[lauralee]

I'm having a hard time with my eating. It seems the closer I get to getting a surgery date, the harder it is to control what I'm eating !!
I know I'm food addicted, and have used food to cope with everything, and now the thought of not having it is making me crazy. I seem to be eating like crazy knowing I'm not going to be able to after the surgery. I feel like I'm losing my best friend, but I know my best friend is killing me,, I'm sorry if I'm not suppose to talk about food on this forum, I know it's difficult for those that have had the surgery to read this, as they can't eat anything, and I'm here bitchin about how I can't stop eating !!,,
lauralee

[whizzersmom]

What you're feeling is normal but you really need to come to terms with these issues before surgery. During the whole pre-op training and requirements. Talk to someone and try to get these issues worked out. Please don't go into surgery thinking you will never be able to eat again. That simply isn't true. I am 5 weeks post op and had chicken breast and mashed potatoes for dinner last night. Yes it's a much smaller portion because your pouch is so small. And I had a list of my fav restaurants I wanted to eat at before surgery. And ya know I really only ate at like 3 of them. I had my mind so set that when I thought about going to Olive Garden or for Chinese it didn't even sound good to me. I can honestly say since I had my surgery I have NOT felt deprived at all. Go into this thinking I can't have certain things for a while, instead of never. Everything in moderation that is the key. And you have to realize you were living to eat in the past, your new life will be eating to live. You can do this if you want it bad enough. I went into this thinking I will do this, and it will work this time. I refuse to think negative. Good luck and stay positive and surround yourself with positive people. "You are only as strong as you ALLOW yourself to be"
Take Care and keep us posted with your progress

[MsVickie]

Its normal so calm down honey. So many people do think they can never have this or that afterwards. At first well you simply cant.........but in time...... you surely can have a bite. In even more time you can have it in moderation. Why does that work? Because your new tummy wont let you have it until your ready.

You will suffer at first or most do with head hunger. But that passes as fast as it comes on. You will feel satisifed after you have this surgery. When we use the word amazing it truely is. No more than you can acutally eat and your full!

Your looking at what you cant do versus what you can do. Reseach it some more. This is not a diet. Its a life change.

So take a deep breath and let it out. Right now if you eat in moderation to see how things go it would be great. You will slip up at times yes but tomorrow is another day.

[Perfesser]

Correction - We talk about food almost non-stop here. It is a necessary survival tool, and we like to be able to use it skillfully. There's even a whole forum devoted to nothing but eating and recipes.

Correction - where on earth did you ever get the idea that we can't eat anything? That is soooo not true!!! I eat anything I want, and have since my surgery. The key is to redefine "want". If you're talking about donuts, pastries, and sugar-laden trash - I don't want it. Quit that several months before surgery and don't miss it one little bit.

There is a post stickied on one of the forums, I think by judijo, about losing food, her best friend. I'd advise you to look it up and read it closely, then read it again and again until it sinks in.

Word of caution - if you are engaging in self-destructive behavior as an act of rebellion or weakness, it may be appropriate to review why you are doing this and whether or not you are ready for it. You can get away with it now with little consequence, but after surgery, your body gains an enforcement mechanism, and it won't be afraid to use it!!

Good luck!

CT

[lauralee]

Perfesser, I don't think you understand, I need the surgery to have the enforcement mechanism, I have used food for so long as a coping mechanism, that I need a physical restaint to help stop the addiction. If it was as easy as you expain, everyone would be thin on will-power alone.
I think that others may understand what I'm talking about.
Don't get me wrong, I am very positive in this new adventure, and way of life !!
I'm just venting my feelings about how much food has affected my life, and how much I have depended on it to deal with my emotions, and am on this forum to have others that have gone through these same emotions help me in this journey

[MaggieEley]

Hi Lauralee,

What you are saying is familiar to almost all of us. Talking/venting about this if fine and we do that quite a bit along this journey. What I want to impress upon you is that this surgery is nothing more than a tool to help you to achieve your goal of weight loss. It will help you as an enforcement mechanism, but if you don't work on and come to terms with your food addiction, then that will end up being stronger than your new tool. Food addictions are why most of us are here, after all.

What you are going through is perfectly normal. We can get fearful and protective of our "best friend" at the thought of losing it. I can tell you that after surgery your tastes for familiar and comforting foods will most likely change. If you follow your program, you won't feel the physical hunger, although the head hunger will come at random times and that won't last. Take a deep breath, remember why you are doing this, and make sure you keep short and long range goals in mind from the beginning. I made a list of reasons I wanted to lose weight, and I look at that list every day to reinforce my goals.

