Good Neighbors

I had such a fun thing happen to me on Friday. I was loading the baby into my car and my neighbor drove past and yelled out the window "hey skinny". She pulled into her driveway and got out to tell me how great I look. I am by no means skinny, let's get real but it is heavenly that people are seeing the differences in me. The thing is I feel good. I don't think it is as much about the weight, although that has made a big difference, as it is about my spiritual and emotional growth over the past months.


I smile, ALL THE FREAKING TIME! Even when I am stressed out about something I try to take a deep breath and work toward the best case scenario resolution to the problem. I have energy. I have motivation. I am disappointed when the weather is crappy and I have to drive the kids to school instead of walking with them. I am not letting my mood be dependent on my husbands' happiness. That is a big thing for me. I am so co-dependent that in the past I have felt like I can't be happy unless he is. Now I understand his stress but am not going to let it affect my outlook.


I work hard to take the kids' attitudes as normal behavior for their ages and move forward. I am so much more patient with the kids now. I rarely raise my voice to them which is a huge improvement.


I am learning to hand things over to my higher power and understand that I cannot do this alone. The second step of OA is coming to believe that our higher power can restore us to sanity. I look back and realize just how insane I was. That my outward demeanor wasn't honest. That I let the world think that everything was okay while I moved through life angry with myself, hating who I was. I feel like I really robbed my kids of a calm life for their first years. I was so loud and over the top with my reactions to little things. For a really long time we were the "loud" family where everyone yelled all of the time. I hate that. I hate that I was the instigator. Kids are supposed to be noisy and mouthy and my reactions were not sane.


I spent lots of time hiding my eating behaviors. Getting rid of the "evidence" of overeating by cleaning dishes or burying wrappers where they wouldn't be found. I obsessed about food. I finished what was on the kids' plates if they didn't eat. I ate myself sick. I ate bags of chips, packages of cookies and cartons of ice cream. I didn't know what a portion was supposed to look like. I continued with my behaviors knowing that they would eventually cause my health to decline, that they would kill me before my time. I continued with this insanity even while crying inside because I knew I wouldn't live to see my grandchildren. I knew that I wouldn't grow old with my husband.



There is nothing so insane as continuing behavior that you know is killing you.


Now I am still tempted.  I had to grocery shop the other day and walking through the store everything seemed to call to me.  The difference between then and now is that I was able, for that moment, to walk past without giving into my addiction.  For that day I fought my way to sanity.  


Today I spent the afternoon at a birthday party.  There were hot dogs and potato chips.  There was lots of cake.  I had a small pink cupcake and a few bites of the baby's cupcake as well.  Instead of gorging on junk food I used common sense.  Never before have I been capable of that. 


There are definitely times when this journey is terribly difficult but the happiness has far outweighed the difficult.  Nothing about this journey is what I would call easy but it is peaceful.  I am living my entire life more honestly now that I have accepted that I need God and OA to keep me sane.  I need SparkPeople to keep me on track with my food.  I need friends to share with.  I need neighbors to notice.