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Great job on the loss!!!! I was right there with everyone on the holiday weight gain. But I got it under control and did 9 days of liquids and you would not believe how much stronger my restriction is again now. It's like being fresh out of surgery. I did it because I read a post from someone who thought they'd stretched their sleeve and their doctor put them on one for 2 weeks. They did xrays and there was a substantial difference between the before and after, feeling like I do now I believe it. Strongly recommend doing it if you feel like I did about the quantity of what you can eat.

I have no experience with this, so I'm not sure if I can be helpful or not, as I am in the beginning of my journey. Your self worth is not your waist line or in the scales, I'm not telling you to accept this new weight gain though, you have worked hard and I'd be feeling the same way. Your keeping your exercise routine up and that's good, baby steps with that and you'll have to work you way back up. Hang in there!! and don't give up.

There is no doubt in my mind that I could not have done this without WLS. I have spent my entire life (well since I was about 12, the first time someone pointed out that I was fat) trying to lose weight. There were a few periods where I lost weight and kept it off for a few months, which is how I ended up at 301 lbs at the age of 46, lose some weight, gain it back plus a few more. I yo-yo'd through all types of weight loss programs, homegrown to medically supervised. What I learned AFTER surgery is that my body/brain was fighting me the whole way. If I missed a meal (which didn't happen often) or ate too lightly when I was presurgery, I used to get really nauseous, like dry heaves nauseous, it was one of my questions to my surgeon - Will this happen when I am eating only a few ounces at a time? She assured me it shouldn't be a problem. My warning signs were usually shaky hands and weak knees. (my blood work showed no signs of diabetes or other blood sugar issues), crankiness and then the gagging. Well I am 6 months out and I have yet to feel true hunger pangs or even a smidgen of that weak kneed, shakiness, bad temper symptoms that would lead to the dry heaves if I didn't get something to eat. This was the battle I was up against - because these symptoms would kick in an hours or so after your standard 200-300 calorie meal. Now, I am totally satisfied with the 3-4 ounces I can eat at a meal these days. I have lost 88 lbs as of this posting and gone from a size 26W/24W to a size 16W. I have another 60 lbs to lose to get my fighting weight of 150-ish, (I'd be thrilled with 165, over the moon with 155). My weight loss has been toughest - but the easiest I have ever done in my life. I still make the decisions to eat healthy foods and stay away from simple carbs and fast foods - but my body is now on my side. Sometimes it is the emotional want to indulge in a rich food that is the toughest part or maybe the temptation to eat something really carby like Pasta - but my sleeve backs me up and keeps me honest :-D I am very happy and look back with absolutely zero regrets! In fact if I have a regret it is that I didn't get my sleeve sooner!

I actually had no idea it was erroded. I just couldn't eat anything without throwing it up. I just chalked it up to the weight gain with the pregnancy. I love the sleeve so far and am only a month out so im still learning my hunger cues and when I'm full. I start my full regular diet this week so it's anything I can tolerate. I also haven't had kaiser. I actually lost it a month after surgery when moved to Washington and was just going to fill centers. When I moved back to CA I got anthem bluecross and have had 2 amazing drs. I also have a hard time with support now that I'm sleeved because I know only my band sisters. I ask my friend who has rny a lot of questions but I'm finding out how different things are between the two surgeries. It would be nice to talk to people who have gone through what I'm beginning to.

I am working on my last weigh in for insurance and I have gained weight 5 of the 6 weigh ins. Has anyone had this issue and still got approved. I am so worried this will effect my insurance approval. Help, please and thank you.

@@Sleeve_Sistah85 OMG R U kidding me?? I can't get over any doctor saying such a thing like that to his patient discouraging/upsetting/hurtful to his patient/you - like he did don't think his comments had anything do to a possible "bad day" he was having the only comment i will make is "maybe" he was thinking like" if you've already had a 2 lb weight gain, you might not be true to the rules/sleeve" i'm sure that is not the case for you and you will follow all the rules necessary if he WAS concerned about the above - maybe he should have said something like "you really shouldn't gain weight now while you are on pre-op just starting thats not a good indication of things to come post op" it is true you SHOULD lose(or not gain) weight pre-op, but his words were unnecessary/mean/crazy show him you will comply with the rules - prove him wrong the above being said.............. i am the pot calling the kettle black do as i say not as i do i didn't have a pre-op required - had a food funeral for a "few days" i should have "forced" myself to do a pre-op diet, didn't chose to I weighed 4.3 lbs more the DOS than the first time i was weighed a month earlier ahhhh, confession is good for the soul good luck with surgery I KNOW you will follow the rules and be a success speedy recovery kathy

