By
Jennifer DeMoss
I've been struggling with something.
REALLY struggling.
See, I have a little problem.
Like many of you, I am a food addict.
That means that, unlike others of you that might be reading this who don't have this issue, I do not have a healthy relationship with food.
Food and I go waaaay back.
So, when I had to "give it up" prior to my surgery, I had a little bit of a mental and emotional breakdown.
Come to think of it, I've had several over the last few years.
When the weight loss was happening, it was so much easier.
The first 80-90 lbs was a breeze. Literally.
I COULDN'T eat certain things like bread or rice or pasta, so the weight just slid off me.
But when I discovered that I could eat all of those things again, my easy weight loss flew away.
From the moment I started putting those foods back into my body, my weight stalled out.
Some might say, since it's been so long, that I am now in "maintenance phase".
But, to be honest, I don't WANT to be in maintenance.
Don't get me wrong, I like where I am now. I'm currently healthier than I have ever been in my life. I am able to do things physically that I've never been before.
But WHY am I content where I am?
I'm still not as healthy as I could be.
I'm still not eating as well as I SHOULD be.
I am going through physical and emotional changes that I never expected to have to go through right now. Physically, I'm not feeling great, to be honest. I'm tired a lot, achy a lot, and have digestive issues. Sound familiar? For those that have read a few of my past posts you'll see where I talk about gluten intolerance and sensitivities. Guess what I've been eating a ton of lately? Yep. Gluten. In the form of pancakes, waffles, biscuits, bread, crackers, tortillas ... Not to mention the additives and preservatives in the processed foods I've been eating.
Emotionally, I'm dealing with the prospect of my children going back to school, and I'm also trying to figure out how to handle a special needs child that's about to hit early puberty.
The thing is, I know for a fact that eating healthy will help me with all of these issues. I'll feel better, I'll have more energy, I'll be better able to handle emotional issues ...
But I just don't.
WHY??
WHY is it so hard to do this?
The answer - at least in my case - is so, so simple.
A D D I C T I O N
How many drug users go back to using? How many alcoholics go back to the bar? How many smokers go back to a pack a day habit?
Food is no different.
But unlike some of the above addictions, food does not have a rehab center.
THIS is why support groups for bariatric patients are SO important!
We also need that addiction support and we need mentors that have been there.
I want to encourage you all today, if you have not found a support group, to PLEASE go find one. If there are none in your area, I encourage you to look into starting one!
On a final note, in the next couple of weeks, we will be holding our first 14-Day "Back to Basics" challenge. This challenge is intended to help those of us that have gone off track to get back where we need to be! I know this will help me a lot, and I hope that it will be helpful to all of you as well!
God Bless!!
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Monday, July 28, 2014
Why a Support Group?
This week we were privileged to meet some really nice ladies that shared their experiences and questions with us. One was still in the hospital having just had surgery. The another was a few weeks out from surgery and was just beginning to experience solid food.
One of the overall patterns that Jennifer and I noticed was the look of abject fear on one person’s face when they asked about eating bread and noodles. Her question was why was bread hard to swallow. Bread is hard to swallow because it is a sponge and attracts all the liquid in your stomach and becomes a lump that is hard to digest! That is why bread is one of the last foods you should try to eat after surgery.
Obviously, in her pre-surgery class this was not covered. The next question was about eating noodle soup. My question to her was “Why”? Why, if you chose to have the surgery to lose unwanted weight would you revert immediately to eating the comfort food that got you obese to start with? Well, I wasn't quite that blunt, but really, Why!
The pre-surgery class I went through was about 30 minutes of discussion, a video of the surgery, and a large packet of information to read prior to the surgery.
Folks, this is a huge decision to make and a huge surgery with huge change in lifestyle and thought process. It should not have an hour of limited information. When my Dad had knee surgery he had a three hour class on the replacement surgery. I don’t think our surgeons realize that bariatric surgery is much more life changing that knee replacement. Hey, they are removing my best friend, it has helped me through stress, pain, and grief. Why doesn’t the removal of ¾ of my stomach need as much attention as the replacement of a knee joint????
