THE GREAT PROTEIN DEBATE
As someone that has been journeying with a gastric bypass for 5 and a half years and had a lapband put in 15 years ago and removed 12 years ago this is a little bit of my experience.
I can remember the very first time that someone sat down with me and explained what Macros were. It was not before or even soon after my lap band. It was about 8 years ago. He was very kind and explained everything from a fitness perspective and I kind of grasped it but I still didn't really get how to apply that knowledge to my own life. I knew about Protein, fats and carbs before that conversation took place, but I didn't really comprehend the whole "thing"!
I grew up in a time where we spoke in calories, assigned morality to food - for example "chips are bad" "apples are good" and I felt totally at the mercy of my body because I did not know how to get myself in check and my weight just climbed and climbed from year to year. I can remember standing at the tuckshop desperately wanting to buy a meat pie because my friend used to have one every single day and she literally looked like a supermodel and I (in my opinion) looked like a potato with legs.
The years were not kind to me and increasingly I believed that Weight Loss Surgery was going to "fix" my problem and I was going to be "thin" afterwards. So the shocking truth is as follows.
Nourishing our body to optimise our health and well being should in my opinion, be the focus.
Our Weight, BMI and other methods that may be used to measure progress are just that - a measurement. They are not a numeric representation of our worth as human beings.
Food does not have morals - food is just food.
How and why we consume food can be a powerful driving factor in our health outcomes and those drivers were far more involved in me personally suffering from the disease of obesity than the food that I was eating.
Weight loss surgery is one tool that we can use to manage our health and well being outcomes but it will not do everything for us. This is particularly true in the long term.
The restriction that comes from weight loss surgery is not learning moderation. Learning moderation is empowering ourselves with knowledge about how to consume food for health and also for pleasure in a way that will not be harmful to us either mentally or physically.
After my weight loss surgery I thought "yup I am going to be able to eat all my protein within 6 weeks". I thought a LOT of things were going to be true about myself and the reality of my situation is that I ended up suffering from malnutrition because I was trying to get everything from my food and I physically couldn't. Some people can and do and I love that for them. I LOVE it so much. Some people are like me and can't either consume or absorb enough protein from their food - and I am not bad or wrong because of that. When I realised that, when I finally stopped beating myself up, I found so much more freedom and enjoyment in my life. It is about doing what is best for ourselves individually and making the very best of our situation. I try to avoid absolutes around food. I try to make the best of my situation. It has been a totally life changing journey and it took time.
What is your experience? I would love for us to be able to talk about this xx
