This is an action plan for reclaiming and retaining our abstinence.

This inventory and the actions that we take are the most loving things we can do right now for ourselves, our abstinence, and our recovery.

There are three parts to this action plan.

  1. An inventory of what happened. Here, we will assess what we have been doing.
  2. Determine actions we are willing to take to renew our commitment to abstinence first—as the most important thing in our lives, without exception.
  3. An action plan to keep us going forward into recovery, including using the Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions, the Tools of Recovery, and other resources.

Upon completion, it is vital to share each part with an abstinent and recovering member of our Fellowship.

This may be our sponsor or another OA fellow. Accept no excuses for delay. Remember, we are as sick as our secrets. Rigorous honesty is a must.

This plan will help us put fear, denial, perfection, guilt, and procrastination behind us as we take an honest look back and develop an action plan that will foster freedom from food obsession.

Part One: Inventory of What Happened

Write down exactly what happened as though a video camera was rolling.

  1. List the foods we ate during our slip or relapse.
  2. Were we eating any of our trigger, binge, or other foods that are or may be a problem or that we have not gotten honest about yet?
  3. If we are not sure, try looking at food ingredients. Look for patterns: Do the foods we eat most often, or the foods we look forward to the most, have common ingredients?
  4. Do we still have trigger or binge foods in the house?

Relapse generally occurs in the reverse order of recovery: First, we lose our spiritual connection (consciously or unconsciously), then our mental or emotional abstinence falters, and finally we lose our physical abstinence, picking up the fork or the behavior with food. We are at the end of the slip when we pick up the fork or the behavior with food, not the beginning.

Therefore, it is important to inventory our feelings, thoughts, and spiritual connection and identify things that may have contributed to our relapse. The following questions, answered honestly and thoroughly, will help.

  1. Do we see anything in our eating behaviors that may be causing problems, such as eating in the car, sneaking food, eating standing up, eating in front of the TV, skipping meals, allowing too much flexibility in our plan, or anything else from which we need to be abstain?
  2. What feelings were we having before the relapse?
  3. What were we thinking before the relapse?
  4. What secrets were we keeping or are we still keeping that need to be shared with our sponsor or another abstinent, recovering compulsive eater?
  5. What lies did our disease tell us that we believed?
  6. How did we decide it was okay to go outside food boundaries that were working?
  7. Are we hanging around slippery people among our family and friends, or in slippery places, such as restaurants or grocery stores?
  8. Where was Higher Power?
  9. Were we meditating and praying consistently?
  10. Were we keeping honest, accountable, and current in a daily Tenth Step inventory?
  11. Were we making people, places, or things our Higher Power?
  12. Were the highest priorities in our life our Higher Power, our abstinence, and the program, or were there other things?

Part Two: Moving from Slip or Relapse to Recovery

In this section, we will decide actions to take to move into recovery.

Answer the following questions with the Part One inventory in mind. Ask a sponsor or another recovering member for guidance if in doubt about any questions or responses.

  1. Do we need to change our plan of eating?
  2. Do we need to change our eating behaviors?
  3. Are there other actions regarding our food and eating that we need to take?
  4. How should we change our thinking?
  5. Do we need to change spiritually regarding our program?

Remember: We need to go to any length for victory over food and compulsive eating.

Part Three: Action Plan for Commitment to Recovery

The following actions are necessary to achieve and maintain abstinence.

  • Write an action plan for each item listed below.
  • Share it with our sponsor or a fellow abstinent OA member.
  • Ours is a program of action; we act ourselves into recovery. Remember that “half measures availed us nothing” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., p. 59).
  • Commit and start now.

How do we plan to use each of the nine Tools with our Step work?

  1. a plan of eating
  2. sponsorship
  3. meetings
  4. telephone
  5. writing
  6. literature
  7. action plan
  8. anonymity
  9. service

REMEMBER: One day at a time, one moment at a time, and one meal at a time. May our Higher Power bless us, our recovery, and our abstinence.

OA Board-approved
© 2016 Overeaters Anonymous, Inc. All rights reserved. Rev. 6/2025