This is the reason pre-surgery classes are so important and in lieu of not having that: Support Groups help get you through the realization that you can’t go back, you can only go forward and to do that you need good positive information on how to eat and live with your new stomach.
Support groups should be there for positive answers to your questions.
They should always be moderated by someone who has been through the surgery and if possible someone who is a medical professional. An office manager does not meet that requirement! There should never be food offered. It is not a party, we are not there to eat, we are there to learn.
The best support group I have ever attended met all those requirements. There are support groups going on somewhere every night. I know in the Dallas Fort Worth Area where we live there are at least 7 that take place every month. Because we are weak humans we need the support to help us learn new techniques and recipes for controlling our appetite. I have through the years met people who needed help on a weekly and even a daily basis to get through the first 6 months after their surgeries. This is completely okay! We are relearning habits that we have had all our lives. And most of us are old enough that retraining needs repetitive learning to stick.
Another issue that came to light is the Psychological evaluation. The insurance companies require that we have the evaluation so that we understand the ramifications of the surgery.
In other words they are covering themselves by saying you answered all the questions and are completely able to understand the process of the surgery. What they don’t take into consideration is that we are long term obese people who have worked hard to become large overweight people. We eat because of many issues. These issues are not addressed.
Now I am not saying that we need long term psychological analysis. I just think we need a little more than filling out a sheet of paper telling the councilor how many diets we have been on and how much weight we have gained or lost in the last 2-5 years. To me this visit was a one shot, very unsatisfying and really the counselor I met with really had to clue what the long term changes were going to happen to my body and mind. The counselor that Jennifer met with was much more informed and was the person that gave us the idea for “7 Bites” so I know that there are good counselors out there but they are not the norm, they are few and far between.
I believe that the support group is the place where we counsel each other in a non threatening environment with lots of love and support for each other. This is why support groups are so important for us recovering foodaholics.
The last issue that I recognized is that many people pay cash for their surgeries and travel across state lines or on airplanes to get to their bariatric surgeons. This is hard on the patient and can be very frustrating for the hospital staff as traveling immediately after surgery can
have serious complications. This is another issue that because of distance is very difficult for the patient to plug into a good support system.
A lot of the surgeons have online support groups and I for one don’t believe that online support should ever take the place of face to face support. For those that travel long distances this sounds like a good way to keep informed and may help but is not the best way to get personal support.
I have seen too many of these support groups become “gripe sessions” and without face to face interaction the posts often are left unanswered. There is no support it is only a place to make arbitrary statements, get a thousand answers that may or may not really answer your questions.
Meeting face to face we can see the frustration, feel the pain, and give a hug to help others know that we have walked in their shoes. We have felt the things and gone through the steps that they will go through.
I really feel that by plugging into the support group closest to you that success with your surgery is so much more within your reach. The members of your support group will interact with you on your level and allow you to see their failures and success.
An old saying I love is: A wise man learns from the mistakes of others
And we all want to be wise and learn what it takes to become successful in our new lives with our new bodies.
If you are not able to plug into a face to face support group plug in to our facebook page Official 7Bites Group Jennifer and I monitor it daily and will do our best to get answers to your questions and if we don’t know the answer we will find someone who does. We are not ever going to take the place of a face to face support system but we can supplement and build some fun online friendships.
One of the overall patterns that Jennifer and I noticed was the look of abject fear on one person’s face when they asked about eating bread and noodles. Her question was why was bread hard to swallow. Bread is hard to swallow because it is a sponge and attracts all the liquid in your stomach and becomes a lump that is hard to digest! That is why bread is one of the last foods you should try to eat after surgery.
Obviously, in her pre-surgery class this was not covered. The next question was about eating noodle soup. My question to her was “Why”? Why, if you chose to have the surgery to lose unwanted weight would you revert immediately to eating the comfort food that got you obese to start with? Well, I wasn't quite that blunt, but really, Why!
