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Happy Thanksgiving from BariatricPal! - November 2016



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Hey BariatricPal Members!

Happy Thanksgiving! It’s a favorite holiday for so many of us: friends and family, a well-deserved break after a busy autumn, and a delicious meal. If it’s the meal that worries you, you’re in luck because BariatricPal is here to support you! This is what you’ll find in this Thanksgiving newsletter.

  • What BariatricPal Is Thankful for This Year
  • Your Weight Loss Thanksgiving
  • Keep Moving This Winter

I hope you enjoy the newsletter, and find a few helpful tips for making this Thanksgiving a healthy one for yourself. I hope you have a lot to be thankful for, and BariatricPal is certainly thankful to have you as a member.

Sincerely,

Alex Brecher

Founder, BariatricPal

What BariatricPal Is Thankful for This Year

Thanksgiving is all about gratitude, which is why it is one of BariatricPal’s favorite holidays. We have a lot to be thankful for!

We’re Thankful for Our Members

Thank you to all our members. You make our community possible. Our forums are continuing to grow, and we are able to help more and more people plan for and successfully get through their weight loss surgeries. Thank you very much for your membership, your support, and your participation on the boards.

We’re Thankful for Our Opportunities to Fight Obesity

We are so excited every time we see how much we can impact the weight loss surgery community. Along supporting WLS patients with our thriving communities, we have been able to reach out to healthcare providers and the industry to advocate for weight loss surgery patients. We are developing all kinds of partnerships with surgeons and other bariatric care providers to improve obesity care, and we have been active in national conferences and movements to promote weight loss surgery awareness, acceptance, and care.

We’re Thankful for Our Store

Talk about being able to support weight loss surgery patients! The BariatricPal Store takes a lot of the guesswork out of shopping for bariatric foods and Vitamins, and we are thankful for the opportunity to provide this service! From our opening last year, we have expanded dramatically. You can find all kinds of Protein meals, Snacks, and bars, Protein shakes, Soups, and Hot drinks for the liquid pre-op and post-op diets, and bariatric Vitamins. If you’ve never come by before, use coupon code BPNewsletter10 to get a 10% discount off your first order.

Your Weight Loss Thanksgiving

There was a time in your life when Thanksgiving meant eating too much and paying the price as you slept it off on the couch, felt your stomach stretch painfully, and weighed yourself the next morning, knowing the damage you did was pretty bad.

Not this year! If you are focused on getting healthy, losing weight, and hitting those WLS milestones, Thanksgiving dinner will take on a whole new meaning. It may be hard, but you can actually get in a hgh-protein meal with a reasonable number of calories – if you pay attention!

Take the Good

Thanksgiving dinner is not all bad! Take the main course, for example. Turkey is one of the leanest Proteins you can find, so help yourself to a single portion of skinless turkey. Check the table for anything else you can fit into your diet: you might find some undressed salad, plain roasted vegetables, or even fresh fruit.< /p>

Skip or Swap the Bad

There’s a lot of “bad” at this meal! Add together a mound of stuffing, a pile of mashed potatoes with gravy, dinner rolls with butter, some cranberry sauce, and a few helpings of corn or green bean casserole, and you are looking at well over 1,000 calories before thinking about dessert. Speaking of dessert, you’re looking at 400 or more calories per slice of pumpkin or pecan pie.

No, thank you! Focus on your turkey and vegetables, and strike up some calorie-free conversation with your neighbor every time you are tempted to reach for a diet disaster.

Swap as You Can

You can get the flavors of Thanksgiving with a lot fewer calories just by making some swaps. Try pureed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes, roasted green Beans or green bean frittata with egg whites instead of green bean casserole, and cranberry sauce with low-calorie sweetener instead of sugar in your favorite recipe.

Even dessert is possible if you plan it right. You can make sugar-free protein pumpkin pie with pumpkin puree, your choice of low-calorie sugar substitute, spices such as cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, cloves, and nutmeg to taste, egg whites, and Vanilla Protein powder.