I am 3 years out and had put on 10 lbs over the holidays. I too have kicked my self and been very angry for falling back into old habits and irrational thoughts. This is all cognitive too. I am a sugar addict and even though I knew this, I kept eating all the candy I wanted, and it had become habit to put into my mouth without a thought. I would then rationalize and say I would stop tomorrow. Each day it was tomorrow. This was a flash back to the past.... So in the past two days I have stopped eating carbs, I have a protein drink in the AM and a healthy high protein meal for lunch, and protein for dinner.. I am following the 5:2 diet plan also. I just did 2 days of eating 700 calories and I lost 2 lbs. This diet is posted here. The diet saids to do 500 calories but I struggle with keeping it that low. So if I can do this so can everyone else here. Don't be too hard on yourself, this is a learning lesson. Get back on the wagon and stay away from carbs and keep portion size small. I can eat more but I'm not hungry. I'm over eating and that caused weight gain. but it tasted so good is the rationale I would use. In fact, I was just making excuses. We really don't need to eat as much food as we have and other people are still eating. Less is better and healthier. Hang in there and be good to yourself...

Hi guys! SO HAPPY to hear that all of you are doing so well! Keep the posts coming - including the good, bad, and the ugly - let's be in this together! My surgery is one month away. I'm anxious and excited to get it done, but the extra time is giving me more time to get prepared. I've been having some serious freak outs lately. The most recent and probably biggest freak out came after hearing about two people who gained most, if not all, of their weight back after surgery. This scared the you know what out of me. You know why these stories are so scary for us.. Because we've already failed every single other time we've tried to lose weight. Gaining back at least some of the weight is a realistic fear. So I've been thinking about it a lot. Here's what I've realized. I will, for certain, lose weight and keep it off for at least a few years because I'm committed to working hard and making this surgery work for me. If I gain some of it back over the years, let's say 50% of it over 5-8 years, I will still be much lighter than I currently am. Also, without the surgery, I would probably be gaining over the next few years rather than losing, so by having the surgery, I believe that even if the worst happens and I end up gaining, I will still be less than I would have been - hopefully by a significant amount. I just had to work through all of this. Of course my commitment is to a life change, but I'm dealing with a 40 year old addiction and that still scares me. After the freak out subsided, I once again realized how grateful I am for this opportunity. This is going to help me change my life in such a positive and significant way. I know I will do the hard work because that's what I do - now, though, I will have a super tool to help support me with my efforts.

I think the Peanut Butter may be a little too much. I would reduce that for sure. I can't eat much more then 1/4 cup per meal and was told not to go above 1/2 cup. If you are on maintenance perhaps consider Snacks rather then large meals. I believe it's because you need to preserve the size of your pouch to avoid weight gain later on. food can slide right through your new tummy and you could end up gaining the weight back. I think that's why your medical team wants you to stay with a smaller portion. Also, to digest your food properly it has to stay in the pouch for an hour. If it slides through, the readily absorbed nutrients are the only ones going into your body and it also leads to gas and all sorts of intestinal issues. Good Luck

On Monday I'll be 31 weeks pregnant with my first child a little boy :-) I'm feeling great just tired....It's been a great pregnancy I can't really complain at all. Aside from sore breast and feeling tired I had no other symptoms. My favorite thing about being pregnant is being able to feel my little man moving around in my belly. My only concern is when am I going to deliver...I'm high risk because of my blood pressure so they are talking about inducing me sometime between 37-39 weeks. As for weight gain I am up 21lbs but didn't really start putting it on until maybe 20 weeks.

It does sound like a thyroid issue. I have hypothyroidism, dry skin-yup. itchy - yup. lethargic - yup. HAIR LOSS - BIG TIME YUP!!!!! (I know you didn't mention hair loss, but it is a big symptom). Synthroid has solved my issues, no problem with the once in the a.m. tiny pill. Oh, and weight gain was another BIG YUP. I've HAD IT SINCE 1995. Just get checked, most people who have it don't know it because the symptoms creep up so quietly. And a lot of people have it. Good luck and feel better soon!

