Announcement!! Kick Start For Sleevers!!

This post has taken a WHILE to write because of all the research I've had to put into it. I am going to make the following statement to keep things legal, so to speak:

I am not a doctor or licensed nutritionist. I am a regular person just like you. The following information has been based on my own personal research. Please remember to follow your own doctor's orders and advice regarding your gastric sleeve or other weight loss surgery. Thanks.

One thing that all sleevers have in common is this:

Inevitably our weight loss slows or stops altogether.
This can occur for so many reasons, but the most common one is that when our bodies get to a certain point in our weight loss, we naturally fall into a "comfort zone" and reach a stall that can last for MONTHS. Another factor is that our sleeves start to relax and restriction is not what is was in the beginning.
At this point, it's time to re-evaluate our situation.

Many sleevers fall into the mindset that they have a "pouch" and can "shrink" their stomachs or improve restriction by going back on a full liquid diet or doing what's called a "pouch test". These methods DO NOT WORK for sleevers. The fact is, we just don't have a pouch!!

With surgeries such as the lap-band, the gastric by-pass and the duodenal switch, patients are given a pouch at the top of their stomachs in some form or another. This pouch includes both the muscular and the "stretchy" parts of the stomach. With the sleeve, however, there IS no stretchy part of the stomach - that part is removed completely in most cases, and we're left with only the muscular portion of our stomachs. Here is a great illustration of the differences between the band, the gastric by-pass, and the vertical sleeve. The point here is, a sleever's stomach will never be able to "stretch" in that manner, therefore there is no cause to try to "shrink" it back down to size.

What does this mean? Well, to put it simply, a liquid diet is intended for someone to be able to shrink their stomachs back to size. When done properly, for people that have normal sized stomachs or for other WLS patients that have a pouch, this method works well. For someone with the vertical sleeve, however, this method can actually do more harm than good causing malnutrition, digestive issues, and other problems.

In order to kick a metabolism into gear, two things must happen. First, the body must be producing more energy than it's taking in. Believe it or not, in order for this to happen, sometimes the amount of energy taken in has to INCREASE rather than DECREASE. In other words - You need MORE calories to burn!

Now, for those with a regular size tummy, this isn't a problem. They can just increase the amount they eat and be fine. But for us sleevers, it's an entirely different story.

But I think I have found the secret.
It's simple, really. SO simple, in fact, that it's almost embarrassing.
It involves completely changing your eating and throwing everything you thought you knew about food out the window.

I am calling this the "Kick Start Plan for Sleevers".
This is going to be a multiple-post series, so PLEASE bare with me. I promise all the how-to's will be coming, along with sample meal plans and recipes as well.

Are you ready for change?
Are you ready for your weight loss to kick back into gear?
The official launch for this plan will be MONDAY.
Again, PLEASE keep in mind that:
I AM NOT A DOCTOR. I AM NOT A NUTRITIONIST. I AM A REGULAR PERSON.
Everything that I will be sharing with you over the next few posts will be based on my own personal research and experience!
(make sure you talk to your doctor before starting ANY new eating plan - your doctor's orders may differ from the information your receive in this blog!)

See you Monday!!