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Weight Loss Surgery Contributes to Improved Quality of Life

Sometimes overweight since childhood, good candidates for weight loss surgery have tried everything — Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, fad diets. None of them improved their quality of life. In fact, they usually just made it worse. Not only did they regain their weight, plus some, but felt bad about themselves each time they failed.

Wondering if losing weight can really improve your quality of life?

Of course, there’s no simple answer to such a complex question. But I can tell you this -

Bariatric surgery can literally be lifesaving. It’s estimated roughly 220,000 people underwent weight loss surgery last year in the U.S. Depending on the type of surgery, patients often lose 30% to 50% of their extra weight within six months after surgery.

Just like bariatric surgery is not a quick fix, neither is quality of life. Both are well worth working toward; not just for how you will look, and maybe more important, for how you will feel. You’ll probably really like feeling better and being in better health. Weight related illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure and sleep apnea are often resolved in people who have had weight loss surgery.

But surgery is just one of the tools you will need to improve your quality of life. Unless your weight gain was the result of something purely physical, you’ll need to get to the source of what caused your obesity. For most people, overeating is a coping mechanism for unresolved emotional issues. Working with a mental health professional can help you to not only face down your emotional demons, but also help you develop new coping skills to keep you from turning to food the next time your emotions take over.

Successful bariatric surgery (gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy or lap band) requires a commitment to life-long lifestyle changes. Choosing to eat nutritiously and to make exercise a regular part of your life is the real determining factor in getting to your goal weight and improving your overall quality of life.

This is why support groups are really important, too, reinforcing your commitment to a happier and healthier life. Participating in support groups is another key tool to succeeding in reaching your goal weight and maintaining it for the rest of your life. Access to people who have had bariatric surgery and are facing the same challenges can give you the encouragement you need when the going gets tough.

With the combination of weight loss surgery, good nutrition/exercise habits and emotional support & encouragement, quality of your life is already improved. Add to these benefits, your increased ability to actively interact with friends and family; playing basketball with your grandchildren, hiking with friends, and long romantic walks on the beach with your sweetheart. Imagine the accomplishments you will finally be able to achieve; running a marathon, changing careers for a better job, and wearing a swimsuit to the pool.

And here’s what it really comes down to – Enjoy the changes in your life and actively participate with your loved ones to create the life you’ve always wanted!

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Weight Loss Supplements Part 1, How Effective They Truly Are

There is a wide variety of substances which are supposed to be very useful for people trying to lose some weight, these substances include: caffeine, green tea, ephedrine, linoleic acid, and others; whether they work or not is about to be revealed.

Let us begin with caffeine; for years people have believe that caffeine is probably one of the best weight loss supplements, and the reason why people believe this is because caffeine speeds up the metabolism of those that consume it regularly. It is a fact that people who consume caffeine will lose weight faster than those who never consume it. The only problem with weight loss supplements that are based on caffeine relies on the fact that most people are already used to ingest caffeine on a frequent basis, and will gain little benefits from increasing the amount of this weight loss supplement in their diet.

Now, about green tea; there are really few drinks out there that have more miraculous properties than green tea, its seems that green tea is the cure for every single problem possibly suffered by mankind, and now we are going to discuss its efficiency within the weight loss supplements family. First of all green tea will quicken your metabolism, it will also reduce the amount of cholesterol in your blood, it will get rid of the fat you already have and it will allow you not to absorb further fat in the future. So, overall we can say that green tea is, from every single weight loss supplement, the best; not only because it provides plenty of different weight losing characteristics, but also because it has no side effects.

Stay tuned for the next part of this article when we’ll discuss other weight loss supplements and make an overall synthesis of what works and what doesn’t work when trying to lose weight.

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How to manage Bland Diet

What is a bland diet? It is a diet specially set to treat certain gastrointestinal or stomach problems such as heartburns, ulcers and gas.

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An answer to a question, what is a bland diet, is that it is a simple treatment for people suffering from any one or more gastrointestinal disorders such as chronic gastritis, ulcer, esophagitis and dyspepsia.

Bland diet is a dietary regimen for people suffering from stomach disorders. Hence, it is quite understood that ingredients of a bland diet are soft food items, which are easy to digest with a capacity to keep the acidity to low levels. Questions about diet may be asked to your physicians and he/she can suggest the diet or recommend a dietician to do it.

Diet medical questions may include the queries about the food stuffs to eat and food stuffs to avoid during the time while a person experien ces any gastrointestinal disorders. However, before a dietician could decide the bland diet for a person, he/she needs to seek answers to several medical questions related to the person such as any food allergies or irritations associated with any food items and emotions medical questions of people.

Bland Diet:

The diet prescribed as a bland diet will include food items that are easy to digest and low in fiber and acid contents. Even giving up alcohol and smoking is advised while patient is on bland diet. Also a patient is advised to have 4 to 6 light meals after regular interval to avoid heavy and large meals.

Chewing food properly and eating slowly helps in the digestion of the food. Adequate sleep, avoiding smoking and controlling anxiety are supportive treatments for the standard treatment of the problem.

Allowed Food Items:

• Dairy Products
Milk, cheese, yogurt with low-fats and other dairy products are easily digested and hence, can be included as a part of bland diet. However, there is no restriction on ice-creams and one may consume even ice creams during bland diet, but it should not have any product such as nuts that are not allowed in bland diet.

• Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
Fresh vegetables and fruits are allowed to a bland dieter. However, while carrot, squash, green peas are good to eat in a bland diet, broccoli, onions and green peeper should be avoided as it forms gas. In fruits, oranges, grapefruits, and bananas are allowed.

• Proteins
Protein requirement of the body, while on a bland diet should be met with soy products and meat. Fried chicken and greasy hamburgers are not allowed to be consumed, while grilled and baked chicken is allowed.
Low-fat peanut butter and eggs are also efficient to meet the body’s protein requirement in a bland diet.

• Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are contained in whole grain breads, pasta, oatmeal, corn flakes, white rice and sweet potatoes. All these food items are allowed.

Bland diet is designed for treating certain medical circumstances such as gastrointestinal problems. Hence, to answer what is a bland diet, we can say that this is a diet that aims at improving the digestion with the help of a timed-routine diet and soft to digest food items. Once the problem is controlled patients can return to their normal diet.

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