Cheryl is an obesity health activist who writes as My Bariatric Life on Health Central and PM360 Online. She recently launched her new site, My Bariatric Life, and you can follow her on social media, including on Twitter @MyBariatricLife and on Google+. Weight Gain, Gastric Bypass Surgery, and Lasting Weight Loss Cheryl was an active teen, but she went from “fit to fat” as she turned to processed food. At 5’7”, she got up to a weight of 285 pounds and a size 24W. Cheryl got the gastric bypass surgery in 2003. She had diabetes, celiac disease, depression, acid reflux, asthma, and hypertension. She lost over 100 pounds, managed to get off of 9 of her 10 prescription drugs, and does not have chronic back pain anymore. You can see before and after pictures documenting her transformation by watching this video. A Typical Day in Cheryl’s Life As proof that you can follow a diet without red meat and stick to a high-protein weight loss surgery diet, here is a sample day’s diet in Cheryl’s life. The following day has 1,789 calories, 165 grams of protein, and 79 grams of carbohydrates. Breakfast 2-egg omelet with homemade creamed spinach (dairy-free) and turkey bacon Snack Coffee with coconut milk, roasted coconut juice, and egg white protein powder Mineral water Vitamins/supplements Scivation Xtend intraworkout drink with branched chain amino acids Lunch Tuna salad Baby spring mix and grape tomatoes with lemon vinaigrette Terra Real vegetable chips Dinner Smoked turkey leg, no skin 1 cup turnip greens Snack Egg white protein powder in water Getting Rid of the Traces of Obesity After losing over 100 pounds after the gastric bypass surgery in 2003, Cheryl had a lot of extra skin. In 2006, she met a plastic surgeon whom she really liked. In 2013, she decided to get a tummy tuck. The extra skin hadn’t gone away after weight loss surgery, and she wanted to get rid of it. As she describes below, she was delighted with her surgeon and the results of the tummy tuck, and decided to go further. I went from a size 14 jeans being tight to a perfect size 8 in just 4-months. I was so thrilled with the transformation that I decided to do "all of me." In October 2013, Dr. Joseph F. Capella revised the tummy tuck to a lower body lift, and performed a medial thigh lift, extended arm lift, and breast lift. Dr. Capella removed 11 pounds of skin and one liter of fat, and this enabled me to get active in ways that I was unable to with my hanging pannis and inner thighs that rubbed together. I ran my first 3k with my daughter and granddaughter and eventually I was running 5k. What's more, the muscle plication from the tummy tuck placed renewed constriction on my pouch so I am full with less food, as well, I tightened up on my diet by doing Whole30 [a strict 30-day low-carb diet] and going Paleo. In total, I lost 50 inches and 50 pounds after my body contouring plastic surgery. Today I am a size 2, down from a 24W before my gastric bypass surgery. You can go to HealthCentral to read about Cheryl’s decision to get total body contouring after her tummy tuck. She describes the emotional rollercoaster of the experience, the surgery, and her long road to recovery. She is still dealing with complications from her brachioplasty, but stresses the end goal and her luck in finding a fantastic surgeon who cares about her. She didn’t stop there, and instead decided “to reach for the stars” and see a facial plastic surgeon. In one surgery, Dr. Catherine Winslow took about 15 years off my face, restoring the once pretty face that I had when I was thin. I had a total of 10 procedures: deep plane face lift, neck lift, upper eye lid lift, SMAS (superficial muscular aponeurotic system) to tear troughs and lips, lip lift, chin implant, 35% TCA peel, Botox and filler. I go back from time to time to Nurse Triste at Dr. Winslow's practice for filler and Botox. I look at this maintenance routine along the same vein as maintaining my hair cut and color. Destined to Be a Healer Do you believe in fate? When Cheryl visited Guatemala in May of 2011, a Mayan shaman told her her Mayan symbols showed she was a healer. She could, he said, heal herself and others. As Cheryl tells it below, she wasn’t so sure at first. Then she figured it out. I visited a Mayan Shaman when I was in Guatemala back in May 2011. He said my Mayan symbols told that I am a healer. I can heal myself and I can heal others. He said that I needed to heal others, to not keep this gift to myself, or else I would experience sickness or pain and that this was the only way to cure my chronic back pain, which I had suffered with for years. The Shaman said that I need to realize my true self. The Shaman also said the symbols revealed that I am creative — that I knew for sure, but I wondered was he right about me being a healer? So I tried to heal my beloved mother who was stricken with a rare disease. And I tried to heal my beloved boxer dog, Cindi Lu, who was stricken with an aggressive cancer. But I could not save them and felt that I had failed my destiny. Then in 2012 during a personal development training, I discussed this matter with the instructor. And he replied that maybe I was meant to heal people with my words. I did not give much thought to it after that until one night in 2013, I bolted up from my bed and realized that both the shaman and the instructor were right! Healing with Words Cheryl’s work has exploded. She describes the growth of her writing and advocacy career since finding her voice. I began writing as My Bariatric Life for the HealthCentral Obesity vertical in March 2011, nearly eight years after my gastric bypass. I started out writing just a few articles per month as a health guide -- a patient who would share her real world experience in defeating obesity, diabetes, hypertension, asthma, and GERD. My work grew legs. I now write 18 articles and develop two recipes per month for HealthCentral where I have a following of roughly 75,000 unique monthly readers. I also write a quarterly patient advocacy column for PM360 Magazine under my name, Cheryl Ann Borne, and I am a long-standing member of their editorial advisory board. Cheryl also makes her voice heard by posting as My Bariatric Life on social media, including