I'm still preop... but... I think its a matter of deciding what you want more... A cookie(s) or weight loss/maintain... Simple. Easy? heck no, but it is simple...

Somewhere inside you is the strength and personal power that has gotten you all this way... You'll need to find it, dust it off, and put it to work!

Just some thoughts from a preop-er! Take em' or leave em' :) :)

I do wish you the best in figuring it out!

Oh, how the sweets call to me too. I can stop the craving with wasabi peas. They are super hot but get my brain's attention, When I have to have something I do a low fat grahm cracker...I break them in to small pieces and take two.Also sugar free jello. Good luck

this might sound harsh for the kids but tell them no on the sweets in the house. My son likes to have cookies and candy as well as my husband. I discovered early on that sweets don't bother me so I had to be firm and say no to any sweets being in the house.

I agree with Becca... Only YOU can decide what is best for you... I am 12 weeks out and won't even try sugar.. I know once I know I can handle it, I am adding temptation.... I struggle enough without the added temptation...

And I don't see why children have to have sugar or sweets.. Especially if having it in the house doesn't help you... I wish my mother had limited those kinds of treats when I was little... I see nothing wrong with teaching children about good choices while they are young... If I had young children now, I wouldn't let them have the "sweet treats".... I wouldn't want them to grow up and have to go through all this.... I hope I don't sound harsh... I just wish I could have done things differently....

You have the tools to lose the weight, and only YOU can make the choice whether to eat the cookie or not...

Good luck working on this.. I am sure you will do what is best for YOU...

every day i recite in my head " nothing tastes as good as thin feels ", and it's working! we don't go to the extreme of having WLS to go back to how it was. i won't even try sweet things for the simple fact of not wanting the dumping syndrome or the fear of gaining weight back.
this is going to be a life long 'job', and i've accepted it.
good luck to you! ;-)

I just don't buy it anymore, I let the kids get an occasional treat at a gas station, that usually I make them walk to. For me it would be to big of a temptation to eat sugar, if its regularly in the house, I even make my kids drink sugar free Kool Aid. I do keep just regular sugar in the house though and they can add it to their cereal if they want to, or make cookies (but that takes work) and most of the time they will pass on the cookies for fruit as its faster, lol

I think you all missed the point. I do not keep it in the house, but once in the while I will let the kids make cookies and it is hard to even have that in the house. We eat fruit, but even that has cause sugar cravings. I was just looking to see if anyone else's sugar demon came back and if so how did the over come it

There are sugar-free options for both cookies and candies. If you must have that sweetness, try getting it without the actual sugar.

I found as I went through my meltdown and then on to maintenance, that I went through periods where I wanted one particular food over all others--popcorn was a biggie. But as I relaxed and realized that this is a life-time commitment and that I could occasionally have anything, it became easier to be moderate.

I also had to recognize when my eating was emotional--I really wanted to relax, or to rest, or to talk to someone......Once you have that awareness, it is easier to find more appropriate ways to meet the real need.

Good luck, and please come back more often!

hi there,

i understand. i have three small kids. i wonder sometimes what i've done to them. my daughter (6yrs) tells us that we had dessert last night and so we don't have it tonight. my son (3yrs) tells me he wants "sugar free" meaning a piece of sugar free candy.

but i miss the baking, the saturday pancake breakfast, the ice cream trips. they're kids right. right so here is what i did.

i began having many sugar free replacements. we even make monkey bread sugar free. i found my favorite baking replacement to be Ideal (google it).

for pancakes we make german pancakes now.

I will also now pay more for less. if i can buy one cookie, or whatever for my kids to eat so there is no left over i will pay more for the one cookie, than buying a big bag because it's cheaper.

Also - i throw things away - i don't care if i am throwing away money, throw it out. tell the kids to spit on it so you won't eat!!!!! tell the kids to throw it away. do whatever you have to!

as for me and my own treats - i treat myself, but smartly.

i buy nature valley protein granola bars, fiber plus protein dessert bars, quaker oatmeal cookies. these things have a protein value that regular sweets don't that help protect me from that sugar craving.

if these things don't work - if you find you still overdo sugar then you have two questions.

do you crave because of a physical reaction - if so the answer is no more sugar, its become a will power thing (ugh)

do you crave because of an emotional reaction - if so, seek out a counselor to help you to get to the root of the issue.

good luck!

Thank you! I have been trying to figure that that part out. I think it is a physical reaction. When I am stressed I don't eat. I can't it makes me sick. I have to keep busy at all time and I like that. Exercise is what I crave. I run up to 3 miles a day and zumba twice a week. I watch a write down everything I eat. I just thought once that sugar craving was gone it wouldn't come back. Boy was I wrong. And to say I"I will never eat sweets again" Well lets just say yah right! I said the same thing! I work very hard at this but when the craving come back in full force my will power is out the window

just take it one moment at a time.

sugar doesn't make you dump - correct?

try different sugar substitutes and find one you can work with.

good luck

Yes it makes me dump, but for some reason I can eat cookies and yellow cake without dumping!

Simple carbs put me into a carb-craving cycle...From what I've learned at my F2F support group, when we eat carbs it kicks off a craving for more carbs for the next 24 hours.

I can't eat fruit. Well, I could, but it tends to make me dump and it starts me on that cycle again. So, I don't.

Technically, we are supposed to be able to eat anything in moderation. Since it doesn't sound like never eating cookies again will work for you, you could set up some ground rules for yourself and stick to them. Something like....yes, you can eat a cookie, but only at the end of a protein-dense meal and only if you are sitting down and doing nothing else but enjoying that cookie! If you are going to eat it, pay attention while you are eating it. Savor every bite. Chances are, you won't need as many bites. Usually, when we eat something we don't think we should, we eat it quickly and don't actually even enjoy it. It's almost like we try to pretend we aren't eating it!!

Personally, I don't swallow sugar. Even artificial sweeteners set me off on a carb craving. The way I handle it now may be controversial, but it has worked for me for the past 3 + years. If I really, really want to taste something I don't eat (like pie or a cookie), I will take a bite...chew it...and spit it out. The first time, I fully intended to eat whatever it was... but once I tasted it, I realized it wasn't worth swallowing. I'm not advocating chewing and spitting. Just saying it has worked for me in a pinch.

I have heard some people say the chewing and spitting thing can become an eating disorder. At least in my case, I don't think it is or will lead to one. Sometimes it is just nice to taste something, but I know it will make me sick (either in dumping or becoming morbidly obese again). I probably only purposefully do it 3-4 times a year. However, if I take a bite of something and realize it will probably not agree with me, I will absolutely spit it out rather than risk getting sick.

And, as I've said before, I have learned not to associate the smell of something I enjoy with the need to eat it. I can just enjoy the smell.

Honestly, for me a lot of it comes down to my mindset. I don't feel deprived not eating certain foods anymore. I feel like I have secret super-powers over food. I have total control over what I eat and I choose to eat things that nourish my new body. Food is just food. I get more enjoyment out of being able to move without pain, having energy, and living life to the fullest than I ever did from chewing and swallowing something. I've learned nothing I can eat is worth the misery I endured. No, I don't ever feel sorry for myself with the restrictions I have with food. I have gained so much more than I have willingly given up.

Totally worth it!!

((hugs))

JJ

JJ thank you that was what I was looking for!