Throughout time, there have been resplendent incidences for making and keeping commitments which have been prescribed by Deity. In essence, each time a call to repentance has been recorded in holy writ, there has been a call to turn from evil to good. A commitment to do so and to change a pattern of life for the better has always been a part of this call to repentance.

In this passage found in the Book of Mormon, an ancient prophet several hundred years before Christ called his hearers to change patterns that had crept into their lives under the rule of an evil king.

Interestingly, each time God commands his children to follow a law, He provides them with everything necessary to obey. Another prophet from the Book of Mormon who left Jerusalem and traveled to America around 600 B.C. said this regarding how God helped him keep commitments:

Later, when Nephi was faced with challenges along his path to obey a command he had received from God, his brothers urged him to give up on his commitment. Nephi’s response was remarkable and inspires and moves me to keep commitments as well. It can be applied in each of our lives:

You see, Nephi had committed himself to a cause. At this point, there simply existed no option in Nephi’s mind to give up. He had made a covenant to achieve an objective, and what’s more, because he was specifically operating on an instruction from God, he knew that he would have God’s help.

What objectives have you undertaken which require strong commitment? Remember, that weight loss is not an easy undertaking. Rarely will you hear anything telling you that it will be an easy journey to lose weight. Aside from advertisements boasting that their product or service will pave the way and make weight loss a breeze, almost anyone in their right mind will tell you that losing weight is not for the faint of mind. But there is help. Paul recorded these famous words for the ages:

As Ralph Waldo Emerson declared, ”Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.” At this point, you have committed and it is this deep, abiding conviction that one must have in order to obtain their goal. But with all this talk about strong commitment, it might be easy to feel that you are not so strong as all these people making these commitments. What about you and how weak you may feel at this time?

One instance found in the Bible shows how Jesus encouraged and inspired a father to have faith:

In this case, you’ll notice that this father immediately responded to Jesus saying “I believe” and then followed up with the famous words: “help thou mine unbelief.” How many times have you felt this way? Like you really want to believe you can achieve your goals to lose weight? Like you really want to achieve any goals to do good things, but have felt weak? Here we learn that when we will ask God for help, he will support us. One of the most moving passages of a father speaking to his son and encouraging him comes from a prophet named Alma from the Book of Mormon speaking to his son, Helaman:

Imagine in your mind a parent encouraging you to hold on and hold true to a commitment. Imagine a loving God urging you to be your best self. Imagine a loving Heavenly Father encouraging and leading you along to be your best self. Imagine Him walking alongside you and literally “supporting” you in your trials, your troubles, your afflictions. This is how God will help you to keep your commitments. He knows how difficult that each day can be when you’re trying to achieve a worthy goal. And He will help and support you as you go forward.

Centuries earlier it was recorded in the Book of Joshua in the Bible that we have nothing to fear:

Current Article Ratings:

Patient / Public:		5 (7 votes)
Healthcare Professional:

1-800-GET-THIN LLC was warned in what the FDA considers “misleading advertising for lap-band surgery.” Potential surgery candidates along with patients who view or respond to advertising for lap-band surgery are “not being adequately informed of potential downsides to the surgery,” said the FDA. 1-800-Get-THIN LLC as well as another 8 additional surgery centers in the state of California were told to stop misleading people about the lap-band which is a medical device that has been approved for use by the FDA to assist obese adults in weight loss. FDA officials accused these surgical centers of leaving out important negative side effects from the Lap-Band surgery, including contraindications, potential side effects, warnings, and precautions.

These companies in California following have been sent warning letters by the FDA:

• 1-800-GET-THIN
• Palmdale Ambulatory Center
• Valley Surgical Center
• Bakersfield Surgery Institute Inc
• Top Surgeons LLC
• San Diego Ambulatory Center LLC
• Beverly Hills Surgery Center
• Cosmopolitan Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
• Valencia Ambulatory Center LLC

The main point of their message was that Lap-Band surgery, as a specifically restricted device, has been misbranded through misleading and incomplete advertising.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mentioned additionally that negative facts regarding the medical device appear in a smaller-than-necessary-font size in advertisements, leading to consumers not noticing, not reading, or disregarding.

Steve Silverman who is the Office of Compliance director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices & Radiological Health, stated:

“The FDA [regards] seriously its responsibility [in protection of consumers from products that do not include] adequate warnings. [Especially] when [these] advertisements [do not] communicate… risks associated…”

The surgical companies have been advised by FDA officials that fines, product seizures, or more could result if FDA concerns from warning notices are not addressed.

