Trick Or Treat?

Q.  How Many Slimpressions Will It Take To Get Into This? 

• A.   One
• B.   Two
• C.   There aren't enough shapewear pieces in the WORLD to make this happen, Beth.  

You coming to Long Island, NY Obesity Help Event?  Bring CANDY!  (I didn't say that.)

Ends in a few hours! Get you some!

Slimpressions® Shapewear is having a 40% off sale on selected shapewear.

If you were waiting for this, NOW is the time! GET YOU SMOOTH!  (Valid 9/30-10/1)

I've lost my mind.

I, uh, already did.

Two. Actually. Hold me. I've lost my mind.

FTC - Did You Buy Reebok EasyTone or RunTone Shoes or Apparel? Refund.

Did You Buy Reebok EasyTone or RunTone Shoes or Apparel? You may be eligible for a refund. Heh.  No, really?  Did you get sucked in by those commercials?  Admit it.

The Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s consumer protection agency, charged Reebok with making claims about EasyTone and RunTone shoes that the company couldn’t support.  According to the FTC, Reebok claimed that using these products would strengthen and tone leg and butt muscles.

To settle the case, Reebok has agreed to pay $25 million for refunds to people who bought Reebok toning shoes or apparel. 

And then, we giggle, and say, TOLD YOU SO!  I absolutely remember blogging about these ads when they came out -- but I can't find the post.  (Here's to using tags.) 

Here, let her do it for you:

Please do not depend on your sneakers to flatten your ass.

FTC -

Reebok to Pay $25 Million in Customer Refunds To Settle FTC Charges of Deceptive Advertising of EasyTone and RunTone Shoes

Settlement Order Prohibits Reebok from Making Unsupported Claims that ‘Toning Shoes’ Strengthen, Tone Muscles

In its ongoing effort to stem overhyped advertising claims, the Federal Trade Commission announced that Reebok International Ltd. has agreed to resolve charges that the company deceptively advertised “toning shoes,” which it claimed would provide extra tone and strength to leg and buttock muscles.  Reebok will pay $25 million as part of the settlement agreement.  The funds will be made available for consumer refunds either directly from the FTC or through a court-approved class action lawsuit.   Consumers who bought Reebok toning shoes or toning apparel can submit a claim here.

“The FTC wants national advertisers to understand that they must exercise some responsibility and ensure that their claims for fitness gear are supported by sound science,” said David Vladeck, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. 

Consumers should carefully evaluate advertising claims for work-out gear and exercise equipment.  For more information see:  How's that Work-out Working Out?  Tips on Buying Fitness Gear.

Reebok’s EasyTone walking shoes and RunTone running shoes have retailed for $80 to $100 a pair, while EasyTone flip flops have retailed for about $60 a pair.  Ads for the shoes claimed that sole technology featuring pockets of moving air creates “micro instability” that tones and strengthens muscles as you walk or run.

According to the FTC complaint, Reebok made unsupported claims in advertisements that walking in its EasyTone shoes and running in its RunTone running shoes strengthen and tone key leg and buttock (gluteus maximus) muscles more than regular shoes.  The FTC’s complaint also alleges that Reebok falsely claimed that walking in EasyTone footwear had been proven to lead to 28 percent more strength and tone in the buttock muscles, 11 percent more strength and tone in the hamstring muscles, and 11 percent more strength and tone in the calf muscles than regular walking shoes.

Beginning in early 2009, Reebok made its claims through print, television, and Internet advertisements, the FTC alleged.  The claims also appeared on shoe boxes and displays in retail stores.  One television ad featured a very fit woman explaining to an audience the benefits of Reebok EasyTone toning shoes.  She picks up a shoe from a display and points to a chart showing the muscles that benefit from use of the shoes, while a video camera continues to focus on her buttocks.  She says the shoes are proven to strengthen hamstrings and calves by up to 11 percent, and that they tone the buttocks “up to 28 percent more than regular sneakers, just by walking.”             

