A look at LifeRing

Since AA begat OA, can Smart or LifeRing begat a secular food issue group? Today, will not be an introduction to recovery trying to use LifeRing philosophy, for I am in the process of trying to discover the LifeRing philosophy. How does one convert "LifeRing’s solution is simple: Don’t drink or use, no matter what." into something that is useful for food"

First we need to understand the difference between over consumption of food and alcohol. Alcohol is a substance that humans do not need, food is necessary, so abstinence of the substance is just not possible. For a long time, no sugar and no grains was adequate for me to lose, but the vegetable intake and increased fat consumption grew over time. I stopped losing and started to gain. Now what?

Once I start to lose, I experience hunger and cravings, which never go away, and get worse as I became lighter. As I understand and felt, removal of the alcohol improved how I felt, while removal of the food made me miserable. The OA program gives something else to obsess with, a false fact as there is no god, and once I delved into rigorous honesty, that falsehood was exposed. There program is based on a lie, but as long as one believes, it may work. There is no way to adapt once we know the truth.

In the past I have looked at Smart, but it does not offer anything useful for continued struggle with food issues. It tries to treat overeating as alcohol, but does not recognize this basic difference. The Smart tools are useful, as far as they go, but the people do not mix as the alcoholics do not understand this issue, and say just quit eating, like as if I could. It is not my choice, for I am physically driven to eat. It is not within my free will domain to not eat, or so it seems. As a result of this difference of opinion, Smart does not provide a social network that OA does provide. In my opinion, the extended social network is largely the reason that OA works. FA takes it one step further, to be part of the network you need to obsess over following the program of calls, meetings, and the food program as well, the old OA " grey sheet diet," it was copied on grey paper. It means taking on the program like a job, living and breathing for that program only. It is a way of losing weight, but what about life long term?

In the past, the only way is to displace that desire to something else, but now that I am older, retired, I cannot do long days away anymore. I just get to tired, and that make it worse. Displacement has stopped working. Now what? Try to understand the problem and look for a solution.

At this point, overeating is epigenetically ingrained, a physical imperative, beyond my will power, or so it seems. What now? Some things are up to us and some are not, as the Stoics say. 

LifeRing puts recovery on the individual, who ultimately must be responsible. It is the act of continual letting go of inbreed desires that is difficult, and logically that must be the first step in this recovery, that is letting go of my desire to eat, and ignoring the body's demands. With food, in my case, the demands become larger and louder, as time goes on. I will explore LifeRing a bit more.