Oh, I'm so frustrated with myself!! I've been banded since Aug. '09 and as of this past October (when we ran a half marathon) I had lost 82 lbs and was feeling good! After the half marathon, we (my husband and I) came home and quit working out. Then in December and January we made trips to Ethiopia to bring home our daughter that we adopted. Life has been busy and I've COMPLETELY LOST MOTIVATION!!! I'm back to my old way of thinking about food.....if it's in sight, I'm gonna eat it! I can't stand it, but can't seem to stop! I've gained 15 lbs since October. I'm SO mad at myself. I look at myself in the mirror and tell myself "girl, you've got to stop this!" I have 4 children, a full time job, and a fabulous husband and yet all these wonderful things I have in my life can not seem to make me change my mind about food.

Can any of you recovering food addicts tell me your secrets? What did you do to stop obsessing about food? It's driving me crazy and I'm so upset with myself. I didn't get this band to fail.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

Skinny, start at the basics. keep / start a food/exercise journal. call your doc up get an appt. see if you need a fill and think about getting back to feeling good about yourself. As a mom you know that the better you feel about yourself the more it reflects over to your children. Do this for yourself and I wish you luck. let me know how you're doing!

Have you ever considered attending a food addicts anonymous meeting? It's a good program that you work with a sponsor - just show up at a meeting and talk to the facilitator. Www.foodaddictsanonymous.org. I think they also have online meetings and support.

I wish you the best of luck.

Sometimes I get off track and recently I got wayyy of track. It happened after I was overfilled for almost a month after that I declared a month off of being a bandster. But then the month after that I traveled South Africa, had a few surgeries and before I knew it the scale was going up. Then I went to Canada for a visit and then had surgery again. I am now about 10-15 pounds up from my lowest weight ( which wasnt even my goal weight). This has all happened in only 3 months.

My solution for this problem? I am starting the 5 day pouch test to get back on the right eating track and I am going for a fill hopefully next weekend. There I will talk out my food issues with my doc and see what he says.

Dont let this get you down. Take it as a learning experience and get back on that horse. It will always be there waiting

So Checkyes, I went to the foodaddictsanonymous.org website and OH MY GOSH! It was like they had written that website for me! I totally think I'm addicted to sugar, flour, and wheat products and what they do to my brain, but I just don't know if giving them up completely is realistic with a husband and 4 small kids. I think I'm going to set a goal of cutting WAY back, though and see if the cravings go away. Today I did good. We will see how tomorrow goes! Thanks for the suggestion! I want to lose at least 50 more lbs before I'm "done"...whatever that may be!

Do it for your kids!! You want to be a healthy mom you want to be able to play with them, and not have to sit on the sidelines because you are overweight.

Also just kick yourself in the butt! It's hard but you want to be healthy. You said you are busy, distract yourself from food and the classic line "no food tastes as good as skinny feels" haha

I totally think I'm addicted to sugar, flour, and wheat products and what they do to my brain, but I just don't know if giving them up completely is realistic with a husband and 4 small kids. I think I'm going to set a goal of cutting WAY back, though and see if the cravings go away.

It will be the best thing you've ever done for yourself. In an attempt to stabilize my blood sugar, I eliminated all carbs except those found in low carb vegies (broccoli, green Beans, salads, asparagus, etc.). About a week or so after, I discovered that not only my cravings were gone, but so was my hunger. I no longer thought about food 24 hours a day. With a completely unfilled band (which is coming out tomorrow), I was eating 900 calories a day!

It's completely realistic with a husband and 4 kids. First, low carb won't hurt them either, but if they have no problem processing carbs (i.e. they aren't overweight), then there's no need to restrict them. Just cook healthy meals in a way that allows you to avoid the things you shouldn't have. So if it's your normal mac and cheese night (for example), make sure there's a side vegie/salad to balance out the meal (which you can have) then it's a simple matter to throw a piece of meat in the Foreman Grill, broiler or pan fry, poach, etc.

Once I got these bad carbs (at least for me) out of my system, I wasn't even tempted by them. Oh sure, like an alcoholic, I might think "yum that looks good" but I'm not driven to eat it as long as I consistently keep it out of my system...just like an alcoholic.

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Melody, first of all AWESOME job on how much you've lost! What an inspiration! I would be a HOT momma if i could love another 60 lbs! HAHA! I truly can not even imagine what NOT craving food feels like, but I really really want to know! I did great yesterday! Got up this morning at 5am and went to the gym...was doing good until the therapists at school came and cooked yummy stuff in my room and then left it there! UGH!! I bagged it up and put it in the students' backpacks, but then had 2 for myself. I was so mad. BUT I have done good for the rest of this evening.

There are TONS of things I'm willing to give up, but I think the hardest thing I love with a little sugar in it is creamer for my coffee each morning. Do you think that is still ok? Or do you go with absolutely NOTHING with sugar in it? Or just carbs?

Thank you all so much for your tips and encouragement...I've GOT to do this!

Start to get the food part under control (do what you need to do) whether it's get a fill or seek help for food addiction. Most importantly start working out again! Now that spring is here take those 4 babies out for a nice long walk or walk up to a park or something like that. Then once you get your "work out feet" moving again amp it up!!!! You can do it!! Take it 1 day at a time. I got off track on my work outs too for months and i'm finally back at it and I work out 3-4 days a week. I take a free step aerobics class that is being offered at the local community center and the other 2-3 days i'm on my own. It's not quite warm enough for me to take my dog out for walks yet (I live in Michigan) but I have different videos that I rotate.

Good luck getting back to it, after all you didn't lose 80+ lbs for nothing!!