Sara Kelly Keenan LC

I love the link to the Gretchen Rubin article too. When I wrote in my article above that one of the ways people regain is to try to keep "trigger" or "comfort " foods in their lives in moderation I was trying to express what Gretchen Rubin is also saying. Many find abstaining easier and more freeing long term and more conducive to weight loss and a healthier relationship with food than trying to keep these foods in our lives in moderation. The "sex on a plate" reference struck me as so helpful because when I and others I have worked with try to keep "comfort" foods in our lives in moderation it is easy to slide into a sensual relationship with the experience of intaking that food that takes on almost a sexual quality. The ingesting of it can become a rhythmic form of self-pleasuring that could almost benefit from a Barry White album playing in the background!

Yvonne, I love your "sex on a plate" comment. There's a lot of truth in that for me.

MBM1Forever: "I am wondering out loud if the focus would not get so off track after the "honeymoon" period if the focus was always to eat a healthy diet." RIGHT ON!!

Ro, I sent you a private message.

I see what you are saying Stevehud and I have a similar "personal definition" of success. I think it is important to differentiate between "personal success" (the amount of weight loss I personally want to experience in order for the surgery to feel successful to me) and "success" as defined by the medical studies. They are overly broad for my purposes but I'm sure they have their reasons. That said, as a coach I help my clients figure out what "success" measure is meaningful for them, keeping in mind that definition can change over time as the process of losing weight and getting healthier occurs and goals that seemed impossible become possible. So I revisit with my clients their definition of success throughout the (generally) 3-6 month coaching process.

Thank you for your comments Reeger, They are detailed, informative and add a lot to this discussion. You are right that the physiology of obesity is a complicated and still mysterious area of medicine, that we are in the early stages of understanding the science of obesity medicine and the shortcomings of the procedures. You are much better trained and informed than I to have that discussion with our clients. The word "non compliance" comes from the National Institutes for Health (NIH) research materials I quoted. I did not intend any blame in the use of that word. For me, it is a statement of fact and I took it as such from the NIH. For example, in my first 3 years post-op (2004-2007) when I lived on caffeine and high-calorie liquids (as I wrote about in my article "Vulnerability, Weight Loss Surgery and Cross-Addictions" last August) I was in "non-compliance" with my doctor's care plan for me and my pre-surgery plan and promise to myself. I am acknowledging the fact. You, as a medical professional, and I, as a coach, have a common goal I believe which is to help our clients become the healthier people they desire to be. I believe our roles are different but complimentary. You have outlined very well the shortcomings of the procedures and how medical science is in many ways in its' infancy in understanding the biological issues that come into play with obesity. That is your area of expertise and I leave that to you and the bariatric surgeons who refer people to me to discuss that with our clients. I, as a coach, have a different role. My role is to help our clients figure out "where" they are with regard to their health, "where" they want to be, what incremental steps they can take and are willing to take to move that direction and then support them in moving that direction with a intentional plan. I wrote this article to highlight how people struggle and what steps they can take to positively affect their own outcomes more. I tried to provide strategies for moving through these struggles toward that outcome through patient-driven change. I don't minimize the science. I am glad you are there for our patients to work with them on the science. I am here to help them get focused on their desired, healthier life and break down the achievement of that into incremental, manageable tasks that can be built upon to improve their health and the quality of their lives as they define "quality."

MBM1Forever, You are right about it not always feeling like a Honeymoom. It's only a Honeymoon in that many people find losing weight in the first year is easier than losing it after the first year or maintaining the loss. But the first 6-12 months for me were closer to a Hell than a Honeymoon. I do want to offer you some hope and tell you that for me the first year was the worst and it was not a "new normal" I was living but was a hard-time of adjustment. The new normal that I settled into in the years after was more pleasant and easier to live with. 13 years later I can tell you that in the first year I couldn't have imagined what is normal for me now! I think it is likely that your "damn difficult" time is part of the early phase of recovery and it will get better. "New Normal" is likely a kinder place and further down the road.

