For those of us who, like me, were somewhat overweight before gastric surgery, the weight loss that followed it was its only welcome side-effect, while, if you’ve had bariatric surgery, it would be the desired outcome. Once we’ve left our nutritionist’s care, therefore, our main concern may be to ensure the weight stays off or keeps coming off.
Disclaimer: The advice on this website has come out of my own experience in my own particular situation. Where it contradicts your nutritionist’s advice, please ignore mine. Your nutritionist knows best.
The following are a few suggestions that might help you keep the weight off while staying healthy:
§ Whatever you do, don’t fall into the trap of thinking it’s all too hard and restricting yourself to a diet of ice cream or mashed potatoes. This website will help you see that there are lots of options for you which are not at all too difficult, so stay a while and browse. You’ll find that you can still enjoy your food as much as you ever did, only in smaller parcels.
§ Rather than three square meals, you’ll most likely be having frequent small snacks throughout the day. If you do, make sure you choose nutritious snacks that between them cover all the essential food groups. Download a PDF copy here of a chart that will help you keep track.
§ Avoid or limit foods that are high in fat and/or sugar. This can be a problem when we’re out and about because most of the snacks we can buy will be high in one or the other. Your best option is to bring healthy snacks from home when you go out (see Take Out Snacks).
§ Eggs, meat and fish pack a lot of nutrition in a small package, and rice is easy to prepare and digest, but we should make sure we have a varied diet and also eat enough dairy food, fruit, vegetables, nuts and pulses.
- Always have some cheese, fruit and nuts on hand as quick top-ups.
- Include some lettuce, coleslaw mix or a few spinach leaves in your deli meat wrap or sandwich.
- Make sure you have at least one all-vegetable meal each day.
- Serve a little salad or vegetables on the side with your meat meals.
- Snack on carrot and celery sticks and fresh fruit.
§ Whatever the size of our stomachs, we still have the same cravings for treats we’ve always had. Plan your day so as to make sure you’ve had enough meat, vegetables and fruit before you start on the treats. If you must snack make sure you have nutritious snacks on hand, such as cheese, dips, nuts and dried fruit. Don’t waste your limited stomach capacity on empty calories like sweet biscuits or potato crisps. (Make sure to get the go ahead from your nutritionist before eating nuts and dried fruit.)
§ Take advantage of your situation to learn a whole new way of eating. Don’t push yourself to increase the size of the portions you can eat and stretch the time between meals to as long as you can manage.
§ Don’t hesitate to use your surgery to stop your friends and family pressing you to eat too much or indulge in unhelpful treats.
§ Perhaps more important than what you do or don’t eat to keep the weight off is to keep moving. In your early days, while you’re still gaining strength, you can do regular gentle exercise like walking, swimming, tai chi or line dancing. Once you have fully recovered you can move onto more vigorous sport or exercise.
§ If you have limited mobility due to obesity or because of problems with your back, knees or feet, you can still do non-weight bearing exercise, such as exercising and walking in water, or chair exercises.
§ If you aren’t the sporty type, you can build fun and incidental activity into your daily life.
- Join a walking group or meet up regularly with a friend to walk and talk.
- Climb stairs instead of taking the lift.
- Take public transport instead of driving.
- Walk instead of taking short bus or tram trips.
- Get a trolley and walk to the shops instead of taking the car.
- Join interest and activity groups that get you out of the house.
- Take self-directed walking tours or join walking tours run by local history groups or neighbourhood houses.
- Take public transport to visit exhibitions or local tourist attractions.
- Take a train out of the city and walk around country towns.
In other words, take every opportunity to enjoy life.
If you’re still struggling with your weight, especially if your blood sugar levels are getting dangerously high, see 6 Ways to Stave Off Diabetes for more helpful tips.