Archive for the ‘Weight Loss Surgery’ Category
Featured on Diva Taunia’s Backstage Pass
11/19/2009 by Yvonne McCarthy • No Comments | Leave a Comment »
Diva Taunia featured me on her show. These are the kind words she wrote about me.
11/16/09 WLS LOVELY FEATURE: YVONNE/BARIATRIC GIRL
A lot of you out there have probably already heard of or spoken directly to Yvonne McCarthy. Why? Because she’s an active and prominent member of the WLS, advocating all of the wonderful and dramatic changes your life will go through post-surgery. Yvonne is otherwise known in the WLS community as “Bariatric Girl.”
I first met Yvonne several months ago when she hosted a news segment on me for the WLS Channel News. What I love most about her is that not only is she excited about her own post-surgery life, but she’s excited for other people too. She said lovely things about me in the segment feature, and now I get the opportunity to do the same for her.
Yvonne is 55 yrs old (which is amazing to me, because I thought she was much, much younger) and HOT. Seriously. She’s blonde, vibrant, gorgeous and a super-sweetheart to boot. She had open RNY on 3/31/01, and lost 130 lbs off of her 260 lb frame. She’s maintained that 130 lb loss for the past 8 years, and is an inspiration to all of us that weight loss can be maintained post-surgery.
She documents her journey and other WLS-related topics on her website at bariatricgirl.com. There you can find links to her blog, YouTube page, WLS Channel and more. She’s also a Life Coach and passionate animal lover. She does volunteer work for WLS advocacy 24/7 and has a website and organization called RYD Obesity.
Yvonne also plays cello, guitar, and sings and is passionate about music as well. Need some inspiration? You’re sure to find it from this talented and passionate woman. Go check out everyone’s favorite Bariatric Girl today!
In Oprah’s Corn Dog Defense
11/16/2009 by Yvonne McCarthy • No Comments | Leave a Comment »
I wouldn’t make it as a famous person for two seconds.
Obesity Help Event Dallas 2009
09/29/2009 by Yvonne McCarthy • No Comments | Leave a Comment »
WOW
What a time we had in Dallas!! I spoke and I was so happy my husband and my dad and stepmom came too. Awesome new faces and even TWELVE members in attendance from the first OH Event in Arlington 2004. I so wish we had gotten a group picture of us…
Happy reunions getting to see long time friends that are rarely in Dallas. Bo is smiling huh?
And so many good talks and fun at the fashion show. 
(I let my freak flag fly in the floppy hat)
Thanks to someone else for the fashion show shot but unfortunately we didn’t get everyone in.
And then the big event of the day was….Ramon asking Debra to marry him!
Like Bo said, you just never know what you’re going to see at an Obesity Help event do you?
I hope to have the videos I did during my presentation up for viewing soon. One was a tribute to the many lives that Obesity Help has saved and the second one was a tribute to Kirk Thompson. (Crow)
We lost a beautiful man this year and it was important to pay homage to him and Bo’s words could not have been better chosen.
If you’d like to see the entire album of pictures, you can view them here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/justyvonne/OHDallas09?feat=directlink
So thank you to everyone that participated and made this a time that shall never be forgotten.
Many blessings to the many that showed me so much love…it was so much appreciated.
Love and light, Yvonne
Video about Crow
Giving Oprah a weight loss surgery break.
08/20/2009 by Yvonne McCarthy • 2 Comments | Leave a Comment »
Today I heard Oprah and Dr. Oz are in the process of suing several companies who claimed they endorsed a particular product…one is called acai berry. After this product appeared on the show, the company went crazy selling the stuff, touting endorsement with pictures of both Oprah and Dr. Oz on the product. They finally said “not so fast”. Lately it seems I can’t go anywhere on the internet without beng assualted by acai berry ads. This is the phenomena of Oprah. Any time she endorses anything or even looks like she is, the product becomes an overnight success.
So let’s assume Oprah were to have weight loss surgery. First of all she has to deal with the cameras on her 24/7.
Will she fail?
Or scarier, will she succeed?
If she succeeds, I can only imagine all the masses of uneducated people following suit….wanting surgery….thinking it is a magic pill. As much as Oprah does, if she were to have WLS she would cause thousands to suddenly seek it out. There are not enough docs or facilities available to handle all the people that would follow her. And then she would have to deal with the possible deaths that would could occur from sheer numbers of percentages. That would be more than she or the Oprah empire could handle.
