Stuck in my head

Today I'm on day 5 of 14 days on optifast and really struggling to get out of my head about food. All I keep thinking about is eating and it's driving me crazy. I'm not hungry at all and the optifast is getting a lot better and so much easier. Just can't get out of my head. Does it get any easier??

Unfortunately, I thought about food the whole time also. I wasn't hungry though. Every time I had a craving for something savory, I had a bowl of broth.

my surgery was Thursday and I'm still on liquids, but I honestly couldn't care less right now lol

Yes and no.

I did my liquid diet from Thanksgiving to Christmas as my surgery was on New Year's Eve. It was so difficult -- there were so many times that I felt like I couldn't get out of my own way. One take away I got from the experience was a more realistic picture of how much my relationship with food was out of control. I learned so much about myself during that time. I also sought out support and counseling to really begin tackling my addiction to food.

After surgery, there is a period of time that it feels relatively easy. At least for me, there were days I began to feel that I had this demon really conquered. Thankfully been-there-done-that vets kindly reminded me that this was unlikely to last, and dealing with my relationship with food while it felt easy was a key to long-term success. Look around at regain posts -- and even, "I never met my goal" messages to see proof of that.

Here I am at 4 years, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that it's a life-long struggle. It doesn't get easier, but it can become manageable -- if you are willing to do the hard work of really figuring out what and how to change how you see and use food.

The good news is that you have multitudes of people who've successfully managed this fight before you, so you don't have to forge a new path. Try find and seek out people who've been successful long term at doing what you want to achieve -- not newbies, not those who are only a year out, not those who've half-assed it -- and really listen and learn from them and copy their successful strategies.

Make no mistake -- this liquid part IS hard and you are not alone in your feelings. What you choose to learn from that struggle is entirely up to you.

Well said Kat. Life long struggle is the truth. We don't get the luxury of not focusing on it.

Looking forward to the future.

I had bad days, still do sometimes.

For me - I have 2 type of incentives- motivation: positive and negative.

The positives is the goal weight and the hope that losing the weight would help my back pain. And more shallow positive goal - a cute dress that I wanted to wear.
The negatives was the number on the scale. Seeing that number made me cringe. Plus the back pain, the knee pain, and more shallow - looking at pictures of me someone took during NY eve party. When I was at my heaviest.

When I had bad days while on a restrictive diet to lose the weight- I would go and weight myself. Seeing the number that was way above what I wanted it to be was a motivation. Seeing the cute dress and the hope that when I lose the weight I can more with more easy - was another motivation.