2 more days to go July 26 admitting I am addicted to food WOW!

Hi, as I go through my pre op diet realizing I am addicted to food. This surgery is not a cure for me it's a tool, only to help me reach my goal. As I Iook back over the years overeating it's sad. I am so ready for a new changed in my life. It's amazing how my thinking has changed before wls FOOD IS NOT MY BEST FRIEND, MY TOOL IS MY BEST FRIEND NOW I HAVE TO MAKE SURE MY TOOL IS ALWAYS WORKING, BY FOLLOWING MY NEW WAY OF EATING FOR LIFE! I'm feeling great I know it's a daily process being addicted to food is hard to over come it because we need food to survive. I'm going to be posting daily letting my feelings out this forum etc, this website is my support group. Thank you all for going through my journey with me.

While this forum is great, it's not a substitute for actual professional care. Are you seeing a therapist to help you work through this?

No, I'm working through it myself. I seen a therapist as required by my insurance. She discovered something happened to me that was the reason why I turned to food for safety. I'm diagnosing myself with food addiction because: I eat when Im not hungry, I over eater because of my emotions, I have no self control etc. My highest weight is crazy that's why I thick I have addiction. After surgery I will say I'M a recovering food addict. I recognize at anyday day I can slip up. By me doing this I think I will be successful in reaching my goal. This is a life changing commitment the first step was me to be honest with myself. Thank you so much I'm learning a lot from you!

Welcome ! And don't beat yourself up . Many of our surgeons discovered physical reasons we overate during our bariatric surgeries - like a huge congenital hiatal hernia in my case . This caused irritation that would only go away if I constantly ate .

I suppose I'm still a food addict of sorts - I don't wait to eat till I'm hungry or eat on a schedule ( or heaven forbid weigh or measure or count calories) . I think you'll find that post op you'll enjoy your food a lot more - and you'll be eating a much higher quality diet while experiencing NSV after NSV :)

I found out, post-surgery, that I had a really big stomach. Wonder what came first: Was it big from overeating, or did I overeat because it was big? Weirdly, I never observed that I ate much more volume than others. But I do think I ate or snacked more often.

There are so many reasons why we over ate in the past. A lot of it has to do with trauma, until you deal with those feelings it will come back to bite you. I would recommend a good counselor or therapist to work through the issues. We are always a work in progress, learning not to react to stimuli as we did in the past. The things that trigger us if we can identify them and deal with them before we do something we'll regret is the goal. Personally I don't think you ever truly recover from the trauma, just learn other ways to deal with it or recognize it sooner.

If there is an in person support group I would attend if possible. This forum helps me a lot. I don't really have too many people that I can vent to like I do on this forum. And most everyone here is kind and willing to help and share their experiences.

Keep coming back, journal your feelings for me that gets them out and helps me to understand what I'm going through.

Be kind to yourself and don't ever give up!

I'm going to find and bump a post that helped me tremendously!

I am starting therapy tomorrow morning. I know I need to work through a lot of pain from childhood. I'm going for binge eating disorder.

The post i'll Bump has some wonderful suggestions for books that help you work through some issues.

much luck to you! I hope that if you can to do therapy.

Congrats on your breakthrough. I think this process really helps expose some of the issues with our relationship with food. For me, it was comfort, a solution boredom, and sometimes, I've recently discovered, it was because I associated food with certain fun events and happy memories. There are also biological issues that related to my climb to obesity: yo-yo dieting from a young age, including massive, unhealthy calorie restriction.