Because there are so many great blogs about addiction recovery and/or mental illness, I will be choosing topics from their writings and posting the best of each. If you have a topic you’d like to have researched or another addiction recovery and/or mental illness blog that you’d like to have added, please email me.

These are the recovery blogs that I will use to research various subjects:

https://kbermantocome.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/2349723066_03200c83a2_m.jpg2009/12/topic-directory-of-my-favorite-blogs/ plus the ACA (ACOA) blogs listed on my links from my main blog, Learning to Listen to Yourself.

For over a year, I have been writing about my need to lose weight. For the past four years, I have been experimenting with various solutions for myself. I don’t believe in “diets” and have known that the heart of my program needed to be fruits and vegetables.

Having given up drinking (1976) and smoking (1988), I know how to overcome addictions. But food is different. I can’t just quit food. But I have designed a food program that is allowing me to lose weight.

To inspire you to think about letting go of some of your excess weight, enjoy the following insights:

1.  From Healthy Wage Blog: “Are You a Binge Eater?”:

“To thine own self be true.”  Shakespeare was a great writer, but he could have been a great weight loss coach too!  Sometimes the most important first step toward any goal involves stopping the train and calmly, honestly assessing the situation.   The sooner you get honest about what’s going on with you, the sooner you can set out to change it!”

“A good place to start is a list of questions published by Overeaters Anonymous.  What do you have to lose?  Answer the questions honestly.   You might even want to write down the answers.”

1. Do you eat when you’re not hungry?

2. Do you go on eating binges for no apparent reason?

3. Do you have feelings of guilt and remorse after overeating?

4. Do you give too much time and thought to food?

5. Do you look forward with pleasure and anticipation to the time when you can eat alone?

6. Do you plan these secret binges ahead of time?

7. Do you eat sensibly before others and make up for it alone?

8. Is your weight affecting the way you live your life?

9. Have you tried to diet for a week (or longer), only to fall short of your goal?

10. Do you resent others telling you to “use a little willpower” to stop overeating?

11. Despite evidence to the contrary, have you continued to assert that you can diet “on your own” whenever you wish?

12. Do you crave to eat at a definite time, day or night, other than mealtime?

13. Do you eat to escape from worries or trouble?

14. Have you ever been treated for obesity or a food-related condition?

15. Does your eating behavior make you or others unhappy?

“Please forgive me for using another cliche, but I like to remind everyone that “the best disinfectant is sunshine,” including when it comes to your soul.  So, before you close this window, scroll back up to the top and answer the questions.  Honesty and self-awareness might be the hardest step you have to take.  You might want to talk about your responses with a trusted friend.”

“I also like to tell everyone about a little secret to motivation: HealthyWage.  HealthyWage is a health incentive company, currently offering a free program—the BMI Challenge—that pays you to lose weight.  Check it out!”

2. I’m A Drama Mama: “I Should Know by Now”:

• Hamburgers at sit down restaurants make me feel like crap.
• French Fries don’t make me all that happy.
• Starting dessert when I’m already full is just stupid.
• The only way to make myself run more is to RUN MORE!
• I will hurt myself if I try to run longer distances with no training.
• I am my own worst critic.
• My own self-criticism is rarely warranted.
• Overeating makes me feel like crap.
• Cheering on others while bashing myself is fairly hypocritical.
• Nothing is ever as bad as it seems.
• Dusting can wait.
• Health cannot.
• That run isn’t going to get itself done.
• Well done is better than well said.  ~Benjamin Franklin
• Weighing in every day leads to frustration and unnecessary anxiety.
• Speed bumps are not the end of the road.
• A problem is a chance for you to do your best.  ~Duke Ellington
• Lost time is never found again.  ~Benjamin Franklin
• Lose yourself in quotes when you feel things slipping away.
• Things are never as bad as they seem.
• I am, in fact, capable of anything.
• No day but today.

3.  From Downsized: “How to Know When to Call It a Day”:

“I’m sticking to the plan–consumed about 1250 calories yesterday, ate 5 servings of veggies, kept my carb calories to 50% and protein and fat calories between 20 and 30% each, drank my water, went to the gym, and did as much work at the office as I could reasonably expect to complete in this mindset.”

“I’m just really damn grouchy. I don’t think it’s the restricted calories. I think it’s just being so damn tired and having to manage feelings that have been haunting me ever since I first learned my grandfather was sick and was going to die eventually as a result.”

“The only thing I know how to do in all of this is to treat myself well. That includes:”

• Having time to myself.
• Sleeping (I’ve been in bed between 10 and 10:30 and don’t wake up until 6:30-ish at the earliest on workdays; I sleep later on weekends).
• Reading. It has been my consolation lately. But when Miranda told me she loved Aimee Bender, she left out how whack “The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake” gets towards the end. I’d love to say more, but don’t want to ruin it for anyone.
• I’m blogging, following the diet and exercise plan and writing out task lists. This structure helps me feel “normal.”