The Aftereffects Of Weight Loss Surgery: Make Progress And Avoid Problems
Weight loss surgery can be very effective, helping people shed many pounds and improve several health factors such as blood glucose and joint health. But it also brings several issues that patients have to be ready to handle on short notice. It's not for nothing that doctors usually want patients to undergo extensive counseling before the surgery to begin to unravel tangled problems that could ruin the effects of the surgery. If you are planning to have weight loss surgery, be prepared for these situations so that you continue to improve.
Stress and Emotional Eating
One of the more serious issues with weight loss surgery is emotional or stress eating. Because you can no longer have a large amount of food in your stomach, you have to find a different way to handle feeling down. If you weren't prone to emotional, stress, or boredom eating before the surgery, this should be relatively easy for you. But if those types of eating were a major issue, you need to start addressing the underlying problems before the surgery. You're not going to be able to cheat and have feasts after the surgery without potentially severe consequences.
Social Life Changes
If much of your social life revolved around food and alcohol—as many people's social lives do—you are going to have to figure out which establishments will be safe for you to visit. Those are ones where you won't be tempted to have too much food or eat foods you need to avoid post-surgery. You'll also have to be prepared for some of your friends to drift away if they want to always go to places you can't go.
Food Pressure
Your surgery won't be obvious to people you meet randomly. If you see someone after a long time, your weight loss will be obvious, but unless you say you had surgery, they won't know. That means you could encounter pressure to eat something you shouldn't—and you need to develop a repertoire of responses to stop that pressure. If you feel comfortable saying you had surgery and can't eat whatever it is, that should work. But if you don't want to tell everyone about the surgery, you'll have to get very good at standing your ground on and not letting people force food on you.
Many people have undergone weight loss surgery and successfully navigated the weird waters they encounter after the procedure. So, don't worry; just be prepared, follow your doctor's advice, and get any counseling that you and your doctor think appropriate to prepare you for your new relationship with food.