VSGAnn, I agree with you that there isn't enough (I'd say any) rigorous research around the regain issue and I wish there was more of it too. NWLR's study is good for learning what "works" but not great since becoming a member of their study requires successful, maintained weight loss. It's a study of what "works" in weight loss generally and is not a study of Weight Loss Surgery. Unlike other "disease recovery studies" there is shame and stigma involved in regain of weight so the patient is more likely to disconnect from medical resources and "fall of the radar." Regarding those people you mentioned who are regaining on 1200 calories per day, I work with people like that to speed-up their metabolisms very gradually so they can eat up to 2300-2800 calories per day and burn it all. But it tests most people's self-discipline to be able to do that. It involves very intentional daily exercise and very precise nutritional macros which are both ramped up slowly over a period of months. It takes a tremendous amount of focus and dedication for 4-6 months, like the focus required for professional athletics, but it is possible. Using this approach I took my metabolism from burning 1200 calories per day (after weight-loss) to maintaining my current weight eating 2800 calories per day. My calorie consumption is higher than the average because I am over six feet tall.

Hi FocusOnMeNow, One of the things i do in my practice is help people create and live a list like the one you refer to. What I've learned over time is that it is a very personal list and needs to be revisited over and over again. It also helps to break the list down into small, achievable tasks. Everyone finds comfort in different ways or combinations of ways and those ways change over time. The list can also broaden as you lose weight and work on fitness as well. For instance, my first list included walking my dogs 20 minutes per day up a 300 foot hill. That, over several years, morphed into a passion for hiking, then ultra-distance hiking, then mountain-climbing. I could not have known at 333 pounds what my list would become! My best advice to you is create a flexible list that you revisit often to add activities that provide comfort, but more importantly passion. When we live passionate, vision-filled lives things like the cake are less tempting because they don't advance us on our paths towards our vision of the future-life we desire.

