Category Archives: After Weight Loss Surgery
Habit Stacking Helps Hit Weight Loss Goals Both Before & After Bariatric Surgery
Most of us are looking for ways to improve our lives or make them more manageable. Self-help books, classes, gurus, and products are trendy, generating billions in sales every year. Who wouldn’t want to improve their life? Everyone wants to make their life better somehow, and of course, they can! One method for achieving this is gaining popularity, known as habit stacking. You can use habit stacking to improve almost any aspect of your life and particularly your health.
Using Photos to Jumpstart Your Weight Loss
When dealing with excess weight and obesity, you may avoid taking photos and videos on vacations or family get-togethers. You may even dislike looking in the mirror. However, doing so can be a great way to jumpstart your weight loss and keep yourself motivated as you begin to lose weight.
Before bariatric surgery, many patients recall the moment that they looked at a recent photo of themselves. Some declare that they didn’t even recognize themselves. They looked older and larger than they believed themselves to be. However, that stark realization finally allows many patients to come to terms with where they are and where they need to go. It is often when they realize that they can’t do it by themselves. There’s just too much weight to lose.
But even after surgery, photos and journaling play a big part in success. We suggest taking pictures of yourself every few weeks during the first six months to a year after surgery, and after that time, taking a photo once every 2 to 3 months helps see your longer-term progress. Journaling your progress is also a great way not only to lose more weight but to remind yourself of how far you’ve come, especially when you’re feeling down or unmotivated.
Caffeine’s Place in the Bariatric Diet
Today we will be talking about caffeine, a staple in just about everyone’s diet. Whether it is coffee, black, or green teas, chocolate, or sodas, caffeinated products are ubiquitous in modern-day society. Over the past several decades, we’ve heard mixed reviews about caffeinated products and caffeine. Are they helpful or hurtful? Can they help you lose weight, or do they make you hungry? The data is all over the map. However, there are some steadfast rules that bariatric patients need to follow to ensure that their caffeine consumption is not detrimental to their health and their weight loss after bariatric surgery.
Having an Orthopedic Procedure After Bariatric Surgery
Decades of excess weight may have caused you to experience significant joint pain. This joint pain is common in those suffering from obesity and is called osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis occurs when the soft cartilage between our joints, which essentially acts as a protective layer between bones, begins to degrade. You can imagine how the constant excess weight rubbing on the structures can wear them down over time. The result can be significant pain that may lead to the need for joint replacement surgery. Most commonly, this occurs in the knees and hips, but can occur almost anywhere in the body. If you have visited an orthopedic surgeon about your chronic pain, and you have a BMI of over 40, you’ve likely been told that a procedure is too risky and that you must lose some weight prior to surgery.
Best Low Impact Exercises for Bariatric Patients
You’ve been cleared to exercise. So now what?
This is far less daunting than it sounds. For some of us, the gym was not our first hang out pre-surgery. Neither was spin class, the tennis court, the weekend hikes or the stand-up paddleboard. But guess what? Your new life is the golden ticket to some of life‘s best experiences that will broaden your free-time horizons, increase your health-conscious circle of friends, and lead to tremendous success in your weight loss journey.
What Is Dumping Syndrome? (And Why It Might not Be All Bad)
No surgery is 100% risk and consideration free and the gastric bypass is no different. In many cases, when we talk about the side effects of surgery, we focus on the decidedly negative ones. However, dumping syndrome is one of those very interesting side effects that, while very uncomfortable for the patient, may actually have some long term beneficial value. When we discussed dumping syndrome, we limit our discussion to the gastric bypass because of the way that the stomach is changed and. The outlets from the stomach into the small intestine, known as the stoma is removed and rebuilt during a bypass surgery. The new valve is not as efficient or as strong as the natural valve. This means that food and drink can enter into the more sensitive small intestines faster without being fully procesed in the stomach. This is known as rapid gastric emptying or dumping syndrome.
To Wait or Not To Wait – Buying Clothes After Bariatric Surgery
It is exciting to see results after bariatric surgery. You start to shed pound after pound and your clothes do not fit quite like they used to. The first place your mind may jump to is going shopping and investing in an entire new wardrobe. You have come a long way and worked so hard to get to where you are now – you are deserving of a little reward. However, buying a whole new wardrobe after the first signs of weight loss may be premature, and may end up costing you more money than necessary.
Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies after Bariatric Surgery
If you think that consuming a small fraction of the calories you were vs before surgery may lead to nutritional deficiencies, you may be right. And this is something that we monitor very carefully after bariatric surgery. Our bodies absorb nutrients through food and drink, but if our stomachs are too small to receive enough food to fulfill these needs, we may need supplementation.
Protein Fortified Strawberry Waffles
When you want a warm, satisfying breakfast, you need a recipe that both hits the spot and fills you up. Adding protein helps keep you feeling full longer and adds nutrition to an otherwise unbalanced choice. Try these strawberry waffles and let us know what you think!
Bariatric Surgery Tied to Lowered Risk of Colorectal Cancer
Please take the time to read a recent article from MedScape.com regarding Bariatric Surgery Tied to Lowered Risk of Colorectal Cancer.
We invite you to learn more about your bariatric treatment options or colon health screening with the Memorial Advanced Surgery Team.
