I went to www.oa.org to find a local meeting. I was shocked to discover OA no longer had a presence in my community. My God, what do I do now??? Thank God I found these OA meetings online. I went to my first meeting that day…it was June 17, 2006. I will never forget it. I didn’t know how the online meetings worked but I was desperate to recover. I was willing to do absolutely anything to recover. I could no longer weigh 333 lbs or more. I could no longer live a slow death anymore. I wanted to live, and I wanted to live well.

I shared at my first meeting that I needed a sponsor. I knew that was something I had never done right in my previous OA excursion.

An angel must have been watching out for me that day. A wonderful woman sent me an instant message saying she had an opening for a sponsee. She asked me some questions, I guessed I answered them right. That was my first day of abstinence, that was the day I got a sponsor, that was the beginning of the rest of my life. I was born April 16, 1967. My life began on June 17, 2006. It was the day of my rebirth.

My sponsor was gentle but also demanding. She wanted me to email my food to her everyday. I couldn’t even manage to brush my teeth everyday. After awhile (I think she knew she had to break me in slowly) she asked me to call her on the phone. Apparently she didn’t realize my phone weighted 500lbs. It was a difficult thing to do. But I had a healthy fear this woman would fire me so I did it. I remember thinking at the end of our conversation I was glad that was over with. Then she sprung it on me that I needed to call her every week. I didn’t want to, but I wanted to recover, so I did it.
I went to meetings online every single day! On weekends I went to every meeting available during my waking hours. I read the OA literature, and I did the step work my sponsor sent me. I’m not saying I didn’t procrastinate, I did. But my sponsor would always ask me this nagging question, “How is your step work coming”? She was gentle, but prodding. It was the exact right approach for this people pleasing procrastinator.