Making the decision to have weight loss surgery is a very big deal. It seems obvious to say that when someone agrees to weight-loss surgery they're desperate for help to change the way they're living, or not fully living their lives. Everyone goes into the procedure ready and willing to surgically alter their anatomy hoping for a better future. So why is it that so many will fall short of losing the optimal amount of weight for their health and will actually regain within 3 years much if not all of the weight they lost? Some studies say 1/3 of patients will regain most of their weight post-surgery. I think the number is actually higher because many people who regain simply fall out of contact with their bariatric surgeon and support staff because they feel ashamed, so the statistics do not include these people. So, why do most people regain the weight? What can you do to help insure that you will be one of the successful long-term losers of your excess weight? By examining why people fail you can create a plan for how you will succeed. The government agency, National Institutes for Health (NIH) defines weight-loss surgery as "merely a tool that helps people get a new start toward maintaining long-term good health. The surgery alone will not help someone lose weight and keep it off. Together with a reduced-calorie and low-fat diet and daily exercise, surgery will help an individual lose weight and maintain the weight loss.” Please read that a few times. That is how important this quote is! The surgery alone will not help someone lose weight and keep it off. We as weight-loss surgery patients have a history of seeking comfort, happiness and pleasure through food. We wouldn't be here if that weren't true. Me included. The process of surgically altering our anatomies does nothing to remove from us the tendency to seek comfort in familiar ways but assures there will be physical suffering if we do. Post-surgery we will still have the same brain that is used to comforting us with food, and we will still have the fingers and the arms that are used to lifting food to the same mouth to find comfort and pleasure. It is critically important that the WLS patient seek out new ways to soothe, comfort, and find pleasure in their world other than by eating. ONE main reason patients regain their weight is they search for ways to get around the surgery, still thinking of food as primarily a source of pleasure, not a source of fuel that can be pleasurable. This is often done relying on liquid calories, which may pass more easily, like high calorie coffee or juice bar drinks or alcohol. This is also done post-operatively by trying to maintain the presence of “trigger foods” in their lives. “Trigger foods” are often foods from the patient's past that helped cause obesity, do not satisfy hunger but instead create a craving. Many are high-calorie and highly processed, not nutritious. Trigger foods can include chocolate, chips, crackers, bread, cookies, ice cream, pudding, lattes, frapuccinos and alcoholic beverages. Really, any food can be a “trigger food” if there is so much pleasure in the “mouth-feel” or taste that repeating the pleasurable experience takes on more importance than actually feeding hunger. Very successful patients cultivate a mostly trigger-free post- surgical life. Bariatric surgeons and the NIH know the most common reason for regain and the most common post- surgical complication is “noncompliance.” Non-compliance is a fancy word that means the patient is not eating and exercising the way he/she agreed to before surgery. These people “talk the talk.” The successful patient “walks the walk” after surgery and changes how they eat and move. A SECOND reason people often regain beginning in the second or third year post-op is that the “honeymoon” is over. The “honeymoon” generally encompasses the first 12 to 18 months post- surgery. During this time many patients will say, "I could eat all the chocolate and ice cream I wanted and still lose weight. I didn't have to try and the weight just came off.” This is often true because the body has been through such a shock after surgery that it takes months for the body to reset itself and learn to function with its' new physiology. Patients who regain their weight often believe that this “honeymoon period” is the new way that it will always be and don't adopt healthy eating patterns. So when their “honeymoon period” ends as it will they believe that the surgery has somehow failed them. In reality they have failed their surgery! During the first 12-18 months post-op it is essential to develop healthy patterns around food and exercise. This is the time when it is actually easiest to do and to not do so wastes a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to begin a great new life with positive momentum. A THIRD reason many patients regain much of their lost weight is a lack of support. Humans are social animals and we desire and need the support of each other throughout our lives. For thousands, if not tens of thousands, of years people coming together as a family or a community over food has been a way we connect with each other. Post-surgery, when the patient isn't able to eat what others are eating or in the quantities others are eating, or others are eating their 'trigger foods”, life can feel very stressful and lonely. This can be compounded by being around unsupportive people or people who want to be supportive but don't know how. Patients fail by not surrounding themselves with supportive people in a safe environment where they also must be accountable for their actions and behavior with food and their bodies. It is key to have a community of professionals and non-professionals who understand the challenges and hardships faced by those carving a new life with a new anatomical structure. There are online and in-person support groups. Even patients who've gone abroad for weight loss surgery can often use the support services available with their local medical group's Bariatric department. Creating relationships that support and assist you in becoming a healthier person and that hold you accountable for making healthy choices are key. These are my top three. What would you add to this list? What plan will you create to deal with the items you add to this list? Who will support you on this journey of your life.....for your life?

Lisa, What can you do/say to yourself in the early moments of the downward spiral to end the free-fall into self-sabotage? If you had to create a manual for you to use at those moments what would it say? Really sit with that question. You might benefit from writing that manual and keeping it handy. We all have such moments. No one is more qualified than you to write that manual for you to end the free-fall and return to the light of your potential!

When we honor and nurture our bodies we keep the possibility of a purposeful, healthy present and future alive within us. When we enrich our bodies with rest, create movement that challenges us while inviting gentleness and provide our bodies natural, quality foods the possibility for living meaningful, vision-filled lives opens before us. When we abuse our bodies with substances, judgment, criticism or cruelty we darken the places where light is required to move us toward our vision of a purposeful, fulfilling life. Consider, what would it mean to be your body's best friend? If you were your body's best friend what would you say to it? What would it say to you? What does it need to hear? How would you reassure it? Support it? It is not an accident that our bodies are ALWAYS present and ALWAYS available for connection with our spirits and our minds. You can be your body's best friend. You are THE ONE it has been waiting for! When I consider what I would say to my body it goes something like this: "You are not what your parents and friends said you were...ugly, lazy, slobbish, in need of a tent-maker for clothing, undisciplined. You are a precious being who, in total innocence in a traumatic, unsafe environment turned on yourself when you turned to food in an attempt to find some comfort, calmness, and affection. You are the very opposite of lazy and undisciplined. You have searched for decades without resting for comfort, affection, tenderness and love. You never gave up searching! You kept searching. But while you were searching with food I have been here all along and I have now learned how to give you what you crave and I have the support to continue to give you what you crave...a love and comfort that "comfort" food can never deliver. " When I consider what my body would say to me it goes something like this: "Don't leave me! Don't turn your back on me and trash me the way all the others have and the way you used to! The means don't trash me (disparage me) and don't treat me like a trash can to fill with unhealthy food in unhealthy quantities. Post-surgery, don't deny me the nutrition I need for health and don't continue to use food primarily as a source of comfort. If you can't see me and treat me well and love me then who will? I need you! Now that you can see me please do not turn your back on me again." With an open-hearted, internal dialog such as this food can take its rightful place as a source of fuel rather than as a fleeting, unsustainable source of pseudo-love. How are you moving beyond food addiction, beyond the nuts and bolts of surgery and becoming available for the purposeful, vision-filled living of the rest of your life?

