Monica B. and Cindy P....

And anyone else a few years out.....

I just noticed a few threads down that you both had your surgeries in 04. Is there ever a time when your life doesn't revolve around food? When you can talk to friends without the subject coming up? I expect it to for the first couple of years while I'm learning new eating habits, what to eat and how, etc. But I certainly don't want to spend the rest of my life doing it, not outside the normal family meal planning. All my years on WW, I was either reading labels, planning menus, thinking about buying or preparing food, what to eat in restaurants, at parties, etc. Everything all day was food, food, food!  I couldn't talk to the friends I made at WW without the subject of food coming up. You pick up any magazine at the checkout counter and see photos of food!

I AM MORE THAN THE FOOD I EAT! Sorry to shout but if I didn't start out with a foiod addiction I certainly have one now! I dream for there to simply be a pill I take every day for nourishment and forget about it the rest of the day!

Sorry...this sort of turned into a Rant but I'm sick of the thought of food! 

I'm only 1-1/2 years out, but I've had the same thought.  I think and talk about food all the time - good choices, bad choices, quantities, balancing protein / carbs, nutritional content, etc. etc. etc.   Along with weight - up a pound, down a pound, up a pound.  I'm afraid as a conversationalist, I talk about food & weight ad nauseum......  makes me wonder if my friends aren't sick of it by now, I know I am.   You're right, we are so much more than food/weight.   Hope someone can shed some encouraging light on this one!

Yes, the time does arrive when your entire life is not revolving around food. Many days no thoughts of what to eat are weighing (haha) down. However, I must admit that I do need to watch my sugar intake, speed, chewing at meals, and what I drink. I concentrate on protein first, but carbs are a bigger part of my life lately since I needed to gain weight. Strange to have a doctor tell you, no insist, that I put weight on.
That first month at home during recovery after WLS, I watched the FOOD NETWORK all day. I couldn't get enough of it and was very glad I went back to work so I could try for a normal day. Yes I had to plan and I did a great job of that and the weight and inches came off, sometimes with stalls and sometimes with huge lbs dropping off.
Many days I do have to remember to eat, just don't think about it. Always trying to get tha****er in.
It is nice now not to have to plan each morsel or be consumed by the food. I consume the food now and it does not have the hold on me it did.  I have taken back my life and that feels good. Of coarse I got caught up with a transfer addiction of alcohol, but each day without a drink is an empowering situation, a struggle still, but I am doing so well.
Thanks for asking and hope I helped.
Monica

Thank you, that's a huge help and releif. I just want to know I can get to the place where this new lifestyle is instinctive. I can cook a meal naturally, instinctively put only what I can eat on my plate, etc. without the thoughts going through my mind that now I'm different .

Thanks...there is hope!

I'm hoping if I do get a transfer addiction it's housecleaning! LOL!  I had never even thought of the possibilities of transfer addsictions until you posted about yours with alcohol. You'll never know how much it helps to know such things exist and to be ready to tackle them. I applaud you for taking back your life. I keep you in my daily thoughts.

That is the reason I originally posted my problem......I wanted to warn others that could happen. Nice to know what potholes may be on this journey. Sharing, caring, supporting, laughing, and crying are what this site is all about. Knowledge is power for us all.
Thanks for kind words.

Hi.  I have to be completely honest here -- in the two and a half years since my mother broke her neck and we moved her from Boise, ID to our little city in Oregon (to an assisted living facility) I have put almost half of the weight I lost back on.  It started when my knees and hips started bothering me during and after exercise.  I have reverted to the old habit of feeding my emotional needs with food and stress eating.  I am in therapy and am trying to work through these issues.  My mother has dementia and watching her decline has been hard. 

At first, I threw myself into seeing to her every need and then I realized that I wasn't tending to my own needs.  That's when I started therapy.

So, I am not a good example of how to manage ones weight loss/weight maintenance journey.

I was successful while I was exercising 90 minutes/day and maintaining  both my weight and my focus. 

