Struggle

[kelly lynn 19]

I'm 5 months out, have lost 80lbs since surgery. I've been a bit discouraged with much slower loss and my life has been extremely stressful lately. I'm finding myself using food again. I'm not eating bad things, but more than I should at night when I actually get a chance to sit down. Its scaring me that my mind is even going in this direction!! Please, any ideas, support, etc would be extremely appreciated!

[Sunshine_Gal 68]

Are you tracking? Maybe you need to track and put your daily food journals in a visible place in the house, like the refrigerator door. Find a way to change up your habits during the evening so the cycle doesn't begin again. Make yourself eat only at the table while at home, that's a conscious decision that could help you choose not to snack in the evening. Find an evening substitute for food, you've got this!! Good luck you've done a marvelous job in 5 months!

[James Marusek 5,244]

From what you said this is emotional eating. So you may want to lower your stress levels or obtain some professional help to achieve this goal. Some people opt to weight themselves daily and the ups and downs can weight heavily on stress levels. So if you do this, it might be better to weight yourself once per week or once per month.

You have lost 110 pounds so far and that is a good thing. Generally advice is to eat Protein first in your meals. snack on Protein or fats and minimize carbs Snacks. You may be nearing the maintenance stage and in that phase it is important to maintain your weight loss and not gain some of it back. A few months back I asked my nutritionist "Why do some people lose significant weight after surgery to gain some of it back?" She said it was due to grazing. So it is important to keep your grazing (snacking) in check.

When I reached the maintenance stage, I reasoned that I needed to be happy with my meals in order to achieve long lasting effects. So I experimented a lot. I weighed myself daily and gave myself some freedom both in meals and snack. If I noticed any weight gain, I pulled myself back and fine tweaked my eating habits in order to remain stable.