Our Bariatric Surgery Support Group met again on Monday 28th April 2025 at the Education Hub at The George Centre in Gregory Hills. It was another great session with meaningful discussion and practical tools for long-term success after gastric sleeve or gastric bypass surgery.
We welcomed back Dietitian Angela Askew, who led an engaging and insightful session on “Understanding Eating Behaviours and Self-Monitoring”. This is an important topic for anyone on the weight loss journey, especially as time goes on and it becomes easier to lose focus on structured habits and mindful eating.
Why Eating Awareness Matters After Bariatric Surgery
Angela reminded us that maintaining healthy eating habits is just as important in the years after surgery as it is in the early weeks. It is common for people to forget to check in with their hunger levels, or to eat out of habit rather than need.
We discussed tools that help bring awareness back to the eating experience, including:
- Using a hunger scale to assess physical signs of hunger (such as stomach growling) and stopping at the point of comfortable fullness
- Asking yourself: “Am I actually hungry?” before eating
- Completing a hunger and food diary to track what you eat, when, and why
- Trying out apps that support mindful eating, including:
Tools for Self-Monitoring and Long-Term Awareness
Angela also introduced the concept of self-monitoring — a helpful way to stay accountable and aware of the choices we make each day.
Some strategies included:
- Keeping a food diary or using a tracking app
- Noticing positive changes in health that are not related to weight
- Measuring progress using waist circumference rather than just the scale
- Using tools like pedometers, exercise diaries, or step tracking apps
Recommended apps included:
- Easy Diet Diary – The Australian
- Calorie Counter by Xyris Software (iOS)
- Control My Weight by Calorie King (iOS)
- MyFitnessPal – Calorie Counter (Android & iOS)
A Supportive Night as Always
We finished the evening with tea, coffee, and a fresh fruit platter, along with meal replacement samples from BN Healthy. As always, we held a lucky door prize, which added some fun to the night.
It was a meaningful session with practical takeaways, shared experiences, and a strong reminder that bariatric success is about more than just surgery. It is about the small decisions we make each day — and learning to tune in again to what our body really needs.
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