Every so often, I find a great article that I bookmark. I think I'm going to post some of them here so they're more accessible to me and others that are around me while I'm eating.
No matter how fast or successful you were in initially losing weight, these are the top ten things that can and will sink you!
1.Drinking with Meals
Taking a big glug of iced tea with a mouth full of food is normal for
many. But after weight loss surgery, drinking while you are eating
washes the food out of your pouch. This allows you to refill your pouch
and eat around your surgery. There are some who do this on purpose so
they can eat more, adding the twist of psychological sabotage.
People come up with the excuse that they have to drink because they
are thirsty. Drink a glass of water before you eat. Problem solved. You
can drink right up until you take that first bite, but once the food
starts, no more drinking unless you are choking. This is critical to
long term success. No drinking with meals. Forever. Period. Done.
2. Drinking Soda
Having a pop doesn’t do anything as dramatic as explode your pouch or
even stretch it, BUT it does take many back to a time when they would
drink a twelve pack OR MORE of Dr. Pepper a day. There are many people
who drank a LOT of soda before their bariatric surgery. It is better to
not go back there. Post ops are also more likely to drink their soda
with meals and that is a combination that will eventually get you back
to pre op weight.
3. Not Making Good Food Choices
We obviously made more bad than good choices or we wouldn’t have needed
weight loss surgery. We envy Slim People as genetically blessed and
don’t realize they watch their food choices and exercise as their
normal. When I would lunch with my naturally slim and fit friend
Veronica, I would think ‘She is so thin, why is she eating grilled
salmon on a house salad? She can afford to eat the bacon blue cheese
burger and fries!’
It never dawned on me that she was slim because she
didn’t
choose burgers and fries plus she exercised in her living room every
single morning. I had it backwards and it took me a long time to
own that I ate differently than others.
Cook fresh food, stop with the processed ‘dead’ food, fast food,
convenience foods and surround yourself with better choices. For the
rest of your life, ‘Protein First, followed by lower carb Vegetables’ is
the plan. Keep repeating it. Stick to it. You chose surgery knowing
this was the deal. Why have your stomach removed if you never truly
intended to change toxic food choices?
4. Not Understanding Alcohol
Not a drop of alcohol for the first year after surgery. The liver and
other organs are already pushed beyond normal limits by massive weight
loss detox. Non negotiable.
Your prior experiences with alcohol are no longer valid as things
change with your bariatric surgery. Without a handbag sized stomach for
digestion, the cocktail dribbles directly into the small intestine and
is sucked into the bloodstream at almost full proof. You can get
deliriously sloppy and dangerously drunk in seconds. With RNY surgery
you can additionally become ill from sugar as specialty cocktails can
easily contain 50 grams of sugar.
Never drink alcohol unless you are with someone with whom you can
trust with your life. Period. Your Match.com date does not qualify.
Things can go very wrong with alcohol and if you are alone or with
someone who does not understand your surgery, it may place you in grave
danger. Never do a shot or feel pressured to keep drinking as alcohol
poisoning can kill you.
There are studies that show a slightly increased rate of alcoholism
in the bariatric set that may be due to a transfer of compulsive
behavior. Be aware of this. If you find you are drinking more than
occasionally or cannot stop, get help. Call your surgeons office, they
won’t judge and will know what to do.
There is a strong pull to go out, dance and party after being
released from the bonds of obesity and social drinking can be a part of
that life. We are not a website that tells you to not drink, just have a
plan before that first sip. There was a woman in BE Support Group who
asked in open forum which cocktail she should drink for her wedding as
she was one year post op and had not tried alcohol. Not a good idea to
have your first post op drink at your own wedding, the office holiday
party, or a business dinner with your boss.
5. Not Taking Vitamins or Supplements
Let’s cut to the chase. It’s ridiculous to think that you could have
most of your stomach removed or cut in half with intestines bypassed, or
a silicon band choking down the organ to the point where forced
malnutrition causes a 100 pound weight drop in a few months and NOT need
to take vitamins. Professionals TELL US we must take bariatric
supplements yet most don’t. It is shocking how many don’t bother and
wonder why they are sick! They insist they chew ice because they LIKE
it, when unbeknownst to them they have a ferritin stored iron level of
*3*. Serious iron deficiencies can damage your heart.
How long can someone last when food intake is restricted and they
cannot absorb nutrients? Take vitamins. Take vitamins. Take vitamins. If
you have bariatric surgery at age 35, what happens to you after 25
years of deficiencies? It does not end well. The numbers of post ops who
break a wrist or ankle in minor trip and fall accidents would shock
you. Longterm post ops are horrified that their teeth have loosened
because of osteoporotic jawbones. Many need much more involved dental
procedures including bone grafts when the underlying structures won’t
support a root canal or implant.
There are serious conditions and symptoms that can hurt you when you
are deficient in vitamins, protein and or minerals. There
are neurological conditions caused by not taking essential supplements
that are irreversible and can even lead to death. Yep, death.
