What happened?

About 3 years later I was still the same weight but feeling more sane. I knew I had a problem but I just wasn’t sure what to do about it. I still purchased every weight loss product and book ever made. I purchased the latest Dr. Phil Weight Loss Solution book. I determined it would take 21/2 years to lose the necessary weight. I set about it determined to succeed.

I did well for awhile and lost about 170lbs. The first 100 weren’t even hard. Not eating several thousand calories a day and working for a living did that! But then it started to get hard and I started feeling deprived. I had no support system either, no one who understood what I was going through. I started eating “healthy” desserts. Within weeks I was gaining and gaining big. I saw a doctor during this time and was diagnosed with Fibromylgia. This was good news; it was not lupus, which was what my doctors thought I originally had. Lupus and Fibromylgia are really the same disease but with one important distinction, you will die early with Lupus, but not with Fibromylgia. My doctor told me that I could do things to manage my pain and depression, but that she expected me to live a normal life span. I was shocked. I had thought for a decade I was going to die early, so why bother. Now my back was against the wall. I was going to live a normal life span? Only if I took care of myself. I needed to do something. I did some research on the Fibromylgia and discovered that people who had it and went on wheat free diets suffered less pain. This was a happy accident that will come into play later.

I had a knew job but the job provided free lunches everyday….and I was in charge of handling the food. I was a coe/fa out of control and in charge of food for 15 people. I gained weight back up to 333lbs. I didn’t know what to do. Two things happened back to back that helped me greatly.

First, I found a book written by a food addict. It was the best book I had ever read on food addiction and she had a specific diet she said all food addicts should follow. The diet was too strict for me I thought. But it was the first time I ever heard anyone say that wheat & flour was a problem for people. I knew about the sugar, but wheat and food addiction. This might help my Fibromylgia I thought. Maybe the two were connected? While I just couldn’t bring myself to work her diet, I gained great comfort from her addiction model.
The same day I bought this book I was listening to the Howard Stern show. He was interviewing a comedian who had her own reality show. Her husband was a big part of the show and he had lost over 100lbs between seasons. Howard wanted to know how? The comedian said her husband was now a member of OA. OA?? I remember them….it seemed like a distant memory. I remembered enough to know this woman had just broken his anonymity. I also knew I had some old OA literature downstairs in the basement. Maybe OA could help me.