:confused:I have my band date (04-09-08), The closer I get to my date the more I realize how much I rely on food. When I'm nervous, emotional, etc, I reach for food. I hurt my arm the other day and I can't believe how bad I wanted something to eat. Anyone else experience this?

Hey my band date is April 7th! So we're really close. And, Yes! I TOTALLY get what you're saying about food. With me, though, it's boredom. When I'm bored, I start hunting / gathering in the Fridge and Pantry. I always prided myself on never developing an addiction – I don’t smoke, drink, do drugs. So, the day I discovered / realized that I’m addicted to food was a very dark day indeed.

So I'm looking forward to the band. I'm tired of my life being centered around food. It doesn't matter what I'm doing, I'm always thinking about my next meal. If we go on vacation, I’m thinking "Where are good places to eat." If we go shopping, I come along because I'm hoping we go have lunch somewhere really nice. If I hang out with my friends, there has to be food involved.

So some ‘shock’ therapy will do me good I think. I’m ready to branch out and discover better/healthier ways to enjoy myself! I look forward to the day when I finally say, “It doesn’t matter what I eat as long as it’s healthy.”

I just got mine today...I am excited...and scared....It will be worth it!

The only diets that have ever been 'successful' for me (I use that term loosely as the most I've ever lost is 2 stone [28lb] in about 9weeks with Lighterlife/Cambridge diet. I have put it all back on. This diet did work for the 2 years that I kept it off but alas, I found love a year ago and we both love eating out, so have put it all back on. :sneaky:

I had been thinking about banding for about 4 years and am finally in a financial situation to pay for it. I have consultation this monday and the surgery is usually within 2 weeks after that. I'm a lecturer at college so the spring holidays are an ideal time for me to do this. I have a wedding to go to in June so hopefully will be on my way and looking a bit less frumpy and hippo-like by then, even half a stone would be nice but I'm expecting a little more as I lose loads in the 1st week of diets (it's just the following weeks where I then screw up!)

Kossde- I totally agree with what you're saying. Our friends 'owe' us a fancy dinner out as we paid for the last one (expensive 5 star, lots of £150 a bottle Champagne etc) and I've got that awful gut feeling of "we have to go out for this meal very soon or i'll be banded by the time we get round to doing it and then I'll have to miss out on all that lovely fancy food..."

I hate the way food rules my life. I also have worked out from my own psychological study on myself and my eating habits that I panic if there's a chance I could ever get hungry. If I know that I'm going out for the day and maybe not stop for lunch for AGES... then I'll eat extra amounts at Breakfast and even take emergency Snacks. I was either starved as a child (highly unlikely!) or a hamster in a former life- filling my cheeks so I had plenty for later times.

Does anyone else get this panic? I've never told anyone else about this as they'll think I'm a freak and say stuff like "well, that's why you're fat then!"

hmmmm..... I'd love to be hypnotised or regressed as this may shed some light....

Any advise from anyone?

Gill :-)

HI. I am in the process of having my lapband done the end of April. I am already trying to talk myself out of it because of the same reasoning. I think, I wont enjoy eating ever again. Is this true?

Has anyone had problems after surgery that some may not tell. I know lots of pp in my area that have had it and have had good results with little complications. I cant help but worry about the future after this.

Hi, I had my surgery a week and a half ago.I have been through a whole gammet of emotions,first like you I was terrified of giving up food then after surgery all kinds of second thoughts.Look we are doing this for a reason don't lose sight of it if you don't do it you will just be back wishing you could have it when you can't lose weight next year.I am allready eating mushie food which is like mashed potatoes and real mashed up meatloaf because I get hungry in a couple of weeks I get a fill and pretty soon I will be eating like everyone else just not as much look if I go out to dinner I will bring home a doggie bag and finish it later so what. Hey, chin up and always remember before long it will be back to normal for you just with alot more control. YOU CAN DO THIS!!!!!!:sneaky:

Hi Bimby

Like you I was worried about how I would deal with life without being able to turn to food. I decided to go for a few sessions with a counsellor prior to my op and it was one of the best things I've ever done. It gave me a whole new insight into what makes me tick as a person and let me see some of the reasons I'd come to rely on food as a crutch in my life.

I know that approach might not be right for everyone but it certainly helped me a lot. I'm sure you can get through banding and succeed anyway but do give it some thought - it allowed me to relax prior to the op and also allowed me to focus on some other areas of my life that needed real attention too.

Good luck.

Gordon

PS - Gill - my four counselling sessions did take me back to my childhood and I discovered a whole lot of stuff that made sense in terms of how I dealt with food as an adult (and more particularly what food was a substitute for ... ). Nothing scary and nothing distressing but certainly well worth doing.

Edited March 26, 200818 yr by Gordon C

I am being banded on the 28th and in the process of getting all of my stuff together for after the surgery. I have one question about the Gas-X strips, are the the ones that you put on your tongue? :confused2:

tntexas- The gas x strips are the ones that dissolve on your tongue:)..

Thanks K podski, just wanted to make sure I had the right ones.

I have been banded for almost 6 weeks. I never considered myself dependant on food but I am realizing how much I used to eat for reasons other than being hungry. I guess I was an emotional eater afterall. I am just trying to find other things to occupy my time.

Good luck, we all feel you.

thanks for your supporting words

It's SUCH a mind game. Truly. Here are a couple of the EPIPHANIES/Reality Checks I've had...

