It has been a LONGGGGGGGGGG time since I have posted here. I am now nearly 3 years out from my RNY (July 21st will be 3 years). I was down to 153 lbs and hung there for several months. Then I started back to college after 22 years of not being in school, and regained some. Too much time sitting down to study and do homework, which took away time i used to be more active. Also was so busy I tended to try to make easier meals, which meant more carbs. Lesson learned ... never take shortcuts in this journey. Ended up back up to 168. Am now back down to 163 for the most part (fluctuations do occur). I WILL get the rest of that regain off! It is much much harder now and requires discpline and focus. I can do it! I will do it!

It's kind of odd tho, 10 lbs doesn't sound like much, but it is amazing the difference 10 lbs can make in my clothes and appearance now that i am no longer morbidly obese. 10 lbs is more than one might think. Picture a lb of butter (4 sticks) and multiply that by 10. so 40 sticks of butter gives you a better idea on how much difference that really is. It is also enough to have me just above a normal BMI, which I DO NOT like at all. My surgeon is extremely pleased with how I have done, and said he would prefer I not take the other 10 back off. But I was much happier at the 153, and my pants are just way too tight..lol. It may take me months to get rid of this, but I shall prevail!

Plateau Busters - Part 1

Eat the Right Nutrients at the Right Times


We hear it all the time—you changed your habits and lost weight steadily, but after awhile, that progress halted. You’ve been stuck at the same weight for days, weeks, or even months. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying your best, feeling like you are doing everything right, yet not making any progress towards your weight loss or fitness goals.   Before you inhale a bag of cookies to console yourself, realize that weight loss takes work, and isn’t always perfect. But, there are plenty of ways you can re-energize your program (and motivation) to bust through your weight loss plateau.    But…what is a plateau anyway? If you’ve been exercising and cutting calories for several weeks, and you’re no longer seeing the same results that you experienced in the beginning, then you’ve probably hit a plateau. This occurs when your progress comes to a standstill, and can be described as not making any “gains” (such as improving your fitness level or losing weight), but not necessarily moving backwards (losing endurance or gaining weight).   Because every individual is unique, there’s no way to actually predict when a plateau might happen. However, the following principles of nutrition, rest, and variation will jumpstart your body, mind, and metabolism. (This article, part 1 in a series of 3, will focus on nutrition.) Incorporate some or all of the following suggestions to both prevent and overcome a weight loss plateau. With just a little tweaking, you’ll be in your skinny jeans in no time!
Eat the Right Nutrients at the Right Times

1.  Make sure you are following your SparkPeople nutrition plan correctly. During set-up, did you accurately account for your level of activity? Or, if you are more or less active than when you started the program, have you changed this option in your set-up so that your caloric plan will be accurate for you? This is very important so that you don’t eat too little for your body’s needs, which can actually hinder your weight loss.

In addition, are you accurately tracking your foods in the Food Tracker daily, yet not reaching the minimum number of calories that is recommended? It’s common to think that cutting MORE calories will result in faster weight loss, but that’s not actually the case.  You should never consume less than 1200 calories per day. Eating less than this (or too little in general) makes your body think it’s starving (known as “starvation mode”), so it holds onto every calorie, slowing your metabolism. Increase your calories to fit into your recommended range, and you’ll notice a difference.
 
2.  Your body can only do so much with the tools that it has, so eat well.    Aim for a wide variety of foods (instead of the same old thing day in and day out) from every basic food group.   Try new fruits and vegetables, ethnic cuisines, and a wide range of lean proteins, including non-meat sources like tofu and legumes. All (or most) of your grains should come from whole, unrefined foods like whole-wheat breads and pasta, and brown rice.
These healthy foods, especially when eaten every three to four hours, will help raise and stabilize your metabolism (and energy) to optimal levels. With fewer ups and downs, your hunger will stay in check, and you’ll have plenty of energy to finish a tough workout.
 

3.  After a workout, refuel with a balanced snack or meal within 30 minutes to 2 hours. Remember, “balanced” does not mean just protein. In fact, most individuals—and even athletes—need less than 10 grams of protein post-workout. Carbohydrates are actually more important, so try to eat an additional 30 to 60 grams at this time, when your body is primed to uptake glycogen into the cells to replace the energy you just used up during your workout. 
 