Under the settlement, Reebok is barred from:

• making claims that toning shoes and other toning apparel are effective in strengthening muscles, or that using the footwear will result in a specific percentage or amount of muscle toning or strengthening, unless the claims are true and backed by scientific evidence;
• making any health or fitness-related efficacy claims for toning shoes and other toning apparel unless the claims are true and backed by scientific evidence; and 
• misrepresenting any tests, studies, or research results regarding toning shoes and other toning apparel.

 FTC

Do not feel bad for Reebok, they made $340 million dollars in Easytone sales last year.

Show Me Where Ya Noms At - My Drunk Kitchen

Squee.

Eight Rules of Eating With A Band

The following is via Bariatric Times -- and found some interesting and important bits for banders, and while it's written for a professional, there are some VERY good pointers for YOU.  Keep in mind -- this is an Australian surgeon -- there may be differences in your post op care AND PLEASE LISTEN TO YOUR DOCTOR. 

The “Eight Golden Rules” via Lap Band Australia

 

These eight golden rules must become part of each patient’s life. The effect of the LAGB procedure on hunger facilitates a patient’s adherence to the rules, making it more likely that he or she will follow them. However, achieving positive results with LAGB requires a working partnership between the physician and patient. Adhering to these rules is the patient’s part of the partnership, and he or she ultimately is responsible for the success or failure of weight loss following LAGB.

Continued ...

The cure!

Apparently writing about blogstipation cures...

blogstipation

I have blogstipation.  It's my word and I am claiming it, except I can't because I just Google'd it and noted the pages and pages of results.  Instead, I am stealing it and creating my own:

 noun \ˈblȯg, Ëˆbläg\(t)-stə-ˈpā-shən\

The inability to get words on the digital screen in the matter desired.  

*See also - "writers' block," but not really.

Why?  Because.  *stamps feet*  It's my blog and I can have stuck words if I WANT to.

Body contouring rare after weight loss surgery

This grabbed my attention -- "Body contouring rare after weight loss surgery" -- WHAT?  No way.  

• How many of us have actually gone through body contouring since losing weight?   
• How many want to have plastics, but haven't due to various reasons including cost?  

The second demographic includes me --  I would have jumped into plastics pretty immediately after losing weight had I the finances at the time.  Later, it became a health issue, I've delayed the process to deal with other more pressing matters.  (I stopped the process of reconstructive surgery pretty last minute due having a grand mal seizure for the first time in front of my plastic surgeon.  Coincidence.)

I wonder sometimes if I will ever get the opportunity to have this excess skin removed, and I am sure thousands of us are out there.

What about you?

Body contouring rare after weight loss surgery

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Patients rarely have excess skin removed after weight loss surgery, although it can be a bother for people who've shed a lot of pounds, a new poll suggests.

Plastic surgeons said patients either don't know about this extra surgery, called body contouring, or simply can't afford it.

Yet it's more than just a cosmetic procedure, said Dr. Jason Spector, who presented the findings at the annual meeting of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) in Denver this week.

"It is surgery that improves patients' quality of life," Spector, of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, told Reuters Health.

The excess skin that is left after severe weight loss can get in the way of exercising, interfere with patients' ability to wear clothes properly and cause rashes and serious infections.

Spector said weight loss surgery, also called bariatric surgery, is "just the first step" for patients.

"In order to complete the journey, patients really do need to undergo the appropriate post-bariatric body contouring. Even though that has a slightly cosmetic ring to it, it's certainly something that we, as plastic surgeons, would consider reconstructive," he explained.

Body contouring after weight loss surgery is akin to breast reconstruction after mastectomy, a procedure which is now mandated by law in New York State and paid for by insurance companies.

To get a sense of how many patients were actually going on to have body contouring surgery, Spector and his team mailed a survey to 1,158 patients whose operations were done by two surgeons between 2003 and 2011. They received 284 responses.

Only a quarter of the patients said they discussed body contouring with their surgeon around the time of the operation, with about 12 percent actually undergoing the procedure.

"This was strikingly low," Spector said.

