Change in strategy. What strategy works best for you?

It's so hard to even imagine having a "normalized" relationship with food.. if I'm not eating everything in sight, I'm counting calories obsessively.. (right now it's the latter) I hope eventually to get to the point where you are.. where I can just kind of make good choices and eat intuitively.... but for now, yeah, it's pretty much logging every bite that passes my lips.

I'm still emotionally eating. I may resort to a psych. Right now I'm trying to focus on the basics again with protein first and counting calories. This is our life now...I need to accept it and get over whatever relationship I have with food. Still struggling...

I've been asking myself these same questions lately. I had surgery on April 29th and Im down 28 lbs. I was hoping to be doing a little better. I log every calorie, and max out my calories about 600-700 per day and exercise 30-60 min. per day. I have a friend who is losing much more than me, not counting any calories, just drinking her protien shakes throught the day and eating a small dinner at night. She has lost 70 lbs in 4 months. Im really thinking of just giving up food and going her route.

This is what's working for me - I'm not suggesting this is the best way or the only... just my way. :-) It seems to be similar to what you are doing.

I stopped logging everything after about 5 weeks when I was cleared for all foods (as tolerated). I am bound and determined not to be "on a diet" the rest of my life. The crazy thing is, when I track my food, I eat more. I know I do. I am so focused on "getting all my calories in" and that's all I think about. I can't even explain the freedom I feel now. I'm aware of the calories/fat/protein in foods by reading the labels, and I will measure out a "serving" to be sure that's exactly what I'm eating. Other than that, I make good choices, eat protein at every meal (and eat it first), I stop eating when I'm satisfied (I "slimed" one time, and that was enough - I definitely listen closely to my body now), and eat when I feel hungry. This means that I eat about every three hours. Just for grins one day I entered what I ate in MFP just to see where I was at - under 1000 calories. I personally think much less than that is not good. I do some sort of exercise mostly every day for 30 - 60 minutes - a class at the gym, a walk with the dog, or use my elliptical at home. I don't feel deprived at all - I have a glass of wine every now and again and some small ice cream treat almost every night. If I've learned anything from all the dieting I've done in my life, it's that depriving yourself of everything for any length of time is a recipe for disaster. I was sleeved on 3/25/13 and am still very much in the losing phase - once I hit maintenance I may go back to tracking for a few weeks just to see "what's what" and what I need to maintain. Right now I weigh myself on Monday morning and take my measurements on the first of the month.