Bari Better, Inc.

Is the Kitchen your friend or your enemy? Make it your friend! The kitchen is definitely my friend and not my enemy.
Let’s talk about food strategies: What to eat and what not to eat when you are at home? It is really important to have great and healthy food choices; know what time of the day you can eat and when you cannot eat (those are very important key points). I have an alarm on my phone to remind me of the time to eat and also the time to drink my water, to keep myself on track on a daily basis.
A lot of times I receive videos, calls and questions from clients and people who say they gained a lot of weight when they're at home...well, that's because you really have to get yourself on the right track and have the right foods at home...and that's what I do, I only buy what I really need and I buy healthy food choices. If you take a look on our social media, my husband and I have been taking a lot of pictures of what we eat and it's very impressive that you will find you have a lot of things already at home that you can use for your own plates every single day which you really didn't realize it was possible.
I had Bariatric Gastric Bypass surgery in 2016 with great success and I would love to share food strategies with you during our Bariatric coaching sessions and help you make the kitchen your friend and not your enemy!

When to weigh yourself? I always tell my clients to follow their Bariatric Multidisciplinary team’s recommendations. I'm here to share with you what my Bariatric surgeon has recommended to me regarding weighing myself. He recommended that I weigh myself once a week; he told me that weigh myself every single day was not necessary. Again, that was my Bariatric surgeon recommendation, and you might have a different one. So, make sure that you always follow your Bariatric surgeons’ recommendations.
My Bariatric surgeon recommended that I weigh myself early morning, same day of the week, for consistency. This works for me, and it might not work for you.
Comparison: Please, don't ever compare yourself to others, No matter what, your metabolism is completely different than others. Do not compare yourself with someone that you know who also had Bariatric surgery the same month as yours, because their journey is different than your journey. Make sure that you don't let that affect you.
Traveling? I love traveling the world and I do go a long time sometimes and guess what I do? Well I have my portable scale that I take with me for my trips and that's something that works great for me. I love doing that because it is a way of keeping myself accountable. My home scale is connected to an app via Bluetooth and it even gives my BMI. Don’t be afraid of the scale!

How are you celebrating your birthday? I hope you're having a wonderful time celebrating your very special day! I feel like birthdays are so important in your life! How are you enjoying it?
Well, I am celebrating my birthday right now along with my Bariatric surgeryversary, and I would love to share some of my feelings and thoughts with you. What are your goals, what are your plans for the next 365 days ahead?
A lot of times people think about their age, what happened on their last birthday, what will happen in the future...Being present in the moment, here, right now it's so important! Awareness and Bariatric Mindfulness is key!
Love yourself on your birthday and obviously, not just on your birthday, but every single day of your life! Yes, you are so worth it! Love yourself for who you are and not for who you want to be. Love your birthday, enjoy every single moment of it , enjoy every single aspect of it.
I decided to love myself; I love myself before anybody else loves me (that is very important, did you hear that?) I love myself before anybody else. We have to be first in our lives. So, put yourself first before anybody else, because if you don't take care of yourself first, nobody else will. I hope that you have a wonderful and Happy birthday!

How is your Bariatric Routine? As a Bariatric Coach and Bariatric patient myself, I think it's very important to remind ourselves that we are not going to be Bariatric patients only a couple weeks prior to our surgery (while we are in the pre-op phase of it), we are not going to be Bariatric patients just the day of our surgery; we are going to be Bariatric patients forever and we have to change our mindset!
Before I went to my Bariatric surgery, I received this great advice: “Amanda, when your surgery is done, remember, they are not doing surgery on your head/brain, they are operating on your stomach”. So it's really about not following back into the old wrong eating habits. It is all about changing how you're going to eat, what you're going to eat and what you're doing for your own self. And guess what? Nobody else can do that for you, but you! I know we can get great support around with people helping us, but if we do not set our mind to do so, it won’t be done.
It's time to change and I'm here sharing with you a little bit of my experience: remember, my experience might be completely different than yours as everyone has a different metabolism, my routine might work for you and it might not work for you.
Something that is important for me is accountability! I need to know exactly what I'm eating and what time of the day. I enter all information in an app (exercises, water log, food intake, so I know exactly how much protein, how much calorie, everything that's going in my body), and I also have alarm reminders on my cellular. Some of my clients like to do in an app as well, others prefer to write a journal; whatever works best for you!
Super Key point here: Most of the time, a lot of us think we are hungry, when we're actually thirsty; therefore, have you water next to you to remind yourself to drink it.