Slippery Places

This morning I was watching the news and, of course, one of the lead news stories was the continuing saga of Lindsey Lohan. I feel sadness for her. One of the news anchors said, "She has everything anyone could want, and yet she makes these bad decisions. Sad." The anchor was only partially correct, in my opinion. In some ways she is actually very poor. She is rich in what she doesn't need and has very little of what she does need to live a full and happy life.
Anyway, on this news program Danny Baldwin was brought on to discuss his feelings about Lindsey Lohan and her addictions. He has been through rehab many times with varying degrees of success and failure. At this present time he is apparently staying clean and sober.
As he spoke something he said caught my attention. He was talking about the 12 Step Program and shared that one of the things they learn in this program is to avoid "slippery places", "slippery people", and "slippery things".
That statement spoke volumes to me as a compulsive overeater, and it has been in my thoughts off and on all day.
For those of us who see overeating as an addiction, it is every bit as real as a drinking addiction, gambling addiction or any other kind of addiction. It is an addiction which can be every bit as difficult to overcome as any other addiction. That said, I still believe that we have choices. Yes, we can choose to not eat that 4th brownie or we can choose not to order the large double meat hamburger with extra cheese and fries. Yes, we can choose not to eat those things, but sometimes it is very very hard. Even when we do make the right choices for a season in our lives, staying 'on the wagon' and not ever abusing food again is realistically speaking almost impossible.
When I was a member of Overeaters Anonymous this analogy was used: Think of your addiction as a lion. For an alcoholic, drug addict, gambling addict, or any other kind of addict, you can take your lion, you addiction, lock him in a cage and leave him there. Never take him out again. As a recovering addict can never again take a drink, never again gamble, etc. You must leave the door to the cage closed. Though you may hear the lion roar, as long as he is in the cage, he will not control and destroy your life.
For a compulisve overeater our 'lion' is food. We cannot leave our lion in his cage. We must take our lion for a walk 3 times a day at least. Inevitably there will be times when we get 'scratched'. There will be times when we just eat too much of something. I will write more about that on another day.
A "slippery place" for a recovering alcoholic is a bar or another location where liquor is present. For me, a compulsive overeater, a slippery place is an 'all you can eat' restaurant. I will do just that---eat all I can!!!
Avoiding slippery places is, of course, easier said than done. If, as a compulsive overeater, you find your self in a 'slippery place', where the temptation to over eat is very strong, put a very strong leash on your 'lion' and don't allow yourself to engage in 'slippery eating behavior'.

This is my 6th day on this diet and I have had a great day, excellent energy level, no much hunger, and generally feeling good.