The pre-surgery class I went through was about 30 minutes of discussion, a video of the surgery, and a large packet of information to read prior to the surgery.
Folks, this is a huge decision to make and a huge surgery with huge change in lifestyle and thought process. It should not have an hour of limited information. When my Dad had knee surgery he had a three hour class on the replacement surgery. I don’t think our surgeons realize that bariatric surgery is much more life changing that knee replacement. Hey, they are removing my best friend, it has helped me through stress, pain, and grief. Why doesn’t the removal of ¾ of my stomach need as much attention as the replacement of a knee joint????
This is the reason pre-surgery classes are so important and in lieu of not having that: Support Groups help get you through the realization that you can’t go back, you can only go forward and to do that you need good positive information on how to eat and live with your new stomach.
Support groups should be there for positive answers to your questions.
They should always be moderated by someone who has been through the surgery and if possible someone who is a medical professional. An office manager does not meet that requirement! There should never be food offered. It is not a party, we are not there to eat, we are there to learn.
The best support group I have ever attended met all those requirements. There are support groups going on somewhere every night. I know in the Dallas Fort Worth Area where we live there are at least 7 that take place every month. Because we are weak humans we need the support to help us learn new techniques and recipes for controlling our appetite. I have through the years met people who needed help on a weekly and even a daily basis to get through the first 6 months after their surgeries. This is completely okay! We are relearning habits that we have had all our lives. And most of us are old enough that retraining needs repetitive learning to stick.
Another issue that came to light is the Psychological evaluation. The insurance companies require that we have the evaluation so that we understand the ramifications of the surgery.
In other words they are covering themselves by saying you answered all the questions and are completely able to understand the process of the surgery. What they don’t take into consideration is that we are long term obese people who have worked hard to become large overweight people. We eat because of many issues. These issues are not addressed.
Now I am not saying that we need long term psychological analysis. I just think we need a little more than filling out a sheet of paper telling the councilor how many diets we have been on and how much weight we have gained or lost in the last 2-5 years. To me this visit was a one shot, very unsatisfying and really the counselor I met with really had to clue what the long term changes were going to happen to my body and mind. The counselor that Jennifer met with was much more informed and was the person that gave us the idea for “7 Bites” so I know that there are good counselors out there but they are not the norm, they are few and far between.
I believe that the support group is the place where we counsel each other in a non threatening environment with lots of love and support for each other. This is why support groups are so important for us recovering foodaholics.
The last issue that I recognized is that many people pay cash for their surgeries and travel across state lines or on airplanes to get to their bariatric surgeons. This is hard on the patient and can be very frustrating for the hospital staff as traveling immediately after surgery can
have serious complications. This is another issue that because of distance is very difficult for the patient to plug into a good support system.
A lot of the surgeons have online support groups and I for one don’t believe that online support should ever take the place of face to face support. For those that travel long distances this sounds like a good way to keep informed and may help but is not the best way to get personal support.
I have seen too many of these support groups become “gripe sessions” and without face to face interaction the posts often are left unanswered. There is no support it is only a place to make arbitrary statements, get a thousand answers that may or may not really answer your questions.
Meeting face to face we can see the frustration, feel the pain, and give a hug to help others know that we have walked in their shoes. We have felt the things and gone through the steps that they will go through.
I really feel that by plugging into the support group closest to you that success with your surgery is so much more within your reach. The members of your support group will interact with you on your level and allow you to see their failures and success.
An old saying I love is: A wise man learns from the mistakes of others
And we all want to be wise and learn what it takes to become successful in our new lives with our new bodies.
If you are not able to plug into a face to face support group plug in to our facebook page Official 7Bites Group Jennifer and I monitor it daily and will do our best to get answers to your questions and if we don’t know the answer we will find someone who does. We are not ever going to take the place of a face to face support system but we can supplement and build some fun online friendships.
