How do you deal with slumps in your eating habits? The last few days I feel like a failure for overeating. I’ve been the most hungry I’ve been since surgery and have had overwhelming cravings. I haven’t eaten large portions but am eating more frequently. I feel like such a failure because I’m only 5 months post op and have done amazing up until this point. I’m 70 pounds down and loving it but I can’t stop eating. Please share your experiences and advice.

Diet fatigue is completely normal. Increased hunger and cravings are a part of the process. Now you just need to reevaluate, and find new strategies to stay on program. What are you craving? Can you find healthy, low cal alternatives? You are hungrier, trying hydrating instead of eating? If you're still hungry, then have some low cal and or high protein options on hand.

You definitely don't need to be perfect to be successful!

I was very involved in a couple WLS communities back before and after I had surgery in 2003. Here is what I remember:

There are as many eating plans as there are surgeons. Eat 3 meals a day. 6 meals a day, Drink protein. Don't drink protein. Eat this. Don't eat this. Don't drink with meals. It's OK to drink with meals. And on and on.

What the successful people did is follow their plan, whatever it was. Most of us were horrible at following plans pre-op, it's how we got where we were. So it's a big ask for us to do it post-op. The plan seems less important than the mental commitment to follow a plan, period.

My 'adjustments' to plan:

1. Make sure to follow my plan. Meaning, meals of appropriate size, content, and frequency. Too little and I would get hungry between meals. I made them as appetizing and flavorful as possible. I discovered that trying to 'kick-start' anything resulted in failure. I discovered trying to eat less to increase weight loss resulted in (you guessed it) failure.

2. Distraction: Do something to occupy my mind completely.

3. Move. I didn't 'exercise' at all. Exercise for it's own sake was boring and painful. So, I just worked at doing stuff I liked: shopping, people-watching, museums, conventions. Anything that was out of the house, interesting, and time consuming.

4. Sugar Free Popsicles. Between meals they take several minutes to eat, my urge was satisfied, no damage to plan, and it was effectively drinking.

5. Drink. Water is good. So is SF Koolaid. Ice Tea. Variety helped me drink more, and flavors again helped satisfy urges to eat. Even now, while I can drink anything, I still go for non-sugar options.

6. [ETA] I was so big I could not fit on any scale but the one at the Docs office. This was a blessing because I couldn't see progress or lack of progress. After I could weigh at home, I still didn't because I didn't care by that point. The scale doesn't tell me what I need to know: Am I eating and feeling well? Are my clothes fitting? Why not? Adjust. I still only weigh when asked to at medical appointments.

The first 12 months are when lifetime habits were built. Now, it's ingrained.

Edited September 16, 20205 yr by The Greater Fool
forgot about damn scales. speeling

Thanks for that comprehensive examination of how you lost your weight and kept it off Greater Fool.

My problem is distraction. I don't have enough of it. Any suggestions of distractions would be greatly appreciated. Maybe something will spark a fire under me.

I hate exercising too.

I am definitely going to get some sugar free popsicles.

31 minutes ago, mcfluffington said:

Thanks for that comprehensive examination of how you lost your weight and kept it off Greater Fool.

My problem is distraction. I don't have enough of it. Any suggestions of distractions would be greatly appreciated. Maybe something will spark a fire under me.

I hate exercising too.

I am definitely going to get some sugar free popsicles.

Distractions are very individual, I have OCD so I can spend hours doing simple and repetitive tasks.

I enjoy reading and can get completely absorbed. Hours fly by. [ETA] Also, one doesn't need to read at home. I get most of my reading done on vacation where ever we go. I go to a park and read on nice days. Read at a cafe while lingering over coffee (sneek in people-watching).

I ran a WLS Non-Profit educational site and message board. Lot's of time went into that. I've done comparable several times with other topics.

My spouse and I played on-line MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Roll Playing Game) which was/is amazingly immersive. Hours of fun and talking with friends, if it's your thing. There are also a wide variety of on-line and PC games that were/are equal time-sinks.

