Why NO ONE should ever even consider Bariatric Surgery

Because food is not the enemy.
But if you have Bariatric Surgery, food will become your enemy.


If you are considering Bariatric Surgery, (surgically creating a tiny stomach) no doubt you ALREADY feel that food is your enemy.

That was me.  I regretted every morsel I ever ate because I kept getting fatter and could not lose an ounce, no matter what I tried - and I tried everything, except Bariatric Surgery - and I'm so thankful I never tried that!


Listen.  It's not your fault you are fat.  It's your hormones' fault.

If your hormones were working properly, your body would have used the food you ate as fuel.  Instead, your body stored it as fat.  Not your fault.  You feel you overate and 'deserve' to be fat?  Well, why did you overeat?  Because you were still hungry.  Hormones control hunger levels, not stomach size.  If you surgically shrink your stomach, your hunger will remain and then you will waste what's left of your now miserable life mashing and drinking tiny quantities of food, never eating normal food, never able to share normal meals with loved ones.

As Dr Simeons wrote in his 'Pounds & Inches'; "to accumulate...fat...is a very definite metabolic disorder...I have always held that overeating is the result of the disorder, not it's cause."

If you are fat, you have a metabolic, hormonal disorder.

WHY are your hormones working against you?  Some say 'metabolic disorder' can be traced to all the processed 'food' we eat, filled with chemicals, additives, and excess sugar.  But trying to stop eating that way cold turkey is difficult, as a lot of those chemicals and additives are not just unhealthy but actually addictive! 

With Dr Simeons' Protocol, you eat real food, food with only ONE ingredient (chicken, spinach, eggs, strawberries, etc), and with the help of the HhCG spray, you feel so much less hungry, you're able to break free of old bad eating habits like eating chips or drinking soda pop.  People joke that chips are addictive - well, check the label! If you see monosodium glutamate, then you are seeing an additive put there to make you finish the whole bag and crave more.  Or soda pop and 'juice', check for high fructose corn syrup, it's designed to make you crave more, buy more, and consume more!  

Following Dr Simeons Protocol you'll eat REAL food, and, using the HhCG spray, you can look forward to losing weight at an average of a pound per day(!), without being hungry(!!!), without exercising(!!!!) plus you can heal your metabolic disorder(!), and feel better than you have in years!  You will NOT need to exercise while you are losing weight - you can be a sedentary (or as active) as you are accustomed to being.

If you are really fat, you know exercise is out of the question, nearly impossible.  My knees ached just thinking about it and, at my fattest, I knew I would look pathetic, trying to jog down the street.  I was not in the mood to look pathetic.  I was in the mood to hide.   I probably would have considered Bariatric Surgery myself, if I had not found HhCG first.  I thank my lucky stars every single day that I found out about HhCG before any more of my life slipped away, and now, food is my friend!

Let me say that again: Food is my friend!
I'm not on a liquid diet, I eat really delicious food all the time!!! I cook my eggs in butter, with cheese, I add in a bit of salsa or fresh basil, I have toast and sausage and coffee loaded with cream - and that's only breakfast! Would you want to drink that breakfast in a smoothie?!!! Heck NO.  You will, if you have Bariatric Surgery.  Or you can have two bites before your surgically cinched stomach rejects the food and you throw it all up.  Good grief.

I eat SO WELL, I want to yell from the heavens: "You can too!!!"  (You can buy the same spray I used here.)

Last night my family went out to eat at a lovely Italian restaurant.  It was a warm summer evening and we were seated outside on the patio.   My youngest sister was visiting from New York.  (Yoga teacher, always been thin, very pretty, no children) She commented on my cute outfit and I had to smile - I felt like I looked just as cute as she always does, finally! -  I ordered a Salata Caprese  which is a whole plate of fresh mozzerella, layered with tomatoes and fresh basil, drizzled with olive oil and vinegar - and ate it all myself.  I also ordered a Ceasar salad topped with grilled chicken (the chicken was really tasty and moist, sooo delish) and I ate it all- including the dressing(!).  I also had several glasses of iced tea with lemon, that I sweetened with stevia that I'd brought along.  

Notice I had no desert.  Sweet (w/stevia) iced tea quenched my sweet tooth anyway and all the healthy fat in my meal had left me feeling deliciously sated and perfectly full.  
The children were reasonably well behaved and even adorable, my sister seemed charmed and my husband looked so handsome across the table, I could see he was proud of his brood - it was a meal worth remembering.  

