LivingAfterWLS, LLC
Project 2014: Living Inspired After WLS

Season 1: Units 1, 2, 3

Winter Season

Unit 1: Project Structure

Unit 2: Self-Assessment

Unit 3: Today Inspired

Project 2014 Agenda

ProgramStructure

Seasons & Units

Each unit (13 per season) includes an email with informative articles and worksheets. Your level of participation is voluntary and private. Members may join the project at any time during the year. Participation in the LAWLS Project 2014 Facebook Group is encouraged. Keeping a binder with worksheets and information will promote your success, empower your effort, and validate your participation. Topics are supported with LivingAfterWLS publications (Kaye's Books) but the books are not required for participation. Documents for each season will be packaged for eBook purchase and download, but purchase is not required - just provided for those wishing for the convenience that format. You will receive all project documents free via email or through the "Files" tab in the LAWLS-PRO14 Group. Announcements regarding Project 2014 will be made via email and in the Facebook group.

(Please note: due to bureaucratic delays we are late getting started and the Winter Season units will be grouped more closely to fit all 13 units in a shorter time period. The remaining seasons will be on schedule with one unit per week.)

Units 1-2-3 PDF Download

Project 2014 is supported with proceeds from sales in the LivingAfterWLS General Store.

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Empowerment

LivingAfterWLS Empowerment Philosophy

Print Empowerment Philosophy

LivingAfterWLS believes that success with weight loss surgery (gastric bypass, lap band and other procedures), and in life, can be found when we focus on inner strength rather than inner weakness. As recovering morbidly obese people we have often been made to feel weak for our illness. We are not weak. We have inner resources that make us beautiful unique beings with intelligence, talent and love to share with the world. The LivingAfterWLS philosophy empowers individuals to recognize and harness their own inner strengths.

The first step to personal empowerment is personal responsibility.

LivingAfterWLS holds individuals accountable for making their weight loss surgery successful. When individuals take responsibility they feel liberated and motivated to invest personal equity in their success.

Personal empowerment is not borne of the statement "I am empowered." It is a state of mind cultivated with education, thought and validation. The LivingAfterWLS support group program and online resources are actively engaged in the pursuit of personal empowerment for all neighbors. The following core values support this philosophy:

Socialization & Culture

Social Equality

Education & Understanding

Health & Wellness

Information & Communication

Opportunity & Sustainability

LivingAfterWLS is built on the strength of relationships

LivingAfterWLS is inclusive: everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate

LivingAfterWLS is at all times flexible, adaptable, intelligent and creative

KINDLE!

5 Day Pouch Test Owner's Manual

by Kaye Bailey by LivingAfterWLS, LLC

Kindle Edition ~ Release Date: 2012-07-11

Buy Now

Season 1: Winter

I am so happy to invite your participation in LivingAfterWLS Project 2014: a program dedicated to life-long weight management and healthy living made possible by optimizing our weight loss surgery tool and harnessing our internal strengths so that we may thrive. This project has been long in the making, starting in 1999 when I underwent laparoscopic gastric bypass (RNY) to treat my condition of morbid obesity. 2014 launches my tenth year of blogging about weight loss surgery and the eighth year I've worked for LivingAfterWLS in support of the greater weight loss surgery community. In that time I have learned with complete certainty that weight loss surgery is not, as the public may perceive, an easy means to weight loss. In fact, this is a challenging and difficult path we travel in the name of weight management and the pursuit of improved health, wellness, and longevity. I invite you to join this project because you understand that. As diverse individuals, unique and beautiful in our own right, we come together united in the common cause of managing metabolic disease (obesity) and through improved health we enjoy an enhanced quality of living.

In this newsletter we outline the structure of Project 2014 and release Units 1, 2, and 3 for your use as a participant in the project. The structure of the project is supported with weekly newsletters, free printable PDF files that include informative articles and practical worksheets, and numerous links to sources of further reading and empowering information. Additionally, Project 2014 is supported by community in a Facebook group dedicated to serving the membership as a support satellite to Project 2014.

