Overeaters' program is succeeding (03/22/06)

About Anonymous: The author is a compulsive overeater. An employee of the Star Tribune, he wrote an article about his experience in Overeaters Anonymous HOW in March 2004. Today's article is a follow-up. It appears without a byline because a basic tenet of OA is that members maintain anonymity in the media.

Jim used to worry about dying because he was so overweight.

I first met him at an Overeaters Anonymous HOW meeting in St. Louis Park in 2003, when he weighed 365 pounds.

"I would think about how people would be at my wake," he recalled in an interview last week. "My family and my kids would see me in the coffin and think about what a waste it was that I died because I couldn't stop overeating."

Jim, who lives in Burnsville and is 45 years old, said that before joining OA HOW, he had lost 100 pounds three times, but kept gaining it back.

On Thursday night at his Burnsville OA HOW meeting, Jim received a medallion, signifying he's not overeaten once in the past three years. He lost 165 pounds in his first year in OA HOW and has kept it off two years. "For me, it is the only way to maintain my weight loss," he told me.

I know the feeling. A lifetime yo-yo dieter, I lost 75 pounds in Weight Watchers in 1998-99 and then my overeating really kicked in. I became a secret volume eater. I had to be full up to my throat, and I kept off the weight by running up to 50 miles a week.

I felt totally out of control when I went to my first OA HOW meeting in 2002. I was surprised by how happy and friendly people were. Many had lost large amounts of weight and were staying thin without over-exercising. Some no longer needed diabetes and heart medications.

I decided to join. I have not overeaten in 3 ½ years, my exercise is no longer excessive, and I've maintained my weight loss. The food cravings have subsided. I also had an unexpected bonus. With my head no longer in the food, I've become a bit more objective about my character defects. My relationships with family, friends and co-workers have improved dramatically.

OA HOW is a rigorous program in which members get a food plan from a dietitian, nutritionist or doctor. They weigh and measure their food, call a sponsor every day to say what they'll eat, and do daily reading and writing assignments from the basic literature of Alcoholics Anonymous. Some members are deeply religious, and some aren't. Our members include anorexics and bulimics. But we have a common problem: We are powerless over the food.

There are eight OA HOW meetings in the Twin Cities and hundreds of members. There are also dozens of traditional OA meetings, with less structured programs than OA HOW. I've seen traditional OA work well for some people.

A growing number of professionals talk about the benefits of OA HOW and OA.

Theresa Wright, a dietitian from East Norriton, Pa., has counseled 30 OA HOW members in the Twin Cities and 3,000 OA members nationally.

"If you are a food addict, there is no other way but a 12-step program," said Wright. "I've met people who have found recovery in both OA HOW and traditional OA."

Linda Block, a local dietitian, works with Health Partners and has her own practice. She's counseled nearly 400 OA HOW members and calls it the most successful program for weight loss and maintenance she's seen in 25 years in the profession. She said her OA HOW clients "are typically the people who have tried every diet in the world, and none of them work. They have been unable to keep the weight off, and they always begin binging again. ...

"No other weight loss program encourages communication between the participants and group support like HOW does. ... I tell them it's not for everybody, you have to be really ready, you have to feel that desperation." She's giving a talk on OA HOW next month at the annual meeting of the Minnesota State Dietetic Association.

Tremendous commitment

Dirk Miller, a psychologist, is director of the Emily Program, which has three eating disorder clinics in the Twin Cities. Miller concurs that OA HOW is not for everyone, but he refers clients to it, as well as to OA and other programs.

"It's a tremendous commitment that sponsors and members of HOW have to each other, and I think that is why it works so well," Miller said.

Sandy Kosse, a clinical social worker in Minneapolis, said she is impressed with the impact OA HOW has had on some of her clients. "I've seen some real transformations," she said. Besides overeating, the program addresses psychological and social issues that often contribute to the eating disorder, she said. "I haven't seen anything as comprehensive."

Anonymous is at anonymous@startribune.com

To read the original articles by the author about OA HOW in the Star Tribune from March 27, 2004, visit

www.startribune.com/389/story/59373.html

• Meetings are free, but donations of $2-$3 are accepted.

• To find local OA HOW meetings, go to http://oahow.org.

• To find local OA meetings, go to http://overeaters.org or call 612-377-1600.

• To find OA meetings nationally, go to http://oa.org.