Flickr, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest. She is active on BariatricPal and a site for cosmetic procedure patients called RealSelf. Her goal is to provide fair and trustworthy reviews. And this month I will begin writing a monthly opinion piece as My Bariatric Life for BariatricPal. I also am exploring opportunities with the Obesity Action Coalition, and in the past have partnered with Obesity PPM and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). ! Daring Move to a New Career as a Digital Health Strategy Consultant Cheryl has been in the health industry since before her surgery. She explains her career as a digital health strategy consultant. My career has been as a promotions strategist, writer, and designer in the healthcare space with the last 12-yrs in digital marketing. I’ve worked with pharmaceutical and biotech companies and digital health ad agencies and non-CME medical education agencies. I help them to understand the evolving digital health ecosystem and, based on their unique market circumstances, specifically how to communicate with patients and physicians in meaningful ways via digital channels and to ultimately achieve better health outcomes. Cheryl is determined to help people improve their lives. Transforming healthcare is important to me. It's is all about the patient. I want to make a difference; I want to help people live healthier lives. When her company cut her position in 2013, she took a positive approach and decided to focus her energy on fighting obesity. She developed a business plan as a digital health strategy consultant with an emphasis on growing My Bariatric Life, her obesity health activist brand. Paleo Follower and Recipe Developer Cheryl believes in the benefits of the Paleolithic Diet. It is a high-protein diet that you can follow after weight loss surgery. It emphasizes meat, fish, poultry, fruits, vegetables, eggs, nuts, seeds, and oils. It forbids grains, processed foods, dairy products, and potatoes. She plans to help others follow this way of eating. One aspect of my business plan is to launch the brand Borne Appétit in order to teach healthy eating habits and show busy families/couples/singles that it is easy to prepare real food, real simple, and break the cycle of time starvation and over reliance on convenience/processed foods and obesity. To truly understand what it means to eat healthy and break this cycle was something I had to achieve in my own life, and I want to share with people what I have learned through years of experience and experiment. I find the Paleolitihic Diet works best for me…and I enjoy the art of creating delicious recipes within those constraints. I also eat no red meat, only fish and fowl, so this adds an extra level of complexity, which I find stimulating to develop recipes that are not mundane or repetitious. Valuable Life Lessons You can be sure Cheryl has learned a lot of valuable lessons from her weight loss surgery and plastic surgery experiences. She knows the value of maintaining her results, living life fully, and challenging herself to live a life she loves. She also recognizes she has gained freedom and an ability to grow. Beyond the physical transformation are (very unexpected) emotional and spiritual transformations. I’ve returned to some of my roots: ideals and philosophies around the nature of existence that I had walled off (or perhaps ate to insulate myself against) when the emotional pain became too much for my sensitive nature. Plastic surgery was very freeing for me; it freed my jailed spirit. I’ve never been a wallflower but when it came to my body I was timid because I lacked body confidence. And this trickled over into other areas of my life. There were parts of my life that I hid, or situations in which I could not share my feelings, because I was inhibited by the fear of being rejected or judged. And that’s no longer true. I am now able to be my true self, comfortable in my nakedness both physically and emotionally. I am still learning and growing in these areas, particularly in understanding soul relationships and the expression of real love. We are here to play and experience as much as we possibly can. We are here to grow. Often it is through times of adversity that we grow the most because these times force us to get out of our comfort zones. I have come to understand that there are only two emotions. We are either acting out of love or we are acting out of fear, which is the opposite of love. All other emotions are a derivative of love (compassion, forgiveness, self-sacrifice) or a derivative of fear (selfishness, retaliation, deceit). From now on I choose always to act out of love. Do I let go of control and trust my intuition and follow my heart even when it defies my rational faculties or can’t be proven? If I am to act out of love, then yes. Otherwise I return to acting out of fear. As well, I have learned that I need to protect myself from the negative energies of toxic people — those emotional vampires who can turn my love into fear. An Exciting Year to Come Cheryl is expecting a big 2015 in addition to growing her presence as My Bariatric Life and working on Borne Appétit. At the Pharma Marketing Summit in Palm Beach in May, she will be presenting as My Bariatric Life and sharing her story of defeating obesity and its co-morbidities. Also new for this year, I'll finally launch my websites, a dream I've had for a couple of years. I've already launched MyBariatricLife.org for transformative information on defeating obesity and co-morbid diseases. I'll also launch my healthy recipe site BorneAppetit.com and my eating healthy on-the-road travel site BorneVoyage.com. These sites will help a lot of people. It definitely looks as though the Mayan shaman was right when he said Cheryl is a healer. She has come a long way toward healing herself through weight loss surgery, plastic surgery, and healthy living, and she is dedicated to helping others become healthier. Don’t forget to follow Cheryl on social media and through her channel on HealthCentral, and watch for her new monthly opinion piece to be published on BariatricPal! Please click here to read My Bariatric Life's articles in BariatricPal's Weight Loss Surgery Magazine.

