hi! having my surgery done on december 17 but the anxiety is killing me and eating more than ever!! please help any advise???

I LOVE cooking and being creative with my cooking (I post a lot of dinner everyday. I cook with fresh organic ingredients, and I try to experiment with new flavors and healthier ways of cooking things (including sweets and desserts!)...and so I'm trying to find the same excitement that I used to have for crap food with food that is healthy and nourishing. And its working. I know not everyone shares my enthusiasm for cooking, but I think if you do like to cook, its very helpful to do it when you have the band. My fiance and I used to eat out everyday...now I really don't see a need to eat out very often since I can probably make something more delicious and fresh at home and I don't have to worry about my food being drowned in fat and oil.

thanks for posting this. I am a foodie, and enjoy cooking and eating different foods. As of late I've had thoughts about will I be able to enjoy cooking the way I used to, will I still be able to enjoy variety? I am definitley someone who cannot eat the same thing everyday. I really like to mix it up and try new things.

I think I enjoy cooking WAY more now than I did before banding. Before, I would just dump whatever into the food regardless of its nutritional value (or rather, lack thereof). I knew it was unhealthy. It might've tasted decadent at the moment, but later I would just feel sick. I remember (before banding) I made this lobster mac and cheese with a corn bread butter crust on top. There must've been 10 pounds of the fullest fat cheese I could find in there, plus an extra pound for the top, and the corn bread was SOAKED in butter (probably an entire stick..I can't remember, but it was a lot). While I was eating it, I was like "Wow, best thing ever". An hour later I felt SO sick I almost vomited. I couldn't even enjoy it, it was just so rich and full of fat - my body was like "that's not gonna fly". I love that my food tastes fresher and lighter these days. I can actually enjoy the flavors of the individual ingredients (or appreciate the blend of flavors, as the case may be).

As for variety, this was my dinner menu for the past week:

- Red and Napa Cabbage salad with homemade peanut sauce and tofu and shrimp skewers

- Seafood Paella Espania with Quinoa (instead of rice)

- Baked whole wheat mac and cheese with spinach and tomatoes (I didn't need 20 pounds of cheese and butter to make it delicious, and best of all, I didn't feel disgusting afterward)

- Salmon stuffed with brie and asparagus with a homemade pesto 'crust'

- Spicy Shrimp and Tofu Thai Red Curry hot pot

- Baked scallops in a garlic, thyme and white wine sauce

- Jumbo Lump Maryland Style Crabcakes (without bread crumbs...makes it low cal and band friendly...the bread crumbs make it tougher to eat and sometimes it gets stuck for me)

In the past week I also made sugar free red velvet cupcakes with homemade cream cheese frosting and a crustless Peanut Butter pie (so rich and yummy). I love experimenting with baking too (removing fat, trying different sugar substitutes, reducing flour, using fat free ingredients, etc.). I'll always have a sweet tooth, so low-cal, healthier Desserts are really important to me.

I post a lot of recipes on my blog - so if you need ideas, check it out!

My surgeon did not require a preop diet. In spite of that I managed to lose weight between the seminar and surgery 6 weeks later. I didn't 'diet' but I was more conscious about what I was eating. I tried to make good choices rationalizing that I would 'feel' a lot better if I didn't go into surgery bloated.

I see a lot of people posting about how they overdo it prior to surgery because they feel they'll never be able to eat like this again after surgery. The reality is that you most likely will...even when you're overfilled. The difference will be that when the band is doing its job in supressing your appetite, you won't be hungry and your obsession with food will most likely disappear.

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