6 Weeks Clean and Sober!

 Hi, I'm Melanie, and I'm a compulsive overeater/sugar addict.

(Hi, Melanie!)

I don't mean that sarcastically at all. I have participated in Overeaters Anonymous at different times in my life, and its program was tremendously helpful. If we weren't in the midst of a pandemic that has kicked in-person meetings to the curb, I'd be going right now.

But alas, we are in the mist of a pandemic, so I've been working on this on my own. 

And today, I have achieved 6 weeks of sobriety. That's a tricky term when you're talking about food. How do you know if you've indulged your addiction on a given day? Some fellow addicts choose to set a meal plan for each day, report it to someone - preferably a sponsor (something I don't have right now), and as long as you adhere to the plan you have maintained sobriety. Others use a more amorphous standard of "Did I eat with dignity?" But what I choose to go with is not eating any sugar. At all. And also avoiding trigger foods.

I also happen to be following a specific, doctor-supervised eating plan that is designed to reduce inflammation and create other health benefits as well as encourage weight loss if that's something that's needed. This plan does not allow for any sugar. Or any trigger foods. You can't even eat carrots. Or cherries. So as long as I stay within the parameters of this plan, I consider myself to have stayed clean. 

This has been a long time in the making. Off and on for the past 6 years or so, I've had pretty serious breathing problems. I had gotten them largely under control once, in part by following this same plan I'm doing now. But when I bottomed out after losing my job, I had a really hard time getting motivated to work on the issue again. My life often feels very small and unsatisfying, missing that compelling purpose of something that compels me to stay alive. But I finally decided I needed to take responsibility for the state of my life and craft it into something worth fighting for.

Joy as depicted in the film Inside Out


I started by making a list of things that brought me joy, even in my circumstances at the time. Then I started being intentional about making time to do something from that list every single day. Now I look for as many opportunities as I can find in each day to do this. Eventually, this pushed me forward enough to want more: the ability to travel, a more challenging and fulfilling job, not having to worry about so many things when I want to go somewhere. (Will there be stairs? Will I be able to park close by? Is there going to be a line?)

And I knew that to get those things, I had to become a recovering addict instead of an active one. So here we are. 6 weeks down, hopefully many years - and adventures - to go. 

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 15, 2021 at 6:59 AM

    I'm so proud and impressed by you. You are indeed a force to be reckoned with. Glad to "know" you.

    ReplyDelete

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