Episode 6: What we REALLY eat after Bariatric Surgery (The truth about post-op hunger and nutrition)

🎙️ Bariatric Banter – Real Talk, No Fluff.

Hannah & Steph are diving DEEP into post-op eating, tracking macros, and navigating life after bariatric surgery. 🍽️💭

👀 In This Episode: ✔️ What we REALLY eat in a day (no sugar-coating) ✔️ Why high-protein ≠ always healthy ✔️ The mental shifts needed for long-term success ✔️ How to handle social situations & food choices ✔️ The fear of regain – and how to deal with it 💪

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Steph?

(00:01):
Hey Hannah.
Welcome to another video episode of Bariatric Banter.
We haven't shied away yet.
We're not shied away yet.
We're still doing this.
So here we go.
I love it.

(00:21):
It's good to see you again.
How was your week?
Busy.
Busy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I know that feeling.
Work, busy, it's busy, busy.
Yeah.
I'm glad this is a long weekend.
I took yesterday off and then for anybody who's not a Canadian, we are off Monday for
Family Day because they felt like February needed to have a holiday in it.

(00:42):
What do we call it?
A statutory holiday.
So yeah, Monday is a holiday.
So I said, I'm taking tomorrow.
I took yesterday off and I have a super long weekend.
So good call.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm not, I'm not upset about having a holiday this month.
I need it.
Yeah.
February is just, it's bitterly cold here.
It's been like minus 23.

(01:03):
It's just been, so I just need a super long weekend to just do laundry and do nothing.
Yeah.
It's what I'm hoping for.
January takes forever all the time.
Yeah.
Too long.
And then February is a short month, but it just feels like such a long time with nothing.
And then March doesn't have a holiday.
It has March break for the kids, but there's no holiday.

(01:24):
Yeah, but nothing for adults.
No.
So it's nice to have that little mini.
Well, not a holiday.
Should be.
So it's nice to have that day off in February because it's a long haul until Easter for
all.
It's a long haul till Easter, which like, I literally thought Easter was the beginning
of April.
It's not.
It's not.
Yeah.
So I just need a vacation.

(01:46):
And I was supposed to be off to do a bunch of stuff that I'm not doing.
And I'm trying not to be bitter about that and trying to get over it.
But yes, I'm not running my race in Disney.
I'm not doing a lot in February because of pneumonia.
So I'm still actively recovering.
Pneumonia sucks.
It hit my body super hard.
And I'm just, my lungs are not recovered.

(02:08):
So better to give them time to heal properly than push them too much and damage them.
Because then you'll lose them.
Or which I like don't listen well to that advice.
You don't want to hear and is not the things you want, but I know in the things you need
in the long run.
Yeah.
The things you need are rarely the things you want.
So I've been taking it a bit more slowly, a bit easier and the weather just has not

(02:32):
been cooperating.
And I hate running on a treadmill.
I'd rather be outside.
So I'm fine with starting my running journey for this year in March.
Totally fine with that because for those who run treadmill training is just the worst.
It's just not enjoyable.
So yeah, but I'm glad for a long weekend and I'm glad to be here chatting with you again.
Me too.

(02:52):
I'm glad to be here.
This week's episode, episode six of the Bariatric Bantra podcast, we are talking about what
we eat in a day.
You know, looking at three months versus two years post-op, talking about macros, good
recipes, bad recipes, you know, the whole, hey, it's high protein.
High protein does not mean good.

(03:16):
And then things that are called high protein that have like 10 grams.
This is probably liars, like one of the things we message each other about all the time.
The amount of messages or photo or like reels that we send each other, number one being
like, can you try this?
Did you see this?

(03:36):
Or the amount of ones that we send each other being like, this is a lie.
This is not high protein.
Yeah.
I have a dog in my office.
So my apologies.
Losing it right now if you can't hear him.
The one interrupting the podcast right now.
Well mine, I'm thinking there's something being delivered outside because mine is losing

(04:00):
his bananas.
Oh yeah.
He's, yeah.
He gets really heated about people lying about protein.
So he was just weighing in to be like, yeah, hate that stuff.
He's looking out for us.
Yeah.
Jerk.
No, this is the one that's important because one of our earlier episodes, you know, we
did talk about how hard it is to see other people posting and comparing yourself to them.

(04:20):
And we just don't think that there's like an authentic look at what people eat.
But also it's a question we get before people even have surgery.
I don't know if I can give that up.
What do you eat?
You know, are you allowed to have this?
And ba ba ba ba ba.
And I, it breaks my heart that some people don't have surgery because they don't want
to give up food.
Yeah.
And I used to say-
And the motivating factor is it's not a-

(04:43):
No.
If you've heard me say it, if the reason you're not having surgery is because of food-
You're not ready for surgery.
And you-
Like I'm not being mean.
That's not a-
Oh, but that's your red flag.
It's, yeah.
If you're that concerned that, oh, well, I really like to eat and cook big meals and
but like, you probably need to have the surgery.

(05:06):
Food in no way should be the deciding factor on if you have this surgery or not.
No.
And I have a little saying of, my uncle said this at the cottage the one day, a couple
years ago, and it just sat with me because I had never looked at it that way.
Yeah.
Is we were talking about food because we were talking, we were having the conversation that
we had on one of our podcasts about how when people come over, you always have to put all

(05:27):
this food out and we were sitting out at the cottage and somebody said something about,
well, I'm getting hungry.
We should put some nibblies out or something.
And they got on the topic of food.
Anyway, and he said, I eat till-
He goes, yeah, I'm fine.
And he goes, I'm one of those different people.
I said, what?
And he goes, I eat to live.
I don't live to eat.
Oh.

(05:48):
Oh.
Oh.
He's like, I'll go all day without like either really eating.
And he goes, I don't care what I eat.
Just put something in front of me.
I'll have a little bit and then like, I don't care.
Yep.
And I was like, interesting.
So in my head at this time, I was like, there's people out there that live like that.
This is normal.
This is a thing.
I had somebody tell me kind of something similar once in his life.

(06:08):
He was like, oh, I could just eat like an MRE bar, like the military ration bars.
He's like, if you just gave me a bar and said, this is like the calories and nutrients you
need, it's fine.
He's like, I don't like, food does not give me joy basically.
And I remember thinking like, you're so full of shit.
You're such an asshole.
That's not real.
We go out for sushi all the time.
But like literally, he's like, I could take it or leave it.

(06:30):
Like I only eat to sustain myself.
And it was true because we were both students at the time.
And I vividly remember because I would buy my groceries and he'd buy his groceries.
At one point, he's like, well, I bought a loaf of bread and 12 eggs.
And I was like, ew, you're just going to eat hard boiled eggs and bread for a week.
He's like, it's cheap.
I don't give a shit.
And I was like, right.
But I get it.

