Introduction to Plan of Eating Workshop

On January 26, 2013, NLI, the Northern Lights Intergroup, is holding a Plan of Eating workshop. This is a first draft of my opening statement as to the purpose and the essentials of my storey.
the opinions expressed here are the strictly the opinions of the speaker. Take what you want and leave the rest. These opinions do represent OA as a whole.

I have written this out to keep me on point, otherwise I would either miss pieces or go on for hours.

The way I look at obesity and overeating is it has three parts;

• a physical component,
• an emotional / mental / psychological portion, 
• and a spiritual / philosophical / knowledge component. 

OA meetings help with the spiritual issues via the principals, forced integrity of practising abstinence,  the emotional / mental / psychological issues by exposing us to psychological strategies of others, and using several general strategies as part of the program. Today we are going to hear from a several people about the third part, the physical, their food programs or diets.

Later we will have time to ask questions and discuss how we handle the various issues / difficulties / situations / emotions we each face.

As I see it, we have three reduction choices:

• we can adopt a plan of eating, 
• learn about food and nutrition requirements enough to design our own plan, or 
• pray for something to come to us, naturally.

I started with by adopting the gray sheet when I first came to the program, about 25 years ago. No sugar, no grains, a pound of meat each day, low fat, a raw veg and a cooked veg at each meal, 3 meals per day. Nothing but good living in between. Then on some days, I would only eat salads.  That took the weight off, but then came maintenance. I was working at a engineering lab, working on a masters, and attending OA. Slightly busy, OK. Then the work got seasonally sparse, so I had time to study OA. That worked for about 5 years, but then the work came back and it took me away from OA.

I gave up trying to follow the food plan rigidly, and the breads and fats crept back in, but I never took back much sugar, and the weight crept back on. I kept coming to OA, as time permitted, and occasionally after that, but quit putting any effort into the program, and then just quit coming.

By 2006 I was in trouble weight wise, and in 2007 I started to study the food and nutrition. I figured that if I could understand the issue, I could find a diet that I could follow. In 2008, I decides to reduce bread, wheat from my food plan, mainly due to a food log and computing calories. It became obvious to me that bread was my main food, and it had no nutrition value that could not be replaced with vitamin pills and no calories. Then I recognised it was bread made me hungry, even in small quantizes. Eggs and bacon would last me 5 hours until hunger, but if I added a single toast, I would be hungry in 2 hours. Bread had to completely go.

I read Good Calories Bad Calories, and realized much of my food issue were chemical. I was addicted to wheat. Wheat and all sugar and starch rich foods had to go.

Harold died, and I went to the funeral. I realized that I missed the support that OA had provided, at good meetings, so I came back. St. Albert Monday night for a while. I tried TOPS for a bit, but they know less about food and required nutrition than I did by that time. Internet is a wonderful resource, but sorting out of the crap is required.

By this time I had concluded that acellular carbohydrates do not belong in the food supply. Saturated fat, other than saturated Omega 6 and 9 is not dangerous, and I ate too much omega 6 oils. These are all chemicals which are addicting or addiction like behaviour occurs. There are two parts to the problem, a chemical addiction, and behavioural addiction (exo-adrenal and endo-adrenal).  The solution is stop ingesting, stop doing the behaviour.

Now the doing is not so easy. Sugar and wheat, grains in general, are the easiest to identify, and leave out. Then I find some additional foods have a strong pull. It turns out that there are a bunch of exorphins and exocannopioids in our foods. Wheat, dairy products, artificial and natural flavour enhancers, some preservatives, and artificial sweeteners contain these proteins and peptides. Most processed foods contain these. These are just not suitable foods for me.

Beyond that, it also turns out that, in our food supply, there are hormone enriched foods that are troublesome and GMO. These are just poisons, non editable, looks like foods.

This has resulted in about a 60 kg initial loss and 10 kg rebound before elimination of exorphins.

So what does this leave: vegetables, leaves, stems, roots, flowers, home grown preferred, and meats, mainly not from factory farms. Eggs from farm chickens. Fish from open waters. Not to much protein, and lots of animal fats to satiate hunger. Berries and fruits in local season. That would be ideal, but then there are situations and temptations. This is essentially the "Paleo" diet or "Primal" diet, or "Archivor" or pre 1950 eating style of ancestors, less wheat.

Psychologically, anything else is just not food.

Maintenance is tough. We have two energy sources, carbohydrates or fats. We can run on either, but the switch from carbohydrates to fats is tough psychologically. It is against government policy and media support, but for me it is necessary.

I learned a lot about food and nutrition, and  much is not right in the public media information and food production and sales.  I started with Good Calories Bad Calories.

Dealing with General Discontent

The serenity prayer says accept it or change it. But then that was the old way, and too simple for many of us. Just listing out the discontents, dis-satisfactory items, and looking at them, one at a time makes the load lighter.

