I am very bored today, I guess I should be happy that I had no obligations or tasks to handle today but now mid afternoon I am bored to tears. I am fighting myself with eating big time today.

I know I am not physically hungry and that got me to thinking. I don't remember the last time that I actually ate because I was physically hungry. True hunger.

I read a lot in forums how people talk about forgetting to eat and never being hungry anymore and I think, jeez I am never hungry but sure eat a lot ! Same goes for eating until you are full. It takes a lot for me to feel fullness.

Long story short, what have you learned to do to conquer the mindless eating or non hunger eating. I'm journaling today and that is helping a little bit.

I will hopefully be sleeved in June and want to be as prepared as I can be for the wake up call that I actually will need to eat for health reasons and to take care of my self and body and not just because.

Thanks for any insight and feedback on this !

Odee

Even after surgery, I battle with the "hunger games". My mind wants to eat because it is bored or stressed, but I don't feel hungry.

I think the only way I will be able to handle it is because I HAVE to. Its one of those things. When you have no choice, you have no choice and have to handle appropriately. I know with the surgery there is no way around it and I look forward to that.

Right now I am thinking of and writing down hobbies I need to take up besides eating !

From what I understand, the hormone Ghrelin is removed or mostly removed during sleeve surgery, but it is only one of a hundred or more hormones that control your hunger. The brain is very efficient at getting you to eat and telling you what your body needs.

I do feel hunger pangs when I am hungry, and once, when I didn't measure my portion of Beans, I felt so full like you feel at Thanksgiving. You really never want to get to that uncomfortable feeling again so measuring how much you eat beforehand is really helpful there.

After surgery, you will learn to recognize when you are hungry, when you are satiated, and when you are full. The head hunger may be there for awhile, telling you to eat Cheetos or a Tommy burger, but those things aren't good for you at all and will sabotage your weight loss so we are better off ignoring such urges. Without raging hunger like pre-surgery, it is easier to ignore that head hunger.

What you're talking about isn't physical hunger, so the surgery isn't going to fix this for you. Now, actual physical hunger almost always decreases after surgery. For me it went away almost entirely and didn't start to come back at all until after a year out. And it's not even remotely like it used to be.

Before surgery I could eat a giant plate of Pasta and breadsticks and be so full I'd feel sick. Yet an hour later I'd have my head in the fridge looking for more food with my stomach growling. It not only took a lot of food for me to feel full, the hunger came back quickly. This is totally gone now that I've been sleeved.

The sleeve will help you finally overcome the mindless eating or the eating until bursting IF you do the headwork after surgery. Immediately post op you shouldn't feel very hungry at all and food is often totally unappetizing. As you heal and can't eat more than a few bites that ability to just eat until you can't move will go away. You can use this opportunity to work on figuring out why you eat and when you eat, so that you're aware and can prevent yourself from indulging.

Head hunger was easy for me to ignore in the beginning (with the exception of PMS) but as you move out from surgery and incorporate more "normal" foods and eat more calories you really need to be in a good place mentally to succeed. It would be EASY for me to graze on junk all day long and my sleeve would not stop me from that. It will stop me from eating half a pizza in a sitting but not from nibbling chips, Cookies or candies all day long.

I was in denial about my food issues until after surgery. I still battle head hunger and you probably will, too. We have built a habit of indulging when we feel stressed or bored and it's hard to break that. However, with work you can overcome this and yes, I would say the sleeve can make it easier, especially in the beginning.

Sometimes just taking a second to think before you eat every bite can help. If I walk to the fridge and open the door, I always take a second to ask myself why I'm there and what I plan on eating. It helps a lot. As does tracking your calories BEFORE you eat your food instead of after. Having a meal plan for the day can help keep you from straying into the foods you want to avoid or at least eat only occasionally.

Well, now that I've rambled on I hope you're not sleeping! I just think that if you look at this as a head issue and not a stomach one you'll have a better chance of overcoming it after your surgery. And I think that it's something every single one of us has to deal with in order to be healthy, not just physically but mentally, too.

~Cheri

Awesome, thanks all !