Facilitator: Stephanie Wagner, MS, RDN
Stephanie started with the two most important issues in getting back on track whenever you find you’ve regained some weight and stopped following your guidelines: Motivation and Accountability; the “mental side” of getting back on track.
Key 1: Motivation – what motivated you a year ago is different than what motivates you today. A year ago, or whenever you first had surgery, you were motivated by the new surgery. Now you have to find a new motivation.
- Internal Motivators – that is the excitement that comes from within
- External motivators – these are easier – things like coming to support group, family and friends who support you, looking at pictures of where you were a year ago, etc. The more you surround yourself with external motivators, the more you will be able to ignite that internal motivator
Key 2: Accountability – you need an accountability partner (preferably not a family member or best friend) who will be honest with you and check in with you on a regular basis. This is someone who is able to hold your feet to the fire when you don’t do what you said you would
Key 3: The 4 Pillars of Health – these are the basics – the things the body needs all the time
- Water – a lot of people confuse hunger with dehydration – you have to keep up with your water, or you won’t feel good. Water is also essential for metabolizing the fat. A good way to remind yourself to get your water (sugar free fluids) is to set your phone alarm for every 15 minutes and make yourself drink
- Meal Structure – your body craves consistency, and you need to have consistent times you eat your 3 meals a day so you stop snacking
- Food Choices – you need to eat quality food, not junk food, and not simple carbs
- Exercise – you have to move – find something you enjoy doing and “just do it”
Key 4: Setting a Realistic Plan – focus on your ACTIONS and not the results (don’t weigh daily)
- Set a start date
- Develop a meal plan
- Make a grocery list
One of the biggest reasons for weight regain is people let simple carbs back into their diet. These can slide on through and you begin eating bigger portions. Many people thing they’ve stretched out their stomach, but usually the anatomy hasn’t changed, but the quality of what you are eating has.
A “pouch reset” is not about changing the size of your stomach, but about clearing the carbs out of your system. This takes about 4 – 5 days. Treat it more as a mental reset, and ignore the scales. Look at is as a way to clean the slate, and start back on your initial post op diet. Have a day of sugar free clear liquids, then a day of full liquids with a protein shake, then a day of pureed food, then a day of soft, low fiber food that is all protein, then begin adding in a few veggies, and finally some fruit.
Key 5: Trash the Triggers – we spend most of our time at home in the kitchen, and a lot of time at work. We can clean out the items that are triggers for us. While you can’t completely control your environment, control what you can.
- It’s hard for others to support you when they don’t have to
- Have separate shelves in the pantry or fridge that are for specific family members
- Have a contraband list – something that cannot be brought into the house – and let everyone contribute to it (like Oreo cookies, or other snack foods that have no nutritional value)
- Soda pop – if other family members drink it and won’t give it up, see if you can get a mini-fridge and keep it out of sight
You can go to Stephanie’s website: www.foodcoach.me and join for 2 weeks free. After that it is $10 a month, but you can get recipes, do meal planning which will then generate a grocery list, and watch her educational videos. She has a whole section of “Back on Track” videos to watch. She showed how to navigate through the website to use it to make getting back on track much easier, and there are over 500 recipes on there. If you don’t want to do meal planning, she has some pre-planned meals for you. It’s a fun way to do your weekly planning and then it will generate your grocery list and you are done!