Individual Therapy
Are You Emotionally Prepared For Longterm Success after 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.
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.
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.
Create Your Bariatric Success Story
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.
Individual Therapy Can Help You Rewrite Your Story
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.
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. 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? 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.