4.  Don’t overlook your huge need for water. Hydration is very important for stable energy levels.  (You store 3 molecules of water for every glycogen molecule). Plus, hydration promotes muscle building (powering your metabolism), while dehydration promotes muscle breakdown. So drink up—before, during, and after your workout sessions. The standard “8 cups a day” might not be enough for you, especially if you are exercising regularly.

Plateau Busters - Part 2

Include Adequate Rest in Your Exercise Program

We hear it all the time—you changed your habits and lost weight steadily, but after awhile, that progress halted. You’ve been stuck at the same weight for days, weeks, or even months. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying your best, feeling like you are doing everything right, yet not making any progress towards your weight loss or fitness goals.   Before you inhale a bag of cookies to console yourself, realize that weight loss takes work, and isn’t always perfect. Luckily, there are plenty of ways you can re-energize your program (and motivation) to bust through your weight loss plateau.    But…what is a plateau anyway? If you’ve been exercising and cutting calories for several weeks, and you’re no longer seeing the same results that you experienced in the beginning, then you’ve probably hit a plateau. This occurs when your progress comes to a standstill, and can be described as not making any “gains” (such as improving your fitness level or losing weight), but not necessarily moving backwards (losing endurance or gaining weight).   Because every individual is unique, there’s no way to actually predict when a plateau might happen. However, the following principles of nutrition, rest, and variation will jumpstart your body, mind, and metabolism. (This article, part 2 in a series of 3, will focus on rest. Click here to read Part 1 first.) Incorporate some or all of the following suggestions to both prevent and overcome a weight loss plateau. With just a little tweaking, you’ll be in your skinny jeans in no time!   Include Adequate Rest in Your Exercise Program 

1.  Always allow 1-2 days of rest between working muscle groups. During a strength training session, tiny tears occur in your muscle fibers, which cause that all-too-common muscle soreness that lasts about 1-2 days after lifting weights. In order for those tiny tears to repair themselves—rebuilding as stronger muscles than before—you MUST rest those muscles. For example, if you lifted arms on Monday, you should wait at least one day, preferably two, before overloading those muscles again (Wednesday or Thursday). If you don’t rest long enough for repair to occur, you will actually get weaker, which is the opposite of everyone’s goals, and a common plateau-causing culprit. (For an in-depth look at strength training, check out SparkPeople’s Reference Guide to Strength Exercise.)  

(continued...) 2.  Try active recovery. Research shows that engaging in lower intensity exercise after a strenuous workout session may be more beneficial than resting completely. There are two types of active recovery. The first is the typical cool down phase that you perform at the end of your workout. Properly cooling down has been shown to help your muscles recover faster, and reduce the levels of lactic acid in the muscles. The second type of active recovery involves exercising lightly in the days following a hard workout. So, rather than taking a day or two off from the gym, consider exercising at a lighter intensity level (go for an easy walk and follow up with some stretching, or try some gentle exercises such as yoga, for example). In addition to helping your muscles rebound, active recovery has also shown to enhance relaxation and psychological recovery.
 
3.  Get plenty of sleep. While most people are familiar with the concepts of rest, not everyone equates resting with sleeping. However, a significant amount of muscle repair occurs during your slumber. In turn, inadequate amounts of shut-eye hinder your ability to recover from exercise, making plateaus more likely. While every individual’s needs for sleep are different, most experts recommend getting AT LEAST 8 hours per night. Make sure this sleep is consistent during the week and through the weekends. After all, there is no real way to play catch-up when it comes to sleeping. If you are exercising intensely (long workouts most days of the week, or training for events such as marathons), your need for sleep may be even higher—up to 10 hours a night or more!




Plateau Busters - Part 3

Add Variety to Your Workouts

We hear it all the time—you changed your habits and lost weight steadily, but after awhile, that progress halted. You’ve been stuck at the same weight for days, weeks, or even months. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying your best, feeling like you are doing everything right, yet not making any progress towards your weight loss or fitness goals.

Before you inhale a bag of cookies to console yourself, realize that weight loss takes work, and isn’t always perfect. But there are plenty of ways you can re-energize your program (and motivation) to bust through your weight loss plateau.

