Two VERY popular beliefs especially in the WLS community

I went to The Vitamin Shoppe to get a few things to put into the FAN APPRECIATION BOX GIVEAWAY and at the register they handed me a complimentary
copy of their magazine, Amazing Wellness.

Click me for a link to the article!

I don't normally read these magazines because I think that more often than not its the same recycled  reduced, and reused drivel that you see everywhere else. As I flipped through and came to the article "Weight Loss Myths Debunked" I sure as hell wasn't expecting to see anything that resonated with me. I was expecting to see asinine myths like...

"A pound of muscle weighs more than a pound of fat"

"Once you start dieting you can never eat out!"

"Grapefruit makes you lose more weight than other foods"

Instead I saw this...

Myth Number 2: Rapid weight loss is associated with poorer long term weight loss outcomes.

Myth Number 3: You have to be ready.

I'm going to start with Number 3 "You have to be ready"

I'm a moderator on a a Gastric Sleeve Support group on Facebook and the question that pops up the most is "What do I need to do to get ready for surgery?"

You know what I tell people? EAT!!!

Enjoy your whole stomach because you will never be able to eat the same again. Sure life is better and easier to tackle smaller, but there are days even 3 years out where I will put down my fork pissed off that Sleevie is so full I can't even swallow the food that I'm currently chewing and I have to spit it out. Honestly,  there are times that I miss being able to eat the way that I used to. I don't miss anything else about being fat. It's akin to missing an old lover. Sure he may have been unreliable and moody with poor credit, living in his mama's basement surrounded by sit he called "art" and you know you're better off without, but dam he sure could ________. Fill in your own blank. No relationship is all good or all bad. Even the one with food.

I've been accused of encouraging the wrong type of behavior and that as I leader I should encourage people to make healthier lifestyle choices. BUT having surgery is a healthy lifestyle choice and it will  kick your ass into gear. If you want to go an austere eating plan before surgery, I will NEVER discourage you. If you ask me what I think, that's another story.

Getting ready for bariatric surgery means researching ALL available options, making sure that you have a competent board certified surgeon, and following the presurgery eating plan that your surgeon advises.

This is verbatim what  the article says.

"...researchers point to convincing data showing that when “readiness” is evaluated among folks who sign up for behavioral programs or undergo obesity surgery, where someone falls on a “readiness scale” used to determine motivation does not predict how closely someone will stick to a program or the amount of weight that will be lost..."

There you have it. The thoughts I've had in my head all along are finally supported by research in black and white.

On to Myth Number 2 "Rapid weight loss is associated with poorer long term weight loss outcomes."

I've lost weight fast and I've lost weight slow. I did not keep if off better losing it fast. In fact losing less than a pound a week was a DISASTER for me and I ended up just throwing it all out of the windows..and doors, too and went on a bender! I know that there are those who will tell me that living and eating healthy is its own reward, but I'm sorry, I need to see my efforts. Fuck that! I'm a human, not an android. They think that eating well leads to weight loss but I find that for myself weight loss leads to eating well. If I can drop a couple of pounds in a couple of days, that is major encouragement for me to keep the momentum going and give up CUPCAKES for key lime protein shakes. And before you even go there I'm not talking about extended Master Cleanses or any other bullshit like that. We ALL know that stuff like that isn't sustainable. A few days of protein shakes, followed by a few days of soft foods, etc...that is reasonable.

This ties back into the point in the earlier paragraph about "getting ready". The initial weight loss after bariatric surgery is so rapid and exciting you wanna do what you are supposed to do to keep it up. You're ready when that weight starts falling off.

So, why don't you check out that article for yourself and tell me what you think in the comments.

The Winner of the Powerful Hunger Giveaway is

Purple_moonflower123!!!

Please send Dagny an email with your contact information so that you can be the proud owner of your very own electronic copy of the book.

Thanks to ALL who entered.

FYI I'm currently having a fan appreciation giveaway on the Waning Woman Facebook Page. It is STILL open so look for your chance to enter today. The box has a lot of great items including a pair of cupcake earrings!!!!!!

So scoot on over to facebook.

Ten Things You Should Know About Losing Weight

I just watched the most. (overuse of "amazing" in 5....4....3...2...1)

UH-MAZING

His life was just changed. That's no sun, that's a lightbulb going off

documentary on KERA about weight loss. It's not one of those stupid, condescending, eat-less-move-more, kind of shows. There is real bonafide science behind this here thang!

While it is not about weight loss surgery, it actually explains a few key points in post op eating.

1. Protein first

2. No water with meals


Skip to about minute 25 for reasearch that explains why we shouldn't eat and drink at the same time.

Watch 10 Things You Need To Know About Losing Weight on PBS. See more from KPBS Presents.

Watch this thing from beginning to end. I beg you!

Image courtesy of [image creator name] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Gaining Weight

Well, hell.

Alice isn't in Wonderland anymore.

I am today, but I wasn't yesterday or the day before that. I had to text my friend Shana yesterday and tell her that I was thisclose to falling out on the floor and having a world class, kindergartner in the corner, "Bitch, don't do me!" kind of meltdown. Not a screaming fit....a guttural wail, no-bones-in-my-body, melt and collapse onto the floor like a good Victorian woman, meltdown......."Jeeves, bring the smelling salts and the vapours!"