(06:53):
And I will admit, it's very hard for people to hear us say that now.
And I'm sure there's people rolling their eyes like these, you know, come on.
And I admit when I was obese, it was like that.
Come on.
It was like that.
That's how miserable a life.
But the truth is, yeah, my life now doesn't revolve around food.
Okay.
In a sense, it revolves around like meal prepping.
But I don't place my day on, okay, I'm going to go here because that's where the good restaurant

(07:18):
is.
And yes, McDonald's and if I go this way, there's no place to stop it.
Correct.
It's just anymore.
And it's not like, oh my God, I'm starving and I'm going to order this big meal and I'm
going to have that.
Like my life doesn't revolve around or if I'm traveling or making plans with friends,
our plans are now what restaurant are we going to?
Aren't now where are we eating?
Where are we going?
It's anybody want to try go-karting and has anybody tried the new VR place?

(07:41):
And does anybody want to go to this antique store?
Go here.
Like now when I go home, it's not, well, what are we eating and where are we going?
It's more, hey, are we thrifting?
Can we go shopping?
Do we want to check out that gift shop in this?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And even now when I'm hungry, because I find I know about you, but I find I'm like, and

(08:01):
I don't know if this is because I'm not as far out or I don't know, but I find I'm either
not hungry or I'm like, I'm zero to 10.
Yeah, that's normal.
Days like we talked about, like when you're PMSing and your hormones are high that yes,
I'm about food, a hundred percent.

(08:22):
We're saying on a general basis, I eat my meal and then I usually have about a two hour
window where I'm fine and then it's like, move over.
I am starving and I need to eat right now.
Do you remember that joke about like, I don't remember where it was from and I apologize
if it's like an insensitive choke, but the one where it's like, oh, you're going to eat

(08:44):
Chinese food and then be literally starving two hours later.
That's kind of how it feels.
It feels like, and it's, I'll preface that like, I don't know if it's, it's not food
noise cause I know what that is, but this is more just, we have a very small stomach
and food processes quickly.
So yes, you can have days where you're like, my restrictions high.

(09:05):
I'm not hungry.
I'm not feeling it.
Then you have days where it's like, I am ravenous, ravenous, but we don't starve ourselves with
bariatric surgery and I hope this episode busts them myths because we eat.
There's so many people that are worried about that or that see it and they're like, are
you extra going to eat?
Yeah.
I mean, I'd argue we eat more than most people.

(09:28):
I eat more now than I definitely did before surgery in it.
Okay.
Asterix caveat.
Yeah.
I ate a lot when I was 315 pounds.
Like I ate like a, you know, fucking Mack truck.
What I mean is like, I'm eating six meals a day.
Now when I was obese, I'd go all morning without eating.
I'd get up, sit at my desk work and it would be like 2pm.

(09:49):
And then I would go get a full thing of crackers with tuna and cheese and a biscuit.
And like I would just eat and then I would leave work and be starving and I would eat
from five until bedtime.
But I would convince myself that like, well, I hadn't eaten all day.
It's not that bad.
But I'd order an appetizer and a meal and a dessert because you know, I'm hungry.
So I was eating a lot, but I'd argue now I eat more.

(10:14):
I eat every two hours.
And if I don't, like that's when like hunger eat now, but it's, it's every two hours.
But that's what we were told and we're supposed to do that.
So for people listening, it's not because we're starving ourselves.
We're eating every two hours.
Like we're told every two to three hours, you should be having a meal, snack, meal,
snack, meal, snack, meal, snack.

(10:35):
Yep.
And snacks, snacks are not like half a banana.
It's fiber protein.
And I don't know what the third thing is, but something, but fiber protein, something,
something, something.
So like grapes, cheese, crackers, you know, it's some tuna, some crackers, some celery.
Like, it's balanced.
Yeah.
Like my, my snack yesterday afternoon was, um, half a piece of, um, chicken deli meat,

(11:00):
half a cheese, can you remember if I had a half cheese string or a full one?
A low carbohydrate, chicken deli meat, a pickle, and a little bit of mustard to dip it in.
Turkey roll up?
That's good.
So little balance or like yogurt and berries.
Oh, yogurt berries and I'm throwing granola in there
because I need some fiber and I got protein granola.

(11:21):
Yeah, so balance.
But I definitely am much more mindful
of making food cues now.
I'm mindful of consistent eating because I would say,
I would wake up, I wouldn't have breakfast.
By lunchtime, I would be ravenous.
Then I would have a lunch
and then I would have nothing all afternoon.
And then I would get home from work, be starving again.
And then it was like dinner, snacks, snacks, snacks,

(11:43):
snacks, snacks, snacks, snack, bedtime, bed.
And now when I am hungry or when I am having a snack,
my first thought is not nachos.
Yeah.
My first thought is, okay, what do I have
that's the highest in protein?
Well, and like my first thought now is like balance.
Whereas before it was, I'm starving, I want carbs,

(12:05):
I want, you know, I wanna eat three pizza pops.
Like I want burgers, I want like, do I still crave burgers?
God damn right, I still crave burgers.
But it was like, I make better snack choices.
I'm pretty consistent with my snacks
because I'm also like a lazy prepper,
but it's usually a charcuterie plate.
And if you told Hannah before surgery that like, yo,
you're gonna be eating charcuterie plates,

(12:26):
like probably every day, I'd be like, get the fuck out.
But like, yeah, I make it all the time.
I have this high protein cheese,
it's this old white crumbly cheddar, so good.
So I have my cheese, I do three ounces of cheese,
I put a little honey on it.
Yeah, I still have some sugar.
I put a little honey on it and black pepper
because it's like, oh, there's something good about that.

(12:47):
And then I usually pick like a fruit
or something to go on the plate with it.
Grapes are kinda, you know, my jam.
But recently I've been doing cherry tomatoes
with a little salt and pepper, so good.
And then I try to have some sort of carb.
Before I was putting meat, so I have like turkey pepperettes,
but I'm really lacking in my fiber lately.

(13:08):
So I've been trying to go, okay.
And as a runner, my dietician was like,
you need more carbs in your body.
So I pick and choose really good low fat crackers,
but I'll put four or whatever the serving size is
of my crackers.
These crackers are great for low calories.
Yeah, yep.
And that's like, that's a snack.
And sometimes I eat the whole plate, sometimes I don't.

(13:29):
But I'm making like the portion size that's right for me
at this stage of my journey.
But if I don't have that, yeah, yogurt.
Oh, I make the sugar-free pistachio pudding.
Oh, that's so good.
I mix it with a whole Fair Life shake.
And I'll have that with some berries on top of it.
I'm totally making that when we get off here,
because I forgot I have the pistachio pudding.

(13:50):
It's so good.
Food, guys.
And like, I eat food that's like dessert food.
Do I eat things that aren't high in protein?
Yes, it happens all the time that I'm like,
you know what I'm craving for a snack?
Did I have a sugar-free jello pudding cup this week?
Yes. Yep.
Yep.
Was it high in protein?
I could have like 0.1.

