Congratulations, you’ve made a big decision to have bariatric surgery and begin a new journey for your health. Way to go. Bariatric surgery is a terrific tool to help you lose weight. But keep in mind from the very beginning that it’s not the sole answer. Surgery is just one of the spokes in the wheel to success. Hand in hand with surgery is your lifestyle and the willingness to make changes that become part of the way you live from now on. Begin to prepare for surgery with these five steps to get you in the best place possible from a nutrition standpoint.
Hi, I’m registered dietitian nutritionist Dr. Susan Mitchell. You’re listening to the Bariatric Surgery Success podcast episode number 41. Recently in the podcast 3 Surprising Health Benefits of Chocolate, we talked about how surgery doesn’t change your brain or desires for certain foods. Part of successfully incorporating the occasional chocolate in your eating plan is understanding and practicing mindful eating or being aware of what you eat, why you eat it and how much you’re eating. So if you haven’t grabbed my Freebie, 6 Tips to Eat Mindfully, be sure and do that now. I’ll put the link in the show notes but you can also find it on my homepage Breaking Down Nutrition.
Link for Mindfulness Freebie: https://bit.ly/3mMS3wM
Depending on where you have surgery, your surgical center may have a pre-surgery nutrition evaluation with a dietitian and maybe a pre-surgery diet and supplement schedule. Be sure and follow these guidelines closely and whatever else they suggest or require. Additionally let’s look at five steps you can do now. Remember that these changes to your behavior and lifestyle not only benefit weight loss but can substantially improve related health issues such as diabetes or non alcoholic fatty liver disease or fat in the liver.
1. Start now to become aware of how much you eat and get a good estimate of the number of calories you consume each day. How to do this? I love using an app on my phone/online or both whichever is easier for you. There are many to chose from. Three of my favorites are NutritionIX, Lose It! and My Fitness Pal. I’ll put the links to these three in the show notes. Ok, so your thinking, really, what a pain in the patootie. I hear you but will tell you, once you start (if you’re honest with yourself), a food record kept for a week or two, ongoing if you want, is a real eye-opener. The caveat here is being honest with yourself. We have a tendency to log what we feel good about and not the real stuff right? Don’t miss this. Log the real stuff, what you really eat and how much. To make lasting lifestyle tweaks you want to see patterns. For example, do you snack at night most every night in front of the TV? Do you eat when you’re stressed? Do you reach for goodies when you’re upset? If you log what you eat along with what’s going on when you eat it, you’ll start to see trends. These trends are the key to your journey and behavior changes. Why does this matter? Finding your patterns and then working to make behavior changes will help prevent that dreaded weight regain that you hear about and hate.
Food Record Apps:
NutritionIX
LoseIt!
MyFitnessPal
2. Start cutting back now on beverages with added sugars such as soda. If beverages with added sugars are a part of your lifestyle, you may notice weight loss when you cut down. Significantly increase the amount of water you drink daily as you cut back on the sweetened beverages. Dehydration following surgery is a common issue so get used to drinking a lot of water now. OK, you get sick of plain water. I hear that often. Instead of flavored carbonated water which you’ll be cutting out before and after surgery, add slices of orange, lemon, lime, cucumber or pieces of fresh basil to add flavor. How much should you drink? Aim for 64 ounces a day or almost 2 liters.
3. Start to pay attention to portion sizes. When you start a food log, you look at what you eat, how you feel when you eat it and also at how m