But…what is a plateau anyway?
If you’ve been exercising and cutting calories for several weeks, and you’re no longer seeing the same results that you experienced in the beginning, then you’ve probably hit a plateau. This occurs when your progress comes to a standstill, and can be described as not making any “gains” (such as improving your fitness level or losing weight), but not necessarily moving backward (losing endurance or gaining weight).

Because every individual is unique, there’s no way to actually predict when a plateau might happen. However, the following principles of nutrition, rest, and variation will jumpstart your body, mind, and metabolism. (This article, part 3 in a series of 3, will focus on exercise variety. Consider reading Part 1: Eat the Right Nutrients at the Right Times and Part 2: Include Adequate Rest in Your Exercise Program first.) Incorporate some or all of the following suggestions to both prevent and overcome a weight loss plateau. With just a little tweaking, you’ll be in your skinny jeans in no time!
 
Add Variety to Your Workouts
Incorporate variation into each workout. Variety is critical because your muscles become very efficient at the exercises they are accustomed to doing. Switching things up or doing something radically different during each workout session is more challenging to your muscles. This concept should be applied to both aerobic exercise and strength training.

An individual who always does the same exercises will usually plateau sooner than someone who continually makes changes. If you don’t feel comfortable doing a different workout each time you hit the gym, try to change your exercise routine at least every 6-8 weeks. Changing your routine is crucial to keeping your body/muscles surprised. They'll have to work harder, you'll be challenged, and you'll burn more calories and build more lean muscle in the process.

1. Change your cardio activity:
   
   
   • Change the type of exercise you usually do. The possibilities of aerobic exercise are endless. If you walk, try cycling. If you take kickboxing, try the elliptical. Consider adding some of these possibilities to your routine: running, jogging, walking, elliptical machine, swimming, cycling, indoor exercise, outdoor exercise, hiking, fitness videos/DVDS, group fitness classes like kickboxing, aerobics, spinning, stair steppers, etc.—anything, just change it up!
     
     
   • Change the duration of your workouts. Try to increase your minutes as you become fitter, and occasionally, try a shorter (but more intense) workout.
     
     
   • Change the intensity of your workouts. This is something you can play with on a daily basis. This includes working at an incline or harder level, sprint work, distance work, maintaining intensity, or interval work (shifting between fast/hard and easy/recovery intervals).
   
   
2. Change your Strength Training Routine:
   
   
   • Change the mode of exercise. If you are using machines, move to free weights. If you are using body weight, try resistance bands. If you are doing free weights, add a stability element like a BOSU ball or stability ball. Try doing exercises while balancing on one foot or switch between any and all of these.
     
     
   • Change the exercises you actually do. If you have been doing chest press, change to a chest fly or use the pec deck machine. Think of an alternative exercise for each muscle group and you’ll have an entirely new workout! Check out SparkPeople's Exercise Demonstrations for more ideas.
     
     
   • Change your resistance level and/or number of repetitions. Be sure to increase your weight regularly. Make sure you are lifting to fatigue with each set. If you typically lift 12-15 reps, try doing 8-10 (with a higher weight) or vice versa. Play with your weight and reps in each set. Try lifting (as an example) 25 pounds for 15 reps, then 30 pounds for 12, then 35 pounds for 10 reps on your third set. You can also do it backwards, starting with high weight/low reps and working the weight down.

There are lots of ways to add variety to your workouts—and it's SO important that you do to continue losing weight and improving your fitness level. By always challenging yourself, you will avoid hitting a plateau in the first place, and overcome the one you're stuck in now.


The principles of nutrition, rest and variation all work closely together. When not followed properly, they can instigate a negative snowball effect: Repeating the same exercises can cause overtraining, which leads to plateaus and an inability to sleep. Lack of rest hinders you progress, making recovery take much longer, especially if you are not well-nourished and hydrated.

The human body is amazingly adaptable. By making a few changes in these areas, you can jumpstart your routine and see those positive results in no time.

A study says daily sugar intake can alter important blood fats. Whether the source is sugar cane or high fructose corn syrup, the ‘sugar effect’ persists.

April 20, 2010|By Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times

Feeding a sweet tooth won't just lead to weight gain and a mouthful of cavities. A new study suggests that diets high in added sugars can alter levels of important blood fats and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

The study, published in the Wednesday edition of the Journal of the American Medical Assn., found that people who got at least 25% of their daily calories from added sugars of any kind were 3.1 times more likely to have low levels of so-called good cholesterol in their bloodstream than people who got less than 5% of their calories from added sweeteners.

