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About this blog

My Journey

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Decisions----Decisions---Decisions

Well guys it is almost Friday and I don't know about all of you but I am so thankful. It has been one hectic week here in SC. Today and yesterday are my first two days in weeks that I have managed to get all my protein in, now that being said, it is only because I am making myself drink one protein shake a day. I have not exercised like I should, I made a decision not to go back to curves. It just isn't working for me. Last week I went twice and when I went on Thursday I was in one of my moods (someone at work pissed me off) and I over exercised and got my other knee hurting. You would think I would learn but for some reason I have to do everything the hard way. I have been debating something for weeks and finally made a decision today and a commitment. I was talking with a friend at work about needing a trainer, someone to help me focus on my problem areas, show me how to work out effectively one on one. I told her about a local place I had contacted but was frustrated because they had not returned my calls. The nerve, you have a business and don't return calls. She gave me the guys name and number and I called him. Well he said he would take me on as a client if I was willing to listen to him, monitor my eating habits and commit myself to 90 minutes of cardio 3 times a week. I laughed when he said, would you be willing to eat healthy. You see, at first I didn't tell him I had, had WLS, I wanted to feel him out to see what he was going to recommend. He told me now you will have to eat a lot of protein, oh yeah I know about that. You need to cut back on your carbohydrates, no problem there, they don't go down. I would need to give up sweets and snacking, ditto already done that. So next week I start, I am both excited and nervous. It is going to cost me $25 a session but I am going to give it a month and see how it goes, I don't have to sign a contract so if it doesn't work out I am not out anything but my time and some money. I have a point I want to prove, which I know is probably ridiculous at my age, I want to see how much I can actually tighten up. I don't want to have surgery to tighten up my skin I want to tighten as much as I can with exercise. I know this may be totally impossible but I gotta try and I feel that a few months with a trainer is cheaper than surgery and less risky. I know you don't ask but my main problem area is my inner thighs. I have given up on having boobs, too old to care and that is why there is Victoria Secrets, push'em up and make them look like their big. Think that's all for now, so a big cheers to all of us who are working our boom-booms off. (I also ordered the Brazilian butt video work out today from beach body, I thought it could keep P 90x company on the self.)
♥LovetheNewMe♥

