OA meetings in our Central Ontario Intergroup can be found by downloading our PDF document below.Ĭlick here for the Central Ontario Intergroup Face-to-Face Meeting ListĬlick here to search for all meetings worldwide. An open meeting can be identified by finding a meeting in our meeting list that has the meeting type "O" listed beside it's name. Open meetings are for anyone, including family, friends, and interested health care professionals. If you are a newcomer, you are welcome at a closed meeting. To ensure your meeting is included on the list, please send all new information and/or updates to meetings are divided into two categories, closed and open meetings.Ĭlosed meetings are for those who have, or think they may have a problem with food. and Saturday at the same location from 9 to 10:30 a.m.OA Virtual meeting in our Central Ontario Intergroup can be found by downloading our PDF document below.Ĭlick here for the Central Ontario Intergroup Virtual Meeting List. Lacombe meetings are held Tuesday at Parkside Alliance Church from 7 to 8:30 p.m. and Friday at Church of Nazarene from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Red Deer meetings are held Wednesday at Kentwood Alliance Church from 7 to 8:30 p.m. “We’ll have a booth where people can come and ask questions about the different programs available for those having difficulty with eating disorders,” said Shelley. The FA fellowship is scheduled to participate in an Eating Disorder Awareness Week event at Red Deer College in late February. “It started then and it hasn’t always been easy, but I’m still in recovery and I’m so grateful.” I went to an information session and … I was like, ‘I am all in,’” said Liz. I was lucky enough to hear about Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous. “I was just unhappy with everything and I couldn’t stop eating and gaining weight. She continued to struggle with her weight after completing university as well. I was never diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, but I had anorexic tendencies.” These online meetings are particularly helpful to newcomers and to members who live in areas where there are. Online meetings are delivered three different time zones - New Zealand and Australia (NZT), UK & Ireland (GMT) & California (PDT). Whatever your problem with food, we can help. I was running probably seven miles a day and then I was restricting my food to less than 1,000 calories a day, so of course I got underweight. Find your nearest face-to-face meeting or attend online meetings. “When I was 17 … I started exercising excessively. Throughout her life she had stretches where she was overweight, underweight and of normal weight. My mother was concerned about me of course, no mother wants their child to have health issues,” said Liz. “By the time I was five, I was an obese child. Liz, who has been involved in the program for 23 years, said she has had a food addiction since childhood.
If it were, we’d all be very healthy,” said Shelley. “Generally people who come in need to lose weight, but putting down the food is not an easy feat. Shelley said with the “support of the fellowship” she was able to gain a necessary 15 pounds. But this program came across my path and I basically do the recovery that’s set before me and away I go,” said Shelley.
My doctor kind of felt that I was at the point of maybe no return. “I was in the hospital for four years, in and out – more in than out. I talked with them and they told me about the program a little bit and I didn’t really join the recovery program until two years later. “When I went into an AA meeting, there were two people that were working with the FA program. Shelley said friends of hers, who were in the AA program, saw she had an addiction. With Food Addicts being a 12-step program, based on Alcoholics Anonymous, Shelley’s identity is to be protected at the public level. “I came from anorexia and I basically found out about it when I was in the hospital,” said Shelley. One member of the program locally, who will be referred to as Shelley, said she has been in “the fellowship” for 20 years. Regardless of size, individuals can be “tormented” by cravings, dieting, bulimia and/or an obsession with exercise, a FA information pamphlet said. The program includes people who are overweight, underweight or even at a normal weight. A 12-step program available locally helps people who are have difficulties controlling the way they eat.įood Addicts in Recovery Anonymous meet four times a week in central Alberta – twice in Lacombe and Red Deer.