Why do we give up on our goals? How can we be so motivated one day and the next day, completely abandon them? 92% of New Year's resolutions go unmet, and we wanted to know what we can do to keep our heads in the game. We sat down with Rodolfo to better understand the mindsets behind giving up on our goals and learn new insights and tools to help us stay committed, even on the hard days. Follow Rodolfo Alvarez on Instagram @rodolfoalvarezx or join BariNation to interact with him in our Being Me C...
Jan 11, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 137
Did you know that only 8% of people fulfill their “new year's resolutions”? Setting our goals and intentions in the new year fills us with hope and can add a little fuel to our motivation and willpower tanks. But these feelings can be quickly replaced by guilt, shame, and defeat. Why does this happen, and what can we do to keep working toward our goals when hope fades? Our friend Melanie Lindell, therapist and bariatric patient, joins us to share two of the mechanisms that contribute to our goal...
Jan 04, 2023•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 136
What a year 2022 has been! At times, it was the year that would never end. And in other times, the year went by in a flash. This year was filled with travel, tragedy, and triumphs, and through all those things, we connected, learned, and grew. In this episode, Jason, April, and Natalie reflect on the year that has been and share our biggest takeaways. We then look forward to 2023 and share who we want to be, why we want to become that person, and how we think we can become that person. We hope t...
Dec 28, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 135
**Trigger warning: Trauma is mentioned in this episode. We do not share specific traumas we have experienced, but we do discuss it in very broad and general terms. The holidays can be a real mixed bag of emotions. Some years, the holiday “spirit” is readily available, you are inspired to give back, you find the perfect gift for everyone on your list, and the season fills you with joy. In other years, you never want to hear a holiday song and the tree can stay int he forest. This season can be “h...
Dec 21, 2022•57 min•Ep. 134
Bariatric surgery only works on our physical body. Most of our actual work as patients must be done in our emotional world; it lives in the work we have to do with the people we love the most. But how do we foster these relationships as our relationship with ourselves changes rapidly before and after surgery? How do we invite them to join us on our journey if we don't even know where our journey is taking us? We sat down with Devon Colvin, a Licensed Professional Counselor, to talk about what it...
Dec 08, 2022•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 133
Have you had an experience where someone else was more concerned about your plate of food, what you were eating, or what you weighed than you were in the moment? Jason recently had an experience with his family over Thanksgiving that solidified his commitment to his bariatric lie. At the moment, he could have responded with anger and frustration. But he chose a different path, chose a different mindset, and chose a different reaction. And in doing so, he chose a different future for himself. Are...
Dec 01, 2022•40 min•Ep. 132
Thanksgiving is one of those holidays that could go either way. Either we are excited to reconnect with family and friends, or we are worried about encounters with said family and friends. And how do bariatric patients navigate a holiday that is centered around eating? April, Jason, and Natalie each took some time to reflect on how they celebrated Thanksgiving in the past and how it has shifted after bariatric surgery. In this episode, you will hear from each of them as they share from the heart...
Nov 23, 2022•50 min•Ep. 131
Community, connection, and celebration are the rewards we earn for doing the work of weight loss surgery. Obesity is a chronic and lifelong disease with no cure, but we can learn to manage it and maintain a weight that keeps metabolic disease at bay. The work, in many, is endless. But the rewards are priceless. We talked with some of our beloved BariNation Community Members about how community, connection, and celebration have impacted their journey before and after surgery. Their insights will ...
Nov 16, 2022•55 min•Ep. 130
We believe, or are led to believe, that surgery would be the only thing we would need to find success after surgery. Our stomachs will be altered, and we will eat less. Poof, the weight will magically disappear, never to return. What happens when we discover that surgery is not enough? How do we deal with the shattering news that to lose and maintain a new low weight, we need many different kinds of adjunct treatments? What do we do when the work of weight loss surgery feels too big, too much, a...
Nov 09, 2022•57 min•Ep. 129
Birthdays are a big deal. They signify growth, change, and the passage of time. It is hard to believe that one year ago, on November 4th, East2West_WLS became BariNation. The shift was needed and necessary. We were ready to acknowledge a shift in our community and live out our values more meaningfully. We believe that when we unite as a nation of bariatric patients, we can create the support and community we need to find lasting success. This year has been filled with so many firsts; new connect...
