Need Advice on Weight Loss Programs or Surgeries

Hi! My name is K. and I'm now 42. But when I was thirty and the mom of 5 sweet kids I found myself at 275 pounds. I've always been heavy (chubby, fat, overweight) you name it. At 30 I just got sick of it all. I started reading "the weigh down" by Gwen Shamblin. She's a little kooky, but as a result of her balanced logical approach I lost 75 pounds and have kept most of it off for 10 years now. I've never lost more than 5 pounds on the zillions of diets i've tried. Best wishes.
K.

Hello JM,

Yes, sounds like you definitely have an addiction. Sugar is very addicting but you can break the cycle. I've recently had great success with weight loss and would love to see how I can help you. There are no pills or patches involved. No big secrets. You can contact me through my website. www.greenkidzrus.com I'd love to see how I can help you.

I can completely understand your desire to loose weight however, your first sentences really confused me.

You state that you "absolutely have an eating disorder". Why would this change if you could magically drop those pounds overnight? The answer is that it wouldn't. You state that "...nor do I have the capacity to quit no matter what the circumstances are".

Those are very strong statements, almost the statements of an addict. Instead of looking for a weight loss solution you absolutely MUST deal with what sounds like an addication. I think some therapy, behavioral modifcication, hypnosis, medication to control cravings etc. might be in order before you do something as drastic as surgery without first changing your brain in relation to sweets.

Just my two cents...

Dear JM,

I am concerned that surgery will not get rid of your addiction to sweets. being that they are highly concentrated calories, you might end up gaining weight again even if you got surgery, although, more slowly.
I would think hypnosis might be better, or safer place to start. I have heard good things about emotional freedom technique as well.
There are some foods and nutrients that might specifically address the sugar craving. A experienced nutritionist or holistic doctor might be able to help in this regard...or self-study. ( But with three kids I am not sure you have lots of time.)
Best of luck!

Not to sound rude, but I can't believe you're even remotely thinking of surgery for 50-55 lbs. Maybe if you were talking 200-300lbs you needed to lose. If you're looking for a quick fix with surgery but continue the bad eating patterns then you'd gain it right back after the expense and pain of surgery and feel even worse.
You absolutely DO have the power to limit sweets and other food portions. Your mind is the most powerful diet "tool" available. So, for starters, don't keep sweets in the house. Buy/bake only enough to allow each member of your family one serving that's saved and shared as a treat. Then if you eat more than your share, you're literally taking from their mouths. If you try to completely eliminate sweets you'll develop a deprivation mentality and then gorge on them when you can. Instead allow yourself to indulge (a controlled portion!) but stop everything else you're doing, sit down and relax, and thoroughly savor and enJoy. Secondly, eat more healthy foods of every kind... the more you eat natural, whole, raw foods the less other forms of junk food even sounds appealing and after a while actuall sounds repulsive. I include in here all kinds of processed and pre-packaged foods (most chain restraunt food) - they're full of fat and empty calories so leave you feeling less than satisfied. Try visiting a natural foods store and getting in on classes to learn to prepare more foods with greater nutritional value.
And... for the fun stuff - exercise! Make it fun but get to it! Whether it's "alone" time to nurture yourself at the gym or track or yoga studio, or active time riding bikes or playing hard with your kids, or dancing with your husband... just do it and do it hard, push it! :) The more you exercise, the more endorphins, the quicker you're going to see results and the better you're going to feel. You should easily be able to lose 55 lbs in 6 or 7 months. Yea!
You go, Girl!

