15 months after Sleeve

[Nojobjudy]

My first eleven were easy easy but the last few find me hungry constantly. I seem to eat from boredom. Mostly at night.

[Shirl]

From Positive Thinking Group, #6 maybe something you need to work on:

I have posted these affirmations on my fridge to help me stay the course:

Often times when I get discouraged I forget that I am not alone and have an amazing built in tool to not let food control my life.

1. Use built-in portion control
2. Eat on schedule
3. Eat with Intention and not mindlessly
4. Enjoy every bite
5. If hunger/eating urges occur ask yourself when you ate last, have water or unsweetened tea or coffee
6. Find a distraction
7. Stay active, keep body moving
8. Make time for self-care
9. Take multivitamins with breakfast and probiotic supplements before lunch, and calcium before bed
10. Look in the mirror at least twice a day and SMILE!

[D618]

Hi,
I am 2 1/2 months out from my sleeve surgery and I have been battling the nighttime munchies too! It's really difficult to try to ignore the food in the fridge calling/shouting my name!
I am getting better though, I'm fine during the day, but in the evenings I just get so hungry. I know a lot of it is head hunger and wanting to eat out of boredom. Or I grab a healthier snack like a P3 or Greek yogurt. I actually just heard about a support group that they offer at the office where I had my surgery. It's a course that focuses on these issues and teaches Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help address the problem. I haven't started the class yet, but I am really looking forward to the help I need. I've also wondered about attending an Overeater's Anonymous class or something similar...

[Katrina]

What is it with the nighttime thing? This is a real thing. No matter how sleepy I am, I cannot sleep until I've consumed damn near everything in the house. Every night I eat at least 2 or 3 single serving bags of chips followed by an ice cream cone or cookie I cream sandwich and/or a bowl of cereal. I eat at least 1,500 - 2,000 calories just at bedtime alone. Fine all day long. Nighttime comes, and the beast inside comes out.

I am ALWAYS hungry. It doesn't matter if I eat dense protein, I'm starving again within 30 minutes. I can fight the hunger and eat responsibly during the day. I lose all that responsibility when I am sleepy.

[Ann2]

Nojobjudy ... the sleeve doesn't stop head / emotional / comfort / boredom / anxiety hunger and eating. Sorry, but it just doesn't.

To do that, you need to be involved in some practice or therapy that helps you understand better why you're eating what and when you're eating it. Obviously, if you're grazing on highly processed carbohydrate foods ("slider foods") you're going to keep craving those until you ... GULP! ... cold-turkey quit eating those slider foods.

Another thing you'll need to do is "clean up your environment." By that, I mean you need to get all the tempting trigger foods that you eat at night that aren't good for you OUT OF THE HOUSE. If that pisses off anyone else in your family, then you'll have to have those conversations and those negotiations. Some people lock other family members' no-no foods in cabinets that the WLS patient cannot open. And you have to set other rules that keep you from strolling down the road to your perdition.

No one can fix this but you. But that's the good news, too. YOU can fix this. But sounds like you need more structure in your daily life than you've got now and some better protection against the temptations that you're not resisting.

Finally, you would surely benefit from therapy / counseling in this area. Just sayin' that I've been in therapy for over 3 years (since before WLS nearly 3 years ago) to deal with these and related issues.

P.S. Stress in life is what causes a lot of people to overeat and regain weight. If you keep dealing with stress now the way you used to deal with stress, i.e., with food, you'll (as the saying goes) "always get what you always got" -- overweight or obese. Sorry to be so blunt. But that's the God's honest truth.

I hope you can change the way you're using food going forward. I wish you the very best!

[ghost_ryder]

I am worse during school times, I do most of my work at night so I stay up later than I should which leads to whole other meal. If I go to bed when I should the eating stops. I am hopefully graduating in December so I will fix that, I hope. Proper sleep helps me so much. When I am tired at work during the day I tend to snack more to stay active.

[Christie13]

I eat 2-3 sugar free popsicles every night. They take time to eat and it helps rid me of the urge to eat just because. I also count it as extra fluid. Hope you can find your strength.

[Melissa888]

Popsicles, great idea for snacking! Believe it or not, I haven't had one since surgery, just slipped under a the radar I guess! Will definitely get some for summertime snack attacks!

[Nojobjudy]

Thanks everyone..I am encouraged with a new plan. The popsicle idea sounds good.