Hello Fellow Iowans!

Does anyone know of a bariatric support group in the Des Moines area? 

My surgeon's office (IA Health Bariatrics) has one that meets on a Saturday morning once a month, but I wondered if there are others.

Thanks!

Kid Krazed Kim                    
  

Hi,
I am in Des Moines and just had RNY a couple weeks ago.  I work with Dr. Smolik at Mercy Hospital.  Further than you would want to travel, but they might know of some affiliate offices nearer to you.  I imagine there will be good surgeons and programs nearby if you research.  Sorry I couldn't be more help.  I agree with other posters.  Go back to basics and stay off the scale. Maybe seek an OE meeting or something in the meantime until you can find a good solid support group with like-minded post ops and nutritional support. If you can afford it, a therapist to help with the emotional baggage most of us carry might help right now.  I know I will be heading to one if my support group isn't sufficient to help me change my thinking and habits. Hang in there, you are worth it. (Add me to a friend list if you like. I'm not an experienced post op like yourself, but having friends from Iowa to chat with and talk about some of this stuff would be great).
Heather

        

The last several months have been fairly busy ones here at OH and we are really excited
about this upcoming release. First, long overdue is the public release of OH Groups. You
will now be able to start and  manage your own public groups. Second, is a major update
to Health Tracker....Activity! We are planning to release these new features on Wednesday evening, October 7, 2009.

OH Groups

Getting to OH Groups is easy. Just click on the Groups tab at the top of any page on ObesityHelp. OH Groups allows you to start and manage your own groups, you can find groups that suit your interests and find support groups in your area.

If you are looking for an OH Group that focuses on a specific topic, you can browse groups by category.

Activity

To get to your Activity Tracker, click “My OH” at the top of any page on ObesityHelp, select “Health Tracker” on the left and then click the “Activity” tab.

Understanding your total daily caloric expenditure requires more than just knowing how many calories you burned on the treadmill. In your Health Tracker settings area you are now able to estimate the caloric expenditure of your resting metabolic rate (RMR) and lifestyle. These estimates are integrated and displayed with the caloric expenditure of the activities you have logged.

Your exercise log allows you to search for and add strength training exercises, cardiovascular exercises and general activities to your daily log. Caloric expenditure is auto calculated for a number of activities already included in our database of exercises. Pie charts display details about caloric expenditure and time for each type of activity.

Sets can be added and subtracted from strength training exercises. Reps and weight used can be entered for each set.

A number of details can be tracked for cardiovascular exercises and general activities. Some of these variables include, time, distance, calories burned, average heart rate, average power, altitude gained and average grade.

If you can’t find the exercise or activity you have participated in, you can also add your own custom exercises.

Other updates include the ability to create list of your favorite exercises, reports have been updated to include a number of activity items, the nutrition search has been enhanced and we have managed to slip in a sweet macronutrient report under the “Reports” tab. If you have any questions, comments or concerns about the features in this release, please submit those here. If your are new to ObesityHelp or have not used ObesityHelp's Health Tracker before, you can learn about the first release here and the second release here. Need help using Health Tracker? Click here for help. Enjoy!