My favourite things...

THE PROMISES
from AA BIG BOOK
If we are painstaking about this phase of our development we will be amazed before we are halfway through.
We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.
No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
Self-seeking will slip away.
Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us.
We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Are these extravagant promises? We think not.They are being fulfilled among us - sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.They will always materialize if we work for them.


The promises are one of my favourite things in program. A meeting I attended for years always closed with reading the promises and I often asked to be the one to read them. Quickly I came to know them off by heart. For me they were why I kept coming back – I wanted each and every one of them.

Originally I was horrified that it didn’t include the promise that I would be thin and that I would therefore live happily ever after. Surely that is why I was there – to lose weight, not to change my whole attitude and outlook on life. I now know that my HP gives me what I need, not necessarily what I think I want.

From the very beginning my life could certainly do with what the promises was offering. And yes they are delivering to me a life beyond my wildest dreams. And when I gave up the excess food, the weight followed.

I still need to be mindful of my weight. If I am gaining weight it normally means I am being dishonest somewhere – what I am eating, or not eating properly, how I am exercising. The person I most often lie to about these things is myself, and my weight and size pulls me up quickly on that truth. It takes me longer to notice a change in my attitude and serenity that is followed by eating outside my food plan.