Help! How to control emotional eating????

Hi friends,

I'm scheduled for a DS on May 20 and have two lurking concerns. I'll post them as separate messages. This is the first one.

I currently eat as an extension of all of my emotions. I eat when I'm happy, sad, stressed, bored, etc. You get the picture! I need your help and advice to overcome this behavior. I know I can't do this after the DS. Surely I'm not such an oddball that I'm the only one experiencing this. What strategies worked for you?

I was just the same (my whole life) but after I had the ds I lost my craving for all the stuff I used to pig out on. I have to make myself eat enough protein each day then after that there is usually no room for junk. I wouldn't worry to much about it.

Hi, My surgery is May 6 and I have the same concerns. For one, I practiced fasting with optifast on my own before my official optifast start date and I failed MISERABLY. Today is my 2nd optifast  (official) day and SOOOOO much better. I guess it was psychological; since I knew it to be only a "practice" I ceded to temptation and stress. I share your concerns and worries but I figure when we're in it and there's no turning back we resort to oblige.

Good luck; you're not alone!

I eat when I am bored...so if I eat protein first, I'm golden!

I totally relate.  I eat for whatever reason.  And if it's front of me, I eat it.  At almost six months out, I can say I honestly don't have a lot of room for mindless grazing.  It is physically uncomfortable to eat too much.  I often have to make a conscious effort to get the food away from in front of me when I realize I'm full, because I know that I will continue to pick at it.  I also do still struggle with wanting to eat once I realize I'm not stuffed to capacity any more, and that's old habits.  I generally try to distract myself, which is pretty easy - much easier than it used to be.  And, if I simply am driving myself crazy because I feel I have to have something, I just make sure it's protein.  I'm hoping that continuing to do that will eventually make it a new habit, but I'll probably struggle with it for the rest of my life.  Just have to continue to do my best and program myself to eat things that are better for me.  And, of course, success breeds success, and when I saw results I wanted more more more more of it.

Take advantage right away of the "detox" time (liquid diet) to get rid of carbohydrate cravings, and then stay off carbs for as long as you can possibly stand it.  You honestly won't have the same cravings.  Just make sure you have lots of low-carb, high protein snacks so if you feel the need for emotional eating you're okay eating the "good" stuff.  

Worst-case scenario, if you do some bad snacking you won't have the capacity for extreme over-eating like you did in the past!

I was pretty much the same way, as I think we all are to an extent.

As obese people, food is very important to us.  Most of us are in the throes of some form of food addiction; it's an important psychological component to understanding obesity as a whole.  I think it's great that you can identify it now rather than being unhappy later on.

After your surgery, though, it changes.  I am two weeks out and I'm just not that hungry.  Sometimes it's due to nausea or discomfort, but mostly it's because my mind now knows that eating even a little bit too much causes that nausea and discomfort.  That, and your stomach is healing and your metabolism is all thrown off in terms of when to make you hungry.

I still have bad habits, though.  I was a big eater in the sense that I would eat until I was distended ... now if I try to do that it really sucks.  Nausea, pain, all that.  I also have the habit of picking at food after I'm full ... another thing that I can't do now.

Truthfully I'm still adjusting to how many bites is "enough" before I take one too many and feel yucky.

In other words, eating emotionally becomes "Pavlovian" in the sense that doing it reaps physically ill rewards.  Food becomes less important pretty fast after DS.

I am 5 weeks out and struggle a lot with sugar issues. some days I do really well getting in protein and don' have any issues with wanting sugar. Other days I have terrible cravings- not just for sugar but for a lot of things. I can take a taste of it or maybe eat 1 tablespoon (that's  alI  I can hold) but once I have tasted it I have no desire to eat it again as it almost makes me want to vomit thinking of it. I haven't figured that all out yet. A lot of it could simply be that i am still not getting enough water and maybe I need to work on that harder. This is definately a journey!

Good luck!

Sharon

Thank you everyone for your thoughtful feedback. You have put my nerves at ease.