My Bariatric Life

Jockey French Cut Briefs

Hi everyone, I've recently launched my website, MyBariatricLife.org, and have begun to write in detail about my plastic surgery journey after weight loss. There's lots of other info on the site, but I thought my plastics journey might be of the most interest http://www.mybariatriclife.org/plastic-surgery-with-dr-joseph-f-capella/ I've also written an article about 18 Inside Tips on Plastic Surgery that I have learned over the last two years http://www.mybariatriclife.org/18-insider-tips-on-plastic-surgery/ I hope these are helpful / of interest and hope you will check out my site. It has been a dream of mine for years and I am glad to finally see it launch. Thanks very much!

How exciting for you! I heard very good things about http://www.timothykatzenmd.com Good luck and I hope this helps! Ha, I waited 10-years. You don't have to take as long as me, dear, LOL!

My web programmers are addressing this. It seems that some browsers are doing that with the ad. Sorry! Please check back next week. Thanks for your patience!

@@MichiganChic ewww, my abdominal area feels really bad when I overeat and/or gain weight. So, yes, it helps to motivate me to stay fit -- as well as all that freaking money I spent on plastic surgery that should not go to waste!

As many of you know, Colleen Cook is a successful #RNY gastric bypass patient and founder of BSCI. When I was just starting my weight loss surgery journey, I found her book "The Success Habits of #WeightLossSurgery Patients" to be invaluable. Check out my book review and personal experience. Good luck on your weight loss journey!

Hi MichiganChic - my numbness is not as extreme as your numbness. I am 2-year out from my body contouring and facial plastic surgeries. These surgeries were performed by two different plastic surgeons, both tops in their respective areas. And from each surgery I still have areas of numbness, some more pronounced than others. It is a strange feeling but something that I have begun to grow accustomed to. It sure beats feeling those rolls of excess skin! I hope this helps. My Bariatric Life http://www.mybariatriclife.org

Years ago I came to the realization that my life is the dash between the date I was born and the date I die. Do you know what I mean by the dash? It's that short line that will appear on my tombstone and sums up my life(span): 1964 - 21XX (yes, I’ve set my intention to live long). And along that dash are the many moments in time that make up my life. So, I got to thinking, now that I was not spending all those precious moments eating, how would I fill-in my dash? What would I do to make this life, my life, a life that is worth living? And so, I acknowledged my gratitude to G-d, my healthcare providers, my coaches and mentors, myself, and those who joined me on this journey of lifetime weight loss and obesity management. I became able to live my life fully, filling my dash with moments -- each one precious in its own right -- and making a difference in my relationships, my community, my organization, and society. How did I do this? Well, with my relationships I learned to put the past in the past, to stop holding resentments in the present time from things that happened a long time ago and which I could do nothing to change. I found that I was being held a prisoner by my past because I kept putting it in the present time. In this way, I was not able to move forward. So I made a conscious decision to create every moment... I chose to be who I am with someone, not based on what happened in the past, but on who I want to be in that moment, which is usually a delicious and loving relationship. To make a difference in my community, I volunteered. As a member of the Shade Tree Commission in my town, I was able to get many street trees planted in my community, and in my neighborhood, and even on the street that I live on. This improved the beauty of our neighborhood and thereby increased home values, and also improved energy efficiency by way of reducing heating and cooling costs for homes. I also worked with the mayor to get three street lights installed on my block so as to improve safety and security. In my organization, I was a much better employee now that I was no longer miserable and hating myself and everything because I was obese. I was no longer held back by my obesity -- let's face it, there’s an unspoken discrimination of obese people in our society. Once I lost the weight, I was immediately promoted and continued to see my career soar over the many years since my weight loss surgery. And I contributed to society by writing as an obesity health activist under the avatar My Bariatric Life so as to share my experience — please see links below this article. And in the past, I have written other blogs, and a newsletter, and have hosted a forum on an Colleen Cook’s BSCI weight loss surgery patient web site. I want others of the “formerly fat” like me to come to know for themselves what I have come to know for myself and for my life. There are many more things I will do to fill in my dash... I have only one life -- this moment right here, right now, followed by the next precious moment. I give up the acts of the past and declare my independence from food obsession. What I am creating for myself and my future is the possibility of harmony, joy, abundance, and greater possibilities. And THAT is who I am. How will you fill in your dash? Living larger than ever, My Bariatric Life Visit me on MyBariatricLife.org, Flickr, Vimeo, Twitter, YouTube, StumbleUpon, Google+ View my Borne Appétit recipe collection on Pinterest

