Strength of GreySheet Abstinence
Dear GreyNet Family,
In an AARP report I read "the majority of chronic conditions and deaths due to heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and osteoporosis can be attributed to poor nutrition." For me, GreySheet Abstinence is preventing diabetes, stroke, cancer, knee replacement, etc., etc.,-- all diseases in my family, from which my family members are now suffering. I am a compulsive overeater who needs GreySheet Abstinence! Before I came to GreySheet, I had tried variations of all the food plans people want to try to deviate from GreySheet. People don't want to weigh and measure in restaurants or in some other situations. When I brought this idea home to my husband (after I had been abstinent for a few weeks) my wonderful, logical husband said, "Why is the food any different in a restaurant than at home?" I would want, as I have seen others do, to eat more and more often in a restaurant until I was having 3 meals a day there--every day! Or I would be plagued with thoughts about the amounts they served: too much, too little... People want to use the serving plate in the restaurant as a measurement. I did that before GreySheet in one of my many efforts to lose weight. I looked at the amount of food my 5'11" husband put on his plate and put the same amount on my plate. Of course, I felt deprived, so I kept asking him to go back and get seconds so I could get more.
The weight that looked good on him did NOT look good on me! That didn't last long! People want to add grains. In my past I have had many experiences of giving up sugar. Once when our children were about two and five years old, the whole family went in the kitchen and got every box and bag of food that contained sugar and made a loud game of throwing them all away! "Sugar! Ugh! Into the trash!" Of course, the children had a lot of fun with this. What did I turn to? Grains! All natural, organic, health food--that I ate more and more of, that kept the craving alive. I have weighed and measured grains in Weight Watchers--and obsessed about food every waking hour! I have also tried putting bran in all my food (so it would go out fast and not stick to me), reading the Bible before every meal, and prayer, days and days of prayer! GreySheet Abstinence is the answer to all my prayers--almost 40 years of prayers to be relieved of this suffering.
Physically, I have an abnormal reaction to sugars, grains and high carbohydrate food. The GreySheet Food Plan eliminates these foods and thus my uncontrollable craving.
Mentally: when the physical cravings are gone, my constant mental obsession can be lifted. Writing my food down and committing it daily to my sponsor also relieves the mental obsession I had all my life. The "mental twist" I have had that says, "One day I'll be normal with food" is relieved by meetings, by sponsoring, by communicating through GreyNet, by hearing what happens to people who stop supporting our GreySheet Abstinence.
Spiritually: a new way of life, the 12 Steps, show me a way of life that leads to spiritual renewal. Though I had never left my faith and was very active in my church, somehow the food and the obsession blocked me from learning how to live. Today I have an incredibly full and fulfilling life because it is a life free of my lifelong, overwhelming obsession with food--a gift, a miracle given me by God. Thanks for listening! Like you, I weigh and measure 3 meals a day from the GreySheet, write them down, call them into my sponsor, and have nothing in between except coffee, tea, diet soda, or water. IDENMW! Love, Anonymous