I echo everything you wrote, My Bariatric Life. BRAVA!! "Introducing NLP" and "NLP For Beginners" are both good choices for you.

The magic of transformation really isn't very magical. Transformation is found in the daily practice of kindly, lovingly stretching ourselves and reaching for more in our lives and in our bodies . That's what I'm doing in this 5 year old photo...when a disabled woman with chronic pain, opiate addiction and 170 pounds of excess weight bravely took a chance on a yoga class for the disabled. I love this "me" from 5 years ago, I see her inner beauty shining and am so grateful to her for taking the leap of faith, in the absence of evidence, that things could be better. WLS is a leap of faith, a big one! It can be a wonderful spring-board to transformation from un-wellness to health but additional leaps are required to get there. What leaps of faith towards further wellness, happiness and fulfillment can YOU take today?

I've been at goal weight for years, I am 11 years post-WLS and food is often still a struggle. Although my weight doesn't fluctuate more than 5 or so pounds from goal weight, which I maintain, it is always a struggle. I was on a cruise last week and the buffet was like a mermaid singing her siren's song enticing me to shipwreck myself on her fattening rocks. So tempting. And for the entire week she never shut-up! What I'm beginning to accept is that I will ALWAYS be a food addict and need to remain vigilant at all times. I won't be permanently free of this addiction and there will always be struggle involved. It seems my only choice is whether I struggle at a healthy weight able to participate in active sporting and life endeavors or whether I will struggle while I return to morbid obesity at 333 pounds and live out my days sitting in a chair in front of the tv gorging myself. I choose to struggle while healthy and active. I have tools and support for continuing to choose the healthy, active path. Maybe that's as good as it gets...and that's enough!

Yay JustWatchMe! With your focus on the vision you have of that healthy goal-weight body next Spring/Summer I have no doubt you will get yourself there! I'm just watchin' you!!

Everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving. I am thankful for this community you and I are part of. I avoid food-holidays like a recovering alcoholic avoids Octoberfest so today on Thanksgiving I'll be hiking in the forest with loved ones who share and support my vision for wellness. After the hike we will grill a wild salmon and vegetables outdoors. I'll give great thanks for an active, healthy life, pain-free at goal-weight after years being opiate-addicted for chronic back and knee pain with morbid obesity. Who needs a Big Meal? Not me! Life IS my Big Meal! As you sit down to whatever Big Meal awaits you today give some thought to this question.... What is the metaphorical Big Meal in your life? What grand table are you being invited and challenged to join by your Weight Loss Surgery journey? Maybe it is to live a longer, healthier life to enjoy friends and family. Maybe it is to inspire others who suffer morbid obesity to believe they can be healthy again or to teach your kids to have a healthier relationship with food from the beginning of their lives. Whatever your Big Meal is, consider if the meal you will sit down to later today moves you closer to that vision or further away. Whether you choose to eat carefully or splurge later today do it mindfully, consciously and with compassion for yourself. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

