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January 2013 posts

Ricki Lake - Bargain shopping for plastic surgery - Addicted To Plastic Surgery

Plastic surgery gone awry - to save a buck.  By the way - this isn't just something that happens with cheap plastics - more on THAT later - I promise.  


#WLSFA2013 Ticket giveaway winner #1 - Congratulations!

And the winner is -Sherry Russell Grimes!  Congratulations, Sherry!  I have emailed you - please shoot back a message ASAP!

PS.  This ticket was GRACIOUSLY donated by another attendee who asked me to share!  THANK YOU!


A Pep Talk from Kid President to You - Don't stop believing - unless your dream is stupid.

What will YOU create if you keep SITTING THERE?!
NOTHING.
GO.  Get out there.  

Love this.

Get FREE Shipping on Orders Over $75 from C.O. Bigelow Chemists!


Hapi Fork - Vibrate your obesity away!

HAPIfok

Introducing the positivity-enhanced HAPIfork!  It is an electronic fork that monitors your personal eating style and habits and gives you cues as to when you are eating too fast.  The HAPIform will alert you with lights and vibrations when you are shoveling food into your piehole.
I have a better idea.  Add moar amps.  Give your Happy A Charge!
Screen Shot 2013-01-28 at 8.32.36 AM
Electricity travels through conductors - any material which allows electrical flow - as it tries to reach the ground. Because people make excellent conductors, minor electrocution is a common household hazard. Fortunately it is usually more surprising than dangerous and does not require medical attention. However, some basic precautions should be taken to insure that the shock does not interfere with the body's normal electrical impulses including the functions of the brain and the heart. Prolonged exposure to a direct source of electricity can also cause severe burns to the skin and the tissue.
It would work faster than a $100.00 vibrating fork.
Screen Shot 2013-01-28 at 8.25.39 AM


Hungry Girl's 2013 Supermarket List

ShoppingListGraphicJan25Hungry Girl just sent out her semi-annual grocery shopping list, and it's huge and not half-bad!  In fact, it looks a lot like my shopping cart, times fifty?  

I loooooove products, I like lists, I dig single ingredients not mashed together, and until you add things like Cool Whip -- we're good.

Screen Shot 2013-01-25 at 7.51.37 AM

Download all four pages of the list like I did -- Download HG Supermarket List  2013 and take a gander for yourself.



OAC’S YOUR WEIGHT MATTERS NATIONAL CONVENTION SET FOR AUGUST 15-18, 2013, IN PHOENIX, ARIZONA

OAC’S YOUR WEIGHT MATTERS NATIONAL CONVENTION SET FOR AUGUST 15-18, 2013, IN PHOENIX, ARIZONA 

Tampa, Fla. â€“ The Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) is excited to announce the date and location of the 2nd Annual Your Weight Matters National Convention. The Convention will take place August 15 – 18, 2013 in Phoenix at the Arizona Grand Resort & Spa.

Convention Save the Date Announcement

 â€œWe are thrilled to be hosting the 2nd Annual Your Weight Matters National Convention in Phoenix. Our Inaugural Convention was an incredible success as we welcomed hundreds of individuals from throughout the U.S. wanting to learn more about weight and health. As an attendee and Chair of the OAC, I was deeply touched by the cohesiveness and sense of ‘family’ that the Convention offered to all of us. August 15 can’t come soon enough,” said Pam Davis, RN, CBN, BSN.

Continue reading "OAC’S YOUR WEIGHT MATTERS NATIONAL CONVENTION SET FOR AUGUST 15-18, 2013, IN PHOENIX, ARIZONA " »


“If you are overweight or obese, are you pleased with the way that you look?” Fat-Shaming for social change? WHAT?!

This, this will work, SURE!  Shame the people!  Make them feel bad!  We all know what happens when you make someone feel bad about things they already feel bad about!

ShameCycle

The party!  The cycle of shame! and  "Varieties of Social Pressure!"

"Our best long-term possibility is to find ways of inducing a majority of the population to do what a minority now already do: working to stay thin in the first place and to lose weight early on if excess weight begins to emerge. That will take social pressure combined with vigorous government action."

WAIT - WHAT?

NBC

Unhappy with the slow pace of public health efforts to curb America’s stubborn obesity epidemic, a prominent bioethicist is proposing a new push for what he says is an “edgier strategy” to promote weight loss: ginning up social stigma.

Daniel Callahan, a senior research scholar and president emeritus of The Hastings Center, put out a new paper this week calling for a renewed emphasis on social pressure against heavy people -- what some may call fat-shaming -- including public posters that would pose questions like this:

“If you are overweight or obese, are you pleased with the way that you look?”

