WHMP: 16 February 2018

What is one of the most common questions I get asked by people who have not yet had weight loss surgery or who are considering having weight loss surgery?

“Will I ever enjoy food again?”

And the short answer is simple….ABSOLUTELY!!

The long answer is yes you will enjoy food again, but it will not be in the way you have known your entire life.  Your relationship to food will change therefore it’s about developing a new relationship to your thoughts and approach to food to ensure that you continuing enjoying food.

So let me put some context behind this statement and have a discussion about addiction.

Addiction is a condition that results when a person ingests a substance or engages in an activity that can be pleasurable but the continuation of which becomes compulsive and interferes with ordinary responsibilities and concerns, such as work, relationships, or health.

Definition sourced from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/addiction

So essentially an addiction is having or doing something that in the short term meets an initial need but in the longer term has a detrimental effect to your life.

So this leads me to one simple conclusion, pre-surgery I was addicted to food.  Eating was an action that I did to meet my immediate need being hunger, boredom or an emotional need.  This eating from addition in the long term had the detrimental effect of my ending up morbidly obese and struggling to cope with going through the motions of everyday life.

If you compare the addiction of food to that of other addictions like smoking, alcohol, drugs or even gambling.  To overcome these addictions you end up eliminating them from your life and living an improved and healthier life without these addiction in your life.  You can easily continue living without these things in your life.  So what about a food addiction?? You can’t eliminate food from your life, you need food to survive.

So if I can’t eliminate food from my life as I need nutrition from food to survive I go back to the original concept of food addressing the short term needs.  So instead of elimination of the problem, why not treat the cause……what is causing the short term need.

It has taken me 14 months to realise this now that I am on “the bench” that food was my comfort. No matter what stresses and external pressure I had happening in my life, the one thing I could always count on to be there was food.  No matter how bad things were the one thing I could control and the one thing that I could count on was that food would always immediately provide me with happiness.  This relationship with food had to change and instead of seeking comfort from food to whatever was going on with life I needed to learn to adjust and accept the situation in less self-destructive ways

My sleeve has not made this change with my thinking.  It’s me…..I have made this change acknowledging that my sleeve has been the catalyst to make the changes I needed to make.

This hasn’t happened overnight as some miracle cure that as a part of removing my stomach that they implanted a chip to fix everything.  This has been evolution where I have become more self-aware of my feelings and emotions.  I have learnt to stop and take time for myself to understand and allow myself to feel whatever I am feeling.  It’s ok to be happy, it’s ok to be sad, it’s ok to be angry, it’s ok to be disappointed and it’s ok the articulate and express these feelings.  What is not ok is for me to suppress these feelings and seek comfort in my old friend food.

My addiction to food may always be in the back of the mind, but I guess in essence I have replaced this addiction.  I am now addicted to myself and now I seek that short term comfort from myself.  To stop and take the time to acknowledge and understand me and my surroundings.  I am worth investing the time in.

What is my point?  My point is that my relationship with food has changed.  I was addicted to food as a self-comforting device.  This couldn’t continue and I am pleased to say that I am well on my way to no longer doing this…..I’m not perfect, it still happens occasionally if I am completely honest with myself.  I used to think that food was my enemy, food was the reason that I was fat BUT no food was not my enemy at all, it was my choices in the way I abused food that was the enemy not the food itself.

So this is where my mentality around food has changed that he been a major catalyst to my success so far.  Food is not my enemy, food is my fuel.  Food is not a treatment to my immediate needs, I am the treatment to my immediate needs.  I need food to fuel my body for it to function, I do not need food for immediate emotional or situational gratification.

My sleeve has obviously supported these changes within myself to address my portion control.  I now see that Percy has limited real estate so I am going to make sure whatever I put in there is the best of the best!! I am going to fill Percy with prime real estate so that I can get all of the fuel, in the form of nutrients, vitamins and minerals, that I need for me to live my life in my new happier and healthier lifestyle.

So I revert back to the original question of will I ever enjoy food again?

In fact I actually enjoy food MORE now than I did pre-surgery.  Food is my friend, it is not my enemy. Food provides me with the fuel and nutrition I need to live and sustain my new happy and active lifestyle.  I am enjoying the flavours, textures and visual appeal of food so much more than pre-surgery.  I am taking the time to appreciate each mouthful, each flavour rather than inhaling massive portions of food to meet my emotional cravings.

So yes, I do enjoy food! I love food, I love the visual appeal, I love the flavour profiles….…post-surgery this love is just served in tea party portions.