(14:10):
Yeah.
Did I work it into my macros?
You betcha I did.
Did I eat Nanaimo bars over the holidays?
Well, an unhealthy amount of Nanaimo bars.
Now I'll preface, I had pneumonia.
And because of pneumonia being in the hospital,
I rapidly lost about 15 pounds.
It was not healthy, it was rapid.
So we're talking like over the course of eight days.

(14:31):
It was dangerous and not, it was because I was so sick
and my body was shutting down so rapidly,
I wasn't eating or drinking.
And I ended up in the hospital
and my blood sugar was like bottoming out.
My blood sodium was super low.
So they were like, hey, you gotta eat.
And I was like, oh, I'm a bariatric patient.
I'm about to be your worst nightmare.

(14:51):
And they were like, well damn.
They'd bring these trays of like, I'm not kidding.
I was the only one in my, like on my floor
that got two sandwiches, soup, gel.
Like they were packing this tray for me.
I remember you sending me pictures of like,
was it chips?
Yeah, and then chips.
They were like, here, eat chips.
But they were giving me these trays and I was like,

(15:12):
I cannot eat a peanut butter and jam sandwich,
then a turkey sandwich and get this soup down.
And they were really concerned.
And they were like, you aren't eating.
And I was like, bariatric patient, severe pneumonia
to the point that I'm on oxygen in the hospital.
I was like, y'all, it's not happening.
So they were like, you wanna eat some cookies?
And I was like, I'm not gonna say no to a cookie.

(15:33):
You want a donut?
And I was like, yes, I do.
So I was, again, that's why, yes, do I eat these things
when I had pneumonia?
Sure, do I eat them all the time?
No, but if I want a cookie, I'll have a cookie.
Like I do it in moderation, but nothing is like off limits.
Which this is a great time.
Like we should probably talk about kind of what are

(15:55):
the macros we're adhering to, kind of like what,
because you're three months post-op and I'm almost two
and our lives are completely different.
So maybe this is a great time to tell everybody
briefly overview kind of maybe what the rules are for us
and what our life looks like at this state.
Yeah, so for me, I'm, yeah, what, oh my gosh,

(16:15):
what am I, three and a half months?
Hey, congratulations.
Yeah, that's exciting.
Right, exciting, it is.
Time flies, it really does.
And it flies on one hand, but in the other hand,
it feels like forever.
Like I feel like I had this surgery ages ago
and this is old news.
But then on the flip side, I was like, oh my gosh,
like it's only been three months.

(16:37):
So for me, currently I'm just pulling it up,
I wanna make sure I get it right,
cause I just increased it.
So for me, the ones I pay the attention to the most
are protein and carbs, and then I watch my sugars.
I don't track my sugar, but I watch my sugar.
And for me, I just don't keep a lot of things in the house
for me that are high in sugar.
So I kind of even eliminate that from being an option.

(16:59):
I do Stevia as my sugar replacement in a lot of things.
So there's, but like, yeah, we talked about like sugar-free
jello, that kind of stuff, sugar-free pudding, all of that.
But my goals right now are 30 grams of carbs a day,
24 grams of fat, again, I don't really track that.
And 70, my minimum is 70 grams of protein.

(17:21):
So 30 carbs, 24, 70 protein minimum.
My calories, what that works out to calorie wise is 616.
Okay.
So I'm trying to get closer to 80 grams of protein,
but it is a struggle in that particular calorie bracket.

(17:43):
So that's kind of where I am.
Like I said, sugar, I pay attention to it.
We have, we'll say guidelines around where we should be
with sugar and fat.
So I keep it in mind, but I don't track those.
And then fiber is something that I pay attention to.
And I do track it in the sense that I'll look at,

(18:05):
I use MyFitnessPal.
Oh, me too.
I'll put everything in there for the day.
And then I'll go to my nutrients and I'll look at
where I'm sitting on everything.
So I look at where I'm sitting on fiber
and I will try to pick options that get me the highest.
Yeah.
But I'm also taking like a fiber drink right now
to help increase that.
I was there.
Yeah, not on that I'm working on,

(18:26):
but I've increased my calories once so far.
So I was at 500 calories, 60 grams of protein.
Now I'm at just over 600 calories and 70 grams protein.
So for me right now, I'm trying to figure out
when do I do that next?
Increase.
That's what I'm trying to play with right now
is when does that happen?

(18:48):
And it's a scary thing.
And we actually have a whole podcast episode
and it's coming up in the next two-ish weeks
where we'll talk about the fear of regain
because Steph and I, she knew about it
when I was at that stage and she's at that stage
where it's like, we are clinging desperately
to not increase the calories because we're so scared

(19:08):
that we're stalled.
I don't wanna, I've been stalled for a week.
So that's like super normal.
Super normal.
Yep, super normal.
It happens, there's also like a lot of very common times
that it happens.
Three months is a very long time.
Right around this time.
Yep.
So it's tough because I'm getting my hydration.
So for me right now, I'm supposed to be getting

(19:29):
about one and a half liters of hydration a day.
I'm hitting that.
I'm usually a little bit over.
I'm hitting my protein.
I'm within my calorie deficit.
Clearly I'm in a calorie deficit.
You are.
Clearly, but I've been stalled for a week.
Exactly.
Well, it's hard.
So I'm trying to increase that protein
and I know when I increased my calories and protein last time,

(19:52):
I started losing again.
I had whooshes.
So part of me is sitting here going,
okay, maybe I'm at that point.
Maybe I need to do a little bit increase.
The other part of me is like, hell no.
Don't increase.
You're not going above 616.
Don't do it.
No, no, no.
Even now when I'm planning my day,
like I was literally messaging Hannah saying,

(20:14):
okay, I really want eggs for breakfast,
but I was going to have a protein coffee
because it's high in protein
and if I have an egg, I'm not going to hit my protein.
And then if I do hit my protein,
it puts me over my calories.
And so I was like, no, I'm not.
I'm not going over my calories.
And then you're like, Steph,
you're still in a calorie deficit.
You're in a calorie deficit.
You're still in human calories.
You're still in debt, like simmer.
I was like, hey Steph, eat the egg.

(20:36):
You get so focused on seeing positive progress
and not wanting to hinder that.
But obviously I can't stay at 616 calories.
No.
Like that's not sustainable.
No, and I remember just saying eat the egg.
If you want to eat the egg, eat the egg.
I did, I made the egg.
I get it because I was at this stage too.
And again, people progress at different times too, right?

(21:00):
So there is like the blanket, this is what you need to do,
but some people are faster or slower.
So there will be people going, oh my God,
I'm at three months and I'm only at 400 calories.
That's okay.
And then there'll be people going, holy Jesus,
I'm at three months and I'm at a thousand.
Also okay.
Like your bodies will progress the way you're supposed to.
And the frustrating thing with our clinic
is they won't give us macros or calories.

