My job has been affected by the economy. Multiple people have been laid off. Others have been forced to take a 1-day unpaid furlough every 2 weeks. For a while I was scared to death that I would get laid off. I kept waking up in the middle of the night having panic attacks. After a while though, I stopped being afraid and decided I would deal with whatever happens.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. Some more good things have happened as a result of my weight loss.Right now I’m 153.5 lbs. Woohoo! Still not at my goal of 135, but I still lose a few pounds every month so I believe I’ll make it there eventually.  The additional changes I’ve noticed at this point:

• My BMI is normal! I’m not overweight anymore. I’ve lost a total of 115 lbs. since surgery.
• Fungal infections on my back have gone away. I had them for years. Gross! I know.
• I have long nails now. For most of my life, I’ve had short nails. Those vitamins are working!
• People are noticeably a lot friendlier.
• No more restless legs. I used to have a problem keeping my legs still when I sat. I recently noticed that problem went away.
• People at work joke and say I’ve lost so much weight I’m going to float away like a feather.
• A guy on the bus said he barely recognized me because I had lost so much weight. I barely remembered seeing him before. It’s nice when someone you don’t even know  notices you lost a lot of weight.
• I’ve been called “cute” by a couple people at work. Hey, at 45 years old, I’ll take “cute” as a compliment.

The whole thing about people being friendlier is a plus and a minus. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it reminds you of the discrimination against overweight people.

I had to renew my driver’s license earlier this year and it was the first time I’ve ever taken a driver’s license picture with a smile on my face. The woman who took my picture noticed my weight went from 265 on my previous driver’s license to 165, and congratulated me and said, “You look 10 years younger!” Now I weigh less than my driver’s license weight. That’s a first. I usually weigh more than what it says…hehe.

Now that we have a president I like (Obama! Obama!), I am paying attention to politics for the first time in decades. Now we all just need to pray, chant or do whatever we can to help make this economy improve. These are scary times we’re living in right now, so it’s nice to have some kind of positive changes, and I’m grateful for that.

Tata for now!

- CyberDonna

—————

LOS ANGELES – City officials are putting South Los Angeles on a diet.

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to place a moratorium on new fast food restaurants in an impoverished swath of the city with a proliferation of such eateries and above average rates of obesity.

The yearlong moratorium is intended to give the city time to attract restaurants that serve healthier food. The action, which the mayor must still sign into law, is believed to be the first of its kind by a major city to protect public health.

“Our communities have an extreme shortage of quality foods,” City Councilman Bernard Parks said.

Representatives of fast-food chains said they support the goal of better diets but believe they are being unfairly targeted. They say they already offer healthier food items on their menus.

“It’s not where you eat, it’s what you eat,” said Andrew Pudzer, president and chief executive of CKE Restaurants, parent company of Carl’s Jr. “We were willing to work with the city on that, but they obviously weren’t interested.”

The California Restaurant Association and its members will consider a legal challenge to the ordinance, spokesman Andrew Casana said.

Thirty percent of adults in South Los Angeles area are obese, compared to 19.1 percent for the metropolitan area and 14.1 percent for the affluent Westside, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

Research has shown that people will change eating habits when different foods are offered, but cost is a key factor in poor communities, said Kelly D. Brownell, director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

“Cheap, unhealthy food and lack of access to healthy food is a recipe for obesity,” Brownell said. “Diets improve when healthy food establishments enter these neighborhoods.”

A report by the Community Health Councils found 73 percent of South Los Angeles restaurants were fast food, compared to 42 percent in West Los Angeles.

South Los Angeles resident Curtis English acknowledged that fast food is loaded with calories and cholesterol. But since he’s unemployed and does not have a car, it serves as a cheap, convenient staple for him.

On Monday, he ate breakfast and lunch – a sausage burrito and double cheeseburger, respectively – at a McDonald’s a few blocks from home for just $2.39.

“I don’t think there’s too many fast food places,” he said. “People like it.”

Others welcomed an opportunity to get different kinds of food into their neighborhood.

“They should open more healthy places,” Dorothy Meighan said outside a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet. “There’s too much fried stuff.”

Councilwoman Jan Perry said that view repeatedly surfaced at the five community meetings she held during the past two years. Residents are tired of fast food, and many don’t have cars to drive to places with other choices, she said.

Los Angeles’ ban comes at a time when governments of all levels are increasingly viewing menus as a matter of public health. On Friday, California became the first state in the nation to bar trans fats, which lower levels of good cholesterol and increase bad cholesterol.

The moratorium, which can be extended up to a year, only affects standalone restaurants, not eateries located in malls or strip shopping centers. It defines fast-food restaurants as those that do not offer table service and provide a limited menu of pre-prepared or quickly heated food in disposable wrapping.