Now we first need to have a good look at it, and see if it is our responsibility or some one else's. If it is someone else's, just walk away, it is not our issue, our responsibility, it is what it is, accept it.
Now can we change it now, then do it. Done. End. Fin'e. Now then there are the the things we can change in the future, but the past is. Could have, should have, are history. Accept it. Move on.

There are the things we can change, now. The now is important, if not now, when. OK. If we can in the future, put it on the schedule, and ignore it until then. Now there are the things we could change, but to what, that is the question. Make a decision, right or wrong, and we will get more information.

Stewing on the problem will likely not work. They are not problems, more like situations, part of out storey, not part of us.

There is an issue with psychological time, all we have is now. We must not value future or past above the now. Now is all we have, all we ever had, or ever will have. \Make the most of it. End of lecture.

Thank you for reading this. Please feel free to post your own thoughts or opinions on this subject or any other.

  

Dissatisfaction

Dissatisfaction with life in general, other persons, places, things, bored, frustrated, halt, hungry, angry, lonely, tired are all reasons for change in our lives, not to eat, even if our first reaction is to eat. It is difficult avoid temptation if there is food readily available, and we are in any stress state.

Boredom, anxiety, stressed, or a situation when we are forcing ourselves to do something we do not want to do, are difficult if food is present. The easy change is to move myself to somewhere there is no food present. Ideally, we should always be doing something we want to do more than eating.

Desire to do something makes a big difference in our attitude when we are doing it. Right now, in my life, there is little that I want to do. That is a problem. This general discontent that I feel is not good, it drives me to food. So what do I want to do? There in lies the problem. Very little. But I need to want to do something. Some days I can keep busy, but I have no desire to do much.

Overcoming the negatives is the first step. Developing desire to do something, the willingness to do, and the willingness to what is necessary, are the necessary steps. OA does a good job of addressing history, but less so if the emotion is current. Therein lies the weakness in the program, it has no formal method of dealing with current time, beyond a sponsor. Writing does provide some outlet.

Essentially, the work that I did was not what I wanted to do, but portions were not objectionable. But then, I never really wanted to do much. Oh well. I have the choice to accept or change. I need a objective in my life.  

I do not have a feeling of derivation, when not being able to eat something. I know how dangerous  GMO foods, and SGO6EEH are, unfit for human consumption. Paint them green or blue as a sign of not fit for humans, as they did during WWII. Could be getting this information out to people who want it be my life's calling? But there all those who object, argue. I do not care what they eat, I am just about the information.

Thank you for reading this. Please feel free to post your own thoughts or opinions on this subject or any other.

Step 2a

Came to believe that a power outside of ourselves could restore us to sanity. Well not quite, it says greater than ourselves in this version. But it has not always been that way, and in other places it says outside of ourselves.

For me, outside works better. Consider the big book laying on the self. It or they collectively have pulled millions of alcoholics of the scrape pile of humanity, something I could not have done. Yet it sets there, unable to move. That is a power greater than I, for sure.

Can I put the diet sheet in the same class? All I need do is accept and follow directions to recover. OK.

Thank you for reading this. Please feel free to post your own thoughts or opinions on this subject or any other.

Decaffeination

Decaffeination: the process of removing caffeine. So what do we call it if I remove my source of caffeine, and go to running my life in an unstimulated state? My plan is to go decaf, and if I have a head ache, withdrawl, I will add one tea, and see what happens.

This is likely a hit and miss process, much like a hit and miss governor on an old engine, it keeps the exhaust valve open when it is over speed. Sounds like Katie song...No fear of heights. brush drums.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJhsYmfFGzk

That is the plan. Remove one more stimulus. Could it be that the stimulus are out stretching the physical capacity? Adrenal fatigue that the medical profession says does not exist, could be just that, exhaustion from over stimulus.

Thank you for reading this. Please feel free to post your own thoughts or opinions on this subject or any other.

Dignity of Choice

Tonight, I feel obligated to write about the pamphlet, Dignity of Choice. Having spent many evenings studying food, nutrition, and human requirements, along with a bit of other things, I can say that it is my opinion that this document is worse than useless, and actually harmful. It would turn off many who have struggled with there food issues.

In a effort to not offend, to extend the hand to all, it has removed the teeth of following a food program. It is written for the mathmophobic, and stops short of providing any useful information for either guiding diet, weight loss, or recovery. The plans of eating provided do not identify and address any of the issue of food addictions.