Monday, July 21, 2014
Life Changing Events
Usually when we think of life changing events we think of births, death, marriage, or divorce just to name a few. Last week we celebrated a life changing event for my beautiful daughter, Jennifer DeMoss. Yes, having weight loss surgery is one of the biggest life changing events that either of us have gone through since her birth.
Thinking of surgery as such a big event can only be understood by someone who has undergone this kind of event. It is the end of a lifetime of being inside a body that is not in our control.
In my personal life, I always wonder if after being sick for a year and gaining 20-30 pounds as a 10 year old child what would have happened if I had not been put on that first diet? What would have been different in my life? Would I have become the yo-yo dieter of a lifetime? Or would my body have healed itself and possibly as my activity level got back to normal so would my weight?
Don’t know and never will, but looking at where my daughter was before her weight loss surgery, I think that her weight problem may have been a residual from my weight problem.
Genetics, maybe? We come from a long family line of hard working farm families. None of which were considered overweight until in their 50-60 when they began to slow down on their activities on the farm. I grew up working in the field alongside my Mother and Dad. When my Mother passed away at age 52 she was 5”10’ in height and 182 pounds. Only about 25 pounds overweight. My Dad was 6”1’ and was 178 at 82 when he passed. He was never more than twenty pounds heavier in his whole life and he ate bread and ice cream at every meal with a coke and snickers bar for breakfast. Why were they so able to maintain their weight? Genetics? Or could it have been really simpler. No fast food on a regular basis, no boxed food items, no added salt or hidden additives in 90% of the food they ate?
I am one that truly believes our environment is a huge factor. My Dad walked miles of peanut rows and watermelon fields. He rode a tractor that bounced and bumped for hours. I, on the other hand, worked in an office and sat at a desk for hours. My exercise was doing laundry in a machine, cleaning house, and chasing children in the few hours before their bedtime. And sporadic rounds of going to the gym. I gained 26 pounds with my first child, 10 with each of the other two so I can’t say that childbirth was really a problem. I always joked that being a good cook was my downfall. Maybe it was, but now that I look at cooking I realize that the information I had was working against me - not the fact that I was cooking good meals.
The information I am talking about is the information that we have been taught for years about eating lots of carbohydrates and less fat and meat. Isn't it amazing that now we are learning that fat is not necessarily the bad food we were taught? And that so many of the processed carbohydrates we were taught that were okay, we are finding they are not really as good as we thought.
If I had ate and taught my children early on to eat like my parents I know we would have not had to have this life changing surgery.
My parents ate out of the garden, they ate beef, pork, chicken, and fish, they fried their food and ate bread, biscuits and gravy! They worked hard and burned the calories and carbohydrates. I find it interesting that the beans I grew to hate as a child are now prominent in my diet. The butter I gave up in 1970 is now a food I can eat without worrying about my cholesterol. Granted the portions I eat are now more normal portions than ever before. You see I think I fed the problem by eating the wrong things and craving more food because I was not feeding my body, I was eating…….just about anything that would fit in my mouth!
These are the thoughts that have been going through my mind as we celebrate this wonderful occasion. We have both changed our bodies and are working on changing our minds. We have learned to let the kids eat when they are hungry but provide food that is not “filler” but nutritious meals and snacks. We have learned that balanced diet does not mean something from every food group at every meal. And that balanced, for me in my diet, might not meet the needs of the rest of the family. And that this is OKAY.
Thank the Lord that he has given the medical community the tools to help us who have struggled with our bodies and have had to live with the discrimination, pain, anger, and disgust that has surrounded us for so long. Thank the Lord for this wonderful day and age when we can become in control of our bodies and minds and do great things for others with our new found freedom. Thank the Lord lastly for families that have supported us in this life changing event and pray that we continue to pass on to others the positive thoughts and prayers for success with their surgeries.
