If you are Food Cheating your Bariatric Surgery, you may not know it, but there is a brick wall with Your Name on it that you will eventually hit. Hard. It will be painful. It's not smart to ignore facts.

Is it Loose or Lose?

That you are giddy with excitement because you are still *loosing weight* while eating foods you love that you know created your morbid obesity... is stupid. Most of us do it to some extent but some of you take the cake. Literally. So many post ops ignore facts and common sense as they boast 'they must be doing something right' to lose all this weight, when it's really the surgery.

Ask Dr. Now, Dom or Suzi!

Yep, its 100% surgery in your entire first year. Ask anyone who has been there. You are not special. You are not lucky that you can eat everything. It is the same surgery and it works the same for everyone. Cheetos are not a food for those who have had obesity surgery. Surgery only gives us one big ole head start of 100 pounds off our shoulders and then its up to us. Truth. Please accept this as fact instead of fighting it. We only have 7 to 9 months to get our act together with food and change before the burden of weight loss falls on us. IF one could have obesity surgery and remain in skinny jeans while eating PIZZA and ICE CREAM, we would be shouting it from the rooftops!

HELL TO THE NO to the Pizza Roll

Every day in our Support Groups on Facebook we battle with folks desperate to hang on to foods that brought them to the door of stomach removal surgery in the first place. Why does it make sense that you could eat the same food that grew you to 400 pounds? Explain that math. Your surgeon and nutritionist did NOT tell you that you could continue eating pizza rolls and Subway sandwiches. Please nod your head that you know this. Uh huh, that's right.

Six Bariatric Lessons Best Learned from the 'Misfortunes of Others'
  1. You've got to learn to FEED YOURSELF in a way that doesn't rely on take out, fast food, frozen food, soda and crap from vending machines. Broil a pork chop and slice a tomato.
  2. You've got to stop jumping on fad diets touting bacon and cheddar is the way, as it's not. The time for Keto and Bulletproof coffee was before you had most of your stomach removed.
  3. You've got to eat vegetables... put on your big girl panties and find a way to eat spinach, tomatoes, and zucchini that doesn't involve Ranch Dressing. Roast them, put them in a stir fry, make a side salad. Grown ups eat vegetables. Be a grown up.
  4. Accept as fact that cream cheese is an ingredient in a once a year dessert and not a way to make chicken *creamier*.
  5. You cannot sit in front of a TV or the computer and play video games for hours, you've got to find a hobby that gets you moving. Buy a BIKE or a JUMP ROPE or today start walking to the end of your driveway and back.
  6. Stay out of Fast Food restaurants. Your Fast Food card has been REVOKED and none of the foods there are any of your business. Even the salads. No one wants to eat a salad at McDonalds. Please stop trying to convince us that you LIKE them and it's convenient. WE SPEAK FATBRAIN TOO.

Making these line items part of your everyday life is the only way this will work. If you are NOT ready to accept this, please join a group who will tell you what you want to hear. When you don't get to goal or when your pants don't fit, WE WILL STILL BE HERE FOR YOU. We won't even say WE TOLD YOU SO.

We are here to help people. We have been there and done it ourselves. This is not our first rodeo. Stick with us and you will go places... and live the life you've always dreamed of. It IS right there for you but you have to work for it.

Bariatric Recipes Advice, Rants & Support Podcast: Real Talk