People with addiction to sugar should have no sugar plan, and nothing that turns into sugar. Their low carb plan is moderate carbohydrates, and low fat. No one could stay on it for long. It lacks understanding that we have two energy source, carbohydrate of fats. We must get adequate energy of one or the other. Fats will reduce hunger, carbohydrates will increase hunger. It has more protein than I need, a 5'10 male need, which will raise insulin and glucagon and hunger. Not well laid out plan. It does not provide adequate information to design or adjust a diet. This is essential for recovery, and unavailable from public funded sources here.

It does not address the chemical addiction nor the behavioural addiction. We need to address the actual condition to be of quick help.

And above all else, keep coming back.

Mediation

Should mediation be raised to tool status? I understand that there is a young girl world service that will not rest until there are 12 tools as well. Should mediation be raised to tool status?

Some say prayer is telling god, and mediation is listening to god. Prayer never seems to help me much, but mediation does. Mediation is often just clearing out mind, stopping thinking, and concentrating on just one thing, often free of time. 

Mediation in all it's different forms can range from mindfulness, to mind blanking concentration, to concentration on just one thing. It can last a few seconds or minutes, to several hours, or in some cases, general through out the days, one day at a time, for the remainder of life.

Currently, I am rereading the Power of NOW, a book essentially on mediation, without using the term often. It is brings us to a meditative state quickly, without years of practice. It is in modern terms, and also contains Eckhart Tolle philosophy. Although I do not entirely agree all, it is general right as far as he goes, and is only questionable in a few places. When we look at where the words point, sometimes, the same idea also impacts other items that are of a bigger issue to me than where he found them. But there is a lot in 240 pages.

Other sources of simple mediation can be found in Jon Kabot Zinn, or numerous Buddhist traditions. 

family history

Looking back over my family history, any that there is a record of seem to have issues with food at times. Grandmother always fought her weight, as did mother. Mother had less success. Father was on a "diet" ever winter, as he did less work in the winters. Grand father was likewise, but he also had more age on him.

As we age our metabolism and activity levels both reduce; hence our input must also reduce. It is more difficult now, but life goes on. Attitude change is necessary as in a suitable food program. Paleo, or LCHF, in some form seems to work for me.

The program is all about attitude change. Any diet would take the weight off me, if I could just stick to it. The program allows me to stick to the diet.

Attitude Adjustment

If that was lunch I guess I had it. Back to work.

Location, Location, Location

Where is the problem spot for overeating? and why?

Any more I eat at home most of the time. That way I can stay away from SGO6EEH much better. There are some issues with that also. Temptation to overeat, but at least it is real food. Enough good fats keeps the hunger in check, but what about temptation and cravings? They are worst at home in the evenings.

One method is to never be home except to sleep. It is neither the time, nor location. Both must be present for it to be a problem. Exhaustion is the factor that pushes both together. Perhaps there is a solution of getting up early in the mornings, then by 8pm, lights out. It would work except I like to watch a bit of TV, and go out the odd evening to a meeting or something.

Chatting on the phone does not do it for me, I need to be out, away. By evening, I have no interest in anything much left. Getting older makes a difference. I just get tired, and lose interest. Before TV, there was much more local social interaction. Now, we just isolate, shut down, and displace social with quasi social electronic entertainment, or a few read. No more social, even for us low social types. Some of us are not really chatty, and just keep our mouths shut and go away to avoid conflict.

I was at an OA meeting the other day that I watched open conflict, and an emotional breakdown. After, I had to ask myself, why do I keep going? All these raw women, and a few seasoned mature people, with sharp edges from all the grinding. Is it worthwhile? Am I getting enough out of it? But yes, I keep going back for those few who are working the program, inside the program. Living the program is at the meetings is difficult some days.

Thank you for reading this. Please feel free to post your own thoughts or opinions on this subject or any other.

the Trinity

In biblical times there just does not appear to have been the words to express or the shoulders to stand on. The trinity, the father, son, and holly ghost, are there the same as Tolle body, mind, and consciousness? Where does the pointer point? It suggest it is all the same.

Now we have the trinity in OA, physical, emotional, spritual. If it is as Tolle says, the ego is a construct of the mind, a reflection of the collective learning of ourself, then once again we have the trinity with ego causing the problem. As the ego is a construct of the mind, we can learn, unlearn, ignore, refocus, redirect, the ego in many ways. So the emotions are then mind. Personality is then mind, not part of the self, the spirit. OK

Thank you for reading this. Please feel free to post your own thoughts or opinions on this subject or any other.   

Rant about diversity

I am just back from an intergroup meeting where lost of good stuff got said. It strikes me that it is a wonder this has hung together, but if we do not, we will just hang separately.

Everybody has different food programs, and different views on how food programs should be described, how much science should be involved. Some people are really adverse to any food science. As an atheist, the food science is my god; that, and anything that produce attitude adjustment. I need both. I need to be rigid about not eating SGO6EEH, and others feel it is too rigid, and claim that none causes a feeling of derivation. I do not feel deprived after I recognised the danger of these foods, I feel like I escaped a government and food industry that is trying to kill me off so they do not have to pay old age security to me.

