The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions form the spiritual basis of the GSA program of recovery.

The Twelve Steps of GreySheeters Anonymous*

1. We admitted we were powerless over food - that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to compulsive eaters, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

The Twelve Traditions of GreySheeters Anonymous*

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon GSA unity.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority – a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants – they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for GSA membership is a desire to stop eating compulsively.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or GSA as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the compulsive eater who still suffers.
6. A GSA group ought never endorse, finance or lend the GSA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every GSA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. GreySheeters Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9. GSA as such ought never be organized, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. GreySheeters Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the GSA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and film.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

Attribution Statement

The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous have been reprinted and adapted with permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (“A.A.W.S.”) Permission to reprint and adapt the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions does not mean that Alcoholics Anonymous is affiliated with this program. A.A. is a program of recovery from alcoholism only —use of A.A.’s  Steps and Traditions in connection with programs and activities which are patterned after A.A., but which address other problems, or in any other non-A.A. context, does not imply otherwise.

Original form of Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions:

The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable. 
2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. 
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. 
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. 
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. 
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. 
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. 

The Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority – a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants – they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
6. An A.A group ought never endorse, finance or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9. A.A. as such ought never be organized, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and film.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

GreySheeters Anonymous has its roots in a small group of meetings of the original Twelve Step fellowship for compulsive eating. These meetings were held in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The “GreySheet” was one of a number of food plans offered by the original food fellowship (aptly named for the grey sheet of paper on which the plan was printed.) In the 1970’s, a few members of the original fellowship in Cambridge who had been following the GreySheet food plan realized that in order to find true recovery, they needed to approach food addiction in the same manner that alcoholics addressed alcoholism. They committed themselves to:

• Complete abstinence from foods that set up the phenomenon of craving
• Weighing and measuring only three meals a day without exception, eating only the foods listed on the GreySheet food plan, and eating nothing in between
• A very specific definition of abstinence and guidelines for attaining and maintaining abstinence

To this end, these members decided to start a new meeting of the original fellowship which would support people committed to recovering using the GreySheet food plan. This group was seen by many in the original fellowship in Boston as radical, extreme, and harsh. Nonetheless, the Cambridge GreySheet message started to take hold as people found relief from food obsession and compulsion. The Cambridge Saturday morning Garden Street meeting became the heart of the GreySheet community, with hundreds of compulsive eaters eventually venturing “to the other side of the river” to check out the “radicals” in Cambridge. New meetings sprouted and flourished in Cambridge and the surrounding areas as the community solidified its definition of GreySheet abstinence and carried its message to suffering food addicts in and outside of the original fellowship.

With recovery came expansion of the GreySheet community beyond Cambridge. In abstinence, members’ lives were restored. They became functional, productive members of society. Many moved to new cities, both nationally and internationally, and carried the message of food recovery by starting GreySheet meetings. One of the first and largest early GreySheet communities was founded in New York City. The New York community upheld the GreySheet message of “no matter what, without exception” with the same fervent conviction as the founders in Cambridge. Their meetings similarly grew and flourished. The New York group made a significant contribution to the community by eventually creating the first GreySheet literature beyond the written food plan; a newsletter called “Shades of Grey.” Published quarterly, “Shades” was a compilation of members' experience, strength and hope regarding GreySheet abstinence. GreySheeters throughout the world purchased subscriptions to “Shades” and eagerly awaited delivery of the message with every new issue received in the mail. In 1991, the New York community sponsored their first Round-Up, an all-day event of GreySheet meetings addressing various topics in abstinence. (The annual NYC Round-Up is now a two-day event entering its 29^th year in 2020.)

The GreySheet community remained part of the original fellowship until that fellowship adopted a policy to drop all endorsement of specific food plans for its members. Negotiation ensued between the original fellowship and the Cambridge-founded GreySheet community regarding the use of the GreySheet food plan. Ultimately, a solution was reached in 1998 when the GreySheet community founded a new Twelve Step program for compulsive eaters, GreySheeters Anonymous (GSA). In 2008, GSA legally obtained the copyright to the GreySheet food plan. In 2013, the first GreySheeters Anonymous World Service Conference was held. The conference quickly voted to officially adopt the copyrighted GreySheet food plan as its first piece of Conference Approved Literature.

For more information about the GreySheet food plan within the program of GreySheeters Anonymous, see Why We Don't Change the GreySheet.

History of the GreySheet Presentation

On September 11, 2024, the Israel Intergroup hosted a presentation called "History of the GreySheet: Where do we come from?" in Hebrew and English. Click the appropriate image below to download the slides in PDF format.

What Is GreySheeters Anonymous?

GreySheeters Anonymous is a fellowship of people who share their experience, strength, and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from compulsive eating. The only requirement for membership is the desire to stop eating compulsively. There are no dues or fees for GSA membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions. GSA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization, or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay abstinent and help other compulsive eaters to achieve abstinence.*

About the Fellowship

GreySheeters Anonymous has its roots in a small group of meetings of the original Twelve Step fellowship for compulsive eating. These meetings were held in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The “GreySheet” was one of a number of food plans offered by the original food fellowship (aptly named for the grey sheet of paper on which the plan was printed.) In the 1970s, a few members of the original fellowship in Cambridge who had been following the GreySheet food plan realized that in order to find true recovery, they needed to approach food addiction in the same manner that alcoholics addressed alcoholism. They committed themselves to:

• Complete abstinence from foods that set up the phenomenon of craving
• Weighing and measuring only three meals a day without exception, eating only the foods listed on the GreySheet food plan**, and eating nothing in between
• A very specific definition of abstinence and guidelines for attaining and maintaining abstinence

Read the History of GSA

The GreySheet Group Purpose

This group has been founded and designed to discuss the fundamentals or basics of attaining and maintaining GreySheet abstinence. For that purpose, we explore together the utilization of the program of Alcoholics Anonymous in arresting compulsive eating. We strongly support GreySheet. We require that our meeting leaders be abstinent for at least 3 months on the GreySheet. We support a vigorous and positive attitude toward GreySheet abstinence—which we define as 3 weighed and measured meals a day from the GreySheet with nothing in between, but black coffee, tea, or diet soda.

References

*The A.A. Preamble is adapted with the permission (2020) of the A.A. Grapevine, Inc. Permission to adapt the Preamble does not in any way imply affiliation or endorsement of this organization.

** For more information about the GreySheet food plan within the program of GreySheeters Anonymous, see Why We Don't Change the GreySheet.