 

Additionally, those who consumed more than 17.5% of their calories from the sugars — be it ordinary table sugar derived from sugar cane or sugar beets, high fructose corn syrup or any other caloric sweetener — were 20% to 30% more likely to have high levels of blood fats called triglycerides than people with the low-sugar diets, the study found.

The association between sugar intake and blood lipids was independent of the harmful effects of other components of sugary processed foods, such as fat and cholesterol. The link also persisted when researchers took into account smoking and drinking habits and levels of physical activity.

"There is a specific added-sugar effect," said Dr. Miriam Vos, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Emory University in Atlanta who led the study.

The findings support guidelines released last year by the American Heart Assn. recommending that men eat no more than 150 calories of added sugars each day and that women limit themselves to 100 calories. That works out to about 5% of daily intake.

That's far less than the 25% limit suggested in 2005 by the Institute of Medicine, which advises the government on health matters. The World Health Organization endorses a limit of 10%, an amount that didn't appear to harm blood lipid levels in the new analysis.

To reach their conclusions, Vos and her colleagues at Emory and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examined data from 6,113 American adults who participated in the CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999 and 2006. Survey workers took measurements of height, weight and blood pressure, drew blood samples and asked participants detailed questions about everything they ate in a 24-hour period.

Anti-Obesity Drugs Unlikely to Provide Lasting Benefit, According to Scientists

ScienceDaily (Mar. 18, 2010) — Scientists at the University of Liverpool argue that anti-obesity drugs fail to provide lasting benefits for health and wellbeing because they tackle the biological consequences of obesity, and not the important psychological causes of overconsumption and weight gain.

 

Dr Jason Halford, Reader in Appetite and Obesity at the University of Liverpool, points out that anti-obesity drug developers focus primarily on weight loss as their end goal, and do not take into consideration the motivational and behavioural factors that most commonly cause obesity. Obesity typically results from eating too much food combined with too sedentary a lifestyle. However, obese people may also have a complicated psychological relationship with food that makes it difficult for them to control their appetite sufficiently to manage their weight.

Obesity is one of the most serious public health problems of the 21st century and, according to Government predictions, is set to affect half of all men and more than a third of all women in the UK by 2025. Obesity is not only associated with a number of serious health problems, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and reduced life expectancy, but also has a knock-on effect for the health service, industry, education and government -- with a multi-billion pound cost to the economy.

Dr Halford said, "Anti-obesity drugs haven't successfully tackled the wider issues of obesity because they've been focused predominantly on weight loss. Obesity is the result of many motivational factors that have evolved to encourage us to eat, not least our susceptibility to the attractions of food and the pleasures of eating energy rich foods -- factors which are, of course, all too effectively exploited by food manufacturers.

"As psychological factors are critical to the development of obesity, drug companies should take them into consideration when designing new drug therapies. We've learned a great deal about the neurochemical systems that govern processes like the wanting and liking of food, and it's time to exploit that knowledge to help people manage their eating behaviour."

Anti-obesity drugs can work in different ways; for example, by suppressing appetite, altering metabolism or inhibiting the absorption of calories. There have, however, been serious concerns over the safety of the most commonly prescribed drugs, leading to the recent withdrawal of the European market leaders Sibutramine (Reductil, Meridia) and Rimonabant (Accomplia). As a consequence of these setbacks, there are few anti-obesity drugs in development.

Dr Halford and his co-authors explain that there are motivational, emotional and behavioural traits which are common to the obese. Typically, obese people have a heightened desire to eat, which is easily provoked by environmental factors such as food adverts. They display a pre-occupation with food and have a heightened preference for high fat and high sugar foods. Obese people also tend to eating faster and take larger mouthfuls which together result in them eating bigger meals.

However, despite eating larger than normal portions, obese people are less likely to feel full after eating, partly because of the energy-dense foods they prefer have a reduced impact on gastrointestinal hormone signals that help promote feelings of satisfaction and fullness. Consequently, there are a number of reasons why obese people have enduring, and easily provoked, feelings of excessive hunger which culminate in overconsumption.

