All orders from the old site are either shipping or being credited as per customer requests. We need info from some customers in order to proceed as tech meltdown affected database and have been privately dealing with our customers- all orders will be satisfied. We thank those who are actual customers for patience and kindness during our difficulties. We have been a real company for nine years and continue to be a real company.
I have been asking for EIGHTY SEVEN DAYS, and even BEFORE THAT, for nothing more than communication and my two cases of Believe and box of protein bars.
Could it be? After eighty-two days of waiting for my order(s) from Susan Maria Leach's Bariatric Eating - BEHealthy Drinks - whatever she's renaming it?
Hello from the department of OBVIOUS THINGS, if you stop EATING FOOD and DRINKING PROTEIN SHAKES instead of three solid meals? You're going to lose weight. It's called a Very Low Calorie Diet.
Or. How To Sell 6-9 Canisters Of Protein To The Desperate Each Month -
Susan Maria Leach of the SML Network, and BEHealthyDrinks formerly of Bariatric Eating, you say you have a New Store and everything is in stock (Hello, bullshit!) and ready to ship? So what about your customers who have waited sixty, ninety or one hundred and twenty days or more for their "old" product that is obviously not in stock?
"Behealthydrinks focuses on top quality protein drinks and easy blending powders. Pure quality, whey protein isolate, with natural ingredients. All our products are are regularly tested for purity and manufactured in GMP certified and organic facilities."
Sure it does. That is, if you were manufacturing it and not screwing your customers. Hate me all you want.
72 days since my first order. God knows how long since my second.
Aside from the editing fails in this press release I got in my email this morning, I can't even begin to explain it. It's like we are all falling into Susan Maria's fictional life.
Seriously, there is no way to start explaining what follows. The only translation I have is -- that Susan Maria Leach hired a Very Bad PR company, and it's purely keyword spam. Because, she suddenly has 35,000 followers on Twitter, with less than 200 tweets, and has lost nearly all of her Facebook following, however the spam keeps pumping from her account without her involvement.
I can't even translate the following, it is almost as if Susan Maria Leach of Bariatric Eating which is now BEHealthy Drinks of the Susan Maria Network has fictionalized her life. I would even suggest she's added bizarre detail just so people will run with it. *runs with it*
Or, she's really living in Oz, and hired a staff of Oopmah Loompahs. Because, this shit is "off the hook," her words, not mine. You. can't. make. this. shiz. up.
She says she's hanging with the Biebster crowd because of her new business partners, she got connectionz or the Kardashians, or the President -- getting $300 hair extensions and swag, swag, swag! Because YOLO!
Or I am just confused. You have to read it to "Believe," it. Be "Inspire" -d. It's a work of fiction, alright.
PS. She's gonna call us all for our credit card numbers. You know. To "make good" on our "lost orders." There's no way.
Behealthydrinks focuses on top quality protein drinks and easy blending powders. Pure quality, whey protein isolate, with natural ingredients. All our products are are regularly tested for purity and manufactured in GMP certified and organic facilities...
Except - they do not ship your purchases. Who really gives a fuck WHERE it comes from? I KNOW where it comes from and I can SELL THE SAME PRODUCT TO YOU.
Timely, as nearly one thousand of us descend upon Las Vegas today through the weekend for a weight loss surgery related event.
I am already seeing the alcohol posts on Facebook IN. THE. AIRPORTS.
Hello, my name is Beth, and I don't have a problem with alcohol (...and I thank my lucky stars every single day...) however, I AM SURROUNDED BY ALCOHOLICS AND OTHER ADDICTS POST WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY.
May 15, 2012 (Lyon, France) â Bariatric surgery is associated with an increased likelihood that patients will report and be diagnosed with problems related to alcohol consumption. Different levels of risk are associated with different gastric surgery procedures, Per-Arne Svensson, PhD, from the Sahlgrenska Center for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, reported here at the 19th European Congress on Obesity.
