BariatricPal Newsletter - October 2015

[Alex Brecher 10,516]

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Hey BariatricPal Members! For most of us, this is a good time to focus on weight loss and health. Summer vacation is long over, and the hectic holiday season hasn’t yet started. If you need a little motivation to buckle down and get to work, you just may be able to find it in the newsletter and on BariatricPal. So here’s the run-down of this month’s newsletter. On the Boards: Update Your Weight Loss! Member Spotlight: Meet OKCPirate! On the Boards: Join the Fun! Don’t forget: BariatricPal is your community, and it couldn’t exist without your support. I always want to hear your feedback and suggestions to make BariatricPal an even better source of support for you. Thanks, and don’t forget to share your great accomplishments this month! Sincerely, Alex Brecher Founder, BariatricPal Update Your Weight Loss! We’ve lost a lot of weight as a community. How much? Over 3 million pounds! Check out the counter on the right side of almost any page on BariatricPal. Don’t forget to add your weight loss to the total! There are two ways you can do this. Way 1: Log in to BariatricPal. Just under the community’s weight loss total (where it says, “Together, we have lost…”), just enter your starting weight and current weight. Select “Update your weight,” and your weight will add to our growing total! Way 2: Log in to BariatricPal and go to the Surgery Information section in your User Control Panel settings. You can get there from here. Type in your starting weight and current weight, then select “Save Changes” near the bottom of the page. You get to choose – Way 1 or Way 2. Either way, make sure we count your weight loss in our total! It’s just another way of celebrating your hard work and the progress you’re making in your weight loss surgery journey. Member Spotlight – Meet OKCPirate This week, we’re delighted to feature OKCPirate from Oklahoma City in our newsletter. His wakeup call came in January of 2015, when he started seeing strange lights out of the side of his eyes. His doctor told him that was a warning sign, and things would get more serious if he didn’t lose weight. His highest weight was 305 lbs. Taking a closer look, OKCPirate realized he was spending over $2000 per year on his CPAP machine, blood pressure medication, and gout medication. Beyond that, there were effects such as a painful knee, higher clothing costs, and trouble getting a date. OKCPirate tried Weight Watchers and had some success, but yo-yo dieted Traveling for work made it harder to keep off the weight. Things changed when he heard a podcast on the obesity crisis. The presenters stated that behavioral change results in 8% chance of long term success, but bariatric surgery offers 80% chance. He didn’t believe it at first, but looked it up and sure enough, those statistics were accurate. He decided to go for the gastric sleeve in Mexico, where it is less expensive. OKC used BariatricPal as he was planning his surgery to get advice and encouragement, as well as to learn what to expect. He started to get in shape, practiced eating slower, and worked with a therapist on mental changes. OKCPirate credits his easier recovery with his careful preparation, including following the pre-op diet to the letter. The hardest parts for him, in fact, were the comments from some friends who disagreed with his decision to get the surgery. He also felt nervous wondering which foods he would and would not be able to tolerate. Since getting the surgery in November of 2014, OKCPirate has dropped 89 lbs, from 272 to 216 lbs. He says life is easier now. He doesn’t need to worry ahead of time about cutting his toenails, sitting in a booth at a restaurant, and using his laptop on a plane. His knee doesn’t hurt, and he’s off his CPAP and blood pressure medications. He loves being more intimate with his girlfriend, wearing the same size pants he wore in college, and giving away his old clothes. OKCPirate continues to visit BariatricPal to encourage others and to learn from “pioneers who have cleared a great trail for me to follow.” For those who are struggling with their weight loss, he says you are fighting against your hormones. A $5000 investment, he says, can help you win the battle. Thanks, OKCPirate, for sharing your story and advice. You look fantastic, and deserve to feel as good as you to! To see a photo of OKCPirate running a road race, go to his profile on BariatricPal. If there’s anyone you would like to see featured in the spotlight, let us know on the Member Spotlight forum on BariatricPal. You can also PM Alex Brecher. Don’t forget you can nominate yourself, too. We want to know your story! 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. Unjury and Opurity 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. Around the Boards…Join the Fun! BariatricPal is the place to be if you’re looking for encouragement, advice, or ideas, or just some good old company. We’ve got something for everyone, whether you’re asking for help, sharing advice, or doing a bit of both. Recipes… Whether you’re pre-op, post-op, or in maintenance, the recipes are what it’s all about, right? Almost all of us could use a good new recipe here and there, and BariatricPal is about the best place you can go to exchange them. Check out a discussion on the pre-op liquid diet, how to get through the pureed foods diet, or the 411 on post-op expectations. …And More Once you’ve got your meal plan under control, don’t forget to make yourself at home on one of the specific weight loss surgery boards, such as the lap-band, gastric bypass, or gastric sleeve forum. And, take a look at what else is hot. Find out what to do if you hate exercising (or share your ideas!), talk about bariatric surgery do’s and dont’s, or share your bariatric surgery nightmare or fear. If it’s got to do with weight loss surgery, it’s on BariatricPal…and if it’s not, just start a conversation yourself! Thanks for reading the newsletter and for being a member of the BariatricPal community. Here’s to a month of seeing you make great progress towards your goals…and sharing every step of the journey with us on BariatricPal!

[Elode 8,093]

@@OKCPirate Yay!!

[Djmohr 6,965]

@@OKCPirate

Congratulations on your success!

[OKCPirate 5,323]

@@Djmohr - thank you it has been a very fun and rewarding endeavor. Because of the sage advise of the many of the veterans of this site I have had very few problems. So many thanks to everyone who contributes generously of their time to help their fellow WLS losers.

[The Candidate 3,215]

Great interview @@OKCPirate You're definitely an inspiration!

Edited October 14, 2015 by The Post Op