♥LovetheNewMe♥

0
 

Checking In on Reality

Well hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July! I had the wonderful opportunity to spend the weekend with my three beautiful grandchildren and daughter. It was so great to have the energy to keep up with a 5, 7 and 12 year old. We spent the days in the pool and evenings playing in the yard. We had a cook out on the 4th and than went DT to watch the fireworks and get our faces painted. I don't think I could have asked for a better holiday weekend. Oh and I lost 2 lbs. Even with company here I managed to stay true to my new eating behaviors. I decided to cook what I could eat and daily went out and bought snacks for the kids so they were not sitting around the house. My husband did bring chips into the house for the kids on the 4th and I must say they have always been my weakness and still are and when they left on Tuesday I sent them packing out the door. I really can't trust myself because I knew I would eat them and why have the temptation so close at hand. I also sent all the mini cheese cakes and potato salad. My daughter brought her Pilate's bands and taught me some new strengthening exercise so I could do some more toning at home on my legs and arms. I know I will probably not be able to tighten up all the shrinkles but every little bit helps. I have managed to make it to Curves 4 days a week since starting but still have not got my exercise heart rate up to the 70% they want me to, but I can tell a difference in my energy level. Tonight I got on the WII to weigh myself and was surprised to have lost 2 lbs in the last 9 days. I have been trying hard to stick to 3 meals a day, writing down everything I eat and trying to not do the shakes and bars and eat real food for all my meals. Believe me making myself eat solids for all meals is hard, and requires a lot more planning. I got all of my labs back several weeks ago and my HDL was not high enough and my LDL was too high. So increase the exercise, increase the fiber(and this is very hard). When I got on the scales tonight I am not sure what I would have done if I would have stayed the same. I read and read and everything I read says I have lost above average but when you do everything right you want a reward and my reward has been that number dropping. Sometimes I feel I become fixated with the numbers and so need to refocus myself on the fact that this is a journey and everyday that I make a positive change in my life it is a change in the right direction. I think I have finally realized that the next 30-40lbs is going to be slow and steady. I am not the most patient person, and I really thrive on instant gratification, who of us doesn't? I spend time ever evening reading the blogs because it helps me stay focused, I read the success and the struggles.(I don't like to call them failures because I believe we are all trying to be successful and some do it quicker than others. I try not to compare myself with others because all of our bodies respond differently. Learning from others like us is our key to our success.   I had a friend at work who had the band several months ago and she was struggling with getting to her sweet spot and was struggling with not losing. She told me that she had to distance herself from me because it made her feel bad that she was not losing and I was. But she said what helped her most was staying in therapy with the psychologist and getting her head straight. I think sometimes that is something we all struggle with, we had the surgery, we try hard to eat right but we struggle with demons off and on whether we admit it or not. I went to one of the support group sessions a couple of weeks ago and it was sort of a b***h session for a lot. I heard a lot of people blaming the physician and the navigator for them not knowing or understanding something. I sat there and listened and finally thought, how can we hold others to blame for our inability to lose weight. My doctor made it very clear to me, no guarantees, this was a tool and only a tool and the work was up to me. Let's face it I am really good at lying to myself and talking myself into believing that just one bite won't hurt. ( Just like the fish sandwich and biggie Fry's I used to eat on the way home from work as my first dinner, it didn't count because me and the server were the only witness to my act) I work daily on holding myself accountable, it is my responsibility to listen to my body and inform my doctor if something isn't working but first it is my responsibility to follow the rules. (NONE of this is easy, if it was easy I could have done it without the help of lap band, RIGHT!)   When I got my lab work back, I was disappointed. I thought, I make healthy food choices what else do they want? The nutritionist said, add more fiber and vegetables. I said how in the H%$# am I suppose to do that when I can only eat so much at a meal and I need to focus on protein. She said, eat legumes, oatmeal, nuts, flaxseed. Oh, I said legumes are protein, duhhhh! And EXERCISE, oh that dreaded word. How many of us thought all we had to do was have the surgery and the band would do all the work. How did that work out for everyone, not that good huh! I think I said this in another blog but I had always thought weight loss surgery was a cop out but boy have I changed my mind. This has been one of the most life changing things that I have ever done. For me my lap band forces me to make healthy choices. I am not just paying a fee to WW to get weighed weekly, I altered my body, I had surgery, I put a limit on my choices of what to eat and eating now requires a lot of thought and planning. So lap band bloggers, yes losing weight is what we all hope to achieve but should that be our only focus? Maybe our focus should be on dealing with changing all the learned bad behaviors we have developed over the years and lap band surgery alone will not change those behaviors or those feelings. I constantly find myself checking in with myself because it is so easy to lose one bad behavior and pick up a new one. It is so hard to hold yourself accountable, so hard not to convince yourself to take just one bite, so hard not to slide back to bad habits with just ONE bite! I don't know how to cope unless I just cut them out of my life. But that seems so final and cold. Should we deprive ourselves of the things we love, until I learn control, for me that will be a yes and maybe will always be a yes. Does an alcoholic ever stop being an alcoholic, NO. Does a drug addict every find a time when they can have just one fix, NO. Will I ever be able to be alone in a room with a bag or bowl of chips. I doubt it! My journey will be full of peaks and valleys. I will have successes and I will have back slides. I will work daily to hold myself accountable for my actions and to be honest with myself. Because honestly I am the only person I ever lied to, everyone else could see what I had done to myself and now you know too.
♥LovetheNewMe♥

