Mindfulness Practices for Long-Term Weight Loss Surgery Success
Success after weight loss surgery isn’t just about the physical impact or changing the way you look on the outside. It’s about inner growth, feeling healthier, and embracing a new you. The best way to achieve this is by prioritising your mental and emotional wellbeing as well. This is where mindfulness comes into play.
Mindfulness is an excellent tool to practise after weight loss surgery to improve long-term success. Let’s look at what mindfulness is and how you can introduce some simple practices into your everyday life.
Mindfulness: What Is It?
Mindfulness is the practice of being fully present and engaged in the current moment. It’s all about paying attention to one’s thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations without judgement. The goal of mindfulness is to acknowledge your experiences and accept them without trying to change or suppress them.
Mindfulness can help individuals in sustaining positive lifestyle changes to achieve long-term weight loss surgery success. It does so by addressing the psychological aspects of weight management. This is where the mind-body connection is activated.
Mind-Body Connection
The term ‘mind-body connection’ refers to the relationship between your thoughts, emotions, and physical health. As Dr. Chris Mosunic puts it, it’s “a two-way relationship where the mind influences the body, and the body influences the mind”.
Having weight-loss surgery isn’t just about how much weight you lose. It also involves understanding the deeper aspects of our mind-body connection. For example, exploring the emotions and habits that may have contributed to weight gain. Tuning into our thoughts and feelings can help us identify triggers for unhealthy behaviours. With this knowledge, we can navigate these triggers, maintain a positive mindset, and achieve long-term success.
Now let’s look at some of the ways mindfulness can impact weight loss surgery success.
Emotional Eating
A very common challenge people experience after weight loss surgery is emotional eating. This usually happens when we’re facing an overwhelming emotion like anxiety, sadness, or loneliness. Emotional eating is consuming food to relieve or suppress your feelings without paying attention to your body’s signals. The relief of emotions is often short-lived, leading to feelings of guilt or shame.
A key benefit of mindfulness is its ability to help you become more attuned to your body’s hunger and fullness cues. It teaches you to slow down and enjoy each bite. Practising mindfulness when eating, and being aware of your actions, helps you to recognise and validate your feelings. This will empower you to make better choices about when, what, and how much to eat.
Stress Reduction
Stress is a common factor that can lead to weight gain or slow down weight loss. Mindfulness techniques, such as meditation and deep breathing exercises, can reduce stress levels and help you maintain a sense of calm even in the most challenging moments.
Mindfulness can be used here by slowing down and paying attention to your surroundings or environment. Simply focus on what you can touch, smell, see, or hear. For example, the colours of the flowers or shape of the trees outside the window. Try to intentionally bring an open and accepting mind to everything you do and find joy in simple pleasures.
Goal Setting and Accountability
Mindfulness can help you set realistic, achievable goals and stay accountable to them. It allows you to break down your weight loss and lifestyle changes into manageable steps, making the journey less overwhelming. Regular self-reflection through mindfulness practices can help you track your progress, measure your weight loss surgery success, and stay on course.
Mindfulness Practices
Incorporating mindfulness doesn’t need to be complicated. It can be as simple as taking a few moments throughout the day to pause, breathe, and check in with yourself. Here are some simple mindfulness practices you can bring in to your everyday life:
- Mindful eating: Pay close attention to each bite you take during meals. Savour the flavours, textures, and sensations. Eating slowly and mindfully will let your body signal fullness more effectively.
- Meditation: Start with short meditation sessions of just a few minutes each day and gradually increase the duration as you become more comfortable with the practice
- Deep breathing exercises: Taking slow, deep breaths and paying attention to the sensation of the breath entering and leaving the body can create a sense of calm and self-control when faced with challenging situations.
- Daily gratitude: Each day, take a moment to practise gratitude by reflecting on the things you are thankful for. This can help shift your focus away from negativity and toward positivity.