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.
Why did you have bariatric surgery? Just to lose weight? What is your “why”?
Where are you on your bariatric journey? Are you actively losing weight? Stalled out? Where do you want to be? Not where you want to be? Talk to me.
I want you to read this, email me back, and tell me in your words, where you are today. I know that many of you read my blogs and I want to hear from you. Again, talk to me.
Do you need an appointment? Do you want to touch base? Do you want to send me your food logs? Do you need some encouragement?
What does this have to do with Cancun? I decided to set this bariatric trip up because I wanted to motivate you. I wanted to give you a 6-month leeway to make some decisions and set some intentions and bring those to Cancun.
5 months and counting now…… A lot can happen in 5 months. You can reach your goal. You can lose your regain. You can gain 5 pounds of pure muscle. You can become radiantly healthy. What are you going to do over the next 5 months?
If you are stuck, and you have the bucks (that rhymes lol), go online and get your plane tickets to Cancun.
You will need a passport, so if you don’t have one, apply for one now. I have a theory. If you get a passport, you will start to travel more. If you would like to travel more, get a passport. One less travel roadblock.
Our bariatric event is happening over one day, November 5th.
Come a few days early, and work on that tan. Stay a few days later, and work on that vacation. I have set up this event at a fantabulous hotel (not all-inclusive, because why would a bariatric patient need an all-inclusive hotel).
The El Presidente Hotel is on the very best beach in all of Cancun. The sand is white, the water is calm and turquoise blue. It’s close to the airport.
I have a GREAT rate for us. It is $155us for one or two people in a double room. With taxes and breakfast included, it comes to $200us per night, per room. (that’s $100us per night, per person, double occupancy, with taxes and breakfast included). YAY.
I wish it was free, but what in life is free today. We have time to save up for it – 5 months and counting. Invest in yourself by sending me your WHY …. Book those tickets, book those rooms, and let’s sail on a catamaran while celebrating US.
Bring your Mom, BFF, sister, brother, husband, or wife. Come alone. Find someone in our group that wants to share a room with you. So many different ways to plan this. Do you need a roomie? I can find you one!
I cannot wait to see you there. I cannot wait to hear from you in my inbox, through messenger, or via text message. Tell me your WHY!! What are you going to accomplish before your plane touches down in Cancun? This is so much fun.
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.
I chat a lot with my bariatric clients. I spend my mornings/ afternoons, on the phone with them, and when I am not on the phone, I am texting and writing emails to them. My life is very entwined with pre-op and post-op bariatric clients.
I’ve learned that bariatric surgery is not just about that number staring back at you on your scale. It’s about so much more.
Let me start a list. Please add to my list.
Improved sleep
Less inflammation
Reduced medications
More energy
Better mental health
Fewer aches and pains
Reduced hunger
Clearer mind
Healthier outlook on life
Reversing diseases like diabetes
Lowered cancer rates
Improved fertility
Now, whether you are starting your journey, closing in on your goal, at goal, at maintenance – the list above applies to YOU.
Please don’t be in a race against the scale. Understand that this journey doesn’t suddenly end. It continues for the rest of your days. You don’t magically “stop” one day because it’s over.
Write out the list above. Place this list on your fridge, and bathroom mirror. Have one in your car. Remind yourself that you have come this far and that you are not going back. Remind yourself that your “self-worth” is not some number on the scale.
Sure, it’s overwhelming and exciting to see the numbers on the scale go down, down, down…. But what happens when it slows down dramatically? What happens when stalls occur? Take out your list, and add to it. Remind yourself about all these NSVs that are occurring every day.
Celebrate all the wins along the way. Share these wins with your bariatric support group. Did you resize your wedding ring? Get a new driver’s license photo? Buy a smaller pair of pants? Say “no” to the drive-thru.
Celebrate ALL of it. I see you.
Healthy Hugs.
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.
What’s your weight loss goal? Did you achieve it? Where are you on your journey?
Let’s talk goals today. I think it’s important to have goals along the way when starting out on your bariatric journey. I think that having clear cut goals, is an important tool.
Write down those goals and put them in a spot where you see them often. Maybe you can put a list on your fridge door, mirror in your bathroom, screen-saver on your phone. Celebrate every goal you reach with a small gift, a massage, an appointment with your nutritionist, a day at your local spa, a new book, a new hair product etc.
Failing to plan is planning to fail. Let’s plan on not only putting goals down on paper, let’s plan to revisit those goals frequently and update them as we move through this process called bariatric surgery/ life.
You may have originally started out at 230 pounds with the goal of reaching 180 pounds. When you get to 180, you may revisit your original goal and change it to 160 pounds.
You may have originally had the goal of going to the gym 4 days a week. What happens when you’ve accomplished that goal and you have been working out for 6 months. You may decide on a new goal. You may want to run a 5K or swim in the local club. I think we need to keep updating our goals.
What happens when we are at our goal weight? Does the journey end there? I think that when we reach our weight goal, we need to start over again with some new goals.
How is your diet? Are you eating sufficient protein/ fibre/ healthy fats? Maybe you would like to spend more time in the kitchen creating new meals?
What about sleep hygiene? Is there something you could do to improve your sleep patterns?
Stress? Do you have a plan in place for stress control? Breathing exercises etc.
How much fluid do you drink each day?
I believe that the journey to a healthy lifestyle never ends. We need to be working hard on improving our over-all health in all different areas.
