Good Morning Everyone ,
I wanted to write to you to say I am terribly sorry that I have not been active as your group leader recently. I have had a few medical set backs and not able to keep up with my groups and my newsletters.
I have suffered an Addison's Crisis , due to my Addison's ... I was hospitalized about a week ago due to vomiting of blood. . I take a lot of steroids and basically it is eating my pouch up . I am being treated and look for  a full recovery soon.

I wanted to wish all of you a wonderful Holiday Season and a to wish you a Happy New Year.

I hope to be back active real soon . If anyone needs anything please do not hesitate to write me .

Take care all ! 

Tink

Hi Dan. 

My name is Scott and I am 33 from Indianapolis, IN.  I am just starting my journey.  Today is my consult and psych eval.  I have tried to do everything that I needed to do prior so that I can make my journey go a little bit faster.  I have also dealt with weight issues all of my life and finally decided that I 'Can't stand no more'. 

I have found this site to be great and full of advise, guidance and support.  I also recommend that you go to the men's forum.  They are a great group of guys.

Hi everyone, My name is Dan, and I am a 36 year-old from Fairfax. I'm new to the group and the site and wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. I have struggled with my weight all of my life and recently decided to take back my life.

I look forward to getting to know each of you!  Any advice, gudiance, or support is greatly appreciated! 

  THE TRUTH ABOUT REGAIN *THAT NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR!   WLS is a tool, if you eat the wrong foods (carbs/sugar we NEVER EVER malabsorb, digestion/absorption of these substances happens starting in the MOUTH!), overfill pouch, graze all day, don’t exercise, drink calories, eat and drink together then we can/will regain wt. IT IS still about calories and you can regain wt. WLS is the tool to help us lose wt; PSYCHOLOGY is the tool to help us maintain that loss!

WLS is a tool that should lead us to a LIFESTYLE CHANGE…   ?How we see & use food. FUEL or SELF SOOTHING ?How we keep our bodies active. EXERCISE or INACTIVITY ?How we use our brain. EATING TO LIVE VS. LIVING TO EAT   WLS IS NOT MAGIC, IT IS NOT A GET OUT OF MORBID OBESITY JAIL FREE CARD…NO MATTER WHAT THE HONEYMOON HAD US FOOLED INTO BELIEVING! IT IS HARD WORK! PERIOD.     THIS IS ABOUT PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY!!!   JAMIE’S BACK ON TRACK TIPS Your surgery hasn't failed; you are just not using your tool to its potential that is all. It is there still; you need to get back to basics though. Remember it isn't the surgery alone that makes us lose weight it is the lifelong lifestyle & behavioral changes we make that enable us to lose weight and keep it off. Dumping isn't guaranteed (~ 50% will dump early on only!) after surgery and may decrease the farther we get post-op....with that said:   You know the rules of the tool & what you aren't doing. So how to get back to basics? You have to just take one step at a time; it doesn't have to be all or nothing that is old thinking! What do you feel you can conquer first?   Write down your goal for the week, then work on it, once you have one goal under your belt start on another, be patient and kind to yourself, no one said this was easy! It is hard and no one is perfect! But you can change. The negative habits didn't happen overnight so neither will positive ones! But they won’t happen if you don't start somewhere! Asking for help and admitting the problem is a great first step! Get to a local support group at least monthly if available, this keeps you focused on what you are doing and accountable to yourself...Life will always be busy but you need to reprioritize health as a higher priority and taking care of yourself has to be more important than anything else!   DO NOT RETURN TO DIETS! THEY DIDN’T WORK PREOP AND WON’T POSTOP!   MY 3 FAVORITE MANTRAS:  

1. IF YOUR LIFE IS TOO BUSY TO EXERCISE OR TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF THAN YOUR LIFE HASD TO CHANGE! THIS IS NOT SELFISHNESS!