Professor Tim Kirkham, an authority on the biopsychology of appetite at the University of Liverpool, said: "Novel, effective anti-obesity treatments must address these different factors. We need to identify drugs that can selectively affect the desire to eat, the enjoyment of eating, fullness and satisfaction. Interventions designed specifically to modulate these processes could help reduce the aversive experience of dieting, and maximize an individual's capacity to successfully gain control over their appetite. Currently, we know little about the behavioural effects of anti-obesity drugs under development, and so we have little indication whether these new treatment address the underlying causes of obesity."

The research is published in Nature Reviews Endocrinology.

 

---

Story Source:

Adapted from materials provided by University of Liverpool, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

I have been VERY VERY lucky, as so far all is well. I am coming right along in the healing. For the most part I am very very happy with the results so far.. my only complaint, is that it seems when he put my aeola's back on, they did not get put back on the same.. (think one is upside down) making my nipples look a bit different from each other. I keep hoping as I heal more, this will resolve. Speaking of the girls.. I have got to go figure out what bra size I need now. I am thinking 36 C.. we shall see.

I have just a bit of tenderness in the suture lines, but only if I bump them. Now the abdominal muscles...well... they are still tender, and I imagine that will last for a while yet, as muscle takes longer to heal than other tissues. I'll tell you, I do not like it when a sneeze or two comes on!

This coming Monday I will be six weeks out. End of lifting restrictions and garments... But I can tell that I will still need to be very careful with how much I do and I think I may still wear the garments during the day to help support things when I am active. I do look forward to sleeping in comfort without them.

Still not quite up to any "power walking". When i go for walks, especially if ay hills are involved, I can feel it in my abdominal muscles after a while. I am looking forward to getting back to my power walks, and being able to do the things that need done, without having to ask for help all the time. I especially look forward to being able to pick up my grand children and not have to ask for someone to put them on my lap.

There is still some swelling through the surgical area of my abdomen. Some times it is better than others. But all in all things are going great!

For those of you who do not know what procedures I had done, they were:
Lower body lift
anchor cut tummy tuck (vertical incision from breast bone to mons pubus)
small amount of lipo to upper outter thighs
breast augmentation
neck lift

So, that was ALOT all at once. But i am doing great and feel better each day. Now.. if I could just get some energy back and sleep normal again!

Since my last entry I am down (I think...which I'll explain soon) by another 9 lbs. I am in a size 10 blue jean, and a size med - lg top depending upon the make of it.
On Feb 8th, I took the plunge and had my plastic surgery. They estimate that 3 to 4 lbs of skin were removed during the procedure. I did have implants put in which added a little back. Now when I say I am down by another 9 lbs, I hit my wls low of 158 just a few days back. But have bounced all over between that and 165 since. This tends to be a very common theme following plastic surgery, as swelling occurs often and can cause 5 to 10 lbs of water weight gain or loss in a single day. I am certain I did not gain 7 lbs in actual "fat or tissue" gain overnight. (which is how quickly the scale jumped back up!) Even though I realize it is water weight at play, it can be frustrating. It can take 6 months or more for the swelling and additional water weight fluctuations to subside.

All in all i am very happy with the plastic surgery procedures i had done. I will make another entry very soon about what I had done, what I am happy with, what I am not too sure about yet, etc. But all in all for the most part I am very pleased. I am going to be 5 weeks out from plastic surgery on Monday, March 15th. I have experienced no complications as of this posting, and hope and pray it continues like this. I still experience quite a bit of tenderness in the stomach muscles, due to the tightening of them, but this too is to be expected. I am on a 10 lb or less lifting restriction until 6 weeks out. This is very difficult to follow when my grandkids are around! They are so used to Grammy holding them, and grammy loves them oh so much!  So I try to have someone else set them in my lap, so we can still have that closeness.

I find myself looking forward to being able to do my powerwalking again. Right now my pace is much slower than it typically is, and my enduance is much less (as far as distance). I am also looking forward to beginning some stregnth training after I am fully recovered.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story...coming very soon!

How Weight Loss Helps the Heart http://www.usnews.com/health/family-health/heart/articles/20 09/08/11/how-weight-loss-helps-the-heart.html
By Ed Edelson

(Thanks to Kevin for sharing this information with us!)

