InfiniteButterfly

I am for smoothies and Protein drinks. Most of the time, I do get my protein from foods, but sometimes, my tummy just doesn't want food. And a protein drink is an acceptable choice. My surgeon is totally okay with a protein drink or two, so long as they are instead of a meal rather than in addition to (he made the distinction when I asked if it was okay to continue protein drinks in the morning)
Most mornings, I have a shake rather than food because it sits better. My tummy does not like food before 10 a.m., and since I'm generally awake and on the move at 5 a.m., I need something to fuel my morning. The shake does it.

I am for smoothies and Protein drinks. Most of the time, I do get my protein from foods, but sometimes, my tummy just doesn't want food. And a protein drink is an acceptable choice. My surgeon is totally okay with a protein drink or two, so long as they are instead of a meal rather than in addition to (he made the distinction when I asked if it was okay to continue protein drinks in the morning)
Most mornings, I have a shake rather than food because it sits better. My tummy does not like food before 10 a.m., and since I'm generally awake and on the move at 5 a.m., I need something to fuel my morning. The shake does it.

I am for smoothies and Protein drinks. Most of the time, I do get my protein from foods, but sometimes, my tummy just doesn't want food. And a protein drink is an acceptable choice. My surgeon is totally okay with a protein drink or two, so long as they are instead of a meal rather than in addition to (he made the distinction when I asked if it was okay to continue protein drinks in the morning)
Most mornings, I have a shake rather than food because it sits better. My tummy does not like food before 10 a.m., and since I'm generally awake and on the move at 5 a.m., I need something to fuel my morning. The shake does it.

I am for smoothies and Protein drinks. Most of the time, I do get my protein from foods, but sometimes, my tummy just doesn't want food. And a protein drink is an acceptable choice. My surgeon is totally okay with a protein drink or two, so long as they are instead of a meal rather than in addition to (he made the distinction when I asked if it was okay to continue protein drinks in the morning)
Most mornings, I have a shake rather than food because it sits better. My tummy does not like food before 10 a.m., and since I'm generally awake and on the move at 5 a.m., I need something to fuel my morning. The shake does it.

I am for smoothies and Protein drinks. Most of the time, I do get my protein from foods, but sometimes, my tummy just doesn't want food. And a protein drink is an acceptable choice. My surgeon is totally okay with a protein drink or two, so long as they are instead of a meal rather than in addition to (he made the distinction when I asked if it was okay to continue protein drinks in the morning)
Most mornings, I have a shake rather than food because it sits better. My tummy does not like food before 10 a.m., and since I'm generally awake and on the move at 5 a.m., I need something to fuel my morning. The shake does it.

Excellent point. This is the one thing my therapist has said from Day 1...attitude will make the difference between success and failure, so I've tried to maintain a positive attitude throughout the process. It really does make it easier when you think positively

Excellent point. This is the one thing my therapist has said from Day 1...attitude will make the difference between success and failure, so I've tried to maintain a positive attitude throughout the process. It really does make it easier when you think positively

Everybody will be successful with weight loss surgery in the short term, but what will determine your long-term success? I will go through 26 essential principles needed for a happy relationship with your surgery, starting with the letter A. In this excerpt from my new book, I discuss the importance of having the right Attitude.



A



Attitude



“
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”

– Winston Churchill
A stands for Attitude. Your attitude will determine how you see the world, whether you see your glass as half-empty or half-full. Focus on having only a positive attitude towards your weight loss surgery. Realize that everything in your life needed to happen in order for you to have the life you have today, even the events that might have contributed to your obesity. Rather than viewing your life as “jinxed” or “cursed,” consider past events as lessons that had to be learned at the University of Life or at the “school of hard knocks”.
Your attitude will also affect your aspirations. If your attitude is poor, then your aspirations will likely be small, when the truth is there are no limits to your aspirations. Most people have aspirations, but their aspirations are usually so small and uninspiring. Stop setting “realistic goals.” Instead, why not see how high you can fly? Like the renowned motivational speaker Les Brown said, “Shoot for the stars, so if you fail, you might hit the moon!” Stop staring into the bottom of that half-empty glass, and start drinking from the half-full glass of life.
*The previous was an excerpt from Dr. Vuong's new book, Weight Loss Surgery Success: Dr. V's A-Z Tips for Losing Weight and Gaining Enlightenment, now available on Amazon.com.