What is a Lap-Band Surgery?

A Lap-Band Surgery which is also called a (Laparoscopic) Adjustable Gastric Band, consists of a silicone device which is surgically inserted around a portion of stomach lining. The lap-band is utilized in treating patients whose body mass index (BMI) is between 30-40 (which defines obese).

Lap-Band – Adjustable Gastric Band

The overweight patient who is a candidate for Lap-Band surgery may also have obesity related conditions, like hypertension (high blood pressure), type 2 diabetes or more. Physicians typically consider lap-band when previous other attempts and therapies have not been successful in assisting the patient to lose weight. Diet, exercise, and behavioral changes are always preferred to invasive procedures.

Patients who choose Lap-Band surgery must be committed significant lifestyle, exercise, and eating changes.

Patients who are under 18 are prohibited from having Lap-Band surgery. FDA officials say that this is an example of a limitation to the lap-band and it is crucial that patients and family understand the limitations and risks of the surgery before receiving it.

Physicians and other medical professionals and providers are bound by law to educate their patients regarding risks. Lap-Band advertisement and promotions need to explain risks in a clear and visible form.

Individuals with complications or problems who believe that issues are occurring with their surgery are encouraged to file reports voluntarily directly with the FDA. The Food and Drug Administration uses and concludes that these important reports are helpful in identifying, understanding, and communicating any risks associated with specific medical devices.

What Should I Expect After Having Weight Loss Surgery?

Being overweight affects over 60 million people in america. Obese Americans can suffer major health issues and have much greater rates of strokes, heart attack, cancer, diabetes, or more. For those who are severely overweight, some find that they cannot drop the pounds in any reasonable method and fail over and over. For this group of people surgical weight loss can literally save their lives. However weight loss surgery does not provide a simple, quick fix answer. For surgical options to be successful, the surgery has to be accompanied by major lifestyle changes that must continue throughout the life of the patient. They must change their consumption and other behaviors such as their amount of physical activity. But like any other surgery, weight loss procedures hold risks. So you ask yourself, “what can I expect after having weight loss surgery?”

Recovery after Bariatric Surgery

Most weight loss bypass surgeries are laparoscopic. The nearly microscopic nature of the incisions used in laparoscopic bypass of the gastric area make recovery times must faster. And most patients only remain in hospital care for a couple days. They usually pick up regular activities in just a few weeks or in more severe cases after 5-6 weeks.

If a surgery has to be in a format that is considered “open” (called laparotomy that necessitates a larger incision), then the amount of time required to heal will be longer.

How Much Weight Should I Expect to Lose After Having Weight Loss Surgery?

The important thing to realize when having surgery for your weight is that you’re going to experience extreme weight loss! Typically, people shed 61% of their excess body weight after having a gastric weight loss bypass procedure.

Other procedures like gastric banding, may result in a lower amount (but obviously still very large percentages) of 47% of body weight.

Overweight-related health problems usually drastically improve right after having the surgery. Many of these improvements will be drastic for the better:

*These ranges refer to various studies that concluded different levels of success.

Studies have also concluded that people who have weight loss surgery outlive their similarly obese counterparts who do not undergo the surgery. Additionally 95 percent of patients reported improvements in their overall quality of way of life.

Potential Issues and Risks After Surgical Weight Loss Procedures

Most patients confront no major problems post weight loss procedures. But 10 percent do experience smaller complications. And less than 5 percent of patients do experience major,  life-endangering issues.

Infection of wound can occur for the period of up to 3 weeks following surgery. Some of the signs include pain, redness, thick drainage, etc from the wound from surgery. Infection necessitates antibiotic treatment and in extreme cases may require additional surgeries.

Constipation can also be fairly typical following surgery. Granular types of fiber such as Metamucil and psyllium can reduce obstructions.

Blood in stool, or dark blackish stools, may represent a serious medical complication. Notify your physician right away or head directly to the emergency or urgent care facility in your area.

Blood clotting in lungs, termed pulmonary emboli, happen in a very small amount of patients (only 1% or fewer). These conditions are the most serious and result in death following surgery for some of the patients who experience them. Blood clots usually do not occur it they are proactively prevented with blood thinners and regular physical activity.

