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WeightLossSurgeryCoach.com(formerly GastricByPassCoach.com) |
Information, inspiration, coaching and support for obese people wanting a longer, healthier life through Weight Loss Surgery (WLS) |
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My Newsletter: Through Thick and ThinA Note from Glenn:Welcome to my archive of newsletters sharing my WLS experience, challenges, successes and recovery. I started writing these articles once I decided to have the surgery, and continued writing every two weeks or so through the present. I encourage you to take your time and read them in order, starting with the first. Based upon the experience of the 250,000 people who have visited my website and read the newsletters, I believe that they will help you in your consideration and use of Weight Loss Surgery as a tool for reclaiming your health, mobility and longevity. I'd welcome your feedback and hope you'll share this resource with others in your circle who can benefit. Enjoy... The Most Recent Newsletter is Issue #34. Issue #1: Why I'm Choosing To Make My Stomach The Size of My Thumb or When the horse I've been riding is dead, it's finally time to get off and find a new mount!At 360 lbs., I weigh about 180 pounds more than that “ideal weight” set forth on those damnable charts. And my weight is now becoming a life-threatening condition. Issue #2: My Long and Winding Road or The habits, lifestyle and weight persist even after the emotional hole has been filled.As I've reconstructed my long and winding path to morbid obesity, I've made observations that have surprised or interested me. I share them with you now in the hope they'll be relevant, illuminating or instructive for you. Issue #3: Jumping Through The Hoops to Gastric Bypass Surgery or At long last. Hope!For the first time in 45 years, I‘m truly believing that, through the miracle of this bariatric medical intervention, I can achieve a healthful weight and physical state. Issue #4: Preparing for My Weight Loss Surgery or Food As Fuel — Not Drama, Mama, Karma or Trauma!Tomorrow is my long-awaited and eagerly anticipated appointment with my doctor to decide which form of weight loss surgery I will have, and to schedule the date. I'm excited, ready and anxious. Issue # 5: Stuffed in Seattle: Pigging Out and Waking Up or There really is no Free LunchIt caught me by surprise that evening last week. I was celebrating a positive meeting with my bariatric surgeon earlier in the day. We had nailed down my late October surgery date. Issue #6: My Brothers and Sisters of the Scale: What Unites Us, What Divides UsWe are charter members of a very special, if not particularly exclusive, club: the community of people whose life experience has been significantly shaped by our struggles with our weight. In recent weeks, as I've linked up via the web with other people considering, planning or surviving weight loss surgery, I've been struck and moved by the instant rapport, understanding, empathy, acceptance and intimate connection I've experienced with so many of these strangers. Issue #7: My New Second Job or Play Becomes Part of My Life WorkAs I continue preparations for my upcoming weight loss surgery on October 24th, I'm learning and accepting that I now must take on a second job. Not to pay for the procedure, although it's not covered by my health insurance. And not as part of any career path. Issue #8: Imagining A Life Where My Weight Doesn't Run Me As I Pass To The Other SideAfter months of waiting and imagining, my WLS on October 24th is just days away. Issue #9: This Man's View From The Other Side or I'm Glad I've Made It Here, But The Trip Was AwfulThree weeks ago yesterday I had my Weight Loss Surgery (VBG), and my gall bladder (with stones) was removed. Today is the first day that I have felt enough strength, energy, clarity and focus to share my perspective about this transformative journey. Issue #10: My Gratitude Attitude at ThanksgivingThanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, since it gives me an annual opportunity to count all of my blessings and to re-cultivate the gratitude attitude that I strive to carry throughout my daily life. Here's what I'm most grateful for this Thanksgiving... Issue #11: The View From Eight Weeks Post-Op or I'm So Surprised I'm Still Fat When I Look in the MirrorToday I'm approaching my eight week anniversary of my VBG weight loss surgery. How completely different, and how wonderful, things look from this vantage point! Issue #12: The End of My Love Affair With FoodI'm continuing to work my program with commitment and intensity, and my program is continuing to work for me. I've lost almost 70 lbs... Issue #13: Why I'm Succeeding With Weight Loss Surgery When Nothing Else WorkedThis may seem to you to be a self-evident question and answer, but it isn't for me.... Issue #14: WLS Peaks & PlateausI don't need any help dealing with my WLS peaks — dramatic weight loss, improving health and fitness, freedom... Issue #15: Blocked!It was a very scary and uncomfortable episode when my reconstituted and diminished stomach became blocked.... Issue #16: The Agony & The EcstasyThe irony would have been both exquisite and laughable if I didn't hurt so much.... Issue #17: The Tale of The Tape Measure or The Numbers Speak for ThemselvesEvery month, on the anniversary of my WLS, Kari and I enjoy our own special WLS post-op ritual... Issue #18: The Origins of My Obesity or It's A Shame That Shame Is CounterproductiveI read today that the Journal of the American Medical Association has published yet another report documenting the scary dimensions of America's childhood obesity epidemic... Issue #19: How I've Solved My Fruit & Vegetable ProblemIn my first five months post-op, I had done absolutely everything my WLS doctor asked me to do — except for one glaring omission... 
