Hello Everyone! I am a married 39 year old female and mother of one daughter, she is 10. I am having my surgery by Dr. John D. Scott with the University Medical Group here in Greenville SC. I need to lose about 90-100 pounds... It is going to be sometime early December. I was really nervous until I discovered this site and have talked to so many wonderful people about what they have gone through. Although there have been bumps in the road for some of you most everyone is extremely happy with their sleeve and said they would do it again in a second!

I have started my journey to get sleeved!! I have met with the NUT and have attended three support groups. Only nine more to go before they send my paperwork in to my insurance co.. I have my appointment with the psychologist the first week of October, then with the surgeon

I was wondering though if anyone is an emotional eater? That has been my downfall. I eat when I am stressed and bored. I DO NOT want to go through all of this only to gain the weight back. I'm sure that is where the psychologist comes in but any suggestions on how to avoid stress eating?

Also is it true that you really don't feel hungry like you used to before surgery? I would love this constant hunger to go away and stay away for good!!

Thanks so much and any suggestions would be awesome!!

Marka

I think you'll find that a lot of us were emotional eaters. I was the person who would eat to Celebrate, eat when sad, eat when bored, eat when angry. I'm almost 7 months out from the sleeve & the truth is that after the surgery, the desire to eat more or less disappeared. Every now and then I will suddenly crave something, but usually not. For me it was always carbs & fast food that I craved. The surgery allowed me to break the addiction. Now yesterday was a hugely stressful day for me. I wanted to eat ice cream & have a cigarette. Instead of doing either, I drug my butt to the gym & worked the stress off. For me, the surgery allowed me to stop using food as a reward/punishment for every emotion I felt. I'm sure there are many other emotional eaters who can tell you what their experience has been.

Krista

I am an emotional eater and have actually been relieved post-sleeve. My hunger is basically gone so honestly, I don't think about eating, even emotionally. I have had the chance to cheat and I havent. I think this surgery changes your cues which in turn has released me from my hold on food. It is amazing. I hav also vowed to seek counselin if those feelings return. Good luck, you will do great!

I eat when im bored, which has been a lot lately.

It's a lot more difficult to mindlessly snack after the sleeve, IMO. First, you need to stop drinking for 15-30 minutes before you eat, then you must wait 30 minutes after eating to drink again. If I'm going to all that trouble, then I'm putting Protein in my sleeve because that's MY issue...getting my 60g of protein per day. My biggest hurdle is waiting that 30 minutes to drink again, so I'm not wasting the time on junk.

I wasn't an emotional eater, but I couldn't pass up anything sweet. If there were Cookies or candy in the house, I couldn't rest until it was gone, usually down my gullet. Now, I find that I'm not even interested in sweets except in passing as in "I bet that tastes good". I bought some fig newtons last week and have eaten exactly 3 since then. My son took care of the rest! Also, all of the liquid diet stuff seemed to be really sweet to me. I'm pretty burnt out on sweet drinks because all of the crystal light is really sweet, and most Protein shakes are chocolate or vanilla. After weeks on end of being allowed NOTHING but those few things, I'm ready for some real food. I'm still on mushies, but pureed beef stew was pretty good the other night.

Good luck!

I'm an emotional eater, and I have the same concern about regain (great! One more thing to stress me out so I want to eat! )

I'm right at 3 months post-op, and so far it's been pretty easy. I had one day where I let my sweet tooth get the better of me, thought I could have "just a little", and I ate the wrong thing and too much of it. But I got right back on the wagon, upped my workouts for a couple of days, and I've been good ever since.

Still, I think it was a sign that I can't just think the emotional eating is going to go away by itself. Eventually I'll be able to eat more, I'll be hungry more, and this new lifestyle will feel more routine. The thrill of that number on the scale and those skinny jeans will ease over time, life is no longer a series of positive reinforcements for weight loss, and that's where the rubber hits the road. Real Life. Maintenance.

I truly believe that if I want to keep this weight off, for years, and years and years, I have to conquer my emotional eating tendencies, and the surgeon can't fix that for me. So, I'm continuing to work on finding a therapy that works for me, and learning new ways to cope with stress that don't involve food. It's something extra I have to do to ensure my long term success, but it's totally worth it, and I believe I can win this!

I'm not one of those people who has to remind myself to eat post-op. I do feel hunger, but it's a very manageable feeling. But honestly, if I'm eating because I'm stressed or bored, I'm not truly physically hungry. Not if I'm really paying attention. It's my body telling me I'm hungry for something other than food - hungry for comfort, for friendship, for positive reinforcement, for a relief from stress.