SHiFT – Recovery by Acorn

We posted this on our Facebook pages this week. It’s repeated here because we believe it’s so important.

At SHiFT, we stand together in support of the fight for racial justice. We oppose the systemic racism inherent in our nation that marginalized communities face each day.

Black Lives Matter. Food addiction affects people of all races. The reality is that black people are dying from the consequences of food addiction at higher rates than the rest of the population. African American women have the highest rates of obesity or being overweight compared to other groups in the United States. About 4 out of 5 African American women are overweight or obese.  In 2018, non-Hispanic blacks were 1.3 times more likely to be obese as compared to non-Hispanic whites. In 2018, African American women were 50 percent more likely to be obese than non-Hispanic white women. People who are overweight are more likely to suffer from high blood pressure, high levels of blood fats, diabetes and LDL cholesterol – all risk factors for heart disease and stroke. 

Access to healthy foods is restricted in low-income areas and racial and ethnic inequities exist in areas where there are no grocery stores that sell fresh fruit and vegetables.

We recognize that we can do more.

Moving forward, we will work harder to address systemic racism and to prioritize anti-racism as an organization.

We are with you and we’re listening.

As our nation begins to open up again, we’re faced with moving forward into the unknown. Though experts can speculate what may or may not happen, no one knows for sure. It’s like that with food addiction recovery.

Many of the food addicts who first come to us have no idea what will happen. They don’t know what changes they will need to make or how these changes will affect their lives. Mostly, they are afraid and sometimes angry that they have to be with us.

For some, their fears are overwhelming and they are paralyzed and want to run. For others, their anger fuels their rebellion to the suggestions we make. In both cases, fear and anger are opposite ends of the same idea – a reaction to a journey into the unknown.

The answer for these people and for us today is to keep moving forward, one step at a time. Instead of focusing on what will happen tomorrow or the day after or the week after, simply focus on the next step without looking at the entire journey.

One step at a time, our lives are manageable. Looking at weeks, months, and years is overwhelming and doesn’t help anything.

In my own life, I used to think that if I could just figure out how things would work out then I would be prepared for whatever happened.  Time and time again, I’ve learned that no matter how hard I concentrate on the many ways a situation can play out, there’s at least ten I didn’t think of and more than one I could never have imagined.

My recovery from food addiction is the best example.

A month before I came into an Acorn Intensive, I had tried for years to get into recovery but no matter what I did, I couldn’t. I was preparing to live the rest of my life fat and miserable yet the next month everything changed and here I am over five years later living a life I never could have imagined.

So, let’s all keep moving forward one step at a time and we can get through this together!

Willingness is the key to working a successful recovery program. When food addicts come into our programs some are willing to do anything to get into recovery while others wonder how they can become willing to work through the activities that will result in long-term recovery.

Though there is no one place where someone can go to pick up a jar of willingness, there are a few ways a food addict develops willingness. The most common way is to get to a point of feeling so much pain that the food addict is willing to do anything to stop feeling the intense pain that is now part of their life. This is known as hitting a bottom.

When a food addict hits a bottom, it’s literally that – the bottom of the pain they can tolerate. The pain has become unbearable and the food addict has hit the bottom of the container of pain that is possible for them to experience.

For some food addicts, hearing about this intense pain and knowing that they are headed in that direction, helps them to develop willingness as a means of avoiding future pain. In other words, these food addicts become willing to get into recovery so that they don’t have to hit bottom and experience intense pain.

Another way, a food addict becomes willing is to meditate on the idea of what willingness looks like in their lives. If this person were willing, what would they do?  How would they act? What steps would they take that they are not willing to right now? Putting our focus on something, oftentimes brings that into our lives.

This doesn’t mean that we can simply demand willingness to appear and it will.  Sometimes focusing on willingness may take days, months, or even years.

We’ve heard of several food addicts who were unwilling to enter a recovery program for over ten years then woke up one day willing to do anything to bring recovery into their lives.

We are all different and willingness comes to each of us in our own unique way.  The best thing we can do is to remember just how important willingness is to our recovery program.

I can’t do that!
There’s no way I’d ever give up eating sugar!
I absolutely will not weigh and measure my food!

We hear these things regularly and my answer to all of that comes from a Twelve Step slogan – If nothing changes, nothing changes!

It’s really quite simple. If a food addict wants recovery then things have to change. It is absolutely impossible to get into recovery without making lifestyle changes. Of course, everyone wants some sort of “magic” pill or potion that will change their lives.

To be clear, the only way a food addict can get into recovery is to make lifestyle and behavioral changes. Period. No bargaining. No negotiation. Changes must be made if recovery is to happen. There is no other way.

Some of these changes must be major such as following a nonaddictive food plan while others may be smaller like staying in the perimeter of the grocery store when shopping. Whatever size they are, each change is a step towards food addiction recovery and living a life free from obsession with food.

The good news is that when things change, things change and there is an opportunity for a new beginning and a new life. A new life that is built one change at a time.

We have seen thousands of food addicts come into our programs hopeless who turned each change they made into exciting lives filled with freedom from obsessing about food.

If nothing changes, nothing changes but if everything changes, everything changes!

Sometimes recovery can be a slog. It can be a difficult and tedious struggle, taking every ounce of energy we have to maintain. There are days when we don’t know how we will make it through without reaching for those foods that once seemed to offer comfort. And this can be even worse during difficult circumstances.

It’s during these times that we need to put one foot in front of the other and focus on where we are. We need to stop thinking about anything else besides getting through the next minute abstinently. While we will need to plan our meals and make sure we have abstinent food, beyond that, we need to focus on today and keep taking one step at a time towards recovery.

We need to stay where our feet are and not get wrapped up in the worries of what will happen tomorrow or how long the events in our lives will last. More than that, we need a laser focus on our recovery, on those things we need to do in order to maintain the progress we’ve made.

We cannot get distracted by world events or wrapped up in fears about what may or may not happen. Recovery needs to be our minute-by-minute, day-by-day priority above every other thing in our lives.  Without exception. Period.

When we are able to do this, our lives will change step by step.

While it may not get easier immediately, if we keep putting one foot in front of the other, we will make a solid path to recovery that will eventually make the process easier. Then, before we know it, we will have a life that is beyond our wildest dreams.

Keep putting one foot in front of the other no matter what’s going on!