It seems like it's easy for eveyone but me

You sure are not alone. I have gained 25lbs back, just sick! I am never"hungry" just head hunger. If I could just stop the head hunger I would be at goal and doing great. Just how to ??

Since surgery, my appetite has not returned. I get a little hungry, but not the gnawing hunger I had before surgery. I find in the evenings I want to eat, but I'm not hungry. I want to crunch something. I guess that is head hunger?

Having minimal hunger has made me realize it's more of a feeling that I want to eat, not a true hunger. I try and drink water to fill my stomach....that doesn't work. So, I'll have a spoonful of cottage cheese or a few bites of chicken and that will stop my looking in the cupboard for something crunchy. I need to find a low carb crunchy food that will fulfill my crunch desire. Or figure out another way to deal with it.

I DO get hungry at times, and I love to munch in the evenings. So what I do is plan my day so that I can fit whatever I eat in the evening into my calorie requirements. For instance, I eat cottage cheese every single night because I love it. I also eat either peanut butter or chocolate (or both) at night. I plan my day so I can fit it in.

I have been giving a lot of thought recently to what makes some journeys harder than others and I wonder how much of it is about our own excpectations and how realistic they may or may not be.
For instance I am 5 ft tall and now weight between 120-125 on any given day and I am perfectly happy and content. I wear size 4-6 clothing. Now I could say to myself well you should lose 20 more lbs and wear size 0 since you are so short and "petite". However for me that is unrealistic and to do that I would have to live a lifestyle that would NOT be one that I am happy with.
I think sometimes we put so much pressure on ourselves to "do it perfectly" that we forget to enjoy the journey, that we don't give ourselves enough credit for what we are doing right. I really like what the other poster said about biking up the hills and judging our insides by someone else's outsides.
Many of you have comment on how I must me "lucky" or something along those lines because of how my post op life is these days. Yes I do sometimes eat cookies but I am not eating them all day every day. I also am not a bread or pasta person so there is that trade off because I do not eat carbs in that way. Yes I do eat full fat mayo and cheese but I am not eating gallons of it.
When I say I eat normal portions I mean 4-6 oz of dense protein at a time.
What I am trying to say is give yourselves a break and try to enjoy the journey along the way.

You are not alone, beleive me!

This might sound crazy, but rather than struggle at night, why not plan a meal, a healthy full meal for that time.  If you are going to eat anyway, why not plan it.  Make a high protein meal, sit down and eat until you are full.

I know we always hear not to eat in the evenings, but we are doing it anyway.  Maybe this would be the lesser of two evils, and it might help even out your calories, speed up your metabolism and start you losing again.

Is there a time during the day, where you don't need to eat as much, or is there a snack or two you could miss, in order to plan that evening meal...

I would give it a try, it can't hurt and it might just be the solution for you.

No flaming please, it is just an idea...

Hugs,

Cindy

thanks for all the great replies everyone! I am so worried I'll gain more!

Looks like Mini Mi and I are kind of in the same boat. I can't seem to lose the weight I gained over the holidays .The scale just keeps going up and down.  I 've never had to watch every little single morsel of food I put in my mouth like I do now !

Hey I need more info on these chi teas and roasted edamame. If this is something allowable, I need to know about it. I thought chi tea was fattening. Where do you get it? Do you make it or buy it RTD? It's SF?

I have seen edamame in the stores and I bought a bag of it cause I've seen it mentioned on here, but I don't know what to do with it!

I also struggle every day. Every day I am watching what I eat, trying to fit exercise in, and trying to fix my head issues. I also have the eating at night thing going on, but I don't go to a lot of social functions so food there is not an issue.

Like Elina I will bring my own food if I need to. What I do is I actually do plan an evening meal instead of trying to fight what my body is telling me every night. This is when I am eating my beef jerky (see my profile for recipe) after eating my chicken salad all day long.

Since the jerky is very filling and low sodium and high protein, it's not a very guilty pleasure.. I don't do too much damage and I get some extra protein too! The way I make it is pretty sweet so it satisfies that salty/sweet tooth that I sometimes get. I'm still working on finding even more recipes that are super low damage recipes like this.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with eating in the evenings. Studies have proven that it does't matter, and that what you eat at night does not magically turn into fat overnight. Meal timing is totally irrelevant. So eat up at night if that's when you are hungry!

 You most definitely are not alone!  My journey has been a struggle since month 2.  My normal weight loss post-op after month 1 has averaged 3 pounds a month.  It's really made me face that persistence is what my journey is all about.  I feel like the fabric of my being is tested daily.

Last summer I worked out 2-3 hours, 7 days a week with a personal trainer. for three months. Yup, three pounds shed in August.  I was diagnosed hypothyroid in august and started taking medication but it didn't seem to make a difference with weight loss.  November and December I didn't lose weight and I can see that I was eating more carbs.  I was about to throw in the towel and decide that I'd be 167 forever, but then realized that would be giving up and I'm not a quitter.  

In January I decided that I needed a new plan of attack.  I joined the Atkins Low Carb group here on OH.  I got rid of all carbs except those in a few veggies and occasionally berries.  I had to dump the protein bars and other things that I had been eating a couple times a week.  The funny part of it is that I've had the same reaction that I always get when going very low carb.... what the heck took me so long.  So its been very back to basics for me.  No room for much else when I eat those 4-6 ounces of protein (yup, I think I have a bigger sleeve at 40f)  so I get in all the protein i need to keep me satisfied and fortified for 4+ hours.   The scale is going down and I'm once again energized and confident that I'll get to goal.

Someone on this board recently told me that the struggles along my journey will help me when I get to maintenance because I have a really good understanding of my body and what it needs.  I'm counting on her being right because getting and staying at goal is what I wake up thinking about every morning as I plan my day, and then again going to sleep at night when I think back on my days eating and exercise.

Thank goodness for and abundance of protein, green veggies and a good gym!