Guest blog by: Katie Jay, MSW; Certified Life & Wellness Coach Let’s be honest. It's hard to resist when faced with the dessert-filled serving table at your neighbor’s party. Those of us who love sweets and carbs think parties with lots of colorful, creamy, chewy, crunchy, sweet, salty foods are paradise. But after bariatric surgery, we might want to rethink that. Maybe It’s Time to Redefine Paradise Paradise is not the simple concept of pure, immediate pleasure everyone thinks it is. Sure, if you're healthy and resilient and don't have trigger foods that rev up your "eating engine," maybe paradise is that simple. But most adults, and especially those of us who’ve had bariatric surgery, would define paradise a bit differently if they thought it through. Thinking things through is essential for bariatric surgery patients. Not the kind of thinking we do minute to minute, like, "Hmmm, how did my sunglasses end up in the medicine cabinet?" and "I'm hungry. Where are the crackers?" The kind of thinking you need to create your bariatric paradise—or what I like to call emotional dessert—goes more like this: "I'm hungry. Or am I? I better take a time-out and check in with my feelings and my body," and "Who left the crackers on the counter? I’m going to remind my partner that I don’t want snack food glaring at me every time I come into the kitchen to refill my water glass. If I don’t remind them, I’ll become resentful and self-destructive.” Paradise Should Last Into Perpetuity When you think of paradise, do you imagine it as fleeting? A moment in time that will pass in minutes? Of course not. The word paradise implies a pleasure that lasts. As you begin to shape your new life after bariatric surgery, you’ll find that the weight comes off easily at first. Over time, though, you’ll realize that the weight comes off (or stays off) less effectively if you snack, eat foods that empty from your pouch too quickly, or drink with meals. When you follow your old idea of paradise—eating with free rein—you may start to worry that the huge investment you've made of time, behavioral change, and shaping a new lifestyle will be for nothing if you don’t follow the bariatric guidelines. Does snacking on the dessert you crave as often as you want sound like paradise? Maybe. But does never losing weight or maintaining your weight loss sound like paradise? No way. Take the Bird's-Eye View Imagine you’re in a small aircraft with a talented pilot who has taken you high above to see the terrain of your life. From way up high, you can see the deserts, plains, mountains, and seas. You can see where there is drought (a lack of health, confidence, and hope) and where there is abundance (feeling energized, healthy, functional, and hope-filled). Is the part of your life that allows ineffective eating behaviors, low energy, and poor health your paradise? Or is paradise found in the part where you're proactive, eating for your well-being, exercising, and living a full life unencumbered by weight or food obsession? Redefining Your Paradise Is Worth the Effort After surgery, you have a choice: keep behaving the way you always have (or keep eating dessert the way you used to) in a misguided attempt to find a fleeting paradise or learn how to transform the way you think and live. The goal is to increase your emotional dessert, which is the thing in life that feels as good as dessert tastes. When you do that, you will enter the paradise of true freedom from obesity. Paradise comes when you think through an immediate pleasure you desire, like a jelly-filled donut, to find the joy-filled outcome you truly want. For more support managing sugar cravings and stress-related snacking, try Bariatric Fusion GLP-ONE + Receptor Activator and Stress Support.*