Back To School #1 - Back to Bariatric Basics

Do you need a bariatric back to school plan? The bariatric surgery school includes schoolbooks, notebooks, pencils, crayons and the advice described in my Back to School series of articles. Here's the first one. <em class='bbc'>BACK TO SCHOOL - #1</em> <em class='bbc'>Introduction</em> September’s almost here, and it’s back to school season. Back to the basics, back to reading, writing, and arithmetic. Actually, any time is a good time for a bariatric refresher course. It’s easy to lose your focus and take a few too many side trips to the land of potato chips and chocolate while you trudge along the weight loss surgery trail. When post-ops ask how to get back on track, the most common response is a very sensible one: BACK TO BASICS. You’ll find this valuable advice in Finding Your Bariatric Brain Again, by 7 Bites_Jen <a href='http://www.bariatric...rain-again-r231</a>, and I’m going to address the topic in a series of three articles. Back to basics advice is covered in greater detail in two sections of <em class='bbc'>Bandwagon:</em> in the 21 rules for success (chapter 6) and the 15 eating skills (chapter 12). Although Bandwagon was originally written for adjustable gastric band patients, much of its material applies to every and anybody who’s had weight loss surgery. You don’t have a copy of <em class='bbc'>Bandwagon?</em> That’s easy enough to remedy. Click here to order your very own copy. <a href='http://jean-onthebandwagon.blogspot.com/' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow external'>http://jean-ontheban...n.blogspot.com/</a> <em class='bbc'>Back to the Basics: The 3 R’s</em> While you’re waiting for your copy of <em class='bbc'>Bandwagon</em> to arrive, let’s talk about the 3 R’s: readin’, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic. What are the 3 R’s of weight loss success? 1. R is for Reading – learn to read your body’s signals about hunger, satiety, and appetite. 2. R is for Writing – keep a food and exercise log. Studies show that people who keep a food log lose more weight than those who don’t. 3. R is for Arithmetic – weight loss, as hard as it can be to achieve, involves very basic arithmetic. As long as you burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight. This doesn’t mean that you have to count calories to lose weight, or count calories for the rest of your life, but if you’re struggling and not sure why, try calorie counting for at least one week. Free online tracking programs and food log programs like the ones available at sparkpeople.com and livestrong.com) make it easy to log your food intake and calculate your calories. And by the way, calorie counting is most accurate when you’re weighing and measuring your food. Yes, more arithmetic! Click here to view the article