What are Slider Foods?

What are Slider Foods?

As a bariatric patient, you are going to face many changes to the way you eat. You should always follow the guidelines from your surgeon as this will make sure you stay on track with your weight loss and avoid complications from bariatric surgery. You will get to a certain point in your journey where you will be tempted to add foods back into your diet. As hard as it might be, I really encourage you to stay away from your trigger foods. I can speak from experience that by doing this, you will eventually start to regain your weight.

Many people feel that it won’t harm them if they just eat a few bites of something. However, this rarely happens. I used to trick myself into thinking it was okay to just have a little bit of something. It never ended like that. I would always eat more than I was supposed to. I quickly found out the danger of slider foods.

Slider foods are foods that are full of simple processed carbohydrates. These slider foods have no nutritional value and can contribute to weight regain. Some examples of trigger foods include: crackers, chips, cookies, popcorn, etc. My weakness was chips and salsa. I could sit there all day and eat so many chips in one sitting. The reason these foods are so harmful for bariatric patients is because we don’t have much restriction when we eat these types of food. They are so easy to eat and slide right through your stomach, hence the name “slider foods.”

As weight loss surgery patients, we rely highly on the restriction that we have. However, these types of foods don’t fill you up and you can just continue to eat and before you know it, you’ve consumed 500 calories. This is why I believe it is so important to look at the surgery as a tool, and not a fix all. Although the restriction is a great way to lose weight, it can’t be the only thing. You have to be in the right mindset and have enough discipline where you won’t pick up slider foods.

Having self-control is critical for life after weight loss surgery to be a success and to prevent complications from bariatric surgery. We live in a society where slider foods are all over the place. I know how hard it can be to try to avoid these, especially if you had a food addiction before the surgery. If you are tempted to eat a slider food, take a step back and reflect on why you had this surgery. Slider foods are so unhealthy and will not help you reach your goal. Stay strong and remember why you decided to have this surgery. You got this!