This simply works as a guide and helps you to connect with doctors of your choice. Please confirm the doctor’s availability before leaving your premises.
Emergency bariatric care may be needed if you experience severe abdominal pain, complications from weight loss surgery, or symptoms of nutritional deficiencies.
Hello and thanks for clicking through to my blog post today about the best diets for 2019.I think that I may have used the word “Diet” in the title in order to get your attention.The reality is that I don’t believe in “diets”.Diets mean restriction and they also mean that you lose weight and then gain it back as soon as the “diet” is over.How many of us have lost weight and then gained it back again?
Sorry guys but diets just don’t work.
The word I really do like to use is “lifestyle” or life plan”.A healthy bariatric lifestyle is what we all should be aiming to achieve.The best bariatric lifestyle which will enable you to reach your short and long term goals and get you to the world of maintenance is a lifestyle which includes: whole, live, natural, fresh, good quality, real food.
The bariatric movement today is to take back your control over food and get back into the kitchen.The goal is to eat from your own home and pack your own meals.Try to always have something with you as a back up snack in order to not be at the mercy of corner stores and gas stations.
The truth is that diets don’t work.Diets give us false expectations and set us up for failure.We need to clean up our eating and stay away from processed food if we want to meet our goals and maintain those goals for a long time to come.We need to eliminate packaged foods from our diets.We need to eliminate canned foods also.Those frozen meals have zero to offer us as far as nutrients go.
Stay away from sugar in all its forms.Sugar has a gazillion names so beware of added sugars.If you eat real food, you won’t have to worry about added sugars.
When shopping, let’s stay on the outside of the supermarket and purchase real food.That’s where all the real food is located.
So we know what we should not be eating – what should we be eating then?
Let’s eat more vegetables.Eat them raw, baked, boiled, steamed, grilled, pureed– eat more veggies.
Eat more berries.Aim for low carb berries – low sugar berries – strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries.They are full of fibre and low in sugar.
Enjoy your eggs.
Eat protein – fish, seafood, chicken, beef and pork.
Enjoy dairy products IF as a biochemical individual, your body doesn’t react to it.A lot of use have sensitivities and intolerances to dairy products.If that is your case, use nut milks like almond or coconut milk.There are also cheese and yogurts (vegan products) which are made with these nuts.
Eat your nuts and seeds.They are powerhouses packed with nutrients and healthy fats.Eat your almonds, sunflower seeds, and hazelnuts.Sprinkle your food with sesame seeds.Find creative ways to sneak a few nuts into your meals.Add some seeds to your shakes.
Drink more water.
Let’s get back to the basics and focus on real food.Let’s enable our bodies to use real food and not “food-stuff”. Eating real food will stabilize blood sugars, balance hormones and increase energy levels.Once blood sugars are stabilized, it gets easier to lose weight.We are not constantly hungry.
Move more.I am not asking you to hit the gym, I am asking you to go for a walk – stretch, lift a bit of weight, or use your own body weight to push out some daily squats or 1/2 push-ups.Stay active by taking the stairs and parking at the very back of the parking lot.Find ways to add move movement into your daily life.
Sleep better.Don’t take sleep for granted.Make sleep a priority.Get your cell phone out of your bedroom.Turn off the TV.Turn down the thermostat and have a bedtime routine.Sleep is the best free medicine out there.
You can see that what I am talking about for bariatric success is not about dieting.It is an entire life-style.I want to push this movement forward and I want you to jump on board.Let’s make 2019 about the NON-DIET and let’s focus on life-style.Let’s move forward and focus on our health.I promise you that the weight will come off when you eat real food and use your bariatric pouch to guide you.
2019 is all about food in its real form.Join me and let’s take our bariatric results to the next level. Let’s lose the weight but let’s also have glowing skin and shiny hair and huge amounts of energy.
Reach out and let me know what your health goals are in 2019.
If you need help with nutritional “real food” plans – see the links below.
