I am approaching 10 weeks post op. I discovered I was an emotional food addict about 8 weeks ago.

I have been, and plan on staying true to the plan. There is no way physically I could eat the crap I used to eat even if I wanted to. 9.5 days out of 10 I feel happy and fine and satisfied without thinking of how food used to comfort me. There are a few times that my emotional tie to food still provokes sadness in me, because I no longer partake.

The fall and winter season is full of triggers for me. Christmas shopping- I used to love shopping all afternoon then binging on crap. It felt fulfilling. And fun. Football Sundays- making food was at least half the fun. I mentally associate lots of cold weather activities with comfort food.

I have been substituting heathy foods in place of the stuff I would love before. I'm just wondering how everyone deals with these triggers and what your triggers are. When I think of how I used to eat, I realize I was mentally comforting myself big time. The new year will bring me new things to make myself happy, and a change of mentality, that is my hope!

@thenewkel - months before my surgery (I'm barely 1 week out post-op 12/3/16), I was going to therapy, and realized I was an emotional eater. Group therapy for eating issues didn't feel like the right fit for me, but I worked on it and slipped, but each time I slipped, I didn't let it make me feel like I failed. I felt like it was a relationship that needed to end, so I picked one thing that I felt that I would say good bye to, it was a frozen pizza, ice cream dinner. I enjoyed it, thought about why it was such a comfort and ate it slowly making it a long good bye. From there, i worked on really figuring out what I could do to replace those feelings.

Now, I am very conscious about my eating. I'm still on liquids, but I make sure that even though I'm not hungry, that I'm sipping a few ozs of broth, Protein smoothie, tea, etc. every 20 mins. For my soft foods phase in two weeks, I'm seeing what recipes exist so that I can have my own festive portions of not only healthy food, but tastier food than the easy comfort of store bought diet food. For non-foodies, I suggest asking your dietician for a thorough guideline on meal-options so it is less work for you or recommendations for ready-made delivery services that cater to high protein, low carb diets, ketogenic, wholefoods30, paleo, or bariatric.

For holiday meal and appetizer ideas, check out BariatricCookery

You already did the hardest part, not that everything else isn't hard, but will become rote, easier and even rediscover your relationship with food!

Continued success to you and happy holiday eating!

Photos courtesy of BariatricCookery.com