Barbara C.

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Do you engage in Emotional Eating? I know that have. That's part of got me to the point that I need WLS to get my life back. Much to my distress ... pardon the pun... I have found that now that they honeymoon period is over and on top of that some serious stresses have landed square on my shoulders, I have found myself engaging in Emotional Eating. I define Emotional Eating as eating to soothe or comfort myself, instead of eating to fuel my body or quell true hunger. I find that often if I'm engaging in emotional eating, I feel out of control. I often am not waiting until a planned meal and that I'm not following 'the rules' ... I generally will partake of something that is higher fat and higher carb, and it's usually not high protien. So.... what to do?

I realized that I need to do some things to protect me from me...

-   Review my list of reasons for losing weight and maintaining the loss. This sounds simple and even silly, but I find that my reasons for doing this in the first place, along with a before photo can be very powerful.
-   Determine if I'm 'hungry'... physically hungry, or having a craving...
-   Try distraction ... I have found that often if I can distract myself for at least 15 minutes with another activity that the craving will subside. I have a list of distraction activities and refer to it.

If I'm going to to eat, then...

-   Plan what and when I'm going to eat.
-   Eat at the table... even if I deviate from my planned eating, I find that I'm more mindful if I put whatever 'it' is on plate and sit down at the table to have it.
-   Eat protien first... even if I am going to indulge, if I have protien first, I find that I don't do as much damage.

So... Did you or do you have issues with Emotional Eating. If so, how do you tackle them?

Do you engage in Emotional Eating? I know that have. That's part of got me to the point that I need WLS to get my life back. Much to my distress ... pardon the pun... I have found that now that they honeymoon period is over and on top of that some serious stresses have landed square on my shoulders, I have found myself engaging in Emotional Eating. I define Emotional Eating as eating to soothe or comfort myself, instead of eating to fuel my body or quell true hunger. I find that often if I'm engaging in emotional eating, I feel out of control. I often am not waiting until a planned meal and that I'm not following 'the rules' ... I generally will partake of something that is higher fat and higher carb, and it's usually not high protien. So.... what to do?

I realized that I need to do some things to protect me from me...

-   Review my list of reasons for losing weight and maintaining the loss. This sounds simple and even silly, but I find that my reasons for doing this in the first place, along with a before photo can be very powerful.
-   Determine if I'm 'hungry'... physically hungry, or having a craving...
-   Try distraction ... I have found that often if I can distract myself for at least 15 minutes with another activity that the craving will subside. I have a list of distraction activities and refer to it.

If I'm going to to eat, then...

-   Plan what and when I'm going to eat.
-   Eat at the table... even if I deviate from my planned eating, I find that I'm more mindful if I put whatever 'it' is on plate and sit down at the table to have it.
-   Eat protien first... even if I am going to indulge, if I have protien first, I find that I don't do as much damage.

So... Did you or do you have issues with Emotional Eating. If so, how do you tackle them?

As many may recall, I was more than a bit distressed as my weight steadily dropped below 140 in to the low 130's. I truly worked on getting it back up into the upper 130's and held there for a while. But about a month ago my life started to get much more stressful than it normally is and I resorted to comfort eating. I guess I had hoped that I wouldn't be able to do that again, but alas, I can and did with a vengence. Especially, when my DH, Ben had his own RNY surgery about 10 days ago. Much to my distress, I have found that I can 'indulge' in Caramel Creme Bullseye candy with absolute abandon. I can eat a whole bag without getting sick ... yep, a whole bag!!! At first, I just had a couple, then a few more, and I was able to control it just fine. But when I became stressed I had a few, then a few more, then a whole darn bag, then another one. With all of that indulgence, and there was a lot of it... more than I'd like to admit, came some weight gain. I got up to 142. I wanted to gain some weight, but I'm not too happy about 'how' I did it. So, I've stopped indulging and I'm back down to 139.

I think that the real thing that I learned was that I'm not 'normal' even if I look normal. At first, I could just have one or two and leave it at that, but when the stress kicked in, I gave in and overdid it. It's clear to me that I have problem using food to comfort myself and that I have to be very aware of what I'm doing if I don't want to end up carrying all of that weight I've worked so very hard to get rid of during the past year and half.