Puzzles. I could spend hours doing simple things like Tetris. Legos. A paperclip. I'm easy.

Hobbies: I love building and flying Radio Control gliders. They float like magic. Again, hours and hours of hours and hours. Over the years I've also built furniture, remodeled, landscaping, drawing floorplans. Artistic folk in my family paint, knit, crochet.

Learning: If I get an interest in something, I learn about it. Astronomy, I read books, took classes, attended seminars; World War 2, again classes, books, seminars. WLS, same thing. How the brain works. Computers.

For work, I'm a programmer. My OCD comes in handy. I am always the person to learn new stuff because I can read a manual and do the work. I don't give up, I spend the time to get done correctly on time. I do work noodling on my time if I have an issue I can't solve.

Any passing interest is an obsessive opportunity.

Edited September 16, 20205 yr by The Greater Fool
cuz

Since we're still stuck in house- at least we are here in So FL- I follow a few sites that do live videos. One is from successful Bariatric woman that does live makeup tutorials. It’s fun to watch. And I follow her on FB. Her before & after are amazing. I also follow a boutique that sells & models clothes. There are a lot online now. Keeps me busy. Keeps me motivated to want to wear small sizes & some points in how to wear smaller clothes since we don’t have to hide our size anymore. I also follow animal rescue site that I’m very involved with. So these keep me occupied while I’m in house. Of course I do other things but these are relaxing & help me unwind

12 hours ago, The Greater Fool said:

Distractions are very individual, I have OCD so I can spend hours doing simple and repetitive tasks.

I enjoy reading and can get completely absorbed. Hours fly by. [ETA] Also, one doesn't need to read at home. I get most of my reading done on vacation where ever we go. I go to a park and read on nice days. Read at a cafe while lingering over coffee (sneek in people-watching).

I ran a WLS Non-Profit educational site and message board. Lot's of time went into that. I've done comparable several times with other topics.

My spouse and I played on-line MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Roll Playing Game) which was/is amazingly immersive. Hours of fun and talking with friends, if it's your thing. There are also a wide variety of on-line and PC games that were/are equal time-sinks.

Puzzles. I could spend hours doing simple things like Tetris. Legos. A paperclip. I'm easy.

Hobbies: I love building and flying Radio Control gliders. They float like magic. Again, hours and hours of hours and hours. Over the years I've also built furniture, remodeled, landscaping, drawing floorplans. Artistic folk in my family paint, knit, crochet.

Learning: If I get an interest in something, I learn about it. Astronomy, I read books, took classes, attended seminars; World War 2, again classes, books, seminars. WLS, same thing. How the brain works. Computers.

For work, I'm a programmer. My OCD comes in handy. I am always the person to learn new stuff because I can read a manual and do the work. I don't give up, I spend the time to get done correctly on time. I do work noodling on my time if I have an issue I can't solve.

Any passing interest is an obsessive opportunity.

But there arent any good mmorgs out these days!

9 hours ago, tarotcardreader said:

But there arent any good mmorgs out these days!

There may not be many new games, but most of the old games are still out there and doing well.

Everquest (the first I played) is still there, Everquest II, World of Warcraft (too cartoony for us), all the Ultimas, just off the top of my head.

But, if and when they unplug EQ/EQ2, we probably wouldn't move to another. My wife learned EQ mechanics and has never been able to adjust to other game mechanics. Somehow, the first way is the right way, all others are wrong.

Good luck,

Tek

I got into MMORGs with EQ, then WoW, and now SWTOR. Really like SWTOR ? if you want to play with me message me and make a character on Star Forge ?

2 minutes ago, minimamaz00m said:

I got into MMORGs with EQ, then WoW, and now SWTOR. Really like SWTOR ? if you want to play with me message me and make a character on Star Forge ?

Thanks for the invite.

I'm not overly hopeful but I'll pitch it to the wife.