The Average Halloween Candy Score is 9,000 Calories.

And, that's going to take me HOW LONG TO WORK OFF? So, no thank you. I have zero candy in my house. We don't buy candy. We do not dole out candy to trick-or-treaters, mostly because no one comes here. The kids do go out, and they will share a couple mint-chocolate-candies with me, but I can't be bothered by the rest.

Via: DegreeSearch.org

Celebrate ENS Video - All in one vitamin, protein, and more!

Celebrate says -- This is MUCH MORE than a protein shake. This is as close that you will ever get to having an ALL IN ONE bariatric supplement! Our Celebrate ENS shake is a one of a kind way to get your multivitamin, calcium, fiber AND protein all in one. Each ENS (Essential Nutrient System) shake contains a high potency multivitamin, 500 mg of calcium citrate, 4 g of fiber, and 25 g of whey isolate protein in each serving. This product is the best option for patients immediately following surgery.

-Celebrate Vitamins 

Created for surgical weight loss patients, our ENS (Essential Nutrient System) shake contains a high potency multivitamin, 500 mg of calcium citrate, and 25 g of whey isolate protein in each pack. Our integrated formula provides maximum solubility and ensures that the vitamins and minerals are readily bioavailable. This product is the best option for patients immediately following surgery. 

* The vitamin and mineral content of each pack is equal to taking one chewable multivitamin, plus 500 mg of calcium, plus 25 g of protein. 
* Due to the nature of the formulation, this product is appropriate for any surgical weight loss procedure. As with any of our other delivery systems, you may need additional supplementation based on surgery type. 
* It is recommended to be blended with 8 oz of cold water, shaken, and consumed but can be mixed with as much or as little water as you want. It may also be mixed with milk. 
* Each pack also contains 4 g of soluble fiber, added electrolytes and a 500 mg antioxidant blend, and a 200 mg green tea blend. 
* Like our other products, taste is important and this has a delicious vanilla flavor that will make you think that you are drinking a glass of milk flavored like cake batter. 
* Since quality is a critical element of all of our products, we utilize an ultra refined whey isolate protein that scores 100 on the PDCAAS scale. 

-Celebrate Vitamins 

Who would benefit from this product? 

1. Early post-operative patients - Since this may be diluted to taste, there are virtually no issues with taste aversion. 
2. Athletes - If you are a surgery patient turned athlete, this can help to flavor that boring water that you need to drink. Water is critical and taking your vitamins and calcium while hydrating makes it easier. 
3. Anyone looking for a convenient alternative to pills or chewables.

• Here is one of my original MM reviews, I LOVE THIS STUFF.  
• Via Celebrate Vitamins <--- click here to find it under "Protein" for the current links.

Fat Letter on Halloween night - No Candy For You, Kid! Added video with interview -

A woman, Cheryl, in Fargo, North Dakota has decided to take Childhood Obesity into her own hands on Halloween, and pass out this letter --  What?!  

Yo, lady -  it's not our business.

Pass out toys.  Shut off your lights.  This letter makes you a tool.    Then again, I think this whole thing is a prank for radio station PR now that I have had a day to look at it.

Valley News Live - KVLY/KXJB - Fargo/Grand Forks

Do calorie counts on menus change your ordering?

A somewhat recent study suggests that the addition of calories on restaurant menus does little to effect what a person chooses to order -- caloric ally.  

People still order high density foods -- big fatty fast foods in the drive through -- six hundred calorie cheeseburgers, seven hundred calorie fries, and a Diet Coke, please!   Breakfast is often huge stacks of pancakes, waffles, sides of bacon, upwards of one to two thousand calories in a single meal -- without batting an eyelash.   

As my teenager used to roll her eyes and say - YOLO.  

But, alas -- I not-so-fondly-remember how I gained up to my highest weight and it was before calories became a standard on menus.  I look back at my lots of fast-food and take out days and only wish companies had added this type of nutritional information to at least GIVE ME THE HEADS UP AS TO WHAT I WAS PUTTING IN MY MOUTH BACK THEN.  

Would I have still eaten that 20-pack of McNuggets?  I own it.  