Full text here -  Download Obesity Paper  With fancy rounded fonts!

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Weight-Loss Surgery Ups Cardiac Function in Kids

Bariatric surgery resulted in cardiac improvements in obese teens that were sustained through two years.

Depression-cause-heart-attack-1

Medpage -

Bariatric surgery led to sustained improvements in left ventricular mass and diastolic function in morbidly obese teenagers, a researcher reported here.

The gains were seen as early as six months after the operations and they persisted through two years, Holly Ippisch, MD, of Cincinnati Children's Hospital, reported at the American Heart Association meeting.

But, she noted, "even though the measures are significantly better, they're still not normal," indicating that interventions might have to occur sooner.

"These data support a more aggressive preventive approach to adolescent weight issues," Ippisch said.

The prevalence of childhood obesity has risen from about 5% in the 1970s to about 17% today, according to Stephen Daniels, MD, PhD, MPH, of Children's Hospital in Denver, who moderated a press conference at which the results were presented.

The severity of obesity has increased as well, he said, making bariatric surgery a treatment consideration for some of these kids.

Consensus criteria generally reserve bariatric surgery for children with a body mass index over over 50 kg/m2 or for those with a BMI over 40 kg/m2 and serious comorbidities such as obstructive sleep apnea and type 2 diabetes.

Ippisch said leaner children might qualify for bariatric surgery depending on the burden of comorbidities.


OAC - Your Weight Matters Magazine - Online - and saving a piece of history

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774680_4586923665767_1284833502_o
I received my issue, issues (two, because we have two memberships!) of Your Weight Matters Magazine from the Obesity Action Coalition today.  I got a little bit excited because the recap of the National YWM Convention was in there, and yes, that's me up there, OAC Advocate of the Year.  This is my digital-clipping of said event!  
It's all online -  get into it -  to view a full PDF version of this issue, please click here.

Obesity and the Immune System
by Stephanie F. Deivert, RD, LDN, and Mildred K. Fleetwood, PhD
Volume 8/Issue 2 – Winter 2013 

“Why am I struggling with my weight? I am doing everything right!”
by Walter Medlin, MD, FACS
Volume 8/Issue 2 – Winter 2013 

2013 – Time to Make Some Noise!
by Chris Gallagher, OAC Policy Consultant
Volume 8/Issue 2 – Winter 2013 

Dear Doctor – I’ve had bariatric surgery. Will I ever get to normal weight?
by Lloyd Stegemann, MD
Volume 8/Issue 2 – Winter 2013 

YWM 2012 – A Look back…
Volume 8/Issue 2 – Winter 2013 

Kid’s Corner – Winter Fitness Fun
by Sarah Muntel, RD
Volume 8/Issue 2 – Winter 2013 

Deciphering What Really Works for Treating Childhood Obesity
by Eliza Kingsford, MA, LPC
Volume 8/Issue 2 – Winter 2013 

Obesity and Heartburn: What is the link?
by Nancy Kushner, MSN, RN, and Robert Kushner, MD
Volume 8/Issue 2 – Winter 2013 

Zumba!
by Audrey Turner
Volume 8/Issue 2 – Winter 2013 

Set a SMART Resolution for 2013
by Marie A. Spano, MS, RD, CSCS, CSSD
Volume 8/Issue 2 – Winter 2013

Greek Yogurt – What’s the craze all about?
by Pam Helmlinger, RD, LDN
Volume 8/Issue 2 – Winter 2013


All the weight I didn’t lose

All the weight I didn’t lose - from Salon.com 

"I am the “after” side of surgery, having lost more than 250 pounds. No one gets this, at least not without an explanation, because I still weigh over 200 pounds, and the weight loss fable is supposed to end when you’re thin, not when you’re merely “an average fat American.”

Yes, some of us do "get it."  

This is a powerful article a friend of mine who happens to be a special kind of "after"  (which is not the kind of " air quotes" that indicate failure, but that she has SHIT TO DEAL WITH and y'all need to stop judging a person at first glance, you know?) posted in my BBGC support group.   Thank you, Sarah.  I GET IT.  Some of us DO.  Rawr.  

Please read it.  Please open your mind to all "afters," and stop the WLS shaming.  

Continue reading "All the weight I didn’t lose" »


Study - 47% Weight Stays Off Long Term After Gastric Band Bariatric Surgery - But...

