Lifestyle modifications after gastric bypass surgery: counseling

After gastric bypass surgery, it is important to make lifestyle changes so you can lose weight and stay at a good weight in the long run.
You’re wondering what adjustments you need to make and if you can get help with this.
At WeightWorks, you will be guided in making lifestyle changes after surgery by a medical team.
You can expect guidance from an internist (doctor), dietician, lifestyle coach and psychologist.
Regilio de Boer and Jordy Coorengel are part of the team of lifestyle coaches at WeightWorks. They know the challenges you can expect in making lifestyle adjustments after surgery. Their mission is to guide patients to a healthier lifestyle physically and mentally. “In the intake, we discuss with the patient that he or she is in control in terms of lifestyle change.
By asking open-ended questions, a person starts thinking about their lifestyle and what they want to work toward.”

In this article we explain why it is important to make lifestyle changes after gastric bypass surgery and how a lifestyle coach can help.
In addition, you will learn how often you speak to the lifestyle coach and how this differs from seeing a psychologist.
Finally, we share some experiences of patients who have gone through a program with the lifestyle coach, so you know what to expect in practice.

Why is it important to make lifestyle changes after gastric bypass surgery?

It is important to work on a healthy lifestyle so that you can maintain your weight loss and become healthier in the long run. After gastric bypass surgery, a lot changes in your life.
You start eating less and differently.
You lose weight.
Those around you notice that your appearance is changing.
This can be a pleasant experience.
At the same time, it is important that you keep your muscles and that your body does not become weak because of the lower nutritional intake.
Therefore, it is necessary for you to seek forms of exercise after gastric bypass surgery that will ensure that your body remains strong.
If you couldn’t exercise well before surgery because of physical complaints or because you didn’t enjoy it, it takes getting used to picking it up after surgery.

You will discuss with the lifestyle coach what activities you can pick up, taking into account your physical health.

What can a lifestyle coach help me with after gastric bypass surgery?

A lifestyle coach helps you make healthy choices and stick with them. For example, a coach will help you after gastric bypass surgery in areas such as:

1. Support and Motivation: The lifestyle coach offers support and motivates you to achieve your goals in terms of lifestyle and mindset.
   Together with your coach you examine what your pitfalls are and learn how you can ensure that these pitfalls do not stop you from making healthy choices.
   Your lifestyle coach discusses with you how your thoughts and feelings influence your lifestyle behavior.
   Then together you look at how you can achieve your lifestyle goals and whether there are any barriers that need to be overcome.
2. Healthy Habits: The lifestyle coach motivates you to think about new, healthy exercise and living habits.
   You discuss with your coach how to break unhealthy lifestyle patterns.
   In addition, you discuss realistic, attainable goals that you want to achieve in a specific time period.
   This will help you develop healthy habits in the long term.
3. Preventing Relapse: Making regular appointments with the lifestyle coach in the follow-up process keeps you aware of your behavior and habits.
   This can help you avoid falling back into old, unhealthy habits.
   There will come a time when you may be less motivated to exercise and feel less active.
   By exploring with your coach what the reason for this is, you can change course and figure out how to still enjoy activities again.

Sometimes it can be difficult to break unhealthy habits.
We can then speak of a certain blockade (“resistance)” such as an impeding thought.
Thoughts in turn influence your feelings and behavior.
Together with the lifestyle coach you examine these thoughts.
You will think about how you can take small steps in the field of lifestyle change. It is important during the interviews that you come up with your own ideas. After all, you yourself know best what you want to work toward and how much you can handle at that time.

How often do I see the lifestyle coach after my gastric bypass surgery?

The lifestyle coach will see you for the first time 6 and 12 weeks after surgery. From then on, appointments will be once every 3 months.
The reason you’ll see the lifestyle coach a little more often in the beginning is because you’ll create a plan for making lifestyle changes.
Aftercare with the medical team, which includes meetings with the lifestyle coach, is included in the gastric reduction program.

How do lifestyle coach and psychologist consultations differ?

A lifestyle coach helps you get your life back into a healthy balance. This means not only looking at what you eat, but also how you exercise, what your goals are and how you stay motivated.
A kind of helicopter view where you think about getting healthier in all kinds of areas of your life.
Your lifestyle coach will look with you at:

• Motion: What forms of exercise suit you?
  How can you easily fit this into your daily routine?
• Goal Setting: What do you want to accomplish?
  These can be small goals, such as going for a walk every day or going to bed earlier.
  You can also work toward bigger goals, such as participating in a sporting event.
• Motivation: How do you stay motivated, especially on days that are hard?

A lifestyle coach helps you keep track and work step by step toward a healthy, new lifestyle.
A psychologist often focuses more on specific complaints.
These may include conversations about gloom or anxiety, or problems such as difficulty breaking avoidance behaviors.
For example: If you are anxious about going to the gym because you are afraid people will look at you, a psychologist can help you address and overcome this fear.

Lifestyle coaching WeightWorks: two patient experiences

We want to give you a good idea of what to expect from a lifestyle coach after gastric bypass surgery.
Therefore, we have described two experiences of goals patients have achieved with the lifestyle aftercare program at WeightWorks.

Mrs. J. (age 34)

“Before the WeightWorks program, I hardly ever moved. I didn’t enjoy sports, even as a child. At WeightWorks I got post-surgery appointments with the lifestyle coach. I didn’t really know what to expect. After the gastric bypass, I found it difficult to start exercising. I can say I had some excuses not to do it…. So I put it off. My lifestyle coach poked through this. I found out that I was avoiding exercise because I was afraid others would laugh at me. After our talks, I did start at a gym. The advice was to see if someone could go with me. As a sort of stick. I then asked someone from my family to go with me. Since then I have been working out with a family member. At the moment even four times a week! I feel very fit and also have muscles! I am glad that I received good advice and got myself over that threshold. I couldn’t have done it alone.”

Mrs. C. (age 29)

“I have a busy job and a family.
To my mind, I had little time to exercise after surgery.
It felt like something added on. During the conversations with the lifestyle coach, I have learned that I can make more time for myself. I took a breathing workshop on the advice of my coach.
It was there that I realized that I may dwell more on myself and that my body is often tense.
I didn’t think I found the workshop so informative.
I decided to sign up for a yoga class so I can grab moments for myself more often.”

Is a lifestyle coach for me?

You now know more about what to expect about conversations with the lifestyle coach after surgery.
You may think you don’t need it, that you can do it on your own and that the appointments take up too much of your time. At WeightWorks, we see that patients who follow the post-surgery aftercare program get better results than those who do it on their own. Sometimes you just need that big stick to make lifestyle changes.
Especially if you want to maintain them in the long run.
Do you still find it difficult to think of goals that will help you on your way to a healthier lifestyle?
Discuss this during the appointment with the lifestyle coach after the gastric bypass.
Together you can draw up attainable goals.

Wondering if you qualify for stomach reduction surgery?
Then do our Quickscan.