The image below is from the surgery report when I fractured my ankle
in a motorcycle accident 8 years post op. “The bone was extremely
osteoporotic”. That straightens you right up. These stories are common.
Wake up and pop a couple of capsules!
6. Not Drinking Enough Water
Dehydration is the number one reason for hospital readmission and is a
largely preventable complication. Your surgical team is not kidding when
they tell you to keep sipping. Many come out of surgery feeling good
and then after the first ten days slide into dizziness, nausea,
headache, not being able to keep focus and falling asleep mid sentence.
It gets progressively worse and unfortunately lands them in a hospital
bed where they are fortunately hydrated with a fluid IV. Stay in front
of the problem and drink water on schedule to prevent this.
Adequate water intake will also help flush fat metabolites from your
system as you lose weight. Drinking water releases water weight so you
will lose more pounds.
Our Hy Water app will help you and its free at
GetHyApp.com where you can download it at The App Store. Tap the screen and every set number of minutes there is a fun reminder to DRINK UP.
7. Grazing
Plan and eat actual meals. Three meals plus Two small Protein Snacks;
this is also called Five Small Meals. Grazing is eating a bite here and a
bite there, never really filing up. Your small pouch is the strongest
tool and not filling it is giving up a powerful way to control fullness.
Sit down with your plate then slowly and deliberately eat your meal;
fullness or satiety will tell you when to stop. Grazing is a behavior
that allows you to consume a larger amount of food over a longer period
of time as pouch fullness does not happen. If you realize you are
grazing, stop it by eating enough solid protein to feel full, a hard
cooked or deviled egg, rolled up deli turkey, half a protein bar.
Much of what we call grazing is due to ‘head hunger’ where we think
we are hungry or actually just looking for something to do. Take up
beading, play online games, read, anything to take attention from food!
8. Not Exercising
Obese people think that people who go to the gym like to exercise. The
truth is that people who exercise WANT to look and feel good. Few really
like the act of working out, they like the result.
EAT LESS BURN MORE is a mathematical formula to lose weight! The
boost provided by even 10 minutes a day of jacking up your heart rate
will help you lose weight faster, give you a chance at keeping it off
longer, help you LIVE longer and make you look & FEEL better. I
cannot believe the energy I now have and I am happy. I wasted so much
time feeling so tired and sad.
If you are right now formulating silent excuses that ‘you would’ but
have bad knees, medical maladies, no money for gym membership and no
time, we have BE exercise plans for you that are done at home, using no
equipment, place zero impact on joints and take up just 10 minutes of
your day. Poof. Nice try. Excuses gone. If you choose to be a slug, OWN
IT! Sorry, but walking around Walmart doesn’t count for squat. Get real.
This short video features BJ Gaddour of Men’s Health and StreamFit
and shows how LITTLE exercise you can do – I promise that it will make a
difference! This low impact full body movement is called a Ground Zero
Jump. Your feet do not leave the floor. Anyone can do it and it can be
done anywhere. Stand up and give it a try. It will make you feel proud
to do it!
9. Eating Too Many Carbs
Let’s lay it out there. A big post op problem is HUNGER and many do not get that carbs are the reason.
Protein crowds out the carbs which controls hunger and forces weight
loss. While a Little Debbie cake may have the same carbs as a dish of
blueberries, it has zero nutrients. The little cake is a processed or
dead food with no nutritional value. Choose the berries for great taste,
fewer calories, tons of nutrients and use the energy to burn stored
fat! All around a much better deal.
Carbs like pretzels and biscuits burn quickly and leave you hungry
for more. Ever notice that eating crackers just makes you want to eat
more crackers? Once you are at goal you can have a small amount of
anything you want but make it your choice rather than a compulsion and
only once you are in control of food.
When people are gaining weight and keep a food journal for a few
days, its usually obvious that its the carbs that have wiggled their way
back into the kitchen. Clean them out, stop buying them and get some
fresh lower carb foods that bring nutrients to the party.
10. Assuming Surgery Has Cured Your Morbid Obesity
Calling it a Honeymoon Period is an accurate description. When weight is
falling off and suddenly the world is brighter and all is good it is
hard to imagine you will ever face the problems of morbid obesity ever
again.
Here’s your wake up call. THE WEIGHT LOSS PARTY ENDS. During those
first seven months of massive weight loss you are not driving the bus.
You will lose the same amount of weight no matter what you do. There are
some who don’t catch on to this and happily think that they have
somehow cheated the system and are still losing weight while eating
french fries. This does not end well in the long run.
It is common for post ops to not lose all the way to goal weight or
over the years regain a substantial portion or even all of their weight
back if they have not embraced making completely different foods
choices. Even those paying attention can get hit with a gain, just like
people who have not had weight loss surgery can gain weight. As with
most successes, you create a long term plan and follow it. Weight loss
surgery is not effortless nor does it last forever without serious
commitment to the new way of life you create.
Change is hard, even with
weight loss surgery. While we all thought this would be less
difficult and more permanent, it turns out that just like in
non-surgical life, once out from under the burden of 150 plus pounds it
still comes down to diet, exercise and our willingness to change.
