Keri1019

Louisa, My surgery is 2/14/17. I am more than prepared. However to day I am freaking out. I am scared, emotional and on the verge of tears. I have to travel to have surgery which is not a problem we have a home in NV anyway. I am looking forward to getting out of Montana for a short while it has been below zero pretty much since before Christmas.
I have been an RN since 1986 and have gone over everything I would tell a patient that would be expecting surgery and nothing seems to work.
I havent officially started the preop diet but have pretty much cut most of the no no's out already. I was feeling pretty good then this morning I wake up with major anxiety. I am headed to town tomorrow to go to the pain clinic and the dentist on Friday. I was to see both of my daughters and now one may be to busy to see me. I feel I need to see them in case something goes wrong.
I cant figure out why I am freaking out. I am not an overly emotional / hormonal type.
Keri

Are you ready to make your New Year’s resolutions to get the year started off with purpose? Not everyone makes official New Year’s resolutions, but you can still set some goals for the New Year or for the next few weeks or months.


Consider this: you can be 10 times more likely to achieve your goals if you make New Year’s resolutions than if you do not. That statistic may motivate you to take a little care in setting your goals for this year. So, here are a few tips for setting resolutions that you can keep.
Make Them Realistic
We all want to hit goal weight and stay there, but is that realistic for you? Probably not, if you are more than 70 to 100 lbs. overweight and have not yet had weight loss surgery. A more realistic resolution might be to schedule your surgery and then lose an average of 5 to 10 lbs. per month after surgery.
These are some additional examples of unrealistic and realistic resolutions.
Get to the gym every day. Work out at the gym or walk 5 days per week. Follow your diet perfectly. Get back on track within a day of losing control. Avoid all restaurants. Check the nutrition facts beforehand and make healthy choices when you order. Plan all meals and snacks ahead of time. Keep protein bars and other healthy protein snacks on hand for when you need them unexpectedly. Make Them Specific Yes, you want to lose weight for example. But how much do you want to lose? Your resolution might include the number of pounds you want to lose or the BMI you want to hit. It might be to lose back the pounds you regained after weight loss surgery a few years ago. Here are some other examples of specific resolutions to consider.
Drink at least 64 ounces of water per day. Attend two support group meetings each month. Eat at least two servings of fish per week. Eat at least 65 grams of protein per day. When you make your goals specific, you know whether or not you are making progress towards them and when you hit them. That is motivating, and it keeps you honest with yourself.
Consider the Process
A goal is an endpoint. Your resolution might be to achieve those goals, but it should also include the process, or “how” you are planning to get there. If your resolution is to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables per day, your process might include storing canned and frozen vegetables so they are always available, keeping washed and cut fruits and vegetables in the fridge for snacks, and adding a half-cup of vegetables to your omelets.
Here are some more examples of ways you can focus on the process.
To hit your pre-op weight loss requirements, swap water for soda and side salads for fries. To get to the gym more often, lay out your clothes and shoes the night before, and figure out which workout you will do once you are at the gym. To move closer to your weight loss surgery, find out how to get approval for insurance reimbursement (or how you will finance your surgery) and which surgeons are your top choices. To get your blood sugar levels down, healthify your carb choices by identifying which are sugary and refined, and swapping them with high-fiber, unrefined whole grains, beans, and fruits. Stay Accountable
Your resolutions are important to you, so make them a priority and hold yourself accountable. One way is to use the buddy system. You can either find a buddy with resolutions similar to yours, or just use a buddy who is willing to hold you accountable. Check in regularly with each other on your progress, encourage each other, and ask the tough questions if either of you are falling off track.
Another way to hold yourself accountable is to use a log. Use an old-fashioned pencil and paper log, or opt for an online or smartphone app. Depending on your resolution, you can record thoughts, feelings, and progress, as well as food intake, weight, and exercise. Seeing your efforts in black and white can keep you honest and motivate you to keep going.
Be Patient with Yourself
Recognize that you won’t do it all at once, and that you will make mistakes. Set smaller incremental goals so that you can see progress in January, but keep the big picture in mind and realize that your resolutions are long-term. The big payoffs will come later in the year if you stick with your resolutions.
Also, have a plan to forgive yourself, because things will go wrong. Dust yourself off and get back up, because you can achieve your goals!

