Your Weight Matters: 2013 Obesity Action Coalition Conference

The OAC, Obesity Action Committee, had their inaugural event in Dallas last year and I wasn't really sure what to expect. I've been to a few conferences before but the experiences are as varied as the agenda of the different organizations, are there are a lot of different organizations. Coming into the community you see quite a few letters thrown around and it can be confusing as all hell. I had thought I had an idea what the OAC was about (Fighting Obesity, duh?!) but it wasn't until I was there that I really understood.

I know that this sounds corny, but the OAC is right there on the front lines.
We are trying to change the way that obesity/obesity related stigma is dealt with on a sweeping level from municipal to federal.
We're infiltrating The Hill, your State Representatives' offices, even your Senators'
We are the people that you DON'T see.

I bet you didn't know that the OAC is behind getting Medicare coverage for the Sleeve, Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy.

Did you know that the OAC is petitioning our elected leaders to establish a Congressional Treat Obesity Caucus? Like most people, you probably didn't even realize there was a need for one because the need seems obvious. They have them for salmon and even algae, but not obesity? With a few simple clicks you can even send a letter/email to your representative and get them on board by inputting little more than your name and zip code.

Have you heard about those wellness plans many companies are initiating with their group health coverage? Insurance rates are soaring and there is the thought that incentivizing (eg. weight loss) or penalizing (eg weight gain) certain standards can help with overall costs. Sounds good right? They are just encouraging us to be healthy.
The truth is shaming and bribery don't work and you are a fool if you think this is anything but that.
In some instances, they will penalize shame you for having a BMI over 30 but then turn right around and not even offer any sort of health coverage to help you shed the weight.

The OAC is tirelessly advocating and acting to stop many discriminatory policies like these. Action is our middle name.

You can join the OAC too and go to the conference in Phoenix this year. Be a part of the "We"

I want to be a part of the "We" but I will need your help to get there. The OAC is sponsoring a blogger recruitment contest and all I need is for ten of you to put my name in the referral spot. It's that simple. Then I will have a chance to attend the conference for free. Go register. You know you want to be a part of this.

If you have already registered, send an email to convention@obesityaction.org and tell them to put Waning Woman/Kesha in the referral spot. The recruitment contest ends July 15 so get those registrations in.

Spread the word about this incredible event. #YWM2013

You wanna be there. Trust me.

So I got a colonic the other day...

This is me on the table

I've been on Groupon like crazy lately so when I saw a "INFRARED WRAP LOSE A MILLION POUNDS IN JUST 45 MINUTES PLUS A SESSION OF COLON HYDROTHERAPY FOR JUST 29.99" I had to try it. I know better of course but curiosity is a mother!

Let me tell you about the wrap first.
I arrived at the office filled out a few forms and I went into a room where I changed into sweatpants and  long sleeve shirt. After donning the exquisitely fashinable garb, I went into the room where they put on some Enya-esque music and old me to lay on a table. The wrap isn't really a mummy like wrap so much as it is a big ass electric blanket. So they burritoed me, and before I knew it, my ass was being woken up 45 minutes later soaked from head to toe. That was it. The heat put me right to sleep and I woke up needing a change of clothes. Not unlike a the last time I went to Cancun...... but instead of heat it was mezcal and instead of a change of clothes it was a new identity, but that's a whole other story. Anyhoo I'd give it 2.5 stars out of 5. I'd do it again if somebody else was paying for it. In all seriousness though even after I rehydrated I've been down a pound and a half. Who knows.

Just a little over a week later, I returned to the same place for my colonic. My brother told me that he'd had one and that afterwards he felt as light as Hugh Jackman on Broadway in a leotard and pointe shoes. Sounds magical right?
Anyway I was whisked into this small room with the LIBBE contraption, TV, candles, and most important on the list- a toilet. The practitioner came into the room, shot the shit with me, talked a little about homeopathic and non traditional medicine, and then left me in the room to get ready.

I stripped from the waist down, put on a t shirt and laid on the table. The good thing about the LIBBE system in that you get to put the nozzle into your own butt. After I was comfortably on the table with tube and my butt and draped for modesty the practitioner came back in, popped in a DVD and instructed me to turn on the machine.

The nozzle that goes in your butt. 

He told me not to bear down, but the first couple of times it was hard not to. The water filled up my lower bowel and I was kinda scared to release because I it felt like the nozzle was going to fly right out of my butt. Luckily it didn't this time and out of me came a dirty tinged, speckled fluid.

After I released I didn't feel relief and I kinda tensed up at the anticipation of the next fill. My toes curled up a little bit as the liquid ascended higher into my colon and I felt the distenstion of my abdomen. In a brief moment of "OMG WTF" panic I almost hopped my Black ass down off of the table after I envisioned the water coursing through my ENTIRE digestive system, through Sleevie, up and out of my esophagus, and down trachea drowning me right there on the table. I didn't die, but with that release I felt beads of sweat pop up on my forehead.

After that point, there really weren't anymore voluntary releases. My sufficiently pissed off colon went into peristalsis and I experienced what I can only describe as throwing up out of my butt.

The time passed by super slowly and then the practitioner came in to check on me and give me a massager to use on my abdomen to break up the pieces. He was a really nice guy, but it seemed like it was taking him forever to plug in the damned thing and I just wanted him to get the hell out of there so I could butt chuck in relative peace. Taking a poo, even a medically induced one, while somebody is talking to you and you're in a supine position is just really, really, really, weird.

After he left I took the massager placed in on the areas of my abdomen where there was cramping to help the hardened material come loose. I think it just pissed off my colon more.

By then, the sweating, fuzzy feeling, fatique...it was just too much so I turned off the machine a little before my 45 minutes were up. He came in finished me up by turning the machine to cold to tighten me back up and as soon as he left I jumped up off of the table so that I could let that final fill out on the toilet. I'm going to say this again. Letting your bowels go while laying down just feels wrong. I felt better sitting on familiar territory. Once my insides stopped quivering and pulsating, I washed down and got dressed.

In summary there was nothing magical about it. There was no lego from toddlerhood that showed up in the viewtube, no gum from 4th grade, in fact there was nothing that came out that was extraordinary or remarkable.I also didn't magically lose 5 pounds. 

I was wore out. Instead of Hugh Jackman in pointe shoes I felt like Huge Jackman, porn star extraordinaire after a world record attempt...in desperate need of a hosedown, a good ass nap and a contract to self promising not to put nothing in my butt for the next 6 months.

I give this 1.5 stars out of 5. I am about a pound lighter but I wouldn't do it again if YOU paid for it.

Note to self: Just use Miralax next time. Same effect and much cheaper

Image Source

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