I don't have advice about the surgery, but I would like to give you some input. I am in need of losing more that 55lbs. I have always been overweight. I ate fast food breakfast lunch and dinner with no problem. I ate all the bread and drank all the soda I wanted. I would ask friends on weightloss advice. I did all the fad diets you name it!
I guess what I am trying to say is that even though I knew I needed to cut the fast food, eat and drink healthy and excersice more, I didn't. I will be 40 yrs old this year and I am finally getting it. It took a little supplement to get started and for 1 person to ask me if I was losing weight. From there on, It motivated me to do even better. I thought, if this one person has noticed a little difference in my weight then imagine if I tried a little harder! I wasn't even trying to lose weight, just take the supplement to be healthier. 3 months from the day that one person has asked the question until now. I am eating so much healthier, I'm drinking water or tea, instead of my daily 32 oz. soda. I'm only eating fast food 1 every 2 weeks instead of 3 times a day. When I eat fast food. I make better choices and don't even crave what I use to. As a matter of fact, I feel weighed down and slugish when I eat out. And the most important thing I exerise now. Whether its riding my bike with the family or walking. I cannot believe it took this long to finally get it! I hope something helps you. Please email me if you have additional questions. Remember it took a stranger to get me motivated! Good luck to you.

I highly recommend Weight Watchers. I have lost 60 pounds on the program. I also enjoy sweets, so through the program I learned how to enjoy them in moderation.
If you cut the sweets out of your diet, it leads to binge eating, which is very distructive. It's all about learning moderation, and it will help you teach your children good eating habits.
Look up the closest Weight Watchers nearest you and start going. Keep going to the meetings, as it gives you support and ideas to get though the tough times.

Hi JM -
There are many concerns as I ready you post, but first I commend you on wanted to make a chage. ( or are you willing to make a change???) Quote " I cannot stay away from it, nor do I have the capability to quit............."
Those are not words of someone who really wants to make a change.

I offer a complete line of things that can help you lose inches fast! But if you don't want to stay healthy, than anything you do will not last.

You have to want to be healthy and around for your family more than the JUNK.

IF you would like my help - I would love the chance to do that.

My email is ____@____.com

You might want to talk to a doctor about Obsesive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) A good friend of the family has this and he would drink and buy lots of StarWars toys. He just couldnt stop he was completely driven to do these things.

He saw a doctor that diagnosed him with OCD and he has been taking some medication. He has been sober for a year and a few month and hasent bought a toy in the same amount of time. These things were how he fed his OCD yours maybe sweets.

Kudos to you for recognizing your issues and asking for help. Please do not do drastic surgery. It has backfired for so many people because you are not really addressing the real issues about why you NEED to eat these things. It is a substitute for something, so I suggest therapy and a nutritionist. You just need to 'train' your body, not traumatize it through surgery and then continue the same patterns that will lead you right back to where you are now. Obviously these are my opinions from personal experience and MANY people I know and have read about.

Hi, JM -
As I write this, I am 18 weeks into a medical non-surgical weight loss program through my doctor. I am happily down 85 pounds with another 50 to go. The program is intense, 800 calories a day and consuming only protein shakes and bars. I have not eaten a bite of regular food in those 18 weeks. It was hard in the first week or so, but my resolve is strong, I feel great and I'm not hungry. If you'd be interested in specifics on the doctor, I can give them to you if you contact me separately. I don't know what came over me mentally, but I just came to the realization that my obesity was a life-threatening medical condition that needed treatment. I have three small children (5,2,2) and if my doctor had diagnosed me with cancer, I would have undergone and endured any treatment necessary to save my life. It is with that attitude that I have been able to stick with this program. I have 50 pounds to go, and on any day that I feel like I can't go on, I think to myself, if my cancer was 2/3 gone, would I quit? You deserve a better life, your children deserve to have a happy, healthy mother who will be around for a long time. You can do it.
As far as the lap band surgery, I'm not certain you would qualify at 55 pounds overweight. My husband had the surgery last February (1-1/2 years ago). He has lost just over 100 pounds in that time. However, the surgery is no walk in the park. Lots of food restrictions and lots of what they affectionly term "sliming up" which is sort of vomiting up the food you eat that won't pass the band. I know everyone's experiences are different, but know that this is a drastic choice to make. Surgery won't take away your mental craving for sweets, and a lapband will not completely take away your ability to overeat them. Perhaps some counseling would be the way to start.
Good luck to you.

Eat carbs that burn slow, like fruits. If you crave dessert eat a handful of chocolate chips. Make yourself drink a bottle of water and one piece of fruit before you decide on having a cake.

