The Truth About the Gastric Sleeve or Band Surgery and
Why it Won’t Help You With Emotional Eating
I’ve put off writing about this for so long.
Why?
Well, let’s see…
I have two friends who have had gastric sleeve or band surgery.
I know that anyone considering one is going to be pretty desperate.
It’s gonna take big balls to state my opinion (and I don’t have them)!
If you’ve already had gastric surgery (band or sleeve), then you’ll already know most of this stuff I guess. But I hope that something from the BodyMAGIC! philosophy will help and support you on another level of your journey.
Just So Desperate to Lose Weight
Surgery, like diets, is working on a very superficial layer of your beautiful being.
Diets assume that there are no emotions getting in your way, no major life events interfering with your weight-loss goals and that you thrive on restrictive eating. Maybe, on some level, you actually enjoy reigning in your adverse eating habits and probably punishing yourself for overeating in times of fun and joy.
If you’re reading this, I hope that you agree that there is nothing fun about dieting. Nothing great about counting every calorie, point, fat unit or gram of carbohydrate that graces your tongue.
Let’s be honest, if you found dieting easy, why would you be considering such an extreme as gastric sleeve surgery?
Perhaps you have lost weight since Christmas. But the proof of the pudding really is in the return to normal eating. That is, when you come off the diet wagon, whether you fall off it or gracefully alight.
It’s tough and sometimes a hopeless cycle of yo-yo dieting.
In other blogs, I’ve talked about the danger of dieting on the appetite. Read more HERE.
BodyMAGIC! and the Band
I’ve never had a gastric sleeve or band so I can’t draw on any experience here. But I have talked to my friends and they are definitely not having fun with food. They are on a permanently forced diet. There is no rebound, true. But there is no friendship with food. No freedom. At least, not yet.
There is no more connection with natural healthy food, no more peace around food, and no bliss.
The two principles of BodyMAGIC! are to:
Know Thyself and Know Thy Worth.
Medical intervention such as this kind of surgery will likely delay all of that.
In BodyMAGIC! there is the gift of finding out the big emotional reason WHY you overeat so that you can hold, feel and heal it to live a more fulfilling and peaceful life.
It goes way beyond food.
The practices in the program affect the whole of your life which, if you’re eating emotionally, revolves around food.
What’s a Gastric Band Like?
I’m guessing that everyone is different.
For my friends, one of whom said she was “morbidly obese” (I bloody hate that phrase), there are a couple of things to note…
The gastrci sleeve can take time to settle down. Years, in fact. One friend spent most of one Christmas vomiting and in absolute agony. Her trachea was swollen so much from the vomiting that she could barely breathe.
When I asked them what they miss, they both admit that they miss being able to enjoy a full meal. They still serve the same amount of food that they would’ve done, pre-operation. But they cannot eat it all, not ever.
I challenge this, as when I binge ate, it wasn’t the meals that were the problem. It was always eating outside of meals that gave me hell. So having a band would’ve meant for me, taking away the one good aspect of my relationship with food.
Both of my friends still crave sweet things.
Maybe there’s still something in their lives which still needs comforting. Perhaps it is the stress of not being able to eat even normally.
Of course, instead of stuffing it down as they would’ve done before, they’re merely squeezing it in, little and very often.
Ironically, foods like salad are difficult to eat. Raw vegetables are bulky and dry. However, processed sugar slides down very easily. Lots of it.
One of my friends joked about liquid chocolate before her op. Now chocolate is probably more of a staple to her, than anything that grows in the ground.
The Health Dangers of Gastric Sleeve Eating
I worry about my dear friends’ health in the future. Surely Diabetes, Alzheimers and Dementia are not a great benefit to weight loss.
For most of my life, I believed that weight loss was healthy and only slim folks were healthy.
But in most cases of dieters, this is not the case.
Asking my friend if she would do it all again, she said
“Yes”.
Why? I ask…
Because she believes that she would be “as big as a house by now”.
I’m not sure if that would ever be true. But I do know that BodyMAGIC! practices would probably not have suited her. She has no spiritual leanings or desires to practice meditation or yoga regularly.
She’s my friend but I doubt that she would want to explore her deepest emotions and find a holistic way of healing them. Much less have the patience!
And that is fine. I love her and respect her just the way she is.
It takes all sorts to make a world.
Both these ladies are good friends. I don’t judge their life for I’m not perfect.
It’s Not for Everyone
Thirty-five years of self-harming through food, alcohol, and drugs has taught me a lot. As a sensitive and caring person in this crazy world, I still have challenges and reasons to want to escape. I find that 99% of the time, I have a healthy skill or tool that I can reach for in troubled times and I love my life more than ever.
BodyMAGIC! is not going to appeal to everyone who overeats. It involves self-exploration and a willingness to shift many different unwanted aspects of yourself, not just fat.
If you have been considering the gastric sleeve or any other invasive surgery, please give yourself the gift of knowledge of all the risks AND of all the alternatives.
Set up a 30-min call with me to consider the natural alternatives to surgery and/or dieting.
No pressure. No charge.
Let’s discover how you can live a healthier, happier and more fulfilling life, today!
I’m here to help you. Click HERE.
With love
Chinmayi x