Do we volunteer some time each week to helping others along the way? We, as bariatric surgery patients, can always “pay it forward” by answering others with bariatric questions, or by volunteering some time to our bariatric groups by posting our experiences. This protects us from going back.
Goals are important. Revisiting goals can keep us moving forward.
No slowing down. You’ve got this.
Healthy Hugs.
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.
Let me explain my reasoning. I am so excited to bring this event to all of you.
Cancun is such a great location. It’s is easy to get to. There are flights from every major US and Canadian city. The weather is superb and I have chosen a super nice hotel with what I consider to be the BEST beach in all of Cancun.
I have a super good rate for all of our group. It costs 155us for one room either single or double occupancy. With taxes and breakfast for two, it comes out to 200us per night for two people. YAY
I have secured that rate for our group from Nov. 2nd to Nov. 8th.
The event is on Nov. 5th but you can come earlier or stay later. You do you Boo. Bring your husband, wife, best friend, and Mother. Come alone. Come with another group member. You choose.
We make such good friends online in our groups on Facebook. They become important to us. Well, I want to transfer that into real life. Sure, online is great and we have a super support group with the kindest bunch of people. Why not transfer that into real friendships?
I believe that accountability is so important to stay in the “zone”. We need to lean on each other if we are struggling. We have a shoulder when times get tough. We can reach out if we have a re-gain or we can celebrate when we reach maintenance. We can encourage each other when we have bariatric “wins”. We can take care of each other because we understand this bariatric journey.
I want our group to be the closest-knit group of bariatric winners.
We have until November to solidify some of those goals we have been reaching for. That’s 6 whole months to push hard and reach some new goals.
If you’ve had a little re-gain, well it’s time to set some goals and reserve your room. It could be the motivation you need to get on the losers’ bench again.
Do you have some fitness goals? Time to tackle those now. You’ve got 6 whole months!
Are you in maintenance mode? Excellent – stay there and we’ll see you celebrate in 6 months!
Make a plan and meet us all in Cancun. I’ve put a great day together for all of us.
November 5th starts with gentle yoga on the beach at 7 am.
We have plenty of time to visit the breakfast buffet post-yoga because our catamaran leaves our beach at noon. We are sailing into the Caribbean, over to “Isla Mujeres” where we will have some snorkeling time, lunch, drinks, and time to swim and enjoy the most amazing crystal clear water.
We will get back to our hotel at 4 pm. There is plenty of time to take a swim in the pool, have a drink, and get ready for our Gala dinner.
Dr. Verboonen is joining us for the entire day. We will also have a presentation with a video of ALL OF YOU!! I will be reaching out for before/ after pics for our video compilation.
I’m so excited to spend a day with you. It is time to hug, laugh, and celebrate your victories.
Get online at this link, make your reservations, reserve your spot, and email or text me and tell me that you are coming. Get ready to make some great, life-long friendships.
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.
It is so interesting how some people react when my clients tell them that they have had a bariatric procedure, call it the sleeve, mini bypass, full bypass, revision surgery.
“You took the easy way out”. Excuse me? “Yes, you had surgery. That’s not the same as doing it through exercise and diet”. (say that with a high-pitched, whiney voice)
Let’s back up a bit here. My clients have done ALL the diets. They have done ALL the exercises. Some of them have lost and gained hundreds of pounds. So you think it is unfair that they hopped a plane to Mexico, paid thousands of dollars, recovered from a surgery, and then learned to eat all over again while getting a lot more active?
Woo Wee, watch me get on my soapbox.
If you don’t like the fact that “so and so” went to Mexico for bariatric surgery, then look the other way and keep on dieting and exercising and complaining.
My clients did the math in their heads. They were sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. They were depressed and tired of feeling out of control. Their bodies were showing signs of metabolic illness, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugars. Their backs, hips, knees, and ankles all hurt. They had tremendous inflammation.
They were all eating the Standard American Diet (SAD), and following the darn rules. They still kept gaining weight. Thanks, SAD. Thanks for LYING to us. Thanks for selling us all your junk food and pretending to take care of us. Thanks for all your food labels that confuse us.
So “Karen”, you prefer your friend to feel poorly daily. Do you like seeing your BFF depressed? It makes you happy for your buddy to have back pain? Do you feel like it’s your business to shame them?
I think I need to get off my soap-box, because I may start using four-letter words now.
Look, guys, if “Karen” does this to you, remove her/him from your life until he/she chills out. If they are your friend, they will be happy for you. This decision is hard enough without having the “shamers” try to prevent you from taking control of your health.
“But you only need to exercise”. “But you only need to diet”. “But you only need to get some of those prescription diet pills”. “But you only need to be happy with yourself”.
“Thanks, but you don’t live in my body”. “Thanks, but you don’t live in my brain”.
Don’t allow the “negative Nancy” to prevent you from doing what you know you need to do to get healthy. Sure, there will be genuinely concerned people. Those people also love you and understand your decisions.
If Karen or Nancy is reading this, sorry for using your name.
May I say something? Maybe (just maybe), if you change and get super healthy, others around you may feel like they have to take responsibility and get healthy also. Change is HARD. Most people don’t want to change. Are you challenging them to do better? Think about it. Maybe that is why they lash out at you and your decision to have weight loss surgery?
You do You Boo.
Your body. Your mind. Your money. Your decision.
Only YOU know what you should do.
You do You Boo.
I’ll support you whether you choose to have surgery, try to lose it on your own, or gain 5 more pounds. You are in charge of yourself.