I love the imagery of this photo. It's so important to just keep chipping away, take our time, and be methodical yet gentle with ourselves as we transform. I love it that she's not in a hurry and she isn't frantic. She actually looks relaxed and content, like she knows she's transforming, knows she is beautiful and is content and comfortable within the process of change. She isn't desperate and she isn't racing to be different. She isn't busting off huge chunks of rock which could actually damage the final product of her labor of love.....her labor of self-love. And while she is relaxed and chipping away do you notice that she is half-way done? With no struggle, no war against herself? She is half way there and the bits of rock all around her on the ground are a testament to her gentle, persistent drive toward transformation. I think all of us who sometimes struggle to change faster choose ways that aren't always gentle or kind to speed things up. We can forget, me included, at times that the transformation is in the daily process of chipping, rather than a destination we arrive at when a certain number is achieved. This is an image worth studying periodically on our WLS journey. Are we as comfortable in the present moment of our journey as she is?

I'm really gratified to hear how some of you were given great information and preparation prior to surgery.

I received this message today and have attached my response for all to see because this is certainly a major concern for many this time of year! "I would love some words of wisdom to say to myself every time I walk past the Halloween candy at work.!" That is NOT FOOD!! Food is fuel. Would you put sugar in the gas-tank of your car? Automobile gasoline usually comes in 87, 89 and 92 octane. If you could get 25 octane gas would you put it in your car? Would it be good for your car? Would someone who cares about his/her car put sub-standard fuel in it? Care about your BODY at least as much as you care about your car. Fuel it well!

Last night I attended the bariatric support group meeting of my local medical group. There were 35 people in the room including a staff nutritionist and the Procedure Scheduling Coordinator. The attendees fell mostly into three groups. The first group were people going through the process of being approved for surgery. The second group had received surgery recently and were in the first few months of reducing. The third group were people who had surgery about a year ago and had lost a substantial amount of weight. And then there was me. I was the only one there who'd had WLS more than a year ago (2003 is certainly more than a year ago!). As I listened to the discussion, what struck me was that the main voices in the room were those in the honeymoon period. Most speakers were less than a year out from their surgery, had lost a tremendous amount of weight and were very euphoric. The theme that dominated the session was that it is smart for the prospective patient and those in the first few months post-surgery to surround themselves with people who have only positive things to say about their WLS, only read positive message boards and blogs, and keep away from any 'negative' perspectives. I make a point of spending time on message boards where people are struggling with their weight-loss surgery. I need to be able to understand their challenges in addition to those I have personally faced. As a Life Coach I need to see why and how people struggle and how they get beyond it. In addition to benefiting me professionally, this helps me on my own journey to maintain my goal weight when my old thoughts and behavior patterns re-appear. I spoke up to the group last night because I think it's important for all of us to focus not only on the positive, but also to acknowledge the land-mines that anyone can experience after weight-loss surgery. Otherwise, the opportunity is lost to learn from the struggles of others and avoid avoidable pit-falls. Weight loss surgery is an amazing tool for change, but it isn't good for everyone. Attention to some peoples' bad post-surgical experiences is an opportunity to balance the information given (or not given) by the those with an economic incentive to sell surgery. For example, at last night's meeting there was a woman (who has been approved for surgery in November) talking about how she looked forward to the end surgery would bring to her desire to eat in stressful situations. The professionals in the room were silent. I said to this woman, "Many weight-loss surgery patients still battle the tendency to eat when stressed." I told her that she shouldn't expect the surgery to eliminate the desire to eat when stressed and that it would be wise to begin to create strategies now for dealing with her stress after surgery. I told her that in my experience and in the experience of many of my clients, the stressful situations that triggered the desire to eat in the past are still very present after weight-loss surgery. With the loss of food as an ally and a slimming body that can feel vulnerable and unprotected in the world many turn to drugs or alcohol or force unhealthy foods down their throats looking for a de-stressor or comfort. Last night's discussion leads me to ask you, the BariatricPal veteran, the following questions: What were you told prior to surgery about life after surgery that was not entirely true or was not the entire story? What do you wish you had fully understood prior to surgery that you did not and what do you believe would have put you in the best possible position to succeed after surgery? What information, if any, was missing in the lead-up to your surgery that gave you unreasonable expectations or that led to disappointment in the months or years since surgery? I don't pose these questions to be negative, I want as many people as possible to succeed with their surgeries! I want to clear the air and "add to the record" about what weight-loss surgery does and what it will NEVER do. So, those of you who have had surgery, what do you want those considering surgery to know?

