Don't be sad: Avoid grieving for food

Gentle Reminder: Avoid Grieving for Food

This is a time of year when we can start to feel sorry for ourselves because we can't eat the way we used to - we can't eat in the manner that made us obese. I am pulling forward this article about grieving for food as a gentle reminder that we do not have to be victims of our WLS. Surgical intervention in the battle against obesity was a personal choice to save our own lives: we must never allow ourselves to feel punished because of this choice.

Gentle Reminder: Avoid Grieving for Food

(Previously posted December 13, 2005)
 New gastric bypass patients say they miss food, they grieve the loss of food, they yearn for their old foods. Some describe it like the death of a beloved friend. The foods patients grieve for are sweets and baked goods, pasta with heavy sauces, and salty snacks.

Mourning for lost foods is a natural step in the re-birth process after weight loss surgery (WLS).

However, I submit this phase can pass quickly if we consciously remind ourselves that these very foods we have loved and lost were not our friends. These foods were killing us. These foods caused us to be morbidly obese. Prior to surgery a morbidly obese person is dying a slow death by over consumption and malnutrition. Poor nutrition and excess weight taxed the cellular structure of the body causing illness, pain and suffering. Weight loss surgery was a last-ditch effort to save a life and restore quality to living.

Say goodbye and good riddance to those poisonous foods. They are not part of your life any more and isn’t that a blessing? Isn’t that exactly what you wanted when you elected to save your life with weight loss surgery?

Losing these foods is not deprivation – it is liberation from the damage, pain and suffering they were causing your body. Celebrate their loss, don’t mourn it. I guarantee when you start looking at it this way the phase of grief and mourning will be brief because your mind will not allow you to simultaneously grieve and celebrate.

Kaye Bailey © 2005 - All Rights Reserved

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