Don’t Get Caught off Guard

It is not always Thanksgiving dinner itself that causes the damage. The worst damage comes from the post-dinner trips to the kitchen for another piece of pie, the raids of the fridge to make yourself smorgasbords of leftovers, and the possibility of letting Thanksgiving dinner turn into a four-day nonstop eating event from Thursday to Sunday.

Keep your guard up and avoid these pitfalls. Try to give yourself a limit: after dinner on Thursday, your Thanksgiving is over. Distract yourself with Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping, Thanksgiving weekend football, making healthy leftover turkey recipes, plenty of walks outside, and, well, anything else you can think of to stay away from the unhealthy leftovers.

Keep Moving This Winter

Exercising can be more difficult in the winter because of cold, wet, or snowy conditions. Still, you can do it! When you keep up a regular exercise routine, you are more likely to stay motivated to stay on your WLS diet, and you will lose weight faster. Here are a few options for getting in your safe and comfortable winter workouts.

Hibernate in the Gym

The gym can be the best place for many of us to work out. It has all the equipment you need and it removes the distractions of home so you can focus on your workout. To save time, you can take a shower at the gym on the way to work or on your lunch hour. Beginners might want to start on a recumbent bike or on the treadmill. When you want to branch out a little, here are some possibilities.

  • Try a little circuit training by using the free weights and weight machines. You will build strength and prevent boredom.
  • Take some group exercise classes from aerobics to strength training to yoga to pilates. You can always scale back the intensity to stay safe at your level of fitness.
  • Pay for a session or a series of sessions with a personal trainer, if you can afford it. You can learn new exercises and get in some of the best workouts of your life.

Stay Safe Outside

Staying outside for your activity all winter long is an option, even if you live in the Midwest, Northeast, or somewhere else with a serious winter. You can get some fresh air and clear your head, and your lungs will not freeze, contrary to popular belief! Just take a few steps to stay safe.

  • Layer up. You will warm up, so start with plenty of layers and peel them off as needed to stay comfortable.
  • Go against the wind first, so that you are going with the wind when you are approaching home near the end of your workout and you are more tired.
  • Know signs of hypothermia and frostbite, and go indoors immediately if you start to have them.
  • Stay inside if conditions are dangerous, such as if roads are icy or snowfall is heavy.

Cozy Up Right at Home

You can always get in a workout inside if weather is bad or if you just prefer to stay home. Use your workout as a chance to listen to some favorite songs or watch a TV show you’ve been putting off. You can walk on a treadmill or pedal on a stationary bike, and jump off to lift some dumbbells during commercial breaks.

Have a wonderful and relaxing long weekend with your loved ones, and give a little thought to your weight and health when you can. The forums are always ready to provide a little support and motivation, so stop by whenever you’re running low!

Happy Thanksgiving!


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Happy Thanksgiving Alex!

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Happy Thanksgiving

MsShortyDee

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      2 days until I fly out to San Diego to have my Bypass Surg. in Tiajuana Mexico. Not gonna lie, the nerves are starting to surface. I don't fear the surgery itself, or the fact that I'm traveling alone, but its the aftermath that I'm stressing about the most, after this 8 week wait. I'm excited to finally be here, but I am really dreading the post surgical chapter. I know its going to be tough, real tough and I think I'm just in my head to much now that the day i here. Wish me luck, Hopefully I'm one of the lucky ones, and everything goes smoothly. Cant wait to give an exciting update,. If there is anyone else have a June bypass or even a recent one, Id love to have someone to compare war stories with. Also, anyone near San Antonio Tx? See ya soon with the future me. 💜
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      1. Selina333

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. LeighaTR

        I hope your surgery on Wednesday goes well. You will be able to do all sorts of new things as you find your new normal after surgery. I don't know this from experience yet, but I am seeing a lot of positive things from people who have had it done. Best of luck!

    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

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        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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