Leaks between connections that were newly made during the surgery are not common but represent a major concern if they occur. These typically happen within 5 days after surgery. Pain in the abdomen or generally feeling under the weather can be typical side effects. Even if it seems like a small thing, if you’re feeling sick a call should be made to the physician to check for any more serious underlying condition.

Stones in the gallbladder are typical and come with the territory of fast drops in weight. As many as 50 percent of patients are expected to have gallstones follwing gastric bypass types of surgery specifically. They are normally not harmful but can be extremely painful. They do bring with them also vomiting, nausea, and also pain in the abdomen. They can in extreme circumstances prompt a cholcystectomy which is essentially the removal of the gallbladder. Around 15-25 percent of people who have these gallstones end up having their gallbladder removed as a result of the bariatric surgery.

Dumping syndrome happens after weight loss surgery for many patients. It is a result of eating high sugar content and high fatty foods. Examples would be many sugary junk foods and even “healthier” foods that are high in sugar like 100% juice or even high sugar bananas. In addition to the potential for resulting in a dumping syndrome episode, this high sugary food could also result in dry heaving, vomiting, nausea, or general sick feeling.

Extra baggy skin can be an expected side effect of the rapid disappearing of the fat that was previously inside of this skin. In many cases, surgery is a desired response and takes care of this extra skin.

Nutrition Following Surgical Bariatric Procedures

Bariatric surgery results in major alterations of food absorption in the body. The natural consequences of the surgery include a less effective absorption all foods. The negative side effects result in the malabsorption of many important nutrients such as:

• Vitamin D
• Vitamin B12
• Calcium
• Folic Acid
• Iron

As many as 50% of people who have a “roux-en-Y” type of weight loss surgical procedure (a type of gastric bypass) go through a number of deficiencies from vitamins that need to be alleviated. The most common types of vitamin deficiency can easily be overcome through nutritional supplements and specific prescribed foods rich in important vitamins.

Major Changes After Surgery

Bariatric surgery results is incredibly impressive results to the actual body weight of patients. However these results are not to be considered as absolutes–especially if specific changes in diet, activity levels, and amounts of food consumption are not altered.

Some of the important changes to lifestyle include:

Making the change to lighter meals with higher frequency. Bariatric surgery reduces the size of the stomach so that it can no longer contain as much food. Consuming big amounts of food result in problems right away (such as dumping syndrome). Some patients who have obesity tend to be “binge type eaters.” Changing habits toward smaller sized meals does not come easily for these type of patients. However, hard work, coaching and support have resulted in successful lifestyle changes by thousands of weight loss surgery patients.

A Commitment to Specific Types of Post-weight loss surgery nutrition. Major malabsorption and malnutrition happens in cases where a specific diet and nutrition aren’t maintained.

Physical Activity. Patients who tend to work out or get physically active following weight loss surgery don’t put the weight back on as compared to their counterparts who do not comply with doctors orders for increased physical activity. Being active is much less difficult as a result of losing the weight, so it does become easier and can be expected to be less of a chore for these bariatric surgery patients. Often patients who suffer from extreme obesity have not adhered to an exercise or physical activity regimen for years or in some cases never have been active. The ability to be active as a result of the lower body weight will result in higher cardiovascular health and other important health benefits. Patients can also consider activity and weight loss support groups such as can be found on weightlosswars.

Often bariatric surgery patient clinics have programs that address emotional, psychological and other counseling programs to help deal with more than just the physical aspect of the surgeries.

MEMBERSHIP ON WEIGHT LOSS WARS IS MORE THAN A KICK IN THE PANTS! IT’S REAL WEIGHT LOSS SUCCESS COMBINED WITH REAL RUN!

Everyone deserves to be the ideal body weight and to live a healthy lifestyle if they’re willing to do what it takes to get there. That’s why weight loss wars is committed to helping weight loss warriors have an exceptionally fun way to lose weight. Plus you can maintain your loss by doing the things you did to get there (but with a little less sweat because now it’s maintenance and less of the actual weight loss that it took to get you to the ideal weight.) We believe in that one weight loss competitor will help his opponent just as much as himself and that is why our weight loss wars works so well!

When you register to join a Weight Loss Wars please realize that you are doing the things that will help you make and keep commitments to yourself, to your family, to your God, to your future Teammates (if you participate in a team based weight loss challenge) to do what it takes in your Weight Loss Challenge.

