Opportunistic Eating

   During the six months of meetings and prep work that I was required to go through in order to get my Lap Band, I read a book called Intuitive Eating.  Follow the link to check it out at Amazon...I highly recommend it.  It's a amazing book that is filled with all kinds of suggestions that you'd never expect to hear in a book about weight loss.  The book actually gives permission to eat dessert or candy on occasion, and essentially teaches that nothing is completely off limits when it comes to food.  One of the best sections of the book is where they break out the type of eater you are.

   I fit into several categories which is pretty typical.  I am considered a value driven eater which means that I always want to get the most food possible for my money.  I also hate throwing food away so I tend to eat everything on my plate regardless of hunger.  Another big trend in the value eater is eating the food left on your spouse or child's plate.  After all, you wouldn't want to waste money spent on their food either.  This was an amazingly accurate description of my eating habits.  The idea that I would go to spend a bunch of money for something at a restaurant and then only eat half of it is incredibly hard for me.

   My other biggest food category which I find difficult to handle is the opportunistic eater.  You're at work and just need to take a quick trip to the restroom.  Your co-worker always has a bowl of candy on their desk that may or may not have your favorite candy in it.  The thing is that when you walk by, you have to grab something. It isn't that you don't have a choice, but you've become conditioned for so long that you instinctively grab it and eat it, sometimes without even realizing what you are doing.  I am this person.  This is also the person who is going to snack on the junk at home...simply because it is there.  Combine these with my other biggest eating type (emotional eater) and you can see why it is so difficult to lose weight.  You're often grabbing food or making choices unconsciously combined with emotional habits of eating and you easily start consuming hundreds if not thousands of extra calories each day.

   This is where I find myself struggling already.  I've only had the band in for 15 days but I already find myself struggling with the mental side of it.  Sandra is making her way through a Walmart bag of the kids Halloween candy because they have completely forgotten about it since Halloween.  Having that bag sitting in my room was fine for a few days, and now I am incredibly tempted.  I know the band will allow my favorite candy to pass through without causing any issues and it's so easy...just because it's there.  I asked her this morning if we could just throw it away.  I want to succeed, and weight loss surgery alone will not accomplish anything.  If you want to cheat the system or make poor choices, you can and WILL fail.  Surgery doesn't make it any easier to make good choices.  I need to do whatever it takes to set myself up for success and if that means we simply can't have certain things in the house, then we need to get them out of the house.  This mental battle is just beginning.