The definition exempts “fast-food casual” restaurants such as El Pollo Loco, Subway and Pastagina, which do not have drive-through windows or heat lamps and prepare fresh food to order.

The ordinance also makes it harder for existing fast-food restaurants to expand or remodel.

Rebeca Torres, a South Los Angeles mother of four, said she would welcome more dining choices, even if she had to pay a little more.

“They should have better things for children,” she said. “This fast food really fattens them up.”

By CHRISTINA HOAG     Associated Press Writer

On the other side of the debate you see people saying it’s pretty much common sense that a vitamin for children can’t possibly be adequate for a full-grown adult, let alone alone an adult with rearranged intestines.

So what exactly is wrong with Flintstone’s chewables?

For starters, they do not have:

• Zinc
• Selenium
• Copper
• Magnesium
• Vitamin K

These are all essential vitamins that your body needs. No one wants to say negative things about anyone’s doctor, especially when they are not a doctor themselves. But can you see why some people think your doctor might be misinformed if they are suggesting Flintstone’s chewable vitamins as your vitamin supplements?

80+ pounds ago, I had really bad knee pain. When I would step up onto the sidewalk or step up onto the bus, I would place my hand on my knee to keep it from buckling and try to lessen the pain.

A few days ago I went to step up onto the curb and out of habit, I placed my hand on my knee and Voila! No pain! What’s so funny about this is my knee pain went away quite a few months ago. Why I remembered it and thought I was going to have it when I stepped up on a curb, I don’t know. It’s funny how the body remembers pain even long after it’s gone.

It’s like my knees wanted to play a trick on me and make me think there was going to be pain when I stepped on that curb, but then… “Aha! I fooled you”, my knees said. There was no pain. Today my knees are singing “Hallelujah! No more pain!”

 The good news is I’m closer to having a down payment for another car, so there’s still hope on the car front.

Has life changed much in the 10 months since my gastric bypass?

You bet! Let me count the ways:

• I feel healthy.
• I have more energy.
• I’ve even have had the energy to do a little jogging a few times. Woohoo!
• I no longer feel like I’m being stared at for my size when I walk into a place.
• A man walked up to me on the bus and told me “You are a very beautiful woman!” At my age, that’s always nice to hear.
• My 3X’s are ridiculously big and I can’t wear them anymore. I wear somewhere between 14 and 16.
• I am 14 pounds into Onederland at 186 lbs. Woohoo!
• 82 lbs. total lost, 50 more to go. Yay!!
• People at work have commented on my weight loss.
• People at work are friendlier to me.
• I can fit in a bus seat without spilling over into the next seat.

Much to my surprise, I haven’t had any food get stuck since I first started eating solids. I guess you get used to chewing your food really well pretty quickly.

The fact that some people who have known me for years are now nicer to me is a sad commentary on our society and the treatment of obese people, but we already knew this. Even people who don’t think they’re getting discriminated against because of their weight, most likely are. But I won’t waste my energy being bitter. If people want to be superficial and shallow, that’s their lameness.

Up until about a month ago, sticking to my eating plan was pretty easy since I was not hungry and was, in fact, disgusted by sweets. I wondered if this loss of sweet tooth would be permanent. Unfortunately, I can feel my appetite coming back so I have to make more effort to make good choices.

Don’t worry though. My tool is still working. If anyone who hasn’t had surgery is wondering how it works, let me explain. About 15-20 minutes into eating, I lose interest in my food. I don’t feel fullness; I feel satiety, and boy is it fantastic! I almost never finish everything on my plate for dinner.  I used to feel bad about leaving food on my plate but now I realize it’s better for me.

I am very grateful for my surgery, every day. There is a very noticeable difference in my life now that I’m not carrying 80 extra pounds around. Now I just need to work on my car situation so I can have my free time back. That’s it for now. Take care!

Unfortunately, my car is kaput again. It overheated, and probably has engine damage, so I am riding the doggone bus again. Yes, it sucks!

At the 6-month mark, I was allowed to eat bread, rice and pasta. Thank goodness! I can only eat a couple of teaspoons of rice, but it’s nice to add variety.

No more vomiting since I first started eating solids. So much for those horrible tales about gastric bypass patients vomiting all the time. It’s good to know that’s not true for everyone. In fact, some people say they never vomited. I’m due for my 6-month bloodwork. We’ll see how that goes.

 Ta-ta for now!

