Lost my way...outta control!

 5 pounds is NOT the end of the world. Sure, it's not the direction you want to go, and sure if you continue eating like you have been, it will lead to regain, BUT (here's the good part) its all up to you what you do. YOU control food, not the other way around. We all can fall off track, and go back to bad habits, this is a learning process, its not suppose to be perfect. Give yourself a break (and by break, I mean let go of the guilt, but make a decision to change the behavior). Just because you have made some mistakes and lost some of your momentum does NOT mean you have failed.

If you get back to the basics, drinking your protein shakes, under 1200 calories or so, and getting the carbs out of your diet, you can get back to weight loss. In a surgeon's eyes, you still have 6 prime months of weight loss left. You can get to goal and learn to maintain. I would suggest getting the starches and sugar out of your diet. When you eat a lot of starches, and especially sugar, you crave them more. So, get back to the basics, and set some healthy rules for yourself. Next, I would get your 100 pound thinner hiney to therapy! The changes have to start from within, and even though OA didn't work for you (I remember, cause I tried it the same week), doesn't mean that therapy, with the right therapst, can't work for you. OA didn't work for me either, but finding a therapst did. 

Coming back to this board was the first step. Just remember what it was that made you successful with beginning this process.

Steph

You are lucky, you still have your tool that can and will help you if you go back to what you were doing when you were losing. I haven't had my surgery yet, so I'm doing my 6 month diet and doing a lot of waiting for the day when...Go back to what you know you need to do. Get refreshers, talk to those who helped you map out your plan in the beginning. YOU DON'T EVER WANT TO OR HAVE TO GO BACK TO WHERE YOU WERE! It's all up to you! Good Luck, you can do this!

 Katie do you remember about this same time last year you were ready call it quits and have a revision? You didn't want to listen to what anyone had to say then either. Look how far you've come from those days when you couldn't eat anything and everyone was giving you advice. You're only up 5 pounds and if you tackle it now you can get this under control. Listen to some of the vets and be willing to change. 

 I do want to listen. I AM listening. 

I am glad I didn't have a revision. This surgery was the best decision I've ever made.

 You know I'm tempted to give you the therapist talk but I'm not gonna - all I'm gonna say is .... you're good enough, you're smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like you!
I'm here for you if you ever need to talk.

 Does anyone have tips on how to deal with hunger and cravings?

Drink, drink, drink some more.  I find warm drinks work better than cold sometimes.

Find something you really like to do that keeps your hands busy.  I discovered that it is impossible to snack while I crochet.

Hi Kattie,

You don't know how much I think about you even these days.

The one thing I can say, from experience, is this: FOOD is not the problem. To solve the problem, you first have to name it. Why don't you want to be successful? What's standing in the way? Self-doubt? Fear? Because the decision to habitually eat beyond our needs is almost always connected with something. Food fixation comes from somewhere. It just does. There is no "I have food obsession but there's nothing else going on with me!"

In my estimation, the best way to identify what that thing is, the "real hunger" you're trying to feed, is to will yourself not to eat when you have the urge (and don't need to). Those feelings come to the surface REAL fast. Resentment, fear, longing, all that...

Knowing you as I know you, I know that food is an outlet for you. It still can be in a healthy way (hell, as existential as I can get at the end of the day I am still a food blogger) but you have to keep your "head in the game" at all times. Or at least until you've worked out those vulnerable spots.

 I agree that it is more than just a food obsession being a food obsession. I think there is a lot standing in the way of my sucess and I know I need to work through it. It's so different know what I need to do and then actually doing it. This is why diets always failed for me in the past. But I don't want it to be like  that this time. It helps that people understand.

The thing that helped me lose weight in pre op was the printed sheet of rules. If I have it in front of me it helped me lose 35 pounds in 4 months, 10 pounds more than required. It helped me plan ahead and taught me that I could lose the weight. That is just an idea.