Cheryl Ann Borne hit a high weight of 285 pounds, and got the gastric bypass surgery in 2003. She maintained her weight loss, but the extra skin didn’t go away on its own. In 2013 she began a series of plastic surgeries including a tummy tuck, total body contouring, and facial surgery, and is now a size 2. Cheryl is an obesity health activist who writes as My Bariatric Life on Health Central and PM360 Online. She recently launched her new site, My Bariatric Life, and you can follow her on social media, including on Twitter @MyBariatricLife and on Google+. Weight Gain, Gastric Bypass Surgery, and Lasting Weight Loss Cheryl was an active teen, but she went from “fit to fat” as she turned to processed food. At 5’7”, she got up to a weight of 285 pounds and a size 24W. Cheryl got the gastric bypass surgery in 2003. She had diabetes, celiac disease, depression, acid reflux, asthma, and hypertension. She lost over 100 pounds, managed to get off of 9 of her 10 prescription drugs, and does not have chronic back pain anymore. You can see before and after pictures documenting her transformation by watching this video. A Typical Day in Cheryl’s Life As proof that you can follow a diet without red meat and stick to a high-protein weight loss surgery diet, here is a sample day’s diet in Cheryl’s life. The following day has 1,789 calories, 165 grams of protein, and 79 grams of carbohydrates. Breakfast 2-egg omelet with homemade creamed spinach (dairy-free) and turkey bacon Snack Coffee with coconut milk, roasted coconut juice, and egg white protein powder Mineral water Vitamins/supplements Scivation Xtend intraworkout drink with branched chain amino acids Lunch Tuna salad Baby spring mix and grape tomatoes with lemon vinaigrette Terra Real vegetable chips Dinner Smoked turkey leg, no skin 1 cup turnip greens Snack Egg white protein powder in water Getting Rid of the Traces of Obesity After losing over 100 pounds after the gastric bypass surgery in 2003, Cheryl had a lot of extra skin. In 2006, she met a plastic surgeon whom she really liked. In 2013, she decided to get a tummy tuck. The extra skin hadn’t gone away after weight loss surgery, and she wanted to get rid of it. As she describes below, she was delighted with her surgeon and the results of the tummy tuck, and decided to go further. I went from a size 14 jeans being tight to a perfect size 8 in just 4-months. I was so thrilled with the transformation that I decided to do "all of me." In October 2013, Dr. Joseph F. Capella revised the tummy tuck to a lower body lift, and performed a medial thigh lift, extended arm lift, and breast lift. Dr. Capella removed 11 pounds of skin and one liter of fat, and this enabled me to get active in ways that I was unable to with my hanging pannis and inner thighs that rubbed together. I ran my first 3k with my daughter and granddaughter and eventually I was running 5k. What's more, the muscle plication from the tummy tuck placed renewed constriction on my pouch so I am full with less food, as well, I tightened up on my diet by doing Whole30 [a strict 30-day low-carb diet] and going Paleo. In total, I lost 50 inches and 50 pounds after my body contouring plastic surgery. Today I am a size 2, down from a 24W before my gastric bypass surgery. You can go to HealthCentral to read about Cheryl’s decision to get total body contouring after her tummy tuck. She describes the emotional rollercoaster of the experience, the surgery, and her long road to recovery. She is still dealing with complications from her brachioplasty, but stresses the end goal and her luck in finding a fantastic surgeon who cares about her. She didn’t stop there, and instead decided “to reach for the stars” and see a facial plastic surgeon. In one surgery, Dr. Catherine Winslow took about 15 years off my face, restoring the once pretty face that I had when I was thin. I had a total of 10 procedures: deep plane face lift, neck lift, upper eye lid lift, SMAS (superficial muscular aponeurotic system) to tear troughs and lips, lip lift, chin implant, 35% TCA peel, Botox and filler. I go back from time to time to Nurse Triste at Dr. Winslow's practice for filler and Botox. I look at this maintenance routine along the same vein as maintaining my hair cut and color. Destined to Be a Healer Do you believe in fate? When Cheryl visited Guatemala in May of 2011, a Mayan shaman told her her Mayan symbols showed she was a healer. She could, he said, heal herself and others. As Cheryl tells it below, she wasn’t so sure at first. Then she figured it out. I visited a Mayan Shaman when I was in Guatemala back in May 2011. He said my Mayan symbols told that I am a healer. I can heal myself and I can heal others. He said that I needed to heal others, to not keep this gift to myself, or else I would experience sickness or pain and that this was the only way to cure my chronic back pain, which I had suffered with for years. The Shaman said that I need to realize my true self. The Shaman also said the symbols revealed that I am creative — that I knew for sure, but I wondered was he right about me being a healer? So I tried to heal my beloved mother who was stricken with a rare disease. And I tried to heal my beloved boxer dog, Cindi Lu, who was stricken with an aggressive cancer. But I could not save them and felt that I had failed my destiny. Then in 2012 during a personal development training, I discussed this matter with the instructor. And he replied that maybe I was meant to heal people with my words. I did not give much thought to it after that until one night in 2013, I bolted up from my bed and realized that both the shaman and the instructor were right! Healing with Words Cheryl’s work has exploded. She describes the growth of her writing and advocacy career since finding her voice. I began writing as My Bariatric Life for the HealthCentral Obesity vertical in March 2011, nearly eight years after my gastric bypass. I started out writing just a few articles per month as a health guide -- a patient who would share her real world experience in defeating obesity, diabetes, hypertension, asthma, and GERD. My work grew legs. I now write 18 articles and develop two recipes per month for HealthCentral where I have a following of roughly 75,000 unique monthly readers. I also write a quarterly patient advocacy column for PM360 Magazine under my name, Cheryl Ann Borne, and I am a