About the Author: Sheri Burkeis a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and Bariatric Surgery Coordinator at International Patient Facilitators in Tijuana and Cancun, Mexico. She has worked with bariatric surgery clients for over 10 years and especially enjoys providing nutritional guidance to pre and post bariatric clients.In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two teens and cooking up a nutritional storm in the kitchen.
The holidays are upon us and with that brings the parties and events and family gatherings.Most of us are food focused and thinking of the holidays immediately brings to mind all of the delicious food that will be served when our family and friends gather together.
Let’s chat about how it feels after bariatric surgery and how our new stomachs can only hold 3 to 4 ounces of food at one time.How are we going to maneuver these events and how are we going to feel?Feeling sadness is normal.It is like a “food depression” where we cannot avoid the feeling of missing out on something, or more commonly known as FOMO (fear of missing out).
Looking back, it is obvious that overeating at the holidays did not make us feel any happier and generally we felt depressed, bloated and unhappy.This is why it is so hard to get our heads in line and understand that we are not actually missing anything by having a small stomach and eating so much less during the holidays.How can we overcome this feeling and look forward to the event by changing our focus from the food to family and friends?
So every single year, at the end of November, beginning of December, my inbox gets busier with emails from clients worried about regain and concerned about the holiday events and how to maneuver them. I mean, there is going to be lots and lots of unhealthy food under our noses and a lot of the time we have emotional attachments to those foods that go back as far as our childhoods.
These food attachments make it so much more difficult to deal with the holidays.How difficult is it to say “no” to the famous pasta and cheese dish that your Aunt brings each year or to refrain from eating the homemade short-bread cookies that your Mom bakes each year? Family members are not always going to understand that you just simply cannot eat those foods any more.They push “just have a bite” on you and make you feel even worse.It’s just a hard and complicated situation so I suggest that you have a solid plan prior to attending these events.
I want you to focus on all the reasons WHY you had bariatric surgery in the first place.Sure, you can have a little “pity-party” but then I want you to sit up straight and get a pen and paper and start writing.I want you to remember how depressed it felt being overweight and how you may have cried yourself to sleep after a binge.I want you to remember how your Doctor told you that you were pre.diabetic or how you may have had full blown diabetes.How did that make you feel?What about your cholesterol levels?Or your blood pressure?Did your Doctor also tell you that those were high?How scared did you feel about your heath?
How did it make you feel not having the energy to do the things you wanted to do.How did it feel to be out of breath climbing the stairs to work or to bed?Let’s dig deeper and let me ask you how it felt to not be able to button up your favourite blouse?Or being told that your favourite clothing store does not carry your size and that you need to go to a special store for the sizes you need.
How did you feel about airplane travel?Did you worry about whether or not the seats were large enough to accommodate you?
This list can go on and on but let’s make our own personal list – and then read it to ourselves out-loud.
Now tell me again how depressed you are feeling about the food FOMO ?I am not saying that your feelings about food should be dismissed.I am saying that we need to go back to where we were when we made that decision to have bariatric surgery.I am sure that nobody made that decision while they were feeling good about themselves.Let’s focus on all of the health improvements we have had since surgery.Doesn’t that make it so much easier when mourning food during the holidays?
Here are some other ideas you can use during this difficult “food holiday”.
Make a food coupon system.
I want you to give yourself a free pass – 5 free passes actually.Sit down and write 5 coupons to yourself.Number those coupons 1 to 5.Put them in your purse or wallet because you are actually going to use them.These are going to be totally guilt free coupons that you are going to use 5 times during the holidays.You don’t need to use all five of them but before you use any of them I want you to ask yourself the following:
1/ Is this really what I want to eat and is it worth it?(While looking at the mashed potatoes and gravy)
2/ Can I make a recipe for this that is healthier so I don’t have to use my free coupon (ie. cauliflower potatoes)
This plan helps you maneuver better because yes you CAN have “said food” but do you really WANT it?If you only use 3 coupons great !Throw out the other 2 coupons on January 1st.If you use all 5, great – move forward and use this system for the next holiday season.