Project Mission:

Empowering individuals to harness their inner strengths for life-long weight management with weight loss surgery. Personal empowerment through education, thought, community support, and validation. We are LivingAfterWLS.

Last week we opened the group inviting members to join and share introductions. For convenience all PDF files issued in association with this project are located under the FILES tab within the group. I wish to say Welcome and Thanks to everyone who has already joined our LAWLS Project 2014 on Facebook. The group is off and running pursuing our collective goals: please join us follow the link below:

LAWLS Project 2014 Facebook Group

If you are eager to join us please click the link above through your Facebook account and request membership in this group. Once your membership is accepted please take these steps to begin your engagement in this supportive and empowering group:

1. Read the Code of Conduct (under Files) and initial your agreement.

2. Open the file Winter_Units1_2_3.pdf and learn the project structure. Print the .pdf file for your personal use. (Hint - print on 3-hole paper if available!)

3. Dedicate a 3-Ring binder to the documents and worksheets (suggested binder tabs are listed on page 6). Do the tasks assigned in Units 2 and 3. Share your thoughts, experience, and encouragement with the group.

Let's get this project started! I look forward to sharing 2014 with you!

CHEERS!
Kaye

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Unit 1: Project 2014 Structure

Seasons and Units

LivingAfterWLS Project 2014

(LAWLS-PROJECT14) unites like-minded people through education, support, and lasting health sustainability using our surgical tool for weight loss and weight management. We begin with Season I: Winter and will complete 13 units (1 per week) beginning in January and ending March 31, 2014. Season II: Spring begins April 1st. Season III: Summer begins July 1st. And we wrap the year with Season IV: Autumn starting October 1st and ending December 31st. Each season we will complete the widely successful LivingAfterWLS Personal Self-Assessment as a measure of progress and a commitment to personal goals. The Self-Assessment 2-page worksheet takes about 40 minutes to complete: we will do four assessments this year. Like the Self-Assessment, the LivingAfterWLS Project 2014 is established upon the principles of the LivingAfterWLS Empowerment Philosophy that foster strong personal responsibility through education, understanding, relationships, and equality.

Structure

Each season is made of 13 units, one unit per week. Topics for Season I include: Four Rules in Review, Hunger is not the Enemy, Pack & Go Protein, Weights & Measures, Crowd Control and Food Pushers, to list a few. We will also enjoy three cooking and recipe units per season. News in bariatric and metabolic medicine will be covered as well as trends in health, diet, fitness, and good living. And of course we will review our LivingAfterWLS back-to-basics program: 5 Day Pouch Test.

LAWLS-PROJECT2014 participation is simple and voluntary. Subscribe to our newsletter and join the Facebook Group: LAWLS Project 2014. A weekly email will include the unit download which you may print and use on your schedule and at the level of commitment that serves you well. Each unit, in the universally accepted PDF format will be added to the "Files" tab in the Facebook group. Additionally for your convenience, each Season, the full 13 units, will be curated in one ePublication document and available for a small purchase price beginning the first week of the middle month of the season. Your weekly email will include articles, recipes, links, and resources supporting the current topic. Each unit also includes the download which is for your personal use as part of the project. It is beneficial to print each unit and organize it in a 3-ring binder. In my project binder I have added lined loose-leaf paper for note taking. I've also created dividers for organization, you will find tab category suggestions in the pdf file for this unit.

Keeping a binder for LAWLS-PROJECT14 affirms your commitment to the project and provides a useful history of progress and learning. On those days - and I have them too - when this whole WLS experience feels frustrating and hopeless I reach to my binder for inspiration and motivation to keep trying, take one day at a time, one meal at a time, and make this work. It is good to be reminded of our own inner strength and resilience now and again and this project binder serves that purpose.

