VerticalSleeveTalk Newsletter 12/15/2012

[Alex Brecher 10,512]

VerticalSleeveTalk Newsletter

Hey, Sleevers!

Thanksgiving is behind us and the holiday season is officially underway! Filled with holiday shopping, festivities at work and spending time with friends and family, this time of year is can be the most rewarding. It can be hectic, too, so paying extra attention to your diet and health is even more important than usual. Use this newsletter as a reminder and some motivation to be extra cautious with your choices so that you can keep seeing the results you want from your weight loss journey. Here’s what’s coming up in this newsletter.

• Member Spotlight: Meet Ms skinniness!

• Tips for the Season: Thriving at Holiday Parties!

• Member Challenge: Activate Your Party Action Plan!

• A Big Thank-You to Our Members as 2012 Ends

We know the hustle and bustle of this season make your life busy, but we hope you spend part of your holiday season with us at Alex Brecher

Founder

VerticalSleeveTalk.com

Member Spotlight: Meet Ms skinniness!

This month, we’re delighted to feature Ms skinniness in our member spotlight! She decided to get the gastric sleeve after developing diabetes and hitting a high weight of 223 pounds at a high of 5’6.” Her surgery was in October of 2011, and she’s only 4 pounds away from her goal weight of 140!

The journey’s been worthwhile for Ms skinniness! Her blood sugar is within normal levels each day, and she’s able to keep her hunger in check. She has tons more energy and is a lot happier now! Ms skinniness loves being able to fit into smaller clothes. She went from a size 1x to a size 8 – and was even forced to return some size 8 Gloria Vanderbilt jeans that were too big!

Getting enough Water in each day is still a challenge to Ms skinniness. She’s also working hard on avoiding mindless eating and only eating when she’s hungry. She reminds us that food is an addiction that can take a lot of effort to overcome.

Ms skinniness uses VerticalSleeveTalk.com for support and information, and she loves the positive people on the board. She suggests following your surgeon’s instructions, gathering information from VST members and also doing your own research on everything so you can be confident that you are making the right decisions for yourself. An example of something she learned from VerticalSleeveTalk.com is to use a PPI to reduce stomach acid and make her less hungry. Ms skinniness also uses VerticalSleeveTalk.com as a reminder not to slip into bad habits again. With her weight loss and satisfaction, her advice seems to be working for her!

Thanks, Ms skinniness, for being in the member spotlight! Congratulations on your success!

Please post in the Protein snack or two for yourself and eat it when it’s time for your regular meal or snack. You can also take a healthy dish for the host to serve at the party.

Sip water. Carrying a glass of water around gives you something to do without adding any calories to your day. Another benefit of drinking water is that you know you shouldn’t eat solid foods when you’re drinking fluids.

Avoid alcohol. Alcohol is a source of calories that you just don’t need. Worse yet is that it lowers your inhibition. That means that you’re less likely to resist unhealthy holiday foods.

Member Challenge: Activate Your Holiday Action Plan!

This newsletter’s challenge is related to our advice on holiday parties. The challenge is to choose a specific strategy designed to get you through the holidays without interfering with your weight loss goals. You can take one of the suggestions listed above, or choose your own. Some other ideas are to keep healthy Snacks at work so you’re not tempted by unhealthy snacks and to record each treat that you eat in your food record instead of pretending that it doesn’t count.

Tell us in the Member Challenge Forum how you complete the challenge! Was it easy or difficult? What tips do you have for other VerticalSleeveTalk.com members? We also want to know anytime you go back and complete an old Newsletter Challenge, which you can find in the archived Newsletter Forum. It’s never too late to try a Newsletter Challenge!

A Big Thank-You to Our Members as 2012 Ends

As we close out 2012, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank each member. We truly appreciate your support. We value each member, whether you post many times a day and use all of VerticalSleeveTalk.com’s many features, or whether you log in infrequently to read just a few posts. You, the members, are essential to VerticalSleeveTalk.com’s success, so a heartfelt thank-you to each of you!

2012 has seen rapid increases in the number of members, the beginning of regular newsletters and the launch of mobile apps to access all of the forum’s features. Big plans are in the works for the coming year, and it promises to be an exciting ride. We’re glad to have you on board! Of course, we’re always open to member suggestions, so please feel free to contact any board administrator.

That’s it for this month’s newsletter. We hope it was inspirational and helpful. Have a safe and peaceful holiday season, and take care of yourself and each other,

Alex.

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