HealthDay Reporter TUESDAY, Aug. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Losing a lot of weight rejuvenates the physical structure of the heart, and it makes no difference whether the weight is lost by surgery or by dieting, a new British study shows. The heart muscles of people who started with a body mass index (BMI) averaging 40 -- a BMI of 30 is the usual marker of obesity -- became noticeably thinner and more efficient when they brought their BMI down to 32.2 in a single year, according to a report in the Aug. 18 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. "Both diet and bariatric surgery led to comparable, significant decreases" in heart structure abnormalities and malfunction, the University of Oxford researchers reported. Bariatric surgery is designed to induce weight loss by reducing the amount of food people can eat, the amount of food they can metabolize or both. Weight loss averaging 21 kilograms (about 45 pounds), achieved by the 37 obese people in the study, "is typically what is seen after bariatric surgery," said Dr. Philip R. Schauer, director of the Cleveland Clinic Bariatric and Metabolic Institute. Noting that many of the obese people lost those kilograms by eating less, Schauer called it "quite unusual for someone to diet with that effect. These were a very special subset." And the problem with weight loss by diet is that "weight regain is the norm, whereas with bariatric surgery there is ample evidence that the weight loss is maintained," Schauer said. The Oxford researchers used cardiac MRI, a special X-ray technique, to obtain detailed information on the structure of the hearts not only of the 37 obese participants but also of 20 normal-weight volunteers, whose average BMI was 21. They found that the walls of the left and right ventricles, the blood-pumping chambers of the heart, were significantly thicker in the obese people. They also found impaired ability of the heart to hold blood at diastole, the resting point of the heartbeat, in the obese. A year later, after weight loss, the heart muscles of the obese people were less overgrown and the hearts could also hold more blood. Thickening of the aorta, the main heart artery, was also greatly reduced after weight loss. "These findings provide a potential mechanism for the reduction in mortality seen with weight loss," the researchers wrote. And it thus helps explain something of a medical mystery -- why people who are grossly overweight are more at risk of heart attack and sudden death than their numbers show, said Dr. Christine Ren, a bariatric surgeon who is an associate professor of surgery at New York University Langone Medical Center. "Most of them say they are pretty healthy, maybe with a slight elevation of blood pressure, but when you really drill down to it you can show an abnormal cardiac function," Ren said. "The point is that their heart is not normal and that already is having a negative effect on their health." Losing weight by dieting is desirable, "but the problem with diets is that statistics show maintenance of weight loss by diet is extremely difficult and quite rare," Ren said. Bariatric surgery is expensive, costing anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000, she said, and it is not perfect. "There is always going to be 5 percent of these people who gain most of their weight back, but it still is the best chance of having significant weight loss," Ren said. However, health insurance coverage of bariatric surgery is uncertain, varying from company to company and state to state, she said, and many plans are starting to put more limits on coverage. More information Bariatric surgery is described by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.  

DISCLAIMER - This is just some information/suggestions. It is in no way a complete list or meant to take place of advice from your physician. You should always seek the advice of your surgeon.

Certain medications are prone to causing ulcers in post op bariatric patients. Typically these ulcers will require surgical intervention. The following is a list of medications I have found, that are not to be taken by bariatric patients.

No NSAID's. (non steroidal anti-inflmmatory drugs)

