Hi Scharron and welcome to your group.
I think you should first see your bariatric surgeon or doctor and explain your challenging situation. Since you had surgery so long ago, you've figured out how to eat and gain in spite of it. It's not unheard of to have a mini-surgical procedure to tighten up your pouch and also check to make sure you don't have hernias, which can definitely enlarge your gut.
You've identified your pest--sweets--and admitted you need to get to the gym. That's fantastic.
Now you need to do the mental work, including affirmations, and also writing down your thoughts and then changing them from negative to positive. You might get fired up, like I did, by reading The Only Diet There Is, which is a "diet from negative thinking." It's online for free in PDF. Low self-esteem is my biggest problem, and food has traditionally been the medicine I used to feel better.
So, after you get physically checked out, set up a certain amount of time for writing down your thoughts. It's not as hard as going to the gym or going for a walk. Just sit and write. As you write down the obstacle-thoughts, turn them around and turn them into positive affirmations. Like, you said "My problem is I love sweets." How can you turn that around so it's an affirmation? You don't want to say "I DON'T love sweets," because that would be a lie. You can say, "I love sweets but right now, I am eating food without sugar, and I feel great." You can write a dozen variations on an affirmation to bust the obsession for sweets. The more times you repeat an affirmation, the more it becomes your DOMINANT thought and wipes out obsessions.
Your eating obsession lives in a part of your brain. But there's another part of your brain where affirmations live, and the more you fill that part up with positivity, the happier you will be and the easier your commitment to health will be.
Thank you for posting and I hope you'll hang out with us and keep us posted about your progress, whether successful or challenging.
