:( Ughhh

SO here I am...10 days after my surgery and I guess Im realizing what true addiction is. I always said Id never be one of those people that got "addicted" to something. The first couple of days, head hunger was no problem...now I find it is starting to eat away at me. I feel so weak saying that - so weak when I wanted to be so strong. Im noticing that the head hunger is totally just a fun word to talk about our ADDICTION. Here I am, not hungry at all - but seeing comercials, thinking of old loves, (Sonny's RIBS, Steak with corn/mashed potatoes, Pizza, Salami Sandwhiches, salad bars, cheese melts, veggie subs, Chicken Parm subs, Salt and Vinegar Chips, chocolate, french fries,etc) or driving down the road and seeing all those restaraunts...and thinking I want that food. In reality I hardly ate bad...I ate a lot of chicken (grilled) and veggies with the occasional junk. I was constantly on a low carb diet. But towards the end of my "fat people" eating I admit I ate a lot more of the bad then I did the good! My idea for writting tonight is that I understand that this is truly an addiciton. I hate that so much. When Im not hungry in my stomache at all - my head thinks of all these great tastes it would love to induldge in! My head wants my mouth to taste the foods - but my belly doesnt need them. My belly is content - so why is my head playing these games? Its the Addicition -and I wi**** would go away! But mark my words - I am stronger then it!

Gina, You're only voicing what almost all of us post-ops deal with every day! As a pre-op / early post-op, I received lots of advice from post-ops to fight the temptation, especially in that early post-op period. They don't call it the "honeymoon" phase for nothing! Your "belly" appetite will eventually return and then it becomes more difficult to fight that urge to eat. But IF you've followed your surgeon's plan from the beginning you will be better equiped to deal with it. I tell myself that I love being down 120 lbs in less than 10 months and that I've been able to walk away from most of those tempting goodies, so why would I want to sabotage myself now. That little "chat" with myself doesn't always work, but it does most of the time. My other little "trick" is to reach for my water bottle when I feel hungry. I'm usually not really hungry, but thirsty. Hang in there! You can do it!!! Vickie J. PS - I was never one to enjoy cooking, but since WLS I've become a Food Network, cookbook & recipe junkie! I call the Food Network "food porn". Even though I can't eat many of the recipes I drool over, I enjoy dreaming of cooking wonderful goodies for my family & friends.

I understand, and like you learned alot about myself and my love for food. Its really eye opening, and humbeling too. Glad you are learning and losing! blessings, Tami

Gina, Girl I can sympathize! I am pre-op but trying to lose 43 lbs so I can get my heart cath done before I can get my date and the head hunger /addiction haunts me sometimes. Especially the commercials! I swear some of them actually call my name! LOL! Hang in there Gina and fight it! I am hoping that by having to lose this weight now and going through the withdrawal now that maybe it won't be so bad after surgery. Maybe I'm just dreaming! I'll be pulling for you! Kat

Gina...you are not alone!! I have to continually fight those food demons. It seems that, now that I'm post-op, I'm more obsessed about what I'm eating...or what I'm not eating...than before my surgery. I'm 11 months post-op and found myself falling back into my old eating habits. I'm one of those rare people who don't dump (except for very heavy sugar content--ex: pancakes/cinammon roll...guess how I found that out??) so even eating sweets is a constant fights. But some days are betting than others. One of the things that has really helped is individual counseling. This has helped me to identify exactly where and why I learned to subsitute food for emotions and why I'm now an emotional eater. Yes, I know most of us developed this maladaptive coping mechanism in childhood...but not how to correct it. With individual counseling, I have identified where it stems from and how to resolve those feelings...but...that doesn't lessen the desire for those foods. I don't think we'll ever completely lessen the desire for these foods (like a true addict)...but we have to fight it everyday. Recently, I went back to keeping a food/emotional journal. This has really helped me to be honest with myself and make myself more accountable for the things I put in my mouth. I read a great weight-loss book recently...Secrets for the Gastric Bypass Patient...which indicated all those secrets we know (water, not drinking while eating, exercise, vitamins, journaling, & attending support groups regularily) but it helped to put me back on track. I'm not looking forward to the day my stomach starts sending those hunger signals again so I'm trying to relearn to eat and fight those "cravings" before my new stomach starts working fully. Good Luck PS--don't even think about going to the fair...just the smell or thought of vinegar fries, corn dog, cotton candy, and funnel cake sent me over the edge every time