I WAS wrong!

I'm looking at the description of my blog on the right side of the screen and thinking I need to make some changes.

I no longer think gastric bypass is simply a "tool".
Nor do I think it's "neutral".
It's far from being a spatula with which one may choose to frost a cake or beat their kids.

Gastric bypass is a serious operation, a serious decision that brings serious consequences.
Nutritionally it's a catastrophe.

Having lived through 3 weight loss surgeries (two of them full incision)
I think I've gained enough life experience to speak to this issue with authority, the issue being the seriousness of weight loss surgery.

Am I an authority on post-op eating?
Not a chance.
Nobody is...yet.
The surgeries are too new to allow us to see their long term effects.

In the meantime, folks who are 3 and 4 years out from their surgeries are reporting all kinds of unforeseen side effects including unexplained seizures (click here for a great blog on seizures after gastric bypass!) and bone breakage (click here for an article on thinning, broken bones after weight loss surgery).

The post-op forums - like the one I got kicked off of on Yahoo - emphasize supplements and protein shakes (click here for a GREAT article on protein shakes OR read Paul Chek's "Eat, Move and Be Healthy" for more on why protein shakes are a poor nutritional substitute for real food) as if our surgically re-arranged digestive tracts will magically absorb the denatured, crappy, fakey supplements they push on us just because they're manufactured for WLS patients.

Weight loss surgery is an industry.
It's goal is weight loss.
They'll fudge the numbers any way they have to so that we see how delightfully thin and healthy we post op people are and if we're not it's because we didn't follow their program.

Yes, I was kicked off a gastric bypass support forum (click here and here for that story) for suggesting that folks eat more natural foods, especially whole grains like brown rice.
For the record, let me admit: I WAS WRONG to give nutritional advice, especially since it proved to be disastrous for me.

Unless your metabolic type is one that requires lots of carbs, it's best to avoid too much brown rice...bulgar...barley...all those grains.

And again, publicly, let me admit that there ended up being some truth to what the ladies said about me on their forum.

I wrote on my blog over 2 years ago:
"They said that I'd be welcome back when I realized that doing it MY way would land me in a wheelchair, make me a "medical mess", and force my body to devour its own organs to make up for my lack of protein."

Well, look at me now.

I crashed due to nutritional deficiencies just as they said I would.
I am in a wheelchair.
My body lost it's ability to heal due to my high grain, low fat, vegetarian, god awful diet.

No wonder they kicked me off their forum.
There I was with a hair across my ass about the super benefits of low fat eating and fibrous grains when that was not the right thing for me.
I needed protein.

BUT and everyone loves a big butt....
I still believe the bypassed way of eating is a dangerous, malnourished poorly researched (skewed in favor of weight loss surgery) way of life.
There's no way I'll believe that fakey supplements can take the place of real food even if they're designed especially for weight loss surgery patients.
Now that I'm post-op, can I even GET the nutrients I need from real food??

The post-ops who are having unexplained seizures are following their post-op rules,
eating their measured portions,
drinking their protein shakes and chewing their calcium pills.
They're STILL suffering major symptoms after their gastric bypass.

And guess what?
The medical community is not eager to admit that these symptoms are a direct result of the bypass. They always seem to find a way to blame the patient or deny that the symptoms have anything to do with the surgery.

This whole thing is a mess.
I've gotten myself into a mess.

A mess on wheels.

A big fat mess on wheels.

I'm feeling a little like Nancy Botwin right now.
I'm in deep doo doo all because of choices
that I made.

The situation looks hopeless
but I'm the hero of this story
and the hero always finds a way.

*Lisa's Video Pick of the Day*
Paul Chek (a supporter of the Weston A. Price way of eating) believes in metabolic typing (some folks need more carbs, some more protein) and our bio-chemical individuality.
If you cannot access the nutrients in food you will not be able to properly absorb.
Bad news for gastric bypass patients.
Visit http://www.chekinstitute.com for Paul's speaking schedule, to browse his accredited home study courses, to find a CHEK practitioner in your area to help you or simply to read one of Paul's dozens of published articles.
Here he is at the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation in San Diego, CA.
click here or click below