“It’s the first time I’ve come back from vacation without a few extra pounds, I can’t believe it”. It is with joy and astonishment that Christine shares this summer victory. I have been Christine in consultation for almost a year. I still remember his first visit: “I did everything, all diets, appetite suppressants, a sleeve… Over my entire life, I’ve already lost almost twice my body weight!”
It is after gaining 8 kilos since his sleeve gastrectomy (a surgical operation which consists of removing two-thirds of the stomach) that this young retiree had decided to come and see me. Without too much hope:My husband thinks I’ll never make it,”she told me.
Consultation after consultation, we reviewed his eating habits, and exposed his psychological brakes: the fear of missing out, the difficulty of saying no, the complicated relationship with his body.
We looked, not for a diet, but for a way of eating
We searched together not a diet, but a way of eating who manages to satisfy at the same time his head, his body and his heart. In other words, a diet that does not involve too much judgment (head), in accordance with its needs, good for its health (body), and of course pleasant and a source of pleasure (heart).
“It spoke to me so much when you mentioned this head-body-heart reconciliation, Christine confides. I understood that, for a long time, I ate by giving too much or not enough room to the head since I alternated periods when I controlled everything I ate, and others when I did not want to look at things opposite. I also neglected my body a lot…”
Learn to listen to yourself rather than suffer
Throughout our follow-up, Christine experimented, learned to listen to herself rather than to suffer or let herself be influenced. “There was always a girlfriend to tell me what to eat or a friend to convince me to eat sausage again. But now I do what’s right for me.”
This is how after having tried the “healthy” cakes, with wholemeal flours, less sugar and no butter, she once told me: “No, but frankly, it’s not good.” I then suggested that he go back to really good cakes, to be frozen sliced. And take out a slice from time to time to enjoy without excess…
“The sleeve helped me eat less, but it was the work we did together that taught me to SEE YOU WANT to eat less and better”, she admits to me. Gradually, Christine reinvented her breakfast, tested new choices at the restaurant, rediscovered the pleasure of cooking vegetables. And he liked it.
Say yes to sprains on vacation… but from time to time
“During the holidays, my friends brought back pains au chocolat for breakfast, but me, my slice of rye bread with a little cheese + my kiwi, that’s fine with me. I preferred to deviate from my routine for what really brings me more pleasure, like tasting a local specialty or having a dessert from time to time. And it didn’t even make me gain weight!”
No wonder really. Christine did not see the holidays as an “open bar” where everything was allowed, but as a relaxing break where listening to each other even more…
Our expert: Sophie Janvier, dietitian nutritionist, author of The gentle way to eat better, ed. The Duke