Pigging out before having a surgery date????

I need your opinion friends!  Once I decided to go ahead with my RNY, I started eating everything and thinking I would say goodbye to my favorites.  Now, I was a diet coke addict......I have given that up and it is no problem.  I also have been a coffee with cream drinker for years and years......I gave that up and tea is totally filling in the place of coffee. I still have something warm, I get to use my favorite mug, I can still meet friends and have something that is like coffee.  NOw, I am out of control with EVERYTHING else....I eat oatmeal for breakfast and then from 10:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m.  I eat meals, sweets, ice cream......... How did you deal with this before surgery?   I'm scared that if I don't stop it will be extra hard after surgery?  I will be doing some cognative behavior therapy through park nicollet.  That will be swell.....but that won't start until the end of Feb.   I'd love your true advise with what worked for you, or what didn't work.    p.s. I won't be at Hopkins coffee tomorrow.  It's my hubby's b-day and I'm gonna pamper him! 

I hear you! I am having a hard time with the sweets and Diet Mtn Dew! I don't know about your surgeon but mine wants me to lose 15 lbs before my surgery so that is keeping a little more on the straight and narrow.  I will be interested in hearing how others deal with it too!

I think I speak for many when I say that what you're doing is having a 'pity party' for the foods you think you're gonna have to give up. Some of the Mpls-SP folks used to get together for a 'final fatty feast' where the soon-to-be loser feasts on stuff they think they're gonna miss.  This was just before the liquid diet some docs insist on. I would like to tell you that it's normal to feel this way.  Food is a comfort source for many of us---which is why we end up being super-obese and needing something drastic in the first place.  Weight-loss surgery is a tool--not a cure. It gives us a 'honeymoon' period where we can't eat a lot of stuff--only teeny tiny amounts that allow our bodies to shed weight quickly.  In this honeymoon period we MUST learn better eating habits because eventually we are able to eat those things we crave.  The really smart ones are those who never test the waters with the junk they crave!  The rest of us learn to limit the amounts of junk we put in our bodies. (The 'lucky' ones will have tools that reject or 'dump' on sugars and other such crap.) But anyway--learn to work the tool, and realize that our tummies are surgically altered--not our brains. It's the brain that need to be  worked on to deal with our old habits, cravings, insecurities, and mental illnesses. (((HUG))) **SUE**

My surgeon was strict about a 10% weight loss prior to surgery...If you didn't hit the weight he wanted you risked not getting the surgery!   That did NOT help the stress of losing my old friend "naughty food". I tried my best and figured I may was well get used to it!

You are doing great so far....the vices you've given up or replaced so far will be a distant memory by the time you have your surgery!

I am still waiting for my surgery date as well - I had the eating spree's around christmas - knowing that I wouldn't eat like that every again.  But i set myself a deadline - said ok Jan 1 - you are done with this eating spree. 

And I have been very good about planning my meals, trying out protein, avoiding carbs - pretty much eating like I will after surgery - small portions - not snacking - got rid of pop only on water.  I tell myself I am allergic to the sugar and junk that I used to crave.  I also cleaned out the pantry and fridge/freezer of stuff that I shouldnt be eating anyway. 

 And so far I am down 13# toward my pre-surgery weight loss. 

Good Luck Lisa.

 

Linda

 

For me I wanted this surgery so bad so when they said that I needed to lose 20lbs before they would allow the surgery that was it. The moment I walked out of the clinic I stopped soda, fried foods, ice cream,  limted my fast food intake, and really worked hard at reading labels. In the first month I lost 16lbs I was only 4lbs from my goal but still had 2 months of the structured weight loss for the insurance. So I continued on this path of trying to eat right. I did make mistakes along the way. I remember have cake 2 or more times. It was hard but its all mind set I believe. The week before the surgery I did not have to do a liquid diet but I decided that I would eat some of my favorites just to feel like I was satisfied. My tastes did change through this process and these items weren't so much my favorite anymore.  I believe that giving up alot of the stuff that is not good for me has really helped me with not having a lot of head hunger after surgery. I don't crave or want those foods anymore as I would in the past.  Having the goal to loose the weight before surgery was a huge motivator for me. You just have to take it one day at a time. Perhaps your changes need to be small like getting rid of the cream in the coffee. Eating breakfast is great. I was a horrible breakfast eater.  Again take it one day at a time and make small steps. I know that you can do it!! Always keep that eye on the prize. . Love ya!!

I've also heard it called last supper syndrome, and food funeral.  It was hard, way harder than eating after surgery.  It was very important for me to get all the "bad' foods out of the house.   My surgeon strongly requested that I lose that 10% also, and I didn't want to risk being turned away on the day of surgery.  Plus, I needed to prove that I could do this.  I just made the weight loss goal, but I did do it.  It also helped to practice all the post-op eating rules during this time of difficulty.  I guess in some ways I didn't deny myself much pre-op, but I was careful with balancing the bad with good, and with eating reduced amounts of the bad.  For example, eat a salad, or yogurt, before pizza, and be mindful of each bite and how your body is feeling.  When the fear hits, remind yourself that it won't be the last time you will eat those foods, you are just taking a vacation from those foods.  Remind yourself that having this surgery doesn't mean you're dead, you will eat again, and you will be able to enjoy food.  But that's the difference.  We will learn to enjoy food, and to not eat blindly or excessively.  if we are lucky, maybe our tastes for certain foods will change, and stay changed.  I also kept a journal about when I was eating, what I was eating, what I was feeling before I ate, and what I was feeling while I ate, and how my body felt after I ate.  It's helps with the mindfulness, and with learning your triggers and can help find replacement behaviors for emotional eating.  I was also able to track my calories, protein, sugars, carbs, fats... this way, so that I started to really learn the art of label reading and balancing meals.  I also started to learn about nutrition value of foods at fast food restaurants, and general nutritional info for common foods.  I bought post-op cookbooks, so that I could read recipes and see that there would be lot's of yummy foods available to me after, as long as I was willing to put in some effort to cook it.  All this stuff takes time, and helped comfort my mind.  So, that's what helped me.  Hope you find something that works for you. 

Do you even know if you have to lose any weight before surgery? Have they mentioned this yet? Obviously once you know you have to lose weight you'll do it. For sure you'll need some kind of pre-op diet. Also, you HAVE lost weight fairly recently. Nearly 50 pounds in fact!

Lisa.....you are doing what almost everyone has done at some point. Saying good bye to the foods you love....although it doesn't have to be good bye. You will eat most of those foods again. You will just have a very limited quanity and many things I have found I just don't want at all. I don't miss it like I thought I would.  Once I was on that liquid diet for 2 weeks before and 4 weeks after my whole thought pattern about food changed. I felt so good and so much healthier. It was worth it to me. Hope it all works out for you. it really is nothing more then a mind set.... you just learn how to eat healthy and don't want the junk. Good Luck....connie d

Lisa, I was doing the same thing.  Really out of my mind with the sweets.  Then, it dawned on me that I had spent four months of my six with the nutritionist, not doing a darn thing she asked and I had better get down to it, or she may put the kabosh on the surgery.  So, I'm now doing the South Beach Diet to show that I can take direction and do what I need to, should I have the surgery. Of course, I still haven't decided that's what I want, which is also driving me crazy. So, sounds like this final binge is normal.  Kathy