You could not be more right <We have to make the changes that can best fuel our bodies. Given our reduced absorption it is of the outmost importance to be smart about what we eat.> Good for you for seeing the light! I still recall a gal, and this was now 12-years ago, who at the bariatric support group proclaimed how she could now only eat a small fry at McDonald's!

I had a career that kept me away from my home, and my kitchen, 45-60-hours per week. I did not want to cook after a long day, but I wanted to serve a nice meal to my family. However, I learned to develop fast and simple recipes -- typically 5 ingredients that can be prepared in under 30-minutes. Our food is killing us. Today's families are fat and diseased from a diet of processed foods, and our children will be the first generation to live shorter lives than their parents. Time is of the essence: We must change course right now. It’s time to start eating real food and stop eating ‘frankenfood.’ This is not just another fad diet. It’s about saving lives. Gastric bypass weight-loss surgery was my wake-up call in 2003 to reverse my personal obesity epidemic and diabetes and hypertension — the death triad as I now call it (read my story). To borrow a phrase, I was sick, fat, and nearly dead in my 30s, a processed food junkie on ~10 prescription medications. Without bariatric surgery and lifestyle changes I would not be alive today. I would have missed out on my grandchildren. That’s a very sobering and humbling thought. Instead, I cheated death, I surely did, thank you, G-d. The problem underlying these health conditions is the modern American diet heavily-laden with grains, refined sugars, unhealthy fats, and toxic food additives. Obesity is even harder to treat than the diseases/health conditions it causes. The low treatment success rate associated with obesity is likely because people need to commit to changing patterns deeply woven into social fabric, food and beverage commerce patterns, personal eating habits, and sedentary lifestyle. And if you think the bariatric surgery is an easy pass to skinny, then I’m here to tell you that it isn’t. My approach is one of replacing grains, refined sugars, and unhealthy fats with fresh, local and seasonal food that is chemical-free, sustainable, and nutrient-dense. That was a complete turnaround for me. I had a career that kept me away from my home, and my kitchen, 45-60-hours per week. I did not want to cook after a long day, but I wanted to serve a nice meal to my family. So I relied on processed foods, aka frankenfood, like frozen stuffed chicken cordon blue, frozen broccoli in cheese sauce, and a white rice pilaf from a box. However I learned to develop fast and simple recipes -- typically 5-ingredients that could be prepared in about 30-minutes. The food industry is very deceiving in their marketing. They craftily paint a picture of health and convenience for us, labelling processed food products as “healthy” or “all natural” and use words like wholesome goodness, when these claims in reality are not backed by truth. There are no regulations or standards that define “healthy” so just because something is labelled healthy doesn’t mean that it is. And generally-speaking, if a food was “all natural” it would not be packaged in a box with an ingredients label. The food industry also has somehow convinced us that it takes too long to cook a meal from scratch. I know, I used to believe that lie! It’s really not much trouble to grill a chicken breast and some vegetables and serve it with a salad. In fact, in the amount of time it took me to serve up a dinner of processed foods, I was able to serve up a much tastier and far healthier meal of real food to my family — and the rewards are tremendous. Dinner in my house typically is a grilled or roasted protein with fresh grilled or roasted vegetables and a salad. Sometimes I’ll make a stir-fry served over quinoa, or a homemade soup, or crockpot chili. These are all examples of how I make real food real simple in my home, and anyone can learn to cook like this. By the way, this is the way my daughter cooks for her family, too, as cooking skills whether good or bad are passed down from generation to generation. What cooking skills are you teaching your children? I use some minimally-processed foods. I try to avoid at all costs those foods with any chemical ingredients, or ingredients list that contains more than 5 items. And I never bring any processed foods desserts into my home, such as boxed cake mixes, frozen donuts, brownies from the supermarket bakery aisle. If I want dessert then I have to make it from scratch and that’s fairly involved. Because it’s so much work I won’t make dessert every day; heck I won’t even make it once a month! You won’t, either. Living larger than ever, My Bariatric Life www.mybariatriclife.org