And you know what? Today is my eight year "surgiversary." And, yes... I'm waiting for my party. *sits quietly in wait* I'll be here when you're ready. I'd like the same as every other celebration: Josh Turner, someone to drive me around and Dark Chocolate Truffles. KTHANXBAI.
2004
I am not about to write a fluff post about my "Years Of Success," or how "You Too Can Be Like Me!" fitting into size eight size twelve jeans and being super fabulous, still.
I have not taken any courses on Being A Life Coach, Nutrition Coach or even as a Support Group Leader. I haven't become a pro post op even if I'm working on year nine or ten of just that.
I still do not know what I want to be when I grow up, sorry. If I have proven anything -- it's that I am who I am -- love me or hate me -- I'm still here. Sure, I have eight years of quasi-success under my pannus, but I am not there yet. (Eww, BETH....?!)
I told you this LAST YEAR, (or the year before, or before... or...) at my seven year anniversary, in a post that is missing in action someplace. You will note the angsty tone of last Spring's postings, perhaps this is why they are missing. I don't know. I *will, however, write about The Year That Should Have Failed Me in a separate post. Watch for it later today.
It's just that I woke up -- considered the day -- and started thinking about the word -- SURGIVERSARY.
If you've been following my blog or 4209548 Facebook pages (BTW - if you ARE NOT on Facebook, you are missing out on MOST OF WHAT I WRITE MOST OF THE TIME, I am seriously socially media sarcastic) for any length of time you would know that I loathe that word -- among other things.
There are certain words and phrases that make their rounds out there in the weight loss surgery land that make my (and some of your...) skin crawl. In fact, some of these phrases are so overused they no longer hold power and unfortunately end up having a negative connotation for many of us --
#1 - TOOL. (Makes me take an ice pick to the eye.)
#2 - Surgiversary.
I asked some of my Bariatric Bad Girls Club friends this morning what grinds their nerves -- of the words and phrases we use in this community. I got 200+ comments in an hour.
We are, if not anything else, prolific.
Keep in mind that many of the BBG are long-term post ops and opinions are like interchangeable assholes, okay? I did not say WE are assholes, I said that opinions are like... well, you get it. What you feel today -- may very well change later on. It may feel REALLY AWESOME TO YOU to say "____ pounds gone forever!!" but for many of us who are years and years post op? It's like nails on a chalkboard. Your pounds are not gone forever.
I guess that is to say, you have to live it to understand, nothing in life is forever and it's not Debbie Downer MM time over here, it's just realistic.
Some of the 200+ comments from this morning --
I know I cringe whenever I read "xx pounds forever lost" as if it weren't hard life time work. Losing half a person is commendable, but remaining estranged is a day-to-day battle.
there are no serious side effects if you follow your dr's plan
"Pounds lost for-ever!"
I hate the term "loser's bench". I can only imagine how big that damned bench has to be to hold all the folks on it that have had WLS.
journey
"Believe!"
FIVE DAY ------- TEST......freaking wls crash diet
"Onederland!"
"Can you eat that?"
"You're getting too thin..."
"Never" My nutritionists used that word all the time. Not realistic.
Any cutsie name/nickname for pouch
Any sentence that starts out with I will NEVER break any rules, drink with a straw, eat bread, miss a vitamin, eat sugar, touch white carbs or whatever. Surgery didn't take the human out of us!
I don't even call mine a "pouch". It a stomach. It may be a different size than an unaltered one but I don't call my intestines anything different just because they are rerouted.
"Nothing tastes/feels as good as Skinny feels"
And about 150 more... because WOW WE COULD FILL A BOOK WITH THESE THINGS.
We latch on to these words and phrases and ideas in the early stages of learning about weight loss surgery and in our early recovery stages and think they hold magical powers.
Did you use some of those terms? Do you still? Do some of them make your teeth itch? Do others that haven't been mentioned? (I know there are ... heck the name of my business is a teeth-itching word to some of you. LOL.)