It is likely, but I would have at least been aware of the impact:

And perhaps saved myself some of the drama of my FUTURE.   Ten or more years ago, I might not have been as aware or willing to see the calories of the items on a menu.  I would glaze over them, validate Why I Deserve This More Than A Day's Worth Of Calories In One Meal and then just forget that I had it.  I might have even added on a dessert and forgot about that as well.

Even after having bariatric surgery, these behaviors sometimes cycle back.  I often say that the inner-fat-girl (PLEASE DO NOT TAKE OFFENSE - she's MY INNER FAT GIRL - and I will ALWAYS HAVE ONE!)  will just lapse and lose it.  She'll blank, forgetting that she (ME!) is now a 144 lb "normal" sized woman with a rearranged gut, and try to order all sorts of Big Food That Does Not Work For The Smaller Sized Appetite.  

HELL YES THIS GIRL WILL ORDER 2000 CALORIES WORTH OF RIBS AND SIDES AT ONE MEAL if I am not paying attention and hungry...  And eat three.  People like ME need those numbers on menus.  I need to be shown what is the best nutritional option, because if it is there, I will order it.  

I need:

• Better, lighter options at restaurants aside from KIDS MENUS because they are ridiculous
• Smaller portions of typical entrees, because sometimes you really DO want chicken parmesan, but not 1890 calories worth and aren't taking it home!
• Label ALL TEH FOODS, ALL THE TIME.  I am a food journaler, I actually DO want to know what I am eating. Journaling works.

What about you?  Do you like calorie counts on menus?  Does it change or alter you restaurant behavior?  Does it make you feel guilty -- or worse about eating out?  

Surgery trounces diet and exercise for treating obesity and its ills

Surgery trounces diet and exercise for treating obesity and its ills.

Bariatric surgery may prevent heart failure

Bariatric surgery may prevent heart failure

Major finding: The incidence rate of heart failure during a median 15 years of prospective follow-up after bariatric surgery was 3.1 cases per 1,000 person-years, compared with 5.2/1,000 person-years in obese controls.

Data source: The Swedish Obese Subjects study included 2,010 obese subjects who underwent bariatric surgery in 1987-2001 and 2,037 closely matched obese controls. It is a nonrandomized, prospective, observational study.

Does That Really Work - Weight Loss Trends - Diets - Webinar from the OAC

• Does that Really Work? Deciphering Popular Weight-loss Trends
• A worthwhile listen!
• 50% of Americans are on a diet at any time, and why?
• Why do they use them?
• BUT... "It's TRUE! I read it on the internet!"

Your Brain after Obesity Surgery

Your Brain after Obesity Surgery

We are not discussing my brain after bariatric surgery, we are discussing yours.  Because, mine is very special.  *insert photo of my special brain here*

Your brain after obesity surgery responds to food differently than before surgery and differently than it does after a behavioral weight program. Likewise, brain function improves in children with excess weight and low fitness after treatment with an aerobic exercise program. These observations come from two new studies in Obesity that provide a glimpse of the growing understanding about how obesity and its treatment affect brain function.

Amanda Bruce and colleagues compared functional MRI scans of a sample of patients before and after gastric banding surgery to scans from a matched sample of patients losing similar amounts of weight in a behavioral treatment program.

The demographics of the two samples were also matched. The found changes in brain responses to food for both groups after weight loss. But the nature of the changes were different.

The response to food cues by the banding patients suggested that the cues were less relevant and rewarding to them. Food cues seemed to command more attention from participants in behavioral weight programs than they did from band patients.

- See more at: http://conscienhealth.org/2013/10/your-brain-after-obesity-surgery/#sthash.hBbCJfvF.dpuf

Elle Magazine puts Melissa McCarthy on the cover - but?

Why is she all trench-coated up?!

The hair - the coat - the ridiculous pose - are we just attempting to cover her curves?

Why doesn't she appear like any other ELLE cover-model?

Thats right, because people are afraid of fat people.

Get over it.

Who's Staring back at You in the Mirror? Improving Self-Perception

Via Obesity Action Coalition's Educational Series -

• Who's Staring back at You in the Mirror? Improving Self-Perception

Muscles and meth: Drug analog identified in 'craze' workout supplement

Muscles and meth: Drug analog identified in 'craze' workout supplement.

