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.