I know I used the term "gone forever" to describe my early weight loss to my lowest weight, because At The Time, I was SO DAMNED SURE that I'd "NEVER AGAIN" (there's another one!) "LET MYSELF GO" (and another...)
Myself? I was SO sure that weight loss surgery was a "tool" to "cure" my obesity "forever."
So. sure. Cocky, even. Let's zoom back to 2003 and discuss this all over again. I was an asshole. I was NEVER going to regain an ounce. I would be the most successful of successes.
I was wrong. (Yes, I've been successful in the face of some cruddy situations, go me, where's my party? However. )
Weight loss surgery is only a temporary opportunity providing the time and physical limits on your GUT in order to lose the excess weight. It does NOTHING to help where it truly matters in the long term -- inside your brain.
This is where I am now -- at eight years post op to the day -- living, learning, watching, reading and understanding in this community, just now really realizing that long-term success is about your brain, not your gut, and has NOTHING to do with "tools, rules, never agains, pouch-tests, diets, or surgiversaries."
So there. A very merry unbirthday, times eight. Off we go.
I have heard it before. I will hear it again. And, again, I'm hearing it loud, clear and I don't know how to respond.
Due to the nature of who I am or how I present myself, not everyone is going to "like me." Fine.
Back when I taped those long-forgotten web videos of Melting Mama's Reality Bites, I was told something. I was told that I couldn't go "mainstream" until I cleaned up my "act" and you know, changed. At that time, I couldn't fathom what "mainstream" was, because I wasn't blogging for any reason other than to blog.
What do you mean mainstream?
Bloggers didn't blog to make wads of money, for fame or notoriety, did they? Certainly not in my niche. Weight loss? That's crazy talk. Oh, they DO? Nobody told me! Clearly I wasn't paying attention.
"If you'd just ____________ you'd be unstoppable." For what? I wasn't trying to be unstoppable. I just wanted to write.
You mean -- if I stopped dropping the f-bomb in my personal blog, that's going to make me Successful Beyond Compare? I just wanted to write.
If I don't get exasperated and rant once in a while, I will land a million dollar advertising contract with Johnson + Johnson for Band Aids? "Sure Thing!" Uh. No.
Even if I buff off the rougher edges of my personality, it is still unlikely that I would fit a corporate definition of whatever it would take to be "unstoppable."
What is it that you want me to do? I told you I was open to options, I am "technically" unemployed, but, what? I just want to write.
I already told you, I'm not a billboard type. Even if I had a one hundred percent perfectly post op experience, I don't see the Before and Afters the same way you do. I see Before and During and Later. It's a constant progression, undefinable by a certain time frame or others descriptions of success.
If it's clear that I am not a success by the standard definitions, why would you want me to be "unstoppable?" Why would you want me as your example?
Because, if you ask me to "just stop doing this, change that, alter this, and start doing that," it's no longer me. Who do you want? What do you want? I just want to write.
I didn't get HERE by being a Picture of Post Op Perfection. I got here, by just writing. I have had more success than I could imagine, by just writing.
I am somewhat respected by those who want to know they don't HAVE to be a Picture of Post Op Perfection, and want to know that they did not fail, because their surgical procedure FAILED THEM. Also, by those who have had a super successful experience, but enjoy the candor of being a little too real, because you know what, it's like looking in a mirror, no?
The reason I have any success at this point, is that I AM THE MAJORITY. We are the majority. The not-perfect results.
*Your Results Will Vary. And, they do. I ask you this, do you know ANYONE that has had weight loss surgery and NOT had a side effect, complication or emotional distress?
For those who we "look up" to in the community, who propogate the ideas of Post Op Perfection are more broken than you know. We are all equal.
The difference between they and I? They may have learned to hide the "broken" a little bit better to sell themselves. "Fabulous! And don't you look AMAZING!" I didn't care to do so, because I didn't care about the potential for money nor the career goals in my WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY. What does lying get you anyway? I am not out to get a career as a long term weight loss surgery whore, so why am I constantly asked to do just that? What am I not seeing? I just want to write.
