Why is it so hard?

Why is it so hard to stick to a basic diet. my surgeon wants to see some type of weight loss before sending my info off to my insurance and I cant seem to stick to it?? I want it so bad but old habits are hard to quit. I weigh 435 and 5'8" and i'm active but not as much as Id hope to be. Does anyone have any suggestions.

Being active is great but it won't speed up weight loss, it is really good for the body, so keep it up! It really comes down to what you eat & bad habits are hard to break. It sounds like your surgeon wants to make sure you're committed to this new lifestyle b4 he operates on you, & that can be a good thing even though it feels really, really hard right now.

The one thing I can suggest is that if you have any kind of emotional attachment to food, to seek out therapy. OA is free, it'll be good to get away from treating food as an emotional crutch & talking it out with people who have been there. Coming here is cool too. The head stuff is a pita to work thru.

Go on a carb detox. Get rid of the cookies, breads, pastas etc. It'll be hard the first couple of days, but it will get easier once you get thru the withdrawal. Stock up on dense protein, chicken, turkey, beef etc. Go to The world according to eggface to get recipe ideas that are wl friendly. Shelly is pretty active on the forum & has stuff on her blog.

Go to the different wl forums & click on the What are you eating posts. It'll give you an idea of what eating is like post surgery & can help you on your way now.

Also try cross posting on the main forums, not too many people come here, but the few that do we're a hearty bunch. Good Luck to you!

If it were easy, everyone would be a healthy weight and active. We're about the same weight and in preparation for surgery in June I started trying to change my eating in December. it isn't easy - pasta still calls my name from time to time. When it does, I have to remind myself why I'm getting the surgery.

In addition to Shelly's "the world according to eggface" blog which is great for all aspects of the WLS surgery, check out skinny taste for some meal ideas for now that are pretty healthy although may not be that post-surgery friendly (although with the help of looking at shelly's blog, I've been coming up with some ways I might modify recipes on the skinnytaste blog).

Most important - LOG YOUR FOOD INTAKE! try an app like myfitnesspal - it really helps you hold yourself accountable. I log BEFORE I eat and use it to help plan out meals. You'd be surprised how "just a bite of this or that" adds up quick! and if you aren't logging, you'd probably even forget you had it by the end of the day.

If you're an emotional eater at all - there are some great books out there. I'm reading one now called the emotional eating rescue plan for smart busy women.

I think working through the emotional aspect will probably be the hardest but also the most important aspect for success.

Hi Diana!  It's so hard because it's our habit and routine. We've been emotionally relying on food for years, if not for our entire lives.  We use food to make us happy, comfort us, entertain us, celebrate with us, etc.  Every emotion I have, I want to use food to support it. To lose the weight and maintain the weight loss, most of us who have/had a BMI over 50, have to confront our underlying food issues and work on those.  There is a reason why we continue to eat and eat when we are damaging our bodies, outgrowing all our clothes and know that this is hurting our health severely.  Once we start to confront that, the weight loss will come. 

T Brown's advice is awesome... OA is a resource I've just become familiar with and have been going for a few weeks.  I also have tried therapists but never found one that worked for me.  I definitely suggest completely cutting out the carbs and processed junk to start.  Get it out of your house completely and plan all your food for the week.  Eat only what you planned and try to create those new habits... it will take a long time and the surgery will definitely help.  But the sooner you start to work on your food issues, the easier time you will have after surgery. Good luck! :-) 

It IS hard because we've had a whole lifetime to get it wrong.  Now, it's time to work at getting it right.  Ask your surgeon to recommend a therapist who is trained in eating disorders and a dietician who is also trained.  Gather your friends, family, co-workers, etc. to help you.  (Only those that will truly HELP and stop trusting those who aren't really helping.)  Go to OA meetings, even if only on-line.  Clean out your kitchen and any hiding places, log everything you eat, good and bad, at someplace like myfitnesspal.com I've had to do all these things and more in the past 6 months to get ready for my upcoming surgery, and I didn't think I could, but dammit I wasn't going to quit!  This is my one chance to have this surgery (this is the only insurance I've ever had that covers it!).  Be committed to yourself, I think of it like I'm my own child and the stronger me has to be in charge of this kid who wants what she wants whenever she wants it.  Come here often and talk, do lots of research on surgery, look at tons of you tube videos on WLS, and mostly, don't quit.   We're all in this together for the rest of our lives!  

I found the easiest way to stick to my 'diet' was to make it flexible, as too many restrictions will cause me to binge or quit.  For the first time in my life I finally found something that works for me, and I've stuck with it for over 10 months now and have lost 81lbs so far :)  I started out with a plan just to start journaling my food intake with MyFitnessPal, and realized very quickly that my calories were out of control!  So after 3 days I decided to set a goal of 1800 calories, then after another week I reduced it to 1600 without feeling deprived.  I focus on protein (90g minimum), fiber (25g), sodium (under 2300mg), and water (100oz minimum).  I can eat whatever I want as long as it fits in my macros, so if I want a piece of cake or pizza that's perfectly fine as long as it fits in my macros!  If I go over my calories one day, I don't beat myself up about it as I just make sure I'm more conservative the next day.

When you have to log fast food, you become very aware of your choices and how quickly the calories add up.  I went from eating out at least once a day with whatever I wanted, to now only once a week with the healthiest choices possible (that I have looked up online prior to ordering).  It's amazing that once you get use to eating healthier, you no longer crave the things you once did... I use to drink diet pepsi almost every day, now it doesn't even appeal to me!  Everyone is different though, so to start out you just need to find something that works for YOU! If you're not tracking your food yet, that's a great start as you can then pinpoint what areas you can improve on (calories, carbs, portion sizes, eating out a lot, ect) and make a plan from there :)

Did they give you a diet? The diet to lose weight I was given, to lose weight initially, not the liquid was: Eat a 100g protein a day(including one protein drink) don't eat more than 100g carbs (don't have to include non starchy vegetables), small amounts of fats OK. drink 64oz. I lost like 10lbs in a few weeks. Didn't think I could do it.