I just wanted to mention that even with the fantastic loss I've had, and the lapband sitting there inside me, I am still and will always be a foodaholic. I was walking home yesterday from the grocery store and all I could think about was wanting to order a baked ziti from the Italian restaurant for dinner that night. I didn't....I had a chef salad instead, but oh boy was the urge strong. And this is not a once in a while feeling...it's alot of the time and I just fight it when it comes on and am grateful when the feeling passes.

I guess I'm going to have to work this just like with any other kind of addiction...one day at a time.

We are all like this, wanting this and wanting that. Unfortunately, the band only works on our stomach and not our brain.

Best wishes and Keep the Faith.

naturally.....my mind (sees) the foods i (want/wish) i could eat and eat by the gallons...the commercials alone are enough to make me drool sometimes..and hub and people at work snacking/crunching..heck yeah...my mind thinks i can eat like i did before......but i know i cant....why cant i? i am not dieting? because i was a volume eater. i could not get enough..it was like having a hole in my stomach and me trying to fill it up.....it was not ever satisfied...and NOW i know that because of my WLS, me overeating like that can hurt me, i choose to live this new life i have made....small portions of excellent (protein) filled foods.....and you know what.....now i crave those things.....and and alex was talking recently about how strange it is that now i (make myself eat) as i know i need to for my health.........and before i ate just to eat.......what a difference 19 months make........GREAT post liz.........as always

I will tell you this....for MOST of us that have had weight loss surgery, our FAT mindset is STILL THERE...

MOST of US STILL WANT... loaded lasagna, pizza, greasy cheese burger and fries....we did not get FAT eating broccoli and baked chicken...we got obese by eating the wrong foods and not moving our bodies enough...

I have been UNFILLED with my lap band and the hunger return with a vengeance (along with 50 pounds of weight gain quickly) and I will tell you when I am hungry I don't gravitate towards cottage cheese, and celery and carrot sticks..LOL...

This is why I warn newbies to TAKE CARE OF YOUR BAND...and cherish it because WE THINK we have obesity beat and under control...but...when saline is removed and you are back to pre op hunger...it's a different playing field and scary!!!

Edited January 13, 201412 yr by NaNa

So true! I truly believe it is an addition...certainly an addicts behavior; over eating, eating in secret, thinking of food often....the band doesn't take that away, but I have found it a bit easier to say no to bad foods. Not always but most of the time. An everyday battle. I know when I feel weak I come on here and read and bask in the fact that I am truly NOT alone. xo

So what are some strategies that you have learned over the life of your band that have helped you to come to terms with those behaviors when they come up?

It's always good to think about the health of our bands and ourselves but I know sometimes I can and do fall into mindless eating just because I too am a food addict!

Mindless eating for me isn't volume eating of any one thing, it's that constant picking and picking that adds up and defeats me. It can start with cottage cheese and carrots, or hummus and carrots and carry it's way into scoops of Peanut Butter, munching Protein bars like candy...looking for something or anything to fill that mindset or "need" to graze.

I am guilty of this crime against myself and my band. It happens to me when the world stops spinning for a moment and no one is around. It's a guilty pleasure, and I feel like a bad girl getting away with something only to feel badly later that I broke my word to myself to not eat mindlessly. No matter what the choice of food is....for me it's not a good choice to allow it to start.

when I weighed 118 I thought I had a fat person trying to get out, when I was 245, I always thought I had a thin person trying to get out! I know that without the band I would go back to being that fat person,a gain! Karen..aka..kll724

I have learned that i can go out to dinner and share a meal with my husband. Cut in small bites. Its hard to eat slow when I am starving...that is my biggest problem. Good luck all! I am a recovering foodaholic

So what are some strategies that you have learned over the life of your band that have helped you to come to terms with those behaviors when they come up?

It's always good to think about the health of our bands and ourselves but I know sometimes I can and do fall into mindless eating just because I too am a food addict!

Mindless eating for me isn't volume eating of any one thing, it's that constant picking and picking that adds up and defeats me. It can start with cottage cheese and carrots, or hummus and carrots and carry it's way into scoops of Peanut Butter, munching Protein bars like candy...looking for something or anything to fill that mindset or "need" to graze.