In other words, I am 65 lbs less than I was just this past spring, and I love my life.  I am able to share wonderful meals with my family, whether we eat out, or in. I get to wear cute outfits, I enjoy my children more and we had a lovely time.  I do avoid sugar, because I know now that sugar messes with my metabolic hormones, but by that simple omission, I am able to eat like a queen and this morning, my weight had dropped 2 tenths of a pound.  Ha!  Take that, metabolic disorder!

I have friends online, on the TrimYou site and on the Protocol2Health site, all of whom are following Dr Simeons Protocol with the help of the HhCG spray, who have shed much more or less weight than I have, and many more who are in the midst of shedding.  I am so happy and proud of all of us, but I am so sad for those who don't know about this protocol and how they too can get the help they need to change their lives so quickly into the life that always felt out of reach, so I'm commited to writing this blog, to try and help get the word out.  

Please please PLEASE do not have surgery until you at least try Dr Simeons Protocol and the HhCG spray.  There is a whole community of people who can help you and I am just one of many who feel this is the BEST thing I ever did for myself and for my family as a result.
Please feel free to contact me if you have questions!  Let me help.
All the best to you!
Autumn

My story thus far...with lots of pictures!

If you're new to this blog, let me introduce myself; 

Hi! My name is Autumn and I am a 43 yr old mother of 6, my eldest is 9 and my youngest is nearly 6 months old.  

I'm writing this blog for YOU, because if you have found this blog, you must be interested in the things I am here talking about (weight loss, HCG, pregnancy, family, motherhood, diabetes, and pathways to health and ultimate vitality)...and I'm writing this blog for ME, because I need somewhere to vent all this great information, because not everyone wants to listen to me talk about this subject as much as I want to...and I am motivated because If I can make these positive changes and shape my life into the life I want, then you can too!

I was terribly worried that I was following in my mother's footsteps in that I gained 60 lbs or more with each pregnancy and could not get the bulk of that weight off, no matter what I tried, and then gained more weight with the next pregnancy.  My mom never was able to lose her pregnancy weight gains. I saw myself following in her footsteps to a future of ill health, and for some time it seemed unavoidable.

Then, 2 yrs ago I discovered HCG and Dr Simeons Pounds and Inches Protocol, (actually using HhCG, the homeopathic version of the hormone) and was able to shed 65 lbs in 4 months.  For that spray go here.

It was life-changing in the best way. Through following that strict, healthy protocol of only eating certain wholesome and healthy foods while completely avoiding anything processed, or anything 'not on the list', I learned that my body was capable of burning off a pound of fat each day, and that my body was not broken, and that it was NOT MY FAULT that I was overweight.  I also learned that vitamins can actually work, that magnesium is vital to my body's ability to function properly, that unprocessed sea salt is very different from the pure white stuff, that we don't need to be afraid of salt, or of fat, and perhaps most importantly, that I was capable of creating a positive, transformative change with each and every accumulative step I took each day.

I also learned that the spray made my body exquisitely sensitive to certain foods and that even a small taste outside protocol could have big consequences, but that knowledge helped keep me on the straight and narrow.

On the website that supports the particular spray I use, I read hundreds of personal stories, and made new online friends by the dozen, with all of us going through the same transformation, all using the same protocol and spray - I learned so much, and was profoundly changed.

If you'd like to as me questions about this homeopathic HhCG spray, send me an email and I'll respond right away - just scroll down and look for the link with the blue hydrangea flower picture on the right hand side of this page ---->  You can also order it here.

After the birth of our 6th child I had another 50 pounds to lose, and by using the HhCG and following Simeons Protocol again, I have only 10 more pounds to go till I reach my goal.   It is SO empowering and exciting to know I have control over my weight; it is a real departure from the feeling of hopelessness that used to hang over me!  I think I actually enjoy my children more now, which is so sad really, because I did not know I was resenting them or blaming them for my inability to lose weight, but I must have been.

One big reason my weight was in 'locked-on' mode was because of the hormonal changes that occur with pregnancy and breastfeeding.  Happily, I no longer feel like my pregnancy weight gains are 'locked on', because I have HhCG to 'unlock' my fat stores.

