Why?

I just got some really, really good news and the first thing I thought about was I want to go out tonight to celebrate.  That lasted all of about a minute. Then I thought, what are you doing, dummy?  This is how you got yourself in this mess in the first place.  I haven't had surgery yet, but I want to stop these things and ideas now, before surgery.  Why is it so easy to go back to that line of thought?

 I agree with you! It's old habits and they die hard. Had an angry episode on my liquid diet preop and wanted to eat the feeling away but had to just FEEL IT instead. Then felt happy that I dealt with the feeling and wanted to celebrate.... with food, of course. And couldn't! Just dealt with it too, talked it out, blogged it out.... It's awesome that you had the insight to recognize the pattern!!

great post...
a big part of this journey for me was figuring out who I was WITHOUT food. Hubby and I ate constantly..when we were happy, sad, celebrating, morning, etc. So I have had to really retrain my brain and not turn to food for more then nutrition.
Eating to live instead of living to eat is a hard lesson to learn.

good luck, you can do this!

You can still go out and celebrate the good news. Just choose a way of celebrating that doesn't include food or alcohol. So you might celebrate by going to the club and dancing your butt off or going bowling or renting roller blades and going to the park. There's lots of fun things you can do to celebrate good news! Just because you no longer want to reward yourself with food doesn't mean you have to deprive yourself of living a happy life. 

Are you scared you'll make bad food choices once you go out?

I'm only 3 weeks out but I'm going with my parents out to eat Friday. It's sort of to celebrate getting to eat "normal" food. I have a plan. I'm going to share my dad's salmon. I'm not sure yet if I'm taking my food scale or not. Probably will since I don't have any sensation of fullness yet. I'm really excited about going out to eat. I wouldn't go to Pizza Hut or anything but a nice restaurant should have healthy choices. JMO.

 Going out to celebrate is not the problem.....It is how and what you do to celebrate..
      . For instance , go buy yourself something to help you meet your goal....Maybe a diary to track your weight loss, and your emotional changes, for you most certainly will have them...
       Go share a  meal that is  wt loss friendly with your special someone....a grilled chicken salad, with sugar free jello as a dessert?...and don't eat the bowl!
         Be sure to get a full length mirror, trace your outline on it, and put it away til you start loosing, after you start loosing it will be a valuable tool to help you see how much you have lost..
    .aND HELP YOU TO VISUALIZE AND REALIZE THAT LOSS.  Think positive, you will get there and you are worth it! sweetpotato

Thanks everyone!!! 

I know that I could go out and get healthy things, but I am on my pre-op liver shrinking diet and I just don't need even a bit of temptation right now.  It also sort of hit me that I use food for everything and I just don't need to do that.  Not just for me, but for my kids too.  I don't want them to end up like me when they grow up. 

Please note that all of Pam's suggestions involve some type of enjoyable exercise. Her way, you not only celebrate, you get to feel even better because of the activity that you would never have thought of doing before WLS.