I have always loved to read. It is a personal escape for me. Reading is a sense of therapy for me. I started reading right when I decided to have bariatric surgery. When deciding between gastric bypass versus gastric sleeve I started reading online and navigating what surgery was going to be best for me. My surgeon was the best resource for this. Make sure you are finding reputable information online when researching online. Your surgeon and dietitian are always the best resources for information compared to google. These are some of my favorite books that have helped me over the past few years.
Books Related To Eating/Food
This book is one of my all time favorites. I have tried to eat a diet high in protein, moderate in healthy fats, lower in carbohydrates since surgery and also eat mindfully. This book has really helped me look at food in a balanced way. A co-worker got me this book shortly before my gastric bypass surgery and I kept this next to me during my recovery process. It is an easy read and has so many helpful tips and I really love this book!
I am big into food triggers. I had a few trigger foods before surgery. Anything deep fried, pizza from pizza shoppes (think Dominoes, Pizza Hut, etc.) and certain appetizer snack foods. It was binge time when it came to those foods. Once I popped, the fun did not stop. A few of those foods, I gave up for good and have not touched them since surgery. That was one of the best decisions I have ever made. This book really helped me to understand some of the science behind food addiction and broke down a lot of the complex ideas behind it. There are exercises in this book that helped me to identify what my food triggers were and see all the ways that I substituted food in my life.
This was a book that we read for Bariatric Book Club. I don’t think I truly understood how addicted I was to food until a couple years after I was post-op from gastric bypass. Until I had lost well over 100 pounds and I saw how little I could eat and still feel great, did I realize I was a total food addict and binge eater. I thought about food from the time that I woke up until the time that I went to bed. It is so freeing to be in recovery from food addiction. Therapy was not required for my pre-op for surgery and my insurance plan does not cover it. I am very lucky that I was able to recover from this on my own. This book is a fabulous read that Connie Stapleson, PH.D. teaches us all about how if you do not treat food addiction, that the weight will come back. Bariatric surgery is not enough to keep the weight off. It is a tool, like so many of you know. Even your bariatric surgeons do not completely understand food addiction. They are experts in bariatric surgery.
Self Help/Self Discovery Books
This is a book that changed my life. This is also a Bariatric Book Club read. I am a huge fan of Glennon Doyle. I love her love story following her heartbreaking divorce and it makes my heart so happy that she has found love. I connect with this book on so many levels. One of my favorite parts is when she talks about a “warm feeling” versus a “cold feeling.” This is when I alway know I am getting a nudge from God. He gives me a “warm feeling.” Like when I was deciding if I should have bariatric surgery. I kept getting “warm feelings” about it. He just kept leading me towards others success stories and showing me more and more people who had surgery and succeeded. Or when I kept fighting Him when He was leading me to share my story on Instagram for over 6 months and I kept fighting it off. This is an amazing read for anyone going through change. Who isn’t these days!?
I read this book this past summer and I feel like it just helped me feel strong and empowered. This past summer (of 2020) was a real turning point for me. I began standing up for myself. I do not know if it was because of this book. But a fire inside of me was lit after reading this book. It really made me look deep within myself; my wants, my needs, my dreams, my core, my truth. Jen has an amazing chapter on body image that I read at least three times. She also has a podcast.
I really hope to make more time to read in 2021. I haven’t had a ton of free time this year due to being a nurse during the pandemic and creating content (which is my ultimate passion!) but I am going to make more time for it! I can’t wait to see this list grow. As always, thank you for being here!
Love & hugs,
Maddie
The best place to get all my updates is Instagram – @Maddie5088 – I share bariatric recipes for the whole family, grocery hauls, motivation, inspiration for anyone who is on their journey to a healthier life.
