Weight loss surgery (WLS) requires that one changes lifelong eating and exercise habits to lose and sustain weight loss. I have often said. “Losing weight is hard, keeping it off is harder.” It can be very difficult when you are in the weight maintenance stage to continue to be motivated to stick with healthy eating and regular exercise. I was curious to know what motivated our patients to stay on track or get back on track. I decided to discuss motivation at our last support group meeting and below is a summary of what motivates our patients.
- Set short and long term goals for both diet and exercise – make a promise that you will walk 20 minutes 3 times per week or you start meal prepping each Sunday for the week.
- Tracking your progress in some way – social media, logging your foods and/or exercise
- Focus on non-scale victories – such as being off medications or CPAP, fitting into smaller clothes, having more energy and over better quality of life.
- Use social media to see other peoples’ progress or share your own progress.
- Coming to our monthly bariatric surgery support group meetings.
- Having your own support network of family, friends, coworkers and acquaintances.
- Still having restriction – knowing your “pouch” is still working.
- Knowing that unhealthy foods do not “feel good” and being okay with that – this makes unhealthy foods less tempting.
- Trying not to let other people or things get in the way of your eating and exercise plans – make your new lifestyle a priority.
Different things motivate us to stay on point with our lifestyle changes. What motivates you to stay on track? Please share your tips and thoughts in our comments section.
Dietitian’s Corner by Lori Skurbe
Dietitian’s Corner is a monthly column for post-op and pre-op patients of bariatric surgery in NJ written by Prime Surgicare’s Lori Skurbe. Lori has been a dietitian for over 20 years with an extensive background in weight management, bariatric nutrition and diabetes education.