I do something different like exercising, calling a friend, I come to this site to distract myself also. It's not easy but it's not fun to eat too much and my goal is to get healthier by eating healthy foods. Sometimes I do end up eating junk food and feel horribly guilty about the bad choice I made. Oh well, I love my sleeve and am excited about my weight loss. Who knew!

I have done several exercises geared to acknowleding my emotional eating.

I think the biggest step is affirmation of your emotional eating habits, then ownership of your choices and no matter what avoid the overeaters anon that tells you to say crap like " I am helpless". You aren't helpless.

Another thing is to take a stress management class, and learn how to deal with stress BEFORE it becomes emotional, and then emotional eating.

Good luck Sweetie! It's hard - make sure you have a grip on it BEFORE surgery - WLS will not fix this - and you can find yourself dropped into the heart of stress eating with no notice (my Mom passed away unexpectedly a week post op and I had to fly from Houston TX to Appalachian Mts. VA to take care of everything.)

If talking will help you are so very welcome to message me. I am not an expert, I am just offering to lend an ear.

I've been working on emotional eating for several years. It's not easy, but one of the things I've had to do is learn to let myself feel my feelings and express them, not stuff them down. Every time I wanted to eat for comfort, I'd tell myself that when I was done I'd just have an extra problem--new weight to contend with. Still, food has gotten me through every major crisis of my life, and I dread the day I have to deal with something really tough without food as a crutch. That's why before I even had my surgery I scheduled an appt with a therapist. Good luck.... It's a journey, and as someone else said, we are NOT powerless.

Oh Lyra, We must be twins that were seperated at birth! You describe so perfectly my feelings about food! It has always been my BFF.

Hey! Kathy, are you stressed out? Go whip up a batch of cookies and eat five or 10 of them (after eating at least 5 or 6 raw ones!).

Hey Kathy, are you feeling nervous over something? Why don't you fix a huge meal, invite all your friends/family and pig out on Beef Wellington, Twice Baked Potatoes, Broccoli with cheese sauce, Asparagus with Browned Bitter and Cracker Crumbs, Creme Brulee, and a couple of wines to match each course.

Poor Kathy, did you have a fight with the hubbie, you should make yourself a cheese cake from scratch and eat half of it while sobbing in front of the TV while watching your favorite chick flick. Etc., Etc., Etc.......

And of course the praise and recognition I get from all our friends and family because I am a good cook/baker (or so they say) just makes me feel so much better about myself, until I get on the scale (well pre op anyway).

I have been having a REAL struggle with emotional eating the last couple of weeks, cause my husband and I have been having some problems. in our marriage So I am making horrible choices about what I eat. It is constantly on my mind right now, how soon can I eat again? What can I eat? What am I hungry for? Oh the stress and pressure!

And the thing that I really don't understand is, when I KNOW all this, why I can't get control of it!!!

Of course, I knew all of this pre-op also, and couldn't get control then either! Such a puzzle!

But now at least I can't go too far over the edge, as my sleevie stops me when I get full, and starts to protest LOUDLY (with pain) when I continue to eat after I am full. I just don't want to take any chance of stretching out my pouch/sleeve with overeating and start to gain weight. I have done so well up to now. (Have lost around 100 pounds! Only 8 pounds from goal!) And now the emotional eating thing kicks into high gear! Oh the frustration of it all. I am SO thankful for this board and web site, so I have somewhere to come to read, vent, question, talk, and get answers. Thanks to all for everything!!!

Kathy D (alias Helen the Cat)

Emotional eating, we've all been there. We are all still there. The sleeve will only help partially. It does not let you over eat at one time. However.. it does not prevent you from grazing, and eating bad choices through the day. Once we start there our weight we've worked so very hard to lose starts to come back. Its a daily struggle. I'd agree with others that have said, try stress managment, try to occupy your mind with other things that give you pleasure. I have found with the sleeve my cravings for certain foods are gone so that helps.

Bottom line we must try to find something why we have the void that food fills, and try to find something else to fill it. Its hard but continue to check out this site. Lots of folks looking to help.