When the pandemic started, Nora Hyland used the stay-at-home order to start walking again with a friend. But soon after she started, Nora’s hips and knees began to ache from arthritis and walking one mile took nearly an hour. “I felt exhausted, sweaty and in pain after that effort,” she recalls.
Battling weight for most of her life, the university professor dieted off and on for decades, losing about 20 pounds and then the scale just wouldn’t budge. Eventually, having three children added more weight until Nora weighed over 300 pounds.
Dr. Seun explains why the ‘body set point’ might be derailing your weight loss
Now in her 50s with a demanding career and three teenage children, Nora began to worry her weight was jeopardizing her future mobility.
So she took action.
A chance Facebook encounter leads to Dr. Sowemimo
Fortuitously, a friend posted on Facebook about her weight loss success after bariatric surgery. Nora had a gastric band (lap band) inserted nearly 11 years ago, but it was no longer serving her needs. Her friend strongly recommended Prime Surgicare and said she would understand why after she met the group.
“The first time I met with Dr. Seun Sowemimo, I left feeling that he and his team would get to know me and support my personal journey,” Nora recalls. This was not the case with the bariatric surgeon who implanted her gastric band many years ago. “I felt like they had no idea who I was and made no effort to check on my progress. It was crickets instead.”
Nora was approved for a bariatric revision, changing from a gastric band to a gastric sleeve (VSG). Dr. Seun first removed the lap band during an outpatient procedure. Three months later, after healing was complete, Nora spent one night in the hospital after her vertical sleeve gastrectomy.
Video: Why the Gastric Sleeve is the Most Popular Bariatric Surgery in the World
“This may not be the case for everyone, but four days after surgery, I was already feeling like me again,” the Jersey Shore resident recalls. She worked through the nutrition stages with Prime Surgicare staff bariatric dietitian Lori Skurbe, and then focused 24/7 on following the prescribed nutrition plan to the letter.
For the first six months after weight loss surgery, Nora focused on retraining her body to eat less and focus on whole foods and protein. “Another benefit from weight loss surgery is that it significantly reduces your appetite, which helps so much with weight loss the first couple of years.”
Read: Ghrelin – The Hormone that Keeps You Hungry
Choosing Dr. Seun’s Weight Loss Plan for Additional Weight Loss
Nora needed to do some clothes shopping when her size plummeted from size 24 to size 12.As the months after surgery passed, Nora expanded her weight loss strategy and signed up for Dr. Seun’s Weight Loss Plan, an online course that teaches four simple nutrition guidelines to maximize health, lose extra weight and maintain a healthy weight for life.
“I didn’t know what to expect from the doctor’s course, but I watched the whole program and was stunned by the simplicity of Dr. Seun’s guidance—things I probably knew about food but never thought to implement,” Nora explains.
Nora shared five essential learnings from the course:
- I understand the difference between micros and macros.
- I can eat unlimited fruits and vegetables and not gain weight.
- Like Dr. Seun, I add a bag of cooked frozen vegetables to most meals to dilute higher-calorie foods.
- Keep your kitchen well stocked with the right foods, so you’re prepared when you’re hungry.
- Not eating after 7 pm and waiting until late morning to eat the next day is intermittent fasting, a great tool that helped me overcome weight loss stalls.
Try Out Dr. Seun’s Weight Loss Plan Mini Courses for FREE
One year after surgical weight loss, Nora lost 127 pounds. Her pre-op clothing size 24 is now size 12. And dropping.
Lori Skurbe also recommended Nora download the LoseIt app, which simplifies food and water tracking and offers additional weight loss tools. Nora said the app is so beneficial to her strategy that she has logged her food for the past 420 of 450 days.
Today, those walks along the Jersey shoreline are far less painful. Since gastric sleeve surgery, Nora walks five miles and covers 3-4 miles in an hour. She also joined a local gym with her son with the goal of building muscle mass to boost her metabolism.
Same life, different food relationship
Nora emphasized that having bariatric weight loss surgery doesn’t mean you can’t go out with friends for dinner, have a cocktail or an occasional piece of cake. “I learned you don’t have to be perfect in the weight loss game–just follow the roadmap most of the time and you’ll lose weight, be far healthier and enjoy life so much more.”
Check out Prime Surgicare’s exclusive Bariatric Success Program to learn more about our multi-pronged bariatric toolkit you won’t find with any other other bariatric center. Sign-up for one of our live Bariatric Info Webinars to meet Dr. Seun on Zoom and call (732) 414-2707 to set up a prompt private consultation and confirm medical insurance coverage.