And the mental game begins

tomorrow will be two weeks since the surgery. No complications so far. The head games have started. The morbid obsession with food. I am not hungry thank goodness and I am not at risk to eat off of my plan but wow do I ever stare at my families food. After dinner I went for a walk and I did some light housekeeping so now the feelings have passed and I feel strong again. This might be what "they" mean when they say this isn't the easy way out. Lol. No regrets and feeling good but a bit surprised at how I look and think about food still.

Totally get it! I think it's pretty normal, especially so early out when we can't have so many things because we're eating purees or mushies. I'm surprised how much I think about grilled meats and salad.

As they are fond of saying in support group, "it's not brain surgery!"

OMG, I'm so with you. I often joke with my family to send me pictures of what they are eating so I can live through someone getting to eat! Even just smelling food is such a pleasure now. It doesn't go away, the addiction. Wi**** did!

I don't want to sound like a negative Nelly. But head games can last for a long time. We do learn from day to day.

Keep coming for support to give and to get it. The head part is the hardest part sometimes.

I wish I could say that it will go away eventually, but I'm two years out now and I just caught myself staring at frozen desserts at the grocery store on the weekend. I literally had to snap myself out of it and walk away from the glory of those beautiful, yet dangerous delicacies. I learned my lesson in one go that I do dump. A few bites of cake left me wishing I could just lay on the floor and die. Not fun, but a good reminder for me.

Meg~

I wonder if it's worse if you don't dump. If you hadn't had that experience with cake before, would it have been harder to walk away?

Worse if you don't dump. Correct.

I think this is completely normal! In the very early days. i ate on my schedule, every 3 hours or so and didn't worry about sitting witht the family while they ate their meal. I needed to rest and heal so even if I made the made I just left them to it and rested.

I also found that in the early days it was actually easier to not eat at the same time as my family. I would sit with a cup of tea or my water bottle and drink while they ate. This way I knew I couldn't eat (no eating with meals) and I just relaxed and chatted and enjoyed them enjoying the meal.

You just need time to adjust - there is a huge learning curve! You'll find what works best for you and your family over time.

I remember feeling this way right after surgery. During my one week of liquids post-op, I had a lot of head hunger. I would actually look at Yelp reviews of restaurants and look at all the pictures of the reviewers' food.

I still get the head hunger, at times, but it's a lot better now. When you start dropping the weight and feeling better, you begin to realize that food isn't the "be all, end all" of your life. I love the way I feel now more than I love the taste of junk food.

yup, I think it's normal. In the early days I had to remove myself from certain situations, because it was really hard to be around food.

ive also gone the other way too a couple of times, and pushed decadent food on people, like some kind of creeper, just to watch them eat it.... here have some cake, it smells so goood, does it taste good?