Your Weight Matters National Convention!

 

I am attending another conference!  I went to the WLSFA conference in Vegas and I loved it so much that I am off to Phoenix in August!  (I hope the air conditioning works well! Haha!)

This is supposed to be an awesome conference for pre-op WLS, post-op WLS,  and even support people.  🙂  I hope to see you there! 

Here is the link:  http://www.ywmconvention.com/

Here is a little from their site:

YOU ARE INVITED to join us for the 2nd Annual Your Weight Matters National Convention, taking place this year in Phoenix, AZ, August 15 – 18 at the beautiful Arizona Grand Resort & Spa!

“Rise to the Challenge” with the Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) in Phoenix, where you can learn from the country’s leading experts and arm yourself with the knowledge to better manage your weight and your health!

The Your Weight Matters National Convention is the largest National meeting dedicated to providing evidence-based strategies for individuals impacted by excess weight and obesity, proudly brought to you OAC. As a National non-profit organization, the OAC is dedicated to helping the millions of Americans impacted by excess weight and obesity through education, advocacy and support.

The OAC’s National Convention is a 3-day educational event designed to bring together all individuals who struggle or are concerned with weight-related issues. The entire weekend is dedicated to presenting a comprehensive agenda, comprised of diverse topics that are designed to help any individual who has ever had a concern about their weight. We bring-in the country’s leading experts on weight and health and give you the RIGHT tools to be successful in your lifelong journey with weight.

The OAC’s National Convention is committed to:

• Presenting more than 40 educational topics, from the basics of nutrition and available treatment options for weight, to behavioral health issues like food addiction and the science behind willpower
• Bringing-in the country’s leading experts on weight and health, dedicated to presenting evidence-based information
• Incorporating a strong fitness component, offering an array of group fitness classes designed for all abilities
• Creating a strong community and the ideal environment where the healthy choice is the easy choice
• Conducting a National Advocacy Training Day where we train our next set of advocates to go to Capitol Hill

Will my marriage crumble if I have weight loss surgery?

People ask this question a lot.  I would also get asked this question when I met someone who just lost a child.  “I’ve heard that such big changes can end my marriage! Is that true?”  Well, yes and no. 

Just like having another baby won’t “fix” a failing marriage (we’ve all seen that one, right?) losing a baby or losing 100 lbs does not mean that you will get divorced.  It is tough, true.  BUT, the advice I give people is that if your marriage is bad, it will probably get worse.  If it is good, it will probably stay the same or get better.  I don’t want to simplify it and only you both know if your marriage is “bad” or “good” or if it will be bad or good in hindsight. But, losing a ton of weight or having a ton of grief changes people and for two people to come out unscathed there has to be a lot of respect, trust, understanding, and a good foundation to the marriage.  If that’s not there, well? I mean, WLS or having a new baby or having a baby die never *fixes* a failing marriage.  We can all agree on that, right?

I guess we need to look at the reasons for wanting surgery in the first place.  Is it to make your husband jealous?  Are you not getting enough attention? Or do you want to be happy and healthy?  How do you think that you will react to the new attention you’re getting from people of the gender that you find attractive?  (See that I didn’t assume that you were straight! See what I did there? 🙂  ) These are questions to think about before surgery because if you follow the program you WILL lose weight. You may not get skinny, you may not keep it all off, but your self esteem might change and life could get different.  Your spouse might feel left out.  He/she might feel unattractive now.  Maybe you are talking about food and diet and carbs too much and that is boring to him/her. 

So, it’s a good thing to wonder about but honestly, I cannot tell you for sure.  You’ll have to work at it.  But if you already have good communication skills —  you’re doing great!

Vitamins

I am not an expert here, so this might be short.  Take your vitamins.  If you are a post bariatric surgery patient, there is no room for Flintstones or “gummy” anything in your regimen unless it is a snack. I don’t care if your surgeon said it was okay.

Go over to one of the bariatric vitamin companies like Bariatric Advantage, Celebrate, Building Blocks…  and ask for samples.  See how they sit in your stomach.  I have even heard that Centrum Chewable makes a good vitamin.  I personally take a prenatal vitamin from the health food store because I figure that if it is okay for making another human, it is okay for me.  Your mileage may vary. My labs look awesome 2+ years later.

Ask your surgeon what you need specifically.  You probably need D, a sublingual B12, iron. Find out.  Get bloodwork done.  Stay healthy. If you don’t, I’ll kick your @$$.  And sometimes chewables might give you a stomach ache —  try another kind.

What do I eat??

Well, what I could eat early on is very different.  A surgeon has you go in stages.  Clear liquids (and they make sure your newly modifed stomach is not leaking!), reqular liquids like broths and yogurts, then about 12-14 days later you get to move on to pureed foods and cottage cheese.  We’re healing the incision line, not trying to torture you!  But because you were on a two week liquid diet for 2 weeks before surgery your body is already used to not eating chicken strips and mac and cheese etc.

When you are finally allowed to eat refried beans it is like the best day of your life.  (Fat free of course.) And I added cheese shreds and verde hot sauce. I could get in about 2 tablespoons.

* cue up that Don’t Know What Ya Got Til it’s Gonnnnne” song……Cinderella?