 

2. PROGRESS NOT PERFECTION!

 

3. IT IS WHAT WE DO 90% OF THE TIME THAT MATTERS, THINK CONSISTENCY!

  What works for me is the PHILOSOPHY of the South Beach Diet….It is a good marriage between healthy lifestyle and postop WLS needs! I must stress it is not a diet but a way of life for me! I am carb sensitive, when I eat more refined carbs I am hungry sooner and crave more carbs, it is a vicious cycle, but when I eat better carbs, getter fats, healthy lean proteins the way the pouch rules dictate I do well and maintain SAMPLE GOALS:  

1. Fluid: Resolve to drink AT LEAST 64 ounces (This will keep you full longer and tension on the pouch) of NON-carbonated-NON-calorie fluid a day. (Water, Crystal Lite, diet Kool-Aid) In other words don't drink your calories! DO NOT DRINK WITH MEALS and WAIT 1-2 HOURS AFTER MEALS TO START DRINKING....(OR YOU WILL JUST MAKE YOURSELF HUNGRY AGAIN...SOONER!).
2. Vitamins: Resolve to take 1-2 multivitamin(s) a day, calcium as citrate form ~1,500mg a day (some may need more), & ~1,000mcg B12 liquid/tablets sublingually daily (some may need intramuscular shots). Other vitamins are based on labs/dexascans: some will need extra iron/vit C (pills/shots/infusions), vitamin A, D, E, K, Zinc, Magnesium, Thiamine (B1), Folate, B6, selenium….This is a reason we need to follow up for life with our healthcare providers, deficiencies can happen not just early postop but anytime postop!
3. Protein: Resolve to get in ~65 grams a day (this will vary due to age/ht/wt/medical comorbidities) either in the food you eat or by supplementing with shakes *this is controversial. EAT PROTEIN FIRST!!! IT fills the pouch!(less room for carbs)
4. MEALS: Resolve to eat no more than 3-5 small meals a day, NO GRAZING! Take 15-20 minutes for a meal no less/more, pay attention to the food, not a TV, radio, newspaper! Composition of meals: ~50% protein leaving 25% of meal for veggies/fruit and 25% carbs (whole/multigrain/low glycemic index/.load).
5. Exercise: Resolve to exercise 30 min 3x a week, then increase to 60 min 3x a week or 30 min 6x a wee****il you are exercising 30 min MOST DAYS OF THE WEEK (or more)! It helps you cope with stress, so you don't turn to food; it will help the wt loss and also give you energy! You will feel better about yourself and be less apt to go for the carbs. NOTHING revs the metabolism better! START SOMEWHERE! VARIETY IS KEY!
6. SUPPORT: Resolve to either get involved in a local support group monthly (weekly would be better but at least 1x a month), online support is also helpful and/or get into therapy to deal with your food issues and look at why you are sabotaging your happiness. We all have food issues/demons and we all need to face them eventually the surgery is a great help but the brain is a hard organ to change and unfortunately they didn't operate it when they shrunk our tummy! Be around those whom can support and not sabotage your success, this may mean making new friends and giving up old/unhealthy ones!

  I am glad you are looking at the issues and wanting to deal with them! Be proud of yourself for that and you can do it. Now is a great time to start, holidays and parties are always going to happen, we can always find an excuse to wait or a reason why we can't, search within yourself and find a reason why you can and do it (nothing tastes as good as health and thin feel!)!   OR LOOK AT IT THIS WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (*MEANT TO BE HUMOROUS*) You can beat this or any weight loss surgery. If you want to regain weight then I
would suggest you do the following:

(a) Eat a diet rich in high carbohydrates with a high glycemic index--
such as donuts, cookies, cakes, ice cream

(b) Do not start an exercise program, instead spend more time watching
television and increase time in front of the computer

(c) Eat your food rapidly so that you don't get that full feeling. Remember, feeling full
-- or satiety -- takes a while to register, so if you eat rapidly you can stuff a lot more
in then if you eat a bit slower and feel full with less

(d) When you feel full, eat just a bit more-- this will help stretch that pouch out to a
normal sized stomach

(e) Graze throughout the day, especially those calorie dense foods -- eat a little bit all the time and you will find that no matter what operation, even a duodenal switch -- you can gain weight.

(f) Gulp down liquids before/during/after you eat, don't sip-- but gulp them down -- it will force the food out of a pouch (for RNY, lap band, VBG) and you can eat more.   (g) Drink alcohol, soda or any caloried/carbonated beverage you will absorb all the calories, not feel full, hungry sooner and the bubbles may help stretch that stoma/pouch!