Medpage -  Weight Stays Off Long Term After Bariatric Surgery

O'Brien PE, et al. "Long-term outcomes after bariatric surgery. Fifteen-year follow-up of adjustable gastric banding and a systematic review of the bariatric surgical literature" Ann Surg 2013;257:87-94.

Obese patients maintained about 50% excess weight loss for as long as 15 years after laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding, (LAGB), Australian investigators reported.

Experience at a single center showed an average of 47% excess weight loss in 714 patients followed for more than 10 years after LAGB, including 47% among patients followed for 15 years and 62% in a small group followed for 16 years, according to Paul O'Brien, MD, and colleagues, of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

A systematic review of published studies revealed a mean excess weight loss of 54% at 10 years and beyond for patients treated with LAGB or Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB), they reported in the January issue of Annals of Surgery.

The results also showed a marked reduction in late-occurring adverse events after LAGB, the authors added.

"Gastric banding is a safe and effective treatment option for obesity in the long term," they said. "The systematic review shows that all current procedures achieve substantial long-term weight loss. It supports the existing data that LAGB is safer than RYGB and finds that the long-term weight loss outcomes and needs for revisional surgery for these two procedures are not different."

Despite a history dating back more than 50 years, bariatric surgery has a paucity of long-term data to demonstrate durable weight loss. Most published studies have follow-up of less than 3 years. Systematic reviews have added relatively little in terms of long-term follow-up data, according to the authors.

O'Brien and colleagues introduced LAGB at their center in 1994, and have followed all patients by means of a dedicated bariatric surgery database. As of December 2011, O'Brien and co-author Wendy Brown, MBBS, PhD, also of Monash University, had treated 3,227 patients with LAGB.

The authors performed a prospective longitudinal cohort study of the patients. For comparison, they performed a systematic review of published literature on bariatric surgery. The focus was on long-term follow-up, 15 years for the cohort and 10 years for the systematic review.

The cohort had mean age of 47 and a mean presurgical body mass index of 43.8 kg/m2. The authors identified 714 patients followed for at least 10 years, including 54 patients followed for 15 years and 14 followed for 16 years.

  • The 10-year excess weight loss was 47%.
  • The authors reported that 26% of patients required revisions for proximal enlargement,
  • 21% for port and tubing problems, and 3.4% for erosion.
  • Band removal was performed in 5.6% of patients.

During the first 10 years of clinical experience, the revision rate for proximal enlargement was 40%, declining to 6.4% during the last 5 years of the study period. Patients with and without revisions had similar excess weight loss.

The systematic review consisted of 19 published articles, 24 data sets, and approximately 14,000 patients. The data included six sets involving patients with LAGB, nine sets for RYGB, five sets for gastroplasty, three for biliopancreatic diversion or duodenal switch (BPD/DS), and one involving fixed open gastric banding.

According to the authors, every study had deficiencies related to data reporting. None of the studies was a randomized controlled trial. One investigation was a prospective, nonrandomized, matched interventional study, and the rest were observational studies.

With respect to safety, one perioperative death occurred in 6,177 LAGB procedures, compared with 21 in 2,684 RYGB procedures (P<0.001).

Excess weight loss at 10 years averaged 54% with LAGB and RYGB, 53% with gastroplasty, and 73.3% with BPD/DS. The mean revision rate was 26% with LAGB and 22% with RYGB. Revision rates from individual data sets ranged as high as 60% with LAGB and 38% with RYGB.

"The longitudinal cohort study of the LAGB patients shows that they have achieved and maintained a loss of nearly half of their excess weight to 15 years," the authors wrote. "The validity of the 15-year figure of 47% of excess weight loss is reinforced by the pooling of all long-term data (≥10 years) and finding the same weight loss of 47% excess weight loss for the much larger group."


So maybe being pear-shaped is not such a good thing?

Pear
We have heard for years that being pear-shaped was preferable to other body-shapes, that carrying excess body-fat in the hips, thighs, legs and rear was 'healthier' than the belly.  That 'pears' were a preferable body-shape to have than 'apples.'  This is not necessarily so.
Chicago Tribune - via Journal of Clinical Endocrinology

If you're pear-shaped and smug, a new study's findings may take you down a peg: For those at slightly increased risk of developing diabetes, fat stored in the buttocks pumps out abnormal levels of two proteins associated with inflammation and insulin resistance. (And that's not good.)

The new research casts some doubt on an emerging conventional wisdom: that when it comes to cardiovascular and diabetes risk, those of us who carry some excess fat in our hips, thighs and bottoms ("pear-shaped" people) are in far better shape than those who carry most of their excess weight around the middle ("apples").

