BariatricPal Newsletter - January 2015

[Alex Brecher 10,494]

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Hey BariatricPal Members! How are you doing on those New Year’s resolutions? It’s easy enough for them to get lost in the shuffle as everyone gets back to regular life after the holiday season. There’s one place that’ll help you keep your head in the game, though. That’s BariatricPal. This newsletter can help you get back on track or more motivated to stay on track. Here’s what to expect. Member Polls: Share Your Views! Member Spotlight: Meet BLERDgirl! Fueling Up for the Day: Getting a High-Protein Breakfast Weight Loss and Knee Pain: Another Reason to Get Bariatric Surgery? After you get through the newsletter, come on over to BariatricPal and talk about your goals, progress, setbacks, and recipes. The community could be just what you need to meet your goals in 2015! Sincerely, Alex Brecher Founder, BariatricPal Member Polls: Share Your Views! The Member Polls Forum is a hot place at BariatricPal! It’s a place where you can give your opinions on almost anything, and find out what other BariatricPal members think about the same things. When you weigh in on a topic, don’t forget you can explain your answer in the conversation after you mark it in the list of options. Here are a couple of the current hot topics. Check them out on the forums! How Do You Feel About Eating Out after Weight Loss Surgery? Restaurant meals…they may be a great social opportunity and include some delicious food, but they can be a nightmare after weight loss surgery. Portions are too big, the food isn’t always on your diet, and the people with you don’t always understand your restrictions. How do you deal with restaurants after weight loss surgery? See how other BariatricPal members deal with them, too. Maybe you’ll get a few good ideas about eating out after weight loss surgery. How Did You Find and Choose Your Bariatric Surgeon? You can learn a lot of practical information from hanging out on the Polls forum. For example, if you’re thinking about weight loss surgery and still need to choose a surgeon, check out the poll asking members how they found and chose their surgeon. We won’t spill the Beans here, but there are a lot of good ways to choose a weight loss surgeon! 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, and Unflavored. 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 BLERDgirl! This month, we are delighted to feature BLERDgirl from Philadelphia! Like many other weight loss surgery patients, BLERDgirl had always been overweight, growing from a pudgy toddler to a chubby teen to an overweight adult. She was always popular and active, though, and it wasn’t until she became morbidly obese that her weight interfered with her quality of life. She could no longer breathe easily while skiing at altitude, couldn’t fit in airplane sits, and didn’t enjoy traveling abroad where “things are designed for smaller people.” BLERDgirl still didn’t have obesity-related comorbidities, although she does have her share of health concerns, started with a long list of allergies to foods and medications. She battled uterine cancer 10 years ago, and had to get a hysterectomy that left her with a spastic bladder. She tore her meniscus skiing in 2008. A bout with facial shingles left her with facial nerve damage called trigeminal neuralgia. Most recently, she developed vertigo, which leaves her feeling dizzy. Throughout this period, BLERDgirl gained and lost 35 to 50 pounds multiple times. BLERDgirl had a friend who was doing well with gastric bypass surgery, and she investigated and eventually settled on gastric sleeve. The surgery wasn’t easy because of her allergies. She was also a high-risk case because of her weight of 400 pounds at a height of 5’3”. BLERDgirl was also concerned about her diet, since she is a vegetarian – no meat, chicken, or fish – and almost vegan – no yogurt, cheese, or eggs. Still, she got the surgery in September of 2014, and has since lost 48 pounds. BLERDgirl suspected that losing some weight would help with some of her conditions, and it looks like she was right. Since getting the surgery, she has gone for over 3 months without an allergic reaction – compare that to less than a week without a reaction before surgery – and has enjoyed a more dependable bladder and more energy. Other great moments include waking up pain-free after surgery, and losing weight quickly so far. BLERDgirl says she has a good support group that meets in person, but she also wanted to be able to chat with other bariatric patients. She has found friends on BariatricPal, and enjoys sharing ideas and encouragement with them. To members struggling with their weight, BLERDgirl suggests following your plan. She also says to make sure you do your research before choosing a surgeon and surgery, and to read up on good nutrition. Finally, exercise. Whether it’s sitting or standing, everyone can do some exercise. Thanks, BLERDgirl, for