With the holidays around the corner, gifts may be on the top of your mind. You may be thinking about making up your own gift list to pass around to others. Aside from the usual items, maybe such as something for your favorite hobby, a new piece of furniture for your home, or the latest smartphone, you might want to include a few items that help you move forward in your weight loss surgery journey.
Here is the BariatricPal holiday gift list that you can give to others or that you can use as inspiration as you search for gifts to give to another weight loss surgery patient in your life.


Protein Snacks and Meals
What? Our first idea is to give food to a weight loss surgery patient? Yes, and with good reason. A gift of a healthy snack can keep the recipient away from the junk food without feeling deprived. Healthy, instant dinners offer a practical alternative to drive-throughs, fast food, and take-out. Protein snacks and meals help suppress hunger and maintain lean muscle mass.
The snacks and meals need to be great-tasting if the recipient is going to choose them over alternatives such as chips, cookies, and fast food. The BariatricPal Store does not disappoint, with a full selection of snacks including Protein Bars, Protein Chips, Protein Cookies, and more. Protein Breakfast options include pancakes, omelets, cereal, and oatmeal, and our Protein Entrees include low-carb pasta dishes, chili, enchiladas, and more.
A Smart Scale
A good scale can be one of your most important tools during your weight loss surgery journey and as you maintain your weight. Knowing that you have to step on the scale tomorrow morning can motivate you eat better and exercise today, and seeing the numbers drop can inspire you to keep making those healthy weight loss decisions. Still, it’s not all about the weight. Your journey is about gaining health, too.
With the Yunmai Wireless Bluetooth Smart Scale, your weight is only the beginning of the list of what you can track. Monitor your body fat and muscle mass to see how effective your workout program is, and check your bone density to see if you may need to focus more on bone nutrients such as calcium and vitamin D. Compared to some other scales, this scale is more practical because of its capacity of up to 400 lbs. You can track your numbers with a smartphone app that connects via Bluetooth.
Food Journal
Logging your food increases your chances of losing weight and keeping it off. There are a million smartphone apps that you can use, but not everyone is cut out to use them. You are not alone if you prefer pencil and paper to keep track of your food. The very act of writing makes you connect more to what you write, so you can think harder about the choices you make. A food journal can be the perfect gift for diligent WLS patients who are not tied to their smartphones.
A Do-It-Yourself Gift Basket
You can order a gift basket online, but it probably will not be very weight loss surgery-friendly. Likely items include sugary jams, crackers, fatty sausages, and chocolate-covered pretzels. Skipping a gift is better than delivering that kind of fat and sugar load!
Instead, make it healthier and more personal by gathering the goods yourself. You could include all kinds of non-perishable protein foods and shakes. You can even make a themed basket. For example:
A protein snack basket with bars, cookies, granola, and chips.
A post-op care package with protein powdered shakes and smoothies, gelatin, and pudding for the post-op liquid diet.
A wintery mix assortment with protein soup, cocoa, and chili.
A chocolate lover’s basket with protein brownies, triple chocolate cookies, chocolate cereal, chocolate pudding, and hot chocolate.

A Scrapbook or Album
The weight loss surgery journey is exciting, and you want to remember every moment of it! There are all kinds of ways you can make a gift of a scrapbook or album. The simplest is a blank book with space to paste in photos and write notes about milestones and victories. You could go a step further and include dedicated spaces to add in specific milestones or photos, such as losing your first 50 pounds, fitting back into your high school jeans, or a pre-op photo to remind you how far you have come.
A Book
The internet is such a good resource that a book does not always seem necessary, but it can have its advantages. When you buy an informative weight loss surgery book, you can trust the information more than the information you may get from an anonymous online source. Plus, the information is at your fingertips so you do not have to search all over the web for answers to your questions.
A Care Package
This one may be especially appropriate for a pre-op or post-op patient to show love and support during and after surgery. Include items to help the patient feel better.
A “cough pillow,” or hard pillow to push against your abdomen to provide support when you cough or sneeze.
An adult coloring book and crayons or colored pencils to distract the patient from the pain.
Herbal (caffeine-free) tea to sip and promote calmness.
Water flavoring drops and electrolyte drops to encourage hydration.
Protein powders in various flavors.
An IOU or coupon for them to use to call for your help, such as for grocery shopping, cooking, or cleaning the house.
Liquid bariatric vitamins so they can get started with their post-op nourishment.

