I want to eat constantly at work!

just four days ago was my surgiversary. I am proud of having this surgery four years ago and it has changed my life.

Unfortunately I still struggle w/ my old habits. I have been lucky in that i've kept the weight I lost off but I still have 60 lbs I never lost and still trying to lose. I am constantly falling off the wagon. I have been trying to pay attention to my urges to eat in hopes i can make a permanent change in how i relate to food. I notice that while at work, I constantly want to eat. once I leave, the urge to eat is significantly less. So what should I do? I know my work is not the most fulfulling and boring but I don't feel that I can leave the job as of yet. so in the meantime, what can i do to stop obsessing about food while at work? any ideas?

 When this happens at home, it's usually something else trying to crop up -- thirst, anxiety, anger... are usually the culprit for me. 

The biggest thing I can do is to find something ELSE than stuffing it down.

I have this problem, too, especially on boring days when I'm just not into what I'm doing.  My solution is to drink hot tea.  I have all different kinds of tea at work.  Tea is satisfying to me for some reason -- it is sweet, when it's hot you have to sip it slowly, I have to get up and get out of my office for a minute to get the ho****er.  Something about it works for me when I get the need to boredom eat at work.

 I feel the same way, so I always have snack bags with things to eat that will satisfy me, and still meet the "good" requirements. Almonds or walnuts, dry roasted edamame, portioned out cheese sticks, popcorn, veggies (carrots, peppers, celery) even those little tins of sardines! :D   For the sweet tooth times, I have protein bars (chocolate) butter toffee flavored blue diamond almonds, little containers of ricotta cheese mixed with a packet of splenda and flavored with cinnamon or vanilla, or even a bottle of that sugar free carnation breakfast stuff.  That doesn't stop the obsession, but it does give me something that won't screw me up to stop the cravings at the time. Good luck.

I was doing really well through January but now I too have been struggling with my old habits sneaking back in...I've gained a little weight (10lbs) and am now trying to get it off again...but I just want to eat all the time!! 

I'm going to work through the Beck Diet Solution book again...it's a cognitive behavior book geared to weight loss...I've done it before but did not fully embrace the change in lifestyle.  I'm going to try it again and see if I can make some permanent changes.

One thing I am doing to try to minimize the damage when I do eat...is to snack on better foods...for example cheese, fruit, yogurt...better not to eat...but if I must it's better than pigging out on chips and chocolate.

Good luck with your struggle...I hope you find a solution.

Jackie

 The whole secret is that we cannot eat like we did before surgery and we cannot eat like other people do.  Some of my solutions are to weigh myself every single morning and keep myself aware of what the scale said that morning.  People who weigh once a week might be up five pounds and just attribute it to variations in the body.  They might be right but soon those variations are ten pounds or more.

I eat very little.  Usually a piece of cheese and a slice of high fiber toast for breakfast.  The same for lunch or a lean cuisine and a lean cuisine for dinner.  I have a slice of cheese or a string cheese in the evening.  Once a month or so a bag of low fat popcorn.  I have no candy, crackers, chips, pastry, rice, noodles, pasta except in the lean cuisine meals.

I drink at least 64 ounces of watrer daily and get in at least one hour of exercise.  Sometimes I have fruit, vegetables, soup, salad or  a small dessert.  I go out to eat about two times a month and bring most of the food home for two or three meals at home.

If I ate like other people I would gain back my weight.  I have had to train myself to be satisfied with small amounts of food after my pouch would hold a lot more and after my malabsorption from RNY went away.   This journey has been like every other diet and exercise program I did in my life, except this time it works.

I go for a walk. A lot of time I just walk to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. Then I don't feel the urge again until I finish drinking the tea or, if I do feel the urge, I drink the tea and it goes away.

Sometimes I walk around the building instead.

Drink.

Drink a lot.

Drink water, black tea, brown tea, green tea, white tea, iced tea, coffee, coffee this, coffee that, crystal light, whatever.

Also, make sure you aren't looking at the food all the time.

Would gum help? I'm finding that when I can't get away to ge****er, it tides me over.