Cindy P.

Oh Darlin', I feel for you. I had first my Grandmother then my Father-in-law in assisted living homes. You can run yourself ragged trying to keep up! And yourself always goes to the bottom of the list. Been there and I totally understand. In fact, that's when I regained the 100lbs I'd lost through WW. I couldn't get to the meetings, which was great support for me, and going through a fast food window to eat on the run was way easier than taking time to take care of myself.  And that doesn't even touch the mental anquish you go through. Thanks for being so honest, I know that's not always easy either.

I'll keep you in my thoughts and hope you get back on track when you can.

I had the same problem with weigh****chers.  In order to be successful you have to plan plan plan and count count count.  Too much focus on food.  I am two years out and have had my ups and downs this past year.  Like losing and gaining the same 7-10 lbs instead of dropping the last 30 I want to loose.  But I am happy.  I make things easy.  No sugar, No white anything.  I do the best I can and if I slip...I slip.  No one knows I had WLS except my dh and my sister.  At least I told no one else.  I did not tell my children.  I guess that sounds awful but I knew if I told my daughter she would slip and tell her husband.  I also do not want to ever be responsible for her needing to keep anything from her spouse.  I also knew if my sil knew he would slip and tell my ex-hubby my daughter's father.  I did not and do not want him to know.  I took enough smirks from him when I was married to him.  Don't  intend to do that now.  My sister surprised me.  She slipped or intentionally told her daughter who told her siblings.  So last year when I went to my sister's ex-hubby's funeral the first thing a step neice I hadn't  seen in 20 years said to me was " what kind of WLS did you have?"  You could have knocked me over with a feather.  I just answered her question.  She was asking because she had wls and wanted to compare notes.  I was hurt and surprised  that my sister had blabbed.  I said nothing to her since the knowledge could not be taken back.  I figured the harm was done and I'd just make it worse to bring it up.
But I live in Texas and they live in Georgia, Washington DC, Utah, and another part of Texas so I should be able to avoid such conversations in the future.  Since no one knows, if I don't talk about  it no one else does and I don't talk about it.  I make the best choices I can when eating out and I just order.  No discussion or lamenting what I can't or shouldn't have.  No one gives it a second thought.  If anyone ever asks why I eat what or the way I do I'd just say because I want to.
End of story.  

But you are right....food is everywhere.  TV, Magazines, get togethers, etc.  Sometimes it is impossible to get away from the images.  But if I were hanging out with people who had to talk about food and diets exclusively I'd find new friends.  Sinde I have lost the weight I do more things.  My life is more active.  I look for companions that don't obsess over food or anything else.  Funny but I think becoming Methodist instead of Baptist has helped.  No offense to any Methodist out there but no one puts on a spread like Baptists do.  Most get togethers at my present church where food is a focus features store bought foodstuffs.  I can pass on most of those.  My Baptist get togethers were always tempting.  I guess that is the only thing we Baptists were allowed to do so it became a competition.  Who makes the best fried chicken, mac and cheese, dessert etc etc etc.  In fact there is a joke about it that goes like this:

A kindergarten class was having show and tell.  The little Catholic boy brought his cruisifix and shared it with his friends.  The little Jewish boy brought a menorah and the little Muslim boy brought his prayer cloth.  Finally it was the little Baptist boy's turn.  He brought a casserole.

Just be kind to yourself, try to reduce the rules to their simplest part.  Rember, protein, veggies, no white stuff, supplements and water.  If you slip just forgive yourself and keep on truckin.  Someone on this board said recently...progress not perfection.  Forgive...Forgive...Forgive...yourself but don't give up or give in.

I have to laugh....I'm Methodist and you are SO right! Our ladies only keep score if you brought something, they really don't care what. And you can tell the one's who have Baptist in their 'background'! 'Course you didn't see any Methodist pushing away from those dishes, either!!!

Thanks for the encouragement, one day it WILL be normal!