Anyway, years later what do I eat?  I eat a protein coffee flavored shake on a normal day with 15 grams of protein.  A hard boiled egg or a string cheese for a snack. A lean cuisine type meal (Atkins are good!) with 16 or more grams of protein for lunch, some jerky as an afternoon snack, a small amount of what we have for dinner maybe 3-4 oz of steak and 2 tablespoons of potato salad, a Quest bar before bed (sometimes with frosting on it….oh noes…)

I drink fluids all day. Not all good fluids.  I like real sugar and my body tolerates it. When we go to dinner I order an appetizer as my main course.  (Kids meals are all corn dogs and fried crap. No wonder kids are having issues.)

Anyway, I eat less of what most people do.  And that is ok.  🙂  Protein comes first, then veggies, then fruit.  I get 60-70 grams of proten per day (was more when I was bigger and losing) and about 70-80 grams of sugar free fluids.

Just to give you an idea, a Lean Cuisine with none of the rice fills me up. If we went to MC Donalds I would get a double cheese burger and throw the top bun away and I would be full on that.  5-6 jumbo shrimp fills me up.  Oh and what happens if I eat too much? My nose starts running, then I hiccup, then it would come back up.  That has never happened to me in 2.5 years though!

Ah well, happy eating!

Peevalicious

Post-operative Pain

Oh where do I start. While you are in the hospital, you will feel pain.  Incisions (usually 5 — it is laparoscopic), post major anesthesia nausea, starvation, post operative drains off of you like a freaking udder.  But your stomach will not hurt. It’s like a muscle that doesn’t feel that sort of pain.  My major pain was my shoulder and it was either from the gas they blow you up with to look inside of you like a circus tent orrrr it was referred pain from my drain.

The next couple of weeks you are asked to take off of work.  It’s not for pain really.  It’s for exhaustion (welcome to the naps!) and the headaches from not eating.  And one more thing about not eating —  your body will stop *asking* for food about 3 days into your post op diet. I promise.

If you have little kids, get help —  Unless your kid weighs less than a gallon of milk.  Don’t get too much in the way of food because your tastes may change and you will not be eating much.  I ate 1/2 of  a small yogurt for a meal.

Don’t be a hero, get the drugs and use them.  And if you hurt, call your dr. I don’t care if it is the Superbowl (haha that happened) they make the BIG bucks.  Call.

After about one week you will be 90%.  As long as you are not on narcotics, you can try driving. You’ll have a dr appt to have them check your incisions. And while we are on topic, no doing the Wild Thing that first week.  Silly kids.  😉

Any other questions, ask!

🙂

Peevalicious

The first few weeks after surgery.

People are always curious about the surgery.  What was it like?  Well, first of all, I get asked what someone should bring to the hospital and the answer is earplugs and lip balm. They will provide everything else.  Even a cheesy toothbrush with one row of bristles.

I was swallowing huge pills whole while I was still in the hospital.  By the time I got home, I was on yogurt and other smooth foods like that with no little pieces of fruit in them,  No cottage cheese yet, but protein shakes and sf (sugar free) jello were fine.  Popsicles were good if I could tolerate the cold.  (Those were not appealing in a Michigan winter.)

A couple of weeks after surgery was the Super Bowl and I was feeling left out of the food frenzy.  I picked up some cheeseburger flavored Doritos and licked the powder off of the chips and threw the chip itself away.  My nutritionist did not think there was a problem at all and said that I was probably craving salt anyway.  Someone on an internet website FREAKED out and was scolding me for it.  She thought it would be like a “gateway drug” to actually eating a jagged tortilla chip.  Come on now. Like I was going to risk slicing my stomach open on a Dorito.

Oh and take whatever drugs they give you in the hospital.  Don’t be a hero!

Until next time  –

Peevy

So let’s start at the beginning….

You all don’t want to hear how I got to be 200 lbs — do you? To make a long story short, there were fertility drugs and pregnancy losses in there and just plain eating crummy.  I have a blog about the life after pregnancy losses, but here I want to focus on other stuff.

So, one day in April 2010 I went to a seminar about weight loss surgery and the rest is history.  I had to do a 6 month medically supervised diet that turned into like 10 months of jumping through hoops with my HMO.  I swear they wanted me to fail so that they wouldn’t have to pay for it.  Finally, on January 25, 2011 I had surgery on a freezing cold day.  Our furnace died like 2 days before and we bought heaters at Walmart to keep our pipes from freezing.

I went in on a Tuesday morning and by Thursday afternoon (in a blizzard) I was home resting with my Vicodin and the furnace guys. On Saturday morning, the visiting nurse pulled out my drain & I felt a ton better.  By Monday and Tuesday I was rolling around town in my little Jeep buying more yogurt.

And that was the beginning.  It was freezing cold, I could eat about half a yogurt at one sitting, and I was already down to about 180.

(This is a picture of me just before surgery all high and shit. Am I flashing gang signs? I have no idea.)

Why why why….

This all started when someone asked me why they are not losing weight when they are clearly eating junky foods.  “Maybe my lap band slipped?”  “Maybe my stomach stretched out?”  No, you’re eating junk.  Stop with the junk.  At least balance out the junk with some protein and water.  If I could figure out how to get your brain to stop wanting cupcakes or to at least use Torani Cupcake flavor syrup in your vanilla protein shake, I could be a brazillionaire.  Until then, stick with me and we will have some good stuffs to think about.

Love,

Peevy

Welcome to my new blog :)

There are a lot of happy blogs out there about weight loss, but I am here to look at the reality of it and to be a genuine ally in your quest for health!  🙂

If you have any stuff you want me to review or to talk about, let me know!  I am sure we will talk about all sorts of protein items and how Dr Oz sucks now.

Yours in Peeviness –

The Peeved Sleeve