(21:22):
They just give us protein goals to hit.
And like you can hit your protein goal
and be like way overeating in calories.
It's not impossible to do that.
They give us like the end goal calories.
So like they'll give us a meal plan and they'll say,
okay, when you're like a year or so out.
Yeah, when you're a year out.
Full portion.
Okay, that's great.
But when I'm three months out, what's my portion?

(21:42):
Exactly.
And when do I increase that portion?
Yeah, which welcome to where I'm at now.
Right, right.
I was where Steph was.
So we'll dive into all this in a sec.
We'll just go over quickly.
Look, you heard what she's at three months post-op.
I'm coming up on two years, March 13th of 2025
will be two years.

(22:03):
I'm not gonna lie.
It's really scary and hard.
I'm now reaching what I'm suspecting
will be the hardest year of surgery.
And I'm not trying to go into it with that mentality.
I love what I've done and I'm excited.
But to her point, I haven't really been given
like what do I do and what's normal.
And calories are terrifying because I don't wanna be obese.

(22:27):
Now I have a great therapist that I work with
and a great dietitian and I share all these fears
that I'm gonna wake up one day and be 300 pounds again.
And they both said, well, we'd have warning signs
before that happened.
I'm slowly losing weight, but it's nowhere near
what it was when I was in surgery.
Like I still have probably like 15 more pounds
I wanna lose before I'm comfortably where I wanna be at.

(22:51):
And like, I love where I'm at.
I've lost over 150 pounds of G-coupane,
but I just have this goal weight in mind
that I wanna get to.
I don't wanna have to be in a massive deficit
and have to be at the gym six days a week to get there.
So where I'm at, my dietitian feels like it's very doable
for us to get 15 more pounds down,
hit maintenance and hold maintenance.

(23:13):
But it's scary cause I've had to figure a lot of this out
on my own, but with the help of a very smart dietitian.
So my current nutrition goals look like the following
and they'll probably change.
But currently my calorie goal for the day is 1365.
When you are one year post-op,
the range that they want you to be at is 12 to 1500.

(23:36):
That's the range.
There is no exact 1252, it's 12 to 1500.
They don't want you going over 1500.
And now logically that's a calorie deficit.
Even if I was at the upper range of 1500,
like that's for a female, that's a calorie deficit.
Wow, that's a calorie deficit.

(23:56):
But 12 to 1500 is where they want you.
So there are people that are gonna say,
I didn't have surgery and I'm eating in that deficit.
Good for you, thumbs up.
Like you probably don't need to be that low, but sure.
But that's normal for bariatric surgery.
And then my goals are as follows within that.
119 grams of protein or 35% of my nutrition

(24:19):
should come from protein.
119 grams of carbs or 35% of my nutrition
should come from carbs.
And 46 grams of fat or 30%.
So I do the 35, 35, 30 rule.
Again, you'll do what's best for you.
I am a runner.
I haven't been running for a bit because of pneumonia,
but I'm a runner.
So I need more carbs in my diet.

(24:40):
Carbs are not the enemy, carbs are not keeping you fat.
You literally burn carbs as a source of fuel
when it comes to running and cardio activity.
There is nothing wrong with that.
It's not empty carbs.
I'm not eating white bread and crackers.
It's sweet potatoes, it's quinoa,
it's complex carbs that take longer to digest
and break down.

(25:01):
But those are my goals.
They work absolutely well for me.
I'm around 1365 calories a day.
I keep my sugar to 10 grams or less per serving,
which means 10 grams or less per meal and snack.
Sugar is a big thing for me that I do not budge on.
That is gonna be one that I very, very, very much look at.

(25:23):
Now with the exception being I was in the hospital
and told that I needed to get my sugar up
because I was dangerously low.
Yep, I'm gonna listen to the doctors who tell me
that I need to get my sugar up.
But normally it's less than 10 grams.
So it's less than 60 grams a day
and I usually don't come close to that.
My fiber goal is 25 grams a day.
I'm immensely struggling with that.
I will be honest, it is a hard one for me to hit.

(25:46):
I aim for low cholesterol and low sodium
because before surgery I had high blood pressure
and high cholesterol.
I don't anymore thanks to diet changes.
But that's what I do.
I do not count my exercise towards this.
This is a hot topic.
I don't touch my exercise.

(26:07):
Before surgery.
I woke up. I did.
I worked out for an hour, I can have more pizza.
And I would connect my fitness tracker to my fitness pal
and I'd go, oh, awesome,
I can have 700 more fucking calories today
because I worked out.
Yeah, I no longer count my exercise towards my eating.
This is my eating and it's what I do.
Now, with that being said,

(26:28):
have I had days where I've had more than 1356?
Absolutely, there are days where I had 1450, 1475.
I was hungry that day.
I had an extra snack or I had a slightly bigger meal.
And it's fine.
It is not gonna derail me or throw me off my goals.
I'm still in a calorie deficit.

(26:48):
And that's like my dietician has said,
they're gonna be,
we're gonna start heavily working now
on my training schedule for my half marathon.
And she said, what you eat the day you run
is gonna be very different
than what you eat the day you don't run.
And my protein goals will change because of that as well.
There'll be days where my carbs are not nearly as high,
but on days that I'm running, yes,
I need to be burning fuel to run and that fuel is carbs.

(27:10):
And I'm okay with it
because I've still been losing weight on this diet.
So I'm sure there are people who are gonna be like,
oh my God, Hannah, I'm five years post-bariatric surgery
and I ate a thousand calories.
Good for you.
I don't want that to be my life.
No, we didn't do the surgery to starve ourselves.
No, I did like, that's not the point.
People who've seen me eat lately,

(27:30):
like I can see them watch me
and they're literally like seeing how many bites I take
and how much food is left.
And they're like, is that all you're eating?
Like I'm full.
I'm full.
Guys, I'm not hungry.
Like I'm full, I'm satiated.
I am even to the point where like,
I took that extra bite that I shouldn't have
and now I'm paying for it because it hurts
and I don't feel good.
I am not hungry.

(27:51):
And I know, I think it was on the weekend, last weekend,
I had two people say to me,
you're not gonna eat like this forever, right?
And I was like, no.
I was like, I will eventually be at the 1200, 1500
galleries eventually, but I have to work my way up there.
And I just have to keep telling my family,
like I'm not hungry.
I'm fine.
I'm fine.

(28:12):
I'm so full.
And like, please just stop commenting on what I'm eating
because it's stressing me out.
I know you're watching me.
I know you're looking at me.
I am fine.
I didn't have the surgery to starve.
No.
And you know, it looks from the outside,
I know it looks like it.
Like you look at me, who's had a quarter cup of something
as my serving and because it's not normal.