Roux-en-y gastric bypass diet requires each day:

• 80 gm protein per day (preferably low fat sources).
• 1200 mg calcium per day (with 500 mg magnesium and 400 mg vitamin D – both help calcium absorption)
• 2 multivitamins with iron per day
• 500 mcg B12 sublingual
• 6-8 glasses of fluids per day (non-caloric beverages)

Note: What protein a patient can handle varies from patient to patient. I have no problem handling all forms of protein, but beef and tough meats require more chewing.

- Low sugar – Sugar will cause dumping syndrome in most patients, and will slow down weight loss.
- Low fat
- Low carbohydrate
- No bread, rice or pasta for 6 months postop  (These foods tend not to be tolerated well, especially at first because they swell in the stomach)
- No caffeine
- No carbonated beverages
- During the first 6 months after surgery you are recommended to eat no more than 1/4 to 1/2 cup because cut nerve endings may eliminate your ability to tell when you are full.
- Must chew food very carefully, approximately 30 times each bite.

No matter what, always eat protein first. Then eat vegetables and carbohydrates if you have room.

Can you feel full on 1/4 to 1/2 cup of food? Absolutely! Hard to believe but it is true. When you eat solid food, a signal is sent to your brain telling it that you are satisfied. Before surgery, I rarely had this satiety feeling. Now I can feel it on 1/2 cup of food. For someone with a normal stomach, it is hard to imagine this, but remember after gastric bypass, the stomach does not react like a normal stomach. The stomach does expand over time and after a year you may be able to eat 1 to 1 1/2 cups of food.

Note: Different bariatric surgery programs have different requirements. Some allow you to eat anything you want sooner than 6 months. The protein requirements can vary from 60 to 100 gm protein per day. Supplements may vary. Some programs will tell you to take children’s vitamins but these are missing essential vitamins and are not recommended by many programs.

This diet only applies to roux-en-y gastric bypass patients. It does not apply to those who have undergone Lap Band or Duodenal Switch weight loss surgeries. These surgeries have different dietary requirements, because there is no malabsorption with the Lap Band, and there is more protein and fat malabsorption with the duodenal switch than with roux-en-y gastric bypass surgery.

Please consult your bariatric surgeon or nutritionist for the dietary requirements of their program.

If you read enough blogs, you will find there are people who are very anti-WLS. Some of these people haven’t had surgery. Some have never been overweight. Some are people who are trying to sell you some other weight loss solution. Some of these anti-WLS opinions come from medical professionals. The fact that someone is in the field of medicine does not mean they are an expert on weight loss surgery, nutrition or even obesity.

There’s an anti-WLS blog I would like to respond to at http://suethsayings.blogspot.com/2007/06/tv-show-big-surgery-is-big-informercial.html . Here’s what’s wrong with what she’s saying:

1. The name of the show is Big Medicine, not Big Surgery. Pay attention much, Sue?

2.  She criticises studies Dr. Davis quotes that indicate WLS extends lives, then goes on to spout BS such as 40% of WLS patients need iron infusions for the rest of their lives. Oh really? And what study does that come from?

3.  Everyone’s experience with vomiting is different. Contrary to what Sue implies, there are people who have had no vomiting after WLS. I personally only had vomiting when I first started eating solids.
Now that I have learned my lesson about chewing food carefully,
I have had no vomiting.

4. She refers to a study from 1992 regarding regain after WLS.
Um, that’s like 15 years old, dude. If I were reading about weight loss surgery from 15 years ago, I would be against it, too. It wasn’t the same surgery! The old fashioned stomach stapling did have a very high failure and regain rate. That is why over the past 15 years weight loss surgery has been improved. Very little in the field of medicine
stays the same over the course of 15 years.

Likewise, roux-en-y gastric bypass is not the best surgery for everyone.
Some people would be better off with the duodenal switch or even the vertical sleeve gastrectomy. These days you have multiple choices when it comes to weight loss surgery.

5. She contradicts herself in the same paragraph. She says none of the
bariatric surgeries are reversible but then mentions takedowns
(which are a reversal of bariatric surgery). Huh?

6. She keeps mentioning “so many” deaths from surgery and mentions 2-4% risk of death. There is a risk of death from all surgery. As death rates go, 2-4% doesn’t sound very high to me. For one thing, people who are having surgery are at increased risk of mortality simply because of obesity, which causes high blood pressure, heart disease, high cholesterol, diabetes, sleep apnea, all life-threatening illnesses which can kill you. Any one of these co-morbidities alone can kill you. What’s worse is that obese people frequently have multiple of these diseases at the same time.

According to this article from 2004
( http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/291/10/1238 ) , obesity is the 2nd leading cause of death,
after tobacco and will eventually overtake tobacco. This article talks about studies from 2002, but we all know obesity has worsened in the U.S. since then.

When you talk about death from weight loss surgery, if you don’t talk about death rates from obesity, you are full of crap! Obesity kills. Morbid obesity kills even faster!

