Post bariatric food apathy or obsession

I have often described myself as a food apathetic since weight loss surgery.  

I never seemed to connect the gathering, preparation and cooking of food the way others did since my bariatric surgery.  

I am not typical.  There are reasons.

I believe what sealed this for me was when I was told that I should not be using utensils, stoves and other "dangerous" materials since my seizures have been uncontrolled even while heavily medicated.  I am not supposed to cook or prepare anything while unsupervised.  This makes cooking not much fun FOR ME.  I rarely cook unless the whole family is around.  It's really not a huge deal -- but it makes me spend a lot of time watching other people's preparation and food behaviors.  For me, meal preparation is often:  open microwave, heat, eat.  When you can't -- you just don't.  You learn to cope around your situation, I eat a bit like an old person.

Post bariatric patients (and not... however my interest is in the weight loss surgery patient) spend hours collecting recipes, pinning them to websites, sharing photos of food, baking, cooking, talking about cooking, posting about cooking, etc. etc. and I know many spend hours watching cooking shows, and even leave it on as background noise at home.

I distinctly remember a time when the cooking channel was the only channel I wanted to watch.  This was in the first few months.  But it passed.  I was speaking with an elderly aunt yesterday - who lives vicariously through the cooking shows.  She is the kind of person who never COOKS a thing on these shows, but loves to watch them.  I wondered -- is this how bariatric patients live?  

I am her.  She is me.  I am that old lady.  But I don't cook  much now nor care about the food one iota.  She obsesses -- watches the shows ALL day long.  She also wonders about what "we are going to have for lunch" just as soon as we leave the house.  I told her to make the choice for lunch yesterday - and she could not get over the fact that I didn't care where we ate.  "You really can eat anywhere, and don't care?"  Yep.  I just doesn't matter - so long as I get fed with something of quality. 

Do we live vicariously through what we might have -- obsessively -- through recipe blogs, cooking networks, photographs and talking about food?  What of this constant preoccupation with food and the sourcing of - and preparation of - and the eating of - do you think it has any impact on our success in our weight loss and weight maintenance in the long term?

I do.  

I know when I was thinking about food all the time - I was eating it.  My weight chart shows a different mindset and so do my pants.  

What about you?