Weight Loss Winformation

In this episode of BariAfercare you are being introduced to another regular member of BariAftercare for 2023: Chef Healthy Henry! Henry is a post-op himself. He has taken his professional skills as a chef and is using them to his – and now to your – benefit! Chef Healthy Henry is going to show you -  every month - how to cook a beautiful, bariatric-friendly, healthy meal! You can continue to enjoy...

Welcome to 2023 and BariAftercare, the Podcast! I’m your host, Dr. Connie Stapleton... even though I’m not quite sounding like myself! BUT… the show must go on, so this is me with a touch of laryngitis. This is episode 103: the first of a monthly video series this year called Family, Friends and Relationships after Bariatric Surgery. In this episode I’d like to introduce you to Tabitha Johnson, ak...

Welcome to the last podcast episode of 2022 in which you will hear from an incredibly dynamic woman who has not only received numerous gifts as a result of having bariatric surgery but is also going to share the gift of herself and her chosen career in the travel industry with the bariatric community in the near future. Listen in as Meg Sytnick tells you about the journey she has been on thus far...

Have you ever met a person with a sparkling personality? If not, you’re about to! Meet Ilona! Ilona is a breath of fresh air! She can put a smile on your face in an instant! She also has the ability to share direct and honest feedback in the most loving way! I know you’ll love hearing about the gifts Ilona has received as a result of choosing to have bariatric surgery as well as how she is sharing...

As Sam the Snowman, voiced by the inimitable Burl Ives in the famous, animated holiday story, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer says, “Ah, youth.” Today you will meet a most incredible young post-op named Olivia who shares wisdom beyond her years related to the lessons and gifts she has received as she has ventured into her new life as a healthier version of herself. Olivia is an inspiration to me, a...

We’re in the thick of the Holiday Season! The holidays are a time of giving and receiving gifts! Today, and for the next few weeks, post-ops are going to share with you the gifts they have received as a result of having bariatric surgery. In addition, they share how they have shared those gifts with others! Meet Chris Chastain, a man I have known for over half his life! Tonight he shares the gifts...

You’ve likely been hearing and seeing a lot on podcasts and on social media about eating healthy over the holidays and protecting yourself from all of the high-carb, high-sugar foods that are … well, everywhere! That is all good stuff and I hope you listen to and read as much as possible about staying on track over the holidays! What about protection for your emotions? Many people are emotional ea...

A post-op patient recently told me she has started counting the number of self-sabotaging behaviors she recognizes herself engaging in every day. She was shocked and horrified at the many ways she was sabotaging her own weight loss success. Examples of her self-sabotaging behaviors included hiding food in her closet and eating it before she went to bed at night, telling her spouse she was going to...

“I’m not mad!” she shouts as she throws her backpack and slams the door while leaving you shaking your head. Passive aggressive behavior… when words and non-verbal communication don’t match. Sadly, we’re all probably fairly competent when it comes to this sort of communication. How does passive-aggressive behavior interfere with the weight loss process? To begin with, there’s a lot of emotional ea...

Oh, boy! Today you’re gonna learn a few ugly things about my communication skills in my young adult life.  Fortunately, with the help of others and quite a bit of effort, I have learned much healthier skills over the years that I now utilize… at least most of the time. Spoiler alert – I’m talking about being an aggressive communicator which is no good if your goal is to be the best, overall, healt...

I’ve asked these questions before and I’m going to ask them again right now: Do you feel like a doormat in any of your relationships? Do you feel resentful of others because you give in to requests for the sake of not upsetting others, to be included in the group, to be liked, or because you learned from others to always be the one who does all of the things? Are you the person who refrains from s...

Active listening is yet another healthy, assertive communication skill. But it is way more than that in terms of your bariatric journey. Actively listening - to yourself and how you communicate with yourself - can actually prevent you from being stuck in a vicious cycle of unhealthy emotional eating. Learning to listen to, and change negative self-talk into healthy, compassionate self-talk will al...