♥LovetheNewMe♥

3
 

Blogging

I have spent the past hour or so reading blogs and catching up on the lap band community. As I was reading it came to me that we have all been given a wonderful opportunity to have the support of thousands of people. People like us, who can over advice from first hand experience and learn from all of our successes and failures. I never introduced myself when I started blogging, I just started pounding away spilling my thoughts and feelings on the page. So her goes, my name is Diane, I am 55 almost 56 this November. I am married, have two children, a boy and a girl and 3 grand children, a dog, Lexi ( She is posted with me in my picture) and a cat, Sassey. I love animals and if I lived in the country would have many more than I do, animals love us unconditionally and don't care if we are fat or thin. How and why did I chose lap band? I have been what you call the professional diet queen. I am 5'1" and have struggled with weight gain after the birth of my first child in the late 70's. I lost the weight and just gained it back with the birth of my second child. I lost that weight and did pretty good until I went to nursing school and packed it right back on. In those early years I could keep it around 180 or 190 but still thought I was fat, but I never realized what fat was until I hit my 40's. That is when I really started to plump up, I reached a high by the time I was 50 of 260's and believe me on a 5'1" frame that is a lot of weight and my knees began to tell the story a few years ago. Three years ago my right knee went out, swollen, painful, difficult to walk, etc. I went to the doctor, they x-rayed and MRI. I had some beginning stages of osteo, thinning of the cartilage on the inner part of my knee joint. The doctor injected with steroids, last about 48 hours and then I did the weekly injections to rebuild the cartilage. It puts the cushion back between the joints. That lasted about 8 weeks. Then the dreaded conversation came up, Diane you need to drop a few pounds. I knew this already, I had two bouts of pneumonia over the past two years, my BP was out of control, and I was having sleep apnea. Oh by the way I forgot to mention I have been a nurse for almost 30 years. You would think as a health care worker we would have better health habits. But no, we probably are one of the most unhealthy group of people because we are always taking care of others and not ourselves. I am very stubborn, duh so I refused to wear a CPAP for the sleep apnea, and when I saw the metal they would put in my body as a joint, I said no way. Off to Jenny Craig I marched, I joined for 500 dollars, bought my meals at 120 plus a week and lost down to 195 lbs. Then it became too expensive and I just knew I could do this on my own, portion control and 1200 calories, a piece of cake I thought. NOT!!!!!!!!!!! I plumped back up to 248 lbs within 2 years of stopping Jenny Craig. So that is how I got to lap band. Live a life of pain and not enjoy life or get off your butt and do something about it. As for the nursing, I am a critical care nurse, so you would think I would know better and make better choices. Oh well that is the past and this is the new me. I involved my family in my journey, I made my appointment for the information meeting and took my husband with me and told all of my family. I figured if I was going to make this a life style I better include the persons in my life so they could be supportive. I thought about not telling the people at work, because sadly I was one of those people who thought weight loss surgery was a cop out. Boy have I changed my mind. so once I scheduled my surgery I told all of my peers at work I was having Lap Band surgery on the 28th of October. Now a very good friend of mine at work, Ron, looked at me shocked and said" your not fat enough to have weight loss surgery." I could have kissed him but instead, I stopped and said, "Ron, I am morbidly obese. My BMI is 47.5. I have to lose weight or I am not going to get to enjoy watching my grandchildren grow up. He looked shocked and said, I had no idea you weighed that much. Thank god for the Ron's and the Paul's(my husband) who love us whether we are skinny or fat and see us for something more than how we look. I will tell you I was scared, I think my biggest fear has been that I will fail, fail to loss and keep it off. But that very fear is my driving force, I will not gain this weight back and I will be successful. The difference for me know compared to back in the dieting days is I am choosing to change my life style with a gentle nudge from my band. I always lost weight on the planned programs I paid for, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, South Beach etc. But when I stopped paying I gained the weight back. Lap Band is a permanent solution to me because as long as i listen to my band, make healthy choices and exercise I will be successful. I know a lot of people struggle with weight loss and the band but in my opinion we fail because we fail to change our behavior. When I don't lose weight now, i sit down and look back at what I am doing. If I am honest with myself, I am snacking between meals, eating past satisfied and not exercising. I chose not to eat sweets, potato chips(which I love), I stay way from carbohydrates, pasta, rice and potato's. Not because I can't have them but because I like them to much and they make me feel over stuffed. I love pizza, can I eat pizza yes, should I eat pizza no. It is full of carbohydrates, so I look for alternatives that satisfy that void. This truly is a journey and you learn about your body and your inner self along the way. For me this journey is not about being skinny it is about learning to make the right choices, developing a healthy life style and spending quality time with my family. So now you no my story. I was banded October 28, 2010. I weighed in at 248 on surgery day and as of today I weigh 180. ( I have been stuck here for several weeks) I started in a size 24 and now wear a size 14. I have lots of shrinkels but who cares, I consider those my battle scars.
♥LovetheNewMe♥