Another reason my weight was 'locked on' was due to eating too many sugars/starches and  avoiding fatty foods. Now I try to keep sugar and starchy carbs to an absolute minimum for me and my family. AND, I eat fatty foods!  All the time! Every meal, in fact! Ha! I feel absolutely devious and yet eating fats with your low carb/hign protein meals is the best way to feel sated and get your body into 'un-locked' mode.  It's a pretty delicious way to live too.

During Phase 3 I learned a lot about metabolic hormones such as insulin and ghrelin and adiponectin and leptin - all the known metabolic hormones (more is learned all the time so you need to stay tuned-in!) - and these days I'm reading about our medical community and issues that my mom is dealing with...I've only started reading about thyroid and iodine, inflammation and arthritis, and potentially devastating statins and how CoQ-10 can help...I read a LOT and I will include sources whenever it's applicable.

Dr Mercola's site and newsletters are filled with good natural health info; I'm always learning something there that leads me to new ideas and information - for example now I know when Nature offers up vitamin D and now I get my family outside to soak it up!  Before, I was doing it all wrong- sigh.  Before reading Dr Mercola's articles I usually had us outside at peak UVA times, which increases skin cancer risks(!) instead of peak UVB times which increases Vitamin D! -  Yikes.  Well, now I know. 

Mothering magazine is a great source for information and articles about parenting, breastfeeding, co-sleeping, etc. I was sorry to see them go out of print, but their online archives are fantastic and founder Peggy O'Mara is still involved in making it a relevant and reliable source of good, solid and up to date information.

Pathways to Family Wellness, a printed magazine with an online presence, is another wonderful source of information about achieving natural health and vitality for everyone, with a focus on family.  Recently there were several articles on homebirth and interviews with midwife Ina May Gaskin that were just wonderful.  I discovered this wonderful magazine in a chiropractor's office.

I hope to help my mom to regain her health, and help my father-in-law avoid knee replacement surgery, help my kids grow up healthy and strong, help my husband and I to live in health and vitality forever, and really, I wish health and vitality for everyone(!)  

So, I'm writing this blog for YOU and me, because if I can make these changes and shape my life into the life I want, then you can too!

All the best to you!

xox 

Autumn

Mom and Dad on their wedding day

Mom and Dad some 45 yrs later, before statins and before 'official' diabetes diagnosis

John and I on our wedding day

Mom and my 5th baby Lucy

Me and my 4th baby Olivia...

Me turning into my mother, standing with my slender sisters...(one of which was pregnant at the time, and still looked great, while I looked Big!)

Me and my family in 2002, before Mom's health crisis, before I had kids

Me now, with 6th baby Veronica, half-way back to my ideal weight - photo courtesy of 4 yr old Olivia

:D

Following Jorge Cruise vs. Following Dr. Simeons Pounds & Inches Protocol

Ok.  So I had a(nother) baby (Nov. 2nd)
(That's big brother with our newborn pixie)
I started 'officially' trying to diet Dec 1st (I'd gained about 60 lbs but by Dec I'd dropped 10 lbs and was down to 180.)
Aaaaaand 2 months of dieting ala Jorge Cruise later...

By Feb 1st I'd only lost 5.4 lbs.
(you can see my progress here)
So, basically that's 5 1/2 lbs in 62 days.
That's less than 1 lb per week.
That's less than 1/2 a lb per week! That stinks!!!
At that rate it would take me MORE than a YEAR to lose the 50 lbs I need to shed!!!

Ok, now let's compare that to following Dr Simeons Pounds & Inches Protocol:
I 'officially' started his protocol on Feb 11th (with the homeopathic version of HCG in a spray).
Today is Feb 17th.
I have followed his protocol for 1 week so far and shed 6.2 lbs. thus far.
So in 7 days I lost MORE than I lost in 62 days of constant dieting? Hmmm.

What this says to me, is:
a) I wasn't following Jorge Cruise's plan properly somehow?
or
b) Jorge Cruise's plan can work if you are not breastfeeding?
or
c) Jorge Cruise's plan does not work for me.

I dunno.  His plan worked for my mom, she shed a pound a day for 20 days.  (Then she lost interest.)
But me, maybe breastfeeding made me too hungry to eat small enough portions? Or maybe my overall daily calorie intake was just simply too high? (but he says you don't need to count cals!)  - I was eating full fat cottage cheese, and creamy sauces on my veggies  - low carb, but maybe too high in calories?  Funny thing is, as an exclusively breastfeeding mom, I'm supposed to be burning 500+ cals daily just by feeding my baby, so you'd think I be buffered and able to eat high cal as long as I avoided sugars and starches, which I DID!  Ugh.  Oh well. It's a mystery to me, maybe someday I'll understand more about how hormones and weight gain/loss works.  For now, I am just SO HAPPY that I had Dr Simeon's Pounds & Inches and HhCG in my back pocket and that I decided to get back on protocol!!!!