Set up a short term goal.
This is the perfect time to set a short term goal or a few short term goals.For example: I am going to drink 8 glasses of water each day and walk for 40 minutes and take my bariatric multivitamins.I am going to follow this for 14 days starting on December 16th until December 31st.On January 1st I will create a new short term goal.
When we shift our minds to focusing on positive things like short term goals, we tend to lose focus on the negative things like how we cannot have the mashed potatoes AND cheesecake AND Mac’n cheese.
I hope that this has helped you shift your focus from feeling depressed about food to feeling excited about your holiday food plan and about your short term goals you are going to get focused on.I have a lot of experience and understanding when it come to surviving the holidays after bariatric surgery so please reach out to me if you want to dive deeper into this topic or if you need some specific advice.Don’t struggle through it alone – I am here for you.
About the Author: Sheri Burkeis a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and Bariatric Surgery Coordinator at International Patient Facilitators in Tijuana and Cancun, Mexico. She has worked with bariatric surgery clients for over 10 years and especially enjoys providing nutritional guidance to pre and post bariatric clients.In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two teens and cooking up a nutritional storm in the kitchen.
We all wonder about it … what happens to all that skin around the tummy when massive weight loss occurs.While it can seem obvious, it’s important to point out that people who are planning to lose a lot of weight are not considered good candidates for the tummy tuck procedure.The tummy tuck is for the candidate who is already at their ideal weight.Some people may be looking at having a tummy tuck to help them with weight loss – this will not be a good tummy tuck candidate.
The tummy tuck or in medical terms “abdominoplasty” is a common cosmetic procedure which involves removing excess skin from the abdomen area.The surgeon also tightens up the underlying muscles so that there is a new internal garment supporting the stomach wall.Many weight loss surgery clients will find that the years of fighting obesity has stretched the skin to what is considered beyond the ability to respond post weight loss.
Skin can hang for some people and can form a flap which is called an apron or a pannis.This can even go beyond cosmetic and become a health issue which can affect the ability to perform normal daily activities or to even maintain basic hygiene.
There will be certain situations where liposuction will be a recommended procedure during the tummy tuck procedure.Some patients may hold onto hard to lose deposits of body fat and this is where liposuction is a good procedure to be performed at the same time as the tummy tuck.
Dr. Sergio Soberanis and Dr. Javier Garcia have over 20 years experience performing many different techniques and styles of tummy tucks and they will recommend the best solution in your specific case.
Through photos and health forms and video conferences, we can determine exact pricing and styles of tummy tucks for your specific case.Reach out to the experts.
About the Author: Sheri Burkeis a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and Bariatric Surgery Coordinator at International Patient Facilitators in Tijuana and Cancun, Mexico. She has worked with bariatric surgery clients for over 10 years and especially enjoys providing nutritional guidance to pre and post bariatric clients.In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two teens and cooking up a nutritional storm in the kitchen.
Once again the holidays are upon us – quickly approaching are the festivities and all the parties and family gatherings.There are piles of social events and work related events and the delicious food and drinks that accompany them.This is the time of that year that it is so easy to pile on a few extra pounds.Let’s work together to try to make it through the holiday season with no regain.Let’s talk a bit about the strategies that we can implement in order to start the New Year without the new pounds to lose.
Let’s start with a good solid plan.
Take a look at your holiday calendar and think about each event and how it could affect your goals.What kinds of foods will you encounter at each gathering? Don’t just arrive ill-prepared.Really look at how you will respond to the food and drink pressure.When you say “no thanks” to the egg-nog, are you ready to receive pressure from others? Are you ready to come up with an excuse for why you don’t want to drink the egg-nog?Or will you just flat out be honest about the egg-nog being loaded with calories? Making these kinds of decisions prior to arriving to the event is what will save you from starting the New Year with an extra few pounds to take off.