Aches-N-Pain Advil Tablets & Caplets Aleve
Alka Seltzer Alka Seltzer Antacid/Tablets/Cold Anaprox
Advil
Alka Seltzer
Anacin
Ascriptin
Asprin
Anaprox DS Anacin Tablets/Caplets/Max. Strength
Ancid Ansaid
Arthritis Pain Formula Arthritis Strength Tri-Buffered Bufferin
A.S.A. Enseals Ascriptin A/D Caplets
Ascriptin
Ascriptin Extra Strength Caplets
Asperbuf
Aspergum Aspirin - all brands including childrens
BC Powder/Cold Powder Bufferin-Regular & Extra Strength Buffex
Befferin
Buffinol Cama Arthritis Strength
Cataflam
Celebrex
Clinoril Coumadin
Coricidin
Cortisone
Daypro
Dolobin
Disalcid Dipyridamole
Doan's Pills
Dolobid Easprin
Emperin
Excedrin
Empirin
Ecotrin Caplets/Tablets/Max. Strength
Excedrin/Any Type
Feldene Fiorinal
Feldene
Fioinol
Halfrin
Ibuprofen Ifen
Indocin
Ibuprofen
Indocin
Lodine Magnaprin
Maprin/Maprin 1-B
Measurin Mediprin
Midol Caplet/200
Mobigesic Motrin
Meclomen
Motrin
Nalfon
Naprosyn
Norgesic
Nalfon
Naprosyn Norwich Tablets
Nuprin Caplets/Tabs
Orudis P-A-C Analgesic
Pamprin
Persantine Pepto-Bismol /Any Type Ponstel
Relafen Rimadyl
Sal flex
Tolectin
Ticlid Tolectin
Tolmetin
Toradol Trendar
Trigesic
Ursinus Inlay/Tabs Vanquish Analgesic Voltaren
Vanquish
Vioxx
Warfarin Wesprin Buffered
Zorpin

In addition to these in the paperwork I recieved from my surgeon, it was also stated to NOT take any form of tetracycline and not to take azythromycin (z-pack).

Again, you are encouraged to consult your physician on any medications you begin taking or are considering taking, to assure they are safe for you.  Your bariatric doctor is the most knowledgeable in this area. If as you review this list , you note you are taking one of the listed meds, consult your bariatric doctor or his nurse to verify it is safe for you.  Many family physicians are not experienced enough with bariatrics to know all of the restrictions of the bariatric population, as this is not thier specialty.
I encourage you to print this list out and keep it handy for easy reference in the future.

If sweets, especially candy, is one of your weaknesses, the upcoming trick – or – treating tradition may prove to be a difficult one for you. If you really enjoy handing out  goodies to the little ghosts and goblins, here are some suggestions to help you make it through this year, without falling victim to the tasty treats that abound.

 

1.        Have someone else go shopping for the treats that you will be handing out. This will reduce your exposure to all of the temptations and help you resist giving in to trying “just one”.

2.        Be sure to pick a candy that is one you do not like personally. This too, will help to reduce the risk of temptation while handing out the goodies to the neighborhood kids.

3.        Consider going to your local dollar store and getting a bag of small toys to give out instead of the consumable treats. Kids love stickers, and other little trinkets. Parents appreciate it too.

4.        Choose sugar free candies to give out, then if you must have “just one” you are not going to be getting in all those sugars that can really derail you for your wls journey.

5.        Have someone else hand it out if it is difficult for you.

6.        If you have children that will be out there collecting the goods, be sure to insist that they keep their treasures put away in a place that you will not be tempted to “just take a peek” to see what they collected.

7.       Be sure to keep some wls safe treats on hand, so if you just have to have a treat of your own, you have safe choices available to you.

8.       If worst comes to worst, just resolve to not hand out the goodies this year.

 

Remember this is your journey, and you must make the most of it. Have a plan in place to make sure you protect yourself from the next day dread that you will certainly encounter, should you happen to give in.

 

The taste of something lasts but a moment. The effects of it can linger for days, or even set you on a path of struggle that can last a very long time. It is best to avoid it altogether! It is just not worth the risks involved.

 

I am now down by 103 lbs. The loss is slow now, but that is to be expected at this point. They say you can expect to lose about 70 % of your excess body wieght with the help of Roux - en- Y. I'd have to guess that I have lost that much. I have 17 lbs to go to hit my goal of 150 lbs. And 13 to go to hit the normal BMI range. I am really looking forward to this! It is one of the milestones I see as profound. Probably the biggest milestone really, after so many years of fighting obesity.

I would be thrilled if I were losing a bit quicker, but to be honest, I am not disappointed, as I am still going in the right direction, and the closer one is to a normal weight, the slower it comes off. I just continue to try my best to make the next right choice, and to do the next right thing.

I am really hitting a point where I am considering Plastic surgery more and more. It seems that the last 10 lbs I have lost has left me with a bit more sagging skin than I want to live with forever. For a while I thought I would be okay without plastics, but not too sure on that now. My tummy skin is loose and when i wear pants, I always have that loose skin that bubbles over the waist band and looks like a fat roll. I must admit, that has me very self conscious. That and my gobbler under my chin..lol. We shall see.