"laser liposuction or the lap band" are serious and dangerous. You need to seek counseling to discuss your "eating disorder". You have bad eating habits. The best way to lose weight is to eat less (portion control) and exercise. Do not deny yourself the periodic snack but do set appropriate boundries so that you don't eat the whole bag of cookies or half gallon of ice cream. Don't keep those types of items in the house and do keep fresh fruits and veggies handy. Good luck

There is a healthy eating program called Seattle Sutton. My dad is a distributor for the program but started as a client 5 or 6 years ago when he lived in Illinois. He lost 50 pounds when he used the program then and is now very excited that they now have it in Arizona. Seattle Sutton offers FRESH food that is cooked weekly and never frozen. A major difference from programs likes Nutrisystem. It is calorie, salt, sugar, cholesterol, and fat controlled; not absent, but controlled. You are given breakfast, lunch and dinner for each day. The meals are tasty and the portions vary from meal to meal. Many of the meals even include some kind of dessert like cookies, or muffins etc... I have used the program for cooking convenience before and I never felt hungry. It is also a great way to learn what foods can be tasty and healthy at the same time without having to read books, or research recipes etc... If you would like more information or a phone number just send me a message!

Good luck with your weight loss goals! J.

I just had the lap band done jul 16th and lost 16 pounds already. I have no pain and i am no where near as hungry as i used to be. i have no cravings for the sweets or cookies and candies anymore, i have a small appitite and only eat 2 times a day now compared to 3-4 times and snacking all night. i haven't had soda in three weeks and don't miss it. i haven't even had the urge to smoke either, so i recomend the lap band to anyone willing to stick to what you have to. you need to research it and know just what your getting into. it can be mentally challanging at first. if you would like to talk more about it you may email me at ____@____.com
good luck
A.

Hi JM,
I hate to not give you the advice you are looking for, but 50-55 lbs overweight is certainly not enough to warrant surgery. You could lose that much in 6 months with a proper diet and moderate exercise plan. I've got a major sweet tooth too, but I've found that getting the right amount of exercise tends to curb the sweet tooth...and the amount of food I eat. My appetite is just smaller than it used to be simply because my body is getting the right balance of rest and workout time. The other thing is that it's good to get a jumpstart on any weightloss program by doing a cleanse. NOT one of those where you get sick and lose all of your insides through waste. A natural "get your digestive tract and ph balance back on track" type cleanse. I reccomend the "The McCombs Plan" www.mccombsplan.com. I did this a few years ago when my sweet tooth was working overtime. After the first three days I no longer craved anything with sugar or complex carbs and I lost 14 lbs the first month with only exercise once or twice a week. There were many other great things about this cleanse like tons of energy, no more body odor even when I sweat, and clearer skin. I also learned how to properly balance my meals when adding the carbs, dairy, etc back into my diet. My trick is joining a gym that has amazing group classes - the instructors keep me motivated with their enthusiam and there is enough variety that my body gets the right balance of cardio and resistence training.

You can also try chewing gum when you get a craving - make sure it's a sweet gum to make your sweet tooth happy...and drink tons of water.

If you were able to get a doctor to agree to surgery at only 55 lbs, I'd be surprised. And a surgery probably won't teach you how to manage your weight for the rest of your life. (I beleive it's a total life saver for those seriously obese, I am not discounting it.)

Good luck!

Are you 100% set on going the surgery route? If not, why not try our patented crave blocker bars and shakes for a couple of months to see how you do? I lost 20 pounds using the bars and I am an nervous eater.

Also, if you can train yourself to stay away from sweets for awhile, you will not crave them as much. After awhile you will not need them all the time.

I would be interested in meeting with you and letting you try one of our bars and let you know how to get them at discount. They are very tasty and you could check out our other products that are safe and environmentally friendly at discount for your family.

By trying the bars for a couple of months you would save quite a bit of money on the surgery and probably not put your body through that stress.

You can call me at ###-###-####. I live in Tucson on the east side of town.
S. Fatovich