Recovery tools

For me, the telephone has been an important part of my recovery process. When I first got abstinent, I made a daily call to my sponsor at a specific time to commit my food for the day. After that, we'd talk about the day, my fears and my concerns. I tried to be honest, open and willing to listen to her suggestions. It wasn't always easy, but I showed-up and stayed abstinent.
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One "rule" that she strongly suggested was making at least three phone calls a day where I talked to live people, not simply leaving messages on answering machines.
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At first I had a hard time doing that.....I didn't know what to say, but it didn't take long for me to find a network of people who were trying to get abstinent, too, and many who were successfully working the program. My sponsor told me to talk to the "winners", but that offended me. I thought to myself, "Am I a loser?"
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I made the decision to balance my calls, talking to the successfully abstinent people first and then people who were struggling. When I wanted to overeat, I talked to people who could help me stay on track. When I was confident, I talked to people who I tried to help.
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Today, I love the telephone. I take some committed calls during my down times and some in-between, but I need to pay attention, because I am often tempted to take more calls then is reasonable for me. I do have some boundaries in place; I don't take calls between 12:30pm and 2:30pm, unless it is planned in advance because I eat my lunch, then pray and meditate after that (typically until 2pm), and I don't take calls after 8pm, because that's my husband's time.