Our PRIMARY PURPOSE is to stay abstinent from the addictive substances of sugar, flour, and wheat and to help others to do the same.

ABSTINENCE from sugar, flour, and wheat is the foundation of this program of recovery.  Members of Recovery from Food Addiction believe that abstinence from sugar, flour, and wheat is the most important thing in our lives; for without abstinence we do not have a life.

Food Addiction: The Body Knows by Kay Sheppard is approved literature.  The food plan in the book is recommended.  If you currently have a plan that is free of the addictive substances of sugar, flour, and wheat, and it is working, you may continue to use it.

Always check with your doctor before starting any food plan.

“Weight loss is not a goal of this program, but it is a reasonable expectation.  Weight gain is a symptom of the disease, and weight loss is a symptom of recovery.” p.139 from Food Addiction: The Body Knows by Kay Sheppard.

We believe we eat because of a physical craving; that we have an addiction to certain foods.  The addictive substances set up an insatiable craving within our bodies.  The only relief from the craving is entire abstinence from these foods.  We believe that we do not eat because of our problems; however, if we do not keep in a fit spiritual condition by working the 12 steps of this program, we will go back to the food.

A SPONSOR is vital in working this program.  Find someone who has what you want, to help you achieve abstinence and work the 12 steps.

TELEPHONE CALLS to other members of the program and to your sponsor are very important in your recovery.  When we are abstinent for the addictive substance of sugar, flour, and wheat, we can have “the second thought” if the mental obsession returns.

LITERATURE approved for this program:

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA Big Book)

The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA 12 X 12)

Food Addiction: The Body Knows by Kay Sheppard (both the 1989 edition and the 1993 revised edition)
From the First Bite by Kay Sheppard (to be used as an adjunct to the above mentioned literature, but not to replace it)

MEETING ATTENDANCE is crucial to our recovery from food addiction.  The experience, strength, and hope of recovering members is shared at meetings.

An abstinence of at least 30 days is required to lead a meeting.  Since each group is autonomous, the group can set its own abstinence requirement of 30 days or longer.

PREAMBLE TO THE CHARTER AND BYLAWS OF RECOVERY FROM 
FOOD ADDICTIONS, INC.

We are a fellowship of food addicts dedicated to physical, spiritual  and emotional recovery achieved by abstaining from flour, sugar and wheat in all of its forms and by living the twelve steps of recovery to the best of our ability.

We are individuals who share a common goal of “Recovery from Food Addiction" and thereby freedom from the insatiable craving and merciless obsession of addictive eating.  We incorporate into our daily lives the Twelve Steps of Recovery as well as total abstinence from flour, sugar, and wheat in all its forms.  We follow a food plan that eliminates the addictive substances, volume eating, and stops the craving.  By cessation of ingesting flour, sugar, and wheat in our lives and following a twelve steps path of recovery, we now have time for that ”second thoughts.”  We can make choices that will achieve and maintain physical recovery.  We strive to carry the message by example.  Freedom from the overwhelming sense of failure, from shame, from guilt, and from excess weight can now be ours.  We now have hope.  We can reasonably expect weight loss to occur and be able to maintain it.  We can live in recovery: physically, spiritually, and emotionally.  We do not claim to have the answer for everyone, but we believe if one is truly a food addict, we have the solution.  We no longer debate; we recover.  We lovingly encourage others, like ourselves, to do the same.  We offer warm support and an out reached hand to every suffering food addict who desires recovery.  We embrace the best of both worlds, a livable way of eating and the twelve steps of recovery.

© Copyright 1997

THE TWELVE STEPS

1. We admitted we were powerless over sugar, flour, and wheat that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that our 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 understand Him, Praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to food addicts and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

For information regarding meeting starter packets, RFA pamphlets, or meeting locations around the country, contact:
 
[email protected]

Recovery from Food Addiction, Inc.
P.O. Box 35543
Houston, TX  77235-5543
(713) 673-2848