long-standing member of their editorial advisory board. Cheryl also makes her voice heard by posting as My Bariatric Life on social media, including Flickr, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest. She is active on BariatricPal and a site for cosmetic procedure patients called RealSelf. Her goal is to provide fair and trustworthy reviews. And this month I will begin writing a monthly opinion piece as My Bariatric Life for BariatricPal. I also am exploring opportunities with the Obesity Action Coalition, and in the past have partnered with Obesity PPM and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). ! Daring Move to a New Career as a Digital Health Strategy Consultant Cheryl has been in the health industry since before her surgery. She explains her career as a digital health strategy consultant. My career has been as a promotions strategist, writer, and designer in the healthcare space with the last 12-yrs in digital marketing. I’ve worked with pharmaceutical and biotech companies and digital health ad agencies and non-CME medical education agencies. I help them to understand the evolving digital health ecosystem and, based on their unique market circumstances, specifically how to communicate with patients and physicians in meaningful ways via digital channels and to ultimately achieve better health outcomes. Cheryl is determined to help people improve their lives. Transforming healthcare is important to me. It's is all about the patient. I want to make a difference; I want to help people live healthier lives. When her company cut her position in 2013, she took a positive approach and decided to focus her energy on fighting obesity. She developed a business plan as a digital health strategy consultant with an emphasis on growing My Bariatric Life, her obesity health activist brand. Paleo Follower and Recipe Developer Cheryl believes in the benefits of the Paleolithic Diet. It is a high-protein diet that you can follow after weight loss surgery. It emphasizes meat, fish, poultry, fruits, vegetables, eggs, nuts, seeds, and oils. It forbids grains, processed foods, dairy products, and potatoes. She plans to help others follow this way of eating. One aspect of my business plan is to launch the brand Borne Appétit in order to teach healthy eating habits and show busy families/couples/singles that it is easy to prepare real food, real simple, and break the cycle of time starvation and over reliance on convenience/processed foods and obesity. To truly understand what it means to eat healthy and break this cycle was something I had to achieve in my own life, and I want to share with people what I have learned through years of experience and experiment. I find the Paleolitihic Diet works best for me…and I enjoy the art of creating delicious recipes within those constraints. I also eat no red meat, only fish and fowl, so this adds an extra level of complexity, which I find stimulating to develop recipes that are not mundane or repetitious. Valuable Life Lessons You can be sure Cheryl has learned a lot of valuable lessons from her weight loss surgery and plastic surgery experiences. She knows the value of maintaining her results, living life fully, and challenging herself to live a life she loves. She also recognizes she has gained freedom and an ability to grow. Beyond the physical transformation are (very unexpected) emotional and spiritual transformations. I’ve returned to some of my roots: ideals and philosophies around the nature of existence that I had walled off (or perhaps ate to insulate myself against) when the emotional pain became too much for my sensitive nature. Plastic surgery was very freeing for me; it freed my jailed spirit. I’ve never been a wallflower but when it came to my body I was timid because I lacked body confidence. And this trickled over into other areas of my life. There were parts of my life that I hid, or situations in which I could not share my feelings, because I was inhibited by the fear of being rejected or judged. And that’s no longer true. I am now able to be my true self, comfortable in my nakedness both physically and emotionally. I am still learning and growing in these areas, particularly in understanding soul relationships and the expression of real love. We are here to play and experience as much as we possibly can. We are here to grow. Often it is through times of adversity that we grow the most because these times force us to get out of our comfort zones. I have come to understand that there are only two emotions. We are either acting out of love or we are acting out of fear, which is the opposite of love. All other emotions are a derivative of love (compassion, forgiveness, self-sacrifice) or a derivative of fear (selfishness, retaliation, deceit). From now on I choose always to act out of love. Do I let go of control and trust my intuition and follow my heart even when it defies my rational faculties or can’t be proven? If I am to act out of love, then yes. Otherwise I return to acting out of fear. As well, I have learned that I need to protect myself from the negative energies of toxic people — those emotional vampires who can turn my love into fear. An Exciting Year to Come Cheryl is expecting a big 2015 in addition to growing her presence as My Bariatric Life and working on Borne Appétit. At the Pharma Marketing Summit in Palm Beach in May, she will be presenting as My Bariatric Life and sharing her story of defeating obesity and its co-morbidities. Also new for this year, I'll finally launch my websites, a dream I've had for a couple of years. I've already launched MyBariatricLife.org for transformative information on defeating obesity and co-morbid diseases. I'll also launch my healthy recipe site BorneAppetit.com and my eating healthy on-the-road travel site BorneVoyage.com. These sites will help a lot of people. It definitely looks as though the Mayan shaman was right when he said Cheryl is a healer. She has come a long way toward healing herself through weight loss surgery, plastic surgery, and healthy living, and she is dedicated to helping others become healthier. Don’t forget to follow Cheryl on social media and through her channel on HealthCentral, and watch for her new monthly opinion piece to be published on BariatricPal! Please click here to read My Bariatric Life's articles in BariatricPal's Weight Loss Surgery Magazine.

