[BreeChick]

I was waiting at the doc's office to get my B-12 shot and pulled out their new jan 2008 good housekeeping magazine. There is a great article in there about the negative 'inner talk' that we do. One of the stories in there was about a gal in the group therapy that talked about how she loved eating in the car, it made her 'not feel all alone'. It turns out she commutes like 150 miles a day and spends a lot of time in the car...

food made her not feel alone? interesting

I'v always thought for myself that it wasn't an issue of 'food is my best friend' but about habit. I eat and put stuff into my mouth out of long time habit. eat when you can as you go when you have 3 kids, etc. But this article made me think about how often food IS comforting when you're alone, it makes you feel full inside, warm somehow..that PAIN of being overfull is almost 'good' in it's feeling.

If my mouth is chewing then I don't tend to feel my feelings, or if I was overfull then I all 'felt' was the pain of overeating.

It made me think a lot about what food becomes for all us, then we have this surgery and that is taken away from day 1 of the surgery. We have to learn to allow our feelings to happen, they are natural! Feelings are good and it's great to feel even when it's to feel sad, mad angry!

But most of all..long term we have to HAVE TO learn new coping skills. Otherwise all those loooooong years of stuffing something in our mouths out of habit slide back easily without even thinking..kind of like PooPoo's experience with the donut hole.

[lazell]

Makes me think,especially since I'm driving to my WLS appointment. I am single and I think thats true alot.Thanks for making my brain work this morning.I sure struggle alot with food and booze.(I can do it!)

[kitty56]

My husband and I always use to eat something on the pickup when we drove to town. Mostly sweet stuff which was pretty fattening. Well we still do but in a way different way. We eat the protein bars now in the pickup and I take some beef jerky along too and very seldom I take a few wheat thins along. Only time I take the wheat thins if it is a really long drive to a different town. Then I also take a protein shake along too, only if I do not get a chance to eat breakfast. Now when I have a south beach protein bar I can only eat half of the bar and safe the other half for the next meal. For some reason the south beach bar fills me up so fast. I even have my husband eating healthy on the pickup. My husband really likes the south beach bars. We hardly ever eat out at the fast food places now. We just eat the south beach bars or if it is a pretty far trip then I will take a protein shake along for me. I drink the atkins protein shakes and they have either 4 or 5 carb. and 15 protiens. I guess old habits are hard to break but like I said my husband and I do it a different way and still enjoy eating on the pickup.

[Jaime]

WOW! after the surgery, I was on a high, I'm finally loosing weight, I'm feeling victorious, etc. Then like you said, reality kicks in and you have to start dealing with the "whys" of eating. My profession is correcting behaviors, I've been doing it for 17 years! But i wasn't applying it to my self. The theory is simple, when changing a behavior, you have to learn a replacement behavior. I like that "kitty 56" figured out a way to deal with eating in the truck. I know I am a total stress eater, so now I have to make myself do something physical, active play with my boys, walk the dog, sweep the floor, fold laundry, go somewhere else, to deal with the stress instead of stuffing my mouth. I read an article about the guy that placed 3rd in the biggest looser last year. He talks about the work involved in maintanence. He used a phrase that rang true to me - I respect my body. So I spent some introspective time figuring out what respecting my body means to me and am really working on applying it!

Jaime

[qt82699]

really makes you think i know i used food for almost every issue there is...bored, stress, lonliness and the list goes on and on, now i find new ways to deal with all those emotions, thanks for sharing!