Something to think about: WLS for life

Dear friends, I came across this article in a WLS profile dated around Christmas time and it really spoke to me because at 4 months out from surgery, I know that my success with WLS is dependent on my change in lifestyle, not just the fact that I have a stomach that NOW holds very little. Too many of our WLS peers are gaining back weight several years after surgery and I really want to work on making this a change that lasts the rest of my life. I remember several posts about leaning on God to use the surgery to take that sin of gluttony out of our lives. I hope this article is of some use to you. A popular notion about weight loss surgery is that we can eat anything we want, just less of it, and lose weight. It is true that we can and do lose weight initially by eating less food. Many patients return to eating the same things they enjoyed before surgery and lose weight. What is also true is that an early return to the old foods nearly always results in stalled weight loss or worse, weight gain before some even reach their goal weight. This is heartbreaking and demoralizing because if we fail to lose weight with WLS we are out of options. To avoid this heartbreak we must proactively change our eating habits and lifestyle while we are enjoying the weight loss phase. What better time to get positive reinforcement for behavior modification? Patients who make dietary and lifestyle changes for better health are reporting long-term success. I'm talking about maintaining goal weight for five or ten years post-op! Isn't that the success we all dreamed of when we risked our lives with surgery? Changing our dietary habits and mental attitude about food is one of the most difficult things in which we will ever be engaged. And it is a quest that does not end - we bought into this WLS for life and that means a lifetime commitment to self-improvement, health, nutritional vigilance and constant learning. I know using the word "diet" is unpopular these days with "lifestyle" being the preferred word, but the fact is, we committed irrevocably to a life-long diet when we had WLS. Our world, the world where it is easy for us to be fat, presents a multitude of food and nutritional challenges. Right now we are engaged in the busiest eating season of the year and it feels pretty hopeless when faced with so many deliciously dangerous food options. But we chose WLS for life - we don't get to stop counting points or carbs or calories just because the holidays are here. We have to live with our WLS each day and try our determined best to feed our bodies and souls well. When we are mindful of our food choices and meet the nutritional needs of our bodies we can sustain long term weight loss. We have an obligation to be responsible with what we put in our bodies and make the WLS work. The WLS does not fail us; we fail the WLS when we engage in the same eating habits that made us obese. It takes work but as I have said so often, I would rather work at being a healthy weight than work at living as a morbidly obese person. This issue is all about finding healthy, flavorful foods to serve ourselves, families and friends during the social holiday season. I give you my word, when you engage in actively pursuing a healthy diet you will feel better physically, mentally and emotionally. I am also willing to say that by enjoying a healthy diet you will reach your goal weight and celebrate many years of successful weight maintenance

Thanks, Cynthia, for this post. I am gonna save it! Love, Cindy