Hi everyone,

Well I am just over 5 weeks post op for the sleeve and it's a Friday. Even though I spent over 3 months seeing a psychologist and preparing myself for the mental challenges that go with the sleeve I found that I looked forward to the weekend cause it meant special EATING! Oh it was a nice restaraunt or pizza and a dvd or movies and popcorn and nachos or the late night run to the border... You get my drift?

Now it's 'let me try a different soup' and 'which flavor Protein shake tonight'. It has me in the blues, a bit depressed and trying (maybe too hard) to replace my food addiction with something else. My problem is that most 'other things' that I did involved either food directly or indirectly.

Was hoping any of you longer term post sleevers could post some work arounds for the weekend blues... and Easter to boot, no chocoloate bunnies for this sleever

So how do you vets cope with the weekend blues?

This may not sound like a whole lot of fun but I use my weekends to do a lot more exercising. And I do find that it picks up my mood, distracts me, keeps me busy, etc. I also make sure I spend extra time working in the yard, taking the dog for longer walks (I also count that as exercise) and tidying/cleaning the house. All of these things keep me busy and active, and they leave me feeling satisfied just by knowing that my house looks nice, I've made my dog happy, and so on.

I know what you mean about weekends -- I never realized, before surgery, how much my weekends revolved around food and how much time I spent planning what I would eat, shopping, preparing food, eating -- and I have to find other ways to fill the time. I find that if I keep the time filled with active chores, the "head hunger" and cravings take care of themselves.

I was sleeved on 11/20/13 so I'm not a vet yet but I can relate......... I come from a big Italian family where food means everything......... And I also looked forward to my weekends to go out(mostly restaurants)......... But I can say things do get better............... My boyfriend and I will still go out at night but we will just share an appetizer..... Getting out and enjoying the convo is really what matters............ Also I started having card night parties at my house, where we invite some friends.. I cook appetizers or finger foods so people can eat through out the night and no one notices what I eat.................

Used to love going to the local pub on fri / sat night for live music, having a few drinks and tons of bar food, in fact we still go, just minus the drinks and food, on those days I workout little longer in the gym, do some extra house /yard work so that when I'm tempted I feel guilty cheating, the bartender is great too, I always used to drink gin and tonics in large pint glass now it's pints of water with line wedges, I still have a good time and I make sure all my friends get home safe, so it's win, last week I actually tried a small glass of gin and tonic took me like 45 mins to drink and I was fine with just the one.

My only regret was waiting so long to get sleeved.

Thanks everyone, great ideas. Easter weekend kept me busy but the last few weekends have been harder than I thought. I'm going to look for ways to incorporate your ideas into my life.

Happy Easter!

You will be able to do "normal" stuff soon. You can still go out, do the movie thing, whatever, it just doesn't have to involve eating as much. I've been to girls night out where we had a bunch of munchies and lots of alcohol. I nibbled on the stuff I really liked and since I was the DD, stuck with Water and juice. Been out to a Thai restaurant and pizza joint for birthday parties and enjoyed little bites of everything. Everyone knows I 've had surgery, so my strange eating habits aren't questioned.

For your down time, besides the exercise suggestions, maybe pick up a new hobby or start a project that will keep you occupied. As you lose weight, you could use your weekends for mini shopping sprees...Use your Taco Bell money to buy something new to wear. But be careful - I guess you could replace food addiction with a shopping addiction...maybe stick with the thrift stores to minimize the damage