Oprah is also human and surely she has fear just like the rest of us. Don’t you believe that she is also feeling like she may fail yet again just like we all thought? And if she doesn’t fail and actually makes it work, there will be a massive stampede. In a way Oprah is between a rock and a hard place. Even if she spent tons of time educating people about the process there would still be the irresponsible souls that would do it anyway. When they fail because of inadequate education, it would be Oprah’s fault.
Wow, never have I been so grateful not to be in Oprah’s place. Yep…. she has fame and fortune but not only does it not make you happy, sometimes it is the very reason you have backed yourself into a corner that you can’t get out of.
Be careful what you ask for….
Be grateful for what you have….
And most importantly, no one has a perfect life because of being skinny or having tons of money.
And best of all…maybe…just maybe the acai berry will go away.
Ms. Fatty.com interviewed me!
07/29/2009 by Yvonne McCarthy • No Comments | Leave a Comment »
Remember, if you are severely obese, bariatric surgery remains a legitimate option for you in your weight loss journey.
I’ve posted here about my online pal, The Bariatric Girl. Today I’m going to post the little fireside chat we had about weight loss surgery recently. Enjoy!
2. One thing that we’ve discussed via email is how our “no cheat rule” has contributed to success. A lot of people think that having the bariatric surgery is the “easy way out” in a sense, because you’ll never have to worry about wanting to cheat ; ie, no self control needed after you get the surgery, it just “happens.” Further reading into this topic though, and you will find that some people that have had the surgery actually cheat and get fat again. I’m sure having a tiny pouch that you can’t fit a lot of food into helps tremendously, but if some people are still getting fat, then it seems to me that yes, a transformation of mind in also necessary. Talk to us a little bit about why you feel a no cheat rule works for you and why some people gain back all that weight even after surgery.
ABSOLUTELY. We did not get brain surgery. We just got a smaller stomach but if we don’t change what we were doing before, you can go back to obesity or switch to something new to abuse or another method to self medicate. Now you’re pretty safe the first year because your metabolism is still being tricked so you can eat pretty much what you want and still lose weight. We call that the honeymoon period. Approximately after a year that’s over with so it’s just like being put magically into this thinner body but your metabolism has smartened up. You must start the lifestyle change immediately after surgery because if you wait until the honeymoon period is over, it is much MUCH more difficult because you’re days of losing no matter what are pretty much done. For me that was a good trade. Take me back to normal and I promise to eat right and get some exercise….like getting a do over. If you start right after surgery, you’ve had a year of forming good habits.
With certain kinds of weight loss surgery it is designed to make you ill if you eat certain things like too much sugar. The truth is you will lose your cravings if you stop eating something completely. The no cheat rule makes it black and white. I look at sugar as poison so it’s very simple. I tried to stop drinking Coke for years and the funny thing is…now I don’t even remember what a Coke tastes like. The reason some people gain weight back is because they didn’t deal with the issues in their head that causes them to use food to self medicate. There’s another group of people that gain back 20-40 pounds and end up being more miserable than when they weighed 300 pounds. You must fight to keep that goal weight when you reach it or a whole bunch of head games start telling you that you’ve failed again. It may seem impossible to most that a woman that has lost over 100 pounds can feel like a failure because she’s gained back 20 pounds but it happens every day. We must learn what really makes us happy in life and what we want will follow. FOLLOW YOUR BLISS! Don’t expect the bad or that’s what you’ll get.
I actually still drink a shake every morning. It’s super important to put something in your body for breakfast so you won’t throw your body into starvation mode. When you do eat, the body hangs on to those calories like crazy because after sleeping for 8 hours and then waiting hours to eat after waking makes your body think it’s starving. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card. I actually drink MetRX extreme chocolate. I put a lot of ice in it and blend it so it comes out like a chocolate shake…at least as much as I can remember a chocolate shake. There is a great blog called “the world according to Eggface” that has some of the best recipes for weight loss people. Great recipes and a great blog!
I always hated exercise but I am asked often if I “work out”. I found yoga. Many people automatically assume that yoga is only for people that can bend like a pretzel. For me yoga is like slow dancing by yourself but at the same time you are increasing your range of motion and burning calories. It is said that ten minutes of yoga is as good as an hour on the treadmill. There are great videos online for beginner yoga and there’s a great DVD called “Heavyweight Yoga” that you can get at www.heartfeltyoga.com. I think it’s super important that you find something you like and something that is easy to do. I can do yoga anywhere, anytime. If you absolutely cannot find an exercise you like, then dance! Walk your dog. It has been proven that exercise can be a huge benefit to people that are depressed. Whatever you do, it’s just really important not to “hate” it. If you believe it’s a drag, it will be!