Nov 02, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 128
We all have some *feelings* about movement. For many of us, movement was (or is) a punishment for eating decisions that were not aligned with our goals. We were determined to work off that bad decision one grueling mile or rep after another and rarely saw any lasting results. To find long-term success before and after bariatric surgery, movement must become a part of our lives. So how do we shift from a place of resistance and dread to a place of joy and celebration? In this episode, our friends...
Oct 26, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 127
There are three pillars of bariatric success after bariatric surgery. If surgery is the foundation of our journey, the pillars are what support everything that is built on that solid base and movement is one of those pillars. While a majority of our weight will be lost through dilligetnation attention to nutrition, movement ensures we live long, healthy lives. Before surgery, movement was a form of punishment, a way to absolve our eating or drinking sins and pay for the wrongs we committed along...
Oct 19, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 126
Jason and Natalie sat down with Tabitha Johnson to talk about her journey with movement. Tabitha explained that her relationship with movement didn’t begin until the last year. For her, the opportunity presented itself, and she took it by the reigns, made it happen, and now feels empowered to continue building her strength. They discussed her journey to Summer Shredding and how her movement has improved her relationship with her family. Tabitha’s piece of advice? “Just try something. It doesn’t ...
Oct 12, 2022•44 min•Ep. 125
Leanne said something so powerful in our conversation with her. She said she used to be a quitter, and that statement stopped us in our tracks. We can all identify with that statement. We have quit ourselves on diets, mindsets, or hopes and dreams. Life after bariatric surgery is about living it differently than ever before, and Leanne found a way to stop quitting on herself and her dreams. In this amazing conversation, Leanne shared how she found freedom, joy, and peace in our life through move...
Oct 05, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 124
Sometimes, stepping away from life is the only way to get through it. At times, life calls us to step away. Other times, we feel the call within ourselves to step away, to move back, to retreat from something big, bold, scary, or sad. But what happens when we come back? What do we do when we have to come back, or we are called back? How do we engage with our lives again when we feel tectonic shifts have forever changed the landscape? April, Jason, and Natalie reflect on their summers and dig int...
Sep 21, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 123
At any given moment, we can identify handfuls of missteps, mistakes, and failures that we feel we have made from the moment we woke up. And teasing out any win’s or succusses seems like an impossible task. If we allow a moment for our rational thoughts to catch up to our irrational thoughts, we would know this is simply not true. Yet many of us are running this race every day, and finding ourselves exhausted before the starting gun has even sounded. Perhaps there is a better way. In this deeply ...
Sep 14, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 122
Podcasts have the power to change lives. They can be a powerful tool we can all use to find a missing piece along our journey, make connections that have elluded us, and bring people together who are on similar paths. They can be the nudge that finally pushes us into action. April and Jason started the East2WestWLS because they were looking for that support, that connection, that community and could not find it. They believed they had the power to create what they needed, and they took a chance ...
Sep 09, 2022•1 hr 41 min•Ep. 121
Trigger Warning: Sudden Death/ Family Trauma Jason and Natalie sat down with one of our brightest community members, Tawnya Bacchetti, to talk about her incredibly difficult journey after bariatric surgery. They talked about how Tawnya persevered about becoming a widow just four months after her VSG surgery, why she decided to stay positive and find her daily rainbows, and how she chooses her health daily, even when moving through grief. Tawnya is a phenomenal example of how choosing joy and lov...
Aug 24, 2022•51 min•Ep. 120
Our friend Katie has made amazing progress this summer, and she sat down with us to share what she has been doing, what she has been learning, and what she is focusing on next. Katie has discovered that accountability is key to her success and she shares with us just how she has found her stride and how she is staying steadily aligned with her goals! Follow Katie on Instagram and TikTok @katie.vsg. If you are looking for extra layers of support along your bariatric journey from experts, clinicia...
Aug 17, 2022•44 min•Ep. 119
Turns out that changing our established thoughts, patterns, and behaviors is extremely challenging. We are hard-wired to fight change. Humans are motivated to act (or not act) through what is known as the Motivational Triad, and trying to do anything that goes against those three forces is extremely difficult. But difficult does not mean impossiable. Mabel Joseph, Mindset Coach and creator of the Beyond The Sleeve Academy, joins us for an extremely powerful conversation about change, why it is s...
