Hi, we’re Dr. Erika La Vella, DO, FASMBS and Bonnie Buckingham MS RDN, your weight loss surgeon and dietitian team.
We wanted to check in with everyone and see how they are feeling at this moment?
We know we are both feeling nervous about the well being of everyone in my community and the world and about our health and the health of our families. There is definitely an uncertainty about this time we are living in.
All of a sudden what was normal and routine is now… not.
It is normal to feel anxiety over what is happening. It’s in our chests as the inability to take a deep flowing breath. It’s in our abdomens as growling bowels and a queezy tummy. It’s in our upper backs as a stiffness between the shoulder blades. And it’s in our heads, right between the ears and behind the eyes as a strain from thinking about the unknown.
We want to talk to you about a psychological phenomena known as Emergence and Neuroception. You see as humans we are complex, everything we have ever thought about, ever emoted about, or ever physically suffered from is stored in our bodies. All we need to experience is a memory of something like something we have experienced before for a whole lot of physical, emotional, and mental memories to surface.
The body is wise and simply trying to grab our attention.
Right now my body is longing for practices that encourage me to connect with myself and let go of this tension and fear.
We have created a schedule for you to help guide these practices so you too can find the stillness in the sea. I think it is essential for our health to nurture this stress. Stress can make us more vulnerable to illness, it can weaken our immune system and create more tension in our home which can affect our relationships and focus. It is especially important to maintain a healthy schedule after weight loss surgery to stay healthy and keep on track with your goals. The best way you can be available to help others is to take care of yourself.
Tips for keeping a schedule:
- Keeping on a regular schedule will help give you a sense of control and also help your circadian rhythms for sleep and hormone regulation which all effect your waistline. Make sure to wake up at the same time and go to bed at the same time every day. Just because you are staying at home, don’t forget to set these sleep schedule boundaries.For example: plan to wake up every morning at 7 am and have breakfast at 8 am.
- If you are working from home, I would keep to your normal work schedule and make sure you stop working after your work time is up.
- We recommend exercising in the morning as a break between work and crippling anxiety. 30 minutes of walking, living room yoga, or simply getting up and down off the ground. I recommend using youtube as your free resource for exercise videos. You can be as specific with your search as you like. For example, “gentle yoga for anxiety” gives you … many options.
- Take time to wind down each night and take a “media blackout.” During this time, read a book, play a game with your family, cook a meal, sit outside, enjoy a cup of tea, go out to your garden, or take your kids on a nature walk. If you need between 8-10 hours of sleep at night that means you go to bed at 10-11 pm each night and allowing a minimum of 1-2 hours of wind down time.
- Being at home can be disruptive to your eating schedule and habits. Some people forget to eat all together while others snack and graze mindlessly. Be mindful of your head hunger and your true hunger. Meeting the needs of both deserves attention to the schedule. You want to feed yourself a nutritious meal buy 8 wish in the morning so that you are well fed and able to tackle any task you set out for yourself for the next 3-4 hours.
- Finally, a word on family meal time. This is an opportunity for your entire family to practice meal time boundaries. It can be difficult to be home with small children. Remember you are not a short order cook, you are entitled to having an uninterrupted and peaceful meal. Resist the urge to attend to your children’s requests at meal time. You set the boundaries and the rules.