I am guilty of this crime against myself and my band. It happens to me when the world stops spinning for a moment and no one is around. It's a guilty pleasure, and I feel like a bad girl getting away with something only to feel badly later that I broke my word to myself to not eat mindlessly. No matter what the choice of food is....for me it's not a good choice to allow it to start.

Well lisa, all I can say for me is that I feel so bad about myself if I eat poorly, and so good about myself once the urge passes, that I try to remember that the good feeling is so much better than giving in to the urge. Or as my therapist says..it the part of me that likes to be in control that manages the part of me that wants to engage in bad behavior. How's that for psychobabble...LOL.

Plus...my hip surgery is still very new and my mobility without horrific pain is also very new and I can still recall easily, how bad it was before the surgery. This also helps me to 'stay in line'. I'm sure your hubby understands this incentive as well.

Sometimes I do feel like the band is on my brain because before my surgery I felt like once a craving set in, or the grazing, I could not override the impulse. The band allows me to do that (usually). I keep asking myself, "am I really hungry?" If the answer is "no" (as it usually is), I try to 1) not start, 2) stop if I did start, and 3) walk away. I like the FOR NOW part of the definition of satiety, that I have had enough food for now. This tells me that it's okay, if I'm hungry again later I can have some food. Later. Keeps the deprivation meter from getting set off.

Edited January 13, 201412 yr by Bandista

GW Pain is an excellent motivator. Ken (hubby) would agree to that. While I am in control, I can and do think about what it is I am going to choose to graze on, my problem is that I should not be grazing on anything.

I should eat my meals and that should be enough. Often times it is enough, and then there are times when it is not. I don't think it's because I am even hungry, but it's that urge to eat something that need to feed. To chew on something to munch, to just let it all go and say to hell with it.

Most of the time I am so in control, so regimented, organized and always doing doing doing. When I stop, shut down and just relax that is when my little crunch monster shows up.

I can fight and grapple with her all I want, I usually end up losing the battle. 4 bottles of Water and I still wanted to munch. Popcorn, hummus and carrots, Peanut Butter. Maybe I should have just gotten up, eaten my meal and stopped being a couch potato watching TV all day and night. (Sometimes I will do that with a book and read a 1000 page book in a day!)

I excused my behavior (with the hubby's blessing. "there's nothing wrong with a down day, and some you time") by telling myself, I am always running always out the door doing doing doing it's OK to do nothing once in a while.

The truth is that I am out of balance!! I need to temper my doing with some down time in equal amounts.

There should be no binging on anything, even binge watching TV or reading all day and night is a bad thing. What they say is true too much of any one thing is no good for you!!

I am paying for it today, I am a grouchy, cranky mess today. (OK I don't look it. I look like my normal control freak put together self...but don't mess with me cause I'll bite your head off and it's not on my list of preferred foods! )

I don't like to be this way, I am out of sorts, and darn if I didn't do this to myself! I'm not beating myself up about it. Just making some observations and cutting myself and everyone else a break today.

GW it is your post that helped me to look at this, and analyze it so I can start making some much needed behavioral changes. I know it's not gong to happen over night, but now I am that much closer.

I think that's what addiction really is, it's something our minds and our bodies can overcome if we can understand what it is and where it comes from. What drives us to the behaviors that harm us, and what we can do to combat the issues and modify the behavior so that we are healthier.....

Funny thing is, tonight I was walking thru walmart past the huge containers of super sized candybars and the thought that ran through my head was "wow, I can't believe I don't even want it". It was so liberating. My hope is that someday, this will be my normal thinking all the time. Kinda like the urges when I first quit smoking compared to now where I have no desire for cigarettes at all.

You are not alone. I'm a foodaholic also. Some days are better than others. It's all about will power.

I'm right there with you! I call myself a recovering food addict, and some days I seriously question if I'll ever beat it!

Although this is all still new to me and I am truly not hungry my head tells me different things. The biggest motivation for me is I fear throwing up. Otherwise I would be thinking way more about pizza and chips and tacos. I am having a bit of a hard time dealing with the fact that I wont be eating those things again even though the logical part of me knows they are bad for me. I clearly am not a naturally thin person who can eat in moderation or I wouldn't be here. I guess I am mourning the fat girl but I am also excited about the thin girl that os going to emerge if that makes sense??

Thank you for all the congratulatory comments and good wishes.