Alex Brecher

It's a pretty standard organizational charter. We have no plans on monetizing these local chapters and they're absolutely open to anyone that has had or is interested in WLS. They're just another (free) support tool we're making available to help our members. I'm sorry you find it restrictive.

Please see: http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/307601-il-chicago-southwest-suburbs/

Please see: http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/303127-oh-southwest-ohio-cincinnatidayton/

Many of the forums already have stickies. We're open to suggestions!

You can visit http://BariatricPal.com/tickers from your Safari browser. We hope to include it in the iOS app a little later this year.

Hey, BariatricPal Members! Summer is quickly approaching, and we hope you are excited about it! Whether you are finalizing a summer trip or planning a little rest and relaxation, your summer plans are certain to include some progress toward your weight loss goals. To help you get motivated, this is what we have for you in this month’s newsletter. Member Poll: How Did You First Learn About Weight Loss Surgery? Member Spotlight – Meet Joatsaint! Are You Taking Advantage of Summer Produce? Meet Some New Friends on BariatricPal! As always, we hope the newsletter is inspiring. Take a look at it, and then come on over to BariatricPal to discuss your summer weight loss goals and anything else that is on your mind. See you on the boards! Sincerely, Alex Brecher Founder, BariatricPal Member Poll: How Did You First Learn About Weight Loss Surgery? You probably tried to lose weight through dieting and exercising for years before the idea of weight loss surgery ever occurred to you. Eventually, though, you started thinking about it. How did you first learn about weight loss surgery? My doctor recommended it or sent me to a surgeon to learn about it. I noticed that an overweight friend, work colleague, or other acquaintance was finally losing weight, and he or she told me that it was due to weight loss surgery. I came across the idea when researching diets and other treatments for obesity online. I saw the ads in the mail, on billboards, or on television, and suddenly realized that I should pay attention! Other (please tell us below!). Go to BariatricPal to mark your answer, and then tell us about it in the discussion forum! Insure Nutrition We are always thrilled to welcome a new newsletter sponsor into the BariatricPal family, and this month, Insure Nutrition is giving us the pleasure of doing just that. Our latest sponsor, Insure Nutrition, is an online company that specializes in getting health insurance coverage for nutritional supplements. Its Post-Bariatric Surgery Nutrition products includes Premier Protein shakes in chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry flavors and OptiSource High Protein drinks in caramel and strawberry flavors. Checking if you are eligible is easy. Insure Nutrition encourages you to use its online form to find out if you qualify. Our sponsors help make BariatricPal newsletters and other services possible. We encourage you show your thanks by considering them first for your bariatric needs. Exciting News – We're welcoming unjury and Opurity to BariatricPal! BariatricPal is proud and excited to announce two new sponsors for our newsletters. The new sponsors are Unjury, a supplier of wonderful tasting, highest quality protein supplements, and Opurity (from the makers of UNJURY), highest purity Vitamin supplements for bariatric surgery patients. Their support lets us keep BariatricPal newsletters coming to you each month. Unjury was founded by a master’s degree dietitian who has been helping patients since 1974. It is committed your health. You know the importance of getting enough protein after weight loss surgery, but you also know that meeting your protein goals can be challenging. Unjury makes your task not just easier but actually enjoyable. Product flavors include Chocolate Splendor, Chocolate Classic, Vanilla, Strawberry Sorbet, chicken Soup Flavor, Unflavored, Protein’d cheese Sauce (seasonal, October through May). These ready-to-use protein powders come in single-serve and multi-serve containers, and contain high-quality whey protein to keep you full and nourished. Launched in 2007, Opurity is dedicated to using the purest ingredients in its supplements. Opurity Bariatric Multivitamins have two unique big advantages: First, each multivitamin requires only one tablet per day*. Second, Opurity is so dedicated to quality that it is unique in using no ingredients from China. Choose from chewable orange-berry multivitamins for gastric bypass and gastric sleeve patients or for lap-band patients.Opurity also sells chewable calcium, vitamin D and folic acid/vitamin B-12 chewables. All supplements come with a 100% satisfaction guaranteed. They return policy is: “Yes you can return it.” Support from Unjury and Opurity helps us continue to bring you the services you enjoy on BariatricPal, so please support these two brands! When looking for your bariatric surgery supplements, first visit Unjury.com and Opurity.com. Purchasing from these companies helps support BariatricPal. Thanks to Unjury and Opurity for your generous sponsorship, and thanks to BariatricPal members who support our partnership! *You still need calcium and sublingual B-12. Member Spotlight – Meet Joatsaint! This month, we are pleased to feature joatsaint in our member spotlight. After spending years at 270 pounds, joatsaint says he ballooned to 375 pounds in the three