Hi all you wonderful peoplieeeeeeees!!!!

I am so happy to be sitting in my chair talking with you and not at work.  Oh don't get me wrong. I love my job!  I have been putting in some extra hours.  Anyway, today is getting the books up to date.  We had to catch up on our rent and fill our propane tank so I hope we can get other bills caught up.  I also have to get groceries since we are out of most everything.  Recycling is on the list as well.  This will be a busy day.

What are you up to?

 My dad's girlfriend has been amazing throughout this whole experience(only two weeks out but still ) and she has offered to pay for a personal trainer or gym membership. Anyone have an recommendations for someone/ place that has experience working with post bariatric people? Obviously I'm not about to jump into it right away but I always like being prepared. :) 

It is hard to find a primary care Dr who understands weight loss surgery.  I see Dr Plaut at MAHEC family but he is not taking new patients.

I have to sometimes tell him what my surgeon thinks is going on and ask for a referral.  He has not been good with my low iron issues.  I have had to go to Hickory for iron infusions because he didn't think my ferretin being at 8 was dangerous but my surgeon did.

Ask Dr. Edwards for ideas. where are you going now??

As Paula suggested, I've found that journaling helps me regain control if I find my weight moving up. I once had about a 20 lb regain and was able to take it off and have been able to keep it off. I think that getting it off and keeping it off comes down to awareness and accountability; how you develop that may vary from how I did it but I'll be glad to share how I did it. To develop accountability, I make sure that I weigh myself each day and that helps me be aware of my weight. When my weight goes up or drops below my.  normal 'weight swing', I start journaling. While we all 'know' what to eat, it's surprising to me what I see when I start logging my intake and activity; I like to use www.thedailyplate.com on my computer and my smartphone. I also wear a pedometer to help me be aware of my activity level. When my weight goes up, I almost always find that I'm consuming too many simple carbs. To get the weight off, I increased my protein to about 50 percent, then had complex, colorful carbs, limiting the fats and simple 'white carbs' to no more than 20 to 25% each. This way, I was still able to have some fats and 'simple carbs' in my diet, but it helped me to take off the extra weight pretty quickly. The other thing I had gotten away from when I gained the weight was eating 5 to 6 times a day, so I made sure to eat 3 meals a day with 2 or 3 snacks. I also make sure that I'm not drinking 20 minutes before my meals, during my meals or 20 minutes after my meals so that I can leverage the 'power' of my pouch because doing so flushes food through the pouch allowing you to consume much more than you can if you leverage the power of the pouch.

Soooo....

Journal food/activity

Weigh and/or measure regularly

Eat 5 to 6 times a day focusing on Protein and Colorful carbs, with a minor amount of fats and simple, white carbs.

Be sure to leverage the power of the pouch by not drinking before, during or after meals so you will allow your pouch to help gate your consumption.

Remember to be active, it helps increase your metabolism because you will burn more calories with more muscle mass. 

Wishing you all the best,

 You can check on here for a group.  Another place to try is Bariatric Support Centers International.  Just google them to get their website.  It's important to try to find a group.  Look at meetup.com also and see if there are any wls meetups on your area too.