Participation

in the project need not be overwhelming or monumental: work at your own pace. Join the conversation to give and receive support in the Facebook group. Include supportive people, online and in terra firma life, people who are champions of your cause. Spend time in solitude contemplating. Work the project your way. Each unit is designed to make you think about healthy WLS living each day. We know this is a one step at a time, one day at a time, and one plate at a time journey. Gentle reminders throughout the week serve us better than a big loud sermon once in a while. On average you will spend about an hour each week on the project, completing worksheets, reading quality information, and participating in group support and conversation. Of course you may dedicate more time or less time to meet the demands of your busy life. LivingAfterWLS presents the tools and framework for Project 2014. You own the manner in which you use this resource to best compliment your needs, lifestyle, and goals.

Download free, printable pdf file for Winter Units 1,2, & 3:

LAWLS_Project2014_Winter1_2_3

Unit 2: LivingAfterWLS Self Assessment

Quarterly Self-Assessment

Your task for this unit is to complete the worksheet this week. You are asked to sign it as a binding agreement to abide the commitments you made. Do this step - it feels good!

The LivingAfterWLS Self-Assessment provides opportunity to reflect on our goals at the time of surgery, how we met or missed those goals, how those goals have evolved and changed. And then we have opportunity on this worksheet to set new goals based on this moment, this day. Once every three months we take pause to reflect and renew. We do this in the name of personal growth and progress. It is empowering to look back and see on paper just how far we have come. I bet you are doing better than you think you are doing. Let's find out!

Print this: Self-Assessment Worksheet

Unit 2 begins on page 7 of the Units 1_2_3 pdf file.
Download free, printable pdf file for Winter Units 1,2, & 3:

LAWLS_Project2014_Winter1_2_3

Unit 3: Today Inspired

Celebrated Moments Matter

Of all the activities we introduce in LAWLS-PROJECT14 my favorite is the daily check-in called Today Inspired. Today Inspired is a micro-diary celebrating common little moments in our lives as they relate to our weight loss surgery and weight management.

Today Inspired is a daily opportunity to capture the magic of our healthy life made possible with WLS. Deliberately seek moments each day that merit notice and celebration. When we are focused on finding an inspired moment each day we have little room for self-doubt or frustration. Reflection upon inspired moments serves us well at times when we feel like giving-up. Never hesitate to peruse your Today Inspired diary to lift your spirit. The Today Inspired diary you make this year will provide encouragement for many years to come.

Print This: Today Inspired Micro-Diary

Unit 3 begins on page 10:
Download free, printable pdf file for Winter Units 1,2, & 3:

LAWLS_Project2014_Winter1_2_3

Project 2014 Agenda

Four Seasons with 13 Units each season

Winter Season: January 1 to March 31, 2014
       January: Start Binder.
           Tasks Personal Self-Assessment
            & Today Inspired
       February: Kindness Month & Today Inspired
       March: Goals Empowered & Today Inspired

Spring Season: April 1 to June 30, 2014
       April: Personal Self-Assessment 2nd Quarter & Today Inspired
       May: Sharing Strength & Today Inspired
       June: Goals & New Roads & Today Inspired

Summer Season: July 31 to September 30, 2014
       July: Personal Self-Assessment 3rd Quarter & Today Inspired
       August: Summer Living & Today Inspired
       September: Back to Basics & Today Inspired

Autumn Season: October 1 to December 31, 2014
           October: Personal Self-Assessment 4th Quarter
                 & Today Inspired
           November: Mapping & Navigating & Today Inspired
           December: Celebrating, Living, Learning & Today Inspired

Wrap-up Project 2014 ~ Introduce Project 2015

LAWLS_Project2014_Winter1_2_3

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Thank you for being a loyal Neighbor of LivingAfterWLS. We are proud to serve you in your weight loss surgery journey.

Sincerely,

Kaye Bailey

LivingAfterWLS, LLC

The health content in the LivingAfterWLS website is intended to inform, not prescribe, and is not meant to be a substitute for the advice and care of a qualified health-care professional.