I know a few of you mentioned at training on Sunday that you usually train on a treadmill and how much more difficult it was for you to train outside. Both the treadmill and the track serve a purpose during your training for the half marathon.With treadmill training you are given many constants like running surface, forced pace, assisted momentum from the track, wind resistance, etc. A treadmill can be great for conditioning and easing you into running/walking outside. When you train outside, there are a lot of unknowns that affect your training and mental focus, making your workout more difficult. There is no assisted momentum from below you moving you along and assisting you to keep up with a certain pace. There are up and down hills, wind resistance, etc. It takes more effort to train outside on a track than on a treadmill.
Overall, a combination of both treadmill and track training is great. You can use the treadmill to assist you into increasing your speed and creating a pace for yourself and you can use the track for an experience that will be more similar to the half marathon. Please do not do all your training inside on a treadmill as you will have a rude awakening the day of the half marathon.
Congratulations to all for completing your first week of training! These next 12 weeks will go by fast so make sure you are fueling your body properly. I want to remind you that you will not need any type of electrolyte drinks or beans, gums, etc… until you have started training more than 90 minutes at one time. The most important thing to remember is to hydrate yourself during your training as well as in-between. Remember you need an additional 12oz. of fluid for every 20 minutes of exercise. You can start adding additional sodium to your food if you think you need the additional electrolytes.
What to eat? As your training increases you may find that you are feeling hungry, craving salt, etc. Make sure you listen to your body. Make sure you are getting 20g of protein at each meal - this will help you stay satisfied longer as will choosing whole grain foods for your 1 oz. For your meal following you trainings, 1 oz. of potatoes would be a great choice!
Let me hear from you! Do you have any concerns or questions with food intake?
A common misconception is that hair loss is a symptom of weight loss surgery.The truth is that hair loss is caused by rapid weight loss, NOT weight loss surgery.Patients undergoing crash or starvation diets will also experience temporary hair loss like some of our patients do.The hair loss stops and grows back when the weight loss slows down.Our gastric bypass patients experience more hair loss than our gastric band patients because the weight loss is more rapid with bypass. To minimize hair loss we teach our patients to make sure they are getting enough protein, about 60 grams daily.Some believe that prenatal vitamins or Biotin can also help although this has not been proven.For questions on this topic, please call us at 702-384-8446.
One topic brought up in the last support group was that some patients noticed that their restriction was tighter in the morning than later in the day and at night.For some the change is dramatic enough that they have trouble with solids in the morning and have to eat soft foods like yogurt, but seem to have too little restriction at night.Some patients don’t notice this difference at all, but for those that do, it can make finding the “perfect” adjustment more difficult.
We believe that the morning tightness is from increased blood flow to the stomach and intestines during sleep which increases the stomach wall thickness temporarily.Remember, any swelling can lead to increased restriction.So, if you are experiencing this, be sure to discuss it with our physician’s assistants, Brian or Melissa, during your adjustment visits.Also, patients considering the band procedure are welcome to attend support groups to meet other patients and learn more about living with the band.For more information on our support groups, please call 702-384-8446.
The recent debates about the best way to approach healthcare reform have really highlighted obesity and obesity related diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and cancer as the top preventable health problems in the US today. Both parties agree that focusing on obesity cures and prevention will be an important part of bringing down the costs of healthcare.It is estimated that every pound lost is equivalent to a $50/yr savings in healthcare costs.An obese 40-year-old is equal in medical age to a 60-year-old normal weight person. Weight loss surgery provides an aggressive approach to significant weight loss to improve health in persons who have tried and struggled with traditional diet and exercise programs.For the health of our nation and to lower healthcare costs, it is my hope that the final healthcare reform bill will include provisions to improve access to treatments like weight loss surgery.
After surgery, most patients start off weighing their food with a food scale every meal and being very successful with their weight loss. When patients plateau or stop losing weight, it almost always corresponds to when they stop using the scale and “guesstimating” or eyeballing their meal portions.
In order for your brain to keep your body from being hungry, it will portion out enough food to keep your weight stable, or keep you from losing weight. The food scale makes sure that your portions are small enough that your body can lose weight. Also, that’s the most accurate way gastric band patients can know if they need a band adjustment. When the same size meal that used to fill them up, no longer does, an adjustment is needed. If you are eating different size meals you won’t know for sure when it’s time for an adjustment. Also, because the band is a mechanical device, it doesn’t change or adapt until we change it. It is very hard to adjust the band properly if the patient is eating inconsistent amounts. Sometimes the band may feel too tight and sometimes not tight enough if you are eyeballing the portion size and eating inconsistent amounts.
Almost everyone who stops losing weight after surgery will admit that they stopped using their food scale to weigh their 4oz meals. Please remember, the time to stop using the food scale is when you reach your goal weight.
Recently, the Gastric Band Institute performed the first several single incision gastric band procedures in Las Vegas.The procedure differs from the standard gastric band procedure in that instead of using 3-5 small incisions, a single larger incision is used to place the band.
Surgeons have been debating the merits of the single incision procedure for weight loss surgery and other surgeries like gallbladder surgery and appendectomy.However, the bottom line on single incision gastric band placement is that in selected lower BMI patients with smaller livers and thinner abdominal walls, it is a reasonable procedure with just a few more technical challenges than the standard 4-5 incision procedure.There does not appear to be any difference as far as pain or recovery between the two procedures, but which is cosmetically more appealing, 4-5 tiny incisions versus one larger more noticeable incision, is debatable.
We are pleased to be able to offer single incision gastric bands to some of our patients.Currently, technical equipment advances are being made that in the near future will increase the number of patients that can be offered this procedure.
A recent article in the NY Times reported a study citing that the incidence of kidney stones was twice as high in the obese population who had had gastric bypass than in the obese population who had not had weight loss surgery.Although not common, the incidence was about 8% after bypass compared to about 4%.
We have seen a few cases of kidney stones in our patients occur after gastric bypass, gastric band and gastric sleeve.Part of the increase incidence I believe is due to the fact that our post-op patients cannot drink water as fast or, “chug” it down, which may in part limit their fluid intake and be partly responsible for increased kidney stones.However, for many regular health reasons, we strongly encourage all our patients in the pre-op teaching classes to increase their water intake after surgery.If you have any questions about kidney stones that develop after weight loss surgery, please feel free to post them here.
Like I mentioned last Friday, we filmed a patient’s gastric band adjustment, or “fill” as we often call it, for those of you who want to see and understand how an adjustment is done.Below is a video of one of our patients, Ericka, with one of our physician assistants, Brian, undergoing a simple, five-minute fill.
We’ve also created a video of Brian demonstrating an adjustment on a model of a lap band and port for a more detailed explanation.If you have any more questions about gastric band adjustments, please post them here, or call the office at 702-384-8446.
Today we filmed a patient’s gastric band adjustment for those of you who have never seen an adjustment done and want to know how it works. You will soon be able to check it out here and at our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/user/LVGBIpatients. Stay tuned!
