Ep 87: Regretting Having Had Your Bariatric Surgery? How to Turn It Around
This post is a companion to Episode 87 of the Bariatric Nutrition Coach Podcast. Listen to the full episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
This episode was inspired by a message I received that I know so many people will relate to: "I am really struggling and actually regret the decision to have surgery — although I have not said that to anyone because I am trying to stay positive." If that resonates with you, this episode is for you.
Buyer's Remorse Is Normal
Feeling regret — or what I call buyer's remorse — after bariatric surgery is not uncommon at all. It can happen in the very early days when you are on fluids and feeling uncomfortable and disoriented. It can also surface a little later when the reality of how much life has changed starts to sink in. The early days after surgery can feel like a full-time job — eat now, stop drinking, start drinking, take this, do that. There is so much to navigate and it can feel relentless.
But I want you to know: it gets better. For virtually everyone, it gets significantly better. And the challenging early days are not a preview of what the rest of your life will look like.
Regretting Is Not the Same as Having Made the Wrong Decision
Feeling regret in a hard moment is not evidence that you made the wrong choice. It is evidence that you are human, that you are in a challenging period, and that you need support. The decision to have bariatric surgery — after all the thought, research, and courage it took to get there — was right for you. The hard days do not erase that.
How to Move Forward
If you are in a place of regret, the most important things are: reach out — do not sit with this alone; get practical support with whatever is making things hard (food, fluid, pain, emotional wellbeing); and be willing to take it one day at a time. You do not have to have everything figured out. You just have to get through today, and then tomorrow. The rewards that come further down the track — the energy, the mobility, the health improvements, the joy of moving through life differently — are absolutely worth the difficulty of the early days. I have never had a client, years on, tell me they regret their surgery.
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