Bariatric Support Group

 Are You Emotionally Prepared For Bariatric Surgery?

Have you recently had gastric sleeve or bypass surgery—or plan to soon—and fear you might gain all the weight back? Is it hard to imagine what life will look like if your relationship with food changes? Do you want to ensure the long-term success of bariatric surgery but realize you need support to achieve your goals?

If you have struggled with your weight throughout your life, bariatric surgery offers a reset button like nothing else. However, though the surgery will physically modify your stomach to require less food, your mentality hasn’t changed. Perhaps, even after surgery, you are flooded with the same cravings and desires to eat the foods you love. The fear of backsliding and regaining the weight could be overwhelming and terrifying.

You Might Use Food To Regulate How You Feel

Until now, food may be how you relieve stress or avoid acknowledging more painful emotions. At times when you feel alone, you might rely on food to give you the love, comfort, and connection you need. This may be why your attempts at dieting have only ever achieved short-term results. Whether you attribute these failures to a lack of willpower or waning motivation, it’s clear that getting your eating under control requires far more than following a diet.

Unfortunately, one surgical procedure can’t wipe out a lifetime of unhealthy eating habits, either. To succeed post-surgery, you need to redefine your relationship with food and learn to love and accept yourself and your body. Individual therapy or a bariatric support group offers the support you need to stay on track and achieve long-term weight loss.

Long-Term Weight Loss Requires More Than Surgery

In many ways, undergoing bariatric surgery is like getting married. The surgery is similar to the wedding, a momentous event that requires advanced planning and preparation. But much like couples who end up separating because they focused more on the wedding day than the marriage that followed, getting surgery without addressing your relationship with food won’t be successful. Rather than solely focusing on the surgery, you need to acknowledge the new chapter of your story this reset represents.

Although we don’t get much say over the environment and influences of our early story, once we are older, we can go back and rewrite our story with a fresh perspective and an openness to change. With control of our narrative, we have to decide what we want for ourselves in the future.

What’s Our Story When It Comes To Food?

For many of us, food represents a coping mechanism we rely on to regulate our mood. Because we often associate food and sustenance with being loved, eating creates a sense of safety and comfort. We often turn to food when we feel lonely, stressed, or bored and need an emotional boost. However, emotional eating can potentially undermine the weight loss goals of bariatric surgery.

What’s more, our diet culture perpetuates external solutions for weight loss. Using self-help strategies that only engage our conscious mind—such as meal planning, dieting, exercising, and, ultimately, weight loss surgery—are not enough on their own. In fact, they can cause more suffering and self-doubt without addressing the root of the issue. For long-term goals to succeed, we must receive the appropriate support and therapy to address emotional eating behaviors and develop healthier coping strategies. In therapy, we work with the subconscious, the key to overeating and weight issues.

Bariatric Support Groups

If you’re considering—or have recently undergone—gastric sleeve or bypass surgery, you’re looking for permanent change. However, surgery alone is not a shortcut to the deeper work necessary to re-establish new habits and behaviors that will sustain the transformation you seek. It’s common to experience a “honeymoon phase” for the first year or two post-surgery, where you can maintain a lower weight with minimal effort. However, you will eventually start to digress unless you identify and overcome the emotional issues, unhealthy habits, and negative thought patterns that contribute to weight gain.

Of course you want surgery to be successful. However, overcoming the emotional obstacles preventing you from achieving your weight goals is up to you. If you are willing to take ownership of your story and explore the deeper reasons why you overeat, you can transform your relationship with food once and for all. When you commit to doing the work, you can write a new chapter in your story.

Bariatric Weight Loss Surgery Support Groups

I offer several online bariatric surgery support groups:

  • Gastric Bypass Support Group – My online therapy group is for post-op bariatric patients who struggling with psychological adjustments once the honeymoon phase is over and old habits start to sneak back in. We will meet for eight consecutive weeks to check in on your recovery and discuss whatever challenges you may encounter. We will identify the source of non-hungry eating and overeating habits and cultivate strategies for stress management, nutrition, and movement. You will also have access to text support in between our weekly meetings.

  • Emotional Eating Support Group for both pre- and post-op patients. We will meet online for six weeks, focusing on the issues associated with emotional eating, such as:

    • Reflecting on childhood experiences and how they affect your current relationship with food;

    • Exploring emotional eating triggers and breaking self-sabotaging habits;

    • Building self-awareness and self-compassion;

    • Identifying mental, emotional, psychological, and social needs;

    • Addressing lifestyle adjustment challenges and establishing healthier boundaries;

    • Utilizing Cognitive and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (CBT and DBT) for weight loss and guided visualizations to develop new coping strategies to ensure long-term success.

    • SMALL-GROUP COACHING

      • A small group of women who get what you’re going through and are ready to give and receive warm-hearted support.

      • Time to reflect on and unpack various situations and behaviors that may be affecting your self-care after bariatric surgery.

      • Specific information and resources for your challenges.

      • Friendship and inspiration. You are not alone!

      • Connects you to other patients, the benefits : sharing stories, offering a boost to others, and creating an extended sense of community among people who share in your struggles.

      My groups offer an intimate and supportive environment for women who are searching for a deeper, more lasting journey. This intimate group fosters an environment there you will be heard , supported, educated, validated , while developing new friendships, a way of living that supports your wellbeing, You can learn about other women’s struggles and share about your own.

But Maybe You’re Not Sure If A Bariatric Support Group Is Right For You…

Why do I need a bariatric support group in addition to surgery when it’s such a radical weight loss option?

It’s common for bariatric patients to believe that surgery alone is enough to control food intake for the rest of their lives. However, if weight loss surgery alone was a cure-all, no one would ever regain weight. The truth is, your subconscious mind is in charge of your eating, not your stomach. Even though you can implement external strategies—such as diet pills, calorie counting, and exercise routines—unless you redefine your relationship with food on the subconscious level, these measures will only go so far.

Even after I undergo surgery and weight loss therapy, it's hard to imagine I can give up my relationship with food altogether.

It’s likely that your relationship with food is complicated. Perhaps the idea of changing your eating habits scares you since food has been your source of relief, joy, and companionship, masking more painful emotions. In bariatric therapy, we will explore healthier alternatives that heal the deeper wounds that lie at the root of your emotional eating and won’t perpetuate self-sabotaging behaviors.

I don’t think I can afford a weight loss surgery support group.

As a former bariatric patient-turned-counselor, I am committed to helping others reconnect with themselves and their bodies. Because surgery is such a big investment, you need to address the underlying causes of overeating to ensure long-term success. That is why I offer bariatric support groups as a more affordable option than individual therapy. I also provide prepaid treatment packages at a discount, or we can space out the frequency of treatment if that helps. I will work with you to find an option that works best for you.

The power lies within you to reconnect with your body and mind in a healthier way.

Surround yourself others who understand and encourage your journey towards a healthier lifestyle. Sharing experiences and receiving guidance from those who have walked this path before you can be both comforting and empowering. To find out more about the bariatric support groups and individual therapy I offer, you can email sonja@mybariatricpsych.com, call or text 916-943-6574, or visit my contact page.