CBS Sunday morning is one of my favorite TV programs. Ben Stein had a segment recently on his mission for the New Year which is “forgiveness.” His work for the New Year is to forgive anyone and everyone who has committed a real, perceived, or even imagined transgression against him. This started me thinking about people that I needed to forgive – actually it is only one person. And I am working hard on that project!

However, sometimes the person we need most to forgive is ourselves. Most of us come from a background of low self-esteem. We have been told by those close to us, and by society, that we are ugly and a failure, perhaps not in words, but in attitudes. After years of this message, we believe it.

After surgery, we may find that we have not reached our goal weight. It seems like we are never happy with our weight. We are never slim enough, or we hate our hanging skin. Perhaps we have started to regain, and are having self control issues.  Those old food demons reappear, and we hate ourselves for not being able to control them.

This is the time that we have to forgive ourselves for being human. We have to forgive ourselves, and appreciate all the wonderful things about ourselves that don’t involve weight. We are so much more than the number on the scale.

Forgive and appreciate.  Let those be the themes for the year.

Are you among the half of the population that has made a New Year’s resolution? I hope so. Even though half of those who make resolutions don’t follow them beyond six months, just the act of concentrating on a resolution gives you a much better chance of reaching your goal.  But there are certain things that you can do to improve your chances of success.

1.  Put a lot of thought into your resolution.  What is it you want to achieve? Be very specific to the point that you can clearly picture the end result.

2.  Make sure that your resolution is achievable. Is this something that you tried before and didn’t even get close to achieving?

3.  Be prepared. If your resolution is to lose a certain amount of weight, make sure that you have gotten rid of all of the holiday junk food, and that your refrigerator is stocked with healthy food. Have you taken exercise into consideration? How and when will you do it?

4.  Have just one resolution so that you can easily focus your energy in one direction.

5.  Take baby steps to your goal. For example, if your goal is to exercise more and you are not exercising at all right now, have your resolution that you will exercise 5 minutes every day. That doesn’t sound like much, but it is a time commitment that you can easily make. It is also a physical level that you can sustain.  When you are comfortable with 5 minutes and have done that for at least a week or two, then increase the time and perhaps the intensity a little. It is the lack of baby steps that causes people to abandon their New Year’s resolutions in a hurry.

Don’t set yourself up for failure.  Follow these steps and you will have a much better chance of ending the year as a New Year’s success story.

Its New Year's Resolution Time!

	Are you suffering from emotional eating and can’t stop?
	Are you grazing on carbohydrates and can’t control it?
	Are you lacking inspiration to lose the weight you have regained?
	Do you feel that you don’t know what to do now that you have had surgery?
	Are you dying to be in better shape?

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Geri

Hi Geri
A daily dose of baby aspirin has been shown to lower the risk of heart attack and stroke, but even for those who have not had weight loss surgery, this therapy is not for everyone according to the Mayo Clinic website.

Aspirin works to prevent blood from clotting. Blood clots can break loose and travel to the arteries which supply blood to the heart or brain. The lack of a blood supply to the heart results in a heart attack. The lack of blood to the brain results in a stroke.

When considering whether to take baby aspirin or not you should keep in mind the operative word here, which is “aspirin,” baby or not, which carries with it a high risk of bleeding, and an even higher risk for those who have had gastric bypass surgery. Just because it is an aspirin designed for babies, it is for the occasional use of babies.  It is when the use becomes daily that the risk of bleeding is real.

The decision to take daily doses of baby aspirin is something you should discuss with your bariatric surgeon or family doctor, if your family doctor is familiar with weight loss surgery.  Even with baby aspirin, there are many things to take into consideration to assess if the risk of bleeding is worth it: 

*  Have you had a heart attack or stroke?

*  What is your risk of having a heart attack?

*  Do you have a family history of heart disease? 

*  Do you smoke?

*  How high is your blood pressure?

*  What is your cholesterol level?

*  Do you exercise?

*  Do you have diabetes?

*  Are you stressed?

*  How much alcohol do you drink?

Your question sounds like it should have an easy answer, but unfortunately it does not. Sorry I can’t solve the argument.  There is no one answer for everyone. Talk with your doctor.

Barbara Thompson's

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I want to offer a special thanks to Glenda Hine for sharing her success with us. Here is her story:

Dear Barbara,
My story starts out like almost all the others--overweight all my life and miserable about it, but not able to do anything about it.  Oh, I could lose 100 pounds or more.  I did it five times in my life. I would start to look good and feel good, and then, for some unknown reason, I would see the scales head upward again. I could never explain why this would happen, not to me, or to any of the people who would ask me why, after all that hard work, how I could let myself gain it back. 

I weighed over 200 pounds in elementary school.  By the time I was a teenager, I was really a whopper.  I took all the teasing and name calling in stride, like we learn to do at an early age.  I can say it didn't really hurt that badly. I just got tired of hearing it, but not tired enough to do anything about it until I moved to Kansas from North Carolina. 

I made up my mind that I was going to be a different person when I finally got to come home for the first time.  I lost 111 pounds.   I stayed in the gym, and worked out, and did all the right things. When I got back to North Carolina, you can imagine how good it felt when people saw me under 200 pounds. But you also know how bad it felt when the next time they saw me, I was well on my way back to 300 pounds. Through the years, I did the same thing four more times--always gaining back more each time.  Why???  If I could answer that and bottle it, I would be a billionaire.

I was 57 years old when I finally decided to have gastric bypass surgery.  I had high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart problems, and was just plain miserable all the time.  My insurance denied me the first time, but thank God I had good people working for me, and it was finally approved.  As you know there are a lot of tests, dietician instructions, and psychological exams that you must go through to have this surgery. However, I was determined, and it finally happened on July 22, 2009.  I will never forget that date.  It is the day my life changed for the good. 

I was fortunate to have a loving, caring husband who loved me when I weighed 317 pounds even though I was miserable and unhappy.  During the majority of our 17 years together, I was very heavy, but I can say he was never ashamed of me, and was always glad to introduce me as his wife. But now there is pride in his eyes, and he brags about me all the time.  That alone is worth the journey. 

Our life together has never been as good as it is now. I had always been the adventuresome type, but was too big to do anything but sit in the recliner and eat.  Now we are zip lining, white water rafting, and horseback riding. Now that I have lost 171 pounds it is as if I am finally living my life.  It is good to be 146 pounds and in sizes 6 and 8 instead of 26 and 28!!

Am I worried that I will gain it back again like some other weight loss surgery patients?  Heck, yes I am, and probably will be every day of my life.  I try my best to get my walking in every day, and do all the other things I am supposed to do, but it is constantly in the back of my mind.  And maybe that is a good thing. I have a constant reminder that I have to watch my eating and exercising for the rest of my life.  I do not want to go back to that miserable overweight person again.  I am enjoying the new me too much!!!

Glenda W. Hine
ghine@suddenlink.net

Congratulations Glenda

There are a variety of ways you can make a difference, but the first step is to become an OAC Member.  The great thing about OAC Membership is that you can be as involved as you would like.  Simply being a member contributes to the cause of obesity.