Our second support group of the year was held at our practice at St George Private Hospital on Thursday 26th of May. Following weight loss surgery, changes to your diet and lifestyle have the most impact on success of your surgery. This is why at Upper GI Surgery we are committed to helping our patients achieve their weight loss goals with support from not only professionals that can provide guidance and assistance, but also from other patients experiencing the same.
At our May support group we had a guest speaker, personal trainer Nathan Meola. Nathan himself is a bariatric patient; at the age of 17 Nathan weighed 200+ kg. It wasn’t until a family holiday to Disneyland that he realised how much his weight was affecting his life, as he stood back and watched others have fun and enjoy themselves while he was unable to.
Nathan decided that weight loss surgery was going to help him on his journey to losing weight and had a laparoscopic gastric band as part of this process. Initially following the surgery he lost 50kg but it wasn’t until he “changed his mindset” that he managed to lose another 76kg (a total of 126kg!).
The main point of his discussion was that although the gastric band played an important part in his weight loss journey, he viewed it as a tool as opposed to the only method. He stressed that it was the further changes he made to his lifestyle – choosing to eat well and exercise regularly that led to his ultimate success. Now Nathan runs his own personal training business, Meola Fitness, and you can follow Nathan Meola on Facebook.
If you would like more information on healthy eating you can find some useful articles on our blog. Attending our support groups has been proven to help our patients not only lose weight initially, but keep them on track to maintain that weight loss and not slip back into unhealthy habits of the past. Our next support group will be held on Thursday 25th of August at 7pm – if you are interested in attending please call our team on 02 9553 1120 to book your place.
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