But remember that as a member of WeightLossWars you also get many free tools forever that help you to:

• Track your weight
• Check your BMI
• Track your calories
• Track your exercise
• Request and receive motivators
• Read and try new healthy, delicious recipes
• And Much Much More!

Plus as a member of a biggest loser competition at work you’ll also be able to commit to:

• Helping your coworkers and in the case of team based biggest loser contests you’ll be helping teammates by supporting and encouraging them along their weight loss journey, too.
• Writing supportive messages on each others walls, or on the competition wall.
• Weighing in once per week or as often as the rules of your specific competition dictate.
• Logging your food and calories in your stats section.
• Keeping a weight loss journal of your successes and struggles
• Watching weight loss competition graphs that show you both your own weight loss percentage but also graphs you up against your opponents or against the other teams!

We recommend that you keep going and reach your weight loss goals even after the end of any biggest loser challenge you participate in for the benefit of your teammates and yourself. Go get em, lose the weight, enjoy it, get excited!

So I was just studying a passage of scripture in the Bible found in Matthew 25:34-40. This is one of the most famous scriptures of all time and contains timeless wisdom and evidence of remarkable love and service. I believe it goes by the name of the parable of the sheep and the goats at the last day. I committed this passage to memory for the first time today and then I reviewed another scripture found in the Book of Mormon in Alma 32:42 in which Alma teaches the poor about faith on the word of God. Because I studied these two different passages in succession, it brought out interesting parallels that I thought I would share.

When anyone who is trying to be kind; to be charitable; to serve and bless those who are less fortunate in any way, they are blessed, but they’re blessed in an interesting way. The way that they are blessed is manifested by their response to their King who is telling them at the last day that they are about to enter into a kingdom which has been prepared for them from the foundation of the world precisely because of their kindness in feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, and visiting the sick and the imprisoned. These righteous, kind and generous people who the King is speaking to are surprised when he told them that they had given him food, drink, and a hand up. Their surprise is what is interesting to me. Clearly they had not been doing these nice things in order to receive a reward. They weren’t coming to the King saying, “Look what I’ve done! Look how I’ve helped these people, surely I deserve a reward.” But instead they apparently had been doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. This is moving to me, and makes me want to be better and to serve and be like these good people who are being highlighted and set up as examples to us by our King and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Next, in the scripture passage found in the Book of Mormon, Alma talked about how if the poor and poverty stricken crowd whom he was addressing would exercise faith and patience, diligence and care to read, study, ponder, and try to live according to the word of God, that they would be filled with a feast. They would come to taste the pure, sweet, and precious gift and word of God. The thing that caught my eye that related to the previous scripture found in the Book of Matthew in the Bible was how these poor people would be able to feast and eat and drink and be filled. If we can study and apply the word of God in our lives, this conscientious effort will lead us to become the kind of people described in the passage in Matthew. And then, in a fascinating and wonderful irony, we’ll be the ones caring for the sick, visiting the imprisoned, taking in the stranger, and giving food and drink to others, but we’ll also ourselves be filled, that we will hunger not, neither shall we thirst.

So yesterday I went to my first day of classes at for the prerequisites for medical school. I still have a fair amount of things to get organized before I’m all set even for this little 5 week session that occurs for the 2^nd half of summer. Then I’ll take fall and winter classes and one more little 5 week session, take the MCAT, ace that, and then off to medical school after deciding which school is best for our situation.

It’s an exciting ride. I’m just now memorizing for the morning although I’ll have to cut it short because I have to make sure I’m ready for my genetics biology class and my chemistry class that are at 8-10 (genetics) and 10:30-12:30 (chemistry) and then a lab for chemistry which follows at 1:30 I believe.

But anyway I wanted to write a few thoughts on the passage of scripture that I’m memorizing. I am trying to have faith in the Savior Jesus Christ and faith in the future (faith that I’ll be the future Peter Maughan, M.D. for example) as I go into this new period of my life. It will be a long period that I will spend—the next 9 years most likely, preparing to be a medical doctor. And I’m starting later than most, but I have several advantages over others while doing it, because I already have some life experience, some successes, some failures, and I have a wonderful wife, a family to come, a business which I can continue to build during medical school which will help us to build our life even while I’m in school.