years after starting a desk job. His feet and legs were in such pain that he often used crutches, and he depended on caffeine pills to get through work because his sleep apnea would not let him sleep well at night. Normal activities like putting on socks and clipping toenails became almost impossible. For years, the only bariatric surgery that joatsaint’s insurance covered was the gastric bypass, but joatsaint did not like the idea of alterations to his small intestine and the high risk of nutrient deficiencies. He opted for the vertical sleeve gastrectomy once his insurance started covering it because it would restrict his eating without changing his intestines. Surgery was in December of 2012. His starting weight was 375 pounds, and now joatsaint weighs 223 pounds en route to a goal weight of 200 pounds. Joatsaint says that the biggest difference since getting surgery is that he does not get food cravings anymore. He does not feel the need to eat potato chips or cherry pies, and he says he can “walk past the rice, Pasta, and cake, and be just as satisfied by eating baked chicken and salad.” Many of joatsaint’s great moments have been small victories, such as noticing that his dress shirts were getting baggy, being able to buckle his seat belt more easily, and eating only 3/4 of a plate at a buffet. The journey has not been completely easy. Joatsaint’s biggest challenge was getting over his dislike of going to the doctor, and admitting that he needed help losing the weight. He felt nervous about the gastric sleeve because it is a permanent operation, leaving him with no “plan B.” Joatsaint also had an underlying fear that this was just another “magic pill,” and he would not be able to lose the weight successfully. And, if he did lose the weight, how would he know how to act? He was used to being the heaviest person in the room. Joatsaint says that BariatricPal is like his therapy group. Realizing that the same questions come up repeatedly, he likes to answer questions and share his experiences. Staying on the forums reminds him o his past and keeps him focused on his future, and he also gets to release some of his humor. Joatsaint invites BariatricPal members to visit his blog and YouTube videos. For those struggling with weight loss, joatsaint suggests trying to figure out the real cause. Is it what you are eating, or how much? Are you following your diet? Are you exercising? He also reminds that the biggest thing is to keep trying. Thank you, joatsaint, for being in our member spotlight! Congratulations on your weight loss so far, and thanks for all of your advice on the boards and our newsletter! Do you know someone that you would like to see featured in our member spotlight? Do you want to be in the spotlight? Nominate yourself or someone else in our member spotlight forum. Shy? Send Alex Brecher a PM letting him know that you are interested. Are You Taking Advantage of Summer Produce? After protein, vegetables and fruits are top priorities in your weight loss surgery diet. They are filling but low in calories, so they help you lose weight without being too hungry. They have antioxidants and tons of other nutrients, such as Vitamins A and C, folate, potassium, and magnesium. They are high in dietary Fiber, which can help keep you regular – an important benefit for many weight loss surgery patients! Vegetables and fruits are easy to come by and delicious when they are in season. Keep watching the ads from your local grocery store to see which seasonal produce is on sale. If you go to a local farmers’ market, ask the vendors for ideas on how to use the fruits, vegetables, and herbs that they sell. In the late spring and early summer, look for lettuces, beets, spinach and other greens, and the beginning of the wide range of summer fruits that will be abundant. Make your salads more interesting. Try arugula, spinach, and spring mix lettuce instead of regular iceberg, and boost your fruit intake by adding berries or watermelon chunks. Use summer fruit to satisfy your afternoon sweet-tooth. Throw cabbage, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, carrots, and pretty much any other vegetable on the grill when you are making your protein. Try grilled peaches or watermelon for dessert. Cut raw beets into cubes and have them for a snack with goat cheese. Use a lettuce leaf to wrap low-fat feta cheese with diced red peppers, zucchini strips, and lemon juice. Eating more vegetables and fruits can help you lose more weight and feel better. Make it fun by choosing in-season produce and trying new recipes. You might even find that since weight loss surgery, you enjoy produce more! Meet Some New Friends on BariatricPal! We started BariatricPal to encourage a more unified voice for fighting obesity with weight loss surgery. BariatricPal still has separate sections for the gastric bypass, vertical sleeve gastrectomy, and lap-band because we know it that sometimes it is important to talk to other members who know exactly what you are going through. But, we also know that members can have a lot to contribute, too, even if they don’t have the same kind of weight loss surgery as you do. So, we invite you to visit the other sections of BariatricPal. You might meet some more amazing friends! That is it for this month’s newsletter, but you can keep the conversation going on the boards! See you there!

We can easily make tri-fold versions but we didn't think it would be very convenient for our members to print double sided as well as fold them ?

I'm a bit confused Do you have Android or iOS ?