Aug 10, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 118
This summer has NOT gone the way any of us thought it would. Things are in disarray, but we are not ready to give in or give up yet! In this episode, April, Jason, and Natalie reflect on their goals and how they have (or have not) been working towards them. We discovered that even though things are not going to plan, we are making small course corrections along the way. We each identified some areas we wanted to continue to work on and shared our game plan for making that happen. Do you feel lik...
Aug 03, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 117
For many bariatric patients, learning how and what to eat after surgery is one of our largest struggles. We might have known how to eat a certain number of calories, but most of the time, those calories did not align with our goals. Learning how, why, and what to eat is our first struggle and one that often lasts quite some time. In this episode, we sat down with Dr. Matt. Weiner, a bariatric surgeon, and author from Tucson, Arizona, to talk about bariatric eating before and after surgery. He ha...
Jul 27, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 116
We have all set goals for ourselves and achieved them. We have also set goals for ourself only to find that we have run out of gas before reaching that finish line. We wanted to know why we give up on our goals and how we can not only recognize some of the “red flag” warnings that indicate we might be giving up on our goals and strategies to stay the course! In this powerful episode, bariatric therapist Lora Grabow helps us unpack goal setting and achievement and guides us to identifying the man...
Jul 20, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 115
Consistency is doing what we have to do, even when we don't feel like doing it. That does not mean that we have to *hate* the way we do something. It does mean that we need to find ways of doing the things we know we need to do, in ways that meet our current lifestyle. It means we have to adopt systems, routines, and habits that fit the way we most enjoy living, instead of trying to do something that just does not fit the way we want to live. To find consistency, we need to be open to trying new...
Jul 13, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 114
This summer, we are focusing on staying steadily aligned to our goals. We want to create or refine habits, systems, and routines that are not along aligned to our goals but feel automatic. Ultimately, we want to create a life we feel that we never want or need a vacation from. April, Jason, and Natalie sat down to review their Summer, Steady goals and update each other on their progress so far. There were plenty of “ah-ha” moments and Natalie shared a brilliant meal planning system she has been ...
Jul 06, 2022•45 min•Ep. 113
We hear that balance is the key to success in everything. We need to find a balance between our work and home lives. We need to find a balance between enjoying foods that are in and out of bariatric compliance. We need to balance the things we say YES to with the things we say NO to. This is all well and good…but what does this balance actually look like, IN REAL LIFE? In this episode, April, Jason, and Natalie sat down with two of our favorite humans in the bariatric community, Rissa and Chris ...
Jun 29, 2022•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 112
Obesity is a chronic disease that will require lifelong treatment. When you are a parent, you have an added layer of helping your children learn about obesity and be an active participant in your bariatric journey before and after surgery. This conversation can be challenging when we ourselves don’t understand the very disease we are fighting well enough to help our children understand why bariatric surgery is a needed and necessary tool for our metabolic goals. In this episode, April, Jason, an...
Jun 22, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 111
For too many years, we allowed ourselves to lose our focus during the summer months. The warmer weather, the longer days, those summer vibes flipped a switch in our brains and all of our goals and aspirations went out the window. If we want to lead a different life after surgery, we have to live a different life. We have to do things differently. And one of the things we need to do differently is SUMMER. Instead of falling off the rails this summer, we want to go Summer, Steady. We want to remai...
Jun 21, 2022•55 min•Ep. 110
Food is nutrition. It is also a connection to our families and traditions. It is cultural and historical. It is artistic and at times, it is how we show love to one another. Can we still love, with food, after bariatric surgery? We sat down with Kedric Barrett, one of our community’s most outspoken patients and advocates to learn how he has shifted and changed the role food plays in his family after surgery and if food still plays a role in their traditions and culture. This conversation went de...
Jun 15, 2022•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 109
Parenting comes with its own unique challenges and roadblocks. But when you add in your own bariatric journey to the mix, things can get REALLY interesting. Jason sat down with our friends Rob DeMideo and Niki Stryjak to talk about how their bariatric surgery has impacted their parenting. We wanted to know if surgery has changed the way they parent, the role food played in their families before surgery and if it has shifted, and how they talk to their children about obesity, body changes, and ba...
Jun 08, 2022•59 min•Ep. 108