My surgery was a complete success. I am a success. I repeatedly say this. So what? I don't need to plaster it somewhere. My blogging came out of the need to write because I needed something to keep me entertained while I was home, because my "successful surgery" broke me in other ways! I just wanted to write.
So, you tell me. What do you want from me? Honestly.
Besides the obvious: "Don't say fuck, Beth, it's offensive. Don't pick on Beachbody, that's irritating and I do not appreciate it <pout face>."
You don't think I know this? Do items like this require emails to discuss? Come on. I'm not stupid. I know it's offensive. I know I push buttons. It's half the reason people follow my rantings.
What? What is it that you think is this magical thinking that is going to take me from a semi-successful blogger to UNSTOPPABLE LIKE OPRAH? Seriously. I just want to write. I think I just did.
I rarely read blogs about weight loss. I cannot read about anyone's daily weight, not my own, not yours. Numbers will not determine my worth -- nor yours. So there.
Honestly, I read more blogs about blogging. I often read blogs about How To Blog. Yay for Problogger! BTW - if you're looking to earn a living through blogging, it's a MUST-READ.
On blogs about blogging you might find posts regarding how to deal with criticism and haterade.
"To do anything remotely interesting you need to train yourself to be effective at dealing with, responding to, even enjoying criticism⦠In fact, I would take the quote a step further and encourage people to actively pursue being thought foolish and stupid.â (Ferriss 2012)
As you might note that I have taken to posting a selection of haterade here and there and offering it for public consumption. I, uh... might take relish in eating haters. With ketchup. And, frankly, I don't give a shit about the sugar content.
This is something I took from Dooce.com, she is a Queen of blogging, and receives A Lot Of Hate, and at one point had a sub blog filled with only Trolling and Hater entries.
Blogger hate posts are hugely fun awful to read because anonymous readers/commenters from the interwebs are a bit unhinged, and get all conspiracy-theory on bloggers and make up their own super-detailed versions of our realities. Many of us aren't that much fun in "real life," you know. Some blog readers must be really, really bored to come up with the blogger haterfiction out there.
I don't want to jump to any sort of conclusions about any of you -- MM Readers -- because of course you are all Mensa-level IQs with double Masters' degrees and all sorts of amazing with perfection oozing out your pores out of your childrens and your dogs even shit perfect little doggie doodles.
And, you guys... you would never leave trollin' comments on blogs. Never. Never, ever, right?
'Cause that's really, like, eighth grade.
And, I know me some eighth grade. I have four kids. I hear allllllll of the drama from 4th-8th grade. Blog drama is a lot like 8th grade girls in the bathroom. Y'all need to get a detention sometime.
There are various thoughts about that -- some think "You are giving people what they WANT!! ATTENTION FOR HATING ON YOU!! GASP!" Which is true, sometimes, (you can usually tell the kind of troll/spam that wants it's name out there...) but usually people that send haterade don't leave a signature. They don't really want to be outed.
Some senders think that by offering semi anonymous jabs, they can get their digs in and be unknown. You're not always unknown. Using the same IP that you commented with, to post nasty comments... bad idea. Anyway.
Sometimes these are people "closer" to us as bloggers, but who don't have the cojones to sign an email with their real name. These comments and mails come with stories, "I've seen you ... I know what you ... I've watched you... I've read you... My family knows... "
You silly stalkerish women.
The straight up "I hate you, why don't you just die" emails are easier to read because they usually come from drive-by haters who haven't got a clue as to WHAT they are hating on. They just do it to do it.
They can get their jollies in knowing that they have effected the person who opens their comment, post or email.
"HA HA! She'll never know what hit her! I'mma send this here comment - 'WHY DON'T YOU JUST STOP WRITING ABOUT YOUR FAKE LIFE and your FAKE HUSBAND and your FAKE KIDS and your FAKE BROKEN DISHWASHER and your STUPID HOUSE and your UGLY FACE and DIE, BITCH!!' and then I can sit back and watch her shrivel up and stop!
