Jeffrey Stern

I think it's understandable and not too surprising that we see people "falling off the wagon" so to speak. Food isn't something we can completely cut out of our lives like a lot of other addictions. It's something that we have to constantly face and be mindful every time we encounter. We've formed these habits over several years, one major surgery isn't necessarily going to fix years or even decades of emotional eating and bad habits.

At least for me, my insurance flat out doesn't cover bariatric surgery so I paid out of pocket. This meant that I only had a single consult with the surgeon before being able to schedule for surgery. There were no psych evals, no mandatory monitored diets, no mandatory group sessions, and minimal nutrition classes. So, if I hadn't done large amounts of research beforehand, I probably would've gone through the surgery thinking it was a magic solution and life would now be super easy and then gotten blindsided after.

Now, I did take the nutrition classes and I have regular check ups with my surgeon so I know what the right things to do are, but my dietician isn't with me every second of every day preparing my meals and watching what I put in my mouth. That's on me. I think it's those moments when we feel like no one is watching that it's easiest to fall back into old habits and turn to food for comfort.