7. In http://suethsayings.blogspot.com/2007/12/big-medicine-revisited.html ,
she talks about how loose skin after weight loss gives you a funny shape.
Okay, and I had a normal shape at 285 lbs.? Not!
At 285 lbs., you would never see me in a bathing suit.
So what difference does it make if at a normal weight I still couldn’t wear
a bathing suit? She completely misses the point that the reason to have weight loss surgery is not to look like a model but to regain your health and save your life.

8. She mentions that Dr. Mason stopped recommending malabsorptive
procedures and started performing the vertical banded gastroplasty in 1980s. There was an old procedure called the JIB which caused horrible nutritional deficiencies and liver failure, and that is why JIB is no longer performed. Vertical banded gastroplasty (the old fashioned stomach stapling) likewise has such a high failure rate that many who had it ended up getting revised to roux-en-y gastric bypass. Vertical banded gastroplasty is another old outdated procedure. Boy, she sure loves quoting the old stuff!

9. She says fitness not fatness determines life span. This is partially true. There are studies that show that increasing exercise increases
lifespan. However, therein lies the contradiction.
Obesity and fatness are caused by lack of fitness.
Therefore, in most cases fatness does equal a shorter lifespan.

Likewise, the reason the minimal criteria for weight loss surgery is a BMI of 40, which is morbid obesity, is because that is the BMI at which rate of disease and mortality increases more dramatically.

I do agree with one thing she says though. I am all for surgeons being honest about complications related to weight loss surgery. My surgeon made me initial every complication on the list. They should not be glossed over. Surprisingly, most people who have had horrible complications after surgery say they would do it all over again. How’s that for a testimonial!

If you can be 100+ lbs. overweight and healthy, I’m happy for you, but that is simply not the case for many of us. If you have tried to lose weight the old fashioned way by dieting and exercise, only to regain it back over and over again, then weight loss surgery might be a solution for you. In any case, do your research before you decide, since weight loss surgery is not a cure for obesity. It is simply a medical procedure that will help you lose weight and improve your health, when other methods have failed.

I had my 3-month check-up today. My bloody blood tests did not get faxed to the surgeon so he had no lab results. Ay-yay-yay!

He did not seem concerned about my low vitamin D and said to take a total of 800 to 1000 units of vitamin D. That is about twice the US RDA. I bought Bariatric Advantage dry Vitamin D, but he said it is too high with 5000 IU. I’m sure as heck not wasting these bad boys, so I will take about a 1/5th per day.

Other than that, my visit was routine. I lost nothing this week. But I’m 1/3 of the way to the surgeon’s goal, so I guess I can’t complain.

The waiting room in the surgeon’s office was full today. I was the only one with a gastric bypass. Everyone else had the Lap-Band. And of course the two women I spoke to have lost more in 2 months with the Lap-Band than I have in 3 months. Pitooey!

One woman mentioned that her boss had had a gastric bypass and looked horrible and was hunched over with osteoporosis. She mentioned that someone hugged her and had broken her rib. Lovely! I just love being surrounded by Lap-Banders. It was just like being in the preop class all over again.

One woman said, “I like it because it’s reversible!” I wanted to say, “well, Yeah, until it erodes into your stomach causing permanent damage,” but, nope, I was the polite little RNYer. Wow! I can’t believe how easy it is to get caught up in the stupid “my surgery is better than yours” War. Thank goodness the battle was only in my head today. Heck, we’re all soldiers in the fight against obesity.

I had sushi this week. It was delish. I could only eat 4 small pieces, but I was happy that I could tolerate it at all, considering the horror stories I’ve heard about people eating rice.

At my 8-year anniversary at work, I was given a 8 GB Ipod Nano. Woohoo! That’s the best gift I’ve ever received. Now I got more music to shake my booty to. I was planning on buying myself the 4 GB one for Christmas. No need now!

Despite all the talk I see about mourning the holidays after RNY, I can’t agree. I totally enjoyed my Thanksgiving dinner.

Let’s see, I ate:

• A chicken drumstick with skin (I thought it was dark meat turkey, but later found it was chicken. It looked better than the white meat and was delicious! Didn’t miss turkey at all.)
• Stuffing
• Yams
• Corn
• Stuffed mushroom
• Macaroni & Cheese

Mind you, I had small portions, but yum yum! I put 2 pieces of chicken on my plate but had to put one back in the end. My eyes were bigger than my stomach….. hehe! Did I feel deprived? No, heck, I wish I could eat like that every day. Yes, I only lost half a pound this week but how many people can say they lost weight Thanksgiving week? Not many! I don’t think I’ve ever lost weight Thanksgiving week.