The Houston weight loss center says that embracing a healthy lifestyle after weight loss surgery is not about “being on a diet” for the rest of your life. Instead, a healthy lifestyle means making good food choices, getting the emotional support you need and incorporating exercise into your daily life. Sounds simple, really. The difficulty lies when applying this healthy lifestyle to real life.
Approaching Your Dilemmas
Take Halloween, for example. Not wanting to have candy lying around should not be a reason to shut your lights to keep the neighboring goblins from knocking at your door.
How you approach the candy dilemma is your personal choice, with the understanding of how bariatric surgery works. The truth is that if you had a Lap-Band or a Sleeve Gastrectomy, you are still able to eat candy. And, if you eat it slowly enough, will be able to eat quite a bit of it. If you had the Gastric Bypass, you may experience dumping syndrome after eating candy, which should make you never want to eat candy again. But the bigger question really is: what works for you?
Are you someone who can enjoy a small piece of candy and make good food choices the rest of the time? Do you consider yourself a “sugar addict” and understand that having candy lying around the house would lead you down a path of no return? Maybe you do not see the candy dilemma as a personal issue, but your concern about the childhood obesity epidemic is enough for you to boycott Halloween.
Halloween Tips for Bariatric Patients
We all have our own reasons for the choices we make. Whatever your reasons may be, we thought you may want to hear about what some other patients have done on Halloween night:
Instead of candy, fill the bowl with small toy treats like scary rubber spiders, magic bubbles, eye ball bouncy balls, Halloween-themed pencils and erasers, stickers, etc.
When your children bring home candy, let them enjoy it on Halloween, but bring the candy on November 1st to a dentist who participates in the Halloween candy buyback. Children will receive $1/pound of candy they bring in. The candy is sent to troops overseas. You get rid of the candy, the kids get money and the troops get a sweet treat – we call this a win, win, win.
Give out some Bariatric Advantage Calcium Chews. They come in 5 awesome flavors, are wrapped in festive colors and the kids eat your supply when you are not looking anyway. Once a year you can give them permission to have some and share your treats.
Halloween is not about depriving yourself. Make choices that work for you. Come on, turn on all the lights, decorate the house and enjoy the little goblins that come to visit this Halloween.