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If you’re trying to lose weight and finding it difficult, you may have considered taking medications or undergoing bariatric surgery. Both of these... read more
This Mother’s Day, Take Care of You
When you become a mother, self-sacrifice and putting your children first becomes second nature. The focus shifts from your wants and needs to theirs, and you delay or even deny yourself things that were routine in your life before you had children.
There’s nothing wrong with this — it’s part of what makes you a good mother.
But as Mother’s Day approaches, it’s important to have a conversation about what matters most to you and your family in the long run: your good health.
“I don’t have time to exercise”
You want to be the best mom you can be — active, hands-on, involved in your kids’ lives every step of the way. With such a busy lifestyle, you may argue you don’t have time to exercise. So you quit running, working out at home, or going to the gym.
You may also say you don’t have time to fix a healthy meal for yourself, so you graze from your kids’ leftovers. You may feel you don’t have time to relax, so you cook, clean, chauffeur your child from one activity to another, help with homework, and never allow yourself any downtime to recharge your batteries.
Everything you do as a mother stems from your desire to see your children happy, healthy and fulfilled. But for them to be happy, an essential part of the equation is your own happiness. Focusing on your children to the point where you neglect your own needs can take its toll on your overall health and well-being. You’re not the only one struggling with this problem.
The Prevalent Pregnancy Pounds
Many women experience weight gain after entering motherhood and find it impossible to lose pounds put on during pregnancy. This inability to lose weight is often blamed on the biological impact of pregnancy on the body. Yet obesity in women with children isn’t necessarily related to the physical act of gestation and childbirth. What it may come down to is lifestyle changes.
In a study published March 2017 in the medical journal Women’s Health Issues, Olga Yakusheva, associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing, examined the data of over 30,000 women who’d given birth. Yakusheva found that on average, women with or without children gained 1.94 pounds a year. But for women with children, once their child reached toddler age, they gained a full pound more each year than childless women.
“Mothers tend to put the needs of their children first, so they might not be exercising or taking care of themselves,” Yakusheva said in an interview with Michigan News. “It might also be little things like finishing the food on their child’s plate or spending more time sitting with their kids reading or watching a movie.”
While an average weight gain of three pounds per year might not seem like much, by the time your firstborn leaves home for college or work, that can result in a permanent weight gain of over 60 pounds. And that’s an average figure.
Bariatric Surgery: The Solution for Unwanted Weight
Motherhood is satisfying and rewarding — when asked, many women will say, “Being a mother is the best thing that ever happened to me.” But despite all the benefits, motherhood doesn’t have to come at a risk to your own health — especially not if your weight has crept into the obese or morbidly obese categories.
At Advanced Surgical and Bariatrics, we offer many options for weight loss metabolic surgery in New Jersey. A number of procedures such as the gastric balloon, the endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty, and the accordion procedure are minimally invasive and can be done with very small incisions. These procedures typically take between 45 minutes to an hour and have a short recovery period, so even a busy mom can set aside time for herself.
This Mother’s Day, instead of a box of chocolates or dinner at a restaurant, consider your own health and well-being and sit down with your family to discuss weight loss surgery. Tell them it’s your time — time to focus on yourself.
Dr. Ragui Sadek is a premier surgeon who established a state-of-the-art and one of the safest bariatric surgery programs in the state. Dr. Sadek has fellowship training in both laparoscopic/bariatric surgery and surgical trauma/critical care, allowing him to safely perform complex surgeries on patients who have been turned down by other practices. As a Clinical Assistant Professor of surgery at RWJ Medical School & the Director of bariatric surgery program at RWJ University Hospital, Dr. Sadek offers a cutting-edge range of laparoscopic, robotic, & bariatric surgical procedures with a complication rate substantially below the national average.
Dr. Sadek is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Having performed more than three thousand advanced surgical procedures, Dr. Sadek has established a strong patient satisfaction rate and a solid reputation among the surgical community and is renowned as a top physician in his field by International Association of Healthcare Professionals. As a board-certified surgeon, he holds affiliations with the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and the Society of American Gastro Endoscopic Surgeons. More about Dr. Sadek
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