Oh if only I had a dollar for every time I asked that question! At 5 years post op my food days are still fairly much as they have been for years. I prioritise protein, I eat a lower carb diet and do that to avoid dumping syndrome which can go along with Gastric Bypass, and is something that I experience a lot if my carb levels are up at all. I really enjoy my food life now. I love to properly nourish myself. I care about what I eat and I make sure that I am maintaining my health by regular blood tests to check on things.

I guess the most predictable meal of the day for me is Breakfast. Actually my morning routines are very very fixed and rarely ever change at all. I wake up, I have a protein coffee. Then I have my smoothie bowl and my bariatric vitamins. After that things can vary but those are non-negotiables in my day. What is a smoothie bowl? Ahhhhhhhhhhh yup that is a good question. It can be whatever you would like it to be but mine I generally make with a VLCD shake.

These things have saved me. When I was about 18 months post op I had reached a very low low point. My blood protein levels were shit, I was out of love with food, I was sick and I really and truly needed help to get myself sorted out. My doctor gave me an ultimatum, I had to start to get my protein in or I was at risk of needing hosptialisation. I had to stop just trying to “get it from my food” because “it wasn’t working” as well as it needed to for me. I just simply couldn’t get enough in for that to work. I also have malabsorption from my bypass and that was making everything harder. So I had to work out what could I have that was going to help me. How was I going to get myself back on track.

There were a lot of tears, a lot of trial and error, a lot of me feeling like I was doing everything wrong but eventually I started to have smoothie bowls again. I had done it years earlier and had kind of forgotten about it but one day something triggered inside me that perhaps that might work! And then I started using fruit powders so that I could have the flavour and colours of the fruits that I loved even if I couldn’t eat a lot of the actual fruit anymore and suddenly I was in love. Eating pretty little bowls of food slowly but surely healed my very very broken heart. I know that might sound dramatic – but it did. I started to find that I could make myself feel better and more cared about by making effort to feed myself properly and just like that I started to climb out of the hole that I had been in. Suddenly a passion for good nourishment was born and I became so motivated to understand food.

I also had a lot of help and a lot of therapy working on myself to stop treating myself with hatred and loathing. These little bowls became a way that I could care for myself at the start of each day. They became a way that I could show myself that I was worth the effort and that even though it was a tiny amount, it was still worth bothering! That went such a long way and my relationship with food became more and more whole each day. That is why I have smoothie bowls. yes I like how they taste, I like that I can get so many nutrients in and I also like that it shows that I am making time for myself. We matter, and we still deserve effort, even though our portions are small.