Eat It Up!

Hello neighbors.

I was wondering if any of you aer familar with the book "Eat It Up" by Connie Stapelton.  She's a freuquent OH Event speaker and author of the above book, which I have just started reading.

I have been kicking around the idea of starting an oline discussion group for it, and wondered if there would be any interest?

~wendy

I actually have done a lot of reading on the wls subject--this was my favorite book- I just gave a summary of the book at my last support group--here it is:

Eat it Up by Connie Stapleton PhD

Author is a psychologist, who treats WLS patients who also personally recovered from an alcohol and prescription drug addiction.

Your surgeon probably did NOT tell you that a significant percentage of WLS patients will regain a great deal of their weight in 2-5 years

Centers of balance:
1. Spiritual
2. Cognitive/Emotional
3. Physical
4. Social
5. Enterprise

Everyone is born with a "full cup" but life has a way of tipping the cup and spilling out it's contents and as your cup spills it is normal to look outside yourself to fix the emptiness with in. The obese person chooses food. More and more food is needed because it never takes the pain away completely, no matter how much is eaten. The authentic person is hidden. Hidden behind food and hidden behind the fat.

Gotta Do Ems for sustained Weight Loss Success

1. Make consistently healthy food choices (protein first!)
2. Maintain portion control
3. Exercise daily
4. Drink plenty of water throughout the day but not with meals
5. Eat breakfast
6. Plan your meals
7. Keep food and exercise journals
8. Get plenty of sleep
9. Utilize a healthy support system (support groups meetings and online support)
10. Participate in individual/group therapy for at least a year

WLS does NOT:
Keep you from putting cookies, candy, potato chips or other junk in your mouth
Increase your motivation to exercise
Prevent cravings for food
Keep you from driving your vehicle through drive thru windows at fast food
Keep family members from bringing mountains of tempting desserts to family events
Stop the holidays and all the goodies associated with those holidays
Keep co-workers from filling the break room with donuts, nor does it prevent them from wanting to go to the buffet at lunchtime

WLS does ONE thing-creates a small pouch to limit the amount of food you can eat at one time!
Spiritual center---a person without a healthy spiritual center cannot fully nourish the cognitive, emotional, physical, social and enterprising centers.
If our relationship with God is damaged, our ability to nurture the relationship with ourselves and with others is negatively affected. Obesity results in our core, our connection with God, being damaged and impaired. How? Obesity and low self-esteem go hand in hand. Low self esteem and a positive relationship with God rarely co-exist. If you believe you are created in God's image which is typically represented by: unconditional love, goodness, joy and beauty there is no room for low self esteem. You need to heal you relationship with God and rely on His strength to get through the day. Talking to God will slow you down and give you time to remember that you have healthier choices than eating that ton of sugar.

Cognitive and emotional centers-balancing them is a learned behavior. As an obese person you probably have NOT learned to consciously choose how to think so that you feel and behave in a healthy ways. Most people consider thoughts to be unconscious; we need to learn the skills of paying attention to your thoughts and consciously choosing to focus on the positive aspects. What you think affects how you feel and what you do, and obese people are very judgmental of themselves. We must learn to deal with our feelings in healthy ways. Topics in this section: Childhood survival tools don't work in adult life, defense mechanisms, denial, minimizing, projection, intellectualizing, rationalization, defense mechanisms, why I do what I do, head hunger, triggers, balance. We must develop new behavioral skills and learn how to put them into action whether we know why we do what we do or not. "Plan your work and work your plan".

Physical center- most of us agreed we were ready to "do anything to loose the weight". We must exercise. We are what we eat and we also must develop new eating habits of protein first and planning our meals and stick with it for the rest of our lives. We need to daily log our food and exercise. We must continue to monitor our weight regularly.

Social center-need balance, personal boundaries, healthy emotional boundaries, a balanced social life. The gotta do ems for the social center include: balance time between your family, friends, and social obligations; establish healthy boundaries for yourself in relation to others; maintain personal values in your social interactions and consider the needs and wants of others involved. We need to work on perfecting our communication skills, we need to learn to appropriately use "I" messages, how to fight fair and that others can't read our minds.

Enterprise center--how has obesity impacted your career? Your individuation? Your hobbies, your community involvement? Learning Response-ability. Responsibility means you are accountable for the choices you make. Ability implies competence. The two together equal being accountable for using your competencies when making choices. We are responsible for our own contentment and it is with in our control.

This is not a diet--you can not go on or off your choices. We must daily choose to be healthy, and get past the false sense of security from when the weight falls off in the beginning no matter what we do. We must do the gotta do ems for the rest of our life since our goal is not to loose weight but to keep it off forever!

"Weight loss following surgery is about learning to live on life's terms; learning to deal with your thoughts and feelings with out using food to alleviate sadness, pain, anger, loneliness, or boredom..............Losing weight is difficult. Keeping it off, even more so..............Your health is, after all, your responsibility. This day. Every day."

Thanks, Alice!

I didn't read your whole summary, as I'm just starting to work my way through the book for the first time.. I didn't want to spoil anything.
 
I can't wait to hear Dr. Stapleton in October!

~wendy

Is she coming to the NY OH conference?

She is currently listed on the Agenda for Saturday.  I will be there with my copy of her book and hoping to get an autograph! :)

~wendy