This was after two days of careful tracking and watching my intake and my weight went up, so I thought I'd earned a right to have that moment. Shana took that away from me when she gave me the "Back away from the edge" encouragement that  needed. I'll never forgive her for that.

I just don't have a lot of wiggle room to work with. Other than my fasting times, I am ALWAYS less than 10 lbs away from kissing onderland goodbye. That is a precarious place to be. It's sooo easy to say that "it's just a number" but how many of you live in this zone AND don't have more weight to lose. For most of you, this is a transitional zone and you wave goodbye to it as you as happily skip to the 180's, 170's, 160's and so  on and so forth. I'm not that lucky.

Save the censure and reprobation for something else and don't tell me that it's just a number and that it's in my head.
It may be just a number, but the psychology of numbers is very well understood.

 

"Retailers almost never round up because of psychological pricing, the old marketing rule that dictates that consumers are more easily swayed by prices that end with ".99" because they seem substantially cheaper." source

I want to be substantially cheaper! Is that too much to ask?

Is this the normal "bounceback" weight that comes after I reach your nadir or lowest point?
Is this regain?
At what point does it turn into regain?
What's the magic formula? EWL/BMI + shoe size * (GW+CW+NSV)
Is this because I haven't been to the gym in a while?

Hopefully, I'll get this figured out because honestly I don't like the way that I feel in my clothes and I see it. This is not a case of lyzing.

Question:
 Do you think that you HAVE to accept some weight gain after the honeymoon period is over?

Powerful Hunger: Inspiration and Provocation. Giveaway

It's dogeared and not really that pretty, but it's the inside that counts

Dagny Kight sent me a copy of her book Powerful Hunger and to say I devoured it is not much of an overstatement. The first day I received it, I sat down by the lake until nightfall reading it. When the sun went down taking the heat and the light with it, I carried it into the house and didn't stop until I was done just about an hour later. Yeah, it's that's good. This is NOT a book about weight loss surgery. Its tools and fundamental ideas are applicable no matter which side of the cut you're on.

I found out earlier this week that both Dagny and her book are nominated for Best Author and Best Book in the Backstage WLS Awards. I thought that this would be a great time to kind of go over a point or two and give my thoughts about some things in the book.

Here's the disclaimer though: Dagny and her style of writing are neither cuddly nor soft. If you're looking for justification for you obesity or a "root cause" you won't find it here.You won't be showered with overly saccharine quotes. This book isn't therapy. It's self help. Maybe even a tiny bit inspirational. But don't you dare tell her I said that.

Moderation:

One point that Dagny touches on in her book is the idea that all things can be eaten in moderation. She gives this idea a resounding "Hell to the no!" Makes you think doesn't it?

She states "We use this word ourselves when we are not ready to break the connection to the foods that drive addictive behavior. We turn to the concept of "moderation" when we want to find a way to continue eating those foods, persisting in the belief that we are immune to the value that they hold over our lives"

And while you guys know that I am the Queen Regnant of Cupcakistan, I have to reluctantly agree. I think that a lot of us, after reaching a normal size want to think that we are normal. We want to eat like someone who has never had a weight problem. The person who has been 120 lbs all of their adult life can eat whatever they want. You have been 120 lbs for the past year. The truth is our outsides don't match our insides and losing weight doesn't not change these hardwired addictive pathways.
One prevailing argument is that while you can abstain from coke/meth/alcohol because you don't need them to live, you can't do the same with food. It is true. You don't need hyperpalatable, scientifically engineered food to live, though. Cupcakes are another story.....for me anyway. This leads me to another key point in her book.

Eating cleanly:

Keeping a very simple diet of mostly whole foods is one of the lanes on the pathway to long term success. She is a cheerleader for steel cut oats, whole eggs, cruciferous vegetables, and whole grains like amaranth. A few other non food items that star in her kitchen are essential to her lifestyle are the George Foreman grill, a wok, a steamer, and the good ole trusty slow cooker.

  I want to tell you more, but I don't want this to end up being a synopsis of her book. I'm just going to briefly list a few quotes that resonated with me.

"Attempting to decipher the past will not change it"
"What needs to be done now?!"
"In a society where thinness is currency, the weight loss surgery patient is viewed as having stolen something of great value"

I really like the last one. As a matter of fact I really enjoyed the book as a whole and it is no surprise that she was nominated.

Anyway, she has so generously offered up either an electronic version or hard copy of the book to one of you lucky readers.

In order to enter the contest:
1. Like the Powerful Hunger FB Fan Page and say "Hi"
2. Leave a comment on this blog post indicating which version you would like if you won.

Edited 4/2: Someone emailed me about privacy concerns on FACEBOOK. Liking either page is NOT mandatory. If you do, you will just get an extra entry. Just comment on this post and you are entered.

For extra entries

Like the Waning Woman FB fan page, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Basically, you get one point for following me on any of my other social media outlets. Just let me know when you comment how many chances you get.

Follow Powerful Hunger on Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, etc. Same applies here. Just let me know.

I'm not your mama and I don't have time to follow up behind you, so let's just use the honor system. If you win the book and you haven't done what you said you did, I can't guarantee that you won't wake up one night with Dagny menacingly holding a kettlebell in the corner of your bedroom.
 I. Just. Cant.

Closes 4/8/2012

Edited 4/2: Someone emailed me about privacy concerns on FACEBOOK. Liking either page is NOT mandatory. If you do, you will just get an extra entry. Just comment on this post and you are entered.