♥LovetheNewMe♥

6
 

Are you a Pessimist or an Optimist

Well Good Morning to all of you LapBanders! Are you having a wonderful day, are you having a successful lap band journey? Well I am choosing to have a wonderful day and I have had a wonderful lap band journey. If you can't answer yes to both of those question, you need to ask yourself WHY the H E L L NOT!   Hi, my name is Diane, Love to all my BFF's on lap band talk. I have been banded since October 2010, and yes I am a successful lapband participant. I set her dormant most of the time, surfing the site, occasional liking a post or making a comment. I don't really get caught up in all the Bull S H I T that goes on in the blogs or on the forums, because honestly people are going to do what they want and you can't fix stupid.   My philosophy on life is to live to the fullest and you get out of life what your willing to put into it. There are times in life when we all ask the question,"Why is this happening to me?" God, why do you put so much burden on me? Seriously, how much more can I take or can I do?   Seriously folks don't ask those questions because, life is just that LIFE and it will always throw you curve balls and it will always put obstacles in your path, it is how YOU chose to deal with the curve balls and the obstacles that defines your path. If you want to be successful or optimistic about anything it is your attitude that is your defining grace.   Let me explain: What is a pessimist? a person who habitually sees or anticipates the worst or is disposed to gloomy.
What is an optimist? the tendency to EXPECT the best and see the best in things, hopeful, confident.
Now I want you to read both of those definitions and take a good internal look at your self, stand in front of the mirror and ask your self, Am I a pessimist or an optimist?   If that person staring back at you from the mirror is a pessimist, I am here to tell you, YOU WILL FAIL at this WL Journey. You will never lose all your weight, you will struggle at every obstacle the band throws your way. You will whine about being hungry, you will whine about being stuck, you will whine about not losing weight, you will blame the band, the surgeon and everyone on this sit who has been successful or is really trying. Face it everyone, trying to lose weight sucks, and it is hard whether you have Lap Band or some other tool helping you. It is going to be hard work but if you believe in yourself, NOT the BAND, you can and WILL be successful I know because I was and am!   So the next time life throws you Lemons, instead of crying over split milk, Make a nice cool, refreshing glass of Lemon Ade sugar free of course.   Today, I dedicate my blog to my mother. My mother is 84 years old and is dealing with Dementia. Well maybe I should say we are dealing with mama having Dementia. Honestly I never thought we would be here, my mama was always such a vibrant lady, always a on the go, the life of the party. But now she is scared and lost and what is the saddest is she knows she is lost. She woke up yesterday morning at my house and walked out of her room like a frightened 2 year old waking from a bad dream. She was disheveled and crying. "Di, how did I get here? I went to bed in one place and woke up here? How did I get here?" She was sobbing, it broke my heart to watch. It took us the better part of the morning to reconstruct the night but with time and patience she was able to put her night back together and realize why she was with me instead of at her place. You see we are relocating my mama to be closer to me and my brothers, she had spent 4 days of hell, saying goodbye to all her old friends, her great grand children and grand daughter. She had packed her 84 years up in boxes and loaded them on a big truck. She spent the night in a hotel, had lost her suit case and drove for 8 hours, unpacked a truck into her new home, went to dinner in a strange town, went to bed in a strange bed and woke up scared. Now I ask you, What would you do or feel? Lost, scared, unsure of what is happen, Yes you would and so would I. I told my mama it was going to be OK! She said to me" Di, it may be OK but it will never be the same!." WOW what a powerful statement, and you know what she is right, it will never be the same. But it will be OK, and why will it be OK, because we are choosing to be optimistic.   We all know the end result of Dementia, you slowing lose your present, live in your past and forget that there is a tomorrow! So why not make the most of what time you have left of today and continue to enjoy life. We could all give up on mama and just pretend this isn't happening or let others deal with it but is that really fair?   So you see, life has now thrown me another curve ball or more lemons, I have whined, I have cried, I have asked those questions, Oh why me and my mama but today, today I am choosing to be hopeful and confident that my mama will slowly descend into the shadows of darkness known as Dementia, I am choosing to be hopeful that she can remain independent with minimal assistance from her family. I am choosing to make Lemon Ade. I know the odds, I know what the final outcome will be but it truly is about the journey and I am choosing to make this a wonderful, hopeful journey for me, mama and my family.   So friends I ask you again are you a Pessimist or an Optimist and if you are a pessimist may I suggest you look really long and hard at that person staring back at you from the mirror and ask WHY?  
♥LovetheNewMe♥

