I am right there with you. I have not been hungry yet. I just want junk food. And I do a really bad thing. I watch the food channel all the time :| Why do I do this to myself? I am absolutely 100% committed to losing weight and getting healthy. However, I am a food addict and I am nervous my old habits will creep up, maybe not in 6 months or a year but maybe 2 years from now or 5 years from now. It is scary, and in order to combat this, I think we need to really work on why we crave food and what the draw is.

In my classes I was required to take to get the surgery, they often said we will be getting bariatric surgery, not brain surgery and we need to be able to change the old us and our old way of life to be successful in the long run.

I think what you suggested is really smart. Just finding something else to do or going out to exercise. Do you have any sleeve or WLS support groups around you? Sometimes just being around people with the same struggles, keeps you in check. Someone once suggested keeping a thoughts journal, and entering in why you are hungry, what you want to eat, what was the trigger and things like that so you can in the future stay away from the triggers and understand why you crave.

I know we can triumph! Good luck =)

So interesting! I love salty things, but my real weakness has always been sweets! So recently I read that if you have a craving for sweets, you should eat a pickle! Perhaps you need to do the opposite....if you have a craving for something salty, you should have something sweet (just a bite, probably with artificial sweetener, or a natural sugar substitute such as stevia). It will probably change your whole "track" for that particular craving and "reset" you!

As well, there is a good chance that you are craving the salty items because your new healthy eating habits have dramatically reduced the amount of sodium intake from your pre-op norm. I know that I was eating WELL in excess of the daily recommended max. of 2500 mg of sodium pre-op. Now I use MyFitnessPal to track ALL of my food intake and I see that I generally am about 1200 mg per day of sodium. And that's without really paying alot of attention to sodium in my foods! I focus on protein, carbs and fat...and finally calories.

So perhaps your body is still working on "resetting" it's balance point for sodium levels in your body and is feeling a "gap" compared to what you had pre-surgery! Also, if you're exercising (that includes walking, btw!), you're muscles are using electrolytes (such as sodium, potassium and calcium), and perhaps you need a bit more of these to replenish what you're using up!

If you must increase your electrolytes though, it's really much wiser to do it by consuming items specifically targeted for that, such as Gatorade G2, etc.

These are just a few of my random thoughts..........take or leave as you please!

Good work on identifying possible sources of weakness and bad habits. Being self-aware is the most important step we can take to keep ourselves on track and successful. Both now, during our losing/repatterning phase, and for the long-term!

So I have just eaten a few chips when I want them. I am still losing weight and when I think that in the past I would have eaten the better portion of a whole big bag.....so what! A few chips won't kill you and if you really think about it, that is all you need to stem the craving and you are still going to lose weight because of the lower caloric intake your sleeve will allow.

If you deprive yourself, I think it sets one up to sabotage their weight loss.

Maybe you need to eat more frequently than 3 meals a day?

I eat 4 and sometimes 5 times a day....to get my protein in and also have a few things that I want....like 4 potato chips or a spoonful of ice cream.

That is all I eat though....just a taste to take away the craving.

It works for me!

Life is too short.....enjoy a few things now and again and don't sweat it! Eat a couple of Doritos but just make sure you eat some protein with them and call it a day!

A great recipe if you feel the urge for crunchy-salty is the cheese nip recipe that has its own thread in the recipe section here. I take one Kraft Sharp single - slice it into 16 little squares, place them on a piece of parchment paper and nuke them in the microwave for 50 seconds - they are little puffy, crunchy and yummy - and the carbs are low compared to a lot of snackish things.