*About two weeks out, I was out running errands with my daughter and grandchildren. I had to watch over my lively toddler grandbuddy and since I still couldn't really hold him, it was decided I would chauffeur him around in his car seat while she tended to something important with the granddoll. He was screaming and tossing an awful fit and I was already thinking "Man, when they get out, we'll just go somewhere and have a nice leisurely lunch and....." WHAM!:mad3: I realized I was going to be limited to a very small cup of smooth soup!! And then -- the BIG realization! I knew no other way to cope with heavy, urgent stress than to plow through it then eat my way numb! I called my hubby and whined and cried to him and he talked me through it. I had to start working on other ways to react to stress and I still have the occasional "freak out" when I don't know what to do -:huh2:- but, eating isn't in the short list any more.

**Hubby and I shared most meals out for years. Now instead of taking turns choosing and halving everything, I take a fraction of what I used to eat. For several months he would make me choose both resturant and entree -- and I readily complied, believing if I could only eat a few mouthfuls they were going to be PRIMO! Eventually the burden of always having to make a decision wore me out and I insisted that HE choose. I said, "It doesn't matter whether it's cardboard or filet mignon, I'm full after three bites anyhow!" And :lightbulb: ta-da, I finally got it. food is NOT my comforter, my lover, my best friend. It is FUEL for my body. Hunger is the "E" on my tank, not my cue to eat my way into a gastro-gasm. Eating only the very yummiest foods actually made it HARDER for me to recognize the signals for when it was time to stop!

***In addition to sensually saitiating (sp?) myself with food, I've had to learn to stop rewarding myself with it!! I am an extrovert, always glad to be around others and can -- on any day the sun comes up -- find SOME excuse to :party:party!! "I walked to the mailbox today!" Whoo-hoo, that calls for Seafood tonight! "I kept the grandkids all day!" How's Mexican sound for dinner? Geez, I really am a 45 year old toddler!!! I wanted what I wanted, when I wanted it and because it was something common, necessary and seemingly benign -- FOOD, I didn't dare deprive myself. If my addiction had been diamonds, it would've been easier to curb!!! LOL But I've found other ways to reward Pam.

• I bought a cute little table for beside my bath and loaded it with luscious bath products -- (Its SO much easier to fit my smaller body into the tub nowadays!). :bathbaby:
  
• I cleaned out and organized my closet and actually enjoy getting dressed -- I do it somethings three or four times a day -- JUST BECAUSE I CAN!!! And who cares if it creates more laundry -- I bought a new front loading washer and dryer and I just love running them!:washing:
  
• Instead of weekly expeditions to the grocery store and loading the pantry, fridge and freezer with processed and preserved junk. I go nearly daily and buy fresh REAL foods.:car:
  
• Instead of vegging out in front of the tube and mindlessly gnoshing in the evenings, I get online and type, type, type, with my tunes rockin' and do some chair dancing, etc. All I need is an occasional swing from my bottle of Water and I can go on for hours!:ohmy:
  

I was very blessed recently, I now take strattera for my ADHD and one of the side effects is appitite loss:lol:. How great is that?! I pack my lunch yesterday for work, a nice big salad with turkey. I forgot to take my lunch break b/c I wasn't hungry and only ate a little of it later on my break. It was so weird then I only ate about half of what I usually do for dinner. I think food is a distraction from life for me (and others too) once I could focus on other things I've not been obsessed with food.

I also have worked out from my own psychological study on myself and my eating habits that I panic if there's a chance I could ever get hungry. If I know that I'm going out for the day and maybe not stop for lunch for AGES... then I'll eat extra amounts at Breakfast and even take emergency Snacks. I was either starved as a child (highly unlikely!) or a hamster in a former life- filling my cheeks so I had plenty for later times.

Does anyone else get this panic? I've never told anyone else about this as they'll think I'm a freak and say stuff like "well, that's why you're fat then!"

I have the exact same problem! When I get hungry I get feeling sick and usually get a headache probably mostly from worrying about being hungry. So if I am going somewhere with my family or friends and know that it could be a while before we stop to eat (and something inside convinces me that they are all anorexic and aren't going to stop anywhere ALL day), I panic and just like you, will eat a lot more for breakfast before I leave than I normally would to make sure I store up as much as I can for the famine that is about to strike as we are gone all day. However, since my whole family is way overweight and we are all addicted to food, we do end up stopping and getting some sort of fast food, and then again, I just know that it's gonna be forever til I get back home where I can finally eat again, so I eat as much as I can when we stop. It is a terrible terrible cycle! I am usually much better off when I go places by myself because I know I am the one driving, and I am on my own schedule and know that I can stop whenever I want to and get something to eat. So I don't get the really sick feeling and the headaches nearly as much. However, there are also plenty of times when I am by myself that if I know it's gonna be an hour or so driving time til I get to the next town, (and being a truck driver I deal with this all the time) I also start to panic and get sick and my head hurts and I stop and fill up.

But the stupid thing is, that even if I eat a whole bunch to make sure I have a good reserve, I end up getting hungry again usually faster than if I had eaten less. And I know this from experiencing it time and time again, yet I still do it to myself.

Night time is a real hard one for me too. I can not sleep when I am hungry. So if I know I have to get up early the next day and need good sleep, I will eat a bunch just before going to bed to make sure I don't wake up hungry in the middle of the night. That's a fear of mine when I am sleeping over at someone elses house too, or in a motel with no food in the room. I have woken up many times at night with hunger pains and unable to sleep until I eat something which is why I panic so much about it. But what happens, is I have discovered that if I eat a lot before I go to bed, I wake up in the morning feeling like I haven't eaten for days. So hungry! But when I don't eat a lot before bed, if I make it through the night without waking up hungry, then when I wake up in the morning I am not very hungry at all. I have experienced this too many many times. Yet what do I do? I again get in the same panic state before I go to bed worried that I am going to wake up hungry in the middle of the night, so I eat a bunch just before bed.

I have been this way since I was about 12. I am 27 now. So no wonder I am 310 pounds now.