A little here a little there,, that is how I am feeling with my eating.. I have had my first fill, not really any difference than before fill. I get in the scale and reads the same, so I am not gaining so I think it is okay to eat a snack here and there. I am not losing though either, but I feel once I have fill number 2 this week then I will not be so hungry. My surgery was July 1st and this has been the hardest week for me yet, I thought the other weeks were hard not so much.. I thought I had the emotional eating under control, and I did until this last week. Will I always struggle with the emotional eating? I am still under 1000 calories most days, but the choices are not the best or as good as they should be. Every day I am like 2morrow I will do shakes only, and then I wake up so hungry and forget I have even said that until the days goes on.. I am getting frustrated with myself, my self control this week is terrible and I am so disappointed in myself. For example I opened a package of Cheetos for my daughter and a pack of goldfish for my other daughter today and I took a bite from each bag like 2 -3 chips. Or a piece of cheese and sausage I feel terrible for this and tell myself you are not supposed to have snacks.. I need to eliminate the snacking. Drink water right? okay so I try that and still the hungry feeling is there, it is like I am obsessed with eating. I have never had this feeling before. At the beginning these foods did not look appealing to me, this week I feel like I am a wolf who has not eaten for weeks when I look at everything I can't have, and unfortunately give in. Does anyone have any pointers with getting the self control, back under control? I was also wondering if with the lap band, this is a stage and will l have this reoccurring stage several times? Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

I eat 6 times a day, because that is what works for me. I drink a lot of water and do go to curves 5 days a week and walk or ride 6 days a week. It is just getting yourself in the grove to do these things. Once you get going it will be easier and you can do it. Don't get down on yourself about the little things, you know what to do, just make up your mind and you will be fine

Thank you.

I eat 6 times a day, because that is what works for me. I drink a lot of Water and do go to curves 5 days a week and walk or ride 6 days a week. It is just getting yourself in the grove to do these things. Once you get going it will be easier and you can do it. Don't get down on yourself about the little things, you know what to do, just make up your mind and you will be fine

I have been banded going on 3 months and feel like this from time to time. As a matter of fact, I have been in a rut for a week where I feel like I am not making good choices. I get really angry at myself and dwell on it. I eat fairly well, but I have a morning snack and an afternoon snack. I know we aren't supposed to, but it has always worked for me, until now. I have hit a plateau and I am pretty sure that I need to cut Snacks out to get out of "stuck" mode. We just need to snap out of it and remember nothing tastes as good as skinny feels. I keep repeating that to myself. GOOD LUCK!

You don't sound like you've gotten to a spot in which you don't need to snack. Honestly if you're hungry, you should eat. Just make sure you keep healthy things around to snack on. My doctor says that if I'm hungry drink a glass of Water first because we can confuse thirst for hunger. Then if I'm still hungry then I should have a snack. For me, I find that I get hungry about every 2 1/2 hours. I will usually try and prolong eating for about 3 hours or so but then I will have a small snack like some greek yogurt or a hard boiled egg. You may find yourself eating from your daughters chips because you're hungry. So when you give them their cheetos, have an apple or something that you enjoy (although I really don't think it's too bad to have a couple of them. If I could stop at 2 or 3 chips I'd probably eat them more often ) .

I constantly find myself stressing over what I ate during the day and I just have to tell myself that I'll be better tomorrow. Sometimes I am and sometimes I'm not. We're still pretty new to all of this. The pattern that works for us will come.

Also, I just started using it yesterday so I'm not 100% on if I feel it's effective but so far it's working. I downloaded myfitnesspal onto my iphone (they also have a website that you can use). I put in my height and weight and how much I exercise and how much weight I want to lose per week. It told me how many calories I can eat per day and then counts them down as I input my meals. I was using caloriecount but I find this better because instead of just telling me how many calories I have eaten, it tells me how many more I can eat so if I decide I want to eat something I may think twice about it.

Just a thought. But really, don't be so hard on yourself. It takes time

You're entirely normal. I hate to be blunt, but I've found that my particular problematic eating behaviours - eating when I'm bored, or eating without thinking like you're describing, or needing a snack, and instead of choosing something good, caving in and eating six Cookies, then thinking the day's a write off, so may as well continue to be bad - those behaviours have all remained for me, six years after banding.

But its not as bad as it sounds. I have way better control. Every day is work, yes, every single day I have to think about my approach, plan to be sensible, and most days I achieve it without having to actually white knuckle it. I find I'm OK so long as I"m busy.

But you know, you dont have to be perfect, I still lost 120lb, got almost TOO thin and have kept it off for years now.

and yes, more fills will help.

I only tend to think (obsess) about foods when I am not keeping busy. Since I started using myfitnesspal.com I am finding it easier to manage my foods. Because I take my lunch to work with me every day now, I enter my breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack into myfitnesspal.com at breakfast time. This means I know exactly what I have to work with calorie-wise by the time it comes to dinner. And this week I have started walking before work, so I get to put my exercise in as well. For me, it seems that the planning is helping.

Thank you so much I feel a lot better knowing that I am not the only person with these feelings.. I have been on myfitnesspal for a while, in fact it was my last draw before lap band. I went and got a fill today Yeah!! My doctor makes me wait every 2 weeks. So my first fill was 2cc and today it was .5. OMG!! I drank 1/2 protein drink and that was all I could get down! I am so excited, and when I cooked the kids dinner I had no desire to eat! I did talk to the staff at the office today, she said it is not going to hurt anything to have a goldfish or two. They also told me that it was okay to eat 6x a day and not deprive myself that leads to binging and starving my body from what it needs. I was so relieved. Thank you so much for everyone's input I feel so much better. It is going to take some time to get through the emotional eating and when I look back at the last week, dad in hospital, husband left to go back to where was stationed at, school starting and several issues with my sister. That was a lot to talk in for one week. So I am super tired of the power taste of the protein shakes. So today I went GNC and bought "Lean Shake", it is so good fairly inexpensive and :25grams of protein, 170 calories, 24 vitamins, 2 grams of sugar! And tastes pretty good. Have a great week everyone and thanks again!!

I am someone who is a carboholic. I can't keep crunchy things in my house because I would eat them non stop. My question for you is do your children really need those carbs. Are they part of their meals or snacks? Do your kids really need snacks or are they just a habit?

That is so so true. I often look at the top of the fridge, stacked with chips, Cookies, snack foods and think, how can I do so much for my own health and still let my kids eat this crap? They dont need it, it doesnt need to be in the house. But you would have to seriously be superhuman to withstand the tirades of abuse, whining and nagging you would get from teenage kids asked to eat carrot sticks. I feel like I really failed them, letting them ever get a taste for that sort of food, but really, it was always going to happen, if they dont get it at home (which they didnt prior to starting school), its only going to come from their peers later.

But it seems I'm a little insane - I buy the stuff then yell at them about how bad it is when they eat it! I usually dont touch it, but occasionally I just go wild.

I have to reiterate - keep busy. Had 3 days last week where I worked, barely managed 1000 calories. Four days where I didnt work, over 2000 calories each day. Its so bad for me to be at home with no pressing schedule.