I hope all of you reading this find peace in knowing that your path has been trod by many others and we hope we can help you through any of your struggles with weight loss surgery. And for those of you reading this that may not have had surgery but are struggling to lose weight by portion control and nutritional changes I hope we can give you encouragement also because you may not have our “tool” but the mind changes are the same for any weight loss lifestyle change.
Last I want to congratulate any that are at their surgiversary (Jen's was on the 11th! 2 Years!!). You are just at the beginning of a new wonderful life as a person in control of your body and mind!
Thinking of surgery as such a big event can only be understood by someone who has undergone this kind of event. It is the end of a lifetime of being inside a body that is not in our control.
In my personal life, I always wonder if after being sick for a year and gaining 20-30 pounds as a 10 year old child what would have happened if I had not been put on that first diet? What would have been different in my life? Would I have become the yo-yo dieter of a lifetime? Or would my body have healed itself and possibly as my activity level got back to normal so would my weight?
Don’t know and never will, but looking at where my daughter was before her weight loss surgery, I think that her weight problem may have been a residual from my weight problem.
Genetics, maybe? We come from a long family line of hard working farm families. None of which were considered overweight until in their 50-60 when they began to slow down on their activities on the farm. I grew up working in the field alongside my Mother and Dad. When my Mother passed away at age 52 she was 5”10’ in height and 182 pounds. Only about 25 pounds overweight. My Dad was 6”1’ and was 178 at 82 when he passed. He was never more than twenty pounds heavier in his whole life and he ate bread and ice cream at every meal with a coke and snickers bar for breakfast. Why were they so able to maintain their weight? Genetics? Or could it have been really simpler. No fast food on a regular basis, no boxed food items, no added salt or hidden additives in 90% of the food they ate?
I am one that truly believes our environment is a huge factor. My Dad walked miles of peanut rows and watermelon fields. He rode a tractor that bounced and bumped for hours. I, on the other hand, worked in an office and sat at a desk for hours. My exercise was doing laundry in a machine, cleaning house, and chasing children in the few hours before their bedtime. And sporadic rounds of going to the gym. I gained 26 pounds with my first child, 10 with each of the other two so I can’t say that childbirth was really a problem. I always joked that being a good cook was my downfall. Maybe it was, but now that I look at cooking I realize that the information I had was working against me - not the fact that I was cooking good meals.
The information I am talking about is the information that we have been taught for years about eating lots of carbohydrates and less fat and meat. Isn't it amazing that now we are learning that fat is not necessarily the bad food we were taught? And that so many of the processed carbohydrates we were taught that were okay, we are finding they are not really as good as we thought.
If I had ate and taught my children early on to eat like my parents I know we would have not had to have this life changing surgery.
My parents ate out of the garden, they ate beef, pork, chicken, and fish, they fried their food and ate bread, biscuits and gravy! They worked hard and burned the calories and carbohydrates. I find it interesting that the beans I grew to hate as a child are now prominent in my diet. The butter I gave up in 1970 is now a food I can eat without worrying about my cholesterol. Granted the portions I eat are now more normal portions than ever before. You see I think I fed the problem by eating the wrong things and craving more food because I was not feeding my body, I was eating…….just about anything that would fit in my mouth!
These are the thoughts that have been going through my mind as we celebrate this wonderful occasion. We have both changed our bodies and are working on changing our minds. We have learned to let the kids eat when they are hungry but provide food that is not “filler” but nutritious meals and snacks. We have learned that balanced diet does not mean something from every food group at every meal. And that balanced, for me in my diet, might not meet the needs of the rest of the family. And that this is OKAY.
Thank the Lord that he has given the medical community the tools to help us who have struggled with our bodies and have had to live with the discrimination, pain, anger, and disgust that has surrounded us for so long. Thank the Lord for this wonderful day and age when we can become in control of our bodies and minds and do great things for others with our new found freedom. Thank the Lord lastly for families that have supported us in this life changing event and pray that we continue to pass on to others the positive thoughts and prayers for success with their surgeries.
