After Surgery - Dealing with Bad Food Habits
I'm being sleeved in October, but I'm worried about dealing with my eating habits....emotional eating...bored eating...happy...sad...the list goes on. Also a giant addiction to chocolate. How do you deal with this? Have you had support from a pschyc afterwards, or do you just do the best you can? I'm really interested in hearing how others cope. :confused:
Re: After Surgery - Dealing with Bad Food Habits
If it entrenched behaviour I'd have a session beforehand to be sure that there is nothing that you've overlooked in preparation. Afterwards - things are so different. You simply 'can't eat like you used to, but having said that this is for the long haul so you'd be best to have some good habits in place before you manoeuvre yourself into a situation where you van eat more but continue to make poor choices and spoil your progress.
Re: After Surgery - Dealing with Bad Food Habits
Can very much relate to the emotional eating, but surgery date as well! I'm 10/25!
I am seeing counselor in this pre op time, not waiting to wait until after. My surgeon also recommended the book "Eat It Up" by Connie Stapleton. Got the audio CDs to listen in the car and it has helped. This books is intended for post surgery, but found it a good book to work on this before. The author does have another book I think it's called "Thriving" and it intended for pre-surgery. Some background on me: Dealt with depression pretty much my entire adult life, anixety, and OCD (thought process, not physical things like touching handles 32 times type of OCD). Have been on zoloft and ativan as needed but had to wean myself off them them. Had major stomach problems and the meds the GI was telling me to use had a MAJOR conflict with the zoloft, so I pretty much accelerated the weaning process. Turned out the GI was wrong big time, but have opted to stay off the meds anyway. I regret that decision a few times. but I have also gone gluten free due to a wheat allergy, and that has helped my depression tremendously!
I am becoming more aware of when I am a stress/emotional eater, the feelings that I am trying to suppress with food, and dealing with those feelings instead of eating. But I'm not limited to stress. Trust me, I was tempted so many times yesterday, I thought the whole world just knew that I am kicking my coke (cola) habit! Every time I turned around, I had the biggest urge for a large coke with no ice! What I am having to do is ask myself is WHY I want a cola? What feelings are surfacing at this moment? And have to work through them.
Congrats on taking control of your life, both being sleeved and dealing with the emotional eating! Both are huge steps! Sounds we have similar goals: give ourselves the best shot of a successful WLS by dealing with much of the source that contributed to the weight in the first place. Look forward to keeping in touch and hearing about your journey! Good luck and welcome!
Re: After Surgery - Dealing with Bad Food Habits
I tend to delay eating when I recognize the triggers. Classically I would have a bad day at work, go home and go through a drive through, then get home and grab a handful of chips, then after a bit have dinner, then munch in front of the TV. It was a LOT of food just for a having "bad day."
Now when I have a bad day, I drive past the drive through a say to myself "I'll have dinner in a couple hours. I can wait." And when I get home I skip the chips going "I'll have a few chips with dinner" then I delay dinner an hour saying "I'll be less likely to snack after dinner if I eat later." Finally I have a dinner with correct portion sizes, eat slowly and listen to my pouch for messages of being full. Later in the evening when my head goes "eat something" I have a big drink of something sweet but sugar free and I call it a night. If the cravings get too much, I go for a walk or distract myself with activity or just GO TO BED. Sleep is a great way to avoid overeating and you burn more fat if you get a good amount of sleep!
That's how I do it. You have to recognize those emotional eating urges for what they are and work around them.
It's wordy but I posted about head-hunger before. http://www.gastricsleeve.com/forum/b...ad-hunger.html
Re: After Surgery - Dealing with Bad Food Habits
Thanks for the replies. ShadowCruiser....I can so relate to your story. I have suffered panic attacks (long before they had a name), anxiety and depression. Turns out my family is rife - but heaven forbid that it be talked about. I have been on most anti depressants, but am stable now on Lexapro. I also take Sifrol for a major case of restless legs. I recently had bunion surgery and my surgeon told me his assistant had to hold my legs down for the op! I'll see if I can get hold of the books you mentioned - maybe it will help. Anything's worth a try.
Truebody - your last sentence is exactly what I'm afraid of!!:eek:
Re: After Surgery - Dealing with Bad Food Habits
Have a plan in place for something to do to replace eating when a trigger happens. For example, get up and go take a walk. That gets you away from the temptations and hopefully will help get your mind off it until it passes.
Re: After Surgery - Dealing with Bad Food Habits
Having the sleeve removes a great deal of the hunger hormones. Have you found that helps? Is it any easier to control the triggers now that you are sleeved?