Made to Crave - Satisfying Your Deepest Desires With God, Not Food, by Lysa TerKeurst was very good. There is also a 30 day devotional to go with the book.
Definitely measure. I started the day I started my liquid preop diet. I now measure every month on the 12th. It is so encouraging to see those numbers shrink especially when you've been so large for so long you don't really see the difference in the mirror yet.
I have been having the exact same problem and it is why I did this search today. I am also 8 weeks out. The only thing that helps is to eat less and less and drink nothing cold. Not sure what to do.