The therapist my husband and I saw for several years when we started our journeys toward living an overall healthy lifestyle said to us over and over and over, “You always have the right to share your thoughts, your feelings and your observations.” It took us some time to learn to do so in a healthy way. For a long while, we found a way to somehow point the finger at one another, engage in unhealt...

Dean Anderson, Behavior Psychology Expert, asked this question in an online article in 2006: “Would you believe me if I told you that knowing the answer to one simple question could improve your chances for weight loss success by up to 100%? Well, it’s true. Here’s the question: Which of the following is the single most important factor in long-term weight loss success? A. Calorie Counting B. Regu...

Being an assertive communicator, which will help you in your weight loss journey, is the ultimate communication goal – at least for people who want to be their healthiest adult selves! It would be great if everyone would learn to communicate in a healthy, direct, respectful manner! And for YOU… if you learn and practice and get really good at communicating in an assertive way, your weight loss jou...

Assertive? Passive? Aggressive? Or maybe Passive-Aggressive? Four different ways to communicate with others… and I suppose with yourself, as well! Do you know what communication style you most often utilize? And… can you guess which form of communication is the most effective? How about the style used least frequently? Oh… and, what do these communication styles have to do with your weight journey...

What did you expect? There’s a question we throw around quite often. Too often, what we expect something to be like does not exactly match the reality of the situation. Maybe you expected your last vacation to be trouble-free… that rarely happens! Perhaps you expected the new job to be the dream job… but it turned out that the new office had all of the drama of the previous office. If you’ve had b...

If, as we have talked about during the past few podcast episodes, you want to set healthy boundaries and stop neglecting yourself due to unhealthy people-pleasing behaviors, you need to commit to learning and using assertiveness skills! Not to worry, being assertive is not the same thing as being aggressive, rude or nasty. Being assertive is stating what you want and need in a healthy and direct w...

Are you a people pleaser? Well… if you have trouble saying “no,” feel responsible for other people’s feelings, avoid conflict at all costs, apologize a lot, and feel like you never have time for yourself (especially if you’re busy doing so much for so many others)… then it could be that you are, indeed, a people pleaser! There’s nothing wrong with wanting to help others… unless you are so busy doi...

Boundaries are the ways we teach other people to treat us… I think that’s from Dr. Phil, actually. In our journey of weight loss, setting boundaries for ourselves establishes guardrails to keep us safe. When we set boundaries for ourselves or with other people, we are engaging in healthy acts of self-care. Too many people struggle to set boundaries, as most people were never taught what boundaries...

What makes asking for help so difficult? Not surprisingly, fear is the top reason given for not asking for help. Fear of what, you ask? Fear of imposing upon others. Fear of appearing too needy. Fear of looking or sounding incompetent, unintelligent, or incapable. Fear of exposing the fact that we are not perfect and we don’t, in fact, have it all together. And, let’s not forget the dreaded fear o...

Self-care simply means doing things for yourself that improve your physical, social, emotional/psychological health. In other words, engaging in self-care means you focus on your own needs with as much effort as you put into caring for so many others! Engaging in self-care results in increased energy, less stress, and lower risk of illness. When it comes to weight loss and weight maintenance, self...

Like most people I talk to who are preparing for bariatric surgery, Claude Viens, after many times of gaining and lose the same pounds, realized he knew what he was supposed to do to lose weight – and to keep it off.  The problem he faced was taking the action and continuing to take those actions over time. He eventually came to terms with the fact that there is no easy fix. Keeping weight off is...

In this episode, I begin a two-part series presenting some highlights from Claude Viens book. Claude makes it clear to the reader that he is not a professional in any sense when it comes to weight loss. He is a man who struggled with weight loss and regain for many years… until he figured out some very insightful thoughts and practices that allowed him to get rid of his excess weight and keep it o...

When a person has a chronic disease like obesity or addiction, everyone in their world is in some way affected. Family members, in particular, are impacted by the presence of a chronic disease suffered by one of its members. In the case of obesity or addiction, family members worry. They are scared about the health of their loved one. They worry about the emotional ups and downs that accompany per...