The kitchen is said to be the heart of the family home; for a lot of our patients the kitchen poses the biggest problem when it comes down to following healthy eating plans following weight loss surgery. There are lots of different reasons why the kitchen can become your weight loss enemy – we will explore a few of these in this article to help you overcome and be able to happily return to the heart of the home!
Sweets & Snacks
Snacking in between meals on unhealthy foods, such as chips, lollies, ice cream, biscuit (the list really does go 
on and on) is going to distract you from your long-term weight loss goals. Not only will you suffer with the highs and lows of a sugar rush/crash, those empty calories aren’t nutritious and won’t fill you like a properly balanced meal or snack would.
First thing is first; be ruthless and clear out your kitchen of anything that may tempt you to snack when you shouldn’t, or nibble on something that you wouldn’t have if it wasn’t “just there”. It may be easier said than done but you’ll thank us later for it.
Serving Your Meals
When you picked out your crockery I bet the last thing you were thinking is how much food can I fit on this plate? Normally we’re so concerned with shapes, colours and patterns, we don’t even notice that the size of the plate often determines the size of our portions.
Having large plates and bowls in our cupboards can often fool us into eating much larger portions than we should be, whether we’re simply overfilling a bowl of cereal or not realising quite how big that serve of lasagne actually is.
One of the products we advise our patients to use are The Portion Perfection for Bariatrics; it is a specially designed plate and bowl for weight loss surgery patients. The plate provides section guides for how your plate 
should be filled; how much of your plate should be dedicated to protein such as meat, then how much should be vegetables etc. These plates are also smaller than your typical plate you would find in a normal kitchen cupboard, as are the bowls (with easy guides on the side to show you how much is a “normal portion” of cereal for example), so they can really help with the problem people often have with portion sizes. Once you have gotten used to the portion sizes you are supposed to have after surgery, then its ok to move back to normal, but small plates, especially when eating out. We recommend using the portion perfection plates at least every week in order to reinforce in your mind and the minds of your family, how much you are to eat at meal times.
Weighing Scales
Have you invested in a good set of weighing scales, digital or traditional? By actually taking the time to weigh 
out your food and your portions sizes it is making you more aware of not only how much you’re eating but what you’re eating. People will often overeat accidentally by eating portions that are too large (as above) not to mention running the risk of ruining a perfectly good recipe from not measuring out ingredients correctly!
Switching the Good for the Bad
Our final bit of advice on how to make your kitchen more “weight loss friendly” would be making a few changes to your pantry, so extra hidden calories aren’t sneaking back into your diet. For example sugary drinks have LOADS of empty calories in them; swap these for a jug of water flavoured with different fruits and berries.
Or are you a lover of all things white; white pasta, white rice, white bread… try swapping these for wholemeal pasta, rice and bread. Don’t be tempted to ruin all of your hard work eating proteins and veggies by covering them in different sauces – get rid of bottles of tomato sauce that are high in sugar, or mayonnaise that is high in sugar and fat.
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