Anyway, the scripture I’m memorizing this morning new is Matthew 25:1-13. It’s about the 10 virgins, and it is especially applicable to beginning to study. But it’s also applicable to all parts of life, because we can choose to be ready, to have faith, build our character according to the principles of the Gospel and the plan of Happiness that God has laid out for us, or we can choose to be lazy, foolish, and not focus on the oil in our lamps. The oil is synonymous with so many things in our lives—testimony, knowledge, character, and more. Let’s take character, character is not something that you can get in a second; it takes time to develop characteristics of the Savior, and it takes time, effort, faith, repentance, and repeated hard work to develop and polish out flaws in our character, to receive forgiveness from the Savior and through His atonement, and to develop the opposite characteristics from the sins and flaws we’re working to remove from our character. That’s why there is no deathbed repentance just like this little parable of the 10 virgins teaches us. The same goes for the tests that I’m about to take in a flurry of them over the next 5 weeks and then for years to come. It will be a fun ride…hard, exciting, fulfilling, and worth it!

Originally when Pete Maughn chose to be an accounting major at Brigham Young University, he hadn’t considered the different ramifications of going into a field which was dominated by personalities that expected mainly to work for other people. With the entrepreneurial spirit that had shown itself early in Pete’s career, he didn’t know how big of an issue this would turn out to be. But it exhibited itself when Pete Maughn was recruited by Junto Group a venture capital group during his years at BYU. This all occurred before Maughn went on to found Prolero.

While still in college and after having been accepted into the accounting program, Pete realized that he was not destined to be a staff accountant at one of the big four accounting firms (it was actually the big 5 at the time because Arthur Andersen had not gone down in flames from the Enron scandal.) With a further taste of entrepreneurship while attending marketing, internet, and entrepreneurship lecture series in the Marriott School of Management, Pete Maughn continued to fuel the spirit of starting a business.

While enrolled in the accounting program, he was offered and accepted a full time position with the Junto Group which threw him full-fledged into the world of business and yanked him full-force out of the accounting track. At the time he said that “I toyed with the idea of dropping out of college, but the idea of dropping out and not being a finisher was too devastating. I tried several times to drop out, but couldn’t bring myself to do so because I came to realize that my value system included being a college graduate. Although there were negative effects to my college grades and GPA, I am glad that I decided to follow through and finish my degree in accounting even though I did not choose to pursue a career in it after graduating.” Once done with BYU, his work with Junto Group increased pace and concluded after several successful businesses were launched and after which he withdrew his involvement in order to avoid being beholden to outside investors.

Maughan went on to start several successful online lead generation businesses including Oralbright, Prolero, Virgin Offers. These were met with large success as well as opposition along the way including a case of fraud from a business partner, huge struggles as a result of changes in MasterCard and Visa card association guidelines for credit card processing of continuity programs, and the resulting cease to the particular branch of affiliate marketing on the internet. The latter fraud and cashflow issues sapped the investment in one of the business particularly–Prolero–which was the business affected by this. Prolero went down and shut its doors eventually after not receiving payments from merchant accounts and being forced to stop out of a lack of cash. He eventually built back a group of web properties which operates successfully today. These are owned in a trust of which he is the beneficiary. As it stands, Pete Maughan is now the health and wellness minded professional that he has intended to be and is currently increasing his expertise through a degree in medicine.

In one of my earliest entrepreneurial ventures, I chose the name Prolero. My name is Pete Maughan, and Prolero just struck me as a good name with some future value that seemed like once or if I ever finished with my own business and the use of the name that I could sell off the domain and URL to a pharmaceutical company who wanted to sell weight loss medication or cholesterol medication or something of that sort.

That company called Prolero eventually did close its doors due to some large industry events and also some decisions made by myself, Pete Maughan, that I take responsibility for. The decisions led to me being stolen from in a huge way by a person whom I called a business partner but whom I should never have done business with. But I have learned my lesson, and after much heartache and having to leave many bills unpaid in that business, it has been a sad closure and one that I aim to overcome through future successes. Overtime I have managed to move back up in the ranks of the successful and am working toward clearing all the baggage and making good on commitments and obligations incurred by Prolero. This is not a requirement legally, but is an obligation that I take seriously from a standpoint of being morally and ethically upright.

But once the name of Prolero once more becomes synonymous with good business and high standards for health, medicine, healthcare and health and wellness, I will revisit the thought of naming a medication “Prolero” or of selling the rights and domain and name “Prolero” to a pharmaceutical company who wants to use it to help the health and lives of people all over the world. Just think, doesn’t Prolero have a good ring? Doesn’t it sound like it would be a fast acting, and effective medication? I think so. Maybe it will happen.