I'm just thinking about a lapband, but what I really want is for food not to be the center of my life. I seems like after the lapband it is still all about food, just how you eat, what you eat, etc. Does it ever end?

YES!! When it finially becomes apparent that it is not what you are eating but what is eating you...you have finially lost the weight and realize that you can eat, live and lose weight--and the only thing that changes is your size and perhaps your abilaty to move. The rest is the confidence you gain in yourself when you stop beating yourself up for all the wrong choices and just get on with life!! Give yourself time!!!

I am still on that learning curve but I do NOT think about food all the time anymore. Thankfully. That has improved alot

I still have problems stopping sometimes when I know I'm full, but I am getting better.

I'm there with Ready....it's not there all the time, but I'm still learning.

I recently didn't want a fill because my b-day was coming. I'm still struggling with the holdays = food. I think once you have an addiction, it's always there.

It does morph into something different.

I don't wake up thinking about what will I eat.

I don't worry about what people will think about me when they see me eating.

Do I focus on food like I used to. Not so much. But I am more successful when I plan my meals and bring my food to work with me. But I think most people who eat mindfully pack their lunch/cook more, simply because you can make healthier choices.

It is vastly different, but it isn't an off/on thing. It certainly feels more in control instead of being controlled.

HTH

J

I am still on that learning curve but I do NOT think about food all the time anymore. Thankfully. That has improved alot

I still have problems stopping sometimes when I know I'm full, but I am getting better.

:thumbup:

It is a learned process...and I am still learning. Admittedly, sometimes I feel that I am a very slow learner, but it is coming.

I so agree. For me it is learning to eat with intention and not to eat as a social activity. My fear is that I won't enjoy eating anymore, that I will only use food for nutrition.

I get banded on Friday and already know that this was the best thing I could have ever done for myself. :thumbup:

I'm with Juli on this -- it feels more like being in control.

While I do plan what I eat in order to be successful long term, I don't obsess about it throughout the day. food doesn't have the power over me that it used to.

One of the things we all have to do is make sure we don't get hung up on it (our struggles with weight) not being fair. Yeah, maybe it's not fair that we have to work at healthy food choices, portion control, and exercise in order to be slender.

But everyone has something that's not fair in their life. Is it fair that some people work their butts off at minimum wage their entire life while others are born into wealth and privilege? Fair that we have so much food available to us here that we are able to be grossly obese while people in Africa, India and other parts of the world are dying of starvation? Fair that a kid born with severe food allergies can't have a piece of birthday cake at her own party?

So we suck it up, say "oh, well", and do what we need to so we can be healthy. Even if that means paying careful attention, for the rest of our lives, to our food choices, food portion sizes, and exercise. One day at a time. And the band makes that possible for a lot of us by removing that constant hunger that drives us to overeat.

[i don't at all mean this as a rant at the OP. This point of view is from the Beck book and it resonated with me... it's a helpful way of looking at things. My card for this says "What would be even more unfair is letting this stand in the way of me achieving a goal I really want: to lose this weight."]