--- I am certain there are other ways to beat the system, but these are some of the
more popular ones.   We have to change our negative self talk, we have to adopt a positive outlook, and accept that it takes A LOT of effort and time to maintain, even a wt loss less than 100%! This is unknown territory for us, no one knows what it takes to maintain, so enjoy the journey and arm yourself with all the knowledge you can!     The bottom line is this: YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE THOUGHT BEFORE YOU CAN CREATE THE ACTION. When all is said and done, change begins with the thoughts you think. So, what do you think? It only takes 100 calories a day to gain 10# in a year, or visa versa 100# calories less a day and we could lose 10# in a year!         CHANGE IS INEVITABLE STRUGGLE IS OPTIONAL

There’s one in every crowd— at the office, in your church group, among your closest friends and family. Sometimes they mean well, sometimes they seem a tad malicious, often they have no idea how they’re sabotaging you. But every time you take a step forward to gain dominion over food, they’re at your elbow-- offering you a brownie, some chips, an extra heaping helping of pasta.

 Amy S. has been there with boyfriends, co-workers, and friends. "Either they bring in high cal food and offer it around, or they actually tell me it doesn't matter if I eat high cal stuff, and try to persuade me to do it," she says.

What’s going on? Why does it seem that people close to you go out of their way to sabotage you?

Experts sum it up in one word—Change. Getting fit through diet and exercise creates big changes in your life—changes you welcome. But if your friends and family aren't in the same mode of change, they can be oblivious, jealous, and uncomfortable with your changes. Perhaps:

1. They feel guilty. You're losing weight and getting in shape. They're not. Tempting you to "fall off the fitness wagon" means you’re "normal" again, and they can feel good about the status quo.
2. They don’t understand. They’ve never had a weight problem and just don’t realize how hard you’ve worked to get where you are. They think it’s "silly" for you to worry about what you eat.
3. They miss the old you. That is, the cookies you brought to work, the after-work "happy hours" spent in the company of high-fat potato skins, the luscious desserts you used to indulge in. Maybe you’re spending more time in the gym and have less free time for them. Maybe they’re afraid to lose you.

Don’t overreact, but don’t give up either! Try these strategies to vanquish your perennial food foes:

Don’t assume the worst. Unless sabotage is blatantly deliberate, give saboteurs the benefit of the doubt when it comes to their motives. If your mother serves you lasagna—your favorite-- perhaps it’s because she equates food with love, not that she wants you fat. At any rate, it doesn’t pay to get defensive.

Just say no. You wouldn’t expect to have a drink forced on you if you were a recovering alcoholic, and you shouldn’t have to submit to having fattening food foisted on you. Tell the food pusher, "No, thanks," and leave it at that. You don't owe an explanation. Nor do you need to feel guilty if you choose to avoid someone who’s not helpful to your cause.

Take it and leave it. Granted, the thought of wasted food is hard for many of us. You don’t have to be a member of the clean plate club. Remember, there are times when discretion is the better part of valor.

Look for patterns. Be on the lookout for situations that trigger your diet downfalls, perhaps with a food journal. It may help you recognize people and events that do you in, allowing you to develop strategies to deal with them. If you know, for example, that there are likely to be donuts by the office coffeemaker, it’ll be much easier to resist them if you have your own healthy but satisfying snack.

Set up your own support system. If you can recruit friends and family to your cause, you may be able to create a valuable support system. Numerous studies show that when your social network supports you, you reap positive results. If that’s not feasible, take a different approach: join a weight-loss group, or avoid friends (at least temporarily) who are a negative influence, maybe even make new friends who share your goals. You’ll get stronger with time, and be able to handle the not-so-supportive folks.

Ask for help. Keep in mind that your weight-loss needs are unique. Don’t expect loved ones to exercise telepathy to know what your needs are. Tell them! Be fair and reasonable, especially with those who share your home. They may be willing to make compromises, at least for shorter periods of time, about what foods are kept and cooked in the house.

Be a grownup. Remember that what you put in your mouth is your responsibility. While others may tempt you, ultimately you’re in charge of your own life. Look at difficult situations as opportunities to flex your newfound control muscles-- and reinforce the idea that you’re not adopting a healthier lifestyle for someone else, but for you.