I have more roller coasters than Six Flags

I haven't been here in awhile. I miss you all. I thought I had this thing down pat but it seems I've gone a little crazy. I had my surgery on Jan. 30th of this year. I was 318 on the day of my surgery and I'm currently 255. My six month appointment is next month and I'm afraid to go because I'm not going to be at the weight that I should be at the six month mark. I've been exercising more but my craving for sugar has skyrocketed. I'm eating ice cream, candy, cake and anything else that's sweet. At first, I was eating them but still losing weight. Now, I'm going up and down like a roller coaster. I'm so afraid that I'm going to gain my weight back and everyone is going to look at me like a failure. I didn't go through all of this to fail.  I have to get back on track. Any suggestions?

I hate to sound facetious - stop eating sugar.

Drink a flavoured water or have something protein  instead. Just don't have the sugar around.

Yeah I know I need to stop the sugar.  I don't know why I crave it so much. It's crazy.  

If you can afford it, go to therapy.  Your cavings are not uncommon and they could be rooted in the way you handle stress or other emotional issues.  I'm an emotional eater.  Once I recognized it, its much easier to avoid the pitfalls.  I've never had a sweet tooth, but I have one now.  It takes work to avoid the temptation, but for the most part I do.  Good luck!

Get sugar free stuff instead freeze fresh fruit, yogurt, sugar free pudding, crystal light in ice cube trays with a toothpick kinda like popsicles.  Don't bring cakes breads and such home boycott all of them.  You are right you didn't go to the extremes of having surgery to fail.  Be strong and don't give up. You can do this.

In the very beginning, I was afraid to go off my surgeon's plan.  I thought it would mess up something internally so I followed every thing he said.  Then, I started experimenting with things to see what would happen.  It was definitely a slippery slope. But I agree with Dan, I may need to seek therapy regarding my relationship with food.

Figure out why you are sabotaging your efforts. Get help somewhere. If you do not, it will all be for naught.

I find that my will-power is totally overwhelmed by carbohydrates, so I avoid them like the plague!  I am 2.5 years out, and I've been in maintenance for about a year, and I still only have sweets for special occasions.  Every once in a while, I'll go to the bakery at the food store, and think "I've been good for so long.  I deserve one chocolate croissant."  But then I realize, once I start letting myself make exceptions, it will be a downward spiral.  So I walk away, again and again.

I suggest you white-knuckle it and go very low carb for a few days to a week. Then you can add carbs back to see how many you can tolerate before you start craving them again.   I think you'll be surprised how much easier it gets when you aren't fighting the carb addiction.

good luck.  You can do it. 

Carol

You're caught in a carb frenzy and need to nip it in the bud. The most blunt answer is don't buy that stuff. If its not in the house you won't eat it. If other members of your family want that stuff make them go out for it. Keep things like sugar free jello, pudding and gum handy, flavored water too. Thats a workaround, tho. For me, even SF foods trigger me so I keep very little of it in my house. Remove all those refined carbs from your pantry.

This is a good time to have a heart to heart with yourself. Not blame or punishment but an honest inward discussion on how you want this to go. You underwent this process for a reason, review those reasons. What were your hopes right before surgery? Have those changed? Take your power back from the cake. You are strong, you've done it before and can do it again.  Are you rewarding the extra exercise efforts with these bad foods?

Make small changes that you can easily manage. Let's say you usually have 3 cookies per day. Cut it back to one per day. Track it. Then in a week cut it back to every second day for that cookie. Try substituting berries and vanilla Greek yogurt for a sweet treat. It's actually quite delicious. You can do this, you are strong and awesome.

Hang in there.

I truly appreciate all of the words of wisdom.  This week, I will go back to tracking on My Fitness Pal religiously.  I will remove the sweets from my house.  I live alone so I've asked my mom to come over today to pick up the items and give them to my nephew who is visiting with her for the summer.  I'm going back to cooking my own foods.  I find that I do much better when I cook my meals at home instead of going out. I've also decided to be upfront with all of you and myself about what I've been eating that is sabotaging my efforts.

Items I'm Purging (Try not to cringe when you read what I've been eating)

1. Synder Pretzel Sticks

2. Lemonicello Cupcakes

3. Sweet Tea/Peach Tea/ Lemonade

4. Gummy Bears and Jolly Ranchers

5. Gardetto's snack mix

6. Pierogies

7. Blueberry bagel

8. Soft serve ice cream on cake cone

9. Rita's Italian Ice

10. Snickerdoodle cookies

Wow. That looks really bad when you list it like that. :-(  I'll post something next Sunday with an update on my progress. Thanks again!