♥LovetheNewMe♥

7
 

Another Step toward Success!

Well fellow banisters I had my knee surgery today and now am back on my road to success. I started my journey today at 8am, I woke up this morning, nervous and scared and THIRSTY! Boy was it a long night, why is it when you know you can't have anything to drink you fine yourself wanting it the most. I arrived at the outpatient surgery center a head of schedule at 1045am. They took be back at 11am, checked my vitals, (nurse concerned because my pulse was only 44, I had to reassure her that this was normal because of my medications) They did a pregnancy test, I had to laugh and so did she when I told her I had already given birth over the past 11 months to a 75lb toddler. She looked at me like I was crazy, so this will be our little joke. I had 2 mg of Versed around 1:15, (what a wonderful drug, it allows you to relax and not remember or care what they are about to do to you) I was so humbled by the support of my friends and co-workers at the hospital, the all descended upon with their support and prayer at my bedside before surgery. I knew the moment the arrived that God had sent them to me to help me to relax and take away all of my anxiety. It feels so wonderful to have friends that support you, they have been such a blessing through my journey this past year and I know with out their constant support and praise this would have been so much more difficult. I woke up in the recovery room around 2:15 and was not prepared for the pain I was having in my knee. Not sure what I thought but I honestly thought this was going to be a piece of cake because I had so much pain prior to pain. My knee was on fire and it hurt all the way up my other thigh. But there was my nurse "Janie" she was so compassionate, she place ice on my knee, raised my head, and was so concerned over my pain and wanted to fix it. She gave me ½ mg of Dilaudid and 150mg of Toradol; she monitored my v/s frequently and finally after 15 minutes had my pain under control. I must admit I was nervous to take the narcotic, Dilaudid because of what happened post op with my Lap Band but Janie was so understanding and compassionate that I knew she would make sure I was well monitored and safe. I was discharge to the care of my husband around 240pm, now that being said. I know none of you know me but I am not used to being cared for, I am the care giver and make a lousy patient. He brought me home, placed me in bed, went to pick up my RX's and made sure everything was in my reach. (He had to go back to work and left me in the hands of my son Michael) Michael was wonderful, he waited on my had and foot all evening. He made my dinner, Chicken Picatta, vegetables and bread. I was so nauseated still and unable to eat but a few bites, I opted to take another phenergan and take a nap. I work around 9:30pm and was finally able to take in some food, but of course the finicky band like always only allowed me to enjoy about a ¼ of what I would normally eat. But it is what it is and it tasted wonderful. Awake again, pain about a 4, so ice, a pain pill and more liquids for me. I am so excited that I can again get busy in the very near future with my exercise program (however that looks) so I can seriously loss this last 25 lbs. Thank you to all of my bandster family and all of your support these last few weeks. I have been so fortunate in my journey with Lapland and want so much to help any of you struggling with your weight loss. I do not have all the answers but I can lend you support and tell you that being positive even in your darkest hour will help pull you through and help you to remain courageous and true to your journey. Remember this is for "YOU" and about "YOU" be true to "Yourself". YOU and only YOU know what you put in your mouth! Make this a lifestyle change and use your band to assist you during this transition. I dedicate this POST to my new found cyber friend "Arnetta". Please know that I believe in you and I know you will be successful. These first few weeks are hardest but you will find your inner strength. Prayers and cyber Hugs to all of you! Diane
♥LovetheNewMe♥

