I'm thinking that I'm still mental about food and always will be!!! I have two refrigerator freezers and a small freezer and we couldn't even put a bag of ice in them yesterday. So at my DH insistence, it was time to see what was in the freezer. My food addiction!!!! I truly was shocked at all the stuff that was in the freezer. I do buy things on sale, and I know that one chicken breast does us for one meal, but for crying out loud!!! Little packages of this and that because I only cook 1/2 pound of ground round at a time. Two pork chops; two country style ribs; small roasts; yeah times 10 stocked up. Every week I pour over the food ads to find the best deals and to be thrifty, but honest to gosh, we could live out of our freezer for months. I forget when things like flour is on sale that I really don't need two bags now, but I buy it anyway! Same with sugar! I wonder if there is an AA for food buyer addiction? I'm thoroughly disgusted with myself. Today I'm making chicken breasts with roasted eggplant spread. So what did I have to buy yesterday so that I could fix it today: eggplant, peppers, red onions and mozz. cheese. I could have dug around in the freezer and had a good old meat loaf and mashed cauliflower and wouldn't have cost me a dime. I'm also a cookbook addict!!! A fat girls with a cookbook addiction now ain't that a p*sser!! I'm done ranting now!

Though I understand that any realization of a replacement addiction can be frustrating, be kind to yourself. You could donate some of it to the food bank? There are some that take frozen food.

hey could be worse! could be addicted to something even more threatening like alcohol, one night stands, addreniline, Irish clog dancing...it can ALWAYS be worse! LOL

Angela

Somewhere recently on 3 chics I randomly clicked on a blog. I think the writer mentioned she'd had WLS. She went on and on chronicaling what food she was currently making and what she already had in her 2 freezers. She was obsessed, at least at that point. But I thought, hey, it's her blog and she can write whatever she darn well pleases.

I think there is such thing as food addiction. Our brains are complicated things as are our personalities. I learned a few years ago that I have ADD and one characteristic of that particular "disorder" is a tendency towards addiction, which I've seen in my life. I've overcome a few but food not so much. I can completely stop smoking and drinking and other things, but I still gotta eat. And then being a wife and mom and having to think about it for others, too.

I wonder why I can't get addicted to veggies and exercise?

Boy, Do I ever understand this. Before I had surgery the WL Clinic suggested that we might want to stock up on the foods we would be able to eat after surgery as we probably wouldn't want to shop for groceries for a few weeks. Well nobody suggested an appropriate "after surgery" day of food would in reality be less than one "before surgery" meal. Although I bought some appropriate foods (beef & chicken broth, protein supplements, etc.), I bought enough to last MONTHS. Then I discovered that the protein supplements that I mixed with milk B4 surgery did not stay down after surgery, so there was a few hundred dollars wasted. (I finally threw them out 6 months later).

I still love to grocery shop, but have scaled down how much I buy because my cupboards are stuffed. (I think I just used up the last of the beef broth I bought when I had surgery). I have donated lots of canned goods to the food pantries in the last couple years. I also buy a pound of ground turkey & make it into 4 oz. patties to freeze in individual containers, or divide up the pork chops & chicken breasts. Everything is good until the electricity goes out!

it's quite a change, isn't it??? there are some people OUT THERE [like researchers and such] who believe that people who qualify for WLS do indeed have addictive personalities, and that it's something that has to be dealt with.

there are stories all over the place about people who've had WLS turning into compulsive shoppers, or sex fiends, or alcoholics. and we can see why, can't we?????

i don't think ANY of us, no matter how well prepared we thought we were before surgery, was prepared for having to deal with this compulsive/addictive thing.

i know - fer sher! - that i wasn't!

My step-dad used to be an alcoholic, and after he started going to AA and stopped drinking, he got into gambling. (but he's not that bad with it, amazingly) When he's not gambling, he's REALLY, REALLY into sweets.. I guess that's fine for him because he's like 70 now and not overweight so whatever floats his boat.. But he does seem to have an "addictive personality" if there is such a thing. My vote is that they DO exist.

I LOVE buying/cooking food, too. Granted I don't buy too much or stockpile it, but I love making up grocery lists, perusing cookbooks and thinking about food, and I probably talk about it too much, but I AM getting better. I think it's something you can work on if you're conscious that you're doing it.

nanj, I completely understand what you're saying. I have not had WLS, but was passing by and saw the post. I have fought this too. If there is a great sale on something we use, I want to buy a lot of it. For some reason, a fully stocked pantry and freezer are so comforting to me. It's not like I lived through the Depression or ever went hungry, but it's another way to obsess about food, I guess.

Stocking up CAN save you money and time, IF the food isn't going to waste because you haven't used it in time. What I do now to combat this is to keep an inventory on the outside of my freezer and inside my pantry. When I buy stuff I add to the inventory and when I use something I cross it off. It takes some time to set up, but people generally buy the same stuff over and over and once you've got your system together it is quick to check your stock each week before shopping and to update your inventories as you're putting away groceries. I have a set amount that I can't go over, no matter how good the sale. The amount is based on how long the food keeps and how fast I use it, and so I never have more than I can use before it goes bad. Example - no more than 2 turkey breasts, 5 lbs. hamburger, 10 lbs. chicken breasts, etc.

The sales are cyclical, so if you miss a good one, those prices will come around again. Maybe next week challenge yourself to plan menus for the week based only on what is in the freezer, to help use it up. If you can get in the habit of planning your menu from the pantry, then check the sales and just shop to fill in the extras, that will help.

I love cookbooks too, and trying new recipes. I make sure I try a couple new things every week. We can't let things get boring either!

I watch the food network a lot write recipes wake up in the middle of the night thinking up new foods I want my vocation to be about food. Schmoo I Have the same feeling a full fridge/makes me feel safe.
I know I have a food addiction and I Work conciously not to physically endulge in it!