Temptation vs. Willpower

[Wisteria75 0]

Hi all,

I was banded on October 16, 2009. After surgery, I seemed to have done pretty well with what I ate and lost 20 lbs. As far as I know, I have not lost more. :thumbup:

Because I have had such a slow weight loss, I "fell off the wagon" and starting in with my old "binge-eating" habits about two months ago. Emotional eating, they say. I get upset, then feel like I deserve to eat a bag of Milk chocolate Mini eggs. Ugh. And not the small bags. :crying:

Anyway, I have been struggling with this off and on for a while now and it's even harder when a) I have restriction but not enough because I feel hungry all the time, have an awful sweet tooth, and c) my boss brings in pastries, donuts and/or chocolate EVERY DAY. :huh2: :crying: Seriously, EVERY DAY!!!

I cannot take this tempation any more. I have to struggle every day with seeing these foods not even 6 feet from me. In addition to that, I don't have enough restriction.

I am getting a fill on Monday hopefully that'll help with feeling hungry. :smile:

I need help, though, with the temptation and "beef-up" my willpower. Any suggestions, ideas... share thoughts on what you have done?

Thank you in advance.

Renee

[BetsyB 9]

I cannot take this tempation any more

Not to seem overly blunt, but you don't have a choice. The temptation will always be there---you need to develop strategies to cope with it.

Getting a fill will go a long way toward helping with the hunger--but it's not going to do away with the head hunger,or the sense that you 'deserve' chocolate after a bad day, etc.

You are going to have to tackle those issues. (I bet that chocolate mini eggs go down pretty easily, even with appropriate restriction. Evil things.)

I'm reading a really good book addressing emotional eating. It's called Shrink Yourself by Roger Gould, MD.

In reading it, I've sort of confirmed that I'm not much of an emotional eater---but it still has useful tactics for me. And it is REALLY geared toward nipping emotional eating in the bud.

Our relationships with food are so tricky!

[JoJo1 0]

Restriction will help a lot. I gave up all carbs about 12 years ago, because I am a diabetic and need to do it to get my blood sugar under control. I had to become educated and then become totally convinced I was doing the right thing. Once that was accomplished, I started doing it. The first few weeks were hard but I noticed that over time, the cravings started to subside. I got my blood sugar under control and now I don't have the cravings at all. Once in a while though, I will let myself have a low carb icecream bar made by Breyers. I always notice that I immediately want more, so the sweet taste is the culprit. I don't do it, but I always notice this. It also passes in just a few minutes. If you can make yourself stay away from sweets for a period of time, it gets easier. Once you have restriction, and you aren't hungry all the time, you will find it much easier to fight the temptation.

[outside*looking*in 0]

I have found that I have the will power to not buy it but I can't fight temptation if it is already in the house! We had a birthday cookout for my daughter recently and of course there were left over chips and cake (stuff I normally DON"T buy) I am too tempted to have it when it is in the house and do give in and have some. SO I have declared that from now on we will go out for "special occasions" and get dessert while we are out so we can have it there BUT NOT in the house!

I don't know what to say about your work thing. Maybe you could bring an alternative to have when you are starting to feel tempted. ??? I am stay at home Mom so I don't have that issue.

For some reason I feel like I have been getting hungrier and hungrier as time goes on??:thumbup: I have had 2 fills over the past 2 months(up to 4.5cc now) and I am due for another next week. I hope it brings some restriction!

Best of luck:wink2:

[HDmama 0]

I also work in an environment where this CRAP food here all the time....seriously - and not only is it just here, right next to our printer so every time I have to get something from the printer, it's staring me down..but people go out of their way to come and bring it right to my office to offer it to me (even though they see, I'm clearly not eating that type of junk). What I normally do when I feel tempted is I log in to dailyplate and look up the nutritional values of whatever it is that's tempting me.....seeing that one small cookie has 140 calories and a bunch of fat usually turns me off immediately. So looking up the calories and then figuring out what exercise I'd have to do to burn it off usually tells me whether something is worth it or not (more often than not, it's just not worth it, LOL).

Hang in there....there will always be temptations, but the more you DON'T give in, the stronger in your resolve you'll become (at least that's my experience).

[LapNYC 3]

The fill will help a ton. If it works as it's supposed to, it will take the edge off enough that you'll be able to walk on by. If nothing else, a couple days of liquids should set you on the right track.

[vlp1968 83]

Sounds like a tough situation. As others have said, getting restriction will help tons. I would speak up to your coworkers and ask them not to bring the treats to your office. Also, maybe there is another place they can keep the treats. Somewhere you don't have to go by all the time.

I read about a visualization excersise that may help. You look at the food and imagine something gross about it. For example, sprinkles on a donut becoming ants. I have tried it with some success. Good luck!

[Wisteria75 0]

Thank you all so much for responding. I got a 1 cc fill last night. I'm hoping it'll help. I'll be on liquids for another 2 days, then mushies, then soft, then finally solids.

The book that was mentioned (about emotional eating) was very helpful; I got a copy of it at the library and will start reading it tonight. Thank you for that. :scared2: Also, blunt is good. :wink:

Thanks also for the visualization exercises; I will try that out. As for my boss bringing in goodies (not goodies for me, baddies for me LOL) I will try to walk by. Unfortunately I am in a VERY small room with 5 people in it so it's hard to ignore. They other people seem to enjoy them, and it has been said for him to stop bringing them in, but he won't listen. I will be fine... I know it.

Good luck to everyone on your journeys! :wub: