problems are "voluntary" (caused by either fat or cigarettes).
• fat makes everything, everything, a doctor does more difficult in ways that they don't get to charge extra for.

Doctors think fat people are stealing from them (forget the monopoly of the AMA, the price fixing and the raw greed and harm to the public health that doctors have engaged in historically).

Nurses just know that fat people are career enders -- more nurses end up with career ending injuries from treating fat people than any other cause.

But next time you think your doctor is hostile to you because you are fat, you aren't reading anything into things. Doctors hate fat people, irrationally so, to the extent that all they do is prescribe diets that make the situation worse (crash diets and rebounding will make you gain weight), surgery that has a history of failing and exercise programs that will make you eat more as your body adjusts.

They do all these stupid things because they hate you so much they can't think straight and honestly do something about the issues.

Which is why the SLD was invented by a PhD and not an MD. And why doctors are pushing expensive programs that don't work for fat people instead of the SLD that does. They hate you and want money from you, rather than want to help your health.

Read Good Calories, Bad Calories (read here and here) and ask yourself if the doctors are really that dense or if they are intentionally pushing a diet they know makes the situation worse. Which one makes them more money?

How I do the Shangri La Diet

I started with one tablespoon of walnut oil, in two ounces of water. I'd put it on the bathroom counter and when I got up in the middle of the night, I'd drink it down. I did that for a week, did not notice much of a change.

Then I moved up to two tablespoons and checked to make sure I was using a real tablespoon (got a measuring spoon from my pharmacy). Did that for a week, and started to lose weight.

After a couple-three months the weight loss slowed, so I moved to three tablespoons.

Now, I use three tablespoons of oil every night. I get more than an hour before and after without any flavor and the walnut oil helps my Omega 3 balance, which is good for my heart and brain.

If three had not worked, I'd have moved to four.

I know, the rule is "one day at a time" but I adjust the amount of oil I take one week at a time.

So, SLD and OA? Yes!

The numbers are pretty good that SLD with a support group works better than without. OA is everywhere, on-line and in person. It is dirt cheap to belong (you can donate a dollar at a meeting if you want to, but you don't have to). Everyone there will understand what it is like to be compulsive about food and to have emotions and other issues if you don't eat -- and you will probably experience something like that if you go on SLD.

Almost everyone who has weight loss surgery has issues. There is little reason to suspect that SLD won't do that to you too.

Cheap, available, friendly, and if you actually listen to and apply the 12 steps you will be a better person for it.

Just be aware that OA isn't a monolith. Each group is different, some very, very different from each other. If you don't like a group, find another one or create your own.

Here is an introduction:

After years of struggling with your weight and obsessing about food, you have decided to give Overeaters Anonymous a try. You find an OA meeting in your area by checking OA's online meeting locator or by calling or e-mailing the World Service Office (WSO). You've called the contact person to confirm the day, time and location of the meeting to make sure the information hasn't changed.

When you arrive at the meeting, you will find men and women who share a common malady—compulsive eating—and have found a common solution: the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous. You will see anywhere from three to 30 people at the meeting. An average meeting has about 10. You will be warmly welcomed.

The meeting usually opens with the Serenity Prayer, and you may hear a reading called "Our Invitation to You," which describes the disease of compulsive overeating and the Twelve-Step solution. Meeting formats may vary, but all OA groups are the same in that they seek recovery on three levels—physical, emotional and spiritual—through the Twelve Steps, and the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop eating compulsively.

You may hear a speaker open the meeting and speak for 10 to 15 minutes about what life was like before OA, what happened, and what he or she is like now; or someone might read from OA or AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) literature. Other members will share their experience, strength and hope. You will have an opportunity to introduce yourself as a newcomer, if you like. You will find that you are not alone, that there is a way out of your desperation. Because anonymity is a critical principle of the OA program, you are assured that what you share will be held in confidence. This provides the safety you need to share your experiences honestly.

Find an OA Meeting

Difficulties

The difficulty with OA is that no other group has as many splinter groups or as many in leadership positions who seem like they just need to sit through a good al anon meeting.

Also, given the history of pink cloud OAers, no one will take SLD seriously if you haven't been in OA four or five years. Even when they do, they'll remember the carbohydrate wars, and won't be very interested in embracing SLD.

Finally, many in OA think that the chaos and turmoil that lies under compulsive overeating is the cause of compulsive overeating (which it is for some -- though I'd bet carbohydrate addiction and misplaced set points affect more people).

History again

Historically, OA began with three people using methamphetamines (doctor prescribed) to lose weight who got together to start their own twelve step program. True to their OCD streak, they abandoned sitting around a table for one person leading a controlled meeting (like a school room). It rewrote the 12 steps completely, dropping most of the core concepts and merged with Gluttons Anonymous a Texas group that was seeking serenity.
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OA has always been driven by images of physical recovery, a highly compulsive borderline anorexic is completely acceptable as a leader. Someone who has lost 200-300 pounds, but who is still overweight is not acceptable at all.

As a result the group has a heavy dose of highly OCD women in the mainline leadership, leavened with others.

Also, unlike other 12 step groups, OA has had strong exclusionary strains, mostly with groups that exclude men.

The saving grace of OA is sterling literature and a willingness to embrace its splinter groups. As a result, it is easy to create or find a support group for any type of person who wants to learn to live without being driven by, or drowned by, food.

So, what about the Shangri La Diet?

SLD will help any type of compulsive over eater with hunger. The troubled won't be able to deal with their issues without some support if they don't have food. A number of early SLDers dropped out when they realized they were not ready to live without their fat. Annie's is the blog of an SLDer who lost weight and then realized her staying fat was how she had dealt with being sexually assaulted. She had to drop SLD until she was ready to lose weight again.

However, it worked.

Several people have posted that the diet did not seem to be working for them, or that it was working very slowly (there is a "Why am I not losing weight?" thread).

However, the vast majority have indeed reported successful weight loss, at varying rates. (I'll not pull any instances of this for you, as a quick glance at Seth's forums shows this very clearly.) The current "champion" loser, Stephen M or Ethesis, started last year and is currently at -62 pounds. He posts updates here. I'm currently still at -20 pounds, but sure I can lose more, and will post more on my experience at this blog and here on Seth's forum. Folks posting at Seth's forums are in all stages of weight loss, from nada to having lost more weight than I have.

Very interestingly, posters regularly report identical "symptoms" as I and others experienced and documented in this blog back into 2005:

• dramatic, sudden, and new (for us) "control" over what and when to eat
• dramatic reduction or "taming" of appetite
• greatly diminished cravings
• a change in "taste" away from junk, salty, overly-spiced, or other typical "bad" foods

The diet seems to regularly increase people's sense of "detachment"; especially from food, but also from other intakes it seems.