A Food Plan As a Spiritual Tool (continued)

Phil Werdell, M.A.

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Principle #5: Begin by using the Food Plan that works for others.

In early recovery or even coming back from a relapse, we are often ill-equipped to deal with all the choices of a food plan. We just know that what we have been doing has not worked, and we need to try something that has worked for someone else. So, it is not surprising to find many compulsive eaters begin by choosing a sponsor or meeting where they see definite recovery, then surrendering to the food plan that their sponsor or other abstinent food addicts are using.

The food plan might be "301," or it might be a very specific written food plan that has evolved from a sponsor’s individual experience or it might be a very detailed weighed and measured food plan that has worked for a whole group of compulsive overeaters over time.

When those who were specifically addicted to sugar, flour and wheat wanted meetings together, they formed Food Addicts Anonymous and they also developed another highly structured food plan. Within Overeaters Anonymous, there was also a movement called HOW which was for those who needed more structure and support; part of this structure is a weighed and measured food plan with no sugar, or flour. (See www.overeatersanonymoushow.com) Some of this group also meet in their own fellowship (See www.compulsiveeatersanonymous.org).

Along with many further variations, these plans have a lot in common. They are all sugar, flour and alcohol-free. They all have a specific exchange plan. They all recommend weighing and measuring. Someone simply addicted to sugar, flour and volume could use any of these plans and get abstinent. Yet for others the details are all very important.

Some using the HOW plan have not gotten abstinent until they gave up wheat and looked at the dozens of hidden sugars itemized in the FAA literature. Some have tried the FAA and HOW plans and not gotten abstinent until they eliminated all carbohydrates and followed the even stricter guidelines of Gray Sheet. What all these specific plans have in common, though, is that abstinence is defined both simply (surrender to a whole plan) and in great detail (there is an answer to most of the endless specific questions that come up when abstaining from food.)

Many of those with long time (decades) of abstinence in OA started by practicing surrender to one of these food plans, and many continue to use this more structured approach to abstinence for years and years, If this is the only food plan that have been stably abstinent on, they decide “if it works, don’t fix it.”

Principle #6: A Food Plan focused on issues of unwillingness.

Of course, those coming off of a relapse will have some experiences of their own to build upon. Anyone abstinent in the past for a year or more using a specific food plan has some very valuable information about their disease and about a food plan that worked at least physically at that time. The food addict who has struggled for a long time in OA and not been able to put together any substantial period of back to back abstinence also knows a lot; this food addict knows a lot about what does not work.

It makes good sense to learn from this experience, to put down the foods or eating behaviors that were previously surrendered when abstinent, to inventory the relapse experience, and to be rigorously honest about what we didn’t want to do or were outright unwilling to do.

Probably the most important difference between a diet and a food plan is that most food plans include an aspect of surrender. Those on food plans surrender specific food(s) or eating behaviors that they did not want to give up or actually found that they were unable to give up when they tried. They need to surrender to more help and support or, as it is frequently talked about in Twelve Step programs, a Power greater than oneself.

While diets are temporary deprivation for a desired goal, food plans frequently deal with exactly the food issues where we think we will be deprived, even “unacceptably deprived”, if we put them down. This is not unlike the situation in alcohol and other drug addictions. It is common for the addict to think that they “have to have” their drug, that life will not be worth living with out it, even that they will die if they don’t use. This is the nature of compulsive eating and active food addiction, too.

So, unlike the normal eater who is dieting – or even the person with an eating disorder who is not addicted – the food addict needs to deal with deprivation. That is what a surrendered food plan is all about. In fact, a sponsor can often help a sponsee see the way that their food plan is not working by pointing out the specific food they are unwilling to give up or the specific recovery behavior they are unwilling to include.

The purpose of a food plan is to eliminate just those foods and behaviors over which we have in the past been powerless. We do this first by accepting the support of the program (e.g. sponsor and meetings), second by eliminating the most difficult food just one day at time (we can do for one day many things that we think we cannot do for a life time) and then, most importantly by having a very practical spiritual practice (for example, the Twelve Steps) which help us deal with this very problem of willingness.