What’s Your Story?
March 8, 2013Some of you may know me from my food blog, Bariatric Foodie, but I am a professional writer by trade.
I think my profession has shaped how I see my weight loss surgery process in a lot of ways. One way is that I believe we each tell a story through our thoughts, actions and words. It’s a story about ourselves and the words we use to tell that story are important because they “set the boundaries” inside our minds.
Think about this. How many times have you said to yourself “I can’t do that”? I can’t control myself around carbs. I can’t run a mile! I can’t wake up early to exercise. I can’t do it!
That’s you telling yourself a story that you are incapable of — or unmotivated to — do the thing that you say you cannot do. For some of us, we have physical limitations and, yes, some tasks are quite impossible. Those aren’t the situations I’m talking about. I’m talking about those tasks where your only barrier, really, is your mind.
When Obesity Help invited me to guest blog, I immediately knew on what topic I wanted to focus. The story we tell ourselves about our capabilities, lives and weight loss processes. I’ve said it again and again on the RNY message board: the story you tell yourself is important. The words you use are important.
So in my upcoming blog posts, I’ll tackle some of the most common (and sometimes toxic) stories I hear post-ops telling themselves and the world. I’ve battled with many of these stories myself and I’ll tell you how I handle those stories when I begin writing them about myself in my own head.
And I’ll invite you to give input! While we each have an individual story, we contribute to a collective one as well. We are a population of people trying to gain better health, a better quality of life, but our intentions and experiences are often misunderstood. Learning to tell our story in a way that motivates us to success can only stand to help the world understand weight loss surgery better and embrace it as one of many options in the battle against obesity.
So I hope you’ll look out for my posts and join the conversation! Because I want to know: what’s YOUR story?
 | ABOUT THE AUTHOR Nikki Massie is the author of Bariatric Foodie, a website and online community that encourages weight loss surgery patients to “play with their food.” She is the author of three books: The Bariatric Foodie Guide to Perfect Protein Shakes, The Bariatric Foodie Holiday Survival Guide and The Bariatric Foodie Breakfast Book. Nikki lives Maryland with her boyfriend, 2 daughters, adorable Basset Hound & slightly high-maintenance black cat.Read more articles by Nikki! |