I hope all of you reading this find peace in knowing that your path has been trod by many others and we hope we can help you through any of your struggles with weight loss surgery. And for those of you reading this that may not have had surgery but are struggling to lose weight by portion control and nutritional changes I hope we can give you encouragement also because you may not have our “tool” but the mind changes are the same for any weight loss lifestyle change.
Last I want to congratulate any that are at their surgiversary (Jen's was on the 11th! 2 Years!!). You are just at the beginning of a new wonderful life as a person in control of your body and mind!
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Who’s Counting!
This 4th of July was very special to me this year. It marked a very special birthday, although my birthday is actually on the 7th. When I was little, my folks did not stop work in the summer to celebrate birthdays. We waited till the weekend or, if a holiday was around the corner, we celebrated on that day. In July, of course we celebrated the 4th, but my Uncle J. K. Webb and his little sister, my Aunt Charlotte Kelly also celebrated July birthdays. So our family chose to celebrate for all of us at our annual family reunion. This was held the third Sunday in July every year for 49 years. We almost made 50 years of celebrating together.
Of course there was the spread of all spreads, every kind of delectable food imaginable. I remember a cousin bringing a cherry cream pie that was out of this world and if she didn't have it there she might as well not show up. She always had to make several as there were some times 75 to 100 people in attendance.
Family reunions have gotten less frequent. Time, travel, and so many family members that have passed on that we are down to third and fourth generations that are scattered. Facebook and Email have helped us stay in contact, but less that in time passed.
I remember when I started school, there were only a few of us that had summer birthdays. It was disappointing when other kids got to bring cupcakes or treats on their birthdays, and everyone got to sing to them and have a little party. But as I got older it didn't really matter because we always had fireworks and ice cream and most of the time a carnival came to town for the 4th of July, and that made my birthday extra special. I, in fact, thought my birthday was on the 4th till I was a pretty big kid. So, we still celebrate beginning with the 4th all the way through the month.
My best friend Melba Barnett was born a month to the day after me on August 7th. We annually prank each other with signs on our gates, or silly surprises, or even sunflowers from the side of the road. She always calls me an “old lady” for a month then I get to call her “old lady” for the rest of the year!!! We celebrated our birthdays together from age 2 through elementary school and 2 years of college! Now what is a friendship!...We raised our families and when Doug and I moved back to the farm that first summer the pranks began just like we had never stopped.
This year is a milestone for both of us as Medicare kicks in and we both have our AARP cards and Medicare ID cards. Yep 65 long hot summers ago I was born in far western Oklahoma in a hospital owned by my Aunt’s family. My grandparents lived on a farm and Mother went home to have me. We came home to Texas and I've been here ever since.
But who’s counting! I feel like 25, hope I don’t look 65 or act 65. I’m too busy living life to count years! I like being where I am in body, mind and spirit. I hope that the next 65 years are just as much fun and hey, folks, with medical science, 65 more years is not an impossibility!!!
Friday, July 11, 2014
It's My Surgiversary! Where I Am 2 Years Later
By Jennifer DeMoss
Oh my goodness, has it REALLY been two years?? TWO YEARS!!
It's gone by so fast!
It's odd, because I really can't remember what life was like 100 lbs. ago. I look in the mirror and I really feel this is how I've always looked. Then I look back at old pictures and videos .. WOAH.
So I think I need to do a re-wind! What did the last two years look like for me? What have I learned?
First off, the first six months went exactly as I thought. I lost weight fast and couldn't eat much.
Honestly, I loved it
The second six months, the weight-loss started tapering off.
I was told I could have carbonated beverages again (this started a cycle back into bad habits for me!)
At one year I was almost exactly 100 lbs lighter!
I then realized there were things I could eat that I couldn't eat before: rice, bread, pasta, sugar ... Oopsie. See where I'm going with this?