(28:35):
No.
And I know if I was sitting somewhere
and I watched somebody eat a quarter cup of food,
I would literally be like, where's your next bite?
That's not enough.
That's not enough.
But I can promise you, I'm she full.
It still happens.
I go home and I will say, you know what?
My parents get a lot of love on this podcast as they should,
but I'm gonna give them big ups.
So when I first had surgery,

(28:56):
I could have punched my dad in his fucking teeth
when he, every time I went to eat,
is that all you're having Hannah?
That's all you're having?
Hannah, do you want wine with dinner?
Hannah, you gotta have more.
And I was like, I'm gonna need you to stop.
And I could hear my mom in the kitchen,
Reg, you're gonna shut up.
Shut up and stop saying that.
And like trying to explain to him why,
like I know he was saying it just because he was kind.
Now I love it.

(29:17):
Now I go home and he's like,
do you wanna come lift your own plate?
I do, thank you.
And he'll be like, how about this?
Like this little tail section of the salmon,
that can be for you, okay?
Do you wanna lift it?
Or I was like, it's fine dad, you can lift it.
But like now they asked, and my mom is really good with,
you can lift your own plate.
Because we came from a culture where mom plated your food

(29:38):
and I swear to God, you better eat what's on that plate.
And it's like-
Don't leave the table till your plate is empty.
And I remember my brother saying,
when he was home, like during COVID, he lived at home.
And I remember him being like, Jesus, stop putting stuff
on my plate, like I don't wanna eat that, I don't want that.
And he said it in a dickish way,
but he made a comment about like,
oh my God, look at your portion sizes.

(29:59):
And I was like, that's, hey dude, that's not the way.
Like you're shaming them
and they're gonna overeat for that.
Now they've just naturally kind of started to look
at their portion sizes.
Okay, it's probably because of me,
but I'm not pushing this on them.
You force them to think about it and take them-
And they do.
Nope.
And my mom has said like,
we're kind of looking at our portion sizes now.
And I was like, portion sizes were a large issue for me,

(30:22):
a large issue.
And that's why-
And that's why it's such a shock for people to see you eat.
And like you said, they're asking it because-
Kind of love.
Worry and they care,
because they don't want you to be hungry.
And I know that's why people are-
Exactly.
Because they don't want to think
that I'm sitting here starving myself.
Yep.
But it's a hard concept for people to understand that-
It is.

(30:43):
We only-
I can only hold, what?
Like three ounces in my, not three,
I'm on maybe a bit more than three ounces.
You can have an initial one egg omelet.
A cup.
What's a cup?
Eight ounces?
So I can hold a cup.
Uh, like 0.88 of a cup.
Like a full cup.
It's not great.
It doesn't feel great.
It doesn't, it's not painful,
but it's more like, okay,

(31:04):
I know I don't need to keep eating.
That's been really interesting going into two years of like,
when you're first out, she hurts.
You get sweaty, you get burpy, you get,
but as you get further out,
it's more just a feeling now.
And that feeling is strong.
Hey, you're full.
You're full.
You could be like, I'm a,
I'm a fucking eat a little more.
And it's like, don't.
But I can hold just shy the cup of food.

(31:28):
And that's going to be normal for the whole rest of my life.
We'll do a whole episode on,
can you actually expand your stomach after surgery?
Huge eye roll folks, come on.
But I can hold just shy the cup of food.
So I,
it's going to be hard for me to overeat.
So just leave it alone.
But also like, don't judge me if I eat a little bit of dinner
and then literally two hours later,

(31:49):
I get up and go make myself a snack.
It's not that I didn't like your food
or I didn't eat enough at dinner,
literally hungry again.
I don't go to bed hungry.
I don't go to bed starving.
My stomach isn't rumbling.
When I was obese, absolutely.
There were days where I was like,
I wanted to cry because I was like,
I'm so fucking hungry,
but I've already had 1500 calories
and I shouldn't have a single thing more.

(32:10):
My sleep to bed.
That's why I'm fat.
I'm eating.
Yeah.
I'm eating because of the room.
I'm like, hey, I'm going to bed because otherwise.
I'm starving.
Yeah.
And then I would binge or fall off the wagon.
And the thing I need to convey to people is
if you're overweight,
your calorie deficit should not be 1500.
I don't know who told you that or why you think.
I'm a bariatric patient and 1500 is our upper limit.

(32:32):
Like just let that sink in a bariatric patient.
You are not a bariatric patient.
You don't have a restriction to help.
Like your calorie deficit is probably like 1800, maybe 19.
Like don't please don't let people convince you
that it is super low.
No.
Yeah.
This is not where you need to be.
Most of you only need to be
in like a three to 400 calorie deficit.
And when you're obese, like when I was 315 pounds,

(32:54):
I guarantee you that probably was like
1,800 calories would have been a deficit.
So, whoa.
But the one thing that really,
and we won't go too much into this
because we'll save it for another episode
because we'll talk about recipes next.
But the one thing that bugs me
and that you have to be aware of in the bariatric community

(33:14):
is this effing notion
that you should be eating a thousand calories or less.
There are so many influencers out there
that it's basically an undiagnosed eating disorder.
Fight me on that if you want, but I stand firm in that.
There is no award for eating less than someone else.
There is no award for being like, I ate a thousand calories.

(33:36):
There's no award for eating one meal a day.
Your success isn't gonna be better than my success
because you're eating less.
If anything, I'm noticing you're stalled
or I'm noticing you're not really where you wanna be.
But I'm really tired
because I had a huge conversation
with my therapist about this this week.
And I've talked to Steph who's like,

(33:57):
had to literally talk me off the ledge of bawling my eyes out
where I've said, I feel like I'm overeating.
I feel like a failure.
I feel like I'm gonna be fat again.
I feel like the worst bariatric patient,
I just feel horrible because I said, they're barely eating
and I'm eating six meals a day.
And I've started to super overanalyze my portions
and I feel like I'm a huge failure.

(34:18):
And the truth is they're not following the rules,
which is 1200 to 1500 calories, six meals a day.
And not two meals up for success.
Yeah, and bariatric surgery does not tell you
that you have to eat a thousand calories,
only drink and never eat again.
It doesn't say you have to be carb free.
It doesn't say you have to get rid of foods you like.

(34:38):
It doesn't say you have to be sugar free.
And I'm tired of the influencers
that are making me feel bad.
Not that they're doing it on purpose,
but I'm tired of this notion
that it's somehow so acceptable that they're barely eating.
You're doing it because you're scared
you're gonna gain weight.
You're doing it from a really unhealthy place.
We're not supposed to be drinking our calories and protein.

(34:59):
It's okay to have those things in your meal,
but you're supposed to be doing full foods.
That's what you were told.
And just get off social telling people
that you're eating a thousand calories a day
and that's super normal.
Most of you are on Ozempic
and you're not telling people you're on Ozempic.
And it's fine if you need to be on Ozempic
to hit your goals and be where you wanna be,

(35:19):
but I feel like I'm failing
and I'm eating 1300 calories a day.
And I genuinely feel like I'm failing.
The fact that people are being put into that mindset
is not okay.
And like, I don't get a gold star today
because I only eat three quarters of my egg omelet.
And then tomorrow when I eat the whole thing,

(35:41):
I'm gonna sit and be like,
well, shit, yesterday I didn't eat the whole thing.
Now I'm gonna ruin it because now I ate more today.
You have to, number one, listen to your body.
Your body will tell you when it needs something.
Don't ignore your body.
Like I said, we didn't have this to starve.
We're not here to deprive ourselves to starve.