On a side note, baby is nursing fine,she's not fussing, lot's of wet and poopy diapers, and I still occasionally leak therefore I think my milk supply is fine, - all fine - and she has moved on to size 3-6 mos clothes -  and best of all I'm noticeably less hungry(!).  Hardly hungry at all except a bit at mealtimes (which is exactly how it should be, right?!) Thanks to the HhCG spray.  Normally I'm quite hungry and was snacking 2x daily (Jorge Cruise sanctified snacks like a cheese stick), but now, on the spray, I eat my 2 meals and I'm good.  Wowzers.  Seriously, ask any breastfeeding mom about hunger and she'll tell you she's pretty hungry all the time.  But we're not hungry on the spray, why? Well I believe it's because on the spray, your bloodstream is flooded with the formerly stored calories that have now been released from your fat cells.  An average of 2500 to 3500 calories per day.  So your bodily needs are satisfied plus you are eating an additional 500 cals, so your tummy is satisfied.  And, as a nursing mom, I'd like to posit the theory that I am asking my body to release even more calories - to nourish my HhCG 'baby' as well as make milk for my real baby.  I think this may be true, because I have lost an average of one pound per day on protocol, but the average for women is 1/2 a lb per day. (For women.  Men average a pound a day on protocol, the mean bastards! hahaha)
Whatever the science is behind it all, it works.  Wow am I happy it works too!
If you'd like to join me in shedding weight quickly and healthfully, email me for a link to the product I'm using, or you can buy a very similar-though not exact-spray from Suzanne at Protocol2Health -who's link is posted on the right under 'Order your HCG Spray'.

Stay tuned, I'm gonna keep on blogging and shedding! That's my promise to you AND to myself.

Dr Oz, you're wrong. HCG weight loss is REAL. No controversy.

Dear Dr Oz,

I did lose a pound a day. I lost 40 pounds my first round, just like many many many others have before me.  I did it by making a purchase on the internet! (gasp!) and by following the 500 calories per day diet! (second gasp!)  I KNOW IT WORKS.  I especially know that the particular product I bought and used works and works well.  It's a spray, it's homeopathic, which means you do not need a Dr's prescription, and it works.  it is made and shipped with exquisite care and the support site is immensely helpful too.  In fact, without the support site fielding all my questions in the begining and throughout, and having other HhCG spray users to talk to - I wonder if I would have come so far or met my goal so easily.  In any case, Dr Oz, thanks for the warning to only do this protocol under a Doctor's care - but I disagree.  There ARE alternatives to the HCG injections that work and I for one am living the happy outcome of such an alternative route.

Oh, and it's wrong to say you're never hungry.  You are a little bit hungry. You know when it's lunchtime and you know when it's dinnertime.  And the 500 calories are satisfying enough that you eat your meal and your hunger is sated.  It's really very comfortable.  Any other calories you need to live on are taken from your fat stores - including stores of nutrients and vitamins.  Sure, you end up depleting those stores by the end of the 6 weeks, and that's why it's limited - 6 weeks of weight loss per round followed by 6 weeks of maintainence and replenishing your nutrients.  People, it WORKS. I am living proof, as are the thousands of other happy HCG users.

To view some of what Dr Oz has to say about this click here.

Since it mimics pregnancy, there is some hairloss involved for some people at the end, myself included, but you can't tell to look at me, only my hairbrush knew. And once I took my multi-vitamins again, the hairloss stopped within 3 days.  Also, since it is a pregnancy hormone (not really, if it's homeopathic, but for the sake of arguement, let's say it is) it may also increase your fertility.  My own mom conceived me with the help of actual HCG injections.  Lastly, any feelings of weakness or fogginess or overall crumminess are easily dealt with by adding sea salt to the diet.  You can add it to your food or even make a broth with it if you are feeling especially crummy - and it works instantly.  I wish the 2 women who did not like the way they felt while on the diet would have known about the sea salt. It would have made a world of difference.

