Curbing the impulse to eat it all...

Hello all,

I was wondering, when starting out on your mission to get WLS, did any of you start thinking about all the foods you'll maybe never get to eat again, and feel sad? And then start eating them, in abundance? I just realized yesterday that that is what had been going on in the back of my mind. I know it's better that I start trying to commit to healthier living now (before I have had Orientation or anything, just getting the referral taken care of), but how do you stop thinking "I'll never be able to go to a Chinese buffet again" and stuff like that?

I am so excited to be healthier and able to do the things I can't do at my size, but I can't help it... in my mind I am starting to mourn for what I'll be giving up: binge eating.

Yes, I did.  I had food funerals all over the place, right up until Opti. :)  Strangely enough, I was really psyched up to do Opti despite that, and succeeded well - no cheating, and I've done quite well since.  I guess I just had to get it out of my system.

Food funerals! I love it! That's funny.

Thanks for that. I figured it couldn't just be me.

By the way, I'm not saying it's a great thing to do or anything... :)  But I also don't believe that our behaviour before surgery is very good at predicting our behaviour after surgery, otherwise we wouldn't need surgery.  I know some centres are really big on making people jump through dieting hoops before surgery.  Glad mine wasn't, or I wouldn't have had surgery.  And I'm doing great now.  I guess we'll see in a couple of years whether I'm still doing well! :)

It looks like you've done great! That is awesome. I won't start binging every day or anything, but I can't help saying some food farewells (not as good as funerals, lol). I will also likely be at TWH, given where I live.

I know exactly how you're feeling. I'm sticking to a pretty strict diet, and I often finding myself thinking, shouldn't I enjoy this stuff while I can? So I made a compromise with myself. While I can, (before Opti, before surgery) IF I stick to my diet for the week, I will allow myself 1 item from my favorite foods bucket list (last week was Poutine) per wee****il Opti. This way I can still indulge a little, reward myself for sticking to the Pre surgery diet, and wean myself off crappy food.

That's a sensible idea! Thanks :)

For the record, you will still be able to enjoy a chinese food buffet post RNY. I certainly have; in fact there isn't a food I enjoyed pre surgery that I have not enjoyed since. That first taste of pizza with a beer after such a drought was devine. Of course come to think of it, so were cookies, and ice-cream. After nine months, there will be no physical consideration to keep you from sampling your favorite foods other than your intake will be limited to substantially less than you used to snorkle down in one sitting.

This is both good and bad news. It means you never really abandon the ability to enjoy your favorite food or drink but it also means you can't expect the surgery itself to impose the self-discipline that to date you probably haven't been able to exercise with respect to those same foods. You'll get a six to nine month reprieve to nail down some better eating habits and the rapid weight loss will reinforce your desire to pursue same. After that it will be really up to you to maintain good eating habits and hopefully after enjoying your newly slimmer self, you will be encouraged to stay on the righteous path.

It's not a slam dunk, a couple of snips by a surgeon, a couple of weeks of convalescence, and then a life time shopping for size 6 outfits. The long-term successful members here have put in a lot of hard work and continue to struggle to maintain their new bodies. You probably won't hear them saying that they just enjoyed a night out with pizza and beer even though they could because they know just how slippery a slope back sliding can be. It's my understanding that many bariatric patients enjoy early success, followed by relatively brief periods at a maintenance weight which may or may not have been their original goal ...... then start to rebound to their original weight.

Back to the chinese food buffet. There's probably nothing wrong with visiting a chinese buffet once or twice a year, provided that isn't in between pizza and wings nights out, grabbing McDonalds or a bucket of KFC on the way home because you're too rushed to cook for the family. Nobody ever caught cancer from having one or two cigarettes and no one ever got fat after downing a Coke. It's the habit, the accumulation that got us into this fine mess and your procedure will give you a fantastic leg up on breaking the cycle and adopting some healthier eating habits.

This advice comes from some experience. After losing 67 pounds within the first six months after my RNY surgery last year, I managed to put thirty pounds back on over the next eight months because I was too dumb to stick to the script and started enjoying my beer on poker night, Friday night pizza, and worst of all, sweets like chocolate bars and tootsie roll pops. (Yeah, my wife quit smoking so I had a sympathetic pregnancy). That forced me to dig in the back of my cupboards, dig out the leftover Optifast  that was waaaay past its expiry date and return to the discipline of an all liquid diet again at least until I break my new found addiction to sweets. Twenty days and 27 pounds lighter, I'm nearly back to my post RNY low! I don't recommend this path to success for anyone but I was always the kid who had to put his hand on the stove or lick the frozen pole.

BTW, if you're wondering where I got all the leftover Optifast, don't you think I enjoyed all my favorite meals in the last ten days leading up to surgery? Like a condemned man ........ I think I put on four pounds. Once again, if you compare my miserly weight loss, currently only 64 pounds over sixteen months from 309 on surgery day against some of the phenomenal success stories just in our little group, you'll know that sticking to the script will likely lead to much better results.

Wow, thank-you for your honest response. I won't actually be having RNY (I had/will always technically have Crohn's disease, so it's a VSG for me), but I think the outcome will be quite similar. I think that is what I'm worried about... if I actually start doing worse leading up to surgery, maybe I won't be a success story.

The good news is that I'm eating pretty well most of the time, say 80% of the time. Then I get that "oh man, how many more times will you be able to eat _____" and then I go to town.

Part of my problem is that while the taste of food is a big draw, I actually love the feeling of being full, a lot. I suppose that is a feeling I will get with surgery! Hehe

I said goodbye to my favourite buffet (Mandarin). I wish I had thought about it a little more. I haven't had a poutine in years, and I shoulda had one, pizza too. LOL

The nurse told me that a large amount of people gain weight from very first weight recorded (nurse****il pre op weight, although most almost get back to original after Opti. I lost quite a bit, but only because I was scared of being too heavy for surgery.

Right now I would eat shoe leather as long as it didn't taste like protein shake or cottage cheese. The tuna craving is killing me.