So I succumbed and allowed myself to fall back into bad habits and started putting trash back into my body!
Then 7Bites came along!
The next year has been spent writing, researching, learning.
I have learned so much about nutrition and health and well-being!
So, here I sit 2 years later. Where am I at now?
Oh my goodness, has it REALLY been two years?? TWO YEARS!!
It's gone by so fast!
It's odd, because I really can't remember what life was like 100 lbs. ago. I look in the mirror and I really feel this is how I've always looked. Then I look back at old pictures and videos .. WOAH.
So I think I need to do a re-wind! What did the last two years look like for me? What have I learned?
First off, the first six months went exactly as I thought. I lost weight fast and couldn't eat much.
Honestly, I loved it
The second six months, the weight-loss started tapering off.
I was told I could have carbonated beverages again (this started a cycle back into bad habits for me!)
At one year I was almost exactly 100 lbs lighter!
I then realized there were things I could eat that I couldn't eat before: rice, bread, pasta, sugar ... Oopsie. See where I'm going with this?
So I succumbed and allowed myself to fall back into bad habits and started putting trash back into my body!
Then 7Bites came along!
The next year has been spent writing, researching, learning.
I have learned so much about nutrition and health and well-being!
So, here I sit 2 years later. Where am I at now?
- I am still 100 lbs lighter, which puts me just under 200 lbs. (and yes, I'm totally okay with this).
- I have lost 74% of my excess body weight. 74%!!! Considering the average is 50-60% I think I'm doing pretty well!
- I can still eat junk. I'm trying to get off that wagon.
- I am taking a health and nutrition course by my friend Audra Baker on mind-body nutrition. This is good stuff people. I'm blogging about this later.
- I've learned that while I CAN eat things like carbs and sugar and junk, my body responds to it in a totally different way than it did before. Well ... Maybe not. Maybe it's that I'm just now noticing my body's response to it. Either way ... I notice now how I feel after I eat a handful of Doritos rather than a cucumber. Trust me. The cucumber makes you feel WAAY better.
- I have actually gotten some food sensitivities. I am wheat and gluten sensitive (yes, I still eat them in moderation.) I am also now lactose intolerant (I can eat small amounts of cheese and cultured dairy). And I still can't tolerate high fructose corn syrup.
- I can eat more now than I could before. Whereas in the beginning I could only eat about 1/4-1/2 a cup of food, now I can eat up to a cup on some days. This does NOT mean my sleeve has stretched. It means that it's no longer swollen and has relaxed into the size and shape that it's going to be from now on (this is normal and will happen to everyone!).
- Sometimes I still eat more than I should, and yes I still slime (if you don't know what that is, Google it. Not pleasant). I am learning that it's okay to eat off of other people's plates instead of ordering my own food to prevent this phenomenon. Most of the people I hang out with are okay with this.
- I still have issues with reflux and indigestion. I have pills for it that I don't take that I really need to ... I should go do that now. Hang on. Be right back ...
- B12 is your friend. Trust me on this.
- So is coconut oil.
- I have some loose skin, but it's not terrible. Plastic surgery is not in my immediate future.
- GROSS ALERT (but I've been asked to reveal this so here goes ...) I have alternating IBS and Constipation, depending on what I eat.
Wow ... that's really all I can think of! Of course, if you have any questions, you can always come visit our Facebook page and our Facebook group! We're always happy to help.And check out my update video as well! I dive into a little more personal reflection there (link coming up as soon as YouTube's trained monkeys fix it!)
If you haven't undergone bariatric surgery yet, and are just in the research process, I encourage you to check out our new book the 7Bites Pre-Bariatric Surgery Guide. It will walk you through all the steps including:
Figuring out what surgery is right for you, finding your doctor, getting insurance approval, and recovering from the first few days after surgery. Check it out and let us know what you think!
Figuring out what surgery is right for you, finding your doctor, getting insurance approval, and recovering from the first few days after surgery. Check it out and let us know what you think!
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