Gift Card
Not sure what to get? You can never go wrong with a gift card. A gift card to The BariatricPal Store can be used to by all kinds of protein bars and shakes, protein snacks, and protein entrees. The store also has bariatric vitamins, books, and bariatric dinnerware. The gift will be a hit!
A Fitness Tracker
Wearable activity monitors are all the rage, and for good reason. If you love to “get credit” for every step you take, these monitors will let you know, down to the nearest calories. They can motivate you to move a little more throughout the day, and to follow through on your planned workouts. Most fitness trackers now connect to your smartphone so you can see your progress over time and, if you want, share your workouts with your network.
A good gift list can take the stress out of buying gifts, and put the fun into it. This holiday season, get the gifts that will help you reach your goals by using our gift list as a starting point!

We all deal with "head hunger," that insistent little voice that tells us we really need a bacon double cheeseburger, even though we had a full lunch two hours ago. Coping with head hunger is a fact of life, even for those of us who have had weight loss surgery.


We all deal with "head hunger," that insistent little voice in our mind that tells us we really need a bacon double cheeseburger, even though we had a full lunch two hours ago. Sometimes, it tells us it's all right to keep eating after we've reached our fill line because the cookie bag is not yet empty. Other times, it tells us that mint chocolate chip ice cream really will relieve our emotional pain.
Anyone hungry now?
Head hunger happens all the time, often with the slightest provocation. It has little to do with our body's immediate need for fuel. It has everything to do with our sense of smell and the abundance of savory and sweet foods in our environment. It's a habit we've reinforced over the years. For some of us, it contributes to obesity and other health issues. For others, it complicates mental health conditions. Head hunger promises to make us feel better, but it often delivers misery instead.
Coping with head hunger is a fact of life, even for those of us who have had weight loss surgery. Our surgery has given us a physical tool for our weight loss journey, but we need to supplement it with mental tools. I didn't fully understand this need before my vertical sleeve gastrectomy. Yes, I believed my head hunger would magically disappear with the majority of my stomach. It didn't. The voice still comes and goes, usually reaching top volume on stressful days. It lies to me, insisting that I want food I could not possibly digest at this point in my journey.
How do I cope with my head hunger? How do I keep it from derailing my weight loss or jeopardizing my health?
I'm going to answer with a cliche: I take it one day at a time. This is not intuitive for me because I am not a "one day at a time" kind of girl. I've learned, though, that the harder I fight head hunger, the harder it fights back. Brute force won't stop the intrusive thoughts of food. This is why I must take it one day at a time, with compassionate self-care.
When head hunger hits, I have many options for taking care of myself without reaching into the refrigerator. I can exercise for half an hour to see if the cravings pass. I can spend time with my kids. I can lose myself in a good book or movie. I can learn a new crochet stitch. I can start a new art or writing project. The actual activity isn't important, though. The important thing is to understand when hunger is mental hunger and not a physical need for food.
Understanding what head hunger means to you and what triggers it is the first step in coping with it. After you know this, you can create a personal plan for the day-to-day activities that will help you avoid overeating or eating when your body doesn't need fuel.
Keeping a journal can help you sort out the different physical and emotional feelings associated with head hunger. Talking to other people who understand these feelings can help, too. Giving yourself time and space to deal with the feelings instead of beating yourself up for them is crucial. Above all, showing yourself kindness every day is the most effective way to minimize the influence head hunger has over you.