"In recent years banned and untested drugs have been found in hundreds of dietary supplements. We began our study of Craze after several athletes failed urine drug tests because of a new methamphetamine analog," said lead author Dr. Pieter Cohen, of Harvard Medical School, U.S.A.  A workout supplement marketed as a 'performance fuel', Craze is manufactured by Driven Sports, Inc. It is sold in stores across the United States and internationally via body supplement websites.  The supplement is labeled as containing the compound N,N-diethyl-phenylethylamine (N,N-DEPEA), claiming it is derived from endangered dendrobium orchids. However, while there is no proof that this compound is found within orchids, it is also structurally similar to the methamphetamine analog N,α-diethylphenylethylamine (N,α-DEPEA), a banned substance.

And be warned, variations of phenylethlamine are in EVERYTHING.  READ YOUR PRODUCT LABELS NOW.

• http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dta.1578/abstract
  

10 Things To Give Up To Be HAPPY

Because.  Being happy can be a choice.  Sometimes you have to work on it.  There are a few things you can DO to help yourself.

I like this list.

Via Tamara Star on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dailytransform

1. Give up caring what other people think of you. I know it seems counter intuitive as we humans are primal pack animals that don't want to be cast from the village, but spending time worrying what others think, is a waste of energy. You'll never please everyone and it's none of your business what others think of you.

2. Give up trying to please everyone. Unless you're living life to the beat of your own drum, your tribe won't be able to find you. Be the best version of you you can be, and you'll naturally attract in the people that are supposed to surround you.

3. Give up participating in gossip. 100 percent of the time, those sharing gossip with you will gossip about you. Believing gossip is like gambling everything on a horse sight unseen. It's naive.

4. Quit worrying. Where thoughts go, energy flows. Worry is investing time and energy in something you don't want to have happen. Learn to let go and trust.

5. Let go of insecurity. When we take ourselves too seriously, we think everyone else does too. There is one version of you on the planet. Be it, own it and quit worrying about it. No one really cares or watches you that closely.

6. Stop taking everything personally. Truth is, most people are too consumed with their own life to really consider what you're doing. As my first boss said so well: "The world doesn't revolve around you. Most people's reactions have nothing to do with you, so let it go."

7. Give up the past. We've all been hurt, we all had parents that made mistakes and we've all been through hell. You didn't listen to your parents when you were younger, so why are you still listening to their voices in your head now? Every experience in life has taught you something or made you stronger.

8. Give up spending money on what you don't need in effort to buy happiness.Living simply allows the space for life to flow. We complicate our lives by spending too much money and filling our home with "things." Less is truly more.

9. Give up anger. Anger burns a hole in the hand of the person still holding on to it. Move it out once and for all.

10. Give up control. Control is an illusion. We live in an out of control world. Learn to embrace the new and welcome change; otherwise you'll grow old through your own rigidity. Learn to let go.

30 years

Happy 30 years, ASMBS!  

• http://asmbs30.org/wishes/

Former 'Fat' Dude makes good on TV - WLS is no cure for obesity

"To be honest, I don't even know how heavy I was. I was probably somewhere over 380 pounds," Portinga said. 

After trying numerous methods to lose weight, Portinga decided to get gastric bypass surgery.

And he kicks ass.  Just saying.

 

Live Review (In My Mouth) With Eggface at #OH2013

A live review of a supplement product that Eggface and I tried at Obesity Help 2013.

Non Scale V I C T O R Y - You Are VICTORIOUS.

“Get Off The Scale! You are beautiful. Your beauty, just like your capacity for life, happiness, and success, is immeasurable. Day after day, countless people across the globe get on a scale in search of validation of beauty and social acceptance. Get off the scale! I have yet to see a scale that can tell you how enchanting your eyes are. I have yet to see a scale that can show you how wonderful your hair looks when the sun shines its glorious rays on it. I have yet to see a scale that can thank you for your compassion, sense of humor, and contagious smile. Get off the scale because I have yet to see one that can admire you for your perseverance when challenged in life. It’s true, the scale can only give you a numerical reflection of your relationship with gravity. That’s it. It cannot measure beauty, talent, purpose, life force, possibility, strength, or love. Don’t give the scale more power than it has earned. Take note of the number, then get off the scale and live your life. You are beautiful!”

― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

Do not act your age G I V E A W A Y!

Post by Wellesse.