Okay. You know. The effect is somewhat dulled after you receive ten or twenty or thirty messages like that. At THIS point, it's more like,
"All right, what's it this time: You think I'm faking my current weight?" Fine. *takes a photograph of the scale* What else do you want to bitch at me about? Seizures? Fine, you get your ass over here and drive me to the store to pick up my RX and we can talk it out. But, get it all out at once, would you? Here's today's entry.
I do wonder, sometimes, if someone less Humoured Than I (Really, I Am Full Of Funny...) would be pushed over the edge with this stuff. Particularly in this lifestyle category... niche, there are REALLY SENSITIVE PEOPLE OUT THERE that you are fucking with. I'm not so sure you should be poking the instable.
Just saying.
Try not to be effected reading any sort of nastygram. It's easy enough to just say, "whatever" and delete it, and it's also easy enough to copy - paste - and give it to the universe. I'm not going to own your angry. You can keep it. Thanks.
Instead of using your angry against me, go do something positive would you?
2/2012 - If you have a question, please just ask me. It feels really gross watching you search for certain words in my blog. I have hidden most of the posts. JUST ASK. -MM
Mr. asked me when I was going to start "writing my stories again." Because he "likes (my) stories." Here's the start of a story. (Bumped post from November 2011)
Not only is today a day after a holiday, but it's a Monday! This translates into an early-start to the "OMG! I NEED A DIET" posts on social media. You're overwhelmed with what you might have taken in yesterday and and time between then and Thanksgiving and you are deep in The Guilt. "THE FOOD, IT'S IN ME!"
Reminder: It's just food. Food is not bad. Food is not evil. Even cupcakes.
2. having a wicked or evil character; morally reprehensible: There is no such thing as a bad boy.
3. of poor or inferior quality; defective; deficient: a bad diamond; a bad spark plug.
4. inadequate or below standard; not satisfactory for use: bad heating; Living conditions in some areas are very bad.
5. inaccurate, incorrect, or faulty: a bad guess.
Food cannot be bad.
Food is a required part of life, and your part of life is to learn how to manage your own relationship WITH FOOD so that you don't see FOOD AS EVIL. Calories may not all be created equal, you can make better calorie or food choices, but food, cannot physically be BAD.
Even if you ate more than two days worth of calories yesterday -- LET IT GO -- it's just food. The statuses that you will see online today and for the next few weeks:
"OMG HOW MANY CALORIES ARE IN HALF A CANDY CANE? I'm SUCH A COW."
"I am a pig, I ate _____________."
"I need to work off that ___________."
"Starting today, I'm back on my diet."
Quit it.
Self-loathing is not pretty. Self loathing is an extreme self-hatred of oneself or your own actions. "I can't believe I did/ate that, I'm such a loser." For post weight loss surgery patients -- learning to live in a new body and successfully live as normally as possible -- it only makes us stand out more if we create food drama! Just stop it.
Didn't you have weight loss surgery to be "normal?" As morbidly-obese individuals we stood out plenty, and life after weight loss surgery, we can reach a normal body weight and just BE.
You don't have to hate on yourself. You don't have to deny yourself every pleasure of food, either. You don't have to comment on other people's food choices or their size. It's their cannoli, just shut up.
Part of the holidays is (for many people, including your family and friends...) celebrating with/around food. You're going to have to get used to that -- if you want to be part of their "normal."
Celebrating with food or around it not be what you want anymore, but for much of the population it is what they want. If you do not want to partake, you have a choice to find something else to do or make your own good choices. But, it is not our duty as weight loss surgery post op individuals -- to become the food police for everyone.
(Note: Do not do this to your family and friends. They are not you, and they do not necessarily require your special diet or care. I have learned that food policing does not work and often backfires It's up to each person what they are willing to do to take care of their own health.)
It's just food. You make your own choices. And never, ever... apologize for FOOD.
