I'm 8days post op now. No one ever told me the regret I'd feel. All I wanna to do is eat. food was my comfort and now I don't know how to comfort myself! Advice??

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I felt that way until today when I realized that eventually I will be able to treat myself here and there and the restriction won't be so extreme for forever.....and by then I'm going to have learned how to eat healthy portions and then be able to balance. Like if one day I want a bagel with full fat strawberry cream cheese I'll do that in the future. Maybe not the whole thing but I won't ever not have my favorite foods. But maybe 1 small slice of pizza rather than 5 big ones. That's how I'm looking at it. It may be looked down upon but I got this surgery to retrain myself to be able to eat like a normal person (healthy but has "bad" foods every now and then)

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Hopefully, you will find other ways of "treating" yourself.

Once you have been without processed carbs, full fat foods etc that made you overweight in the first place, gone through the withdrawal process; perhaps you will want to take advantage of this WLS, this tool that you put in place.

Pizza as you knew it, is really awkward to eat post op. Chewy bready carbs like bagels and conventional pizza bases swell in your sleeve and sit really heavy in your stomach.

But there are lots of bariatric recipes for faux pizza and you could always substitute full fat cream cheese for 0% fat cream cheese with thin slices of fresh strawberries on melba toast.

Point being that restriction is a part of this process for weight loss but many "bad" foods are tiny and "slide" down your sleeve easily.

You could easily find yourself eating more calories than is allowed on your weight loss plan and start gaining weight.

Don't get me wrong, we all still want to eat foods that made us overweight in the first place, it takes time for our heads to catch up to our sleeve.

I have been working really hard on training my new system to enjoy good, healthy foods. Unfortunately, even at five months out, I am still struggling to eat well as my sleeve hates everything.

I hope that you can eventually see that other ways of treating yourself is better than using food, especially unhealthy carb and fat laden foods.

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If that works for you then great. But my goal from the beginning of the process has been to use the restriction as a tool to relearn how to eat normally. Maybe your definition of normal is different then mine but if I have If I had eaten like what I think is normal then I would never be obese in the first place, I binged for years and not even on just bad foods. There is absolutely no reason I should not be able to "treat myself" every now and then as long as I'm not bingeing and it's not everyday it shouldn't be a problem, at least not for me anyway

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I hope for your sake you are right.

Food is fuel for our bodies. Not a reward.

I refuse to go through all of this only to turn around and undo it all by putting in fat, unnecessary carbs and processed foods.

You are right, everyone's idea of "normal" is different. That's why there are bariatric diet programmes.

Even though we have been sleeved, we still have to be mindful and eat a weightloss diet.

But you are right. You have to do this your way.

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I'm 8days post op now. No one ever told me the regret I'd feel. All I wanna to do is eat. food was my comfort and now I don't know how to comfort myself! Advice??

If food was a true comfort, you are a member of a minority. When most people, me included, finally take a hard look at overeating, it becomes apparent that comfort had no place. What I got was numbness, a turning off of what I wanted to be comforted against -- usually boredom, occasionally a response to an incident.

What are some things that give you real pleasure and a sense of freedom? Singing, painting, gardening (well, not right at eight days after surgery), bike-riding (same temp prohibition), watching yourself with one eye on a mirror as you read Andrew Marvell aloud, making out (which knows no season)? Turn to whatever it is that makes you feel satisfied without putting you in a stupor. Maybe there's something you've been wanting to learn because it excites you. I'm talking real, soul-satisfying excitement and fulfillment....whatever makes you feel alive, creative and connected to the universe.

I'm 8days post op now. No one ever told me the regret I'd feel. All I wanna to do is eat. food was my comfort and now I don't know how to comfort myself! Advice??

If food was a true comfort, you are a member of a minority. When most people, me included, finally take a hard look at overeating, it becomes apparent that comfort had no place. What I got was numbness, a turning off of what I wanted to be comforted against -- usually boredom, occasionally a response to an incident.

