Preparing your home?

Hi Everyone!!! My pre-op diet starts in a week. And my surgery is Oct 7th. My family is super supportive and I'm feeling loved and encouraged. I have one worry though: I live with two of my cousins. One who is a really healthy eater so I'm not worried about him so much. However my other cousin is an every day cereal, nachos made of Dorritos, had fast food for lunch people. I love her. She's not obese by any means. But I'm worried, I can't clean out my environment, it's not just mine. I can't force her to not have things in the house. I don't know what to say to her. She totally supports me and wants me to be successful. But I don't want to be like "I can't be around all that so you have to stop." It's her life and her body. How did you guys deal with living with roommates....family...etc that didn't have to eat like you during your process?

I started pre op liquid diet last Friday,  it's not really as bad as I thought it would be.   My husband is very supportive but he's eating whatever he wants and I've asked him not to alter his eating plan for me.  He has offered to eat alone so I'm not tempted and that's a very sweet gesture and I love him for it.  The reality is that I can't hide from food.  It's everywhere all the time.  I never realized how many commercials are about food.  It should be illegal.  I had to travel this week on business to San Antonio.  Last night the group went downtown for dinner and I went too.  I could have stayed behind but I didn't want to miss out on seeing the sights.  I took my protein powder in a packet and mixed it with ice water in a shaker cup.  I sipped it along with a large unsweetened tea and you know what, no problem.  It's actually very interesting to quietly watch other people eat.  Bottom line....this is my journey and I can't expect anyone to change their lifestyle because of my journey. I've learned a lot about myself since I started the liquid diet. I'm breaking my addiction to food. I've never really thought about it like that before.  It's difficult but I finally got this far and I'm embracing every minute of it.  You can do it. It's not that hard and the reward is worth it.  

My husband and kids store and eat foods that I choose not to eat.  I asked them to keep them in the cupboard out of sight, and not to leave them on the countertops where I'd see them and think about them.  This worked for me. Early on, my hubby stopped snacking on nuts and chips in the evenings to support me, but that didn't last long.  Some days its hard to have those foods around. Sometimes I'll take a few nuts, but I just try to eat them very slowly. 

the other thing I do is make sure I have lots of healthy and interesting foods around, so I can tell myself,  "You don't want to eat that Guacamole and chips, but you can have some of that chicken in spicy peanut sauce, or that enchilada casserole."  It helped keep me on track.

 It is a challenge living with others while trying to change one's eating habits.  I hope you find a path that works for everyone.

best wishes,

Carol

The most I've done is ask people not to leave stuff out and not to snack on noisy things in the living room. That has worked well for me!  I live with adults and I don't want to tell them what they can or can't bring into the house - it's their home too!  

That's how I feel about my roommate cousins. Their adults it's not my place to tell them what to do. It's my journey not theirs.

Exactly.  :)  If they want to make changes to support me or improve their own habits, awesome, but I'm not going to request that.  

I think this is where you have to prepare yourself mentally.  The temptations will always be there.  At work I have to walk by cookies, cake, candy, etc.  Luckily, I don't have much of a sweet tooth but savory carbs are my nemesis, popcorn, chips, etc.

And today, somebody brought tamales.

Sara - maybe you could ask your cousin to store the "trigger" foods in her room for a few months.   That way she still has all the things she likes to eat but you wouldn't be likely to go in her room and grab any of it.  

In my case, there was my adult daughter and husband who were definitely NOT on my eating plan.  I asked them to keep certain things (like candy, chocolate) out of my sight and to not bring ice cream into the house.   It worked for them.  

I have 4-5 (depends if my daughter is home from college) kids under my roof at any given time that are mine plus a host of friends etc.. so I can't expect the kids to just give up everything because I am and to ask the hubby to give up chips may just kill him lol Thankfully I'm really a chip person. Anyway my point is that since I'm starting my weight loss journey I sat them all down and explained to them that I would appreciate it if they kept they snacks out of site and in a specific cupboard. I have also explained that I am going to stop being the one who purchased these things so it's going to have to be up to the hubby. He was not very excited about this but is supporting me. Now we are in practice mode and I remind them when I find things out and about of the discussion we had and kindly ask them to try to remember to put it away or throw it out, etc.. it's a learning curve and we are doing it together Thankfully I'm just starting this process so we all have some time to adjust Good-Luck :-)