5 Ways To Master Your Mindset After Weight Loss Surgery
After having a bariatric surgery, you have to follow some post surgery mindsets such as mindfulness training, daily meditation, keeping a diary, goal setting, and starting each day with purpose to achieve your weight loss goal.
After having a bariatric surgery, you have to follow some post surgery mindsets such as mindfulness training, daily meditation, keeping a diary, goal setting, and starting each day with purpose to achieve your weight loss goal.
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5 <strong>Ways</strong> <strong>To</strong> <strong>Master</strong> <strong>Your</strong> <strong>Mindset</strong> <strong>After</strong> <strong>Weight</strong> <strong>Loss</strong> <strong>Surgery</strong><br />
A patient said to me recently “the emotional changes I am experiencing since surgery have<br />
been completely unexpected and I think there needs to be more support for this after<br />
surgery”.<br />
There is so much support and guidance around the surgery itself and the initial pre and<br />
post-operative dietary stages, but this is only the beginning.<br />
Within the first couple of months of having bariatric surgery, most people learn a lot about<br />
themselves and their bad habits. Prior to surgery, many of these go unnoticed because it’s<br />
auto pilot behaviour, habitual patterns being practiced over and over again without much<br />
conscious thought.<br />
So now that these bad habits have been uncovered, what can you do to change them and<br />
set yourself up emotionally, for a rewarding and enjoyable new life?<br />
Here are my top 5 ways to master the post surgery mindset shift:<br />
Mindfulness Training
Mindfulness training, in particular mindful eating training is so valuable and really is the only<br />
way to gain control over your food intake including emotional eating. I am asked almost<br />
every day about how to stop emotional eating and my answer is always to practice mindful<br />
eating, everyday, as much as you can, until it becomes habit.<br />
The simplest way to start practicing mindful eating today is to use a hunger/fullness scale to<br />
rank your appetite before, during and after every meal and snack. On a scale form 0 to 10<br />
with 0 being starving, 5 being satisfied and 10 being stuffed full, pick a number that you<br />
think best represents your level of appetite and record it in a diary.<br />
You are aiming to only eat when your appetite is between 2-3 and to stop eating when you<br />
reach 5.<br />
Daily Meditation<br />
I know you are probably freaking out reading this one! Bare with me because it’s quicker and<br />
easier than you think and believe me, you will notice the benefits immediately.<br />
Meditation is simply focusing on your breath and you do this by switching off from the<br />
outside for short time each day. The improvement you will notice in your stress levels,<br />
eating habits and wellbeing are amazing!<br />
5 minutes each day is all it takes to reap the rewards of daily meditation practice. Follow<br />
these five steps to get started:<br />
1. Pick a quiet place to sit where you won’t be disturbed<br />
2. Relax your body, close your eyes and take deep breaths in and out. Focus on your<br />
breath<br />
3. With your eyes closed, observe the breath in and out<br />
4. When thoughts come into your mind, acknowledge them and gently move them on.<br />
Come back to the breath<br />
5. It’s important that you don’t make meditation a stressful part of your day. It will reduce<br />
stress and help you in so many ways if you allow it<br />
Keeping a Diary
Self-monitoring is an essential part of life when you are working towards achieving a goal. It<br />
is the only way to track your progress and keep yourself on the right path. There are many<br />
different ways to self-monitor. Hoping on the scales every week is one, keeping a journal<br />
and/or food diary is another.<br />
I had a patient recently come to me for advice on why their weight loss had stopped and<br />
number of blockages had increased. I got them to keep a strict food diary for a week (not for<br />
me to review but as a mindfulness, self monitoring exercise) and the result was amazing. In<br />
just 10 days they dropped 2kg and went from 2-4 blockages per day to only 2 in 10 days!<br />
Start now to keep a journal or food diary, do it every day for a month and see what changes<br />
you can achieve.<br />
Goal Setting<br />
It’s time to start putting yourself first, everyday. You have made the bold decision to have<br />
weight loss surgery for yourself and now you need to follow through. Set yourself some<br />
goals to ensure that you get the most from your weight loss surgery experience.<br />
Some goals may be weight related but try to set some that have nothing to do with weight<br />
as well. <strong>After</strong> all, life is bigger than just the number on the scale or the number on the tag of<br />
your clothes.<br />
It is a good idea to arrange your goals into short, medium and long term.<br />
Start Each Day with Purpose<br />
There is only one thing in life that you can never have more of and that is time. How you<br />
choose to spend your time is going to determine whether or not you ever get to live the life<br />
you dream of or not. Once you have your goals written down, you can then set daily<br />
intentions to help you achieve them. Start each day with purpose by selecting an affirmation<br />
or word that you will live by that day that will edge you closer to the life you want for<br />
yourself.
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