Eat before you arrive.
Arriving to the event on an empty stomach is not the way to go.You need a good amount of will power to sit around a pile of food and not overeat.If you are hungry, the will power will disappear.Make sure to eat a protein rich meal before you go to the event.If you are not hungry, you will be better prepared to make better decisions around food.Again, eat before you arrive.
Bring a holiday dish with you.
Be a good guest and offer to bring a dish for everyone to share.Even if your hosts insists that you don’t need to – bring one anyways.Make sure that the dish you bring is in line with your bariatric lifestyle.Prepare a shrimp platter or meat and veggie platter.Eat your own dish when you get hungry.That will ensure that you stick to your plan.
Take a look at the buffet prior to grabbing a plate.
If you make a mental note before hitting the buffet table, you can make healthy food decisions before committing to putting food on your plate.Have that one dish that you cannot live without but choose vegetables and lean proteins to fill the rest of your plate.Use your bariatric tool and eat the healthy stuff before eating the foods that you know will pack on the pounds.
What do you really fancy?
Is it the sweet baked beans? Or the mashed potatoes loaded with butter and gravy? Or the rich dessert?What is it that you truly love and cannot go without?Have that – and just that.Take a little portion and truly enjoy it.It is so easy to fill your plate with loads of foods that you don’t love, but just eat them because they go with that particular holiday event.
Go slowly at the bar.
A bit of holiday cheer in the form of alcohol can really make or break your calorie intake.The other problem with drinking alcohol is that it impairs our ability to make good decisions.After a few alcohol laden drinks, the mashed potatoes and gravy all of a sudden seem too good to pass up.If you want to have a few drinks, bring your own low calorie wine or spirits and mix with soda water.Sipping on these types of drinks will save you a lot of calories.
Laugh, chat, visit, relax.
Focus on the great company around you.Focus on the great conversations going on.Laugh.While eating, focus on going slow and tasting each bite.Put your fork down between bites and converse with others at the table.Appreciate your family and friends instead of only focusing on the food.
Let’s get physical.
Why not go for a walk before arriving at the event or suggest a walk after dinner.If you live in a cold climate, bundle up and go outside and invite others to join you.You might be surprised that others want to come along and walk off that uncomfortable full feeling.There is nothing wrong with creating a new activity that all of your family can enjoy such as a stroll after Christmas dinner.
Don’t get stressed out.
Think about how stressed out we can get during the holiday season.There are so many things that need to be done and so many people to think about.A lot of us “stress eat” so stress needs to be reduced.Make sure to get plenty of sleep and use breathing techniques to try and relax.There are websites you can visit that teach you how to lower stress and maintain a cool head when the holidays start to heat up.
Yes, keep a food log.
If there is one time of the year where you should keep a food log, it is during the holiday season.You have so many things on your mind and it is so easy to graze and take “just one bite” here and “just one bite” there.Those little bites can really add up so if you make it a habit to write it all down, you will really be able to see where your calories are coming from.
Family events that focus on activities.
When most of us think of a family event, we think about food.All of our social gatherings are based on food in our society today.Why not do something different and start a new family tradition.Instead of food focused, be activity focused.Why not play charades, or put together a big puzzle, or choose a fun board game.When you are focused on an activity, food loses the focus.Instead of having food as the center of your event, allow the activity take the front page for a change.
And most of all – have fun with your friends and family.
If you need additional support during the holiday season please do reach out to me.I am here for you throughout your entire journey and we can work though this together.
Reach out with any questions you have and if you want any of our bariatric nutritional plan, you can grab them HEREBariatric Food Expert
About the Author: Sheri Burkeis a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and Bariatric Surgery Coordinator at International Patient Facilitators in Tijuana and Cancun, Mexico. She has worked with bariatric surgery clients for over 10 years and especially enjoys providing nutritional guidance to pre and post bariatric clients.In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two teens and cooking up a nutritional storm in the kitchen.