Issue #20: The Top Ten Reasons why Weight Loss Surgery is NOT “the easy way out”10. It's very expensive. Many health insurance companies don't pay for the surgery,... Issue #21: Head Hunger and Emotional EatingEver since my Weight Loss Surgery six months ago, I've enjoyed the new delights of having a consistent, reliable and effective “appetite regulator”... Issue #22: “Off the Rack” or From 4X to XSeven months after my Weight Loss Surgery, and with great anxiety and dread, I embarked... Issue #23: Exercise is Not an 'Option'; It's Now my 'Default'I reached a milestone this week, 7.5 months post-op - 125 pounds off... Issue #24: My Cuban Adventure: How I Survived - and Thrived - Without ANY 'Real Food''My two week family adventure in Cuba (admitted on a humanitarian visa) and the Bahamas was fantastic and memorable for many reasons... Issue #25: Getting Real About My WLS ProblemsLately, as I've reread my newsletters in sequence, I've become concerned... Issue #26: Shame, Blame and WLSSince my surgery I've been devoting 10 or more hours a week as a volunteer email "coach" to people who are considering Weight Loss Surgery... Issue #27: Dealing With Questions About WLSI recently returned from my joyful 35th reunion of my "junior year abroad" class in England. It was a wonderful opportunity to catch up with... Issue #28: Weighty Ethical Issues in Weight Loss SurgeryAs Weight Loss Surgery gains in both popularity and visibility, important ethical issues relating to the procedure are beginning to surface... Issue #29: Vows Kept and Challenges MetI made myself a solemn promise one year ago when I decided to have my Weight Loss Surgery. It was a vow that, at that time, I couldn't imagine being able to keep... Issue #30: The Birth of A Weight Loss Surgery Coach or Your Invitation to Join A WLS Virtual Coaching Support GroupIt takes nine months to grow a baby. It's taken me almost eleven months to achieve my ambitious pre-op Weight Loss Surgery goals, and, in the process, I've become a Weight Loss Surgery Coach... Issue #31: Distorted Body Image, Distorted ThinkingMy mind can be such a strange and puzzling realm! Sometimes my perceptions are as sharp, focused and precise as a laser beam... Issue #32: Out of the ClosetAs I approach my one year post-op anniversary, and finalize curricula for my coaching groups, I've been remembering how my life was before surgery... Issue #33: Dear Oprah and Dr. PhilI just sent this letter to both Oprah and Dr. Phil to try to correct their misperceptions about Weight Loss Surgery, and to celebrate... Issue #34: Falling Off The Wagon And Getting Right Back On or Beware That Slippery Slope!The other shoe finally dropped. It wasn't until the last two weeks of my first year after Weight Loss Surgery that I slipped and "fell off the wagon"...
Click here if you have a “fruit and vegetable problem” to see if my solution (see Through Thick and Thin #19) will work for you. |
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Copyright, © 2003, Glenn Goldberg. All rights reserved. |
Through Thick and Thin Newsletters