The avoiding of wheat has never cause deprivation after finding it causes hunger like feeling, addiction, GERD, psoriasis, bloating, inflammation distress, some arthritis, as well as weight gain. If in doubt, read Wheat belly. That should relieve a feeling of deprivation.

Fruit and fructose, sugar, is evil in so many ways, just watch Lustic's Video, or read Sugar Shock, or White and Deadly.

Deprivation is a sign of not too much willingness to do what is necessary. If you want recovery, without willingness, oh well, grown up and take responsibility for the hoeing. If you pray for potatoes, you must be willing to pick up the hoe.

Some of the personalities, including my own are just nasty. A question came up that could cause concern about future of the intergroup, to be or not to be. It is all generated about concern as to why we are not retaining people, why abstinent is shaky for so many of us. It is my opinion that so many define abstinent so tightly that failure is assured. We each need to define it in a way that we can work toward a more reasonable body weight, and be able to maintain it.

I have an concern with those who are so easily from one food program to another. It is ok to change, until we find something that works for us. Some do not not like a "boring" food program, or a "restrictive" program, both of which work for me.

Thank you for reading this. Please feel free to post your own thoughts or opinions on this subject or any other.

meme systems

A meme systems, a series of memes that form a philosophy, are just that, a group of concepts that work together to form a philosophy, or religion. As long as the meme system is useful, great, but when the society changes, the meme system must also change, be abandoned,   or just remain stagnant and die out. Those are the choices, what else is there?

The god meme system is on it's way down, although it may take many generation to die out. It will be replaced by a more logic based, science based, belief system. We have the time to think about what is required with the system. I see it more as a Linux thing, many people will bring bits, and it will combine, to become the truth, after testing and rejecting the untruths. 

We need to clean up our past indiscretions, first by identifying, and not continuing to do them, and then right the wrongs of the past. How to do that is not clear. Perhaps others have better ideas in that regard. It is not right to expect the next generation to pay for the political mistakes, the efforts to fix a broken system that was failing, or that cannot work. Perhaps it is simpler to let people starve rather than keep feeding them, if they are unwilling to produce. The northern Indian populations want to live where there is no work, and be fed from the south while they reproduce as fast as they can. It is not workable, and will not last. There is no solution that satisfies everyone.

The obesity problem is similar. We must only eat metered meals. There is no other choice. We need to do it willingly, but we deserve the truth. Carbohydrates, especially sugar, fructose, glucose, lactose drive appetite. Work backwards, limit carbohydrates, and proteins that can become carbohydrates. Control our weight with fats. Duh. Low reward small meals. No SGO6EEH ( H -hormones)

Thank you for reading this. Please feel free to post your own thoughts or opinions on this subject or any other.

Secular 0, 1. 2. & 3

This is my opinion of 0, 1, 2, and 3 in a secular way, the way I have come to look at these steps. There are some people who naturally live without effort at a "normal" weight. It cannot be that difficult, once we learn. Going beyond that, cleaning up the past, learning to live well, learning to do daily cleaning, learning separation of thoughts and actions and teaching others are important to the meme, but less so to recovery.

Also look at where the words point, not specifically at the word. The words are dull pointers.

• We need the desire and time, together become the perseverance to recover, to what is normal weight.
• We need the willingness to recover.
• We need the willingness to do, study and learn what we must to recover.
• We need to lose the belligerent attitudes, to become teachable: We need to lose "I know what is best for me" attitude, the instant "you are wrong" attitude, and become willing to study, learn and follow, not just program but food science or a food program.
• We need to recognise we have a problem with food, food addiction, eating behaviours, and perhaps ego extension. We do not know how to manage these thing in our lives. There are solutions.
• We need to accept that there is much information and methods available to be learned, and behaviours that address these behaviours. The knowledge bank is growing. 
• It is your choice to learn and understand other peoples solutions and try a few of those solutions to your problems. 
• Am I willing to follow a food program until I learn enough about food to develop my own?
• Am I willing to see the food thoughts and let go of them? not act on them?
• Am I willing to do what is necessary to recover?   

Fat happies

Here is an example of what we used to call fat happies


http://www.fatnutritionist.com/index.php/food-addiction-natural-rewards-and-self-fulfilling-prophecies/

Know they have a problem, unsure of what the problem is, and are blissfully unwilling at this stage of understanding. They are happy. They are actively working at maintaining a happy attitude, unwilling to address the issue, and this one is trying to teach her attitude to others. Run if you want recovery.

Better to become a "recovery warrior" eg.   http://www.voiceinrecovery.com/blog/2012/11/01/your-eating-disorder-doesnt-define-you/