The most frequent reasons for not having body contouring were expense and lack of awareness of the procedure. Nearly 40 percent of the patients said they might have chosen differently if they had received more information.

According to Healthcare Blue Book, a consumer guide to healthcare costs, body contouring comes with a price tag of about $13,000.

The flabby excess skin can pose a very real danger, Spector said. He described a patient whose overhanging skin was caught underneath the electronically controlled seat of her car as she was adjusting it.

"A large piece of skin was ripped off and caused a big open wound and subsequent infection. Up to that point, her insurance company had told her, 'Sorry, you can't have the surgery. You don't need it.' So we're not talking small bits here."

Dr. Malcolm Z. Roth, from Albany Medical Center and the newly-elected president of the ASPS, welcomed the new findings.

"It was painfully obvious to me as a plastic surgeon practicing in the community that this was an issue," he told Reuters Health. "It's good to finally have some data."

Roth added that patients need to consider that having weight loss surgery is not the end of their journey.

"Patients need to realize it's not just a slam dunk. When they lose the weight, at the end of the rainbow, there may not be a pot of gold. It may be that they have another rainbow to navigate to get to the pot of gold, and it may take several operations to take care of the excess skin on the abdomen, thighs, arms, breasts, face and neck. We would hope that bariatric surgeons would present this information to patients, but we also want patients to become educated, themselves."

 

$5201.00 for 2011! <3 Go Team MM + BBGC! (Plus other stuff.)

Bariatric Bad Girls Club 

Obesity Help

Obesity Action Coalition 

Team BBGC + Melting Mama - Melting Mama's Bariatric Bad Girls  

$2,690.00 Raised in Natick, $2511.00 raised in Lowell, 2011 =  $5201.00!

Overview

Become a Member

Become an Advocate

Share Your Story

Join a Walk

Spread OAC's Message

Blogger choices

Do I put it away right. now?  OR make a video review right. now?

• 2 to 1 Protein Bar 5:1 Chocolate Bars - 12 - 45g Bars - Chocolate Crunch

 

Of course.

We did it.  $2501!  Thanks to ALL who donated!  <3  

I will post more later - the blog keeps crashing on me.  

Stab. Rant. WLS Caused My Premature Birth.

-Mirror UK

This kind of article may be why I throw things at my computer at 7am.

On the S.S. GOT Men-o-pause?

Menopause is the transition period in a woman's life when her ovaries stop producing eggs, her body produces less estrogen and progesterone and menstruation becomes less frequent, eventually stopping altogether.    The baby factory shuts down for business and it retires to Boca Raton.

See also:  crazy-town.

Coupon Post

I warned you. I'm up in here trying to save a buck. Here you are, some really kick butt coupons.

Above all interests or differences of any kind.

Today September 21, 2011, is the International Day Of Peace.  

I need $700 to reach my goal!

HELP!  

 Due to inclement weather, the location of the Lowell, MA Walk from Obesity has been changed to:

The Center for Weight Management
20 Research Place
Chelmsford, MA 01863

Help Team MM + BBGC raise funds for the Obesity Action Coalition with a donation to the 2nd Walk From Obesity this year!  All donations will be eligible for prizes from MM, the BBGC.  ENTER AT THIS LINK FOR PRIZES.

I AM INNOCENT.

Last year Diva Taunia had a little WLS community contest -- and she's doing it again this year.  I won a couple categories last year, thank you, but CHECK THIS OUT --  I swear to dog I have nothing to do with this, erm, fix!

You can vote daily at this link in these categories and more!

Woot!  And, my BBG's are ALL OVER this list.  Go us. 

 PS.  Not bad for the Debbie Downer/Failure/Dorito Eater/Who Sticks Her Middle Finger Up, no?

Review - BUY THIS RIGHT NOW.

Because I LOVE it. That is all. Talk later.

Oh, yes please! Coupon for SLIMPRESSIONS... <3

25% off Slimpressions with coupon code "DIVAT" in honor of WLS Awards Week!