(36:01):
Are we focusing on certain foods over others?
Yes.
But like I said, there's no,
and this gets into again another topic
of good food and bad food.
Which we promise we'll cover.
Are we watching our sugar?
Yeah.
Are we still having sugar though?
Yeah.
Yeah.
We are.
I use a lot of stevia instead of sugar,
but I still, the yogurt that I had last night,
there's sugar in it.

(36:22):
I have maple syrup.
I have honey.
My dietician said if you're gonna have it,
I'd rather you just have it.
Right.
So yes, we are being mindful.
Yes, we are picking whole foods over processed foods.
But you know what?
Are we having chicken nuggets?
Yeah.
Yup.

(36:42):
Are we, are people having burgers?
Yup.
I don't wanna talk about burgers.
We have a great recipe for sliders.
So bad.
Like so bad.
I can't wait.
Yeah.
But yeah, we're, it's just making different choices.
And you know what?
Is there gonna be a day that I'm gonna have some pizza?
Probably.
Probably.
I'm not, I'm sorry.
I'm not gonna say no to things that I like forever.

(37:05):
Am I gonna make-
No.
Yes.
Am I gonna make healthier options?
Yes.
Less.
Is it gonna be a special thing that only happens sometimes?
Yes.
Right?
Yup.
But it's not about starvation.
It's not about deprivation.
And it's about what works best for your body.
Yes.
Listening to what you need.

(37:26):
Ding, ding, ding.
Eat when you're fricking hungry.
Just eat when you're hungry.
Bariatric patients-
Eat your food.
Being hungry is okay.
Like being a little like, hmm.
To be hungry.
I could maybe eat something like, hmm,
I could maybe have, you know, that's normal.
But if you're sitting there going,
I'm so hungry.
That's food.

(37:47):
Like that is not what bariatric surgery's supposed to be.
And it is normal that you'll think about food.
Like it's normal to be like, ooh, it's, you know,
it's 1.20 in the afternoon.
It's up here.
Yeah.
Ooh, what am I gonna have for lunch?
Like that's okay.
That's normal.
There are a lot of bariatric patients
who will rush to the doctor's office and go,
I am thinking about food.
I need Ozempic.

(38:08):
It's normal to think about food still.
Like you're a human.
You are gonna think about,
what am I gonna make for lunch?
Or Steph and I think about now,
okay, have I had enough protein?
Ooh, do I need to have a snack right now?
Because I haven't had, like for me,
I'm going it's 1.20 and I only have-
I was just-
Have to eat 30.
It was the last thing we can like, ooh, ooh.
That's not great.
Like, so yeah, am I thinking about food right now?

(38:30):
Yes.
Because the one thing you need to know is
because of the size of your stomach,
you can't just make up not eating.
So they stress this to me and so does my dietician.
A normal person could probably look at their watch and go,
it's 3 p.m. and I still need 100 grams of protein.
I'm gonna make it up the rest of today.
I do not have the capacity to make it up.
So when I miss a meal,
it's not like I can double up on my next meal.

(38:52):
I don't have the space in my stomach.
I show you all day off.
So once you miss your goal, you kind of miss your goal.
Now that doesn't mean give up and get derailed,
but what they're trying to say is
it is normal for you to go,
I need to have my three snacks and my three meals
and it's okay to go, ooh, what's my lunch gonna be?
Like you can still be excited about,
what am I gonna have next?
I don't like this really toxic notion about food noise

(39:14):
where because you're thinking about food,
it must mean you need to get rinsed and thicker.
And again, be on it if you wanna be on it, I don't care.
But just be conscious that surgery doesn't take away
wanting food or thinking about food.
You shouldn't be thinking about food 24 seven
because then yeah, you're getting back into like
your binge eating and bad habits,
but you will think about food.

(39:36):
Speaking of like meals and stuff,
I go out to restaurants with friends.
We have a dinner club and once a month we go out,
I make better choices, different choices.
So I'm not ordering mains because I,
I'm never gonna finish that and there's just no point.
We usually try to go to tapas restaurants
and they're really great at finding like sharing plate
restaurants or restaurants with good appetizers.
I don't go to like, I go to the pub every now and then

(39:59):
for trivia, but I usually don't eat much from the pub.
But I don't go to like pubby places
where it's gonna be fried food.
We went to a really great sharing plate
and I had some branzino, I had some poached shrimp.
We had a little terrine of like venison.
It was awesome, they had a poached pear dessert.
So we had that and again, these are sharing plates.

(40:21):
So it was me and other people.
So I was able to have a few bites of the branzino
and then I could have a shrimp, I actually had to.
And then I was able to have a slice of the poached pear.
It's part of your life.
Because it's, again, it's sharing plate.
So I didn't have to feel awkward about,
oh, I can't eat this whole meal.
But I still go out and I usually just order
from the appetizer menu and try to make decent choices.

(40:44):
But I have a recipe for sliders.
I make quesadillas, there's currently quesadillas
in my freezer, it's my favorite lunch now.
It's got refried beans and chicken and burrito sauce
and it's in like a carb tortilla.
These quesadillas are less than 100 calories
and pack 20 grams of protein in them.
And they're fire, they're so good.

(41:04):
I still have burgers, I just make sliders
and I still have a bun.
I'm not gonna eat a patty wrapped in lettuce.
Like I want a bun, I'm having a bun.
The bun is 100 calories.
Ooh, like I'm having the bun.
It's work of the day.
I'm having the bun, okay, because it's good
and I want this little slider.
I can only eat a slider, but it doesn't matter.
It's the best slider I've had.

(41:24):
I've had chicken wings, I've had chicken nuggies.
I eat when I go home to my parents' house,
whatever they're making, I just modify.
If it's salmon and noodles, I'll have salmon and broccoli.
Like I eat.
Yeah, I have treats.
Your life is not on hold because you had surgery.
I just don't revolve around food.
Like my life, I still meal prep and I love it.

(41:45):
I make roasted sweet potatoes,
like I'm in my sweet potato era right now.
It's delicious.
But you can still eat whatever you wanna eat.
Now, I will preface, you need to track.
People don't wanna track,
who are gonna tell you they don't track, that's dangerous.
You can eat what you wanna eat, but track.
It's not because you should feel guilty,
but it's because it can quickly spiral

(42:05):
because you could just eat chicken wings.
Nine chicken wings, like a thousand calories.
And you're gonna pack those chicken wings away
and still be hungry.
So just track it and it will all find a balance
and then be okay with some days going over.
It's fine.
The big thing you need to know is,
if you ate a donut every day, yeah.