I still use Protein shakes. For several months now I've been using Garden of Life. Its a vegan raw organic high Protein powder with lots of amino acids. Here's a product review that I wrote about it, if you're interested. I think it is far superior to whey-based protein powders: http://www.healthcentral.com/obesity/c/276918/177450/protein-vegetarians-vegans (links to HealthCentral)

I interviewed the lead FDA investigator working on aspartame, which initially was developed for chemical warfare. He quit the FDA because of the corruption that was going on behind the scenes with that product approval. For one thing, the lab rats that developed cancer from aspartame were removed from the clinical trials. Really, a whistle-blower movie should be made about it. And there is lots of data that show artificial sweeteners actually increase appetite and thusly lead to weight increase.

I have not seen that documentary but I have seen quite a few others. I believe the first one to really open my eyes was food Inc. As for soy, reportedly it was a product of low value that they could not sell, so they rebranded it as a health food and charged a lot of money for it. Here is why I'll never eat soy: http://www.healthcentral.com/obesity/c/276918/177213/ll-eat-soy (like to my article on HealthCentral)

That's such a great idea to prep food on Sunday. My husband and I used to do this on Saturdays when we got back from the CSA with our haul of fresh veggies and fruits.

Great advice, Lizcan! Thank you!!

I like this "Only eat things that are considered the ingredients for other foods." If it has a food label then I think twice about whether or not it is healthy for me. Thank you for sharing your perspective and thank you for your commitment to cook meals from scratch! Bravo to you!!!

Our food is killing us. Today's families are fat and diseased from a diet of processed foods, and our children will be the first generation to live shorter lives than their parents. Time is of the essence: We must change course right now. It’s time to start eating real food and stop eating ‘frankenfood.’ This is not just another fad diet. It’s about saving lives. Gastric bypass weight-loss surgery was my wake-up call in 2003 to reverse my personal obesity epidemic and diabetes and hypertension — the death triad as I now call it (read my story). To borrow a phrase, I was sick, fat, and nearly dead in my 30s, a processed food junkie on ~10 prescription medications. Without bariatric surgery and lifestyle changes I would not be alive today. I would have missed out on my grandchildren. That’s a very sobering and humbling thought. Instead, I cheated death, I surely did, thank you, G-d. The problem underlying these health conditions is the modern American diet heavily-laden with grains, refined sugars, unhealthy fats, and toxic food additives. Obesity is even harder to treat than the diseases/health conditions it causes. The low treatment success rate associated with obesity is likely because people need to commit to changing patterns deeply woven into social fabric, food and beverage commerce patterns, personal eating habits, and sedentary lifestyle. And if you think the bariatric surgery is an easy pass to skinny, then I’m here to tell you that it isn’t. My approach is one of replacing grains, refined sugars, and unhealthy fats with fresh, local and seasonal food that is chemical-free, sustainable, and nutrient-dense. That was a complete turnaround for me. I had a career that kept me away from my home, and my kitchen, 45-60-hours per week. I did not want to cook after a long day, but I wanted to serve a nice meal to my family. So I relied on processed foods, aka frankenfood, like frozen stuffed chicken cordon blue, frozen broccoli in cheese sauce, and a white rice pilaf from a box. However I learned to develop fast and simple recipes -- typically 5-ingredients that could be prepared in about 30-minutes. The food industry is very deceiving in their marketing. They craftily paint a picture of health and convenience for us, labelling processed food products as “healthy” or “all natural” and use words like wholesome goodness, when these claims in reality are not backed by truth. There are no regulations or standards that define “healthy” so just because something is labelled healthy doesn’t mean that it is. And generally-speaking, if a food was “all natural” it would not be packaged in a box with an ingredients label. The food industry also has somehow convinced us that it takes too long to cook a meal from scratch. I know, I used to believe that lie! It’s really not much trouble to grill a chicken breast and some vegetables and serve it with a salad. In fact, in the amount of time it took me to serve up a dinner of processed foods, I was able to serve up a much tastier and far healthier meal of real food to my family — and the rewards are tremendous. Dinner in my house typically is a grilled or roasted protein with fresh grilled or roasted vegetables and a salad. Sometimes I’ll make a stir-fry served over quinoa, or a homemade soup, or crockpot chili. These are all examples of how I make real food real simple in my home, and anyone can learn to cook like this. By the way, this is the way my daughter cooks for her family, too, as cooking skills whether good or bad are passed down from generation to generation. What cooking skills are you teaching your children? I use some minimally-processed foods. I try to avoid at all costs those foods with any chemical ingredients, or ingredients list that contains more than 5 items. And I never bring any processed foods desserts into my home, such as boxed cake mixes, frozen donuts, brownies from the supermarket bakery aisle. If I want dessert then I have to make it from scratch and that’s fairly involved. Because it’s so much work I won’t make dessert every day; heck I won’t even make it once a month! You won’t, either. Living larger than ever, My Bariatric Life www.mybariatriclife.org

