Life is Not Perfect

Fumbling and Tumbling: Recently my best pal Jeff has been gaining weight. He was down to 213 and now he is back up to 231. I can feel that pain that he must feel. Failing to get to a goal is frustrating, especially when it is something that you have to deal with every day. Let's face it, if you are an alcoholic or a drug addict, you can avoid drugs and alcohol almost all the time if you stay out of bars, lounges, liquor stores, seedy neighborhoods, fraternity parties, etc. You might walk into the wine aisle at the supermarket, but otherwise you can avoid the temptations. Food addicts on the other hand, HAVE TO EAT every day just like everyone else. There is no "COLD TURKEY" for the food addict. It is not like quitting smoking, where you are fine after the first 72 hours of abstinence. NO. Food addicts have to do the shopping at the supermarket surrounded by potato chips, ice cream, candy bars, bread, pastries, etc. The television advertisements are a non-stop parade of juicy burgers, fried chicken, Snickers bars, and restaurant ads.

The Battle Never Ends: It never ends for the fat person. You must face your worst enemy (FOOD) every day and hang out with him (or her) and make him your friend. Imagine if your next-door neighbor was a very powerful person who was trying to kill you and there was nothing that you could do about it except dodge the bullets? After a while you might get tired of the stress and of dodging and you might give up and die. That is what happens to us when we stop fighting the Food Addiction. We are letting the bad guys win and kill us. Every time I gain five or ten pounds it feels like a heavy lead weight around my chest when I go to the gym to do cardio. I have gained a few pounds this past week and I felt like I was going to die doing the cardio. It was just about five pounds, but it felt like fifty pounds. Weight kills you. Fat kills you. Your arteries are getting clogged up as mine are, and eventually one day you are sitting there with your kids eating a donut and you just flop over and die. It happens every day to thousands of people. Cardiac arrest. Heart failure. That is what gets put on the Death Certificate.

What are you going to do about it? I went to this meeting today, and this guy was talking about the fact that for 19 years he could not do step 4 of the twelve steps. He could not write a moral inventory. The reason (excuse) was that he was a perfectionist, and he wanted to be perfect. He realized he could never do a perfect inventory of his life of sins, errors, etc., and so he would never do it. At some point he hit another major low in his life and he finally realized that he was just bullshiting himself and looking for an excuse to fail. Similarly, for food addicts every day is a test, and many times we fail in one way or another. We cannot be perfect. However, we can try every day to do the best that we can and ask God for help and put it all into the hands of a Higher Power. God can help you, God can help everyone. There is no limit to what God can do.

Serenity Prayer: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.