Ok.. I know that is a slogan for a restaurant, but I can't remember which one. 

I just thought I would put this out there to see if I am the only one that thinks about food in a different way.  Last night I was watching TV with my husband and 90% of the commercials that come on are food.  Apparently, my husband was hungry because everything that showed up on the tv, he was commenting on how good it looked.  However, when I looked at the food, I realized that I was NOT thinking the same thing.  Before surgery, I am 100% sure that I would have said and thought the same exact things as he was currently saying. 

Now, when I look at the commercials or what other people are eating, all I think about is.. "Man.. that will make me throw up if I eat it." or "That does not look the bit tasty to me." or " Blah".   It could be a commercial for red lobster (my favorite restaurant), homemade macaroni and cheese, or just a plain melted grilled cheese. 

I am starting to wonder if this is going to be my new reaction to food or if this is just something that happens in the first year because I do not have any sort of appetite.

Would love to hear your experiences of how your thoughts on food has changed since your surgery.

I am a year out and I have the same thought process. That or I think "Why in the Hell did I eat that crap? Jeesh, no wonder I was FAT!!!" 

I'm roughly 2 and a half months out from surgery and I gotta say nothing makes me say "oh man I gotta eat that".  Honestly I eat because I have to and I never find myself going back for more because what I ate was so delicious.  I guess it's a good thing.  Hopefully I'm just eating to live now instead of living to eat.  My wife had the surgery about 3 weeks ago and she says the same thing too.  We used to watch the food network all the time and now I almost never watch it. 

Give it time. Hunger signals DO come back.

I loved those early post-op months, Feeling cranky..wondering why. Oh. I should have ate 2 hours ago...

See food differently is Red Lobsters slogan.  I don't like to see people eat, although most food ads have zero effect on me, watching people in the process of eating typically turns my stomach, just seeing them chew and swallow especially if it is large quantities of food, like those food eating contests.  I don'****ch a lot of network tv so I rarely see commercials anymore but I can tell you I have a completely different relationship with food, if I like something too much, I just never eat it again.  I don't want to be married to food.  I want to control when and how much I eat and never feel like food is a big part of my life.  Its been ten years now so I think I am pretty good with keeping food at bay.

I dont want to watch people eat either but for the exact OPPOSITE reason.  I must have a suggestive mind becasue seeing people eat makes me WANT to eat even if I am not hungry.

:(

I thought I remembered your name lady Heidi for the life of me I don't remember my name 12 years ago when I was here. But I am Kathy and nice to 'see' you Heidi

Hello,

Yup I have been around here going on 11 years now.  I just passed my 10 year surgery anniversary.  I try to post to always give back something to the group that helped support my journey.

Nice to have you back.

Recalibrating your relationship with food and defining a new "normal" is the single biggest factor in long-term success.  Our brains are literally addicted to all the added sugar, salt, and fat in the typical western diet and it's that habituation that drives our cravings (and leaves us unsatisfied by normal food) and bad behaviors.

I encourage you to do everything you can to keep this attitude.  It's not about deprivation, it's about adopting the perspective of, "That's just not how I eat anymore."

I tend to think that it's not surprising that there is such an obesity crisis, especially in the U.S, with all those food pushers. There was a good segment on the Daily Show about this:

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/fsdtvk/the-snacks-of-life