♥LovetheNewMe♥

2
 

Am I Really Hungry Or Is My Head Taking Over Again!

Do you sometimes suffer from head hunger? Do you sometimes find your self munching on something and ask your self why? Do you feel remorse and quilt after you eat sometimes and don't understand why you ate that?   Well you are not alone, many of us, me included still suffer from these very triggers that cause head hunger even after WLS. Our surgery did not fix our brains or stop us from putting unhealthy food in out bodies. It takes months and years and constant reminding to undo unhealthy behaviors. The one thing that can really sabotage a WLS patient is themselves. Once we start down a self destructive path we can easily justify why we are doing what we are doing. How many of you have lied to your self about taking just one bite, when you really ate the who thing? Grazers sometimes have more difficulty with WLS than binge eaters. It is much easier to graze then it is to binge after WLS that is why it is so important to learn what your eating triggers are and to learn how to deal with head hunger early in your journey.   I often surf the internet looking for ideas that may help me to stay true to my healthy self and like to share with others in thoughts that it may help someone else. Everyone has to individulize their journey and has to learn how they can best cope with this change in life style.   Some of the tips for dealing with head hunger suggests things that if you are a WLS person like myself, you cannot do. We cannot bulk up on low calorie foods or eat big salads, we cannot drink soup before our protein meals to fill us up and we cannot drink large volumes of water at one time when we are eating. If these things worked for us we would not have had WLS.   As a bariatric patient we must learn to deal with our triggers and behaviors that sabatoge us. I found what I consider a good article this morning that I would like to share with all of you. The article is from the Obesity Help web site.   http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/mental-health/Head-Hunger-Coping-with-Your-Triggers-for-Overeating.html Head Hunger - Coping with Your Triggers for Overeating   by Michelle May, MD Do you sometimes confuse “head hunger” with “body hunger”? If you’re sensitive to food cues, weight management becomes much easier when you’re able to recognize the triggers in your environment and break the associations that lead you to overeat simply out of habit. Let’s take a look at just a few of the common triggers for overeating and strategies for coping more effectively. By the Clock: Society programs us to follow a schedule, so like Pavlov’s dog, we’ve learned to salivate when the bell rings. The reality is that it’s more convenient to eat at certain times than others, so it takes effort to listen to your hunger cues. Strategy: Though it’s challenging to change this routine, you can adapt it to fit your own needs. Learn to pace yourself by observing your natural hunger rhythms. You’ll probably notice that you get hungry every three to six hours, depending on what and how much you ate at your last meal and how active you’ve been. Keep a healthy snack handy to satisfy hunger that doesn’t conform to mealtimes. If you’re consistently tempted to snack right before a meal, consider moving the mealtime up or adding more protein to your previous snack. High-Risk Times: Many people have times of the day that are high-risk for overeating. For example, you may experience a late-afternoon energy slump or a tendency to munch when you come home from work to transition into your evening. Strategy: Know when you’re most at risk and develop an alternate strategy. For example, create a Recharge Ritual or Transition Time that helps you relax or unwind. Save a favorite magazine or book to read, call a friend or walk your dog instead. Create a list of things to do instead of eating. Keep the list (and any necessary supplies) handy and make a commitment to try one of these activities before eating simply out of habit. ‘Tis the Season: Be aware of your seasonal and weather-related cues for eating. Holidays can be especially difficult because of all of the social ties to certain foods and even certain people. Many of the foods you eat during this time may seem “special,” and therefore, harder to eat in sensible quantities. Strategy: These occasions repeat themselves, so you can anticipate what typically occurs and create a plan for dealing with your triggers. Make it a point to really listen to your body instead of the external