After your surgery, you will be able to eat what will nurture you and help you to be healthy. There are even gourmet cookbooks for post WLS patients. Talk with your nutritionist about this, and I hope you will consider talking with a psychologist or counselor as well. As MsVicki says, this is a life change rather than a diet, and that's a much bigger deal.

To your success along your journey!

Maggie

[kitty56]

I agree with everyone on here. It is a huge life style change and what foods you eat. Now with certain foods that you use to eat before can be revised and made the healthy way and is pretty tasty and delicious. It is not going to taste like it use to but hey it beats giving it all up, my moto is revise to eat it healthy way. I got what I wanted from surgery and get that full feeling after just eating a little. You can taste some of the bad foods when you are much farther out, but it sure does not taste the same way it use to. I will give an example. Before surgery I loved chocolate covered cherries, I could eat them any time of year but my family only ate them at Christmas time and only a few boxes a year. So this last Christmas my daughter said that she only bought one box for Christmas for a treat for her. She usually ate a few just before bed, becasue they made her very sleepy. So I decided to buy one for me and hubby to share, well I took one bit of one of them and I had to spit it in the garbage and I just cannot eat them anymore, way to sweet. I have a sweet tooth but I revise with my splenda or steavia sweetners and using my flours that I order. As far as meats I can eat almost any type of meats and not get sick, but that very satifying feeling. Once I started to lose all this weight I do not focus on food so much anymore becasue other things are more important to me than food. I can get around sooo much more with so much more enregy and my garden and family and friends become more important than food does now. Oh how I love living now and having so much fun working in my yard and garden without all that weight hindering me to do what I want to do. I hope and pray I never see that weight back on again and hopefully I got rid of it forever.I am loving life way to much to be sadled down with all that fat. Yes food is still important to me but I do not let it run my life anymore and I make healthy chioces but there are times I slip up but I pick myself up and start a new day all over again. You really do not have to miss out on any thing, just revise and live life to its fullest. Check out the recipes on gastric bypass recipes in the forums, there are some really good recipes there and alot of mine are on there too. I hope this helps.

[dixieladybug]

Hello and welcome. I felt much the same way that you do. I was so afraid that I would be the one that it would not work for and in a way I was right. It is a tool to help you but you have to do the work. Food will not be as important to you as it is now. I still have head hunger sometime then I realize that I am not hungry I want the taste of food. Then if I get busy it goes away. MOST of the time. I am not perfect sometimes I slip up and eat things that I should not.. i just say ok tomorrow is another day and get back on track. I don't dump unless I really eat too much sugar and it is not as bad as I have read about so I really have to be careful and not slip back into my bad habits that got me where I needed the surgery in the first place. It is not magic it does take work but it is so worth it. When you start going threw the sizes and can not believe how much weight you have lost and how much better you feel you will know that it was for you. Do a lot of reserch and study everything you can and be prepared to follow instructions from your doctor.. good luck on this amazing journey. We are here for you.

[DocSanae]

Originally Posted by lauralee

Perfesser, I don't think you understand, I need the surgery to have the enforcement mechanism, I have used food for so long as a coping mechanism, that I need a physical restaint to help stop the addiction. If it was as easy as you expain, everyone would be thin on will-power alone.
I think that others may understand what I'm talking about.
Don't get me wrong, I am very positive in this new adventure, and way of life !!
I'm just venting my feelings about how much food has affected my life, and how much I have depended on it to deal with my emotions, and am on this forum to have others that have gone through these same emotions help me in this journey

lauralee, da perfesser DOES understand. Why else do you think both he AND his wife went the route of surgery to salvage their lives?
Whatever others may say, or what words others may choose, EVERYONE on this board understands. It's just WHERE on this journey the particular person is, is where the difference is. Depending on how far along, or how still new at, this journey the person is, the total PERSPECTIVE will be different though, because of the experinces that each has gone through, and the further along, the veterans can look back and say, ah, okay, so....
Incidentally, there is one thing da perfesser is wrong about...the "Ode to Food" was posted by fr1endly2

Food IS the crux of the issue, and food IS discussed on this board ALL the time, sometimes as postives, sometimes as negatives. So, don't worry about posting about food and venting. That will help you put at least a few things, if not a lot, into perspective, which will help you deal with stuff that you probably will have to face post op.
Don't be scared of losing food, but don't be scared of food, either.
((((((HUGS)))))

[lauralee]

Thanks Guys, I am so happy I found this forum !!! I feel more secure that I can put my fears and feelings out there, and I know you all understand..
I talked with my dietitian today, and explained my fears to her. I also told her that I was going to get a therapist on board. She thought that was a great idea.
All my pre-testing is done, and being mailed to my insurance Co.
I am looking forward to a lighter me. Carrying all this weight around has been exhausting!!