being in our member spotlight! Congratulations on your progress. We are excited to continue your journey with you! Let us know if you would like to be in the Member Spotlight section of the newsletter or there is a member you would like to see featured. Post in the Member Spotlight Forum or send a private message (PM) to Alex Brecher. It doesn’t matter if you’re at goal weight or pre-surgery – you have a unique story, and we want to hear it! Weight Loss and Knee Pain: Another Reason to Get Bariatric Surgery? Knee pain can be part of a vicious cycle when you are obese. Your knees hurt, so you don’t feel like exercising. Instead of exercising, you eat. Or you feel bad, so you eat. You gain weight, and your knees can’t take the extra strain. So they hurt. And you stop exercising. The cycle continues. Risks of Knee Replacement Surgery It gets worse, too. When you are carrying around so much extra weight, treating knee pain is much more difficult. For example, knee replacement surgery is a riskier operation that may not work as well as in normal-weight individuals. Obese patients have a higher risk of infections, blood clots, and cardiac events during surgery. And, the replacement knee can wear out faster. Bariatric Surgery to Reduce Knee Pain? If this sounds familiar, you may be wondering whether there’s hope. There is. It turns out that bariatric surgery doesn’t just lower your risk for diabetes, heart disease, and similar obesity-related conditions. Losing weight after weight loss surgery also helps reduce knee pain. In a review article published in the December 2014 edition of the journal “Obesity Reviews,” researchers looked at 3,837 patients and found knee pain and stiffness decreased, while knee function tended to increase. The reasons are simple. First, you’re putting too much stress on your knees when you force them to carry around extra pounds. Second, obesity can make you turn and twist differently than a normal weigh person, and this puts unusual strain on the knee. Something Else to Consider While Weighing Your Options If you’ve been suffering from knee pain for years, you may be thinking about knee surgery. At the same time, if you’ve been trying to lose weight for years, bariatric surgery may be in your future. It’s worth asking your doctor if you should try bariatric surgery before putting your knee under the knife. You just might save yourself the trouble of surgery for your knee, or at least make that knee surgery more effective if you lose weight first. Fueling Up for the Day: Getting a High-Protein Breakfast You learned in Weight Loss Surgery 101 that protein is the most important nutrient. It helps you stay full, keeps your muscles, hair, skin, and nails healthy, and supports your immune system. Protein should be the first nutrient you choose at each meal. Is it? As the year gets underway and you get back into your regular routine, take a look at your breakfasts, Are you making sure to include one to two high-protein foods in each one? Or are you using lack of time as an excuse to skip Breakfast or grab a sugary or starchy pastry that’ll wreak havoc on your blood sugar and hunger levels? Busy or Not, Include One to Two Servings of Protein You don’t need a lot of time to have a healthy, high-protein breakfast. There are plenty of quick breakfasts to try. After choosing your protein, add in a fruit or vegetable, or a serving of starch. If you use any fat, make sure it’s a healthy one, such as Peanut Butter or olive oil, and not saturated. Here are a few breakfast ideas. Oatmeal pancakes made with cottage cheese, served with Greek yogurt. Egg whites and cheese on a whole-grain English muffin half. Oatmeal made with Protein Powder, served with apples and cinnamon. omelet with spinach, tomatoes, and low-fat feta cheese. Scrambled eggs served with turkey bacon and melon. Hot oat bran Cereal served with low-fat turkey sausage. Turn Disaster into Triumph Things always come up. No matter how hard you plan, it’s possible that you may find yourself leaving home without breakfast. As you pull up into the drive-through or coffee shop parking lot, don’t beat yourself up. Instead, focus on the healthy foods you could have. An egg white and ham sandwich – skip the bread.< /li> Reduced fat yogurt and fresh fruit salad or an apple or orange. Half of a whole-wheat bagel and Peanut Butter.< /li> Cereal and skim milk. Your healthy breakfast gets your day started on the right foot, so don’t miss out! That’s all we’ve got for this newsletter. Keep up the good work on those New Year’s resolutions, and keep sharing your journey with us over at BariatricPal.

[BLERDgirl 6,417]

There's my life in a nutshell! Thanks for including me in the member spotlight. I hope I can be encouraging to other members!

[JustWatchMe 7,117]

@@BLERDgirl, awesome is the word that comes to mind reading this. You're a great, inspirational presence on these boards, and I loved reading your story so far!!

[BLERDgirl 6,417]

@@JustWatchMe Thanks!