Bravo, bravo bavo! May G-d continue to bless you, Robanne!

@@Nate74 I am very happy for you and admire your commitment to Self. I was very fortunate to have a Spiritual Guide help me on my path. Some of the things he told me: Use your words only to lift people up (Mom told me that one, too) Love even when it doesn't make sense It is an opportunity to grow. What have I learned from this life lesson? Its not my job to fix the other person When negative thoughts arise say, "No! I refuse to accept these thoughts!" And he always encouraged me to pray Something I read in class tonight is that you may do good things in this lifetime and not receive the benefit/rewards of that in this lifetime (I am paraphrasing). My personal experience is that just like building muscle by working out at the gym, or building a skill such as piano playing through lessons, that this too takes practice to master our emotions so that we are acting through love always. I was just put to the test yesterday and it was natural this time around to keep my emotions under control in a situation that was very painful. I did my best to bring love and harmony to restore peace but it seems I did not accomplish that. And although I'd like it to have turned out differently, I have to resist to try and fix it any further (that would be forcing my will upon someone), and let it be in G-d's hands now. I read this today, "Non-interference is the most important spiritual law in the universe. Interference is when you deliberately try to control another’s life... If you’re not interfering with others, you can focus on living your own life... Are you trying to fix them, and how exactly are you going to do that? Whom have you ever fixed? It would be more important to ask yourself why you need to solve another’s problems. It’s amazing, when you leave people alone, they like it. This is the understanding of the spiritual law of harmony— non-interference." Keep up the good work!

@@Puppypaws57 good luck to you and please accept my apology. As I read my reply above to you, I come across to myself as preachy. I do not judge you, I want to be clear about that. I should not have made statements like "It seems to me..." I am passing along some advice that someone gave to me. He was very instrumental in my emotional healing. I think ! will always have a challenge with weight gain. I have a book on my shelf that says weight gain is caused by suppressed emotions. I gained some weight this year after my mom passed and I am finally at a place where I can take it off. I pray you find inner peace.

@@Puppypaws57 I wanted to check-in and see how you are doing. It sounds like this man was very sick and this must have been awful for you and your family. I would say that you've hit the nail on the head, the fat was there to protect you. I once went to a "survivor's support group" of women who had been sexually assaulted and each woman was morbidly obese. Again I say this with loving kindness and I hope that you will understand that I am a direct person. It seems to me that you are judging your sister for the way she dealt with this situation. Understand it is not your place to compare your path to her path. Believing she has it easier, perhaps envying that, and criticizing her choices only serves to prolong your suffering. Only look at her through the eyes of love. Find your compassion for her. As for your parents, sometimes people make bad choices. They were weak. Forgive them for yourself, for your own wellbeing. Let go. And I say this as someone who has turned around her thinking about a couple of people. I was not a religious person, and I had lost touch with my spirituality having renounced G-d when my beloved mother took ill and suffered a horrible debilitating disease for well over a decade. So it was on New Year's Eve leading into NY Day of this year that I prayed and asked to be filled with the Holy Spirit and only see this person through the eyes of love. And when the painful feelings would surface I prayed even harder. And what happened was my prayers were answered. I had a spiritual awakening. Short story, my life has been different ever since. It has been amazing. That's not to say it doesn't take work. It does, but eventually you become the master of your emotions and your mind just like anything you study or practice. And as I said, it is amazing. BTW I want to make it clear that the plastic surgeon who sexualized my exam, mentioned in my previous post, was not affiliated with either of my plastic surgeons, Dr. Capella and Dr. Winslow, or their practices. Good luck to you.