cues when making your food choices. Also, keep in mind that special foods will be even more special when you eat them mindfully when you’re hungry, focusing on the appearance and flavors of the food, the ambiance, the other people and the reason you’re all together. Tempting Displays: Seeing displays of food like candy or nuts in dishes and tempting foods when you open your cabinet or refrigerator can trigger you to want those foods. Strategy: Out of sight, out of mind. Don’t use food as decorations or leave appetizing foods in plain view. Try putting tempting foods behind other foods in your cabinets and refrigerator. If a co-worker keeps food out, ask him or her to put it in a drawer instead. Media: Food is everywhere in television and magazines (ironically, often right next to the articles about the latest wonder diet!). Strategy: Get yourself a glass of water during commercials, avoid watching programs that focus on food and skip quickly over the food ads and recipes. Break the habit of eating while watching television—usually a mindless, high-calorie activity. Location, Location, Location: If you eat in front of the TV, in bed or standing in the kitchen, you may feel an urge to eat just from being in those places. Strategy: Try to eat only while sitting at a table. Make it a family rule to limit eating to one or two rooms in the house. This will decrease triggers like TV and reading and help you focus on enjoying your food without distractions. Biggie Size: Restaurants often serve overly large portions to make their customers feel that they are getting value. Strategy: Be prepared to have extra food wrapped up to go as soon as you feel satisfied, or estimate how much you think you’ll need and wrap up the rest even before you start eating. If you leave the food sitting in front of you, you’ll be more likely to keep nibbling. Remind yourself that you’ll get to enjoy that food again when you’re hungry. You can also share an entrée or order an appetizer-sized portion. Forbidden Food Syndrome: Although it’s a popular topic of conversation, the mere discussion of dieting can trigger feelings of deprivation and cravings. Just thinking about restrictive dieting has been shown to increase food intake. Strategy: Decrease the amount of time you spend talking about food, weight and dieting. Depend on your physical hunger cues to let you know when it’s time to eat. By learning to recognize and cope more effectively with your head hunger, you’ll begin to break free from old, problematic habits. You’ll find yourself eating less, feeling more satisfied and meeting your needs more appropriately. To get a one-page handout called “101 Things to Do Instead of Eating When You’re NOT Hungry,” visit http://amihungry.com/enews.shtml. Food and Feelings Emotions are common triggers for eating. People sometimes eat to cope with stress, distract themselves from difficult emotions or stuff down feelings they don’t know how to express in a healthier manner. However, boredom, anger, anxiety, loneliness, stress and other feelings are a natural part of our lives, and eating won’t make them go away. In fact, eating in response to these feelings disconnects you from important information about what you need. For example, “I want brownies” might really mean “I want comfort,” “I need a reward,” “I wish I had a friend to talk to” or “I wish I could tell you how I really feel.” The food you eat to deal with feelings comes with strings attached—weight gain and regret. But more importantly, it denies you the opportunity to discover and satisfy your true needs. Since eating cannot meet your emotional needs, those unmet needs trigger overeating again and again. The way to break out of this pattern is to stop judging yourself when you overeat and instead try to figure out what you needed that drove you to eat when you weren’t physically hungry. Examining your current eating behavior can be a powerful source of information about your inner self and your true needs and wants. Once you have identified the emotions that triggered the urge to eat, seek ways to comfort, nurture, calm and distract yourself without turning to food.   Michelle May, MD, a physician and recovered yo-yo dieter, is the author of Am I Hungry? What to Do When Diets Don’t Work, available at www.AmIHungry.com.  
♥LovetheNewMe♥

♥LovetheNewMe♥

2

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Bariatric Surgeons: Want to research a weight loss surgery surgeon? Enter their last name below to start!

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