Great article
I credit counseling for helping my partners and I stay on an even keel. I expect there to be bumps in the road, but I'm hoping we stay strong through them.

Great article
I credit counseling for helping my partners and I stay on an even keel. I expect there to be bumps in the road, but I'm hoping we stay strong through them.

If the many diets that you have tried over the years don't help you lose weight, weight loss surgery may turn out to be the only strategy that is able to get you to your goal weight. Still, weight loss surgery is just a tool, and your weight loss depends on your hard work over the years from when you first plan your surgery to when you are maintaining your goal weight. A healthy lifestyle includes eating right, exercising regularly, and silencing the doubtful voices in your head and of your family and friends.

Measuring each bite of food, and getting up before dawn to take a walk, and passing up your aunt’s homemade peach pie can get tiresome. Motivating yourself and setting good goals can help you consistently make the right decisions for your health. These are a few tips to help you.


Why Are You Losing Weight?
It’s easy to remember why you want to lose weight when you are having trouble finding small-enough clothes or your weight is above the limit for a theme park ride. It’s harder to remember why you want to lose weight when you and a group of friends are at the dinner table with a large chocolate cake. Making a list of the reasons why you want to lose weight and looking at the list often can keep the reasons fresh in your mind and strengthen your resolve to resist temptation.

These are some of the common reasons for getting weight loss surgery.
Live longer.
Be healthier – get off medications or manage your health conditions better.
Participate in more activities with friends and family.
Go shopping in regular stores with great clothes.
Fit comfortably into car seats, restaurant booths, and movie theater and airplane seats.
Feel better about yourself.

Make It Personal
Deepen your motivation even further and use it to help you stay on track if you think about some of the reasons why you are losing weight that have to do with people in your life. These might be some of your reasons.
You want to be an active parent who is able to play with your children.
You want to be alive and healthy when your children graduate from high school or give you grandchildren.
Obesity is making you miss out on important moments like family hikes.
You watched an overweight parent or aunt or uncle suffer from diabetes or heart disease at a young age, and know that you may be headed in the same direction.
Your siblings also suffer from obesity and its consequences, and you want to break the pattern.

Think About the Short, Medium, and Long Term
The weight loss journey is a long and difficult process, to say the least. You need to spend months or years preparing for weight loss surgery by getting the payment sorted out, choosing a surgeon, and following the pre-surgery diet. Then there is the actual surgery, followed by months of recovery that can include pain, nausea, and complications.

As you recover, you need to learn an entirely new way of eating and living, and may be hungry, cranky, and tired. Finally, there is the rest of your life, as you lose weight and stay on your new eating plan. Every day can be filled with challenges such as tempting but forbidden foods, the need to exercise, and how to deal with people who may not be supportive of your surgery.

Goals give you something specific to work towards. The long-term goals are the big ones. They may be the ones that you have in mind when you get weight loss surgery or that you tell other people. Some long-term goals might be losing 100 pounds, or jogging five miles without stopping.

Those long-term goals can take years to accomplish, and setting some short-term goals can keep you focused as you work toward the long-term goals. They can include losing 5 pounds this month or speed-walking for a mile. These are some other short-term goals that can keep you on track day-to-day.
Lowering your blood pressure or cholesterol or blood sugar levels enough so that your doctor tells you to lower your dose of medications.
Going for a month without going to a fast food restaurant.
Hitting your protein and water goals every day for a week.

Vary Your Goals
Victories can be few and far between if your goals are too narrow, and this mistake can leave you feeling unmotivated. Consider what happens if the only goals that you have are to lost certain amounts of weight. What happens if you do not hit a certain weight loss goal? Does that mean that your hard work has been pointless? Of course not, but you might feel that way if that was the only goal that you were working towards.

