In which things seem to be looking up

Hello, I am not sure what I am going to write today. When I first started blogging, I would put alot of thought into the posts and edit them and think of clever ways of phrasing; etc. I really took the writing part seriously. This new incarnation, I am just trying to write from the heart. I still worry a bit about grammar, but except for correcting some typos, what you see is basically my first pass at the post.

I hope everyone had a nice 4th of July. It rained all day here in upstate New York, so we skipped out on fireworks. We did have plans to get together for a meal with some neighbors. The wife is also in OA, and is maintaining a significant weight loss. Another couple, friends of the first couple, came as well. The wife of that couple does something like FA or OA HOW or some more stringent 12 step food recovery plan. So, when the barbecue came to the table there was a scale and measuring cups passed around along with the food.

I felt a bit out of place, because my ideal food plan requires me to *not* measure food. This is because before recovery, I had a compulsive behavior of measuring and counting calories, but using it as a justification to eat crap. Longtime readers will recall that my current dinner is to be this: 1/2 plate of vegetables, 1/4 plate lean protein and 1/4 plate whole grain carb.

This works very well for me, but I have been using the justification lately that Roseanne, the woman who started OA, defined abstinence as "three meals and nothing in between." I have been telling myself that the "three meals" can be anything as long as they are "moderate." For me this has proven to be a load of horse shit, as my "moderate" eating has caused me to gain 40 pounds.

Anyway, seeing my friends weigh and measure their whole foods made me a little bit more willing to do the divided plate thing once again. Both of them have long term success with their food plans. I *know* I feel better and have more energy when I eat whole foods and limit the processed crap. I *know* I am fuller when I eat a whole plate of healthy food than when I eat a bag of potato chips. I can do this, with the help of my friends in OA and my higher power.