The new study was posted online this week in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, and it focuses on a number of proteins, with names such as chemerin, resistin, visfatin and omentin-1, that could one day be used to distinguish between obese people headed for medical trouble and those whose obesity is less immediately dangerous.

The subjects in the study were all people with "nascent" metabolic syndrome — meaning patients who already have at least three risk factors for developing diabetes (large waist circumference, high blood pressure, high triglcerides, low HDL, or "good" cholesterol, and high fasting blood sugar) but no cardiovascular disease or diabetes complications yet.

The researchers found these subjects' "gluteal adipose tissue" — fat in and around the buttocks — pumped out unusually high levels of chemerin, a protein that has been linked to high blood pressure, elevated levels of C-reactive protein, triglycerides and insulin resistance, and low levels of good cholesterol. The blood and subcutaneous fat drawn from gluteal tissue also contained unusually low levels of omentin-1, a protein that, when low, is linked to high triglycerides, high circulating glucose levels and low levels of good cholesterol.

"Fat in the abdomen has long been considered the most detrimental to health, and gluteal fat was thought to protect against diabetes, heart disease and metabolic syndrome," said Ishwarlal Jialal, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and of internal medicine at UC Davis and lead author of the study. "But our research helps to dispel the myth that gluteal fat is innocent," he added.


Ceelo Green signs with eDiets to lose weight

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CeeLo.  Really?  No, really?  You eat flash-frozen diet-delivery food?  Mr. Lo, you sir, are a multi-millionaire with access to personal chefs and high-end kitchens with additional access to likely The Best Healthcare in the World.  I call bullshit.
"You can change. You can change for the better. You can be a better version of yourself. I choose eDiets because it works."
No, you just ripped off Weight Watchers slogan.  This isn't about eating frozen food. 

427 lbs to TRIATHLETE!

"There's a group of us out there who have had weight loss surgery who are athletes now. I never felt comfortable saying that," said Smith. But her coach at SBR Coaching in Verona has called her that for a long time."I've never worked with anybody quite like Aimee. She started her journey by losing the weight and not knowing quite what to do only that she thought she was going to die and she needed to do something," said the coach.


Honey Boo Boo's Scary Mayonnaise

I think this video explains a lot of food aversions.

I, for one, cannot HANDLE -

  • FOOD SOUNDS.  
  • The squishy sound of the mayo in this video makes me want to cut kittens.
  • FOOD SMELLS.  
  • Please do NOT cook foods in my house unless there are Properly Vented Rooms with air moving, fans?  This includes - NEVER COOKING anything in my airspace that involves deep fat frying, oil, fish, heavy use of garlic, onions, etc.  I will implode.

Although, I do like mayo.  A little.  A schmear.  Except when it starts to get a little old and congeal? NO.  

Thank you Honey Boo Boo, for today's therapy.

<3, Me.


Coca-Cola + OBESITY + Bad PR.

Oh Coca-Cola!  Is this an admission of guilt?  Finally, you understand?  You get that drinking pure liquid diabetes leads our children to instant weight gain?

KO 20 oz

^ This twenty ounce bottle of typical Coke has more sugar than a typical person requires in a day.  

Please note that I am a bit sugar-shocked and twitchy just reading the label since I can't handle more than 10-15 grams of sugar at any given time due to my altered (superhero status...) roux en y digestion and reactive hypoglycemia.  If you gave a this blogger a Coke?

...She'd Have A Seizure, Slip Into A Hypoglycemic Coma, And You Could Pay The Ambulance Bill?

Screen Shot 2013-01-15 at 8.05.52 AMIronically, the cause of my potential demise would also be the cure as the Coke could be poured into my facehole to fix my problem.

"Her blood sugar is 20?  GIVE HER A COCA COLA!  STAT!"

Twitch.  Twitch.  Twitch.

But, I digress.  

I haven't had a regular-sugar soda, or "tonic" as we up heah in Beantown call it -- in at least ten years.  Before that maybe a can here and there but oddly, this formerly 320 lb girl is a Diet Coke-head.  

Twitch.

Right.  I never took to the real "sugared" stuff.  Many of my long term weight-loss surgery peers would say that their drink of choice was actually the super high-caffeine sugar Mountain Dew -- that is before much of them found coffee drinks.  I was ALWAYS a "Diet" soda drinker, regardless of the FOOD I would eat alongside the drink.

Coca-Cola is finally opening up the discussion - but sort of not really blaming everyone else -  

WAIT - they say - It's not OUR FAULT -  you just ATE too much.