I did pretty well yesterday. I had Protein Shakes and a piece of meat loaf for dinner. I don't know what the calories for the day was but I'm more worried about sticking to low carb. I don't want that medicine the surgeon wants me on that is known to cause weight gain to do just that. Sometimes I say that my body wants to weigh 143 and I should just give up and realize that I am older and 135 is just not in the cards anymore. But I know I eat junk like M&Ms and if I just give up the junk, I'll just have to lose. Giving up the junk is so much easier said than done. The rest of the world that I live in eat junk all the time around me.

In addition to the dreaded 3 week stall you may have pin pointed why the scale is showing a weight gain; you're bloated and constipated. There are many solutions to that; colace stool softener, milk of magnesia, miralax, benefiber, prune juice, a tsp of epsom salt in organic grapefruit juice to name just a few. Since you can't exercise, walk. Walk at least 30 minutes every day and drink you water/fluids. It will all get the plumbing moving. Most importantly stay off the scale. It will make you insane. Take your measurements instead. and every month take them again. Even when you are stalling if you are on program, the measurements will change when the scale doesn't.

Hi guys, I had Lap Band surgery in May of 2009 - wgt 260. Then due to complications with the band it was removed in February of 2011 - wgt 170. Since then I have gained 40 lbs - wgt now 210. I am trying to be optimistic.... Can anyone tell me if they had their band removed and how much weight they gained after? I am not sure if this is average, above or below... Thanks so much for the feedback.

I've had a rough couple of months with my back surgery in early November and then having my incision become infected and becoming septic. Tomorrow I finish the worse antibiotics I've ever had to take. I've been eating more because the taste of those antibiotics is always in my mouth. I'm really annoyed that I haven't been released to exercise yet. Anyway, after my total success with 5:2 last time, I am going to go back and try to fast. I'm really worried because the medicine my back surgeon put me on is known to cause carb cravings and weight gain. I need to get back into the 130's and out of the 140's. I'm tired of my clothes not fitting.

