After weight loss surgery especially early on, your food portion sizes can be tiny, you may or may not feel hungry and you likely aren't able to easily meet your nutrition targets without eating small regular meals during the day and supplementing. When you speak to a few people, your surgical team and get onto your favourite Facebook support group you may end up confused as to whether you should be eating 3 meals during the day, 4-6 meals or just grazing all day long. It may even seem like you are eating and drinking all day! (A strange phenomena since all your life the emphasis may have been to not eat much...)So what is it that you should be...
Are you having or have you had weight loss surgery (also known as bariatric surgery or metabolic surgery)? Making the decision to have surgery likely wasn’t one you made overnight, in fact you probably watched others who have had surgery and did your research. You may have spoken to others, read experiences on the surgery forums and spoken to your doctor or a few surgeons. Weight loss surgery changes your life and you really need to be prepared for it physically, emotionally and mentally. So doing your research is important. But once you’ve done your research and got your surgeon, you may wonder if you really need to see a dietitian, especially if your surgeon hasn’t said anything about seeing...
Are you (or were you) an emotional eater before bariatric surgery? You weren't alone...many people turn to food when undergoing tough times, a crazy week, stressful situations or emotional times. Food has a bizarre way of making us feel better whilst not fixing the situation (and I don't mean carrot sticks and celery, rather is often the not so healthy stuff...). I don't know about you but somehow when emotional or stressed, digging into a big bowl of Nutella doused vanilla ice cream loaded with nuts somehow feels comforting (well at least at the time)... After surgery, turning to food isn't usually a viable option anymore and some people can really feel this loss. I've seen many patients in clinic who feel...
Quinoa is an amazing nutritious grain from South America. It's a great source of dietary fibre, higher in protein than other grains and a source of many nutrients including iron. You can substitute it for rice or cous cous as sides for stir-fries, curries, casseroles or use it in place of oats for a porridge or as I've done below, add it to salad. This salad is suitable for those on the Full Solid Phase after surgery and is also vegan and gluten free diet. I've included a few good sources of plant-based iron including the quinoa, baby spinach, raisins and pumpkin seeds as well as sources of vitamin to to aid absorption e.g. the lemon juice and the fresh tomatoes and...
Can you think of all the times you achieved something before surgery? It may have been that you finished school or a course, won some sort of competition or event, or you got promoted at work. Likely, 9 out of 10 times the reward involved a celebration with food whether it was going out to dinner, having cake or getting a box of chocolates. For some reason food seems to be both an essential for life but also a reward for achievement. But then you have bariatric surgery and food just isn’t the same anymore. Eating out isn’t what it used to be in that you can’t really eat much and have to be selective of your food...
