During these next few months, there are some key elements to your program as well as some resources that can prove to be invaluable. Let’s touch on them: Noom, a nutritionist, protein shakes, vitamins, a psychologist, consecutive monthly visits with me, My Fitness Pal, labs, and an EGD.

Let me start with Noom. 

Noom is an app for your phone. It is not free, but it is the BEST investment you can make in yourself along this journey. I don’t get a kickback, I just firmly believe in the app. It addresses your relationship with food and literally changes the way you think about food. It will take you about 9 minutes per day to do the interactive articles and help focus you on a stronger, brighter tomorrow. It uses a psychology-based approach that includes mini-lessons, coaching, food-tracking tools, and other techniques to help your change your behaviors around food for the long term. Noom will address food, sleep, stress, and self-care in addition to providing nutrition suggestions and real recipes for people who like food. Please consider investing in yourself and using Noom on your journey; it REALLY makes a difference.

A nutritionist: 

Ask questions and save the info she gives you! Feel free to reach back out to her throughout your journey. Despite what society tells you, oatmeal and Rasin Bran are not good for you! Take time to learn what will help you succeed. Protein shakes are a key element to maintaining your calorie goal, retaining muscle while losing fat, and avoiding the angry beast called hunger. We offer Bariatric Advantage Protein Powder here in our office; another option is Optimum Nutrition Protein Powder. Both of these should be mixed with unsweet almond milk in a shaker bottle; best if mixed in advance and left to meld in the fridge. Please use one of these powders instead of a ready-made shake; the nutritional benefits are significant. Vitamins are important during this journey, too; please take one daily.

A psychologist: 

Be honest. She is there to help identify pitfalls and help you plan ways to work around them. Your insurance wants to make sure you understand that this is a life-long change and that you are ready to embark upon this next chapter.

Monthly Physician Supervised Weight Loss (PSWL) visits: 

These need to be consecutive visits with me, so don’t skip a month. We are aiming for a target weight loss of 10% of your starting weight over these visits. Whether you lose weight or not, please make sure you come to your appointments EVERY MONTH! Don’t skip appointments; your insurance company will restart your clock. I am here to keep you on track and stay focused. We will talk about things that are going well and also things you would like to see improve; together, we will get you to the finish line! I will ask you to use My Fitness Pal (the free version) or Noom to keep track of your foods. This will help you identify trigger foods as well as teach you the calorie content of your most loved foods. Please, DO NOT eat out a boxes/bags! Please take a serving of whatever you eat, put it on a plate/napkin, and track it. This is vital to your success.

Labs: 

I will check a full panel of labs complete with hormone and vitamin levels. This will help identify any areas that we might be able to supplement in order to enhance your weight-loss ability. It is very difficult to lose weight if things are out of balance!

EGD: 

This is a procedure where you are in a twilight sleep when I put a camera down your throat and into your stomach. I will be assessing the health of your esophagus, the health of your stomach, looking for any lumps/bumps in your stomach, assessing for a hiatal hernia that can lead to reflux, looking for bile in your esophagus or stomach, and taking a biopsy looking for a bacteria that can cause gastritis/ulcers and contribute to post-op complications. I will also be looking for bile in your stomach and any findings that would indicate whether one type of surgery would be better for you than another. We will use the results of this procedure to help tailor your surgery choice for your individual anatomy.

Medical Clearance: 

You must receive pre-op clearance from your PCP. This can be done ANY time between now and surgery. The sooner you complete this, the smoother your course will be. If your PCP identifies any pulmonary or cardiac issues that need to be explored, you will have time to complete this without unnecessary delay to your operative plan.

Above all else, we are safe and expect your partnership in this process in order to minimize post-op complications. The path to bariatric surgery is work, a lot of work; but it is also a path that is proven to be successful. If you put in the work, you will be successful. I am here to help!