Some people are so in the habit of eating proccessed foods and sugary soda pop, that they actually experience a 'sugar detox' headache in the first week. It's ok, it's detox, and you'll be better for it - meanwhile, take Excedrine, not sugar-coated Tylenol.

How do I know so much? Because I learned so much on the support site - hundreds and thousands of people all using the same product - all experiencing the same things, all talking - it's a goldmine of information! Dr Oz, next time you want to look into this amazing way to rapidly lose weight comfortably and healthfully, please check out the Ketomist homeopathic spray.  Ask for Rob. 

How to Add Olive Oil as your FIRST new food on P3

Here is my best advice for beginning P3, by introducing olive oil as your first new food once 'The Hunger' kicks in. (How I Woulda/Coulda/Shoulda begun P3 if I had only figured this out sooner!)

Aiming for 3200 calories:

(adjust as necessary, by omitting/or adding an egg/or a snack)

You will need:

to make homemade  mayonnaise (or be extra super careful and double-triple-check your store-bought mayo lable for starches and sugars) and buy 4% Cottage Cheese, *Whole Milk and Olive Oil, and also make sure you have the following P2 groceries in larger quantities: uncooked Chicken, Eggs, Grapefruit, Lemon, Apples, Spinach, Celery, Strawberries, Asparagus, Fish (Tilapia?), Sea salt and Stevia.

Breakfast:

3 eggs + 2 Tbs milk, scrambled, cooked in 1 Tbs olive oil.
Tea, with 2 Tbs 1/2+1/2 (and stevia?),
1/2 Grapefruit.
Snack:
1 cup 4% cottage cheese

1 apple

Lunch:

Chicken salad made with cooked chicken (grilled or poached or sauteed in olive oil), and then chopped and tossed with homemade mayo (egg yolks and olive oil, sea salt, etc) and celery. (I use 2 1/2 rounded Tbs of mayo)

Strawberry milkshake (1 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 cup water and ice cubes and 4-5 strawberries blended together + stevia)

Snack:

1/2 Grapefruit

Dinner:

A nice piece of fish (Tilapia?) wrapped in tinfoil w/olive oil and lemon, broiled until flaky, served on a bed of baby spinach w/Sauteed veggies (in olive oil and sea salt and fresh black pepper) on the side (I'm thinking asparagus)

Desert:

Baked apple (microwaved or actually baked) w/ lemon juice and cinnamon and a 1/2 cup of pureed cottage cheese with stevia, cinnamon and vanilla as a kind of pretend ice cream.

According to the Fitday.com calorie calculator = approx 3158 cals

---------------------------------------------------------

In the beginning of my first P3, I counted all my calories on the Fitday.com calorie calculator. I tried to keep my protein between 40-50%. (My first mistake, I do believe.)

After a week of counting calories, I re-read Dr Simeon's Pounds & Inches 'Concluding a Course' pg 29-30 and stopped counting calories, because I felt overwhelmed and because he never said that was what we needed to do.

However, by logging my foods for that week in order to count cals, I did learn a LOT, like I discovered that eggs are not very calorie dense, but coconuts are.

On Fitday.com, there is a very cute pie-chart showing the percentage of fat to protein to carb ratio of what you entered. HOWEVER, because you are eating (in P3a) a No starch/No sugar diet, some days might seem to register rather alarmingly high in fat %, and yet you will NOT gain weight if you are avoiding starches and sugars. (Just exactly like Dr Simeons says.)

You can basically ignore the pie-chart of fat, protein and carb percentages.  I know the 'Golden Ratio' for body builders is 40-50% protein, 25-35% carbs, and 20-30% fat.  But this ratio does not apply when you are avoiding starches.  Take starches out of the equation and suddenly the idea that you can eat 40-50% protein becomes an impossible quest - I tried it.  Could not be accomplished without protein shakes and then I felt over-fed and awful. That was a big discovery - that my math was off.  So now I ignore the pie-chart and understand that the so-called 'Golden Ratio' does not apply to me or to us.

Here's what Dr Simeons says, in  Pounds & Inches:   in the 'Concluding a Course' section, on pg 29;  that "...the patient may now eat anything they please, except sugar and starch...". He never says to add one new food in per day, and he never says to count calories or to note protein-to-fat percentages. He simply says avoid sugars and starches and weigh yourself every morning. And stay within 2lbs of your final weight(LSW).

So, really, you could just eat!!!

Happy P3 Eating!!!

:)