Remember COKE LOVES YOU.  

We love everyone!  Everyone hug, smile, get together, have a COKE AND SMILE!  GET HAPPY!  PEACE!  SMILE! HUGS AND KISSES!  PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE FAT KIDS HAVING BARIATRIC SURGERY!  Because EVERYTHING is GREAT when WE COME TOGETHER FOR GOOD.  Good is good enough.  We don't HAVE TO BE PERFECT.  

COKE LOVES YOU JUST THE WAY YOU ARE.

I think I need a new college major.  Advertising hurts my heart.

Coca-Cola to tackle obesity for 1st time in TV ads

Coca-Cola became one of the world's most powerful brands by equating its soft drinks with happiness. Now it's taking to the airwaves for the first time to address a growing cloud over the industry: obesity.

The Atlanta-based company on Monday will begin airing a two-minute spot during the highest-rated shows on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC in hopes of flexing its marketing muscle in the debate over sodas and their impact on public health. The ad lays out Coca-Cola's record of providing drinks with fewer calories and notes that weight gain is the result of consuming too many calories of any kind — not just soda.

For Coca-Cola, the world's No. 1 beverage company, the ads reflect the mounting pressures on the broader industry. Later this year, New York City is set to enact a first-in-the-nation cap on the size of soft drinks sold at restaurants, movie theaters and sports arenas. The mayor of Cambridge, Mass., has already introduced a similar measure, saying she was inspired by New York's move.

Even when PepsiCo Inc., the No. 2 soda maker, recently signed a wide-ranging endorsement deal with pop singer Beyonce, critics called for her to drop the contract or donate the funds to health initiatives.

New research in the past year also suggests that sugary drinks cause people to pack on the pounds independent of other behavior. A decades-long study involving more than 33,000 Americans, for example, suggested that drinking sugary beverages interacts with genes that affect weight and enhances a person's risk of obesity beyond what it would be from heredity alone.

Michael Jacobson, executive director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, was skeptical about Coca-Cola's ads and said the company would stop fighting soda taxes if it was serious about helping reduce obesity.

"It looks like a page out of damage control 101," he said. "They're trying to disarm the public."

The group has been critical of the soft drink industry and last year released a video parodying Coke's famous polar bears becoming plagued with diabetes and other health problems.

Coca-Cola said its ads aren't a reaction to negative public sentiment. Instead, the idea is to raise awareness about its lower-calorie drinks and plans for the coming months, said Stuart Kronauge, general manager of sparkling beverages for Coca-Cola North America.

"There's an important conversation going on about obesity out there, and we want to be a part of the conversation," she said.

In the ad, a narrator notes that obesity "concerns all of us" but that people can make a difference when they "come together." The spot was produced by the ad agencies Brighthouse and Citizen2 and is intended to tout Coca-Cola's corporate responsibility to cable news viewers.

Another ad, which will run later this week during "American Idol" and before the Super Bowl, is much more reminiscent of the catchy, upbeat advertising people have come to expect from Coca-Cola. It features a montage of activities that add up to burning off the "140 happy calories" in a can of Coke: walking a dog, dancing, sharing a laugh with friends and doing a victory dance after bowling a strike.

The 30-second ad, a version of which ran in Brazil last month, is intended to address confusion about the number of calories in soda, said Diana Garza Ciarlante, a spokeswoman for Coca-Cola Co. She said the company's consumer research showed people mistakenly thought there were as many as 900 calories in a can of soda.

The company declined to say how much it was spending on the commercials, which it started putting together last summer. It also declined to give details on its plans for the year ahead. But among the options under consideration is putting the amount of activity needed to burn off the calories in a drink on cans and bottles.

The company noted that it already puts calorie counts on the front of its cans and bottles. Last year, it also started posting calorie information on its vending machines ahead of a regulation that will require soda companies to do so by 2014.

Coca-Cola's changing business reflects the public concern over the calories in soda. In North America, all the growth in its soda unit over the past 15 years has come from low- and no-calorie drinks, such as Coke Zero. Diet sodas now account for nearly a third of its sales in the U.S. and Canada. Other beverages such as sports drinks and bottled water are also fueling growth.

Even with the growing popularity of diet sodas, however, overall soda consumption in the U.S. has declined steadily since 1998, according to the industry tracker Beverage Digest.

John Sicher, the publisher of Beverage Digest, noted that the industry "put its head in the sand" when obesity and soft drinks first started becoming an issue more than a decade ago. Now, he said Coca-Cola is looking to position itself in the public debate rather than being defined by adversaries.