I am OUT of CONTROL!!

Peanut M&Ms.... Breakfast: Steel Cut oats, lf milk, a few raisins, walnut bits Lunch: Leftover chicken and veg--with about 1/3 cup noodles, soy crisps Dinner: homemade soup and a piece of wholegrain toast Snacks: 1.5 homemade (not by me chocolate chip cookies 1 Danish cookie 1 clementine orange about a jillion peanut M&Ms what the &%$#@ is wrong with me??????????????????????????????????? The peanut M&Ms sit on a colleague's desk---I went by there all day long, picking up between say 2-6 each time and chowing down. It's not like I'm stupid...although I honestly tried to rationalize to myself--that peanut M&Ms are mostly peanut= mostly protein= not THAT bad... Why am I so out of control with them??? What can I do to stop??? HELP!!!!

I am with you on that one.  I knwo I need to get control back but I don't know how.  I love food, I love the taste of it, the tecture of it, am I hungry when I need it, not always, but I can't stop.  Do I get sick sometimes, but still I can't stop.  Do I exercise enough?  No.  I look good on paper when it comes to portions and what I eat, but then the cookies, candy, crackers, chips bread.......call my name and I can't say no.   I had a cake donut for breakfast, that is not healthy........and has no nutritional value.....but I still are it. For lunch a grilled cajun tuna sandwich, I could go without the grilled sourdough bread, but it tastes so good.   Tonight I am going to sample wedding cake, for my upcoming wedding that I want to lose my last 40 lbs for, but I know I won't be able to say no.  Help!!! Maybe you just need more accountability?  That is what I am telling myself.  Change your path at work, tale the long way around, avoid the M&M and at the same time get a few more steps in.  I am surely not one that should be handing out advice.  Good luck.  I understand completely.

Kim, the more carbs and sugar you eat the more your body wants.......it's such a vicious cycle.....have you tried the 5 day pouch test.....I was definitely treading deep water and decided enough was enough.....did the 5 day pouch test and I feel much better, the control is here again and I'm motivated to continue making the right choices. www.5daypouchtest.com I wish you the best, believe me allot of us understand what you are going through, however, you have to make the commitment to stop and recommit to what you know works.

Thank you both for taking the time to respond and share your own struggles. It helps to know I'm not alone. I'm going to check out the 5 day test. Thanks--and best of luck to you guys, too! Kim

Because there yummy. I know ! I LOVE peanut M&M's. I was hooked on them & strawberry twizzlers. I just had to quit buying them...couldn't just eat a couple. Maybe take some beef jerky to munch on instead. Don't walk by there anymore ! If you have to walk by... DON'T LOOK I know it's hard... but, you can do it !!!!!! Good luck

Lisa and Kim....you guys have to read this thread!  This might help you.  It helped many!...It's the 5 Day Pouch Test. http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/wls_grads/a,messageboard/a ction,replies/board_id,5491/cat_id,5091/topic_id,3514609/ Also, bring your own plain almonds or some other protein snack to work in a snack baggie. This way you can avoid the office where you are getting the M&M's...Everytime you think of the M&M's...take a walk past the office (for exercise) and then back to your own desk for the almonds!  :)  You'll start a new good habit!  Or get some sugar free lolli pops or gum and pop one in your mouth before you go to that office and you will already have something in your mouth! Where there is a will there is a way! LOL I have to get creative to trick my own stupid self...Sometimes I outsmart myself.  I'm just too tricky for my own good...Like you I will rationalize that peanuts are protein and before I know it I have sabotaged my common sense.

I found that I can eventually turn up my nose at those little devils if I keep SF Chocolate covered peanuts around and grab one or two of those when I get the urge. They aren't as bad for me and somehow I can rationalize it better. I actually have a house full of valentines M&Ms for the family and cookies and cakes but I'm not tempted. I've gotten the sf cakes and cookies and when I really want one..I have a sugar free one and the craving stops...After I eat some, I get a bloated feeling in my stomach from the sugar alcohols so that's my trigger not to over do it.  I even brought cookies to the girls at work. Regular ones. But they don't tempt me cuz they may not have made me dump but then they may make me dump this time and I sure don't want to have to barf in that public restroom....Whatever motivates a person, I guess.

Well . . . at least your meals looked healthy!  I know . . . those snacks . . . believe me, I know.  I. Totally.  Understand.   Why are you so out of control?--because, like most of us here,  you're a junk food addict.  I know I am.  When I eat refined carbs, the results are so predictable--I just crave more.  Not necessarily like I'm a madwoman in a total frenzy (although sometimes it's like that), but it's just that when I get the junk in my system, that's really all I want.  I don't care about the good, healthy food.  Oh, of course, I make myself eat the good stuff, but it's not satisfying to me, not what I really want.  As soon as I get the bad carbs out of my system, I feel so much better physically & mentally.  Which brings me to the age-old question:  if I feel so much better, then why do I ever start eating the junk again?--because I'll always be addicted  to it. Many have had great results w/ the 5-day pouch test.  I did a modified version last fall--had some success w/ it, but not very long-term.  I think for me, I do better with just going back to basics.  I don't mean going all the way back to the first few weeks; I mean going back to how i was eating at about 6 mo. post-op.  A few wks. ago, I started doing this and have lost 9 lbs.  I haven't been perfect, but I've really tried very hard not to eat junk.  And when I do this, I once again really enjoy the good foods and look forward to the things I used to eat for snacks!   I don't think there's any magic trick that motivates everyone to "just do it" . . . it is hard getting started . . . not bad once you've gotten through several days, regardless of whether you're doing the 5-day pouch test or just doing what I did.   You can do it!  We're all in this together and TOTALLY understand--like other "normal" people just can't.  Keep coming here for more support--it's so helpful to me! Jo

"Why am I so out of control with them??? What can I do to stop??? HELP!!!!" OK, I'll try to help.  No one can do this but you.  Just stop.  It really is that simple, and that hard.  I know because I am going through this right now.  For the last month, I have truly been struggling with bad eating habits.  For the first time since surgery almost three years ago, I have seen my weight go up, and not come back down.  I have greatly increased my exercise, but my eating was out of control in the evenings.  Snacking uncontrollably on pretzels, cookies, cashews, etc.  I felt like I couldn't stop.  My weight went up seven pounds, and I knew I was in big trouble.  I could see that seven pounds becoming twenty. So, on Saturday, I decided to do my version of the 5 day pouch test.  I drank protein drinks, broth, and herbal tea on Sat. and Sunday.  Then Mon-today, I have been eating solid protein and drinking protein drinks.  The weight is slowly going back down.  But it has been very hard.  I have gone to bed at night craving food.  But it is doable.  Being hungry is not fatal.  I lie in bed telling myself how strong I am, and I will not let food take over my life again.  I visualize the numbers on the scale going down.  Today it was a little easier with the cravings. You have to decide right here and now what your future with food is going to be.  You really know what you need to be doing.  Listen to your head and not your "stomach", and decide what foods you are going to eat.  No one is shoving those M&M's in your mouth.  We have a surgeon-given tool to succeed, and you have to make that decision as to whether or not to use it.  Sorry for the tough love, and I probably wouldn't be posting to you this way if I were not experiencing this myself.  I've worked too hard to get to where I am to let these old habits win out.  Best of luck with whatever you decide, but remember, it is a choice. Debra M.