Beachgurl84, "I quit smoking" vs. "I AM a non-smoker" is the kind of mindset shift that changes we you ARE! Brilliant!!!

What do all people who get ahead in life, who succeed at great challenges, who achieve great things, have in common? They all got started! And once they got started they "stayed the course" through the tough times, having faith that a better time and place was in their future, and not too far to reach for. No professional athlete ever got great by occasionally training. No talented surgeon became great by entering an Operating Room now and then. Amazing parenting requires daily commitment. Amazing ANYTHING requires daily commitment. Greatness requires showing up, day after day. We have received Weight Loss Surgery (WLS) as a tool. That tool shows up every day. Do we? Do we show up to use that tool every day? Paraphrasing Newton's First Law, "Objects in motion tend to stay in motion and objects at rest tend to stay at rest." How does this apply to us? "Objects" (us!) sprawled across the sofa eating chips and believing they can't succeed tend to stay on the sofa eating chips not succeeding! "Objects" (us again!) eating healthy foods and exercising tend to remain eating healthy foods and exercising. We have all lived the experience of having Newton's Law work against us, which is how we qualified for WLS. How can you make Newton's Law work for you? What are you willing to do today, tomorrow and the next day to make Newton's Law work for you? I met today with a Life Coaching client who for medical reasons beyond her control cannot qualify for WLS so doesn't benefit from the tool we have all been granted. But she shows up every day for herself, walking briskly for an hour and eating primarily vegetables, fruit and lean sources of protein. Without our tool, she shows up! With our tool, how can you better show up in your own life? It's not hard to do and you can do it! Start small, so the change is sustainable, but make it consistent. Small changes add up to something valuable if repeated often enough. So what will you do? Will you take a 20 minute walk daily with your heart healthily pounding during your lunch hour? Will you ride your bike for 20 minutes up a 500 foot hill daily and then coast home? Will you briskly swim laps daily for 20 minutes at your local pool? Will you follow-up these activities with lean, healthy dinners? What I and my coaching clients have learned is that if we create daily programs for healthy living they are only hard to maintain for a few weeks and then we reap huge benefits in health, mobility and pride. Then the changes become the "New Normal." Consider....what would you like your "New Normal" to be? Are you willing to be uncomfortable for a few weeks to achieve it? If you are, I know the "New Normal" healthier you is within your reach and I know how to get there!!

I have a dream! That dream is to bring a Message Board to LIFE! I know it is possible because I have seen it happen. I've lived it. Imagine a Message Board in which you can hear each other, sometimes see each other, actually get to know each other in a deeper way than just typed words. Now imagine that a Weight Loss Surgery Coach moderates and guides the multi-sensory discussion, inviting self-inquiry in a safe environment within a small group. In a safe, nurturing group of eight beginning on October 19th we will make friends with our stressful, limiting beliefs about food and our bodies and transform our thoughts and behaviors. Have you ever noticed in the Message Boards how many of us have the same critical thinking about our bodies and our abilities (or inabilities) to relate to food in a healthy way? In this class, which will meet by phone in a conference-call, we will kindly and compassionately look at the beliefs we have created about our bodies and food, and consider: - Which of our beliefs are actually true? - Where did those beliefs come from and what unhealthy behaviors are triggered by them? - How do those beliefs serve us? - How do those beliefs limit us? - What beliefs can we create that may be truer, kinder and serve our health and well-being? Each week for 6 weeks our group will meet for 90 minutes together in which we will discuss and share the insights and struggles of each of our journeys with food and body image. Each week 1-2 participants will be coached by me on an issue common to us all. Then, for one hour during the week, in pairs, you will meet (by phone or Skype, your choice) with a different class-mate each week and coach each other on a body-image or food belief following easy steps I will teach you. This structure actually creates a support network that in prior groups has lived beyond the end of the class. The benefits of this class will include: - Greater awareness of the beliefs you have about your life that trigger unhealthy eating. - The creation of new, healthy beliefs about yourself that support healthy eating and healthy body image. - a plan for changing your unhealthy patterns into healthy patterns - you will learn to nourish yourself and your soul in ways that don't have calories. You will find that you need food less and less for comfort and more often for fuel. - A community that understands your challenges and supports you making the changes you want to make in your life. This group is only open to 8 participants to allow individual attention for each person over the course of our 6 weeks together. I have participated in and facilitated this group dynamic many times and it has allowed me and others to be free of damaging, hurtful beliefs about our bodies that triggered self-abusive eating. I am honored and delighted to guide this class and be taught by you as well. I am passionate about this work and I have witnessed its' power to transform. Will you join us? Group Details: 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Pacific (7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Eastern) for 6 consecutive Sundays. October 19, 26, November 2 and 9, 16, 23, 2014. The last meeting will take place several days before Thanksgiving and will put us into a healthier, stronger frame of mind the the Holiday Season. To get more information, including cost, and to apply please email me at CoachMeSara@att.net or www.lifecoachsara.com to learn more about me and what I offer. There is an Early Bird discount until October 1, 2014. LET'S HEAL TOGETHER!!