Learn to look for and recognize all kinds of progress by setting goals that go beyond your weight. When you achieve them, you have earned a non-scale victory (NSV). While a lower number on the scale is easy to see, NSVs are what make life worth living. They can include the following.
Getting in good enough shape to be able to walk briskly with your husband.
Making it through an entire dinner at your parents’ house without taking offense at any negative comments about your surgery.
Going out with your friends and enjoying their company without giving in to the food.

Celebrate!
We’re all a work in progress. With weight loss surgery comes years of working on improving your health. The only way to keep up the effort, and the only way to make the effort worthwhile, is to celebrate! Celebrate the small victories to be sure that you realize how valuable your efforts are. Buy yourself a new kitchen scale, get your nails done, go out for coffee with a friend, or plan a hiking trip. You are worth working for, and your victories are worth celebrating.

You can lose more weight and keep it off when you stay focused, but that can be challenged. Remind yourself of your motivations and celebrate all kinds of victories to keep yourself in the game.

Umm, fudge! It had been a crazy busy week. Away from home for 10 days, facilitating two training courses and speaking at an Obesity Summit, I was tired and ready to go home. Though I have a pretty good routine when I travel and stay focused on my good Success Habits, I was tempted


Umm, fudge! It had been a crazy busy week. Away from home for 10 days, facilitating two training courses and speaking at an Obesity Summit, I was tired and ready to go home. Though I have a pretty good routine when I travel and stay focused on my good Success Habits, I was tempted beyond my ability to resist, to buy a piece of fudge. Umm, I love fudge and of course the walnuts added the all important “protein.” I had kept up with my exercise and make good food choices all week, so I felt justified in splurging a bit.
As it always does, the first bite was heavenly! Smooth and creamy. So good. I relished that first bite, waited a bit and then another, and yet another. Enough! I thought. I’m good. Now I am going to mindfully throw the rest away. A difficult thing to do knowing how much I paid for it and due to all of the starving people in the world. But I knew it had to go. With Michael Jordan flair, I strutted by the trash can and slam dunked it. There! Good for me. I would have high-fived the guy next to me, but he gave me a funny look so I decided I would just celebrate privately.
Boarding for my flight began and victoriously, I marched onto the plane. Safe from “too much” fudge. An hour passed by still on the tarmac, waiting for a mechanical repair. Finally, the captain announced that we would need to deplane and board another flight. By that time I had missed my connecting flight in Denver so I knew enough to get off the plane and get quickly in line for re-booking.
As I waited patiently in line, I don’t know why, but the thought of my left over fudge so close by started to haunt me. Though I am embarrassed to admit it, here is the conversation in my head. “This situation is beyond stressful and surely another piece of fudge would calm my nerves.” Honestly, you are not thinking of getting the fudge out of that trash bin over there are you?” Well, it is still good, it was wrapped up and in the bag.” Really?” What will people think of you digging in the trash?” “It will be right on top. Easy and there are not too many people over there, I can be quick!” Come on, seriously, you are better than this. You don’t eat food from the trash! Well I guess you are right! Thank goodness.”
Whew! That was close. It shouldn’t have even crossed my mind but it did. Why, I wonder? What is this problem I have with food? I was pleased that my good voice over ruled my temptress voice but I would have preferred not to have had that conversation at all! Perhaps you can relate?
Sometimes I find myself focusing on how unfair it is that I struggle with such unhealthy food relationships. But then, I am both relieved and proud that I have been able to win many of these battles. And every time I do – the “you can do it, you are better than that” voice gets stronger and stronger. For those of you who have heard my other crazy food stories, you’ll know how important it is when I say, I don’t eat M & M’s off the floor, whipped cream with my fingers, OR fudge from the trash! Yeah!