That is so true. Jesus preached love, compassion, and forgiveness. In every situation we have the choice (free will) to act out of love. In fact, if we were to always project love and light on one another, we would manifest Heaven on Earth.

I got to thinking, now that I was not spending all those precious moments eating, how would I fill-in my dash? Do you know what I mean by the dash? It's that short line that will appear on my tombstone and sums up my life. And along that dash are the many moments in time that make up my life. What would I do to make this life, my life, a life that is worth living? Years ago I came to the realization that my life is the dash between the date I was born and the date I die. Do you know what I mean by the dash? It's that short line that will appear on my tombstone and sums up my life(span): 1964 - 21XX (yes, I’ve set my intention to live long). And along that dash are the many moments in time that make up my life. So, I got to thinking, now that I was not spending all those precious moments eating, how would I fill-in my dash? What would I do to make this life, my life, a life that is worth living? And so, I acknowledged my gratitude to G-d, my healthcare providers, my coaches and mentors, myself, and those who joined me on this journey of lifetime weight loss and obesity management. I became able to live my life fully, filling my dash with moments -- each one precious in its own right -- and making a difference in my relationships, my community, my organization, and society. How did I do this? Well, with my relationships I learned to put the past in the past, to stop holding resentments in the present time from things that happened a long time ago and which I could do nothing to change. I found that I was being held a prisoner by my past because I kept putting it in the present time. In this way, I was not able to move forward. So I made a conscious decision to create every moment... I chose to be who I am with someone, not based on what happened in the past, but on who I want to be in that moment, which is usually a delicious and loving relationship. To make a difference in my community, I volunteered. As a member of the Shade Tree Commission in my town, I was able to get many street trees planted in my community, and in my neighborhood, and even on the street that I live on. This improved the beauty of our neighborhood and thereby increased home values, and also improved energy efficiency by way of reducing heating and cooling costs for homes. I also worked with the mayor to get three street lights installed on my block so as to improve safety and security. In my organization, I was a much better employee now that I was no longer miserable and hating myself and everything because I was obese. I was no longer held back by my obesity -- let's face it, there’s an unspoken discrimination of obese people in our society. Once I lost the weight, I was immediately promoted and continued to see my career soar over the many years since my weight loss surgery. And I contributed to society by writing as an obesity health activist under the avatar My Bariatric Life so as to share my experience — please see links below this article. And in the past, I have written other blogs, and a newsletter, and have hosted a forum on an Colleen Cook’s BSCI weight loss surgery patient web site. I want others of the “formerly fat” like me to come to know for themselves what I have come to know for myself and for my life. There are many more things I will do to fill in my dash... I have only one life -- this moment right here, right now, followed by the next precious moment. I give up the acts of the past and declare my independence from food obsession. What I am creating for myself and my future is the possibility of harmony, joy, abundance, and greater possibilities. And THAT is who I am. How will you fill in your dash? Living larger than ever, My Bariatric Life Visit me on MyBariatricLife.org, Flickr, Vimeo, Twitter, YouTube, StumbleUpon, Google+ View my Borne Appétit recipe collection on Pinterest

Way to go, Stevehud! There are so many ways we can live life to the fullest. My personal branding statement, "living larger than ever," has real meaning to me. I don't let fear (or fat) hold me back any longer from doing the things I want to do or saying what's in my heart. It's also really important that we show others the way. How to do what we have done. That they, too, can live a life free from obesity and disease and processed food addiction. We all can wake up and become the greatest aspects of ourselves! Good luck with the 5k and guitar and all else that you aspire to do. And enjoy the journey!!!