The Truth About Pouch Resets
So I’m coming at you with some tough love (you know that’s my favorite kinda love!) Raise your hand if you’ve ever thought about doing a pouch reset diet? Honestly… I’ve found myself contemplating it before too… Pouch resets are somewhat controversial in the WLS community. Should we do them? Do they work? Simply put, NO.
What is a Pouch Reset?
If you don’t know what a “pouch reset” is, it’s a trend in the bariatric community where WLS patients go back to just liquids for a few weeks in order to lose regain or get back on track. There is a myth that if you go back to liquids you will get your restriction back. But this is just that … A MYTH!!!
I get it, this journey is hard. It’s easy to “stray” from your routine (especially during times of social distancing) and the thought of getting a “do over” is tempting. ESPECIALLY if you are someone struggling with regain.
But why do you have to keep starting over? What’s truly stopping you from being consistent? What barriers are you facing? Are there food issues you are NOT addressing?
Here’s the truth about resets – they are no different than any other restrictive diet or bogus detox (SORRY NOT SORRY!) and I don’t know about you but I didn’t choose to have surgery to go back to the same yo-yo dieting mentality that didn’t work before surgery.
And the fact is, at 2+ years post op we can naturally eat more food. We are NEVER going to get that super tight restriction back! Doing liquids for a week, being miserable and restrictive, only to go back to the same self sabotaging habits and binging a week later is not 👏🏼fixing 👏🏼anything👏🏼.
Now, going back to basics, that’s something I can get behind.
- Eat your protein first 🍗
- Weigh that shit out 👏🏼
- Add some veggies
- Limit the starches and if you do eat carbs make sure they have fiber 🍞
- Drink your water 💦
- Move your body
- Get a good night’s sleep 💤
GO READ THAT AGAIN ⬆️⬆️⬆️
Those are the habits (the basics, if you will) that carry us on this journey. Honor your hunger and full signals and eat good food that matches your goals. But for God’s sake, can we stop starving ourselves by drinking full liquids for weeks? What does that really help?
