Question:
How can I stop eating something I love if my brain is conditioned.

I love sweets, I mean cookies, Baskin Robbin rocky road with hot fudge ice cream,these I can eat in place of a meal, but since I will be having my surgery soon how will this effect my body and will I still crave these sweet items. I can live without them but they give me such joy. HELP!    — blank first name B. (posted on May 25, 2001)

May 25, 2001
Deborah, As Ann Landers would say, are you better off with em or without em??? You say you can live without them. Most of us can honestly say that we CANT live WITH them. Those things that we enjoyed so much were killing us. You may be able to eat sweets again without getting sick, but why would you?? Thats what got you in trouble in the first place, wasnt it? I wasnt a sweet eater as much as a food eater. I love fatty meats, deep fried food... anything with high fat. Fatty foods repulse me now. Not only dont they taste as good, they make me sick as hell. Thank GOD!!! You will notice that after surgery, your tastes will change. Hopefully you wont crave these troublesome foods again. Good luck.
   — Jeannet

May 25, 2001
I have no idea how you will feel after your surgery, but I am surprized EVERY day how I can pass up the things I used to love. I love chocolate and it just doesn't appeal to me that much any more. I do have a small amount at a time, but nothing like I used to eat. Today I had brownies for some of my volunteers at work. After I cut them up I held up the knife to lick the frosting off like I used to do and stopped in mid-air after realizing I didn't want it! That is a huge step for me. I think what keeps me sane is that I don't deprive myself entirely of the things I used to love - I've just cut way back. Now when I want chocolate I have one or two Hershey kisses. Ice cream is a sugar free ice cream bar instead of a large bowl. I've never dumped from eating sugar, but have never tried to test to see how much sugar I can get away with eating before I dump. I'm afraid that I might find out that I don't dump and then go back to my old habbits, so I limit my sugar intake.
   — georgiacarol

May 27, 2001
I understand what you're feeling, I too was a big "Chocaholic". I absolutely loved candy bars, cookies, cookie dough, and Dr. Pepper. You could have never kept me from eating them and loving every bite. I am about 6 1/2 months post op RNY, it is amazing!! I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in sweets. My family has made brownies, choc chip cookies, etc - I don't even take one bite - just not interested. I work for a Dr and we have patients bring us goodies and I don't even look at it. I can't even stand one swallow of a carbonated soda, it doesn't even taste the same. I guess it's just a little blessing from God to help us after the drastic step we've taken. You'll do fine, and you'll just kind of laugh at yourself when you think of how you used to be and how you are now! Good Luck!
   — Lara S.