Thinking about Bariatric Surgery?

If you are thinking about having bariatric surgery, I would plead with you to re-think your decision.  Give one more thing a try – hire a health coach for a short period to see if they can help you before you go under the knife.

The weight loss industry is a Multi TRILLION dollar industry – diet books, workout tapes, supplements, exercise equipment, meal replacement shakes (Herbalife and Slimfast), protein powders, commercial diet programs (i.e., Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig), physician’s assisted diet programs and bariatric surgery, the list goes on and on. If you are chronic dieter or yo-yo dieter, I’m sure you tried MANY of these products before.  But I want to address the surgery part of this list here.

On the Mayo Clinic’s website they list 4 different types of bariatric surgery.  Two of them remove large portions of your stomach.  Two of them create smaller pouches in your stomach.  Three of them are designed to restrict the amount of calories and nutrients your body absorbs from the food that you are able to eat.  This last part is very significant to your health.  YOU WILL HAVE DIFFICULTY ABSORBING ENOUGH OF THE NUTRIENTS YOUR BODY NEEDS - FOREVER.  Did you get that part?

Your body is an amazing machine and will perform perfectly if you give it the proper fuel it needs to function.  By cutting out part of what you were born with, you are restricting your body from performing properly.  One lady I know is an elite athlete and is struggling to maintain the calories she needs to be able to keep training for her goals – a 10K run and a triathlon.  She had gastric bypass surgery several years ago and her body is rebelling today in all manner of ways – thyroid, kidneys, liver, heart.  The food she is able to eat doesn’t get used properly by her body because of something called malabsorption – because her stomach is very small she needs to eat double or triple of some things so that her body absorbs the proper amount of the nutrients it needs.  She has been eating too little because of nausea caused by the bypass surgery.  Combine this with the inability to eat a lot and you’ve created a BIG problem.

With some minor changes in her eating, including more calorie dense foods and changing the times when she eats more or less, and adding some supplements, she told me I’ve done more for her in the short period of time that we’ve worked together than the many years of doctors’ visits she’s suffered through.  Years of suffering subsided (somewhat) in a matter of weeks.  This could happen to you too if you are willing and committed to giving it a try.

I’ve also talked to a few people (strangers) and know a couple more (friends and acquaintances) that have had the surgery and expected it to FIX everything and are surprised that they can’t eat everything that they want or that the weight comes back on.  They have complained of vomiting, nausea, cramping, etc., as a normal part of their day.  Is this how you really want to spend the rest of your life? Unable to enjoy eating and feeling healthy and satisfied?

Take a chance and contact a Health Coach.  Discuss with them what your issues are, what you have tried before, what worked and didn’t work, what you liked and didn’t like, what foods you absolutely cannot live without and why.  I will warn you that you may face some things that will be difficult to handle because basically you are dealing with your addiction to food.  You need to break the addiction, but you need to eat to survive.  It’s a fine line that you have to travel, but facing the real reasons that drive your addiction to food is the only way to overcome them.  Working with a Health Coach will help you work through your issues, step-by-step in a manner that you can handle.  Give them a chance to help you before you go under the knife for a procedure that most of the time is NOT REVERSABLE. 

My 95 lb. weight loss was accomplished using hard work, diet, exercise and a boat load of determination.  It was not easy.  But it was definitely worth it.  Today I can eat anything I want – as long as I watch my portions, caloric intake and eat mostly healthy.  And I LIKE eating healthy.  One time on vacation I went in thinking just to eat myself into oblivion because I was on vacation.  Eating anything and everything I wanted or that was in front of me or what everyone else was eating too.  By the second day I was shopping for fruits and vegetables because I truly hated how the crappy sugar-filled, deep fried, sauce covered, chocolate dipped foods were making me feel after just a couple of days.  Working with a coach, you can get to the point of enjoying eating in a healthy way too.

Gastric Bypass Surgery is just a tool.  You still have to work at fixing your head – emotionally and logically – for it to work.  If you don’t figure out why you are overeating, craving sweets all the time or what makes you binge, the tool you’ve suffered for is not going to work.  You still have to restrict your calories and choose to eat HEALTHY foods.  You still have to exercise to lose the weight.  You still have to do everything you would have to do to lose weight WITHOUT the surgery for it to work. 

Think of hiring a Health Coach as a last ditch effort to avoid going under the knife.  Take a chance but give it an honest chance – follow your coach’s suggestions and adhere to your plan and really TRY to make it work for a short time before you make the final decision to get cut open or not.  You may be surprised at what you learn about yourself and how much better you feel and avoid suffering for the rest of your natural life. 

Health Coaching is my passion.  Let me help you avoid a regrettable decision. Contact me to schedule your free consultation today! http://www.newyouwellnessllc.com/contact-nancy-walters.