When you visit your surgeon’s office, attend a support group meeting, or go to another weight loss surgery appointment, share BariatricPal.com fliers! Hand them out, post them on a bulletin board, or ask your surgeon, a nurse, another healthcare professional, or the office’s receptionist to make them available in the waiting room and examining rooms. Our fliers are ready to be printed and are here. Have you benefited from BariatricPal.com in any way? Now you can give back a little and help yourself by helping others! Over the years, we’ve talked to many bariatric surgeons, their staff, other allied health professionals, and patients. Many aren’t even aware of our BariatricPal.com community – so thousands of weight loss surgery patients aren’t taking advantage of our community. How would you feel if you had to go through your weight loss journey without us? To help spread the word about BariatricPal.com, we created fliers that can be hung in surgeon and healthcare waiting and exam rooms. They can also be distributed to patients in pre and post surgery packets. The fliers briefly describe our community, and are available in black and white and in color. They are ready to be printed and are below. Here’s where you come in…Can you please help distribute our fliers? When you visit your surgeon and other healthcare professionals, please consider leaving one (or many) fliers with them and their staff. Please suggest that they post fliers in the waiting room or bulletin board, and supply them to their patients in the pre and post surgery packets. PatientFlier.pdf We thank you in advance for your assistance!

Do you like LOVE BariatricPal.com? Do you love the discussion forums, weight loss surgery information, mobile apps, surgeon directory, articles, and more – that you get entirely for free? Please support us by telling others about us! We've created a page that'll assist our members in spreading our love and support for Weight Loss Surgery. You'll have the ability to download and distribute BariatricPal fliers, follow us on our social media pages, email WLS friends and add a BariatricPal badge to your site or blog. Thank you in advance for sharing our message!

I don't see any bullying going on in this topic. A gentle reminder to all members, PLEASE read this article. We have zero tolerance for bullying. Use the REPORT button if you come across any post or topic that remotely even resembles bullying. This topic has been closed.

If you've made up your mind and are going for Lap-Band, make sure your surgeon is listed on LapBand.com .

We include posts from our General Weight Loss Surgery forums together with Lap-band results. I think that's what might be throwing you off. There's a little known feature you can use in order to control the results you receive when you click on NEW CONTENT. The last link on the right hand side of the New Content page is called "FILTER BY FORUM" Check or uncheck the forums you're interested and they'll be the only ones appearing in your New content.

Hi BariatricPal Members! I have an exciting announcement to make. We are approaching our 3.5 millionth post! That’s right…pretty soon, BariatricPal members are going to be responsible for 3,500,000 posts! I can hardly believe that we are about to hit this milestone, and I thank you, the members, that are responsible for this accomplishment. BariatricPal had its humble beginnings in July 2003 when I started LapBandTalk. I added VerticalSleeveTalk, RNYTalk, and SleevePlicationTalk and watched the communities grow as members gathered for support, encouragement, and friendships. By the time these original boards combined to form the single BariatricPal community, we had over 225,000 active members. In fact, BariatricPal is now the most trafficked weight loss surgery community on the internet! This accomplishment would not be possible without such incredible member support and participation. To say “thank you” for what you do for this community and mark this impressive milestone, I am offering a prize to the poster who makes post number 3.5 million! This lucky member will receive a free copy of our soon-to-be released book entitled, “The Big Book on Bariatric Surgery: Living Your Best Life After Weight Loss Surgery.” The book has valuable strategies for losing weight and loving life after weight loss surgery. The more you post, the better your chances of being poster number 3.5 million and winning the book. Here’s to the next 3.5 million posts!

Are you on iOS or Android ? In iOS go to the appropriate forum you're like to start a topic in and you'll see an icon at the top right of the page. CLick and you'll see one of the options is called "New Thread" In Android it depends if you have the regular or pro version.

Are you on the mobile app or website ?

You just did ?

Please delete the app and install this app instead.

You need to click "Add to Signature" button beneath each ticker you've created in your control panel. I took care of it for you. Scroll to top of site, click on your username drop down. You'll see a link called "My Tickers". You can also access them via http://www.BariatricPal.com/tickers

Which device and app are you using please ?

Which Android app are you using please ? We just released the BariatricPal Pro Android version . Please make sure this is the version you're using.

He came in 2nd place. He's #1 in my books!

Hey Everyone! We have been hard at work on our new Mobile Apps, and we're finally ready to release our first Android version to all members for testing! The iOS version will be released shortly. You can download the new BariatricPal Android app by visiting the Google Play store. Please report any bugs or issues here. We also welcome your general feedback and other requests here.

What barrier or obstacle have you had to overcome in order to get LAP-BAND ?

What barrier or obstacle will you have to overcome in order to get LAP-BAND ?