(42:27):
If you ate a donut once every three months,
it's not gonna derail your weight loss goals at all,
but that's how we think.
We think because one day out of the week was 14, 15,
instead of 13.
Really? Done.
Oh, I'm gonna be fat.
It's not how life works.
Everything in moderation and balance,
but just watch some of the influencers
because they make me feel bad about myself

(42:49):
and they don't do it on purpose,
but I don't believe that's how little they eat.
I don't believe, and there's a reason they're not showing you
if they finished their plate or not.
I believe it's very dangerous.
I will promote an influencer called eatingvsg on Instagram.
She's Canadian.
Her account has been a lifesaver.
She posts all her meals for the day.

(43:11):
And then she posts the macros, the calories,
and if it was a recovery day or a running day,
ba-ba-ba-ba-ba.
There are days where she eats 1,400 plus calories or 1,500.
She's lost an extreme amount of weight
and is a half marathoner.
And I love looking at it because I'm like,
oh my God, she had a croissant or she had a sugar cookie.
She's eating and her stuff isn't snacks, snacks.

(43:32):
It's food, food.
She's having pasta.
She's having stews.
She's having real food.
So we're gonna start sharing more of that
on our Instagram going forward, guys.
Sorry, gals and guys.
Because we just think collectively,
it's not really showcasing what it's like.

(43:54):
I fear regain.
I fear gaining weight.
I fear my portion size.
I'm so full of fear at two years.
And I wanna start sharing what I eat
because I am not gaining weight.
I haven't gained weight in two years, knock on foot.
I'm still slowly losing weight.
I'm exercising where I should be.
And I'm gonna start showing you guys what I eat

(44:15):
because I don't see it represented
in 90% of the people I see on social.
And I think that that's dangerous.
Agreed.
There's a really good girl on TikTok.
She's also from Ontario.
I just looked her up to make sure I get it right.
But her name is bariatric Kayla.
Okay. Kayla.
She, I have followed her since I started deciding

(44:37):
if I was going to be having the surgery.
And one of the things that I really liked about her is
she shows her what she eats in a day.
She shows how much she's making.
She tells you how much it is,
how many grams, how many ounces, whatever.
And then she always shows you the after,
which I find very helpful.
And if she goes- I love that.
So she did a video the other day.

(44:58):
I don't know if it was over one day
or a weekend or whatever, but she said, you know,
she goes out sometimes.
But this just happened to be one of the times
where she went out twice.
And so she posted her videos
and the one was chicken wings.
And so she was showing how, how she,
how many chicken wings she ordered,
how she decided what to order, first of all,
which is helpful.
Yes.

(45:19):
She showed the chicken wings.
She showed how, you know, she eats her chicken wings.
She waits a minute.
She eats the chicken wings, she waits a minute.
And she showed, I think she only ate three of them,
took the rest home.
Another one, she went to Subway and she said the same thing.
I'm having my bread.
Like I like bread.
Oh, yeah.
I'm having carbs.
Yeah. So she explained that.
She gets a six inch and then she gets
in half again.

(45:40):
So she said, number one, it's good
because she usually doesn't even finish a six inch.
And it's also kind of that mental thing of,
it looks like a bigger sub.
Oh, that's genius.
Yeah.
So she said, you kind of still feel
like you're having a real sub.
Oh, I like that.
She showed like what she put on it.
And then she said, you know,
she'll probably only eat half of the sandwich.

(46:02):
Which then she did.
She showed exactly how much was like,
she's just very transparent.
And as somebody, when you're early on in the stage,
you want to see that because again,
we talked about comparing yourself to other people,
but to have some sort of guideline or guideposts
to follow and say, okay, this is,
this what I think maybe not normal.

(46:22):
This gives me an idea of where I need to be.
Yep. And don't be afraid to eat out.
And again, don't think you have to give up everything.
You don't, you really don't.
Now you have to eat in moderation and be smart
because regain is a huge thing.
We'll talk about it in a podcast.
Statistically, it's going to happen to 30% of you
that have this surgery,
regardless if you have bypass or sleeve,

(46:42):
but it's almost a hundred percent because of lifestyle,
not because the surgery fails.
So you gotta, yeah, you gotta make those choices.
You gotta eat, you gotta listen to when you're full.
That's a big one we'll cover in that episode too.
Like you gotta stop pushing through
and just eating because it's in front of you.
So the rule in bariatric surgery too, is there's no grazing.
Do not order something and then take two hours to eat it.

(47:05):
You have 30 minutes, eat what you've eaten,
and then you're done.
Don't mindlessly eat on the couch.
Don't eat while you're playing video games.
Is this such a big one for me?
I have to stop eating while mindlessly doing things,
but don't graze.
And then just be wary of who you follow on social.
This will kind of sound hypocritical,
but follow people that like fit what you believe

(47:29):
like this looks normal,
but do not follow people that give you an excuse
to break the rules and do bad things.
There is someone who we will not name on social
that is literally not following the rules.
Like I'm talking about ordering takeout several times a day,
like just did a big post about Taco Bell.

(47:51):
I think her first diet pop was like a week after surgery.
Like just multiple a day.
Multiple a day.
Eating fast food and takeout,
like eating fried mozzarella sticks,
like complaining that they ordered from Taco Bell
and only ate half of it.
And what a waste of money that was.
Like two hours eating the quesadilla
and like forcing herself to finish it.
Forcing herself to eat this deep takeout quesadilla.

(48:14):
And then wonders why like,
oh, I'm not really losing the weight
and I'm kind of in a stall.
Yeah, it's just, again,
there are people like that who are gonna break the rules.
And what breaks my heart is seeing all the people comment
going, I finally found someone real.
And oh, girl, I can't wait to go do this too.
And I can't wait to order Taco Bell.
And like, thank you for showing the real side of surgery.

(48:35):
So while we do advocate,
go find people with a more realistic view of surgery,
don't find people that justify bad eating habits
and call it real.
So the two people we listed will share their,
like we don't know them,
we're not affiliated with them,
but we'll show their Instagram because we just felt for us,
it showed a very healthy, like not unrealistic view

(48:59):
and they shared all the details.
That's what we're saying when we say find real,
not influencers that don't share the macros
that say they're eating a thousand calories or less,
like unless they're like less than a year post-op,
that's dangerous.
But don't follow people that are eating fast food
and telling you it's super normal.
Sure, it is.
Yes, you can eat fast food.
You can after surgery.
There's three times I got a happy meal

(49:21):
because I was on a road trip and just needed something.
So I got a little kid's hamburger
because it was 300 calories.
And I was like, well, better than, you know,
I guess other things,
but this person eats it several times a week
and like you're just back in your old bad eating habits.
Like I kicked my ass when I am back in my old eating habits
and I go, okay, it's time to wake up.

