one of the simplest tools for making good food choices I've found

 I posted about a book last month that said the more you have to look at things your want and can't have..it affects your willpower and actually takes physical energy to avoid. Also the longer you look at it..even if you don't eat it..your willpower will be decreased the next time something else crosses your path. Like you resist that cookie all day in the kitchen and then eat a candy bar later. It also affects test scores..your scores will be lower if you've burning out your willpower.

My shelf in the fridge is right at eye level. Right now it has a juicy steak waiting for me to cook.

Deb T>

I am fortunate as both hubby and I had RNY about 6 weeks apart. So we pretty much buy only friendly foods. My 23 year old vegetarian son, on the other hand, is lamenting his turn of fate. LOL. It's all part of our plan to get him OUT!

 I have 2 cupboards.

One with the "good snacks" and one with "their" snacks. I keep theirs stocked to keep them out of mine. 

Ofcourse, they steal my sugar free flavorings for their morning coffe, and I steal their pub cheese so there's still some fun involved.

No bad food allowed in my house. If somebody wants it, they can go get it somewhere else. Not like it's hard to find or anything.

If mama don't get no pie, ain't _nobody_ gets no pie.

I really enjoy this whole post.. My boyfriend likes the crap foods, but he has been really good since surgery and doesn't pick stuff that we shouldn't have up. He is like me, if it isn't there, we don't miss it. I am also glad that I had this surgery for a few reasons (besides the obvious). I will have the good eating habits instilled into my own brain before I have kids (another reason I had the surgery was infertility). I hope that because of the healthy choices I am making now that I will not sabotage my kids chance at a healthy life from the start. That has always been a huge fear of mine.

I do both...using willpower and having healthy food around. I have a dh and
19 y/o dd at home. She eats really well and has mostly healthy stuff, but
they sometimes make food choices that are not mine. That's ok. I have lots
to eat that I love, so it makes it easier for me to practice good decision
making now and again. The world is not going to be full of wls-friendly
food just for my benefit.  But again, we all eat pretty healthy most of the
time and they largely eat like I do.  I bake for them for example
and it's not an issue most of the time because they love chocolate and I
don't so cakes tend to get frosted with chocolate frosting....not something
that will tempt me (but I will never make snickerdoodles again...ahem!)
I really, really wanted something sweet tonight so I headed to the kitchen
and whipped up my banana cream Greek yogurt with cherries on top....
perfect!  So I think Kelly is right....having healthy stuff around makes
life so much easier. I'm sure glad I had that yogurt in the fridge! As for
some of the other stuff, well.....I'm supposed to be a grown-up at my
age so I guess that means I'm responsible for my choices and what
I decide to put in my big mouth.

Oh, we're all grown ups (at least most of us, anyway) and responsible for what we put in our mouths.  But we can make it easy on ourselves by keeping the "bad" stuff out of the house, at least most of the time, and making sure we always have good stuff easily accessible.

Banana cream Greek yogurt with cherries sounds really yummy, by the way.  I've done the banana cream but never thought to put cherries on it.

The whole world won't be WLS-friendly just for us, but we can make our own homes friendly for us.

My Fred Meyer (Kroger's) here has the Wilderness canned cherry pie
filling "no sugar added". It has some splenda I believe but it doesn't
have too much sugar and it hasn't caused me any problems. I love it
on my yogurt.  And yes, I have proven to myself time and again that
if I need a snack or if I get overly hungry, it's absolutely to my advantage
to have healthy stuff in the house.  If I gotta go shopping first, I'll
reach for something else that's handy... and it's likely to be something
I don't need.

Speaking of banana cream, I have a veritable dessert smorgasboard
that starts with Greek yogurt!  My sis and I hate yogurt but I served her
some of mine for dessert and she loves it as much as I do.  I crumbled
a graham cracker up and layered graham crumbs with the yogurt and
cherries and cool whip (for her) in a parfait dish and it was beautiful
and so, so good!  She couldn't believe it was yogurt!  You can do it
with all kinds of flavors and fruits and jams.  I'm imagining some
lime jello mixed in and then layered with the graham cracker
and cool whip and dark chocolate shavings.  For Summer, some
red jello mixed in the yogurt, layered with blueberries and cool whip
and maybe a few strawberries for a nice red, white and blue theme.
I can hardly wait for a summer potluck or dinner to make some
for guests and family.

 Good ideas for preventing bad choices! Thanks for sharing!

I have a twist on this.  What if it seems like your spouse is trying to mess you up.  I have tried to make sertain shelves in the cupboard just for my food.  But my husband (who is way more overweight than I, but ok with it) is always putting things like Klondike bars and tater tots with my stuff in the freezer, He buys snack caked and cookies but he knows I won't eat them because I have Celiac.   He still makes huge fattening meals for dinner and buys junk food, and candy in bulk.  There is only 2 of us in the house most times, he bought a 5 pound bag of tortilla chips!Part of the reason had surgery was because every time I stopped eating his cooking I would lose 20 pounds.  Then I would give in start eating it again and gain the weight.  I know he doesn't force anything on me, and I have the power to make my own choices, it just makes it so much harder to make good choices.