Tony Robbins says, "“The secret to unleashing your true power is setting goals that are exciting enough that they truly inspire your creativity and ignite your passion.” I agree with this idea, I LIVE this idea and my clients who reach their weight loss and wellness goals LIVE this idea. It is a beautiful concept but it can be easy to get lost in the implementation of it. Everyone would like to unleash their true power to achieve the body they dream about! Everyone would like to be creatively inspired and ignite their inner passion to achieve physical health! So why does it seem that many people, maybe even most people, fall short of this desired state? Weight Loss Surgery is a great tool to help us along the way but something I realized, in the years after WLS as the pounds returned along with unhealthy thinking and calorie choices, was that the part of my body that REALLY needed surgery was my brain! Surgery changed my ability to use food in a certain way, but I was still left with two hands and a mouth, both programmed by my mind to look for soothing and comfort by lifting things from the fingers to the lips. WLS doesn't prevent us from continuing to harm ourselves with food. If we don't change our thinking and our beliefs about our lives and the place of food in our lives we will find creative ways to continue to seek comfort through unkindness to the body. How often have you eaten something that you knew would generate "dumping" or vomiting in search of a comforting sensation from food? I know I've done this. One way to change the trajectory of our relationships with food after surgery is to actually consider with the help of another person what we are trying to achieve when we make unhealthy choices and to set small, achievable goals for slowly, kindly changing our relationships with food. Then, once these small changes are cemented in us we make another small change. After a few months who we ARE has changed. We become a healthier mind inhabiting a healthier body. The key is to start small. Set an achievable, small goal. Live that goal. Embody it for 3 weeks. Then make the next small change. And talk to someone about your thinking and self-limiting beliefs along the way. That will truly set you free from the post-surgical food and high-calorie liquid addictions that are so common. The clients I have partnered with have taught me that there is no goal too small and that the achieving of small goals over and over again is how we achieve what Tony Robbins describes......the source of power that exists in every human gets excited, inspired and comes to life with each small success. Then, once success is no longer surprising but is expected, inspiration and creativity arise within us and ignite our passion to create a level of health and wellness beyond our wildest dreams. At that point this journey becomes an "inner and outer party!" But it all starts with making a small change and embodying it for 3 weeks. My journey to lose 170 pounds and become a mountain climber (with a body people think is that of an Olympic athlete) began with cutting myself down from three 800 calorie Starbuck's drinks per day to three 500 calorie Starbuck's drinks per day......but it started!! That is the important thing! What small behavior would you like to get started changing today and who can help you change it? A Bariatric support group, a therapist or a certified Life Coach specializing in Bariatric Obesity can help you achieve the body and wellness you desire, help shift your beliefs about yourself, and end the struggle with food. Whatever path you choose make sure you have challenges and accountability. They are a recipe for success.