5. What is a typical day of meals and drinks for you?
Well you might be surprised. I have completely changed the way I feel about food. I look at it as fuel. For me I had to not look at food as a sexual experience anymore. If every time we went to fill up with gas there was an ocean breeze (in Texas), dancing naked men (or women), hot music etc…. well you’d be wanting to go get gas again sooner than necessary. I eat as boring as possible because it works for me. I look forward to that shake in the morning and the rest of the day is mostly protein. I try to eat vegetables and fruit in the right amounts. The more water you can drink the better. I actually hate water so I have to put something in it to make it possible for me to drink. There are so many things on the market that you’ll find one you like if you keep looking. I know a lot of people don’t want to hear this answer about boring food but too much food and the wrong food is the substance that makes me an unhappy person. I will not go back to the obese person I was and food can no longer be the end all/be all for me. It is fuel and I cannot afford for it to be the thing I look to for self medication of my anxiety in life. Food is fuel now…no longer a drug.
I love these meat sticks called “Ostrim”. You can put them in your car or purse or pocket and it doesn’t matter what temperature they are. When you are out somewhere and you allowed yourself to get so hungry that you’ll eat anything you will certainly mess up. Ostrim meat sticks keep me from going through that drive through when I shouldn’t. They come in 4 flavors and taste great. Being prepared for what you’ll eat each day will keep you out of a lot of trouble in the long run.
7. I gotta ask… when you were fat, did you have really wide feet and a hard time finding shoes to wear? If so, after you lost the weight, did your feet return to a normal width? This is a crisis issue with some fatties I know, including myself. When I got fat I could no longer wear pretty shoes.
I was asked this just the other day. I lost a shoe size but some have reported as much as a size and a half. And yes you can wear those pretty shoes again. I know when I was obese, it was so painful and I really didn’t feel like putting those pretty shoes on my big body. I’ve made up for a lot of lost time now.
8. If someone is considering bariatric surgery, give us a spiel on your best advice for them.
My best advice would be to go online and research people that have succeeded and ask them how. Ask them what they did that make the difference between success and failure. You can find a ton of things for and against anything you research. Some people have lost loved ones due to surgery and they are just as upset as you would expect them to be. You will find blogs telling you that you are an idiot to consider it. For various reasons you will find blogs that say it’s the easy way out.
I also know people who have lost their lives because they were obese…one was a friend of mine. If you have tried and I mean sincerely tried and failed tons of diets, and if you are ready to sincerely put the effort into the lifestyle change, you could be a candidate. Even though it is difficult to believe, you also cannot buy into the belief that when you lose all the weight that your life will be perfect. You must be willing to educate yourself on what’s going on in your head and how you got obese in the first place. Choosing to have weight loss surgery is an extremely personal decision that no one should ever push on someone else. All I can do is live my life as an example and show others what a successful weight loss surgery journey looks like. You are the person that lives in your body so it’s your decision. Just like anything you do in your life that is a major undertaking, talk to those that have been in the trenches. My blog in particular will tell you a lot about what to expect.
9. In your layman’s opinion, what do you think is the best surgery, that is the safest and with the best outcomes?
The best surgery is the one you decide to have. It is important to go to a surgeon that offers all of them. Some want lapband because you can reverse it. Some want something else because they don’t want a foreign body inside them and have to go back for fills. Some don’t want their guts rearranged. That’s why it is so important to talk to your bariatric doctor because he or she is trained to ask those questions so that you can pick what is best for you.
I have known people that have succeeded and failed with every kind of surgery and even though you will see a lot of fighting online about which surgery is the best, that’s between you and your doctor and whether your insurance will cover it or not. Some people do not have insurance and self pay. The thing that is important is believing in the one you pick. Treat it as the miracle it is and show your surgery some respect. If you go in expecting failure, that’s what you’ll get. Don’t let naysayers rent space in your head. There’s always someone that will have something nasty or critical to say. Surround yourself with successful, happy people and you’ll find it easier to be that way.
10. What do you look for in a doctor?
Experience and the way you feel when you talk to him/her. Get feedback from his other patients. I am a member of Obesity Help.com and each member has their doctor’s name under their user name. The doctor’s page has feedback from his patients. Check out how extensive the aftercare program is BUT it is far more important to go to a good doc first. A doc with good marketing could make his program look like a million dollars but that doesn’t tell you how good he is. The proof is talking to other patients and asking a lot of questions.
