One thing I’ve learned recently is that it’s not enough to get in your protein and your water. You must drink your water evenly throughout the day or you can still end up feeling dehydrated. Plus you can’t go too long without eating or you can end up feeling sick.

I have recently started eating soups two times a day with protein powder added because I just can’t take any more than one shake a day. However, I have found a new solution.

I went to the Obesity Help Covention in Los Angeles today. I liked it — especially the free stuff. I got to sample a few different protein shakes. The AchievOne Cappuccino was good but the MochaJava was delicious. I gotta find me some and buy it and replace my nasting morning shake.

Lunch was unfortunately foods I pretty much am not supposed to eat yet. The cottage cheese was runny so I ate it very, very slowly, chewing the curds into small pieces. There were sandwiches consisting of turkey and shredded cheese wrapped in wheat bread. I let the cheese shreds melt in my mouth, and that was all I touched. I didn’t touch the fruit pieces. Luckily, none of it bothered my stomach, but I don’t want to press my luck like that again.

One of the speakers, the guy from The Biggest Loser, didn’t show up. Hmm, what a loser, and not the good kind.

I’m glad to be on full liquids now. I was looking forward to eating yogurt. Unfortunately, it was not worth the wait. It kinda made me nauseous. I think that’s an example of foods tasting differently after you’ve had surgery.

My feeling of weakness is getting better. I made it through the conference without falling asleep. Haha! If the speakers had been boring I would have been catching Zzz’s in a second.

The most interesting talks included Dr. Aboolian, the plastic surgeon, and Jeremy Gentles.

There was also a woman who gave a short talk about the clinic she is care coordinator for. They do the duodenal switch and revision surgeries, namely revision to the duodenal switch from the lap band or gastric bypass. I didn’t hear the name of the clinic though.

An interesting thing she said was that the vertical sleeve gastrectomy part of the duodenal switch helps you lose weight for about a 1 1/2 years, and then it stretches out. At that point, the malabsorption helps you maintain the weight loss. This was an important point because I previously was very interested in the vertical sleeve gastrectomy (without the duodenal switch part); however, it was not a choice since it is not covered by my insurance. It is considered experimental, and now I’m glad I didn’t get it anyways. Without the malabsorption, you would not have the help maintaining the weight that you do with the gastric bypass or duodenal switch.

She also mentioned that they are doing the duodenal switch part of the surgery on diabetics because for some unknown reason, it alleviates diabetes very quickly, even before the patient has lost significant weight. This has been said about gastric bypass as well. Hopefully insurance companies will take note of this very important health benefit.

Dr. Aboolian, a plastic surgeon, gave a speech about what to look for in a plastic surgeon, including what kind of scars you don’t want — high on the waist. He said a good plastic surgeon should leave you with scars that can be hidden at the bikini line (when you get a body lift or tummy tuck).

He mentioned that there is some plastic surgery that he can’t correct, namely a tummy tuck that leaves you with a scar way up high on the waist. He can’t add another scar below the waist because it will cause circulation problems between the two scars.

Jeremy Gentles made a very important point: He said that a study done on people who had the duodenal switch comparing people who exercised with those who didn’t showed that they both lost the same amount of weight. This flies in the face of conventional advice from doctors that you lose weight faster by exercising in addition to dieting. He points out that this is not to say you shouldn’t exercise. He says faster weight loss shouldn’t be your motivation for exercising.

What exercising does achieve is keep you from losing as much lean body mass as someone who doesn’t exercise. Exercise dramatically decreases your risk for life-threatening diseases, including cancer. It also raises your base level resting metabolic rate.

This has been said over and over again, but most importantly, exercising will help you maintain your weight loss once you reach your goal. The one thing that long-term WLS successes have in common is that they exercise regularly.

I finally got my Before pics up! Boy, do I hate taking pictures. It only took me 10 days to get them up…LOL!