Time Does Not Change All Things

I decided it was time to clean out my files. I do not like filing and my piles to file and files to purge build up easily. This task was somewhat of a trip down career memory lane.

I have been working in weight management almost my entire career, and that spans over 30 years. I came across files with educational materials I developed years ago. You know it has to be a long time because they were typed on a manual typewriter and run off on a mimeograph machine. For those you old enough…remember the purple ink and smelling the paper when it was freshly run? Time has changed how we duplicate materials but the content remains almost the same.

Much of what I wrote back in the ‘80’s and early ‘90’s still applies. Our reasons, or excuses, for overeating haven’t changed much. Many of us still place the blame elsewhere and fail to take responsibility for what and how much goes into our mouths. We still don’t do the best job at practicing self-care.

Last month in the Reno support groups we used one of my favorite handouts, Noncompliance Excuses. I retyped it and cleaned it up a bit since we don’t have a mimeograph here. I didn’t delete any of the excuses and added only a couple. As I said, our behavior hasn’t changed much. What was interesting in the support groups was the range of responses based on preop or post op status. The preops tended to have more items checked. The more recent postops, those still “honeymooning” had few checks. That’s why it’s called a “honeymoon.” The long-term postops tended to have their checks in the emotional eating section. Weight loss surgery isn’t a cure and it doesn’t stop emotional eating. If you would like to see how you are doing with your excuses, click here. Interestingly, I have heard all of the excuses on this list at some point in my career. I did not make them up.

In the coming months I’ll be sharing some of my other treasures from the past. They may be old, but they are not outdated.

Eat Smarter…
Vicki Bovee, MS, RDN, LD