Traditionally, society has treated obesity as a choice. If you have been struggling with obesity for years, you have undoubtedly come across many people who believe that they believe that you have consciously decided to become and remain overweight. They let you know, tactfully or less discreetly, that they have no sympathy for you. However, obesity is a disease that requires as much attention as any other medical condition.
% Of Obese Americans Keeps Growing Every Year
The CDC, Center for Disease Control, reports the state averages for the percentage of Americans who are obese by year:


The American Medical Association’s Designation of Obesity as a Disease
The American Medical Association (AMA) officially classified obesity as a disease in June of 2013, describing it as a “multi-metabolic and hormonal disease state.” It was already common knowledge that obesity leads to unhealthy metabolic and hormonal changes, so this new classification may seem at first glance like a question of semantics that is relevant only to academics and scientists. When you dig a little deeper, though, it seems as though this decision can actually have far-reaching effects in the nation’s fight against obesity and in your own life.
Why Obesity is a Disease
In addition to the AMA, the World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and other respected organizations recognize obesity as a disease.
It impairs normal body functioning.
It has a set of characteristic signs and symptoms.
It decreases life expectancy.
It can lead to harmful conditions, such as type 2 diabetes and hypertension.
It can be a genetic disorder.

Benefits for Society of Recognizing Obesity as a Disease
An important benefit of classifying obesity as a disease is the increased awareness. An organization as respected as the AMA is calling the nation’s attention to the fact that obesity rates are alarmingly high and increasing. The AMA is also drawing attention to the wide-ranging set of causes of and treatments for obesity. Policymakers are more likely to support community public health approaches for fighting obesity. They might promote obesity education in schools and provide funding for obesity research. Weight loss drugs could receive more scrutiny and faster approval if they are seen as necessary to fight a disease rather than unnecessary products that encourage consumers to continue unhealthy, obesity-promoting behaviors.
How Your Health Care Might Improve
The benefits of having obesity seen as a disease can hit closer to home, too. Doctors are more likely to address obesity and work with you to fight it when obesity is considered a disease. They might pay you more respect as society moves away from the current model of finger-pointing when it comes to obesity.
Also, since obesity is a disease that can be treated, it is the role of health insurance companies to pave the way for you to seek treatment. Insurance companies are more likely to provide coverage for obesity treatments from lifestyle counseling to weight loss drugs to weight loss surgery. Until now, insurance companies have rarely supported reimbursement for diet counseling and psychotherapy as an obesity treatment, and only some plans provide coverage for weight loss surgery. Often, they only allow certain types of weight loss surgery, and have more stringent requirements.
The Psychological Benefits of a Label
Finally, there can be psychological benefits when obesity is recognized as a disease. The stigma around obesity, seen in the workplace, on the streets, and maybe even in your own family, may decrease now that there is official recognition. Like HIV/AIDS and depression have already become, obesity may eventually become an accepted condition that deserves compassion and requires medical attention and support rather than a condition to be ashamed of.
The designation is a validation of the struggles you currently face and may have faced for years or your entire life. It can be infuriating when others judge your obesity as a choice or lack of willpower. Worse, these descriptions can be discouraging, and prevent you from having the strength or even wanting to continue to fight obesity. An official diagnosis of obesity lets you know that you have a specific battle to fight, and the medical field is in your corner. This can give you confidence to make tough lifestyle changes or life-changing decisions such as weight loss surgery.
You Still Need to Treat It
What would you do if you were diagnosed with pneumonia? You would not just ignore it. You would discuss your treatment options with your doctor, and follow his or her recommendations. You would get chest x-rays, lab tests, and lung fluid samples to help in determining the nature of your condition. You would aggressively treat it with antibiotics, other medications, hospitalization, and plenty of rest and fluids. High blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, and depression are just a few other conditions that you would not think twice about treating.
Similarly, a diagnosis of obesity is not a green light to ignore it, but research described in the New York Times suggests that this is exactly what is happening in some cases. In one study, individuals who were told that their obesity was a disease ended up choosing higher-calorie foods than individuals who were not told that they had a disease. That is, individuals who were told that they had a disease called obesity felt that they were victims of a condition beyond their control, and that there was no point in fighting it.
The point is that you need to address obesity, whether it is a disease or not. Not everyone will be able to use the same strategy to successfully lose weight and keep it off, but one or more approaches can work for you, whether they are specific dietary changes, exercise, weight loss surgery, or a combination of these.