(49:42):
So-
Somebody who wasn't ready mentally for the commitment
and the lifestyle change.
No, they were not.
That is this program and is this surgery.
It is more, and a friend of mine had bypass yesterday
and I said to her this morning and I said,
the hard part, the hard physical part's over.
You had your surgery, you're going home this morning.

(50:03):
Now it's the mental.
And I said to her in particular,
I know she's gonna crush it.
I know she will.
But I said, now it's the mental.
And that is the biggest part of this.
And if you are somebody who's going into this journey,
you have to be mentally prepared
for the changes that need to happen.
You have to be willing.
So you gotta get rid of your takeout obsession.

(50:26):
You gotta delete those apps off your phone.
Hard truth, you gotta get rid of fast food from your life
because it's a slippery slope.
And there were times that I did it
because I was like, well, the calories don't seem that bad.
The servings are small, they're full of fat.
They don't satiate you.
You have to make your own stuff
and become reliant on your stuff.
Eating out is great, but pick high quality restaurants.

(50:49):
Don't be like, yo, you know where we're going? Eastside Marios.
Probably not, probably not a great choice.
Why don't you go to a local restaurant that has fresh food
and maybe try something different?
You all probably don't wanna hear what I'm saying,
but it's the hard truth that-
You wanna be successful.
You gotta change your diet.
You gotta change your lifestyle.
It's not about dieting.

(51:09):
It's about literally smaller portion sizes,
controlling what goes into that,
making your own food,
and not falling back into bad patterns
of high sugar, high fat, easy takeout.
That's what's gonna put you back where you are
because it's a slippery slope.
You're gonna have good years and bad years.
So you have to prepare yourself
to navigate the good and bad times

(51:30):
so that you don't just go,
because you can absolutely,
regardless of the surgery you had,
gain all your weight back.
And it happens much quicker than people think.
It's within the first five years.
And it happens to 30% of patients.
And that's a Canadian statistic.
So God help me, I don't know what the American one is,
but this is why they stress,
probably don't drink again.
It's empty calories.

(51:50):
You can't be drinking all your protein.
You can't be having a ton of sugar
and you can't be having a ton of high fat.
You gotta make better choices.
Because if not, you do exactly what happens.
Oh, I'm in front of the TV and I'm just gonna snack.
Oh, it's Super Bowl Sunday.
Just gonna have pretzels and dip.
Like it's fine, it's okay.
It is.
But if you don't watch that
and then make sure that the rest of the days are okay,

(52:12):
then it becomes, well, it's okay.
Well, it's okay.
Well, it's okay.
It's like, oh, oh, yeah.
And once you go too far over,
you get back into where you were before surgery
where it becomes really hard to restrict
and eat the calorie deficit.
Because now your body is raring to go.
And it's like, no, I want 2000 calories again.

(52:33):
And it's like, no, no, no, we gotta get back to 1500.
Good luck.
Once you've got your body into a mode
where that's now gonna feel like a really hard challenge.
So if you can stay between 12 and 15
and let it vary in that range,
you can get yourself back on track.
But if you start going way past it,
getting your body back to 1500,

(52:54):
it's not gonna want to go back to that.
And you will feel it starving.
Your brain, the chemicals in the food,
the hormones, the cravings, it's all gonna come back in.
And so your body's gonna want it.
Your brain is gonna sit there.
The food noise is gonna be super loud.
Super loud.
The cravings are gonna be just sitting in your mind.
And that's why we talk about this person

(53:14):
having diet coke two weeks post-surgery.
We're not saying you can't have diet coke.
No, but-
Right, right?
But it's so important to set the habits in place
from day one and get that strong foundation in place
so that it just becomes the norm.
It becomes the norm.
So you're building those building blocks.
You're building the foundation.
It becomes your lifestyle change.

(53:35):
It becomes habit.
You don't have to think about it.
It's just more moving forward.
Exactly.
And then you can start, okay, you want your diet coke?
Have your diet coke.
Yeah.
Because you know you're not gonna drink seven of them
or three in a day.
You know like, oh, okay.
And again, it's not that diet coke
has sugar and calories in it.
It's that it's filling your stomach

(53:56):
and not giving enough room for protein.
And again, it's like when is diet coke
gonna stop being enough and regular coke needs to come in.
And if you're gonna slip on that-
And when you used to have the diet coke,
you probably had it with the burger.
You had it with the nachos.
Oh, the Doritos.
Right?
So it goes hand in hand and like I said,
it goes down that slippery slope.
So that's why that beginning part is so important

(54:19):
to listen to the rules, listen to your body,
focus on the good things and set that foundation in place.
Everything in moderation because the thing is like,
could you lose weight on diet coke?
Yeah, you could, but you're not getting the protein
and other things in that you need, right?
So you're gonna become weak and then you're tired
and then you don't wanna work out
and then you get in a headache.
And you're wondering like, why is it not working?

(54:40):
Well, because there's a reason they say you need
to get X amount of fiber and X amount of protein
and X amount of carbs and like you have to balance it.
Like again, we're gonna get into this
in a whole other episode where we're gonna talk about
regain and what you need to follow and all of that jazz.
But we are gonna start sharing on Instagram
as we wrap up here, what we're eating.

(55:02):
We're gonna share it from our personal channels
and just reshare it onto the podcast one.
So follow us on Instagram.
We are at Bariatric Banter podcast.
Subscribe to us on whatever platform you listen to us.
If you like this, please review us.
Like go such a long way in helping us find other people
to listen to this podcast.
Let us know what you wanna see us cover.
But in the next couple of episodes,
we are gonna cover a lot of what we went over.

(55:25):
In the next few, we're gonna talk about comorbidities,
something we mentioned last week
that we didn't have time to get into,
but we're gonna go over high blood pressure,
blood sugar, cholesterol and answer the question
of does surgery erase these things?
We're gonna also talk about dating and relationships.
So what's it like being single and dating
after being obese?
How is it having surgery,
being in an existing relationship

(55:46):
and navigating all of that?
And then later on, we're gonna talk about regain and fears.
We're gonna talk about exercise routines and a lot more.
So thank you so much for all 200 of you that listen to us.
Please subscribe, please review us.
Let us know what you want us to talk about.
Follow our Instagram.
We're gonna start sharing recipes when we go out to eat,

(56:06):
what we eat in a day, macros.
We're gonna share all of this with you guys
in the next coming weeks and over the next couple of years.
But just a huge thank you to every one of you that listen
and of course to you, Steph,
for joining me again for another wonderful week.
No, love it.
We're gonna, yeah, I said we're gonna start getting
into some of the personal ins and outs of our daily life
on Instagram too so you can see what it's like

(56:29):
in the life of Han and Steph.
But like Hannah said, thank you so much.
Hope you guys are loving the video format.
Let us know and we'll see you next week.
See you next week everybody.
Bye guys. Bye Steph.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Let's a go.