Prep for Weight Loss Surgery: The Secret to Sustainable Results
Why Mindset Matters Before Bariatric Surgery
What is your weight loss “why”? I believe understanding the answer to this question on
a personal level is central to not only finding success with your weight loss
but also the deep satisfaction that should follow along with it. When it’s
simply about a number on the scale, satisfaction is almost always fleeting.
Once again, if weight loss is associated with comparison, satisfaction and
pleasure will be short-lived. So how can your weight loss from bariatric surgery be associated with
true satisfaction? With a lasting sense of fulfillment?
I believe this only comes when it is coupled with fulfilling that for which you were created.
True life change only occurs when the triune nature of the mind, body,
and spirit are in alignment with one another. Establishing this balance is
the key to living out a life of fulfillment.
How to Find Your Why for Weight Loss
Maybe your weight loss why is about self-esteem, finally feeling comfortable and happy
in your own skin. Maybe you want to gain the physical ability to do the
things you love—play golf, ride a bike, hike mountains. Each of our whys
is unique and custom, just as each of us is one of a kind. Identifying the
deep-rooted why behind your search for life change is essential. If you
haven’t clearly outlined the purpose behind pursuing this path, you may
find yourself turning back before reaching your destination. Fast forward
to the healthiest version of you. What do you see? Are you off medications,
physically capable of getting on the floor with your grandchildren, sleeping
better?
This is where you will discover your why. Unpack the layers.
During the initial consultation with a patient considering bariatric
surgery, I will typically ask them to lay out their goals to me. Often, they
will tell me they want to “get healthy” or “lose X number of pounds.” I
always tell them that the journey toward weight loss, health, and wellness is never easy
and requires a motivation and perseverance that goes beyond a number
on a scale or the vague goal of “getting healthy.” One needs to establish
their big why.
We need something more meaningful than the number on the scale
to encourage us to change habits and make long-term healthy choices.
Weight loss has to transcend the “eat this, not that” slogan. People have a
plethora of goals when starting their weight-loss journey. Sometimes it’s
to get healthy, exercise more, or eat right. These are great goals, but we
often encourage patients to go deeper. Don’t tell me your goal is to lose
weight. Get personal.
What does “getting healthy” mean to you? Maybe it’s getting off your
blood pressure medicines, no longer being a diabetic, or preventing your
fatty liver disease from progressing to liver cirrhosis. Be specific. Instead
of wanting to keep up with your kids, how about riding bikes around the
block with them? Or riding the rollercoasters at a theme park? The more
personal, the better.
What Sustainable Weight Loss Really Requires
Let’s face it. Making life changes necessary to produce sustainable
results will never be easy. It requires a journey and a path toward the goal
of health and wellness. Any journey in life of real value requires two pri-
mary components: First, it takes effort. Real effort. Effort that is focused
and uncompromising. Effort grounded in the determination that failure
is not an option. And second, it requires navigating life’s challenges—the
impediments, glitches, and obstacles that threaten to halt your journey
and make your goals seem unattainable. Challenges are a given in life.
Everyone faces them. The higher the stakes, the greater the challenges and
the larger the roadblocks.
Whether you are pursuing an education, a physical challenge such as
a marathon, or the true pursuit of health and wellness, these achievements
take time. They never come overnight. The time it requires to achieve these
accomplishments opens the door to the unexpected events that life always
brings. And when life becomes challenging, those individuals lacking
clear and concise goals will often become discouraged and throw in the
towel. But when you have clearly established your why, it becomes much
easier to forge through the storms and accomplish that which at one time
seemed impossible.
As you start down the road to life change, what is the destination in your
mind’s eye? If weight loss is just a certain number on a scale or a particular pant size, I
encourage you to pivot and think bigger than that. Go beyond the pant size,
and think about what that size represents to you. Maybe it’s liking what you
see when you look in the mirror. Maybe that pant size represents physical
fitness to you and being able to do certain activities without losing your
breath.
Don’t settle on a weight loss why that is fleeting and isolated (like a number
on a scale) but challenge yourself to build one that incorporates things
you love about life: the people in your life, the activities you love, things
that you’ve always wanted to do. Your why should be balanced in mind,
body, and spirit. It should be reflective of the holistic life you want to live.
What do you picture when you think of a balanced and healthy life?
Perhaps you picture yourself in the kitchen making a healthy dinner for
your family and enjoying it together around the table rather than hitting
another drive-through. Maybe you imagine yourself going on a walk
around the neighborhood with your spouse a few nights every week and
not experiencing intense joint pain afterward. Maybe your destination is
confidently signing up for a 5K race with some friends, knowing what to
order at restaurants to maintain supportive nutrition, or visiting your primary
doctor and having them tell you to stop your blood pressure medication.
What you picture will help you uncover what your why is. This is what
will drive you during the hardest days as you walk toward life change.
Sometimes it can feel intensely difficult to kick unhealthy habits and form
healthy ones. This is when you need your why the most.
Are You Ready to Lose Weight, or Ready to Change Your Life?
The reality is that there is no final destination. Our lives are fluid and
ever-changing while we are alive. But one day, after journeying down the
road to life change, you will look around and see the place you always
wanted to be: in the kitchen making a healthy dinner or playing with your
kids in the park, realizing you haven’t had joint pain in a few weeks. And
you will be able to celebrate this progress and keep moving forward. True
satisfaction is found in the journey!
And so, I not only ask patients to tell me their why but I also ask if
they are ready. “Ready to lose weight?” they might ask. “No,” I reply, “Ready
to change your life.” You must be ready to look deep inside and identify
the many layers culminating into the person you are today. Are you willing
and ready to peel back those layers one at a time as you begin to uncover
the person God created you to be?
Dig deep and find your why. Write it down, and post it in an area that
forces you to acknowledge it daily, like your bathroom mirror. As you look
in the mirror, repeat the words written on the paper and remind yourself
that you are worth it. Reframing your health journey through the lens of
your why will affect and improve every part of the process.
Are you a candidate for our weight loss programs? Take the quiz!
*Florida Coast Weight Loss Center (FCWLC) is a unique practice
focused on changing lives. I am a foregut surgeon specializing in bariatric
and reflux surgery whose primary mission has always been focused on life
change for my patients, not simply losing weight. At FCWLC, our goal is
to treat patients anywhere from thirty to five hundred pounds overweight
with compassionate and individualized care.