You know, Sheryl, I do really find it amazing our much of the journey our minds play into it all. I believe someone said in one of the posts recently how crazy it is that we get down on ourselves with a small weight gain when we were OBESE before but I think maybe it also shows that we have turned the corner to true normalcy since I've heard others moan about having to lose weight and I would think, "Yeah, if I had that TEN POUNDS to lose..." ????. Now we are them! Ha! And Sheryl I agree on the visualization part too. 140 is an awesome number. I was Really Proud when I reached my goal of 150 the first time but boy, something about being 139-140 was truly Awesome! So awesome I just gradually slipped up and added too much junk back in and here we go again! BUT, what a great tool our sleeves have provided us! Got a fast day in today. Not pretty and not as low as I wanted (685) but I held on!!! Ha! And returning to good eating patterns feels really good too Glad we are all speaking up and helping each other out in the 5:2!

Hey all! Just wanted to give an update since my refill on December 19th. It has been a bit of a crazy time since the fill. So my appointment started out with a session with the nutritionist for the surgeon. Now keep in mind, these two hardly know me or my journey. He is not my original surgeon and I only met them after the discovery of the esophogeal dilation back in September. It is hard to explain to someone who doesn't have a band what this journey day to day is like. The nutritionist is just reading out of her "proper band diet" papers and just wanted to drill in what I should or shouldn't eat. I am a bit stubborn after 12 years with this device that I know what works or doesn't for me. They were still convinced that my sudden and excessive weight gain was nothing but me stuffing myself with TONS of excess calories right after my unfill that caused the gain. Sigh! I could not convince that even if I went over my ACTUAL calories with an extra 500 calories a day, I should have at minimum maintained on those calories. I gave up, shook my head yes to all her demands and waited for the doctor to come in. Thankfully a nurse came in first with a needle and saline and stuff so the nutritionist didn't talk him out of my refill to start. He came in and repeated some of what she said to him in passing out in the hall. Uggh! So I originally had 2cc of Fluid that he had pulled out in September.When I had my fills way back at the beginning of this, I had numerous fills in Mexico and some up here in Nor Cal..and I believe each time my fills were 1/2cc or less. The doctor decided he would add back in 1cc! I was thinking he was going to trickle me back up. I was happy but a little nervous. I swallowed my cup of Water..definitely felt it gurgle and left. He said come back in 6-8 weeks. When I went in, I was at 196lbs..this is 46lbs up from my usual weight. I was already a little under the weather but the next day had a full blown cold. I didn't get to really test out the band as I was not eating properly..just getting in some chicken Soup and fluids. The next week was christmas and I went home to So Cal for a few days. I had dropped 2lbs since the fill, but came back from christmas trip home back up a few lbs. 24 hours after returning home on the 28th, I got a violent stomach bug. I had at least 4-5 sessions of attempting to vomit which were quite painful. I was scared my band would slip. I called my doctor and got a prescription for zofran (?) to stop the nausea. That helped but diarrhea continued for another few days. I was afraid to even get water and fluids in me. I managed to drop about 7lbs in 3 days from this. NOT a cool way to lose weight. After spending New Year's in bed, I finally was feeling better and started to eat again. I managed to gain back 2lbs of the 7lbs. figured it was fluid loss coming back. As of today I am down 6lbs total from where I was prefill. Most of that achieved from the bug! I am not sure yet if I am close to a "green zone" , I told the doctor it is not the restriction I am after but the removal of the screaming appetite! I missed being able to go all day without feeling hungry. This week has been fairly "normal" work wise and schedule wise and noticed the appetite is more "quiet" than it was when unfilled. I am still trying to figure out what and when to eat. I need to get back to the gym. Been waiting for me and my guy to stop being sick! So for now, I THINK the rapid gain has stopped. My body is probably just trying to figure itself out and I am sure my metabolism is jacked up. Who knows! I am definitely relearning better bandster habits and watching how I chew my food. I can see why it is easy to fail at this band and have issues..overfilled, underfilled, not listening to the signals of full and restriction, using it as a binge and purge diet tool..lots of craziness with this device for sure! I just want to get this excess weight back off and be back to where I can keep it off WITHOUT all the issues I had when it was too tight. It may mean I have to be more careful with calories than before, but if I can keep this device safely in, I will learn to comply! Will come back and post soon with updates once my body is out of sick and holiday mode!!

anyone having problems with weight gain years after gastric bypass surgery? I need support! help please, we can do this together and lose that weight gain! Thanks in advance, Sharowna

@@LipstickLady you are probably right it is a good thing there is no remedy for dumping syndrome. Like I said it's a blessing and a curse but it a curse that keeps us on track and helps us avoid weight gain after surgery

Hi, Was just wondering if we could have a pregnant mama check-in? How far along? How are you feeling? Any concerns? Weight gain? Boy or girl? Favorite thing about being pregnant?