I wasn't sure if I should post this... and I'm still not, but decided that I wanted others to know that it's very easy to slip and fall. It's much harder than I thought to dust yourself off and get back with the program. But learning what our triggers are ... both emotionally and the foods that we use to soothe those emotional triggers is really important if we want to master this and stay healthy for the long run. There are no more bullseyes in the house and it maybe that I'll never be able to have them around... I had hoped I would be able to handle it, but at this point, I just can't, so they are banished.
 

I was reading an article in Good Housekeeping today entitled, I can stay calm by M.J. Ryan. In this article she talks about the real science and benefits behind those 'think positive' thought and the actions they propel us towards.

We have all seen the braclets, t-shirts, bumper stickers and even framed art that have affirmations or positive statements on them. My mother is always telling me to speak nicely to myself and that I would never talk to anyone else in the same disparaging way that I speak to and about myself; once again, mother knows best.

They say it isn't the words or phrase that have the power, but it is our positive intent that these words and phrases embody that give us the power to chase and catch our dreams. Studies have found that when we expect a particular outcome, our brains prepare for that anticipated positive or negative outcome. When we expect a postive outcome, our minds start filtering information in anticipation of that positive outcome. For example, the positive placebo effect that occurs when you expect a medication to work. It is looking at the glass half full.

First, Ryan suggests that we start small, setting a limited, definable goal that you believe is attainable.
Second, you need to REALLY WANT 'IT', whatever 'it' is.
Third, believe that you can get there.
Fourth, make the thought or statement positive and to the point ... I'm fit and healthy, rather than I'm not fat.
Fifth, imagine it vividly... try to imagine yourself as you want to be... how would you look? how would you feel?
Sixth, write it down and post it where you can see it everday, then review and repeat the goal you have set up for yourself.

My positive thought...
I am slim and healthy.

What's your positive thought?

Yesterday we had the Raleigh Area Holiday Party. LauraP ... not seen nearly as often as we'd like ... was incredibly gracious and offered her office conference room as a location for the party. We shared a number of WLS friendly dishes as we all enjoyed a lovely pot luck. There were sooo many goodies, but here are a few standouts that I enjoyed...

Dalton's Bar-b-que Meatballs

Susan's Tabouleh with lentils

Judy's fabulous chicken chili

Laura's lima beans

There were so many others, but unfortunately there were so many choices and so little pouch room...

We had a wonderful time sharing tips, challenges and successes. It was great to see some that we hadn't seen in a while and look forward to seeing more in the new year.

We will be having more get togethers in the new year and while we will continue the monthly General Support group meetings, we'll also be starting some new special interest groups as well. To name a few, we'll have a 

-  Grad's group who focus will be on issues that affect people who have reached their one year anniversary. They may or may not be at goal.

-  Over 50 (BMI) Group which will focus on the issues and challenges that those who start with high BMI's.

-  Banders Group which will focus on the challenges and issues specific to the bandsters lifestyle. They could be lapbanders, realize banders, vertical gastric banders, etc...

-  DS Group which will focus on their issues as they first try to access the surgery that is not as readily available through insurance and navigate the DS post surgical journey.

-  Scrappers Group for those of us who would like to document our journies ... scheduling a few scrapbook sessions at Archivers in Raleigh.

-  Walkers Group for those would like to participate in an 'activity' that isn't sedentary or food related. We'll look for and participate in local charitable walks. A great way to do good for others and take care of ourselves as well.

-  Cooking Lean Group which would be done as a 'gourmet dinner' group that will meet at various members homes as we gather to learn new cooking tips and enjoy each others company and recipes.

I am also looking into gathering some professionals from the community, such as mental health, diet and nutrition, fitness,  etc... that would be willing to come talkus about ways to maximize the potential of our WLS experience.

I hope that many of you will decide to join us as we enter the new year.

Please look for posts about upcoming events and if you haven't done so already, if you are interested in being notified about our events, please sign up at http://wls.meetup.com/101

Wishing you all the best,