What are some things that give you real pleasure and a sense of freedom? Singing, painting, gardening (well, not right at eight days after surgery), bike-riding (same temp prohibition), watching yourself with one eye on a mirror as you read Andrew Marvell aloud, making out (which knows no season)? Turn to whatever it is that makes you feel satisfied without putting you in a stupor. Maybe there's something you've been wanting to learn because it excites you. I'm talking real, soul-satisfying excitement and fulfillment....whatever makes you feel alive, creative and connected to the universe.

I agree so much with this.

In addition to the physical requirements one of the major critical success factors for me is doing something creative every day (or every chance I get). Photography, writing, art classes, etc.

You can do this, you are so much stronger than you think. The hard part of adjusting will be over soon and then you're gonna start feeling so good. Walking faster because you can, bouncing on your feet, rubbing your hand down your arm and noticing how strong and slender it feels. You'll remember the joys of movement from childhood. The light will feel more golden and you will feel so much better about this. Your eating life isn't over, it's metamorphosing along with you. Hang in there love, you can do this!

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You can do this, you are so much stronger than you think. The hard part of adjusting will be over soon and then you're gonna start feeling so good. Walking faster because you can, bouncing on your feet, rubbing your hand down your arm and noticing how strong and slender it feels. You'll remember the joys of movement from childhood. The light will feel more golden and you will feel so much better about this. Your eating life isn't over, it's metamorphosing along with you. Hang in there love, you can do this!

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Thank you! I really needed that right now!

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I went through this too, although a little earlier than you did. But it's part of the "letting go" process...it's kind of like your mind grieving what it has lost, in a way. You will find that you start to identify all of these ways in which food has dominated your mind and controlled your behavior, now. Take it as a chance to really analyze how you're feeling and how food has been your go-to in all of these situations. That's when you can start to find healthier ways to cope. Support groups are your friend, too - if your surgeon or nutritionist runs one or can recommend one, go check it out.

Going through the mental process of change is super important, it's the majority of what will guide you to success. The surgery is only a small component of it, the mental change is the most important. When I really think about it, food wasn't so much a comfort as it was a distraction. I never really felt any better when I ate, it just took my mind off whatever was bothering me (or filled time when I was bored).

I'm 8days post op now. No one ever told me the regret I'd feel. All I wanna to do is eat. Food was my comfort and now I don't know how to comfort myself! Advice??


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Edited October 20, 20169 yr by PorkChopExpress

@@blizair09 i did the same, lost 100lbs before surgery... being 8 days preop... i realize how much it helped me. @@markiealex hang in there. find someone to talk to and I hope things go better for you. Try blogging, writing your feelings when you feel you want to eat... anything that can help get your mind off the food. Good luck on your journey

Edited October 20, 20169 yr by kyboo1972

@@kyboo1972

Go you! Congratulations on your pre-op weight loss. It will serve you SO WELL going forward. (And when you hit that inevitable "3 week stall" -- and it will happen; I'm in the middle of it right now -- it is so comforting when you've lost 120 pounds and not just 20 pounds!)

@blizair09 thank you. I'm waiting on that stall and ready to face it. I've talked to several and they say it's brutal, but to hang in there... it's our body's way of recovering still from the surgery. Hopefully it passes soon for you and you get back to losing

@@markiealex,

Congratulations on your surgery! In the short term, try to remember that you are at the point post-op when it’s very easy to feel regrets. You’re tired, you’re in pain, and you’re feeling deprived.

In the longer term, yes, you have given up a very big source of comfort by giving up the ability to eat as much of whatever kind of food you want. You cannot deny it! Instead, you can try to face it and figure out how to replace the comfort you found in food with comfort from something else.

For some WLS patients, using food for comfort is a habit that you can get over with practice. You are practicing right now by sticking to your post-op diet! You might just find that one day, you do not feel a hole or emptiness anymore.

For other WLS patients, you can get over using food for comfort by finding a substitute activity to do instead of eating. When you feel like eating for comfort and not for hunger, you might, for example, take a walk, phone a friend, clean the house, or work on a new or old hobby such as gardening or knitting or playing an instrument.

For other WLS patients, you may need counseling or other professional help so you can figure out why you turn to food, whether you have any emotional issues to work on, and what you can do instead of eat.

It is great that you are recognizing this and reaching out for help. Good luck and keep us posted as you find a solution!