In this inspiring second part of our two-part series, we continue the conversation with the incredible Dr. Sarah Hayek, diving deeper into the transformative world of bariatric surgery. As we step into 2025, BariNation is embracing the theme of curiosity. Dr. Hayek is here to empower us with insights, wisdom, and practical advice on how curiosity can reshape our bariatric journeys. From understanding surgical techniques to navigating the evolving landscape of obesity treatment, this episode is packed with hope, motivation, and tools to help you take the next step toward living your best life. Let’s explore what’s possible together!

IN THIS EPISODE:

• [1:23] Perfection is not real, and dealing with the perceptions of bariatric surgery
• [9:12] Finding the right physician and the food choices you make to fight obesity
• [15:10] The differences between laparoscopic and robotic bariatric surgery
• [27:56] Dr. Hayek’s predictions for obesity treatment in 2025
• [38:30] Take advantage of the complimentary three-month membership to Bari-Nation provided by Dr. Hayek
• [13:44] Being relentless about curiosity to thrive and actively using the BariNation community

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Focusing on the present moment and leaning into curiosity is critical for creating meaningful life changes. By understanding your "why," breaking perceived barriers, and trusting the process, you can take purposeful steps forward without being paralyzed by fear or perfectionism.
• Robotic surgery offers advantages over traditional laparoscopic surgery, including enhanced precision, reduced recovery times, and increased surgeon comfort and control. The technology allows surgeons to achieve better outcomes by minimizing human error and maximizing efficiency during procedures.
• Bariatric surgery and medications are tools in a comprehensive treatment plan for obesity. Connecting with a trusted surgeon and community is crucial to embracing this life-changing journey, leaving shame and miseducation behind.

RESOURCES:

• BariNation Website 
• Join the BariNation Membership community meetups to support you on your journey with obesity treatment. https://barination.com/pages/join-our-community
• Want to see bonus content? Head over to Patreon to get more and to support the podcast for as low as $5 per month! https://www.patreon.com/BariNationPodcast 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Kentucky Bariatric Institute - Website

GUEST BIO: 

Kentucky Bariatric Institute (KBI) is pleased to welcome Sarah Hayek, MD, MEd, to Georgetown and central Kentucky communities. Dr. Hayek will expand the bariatric program’s availability by offering robotic bariatric surgery and several general surgery procedures. Dr. Hayek completed medical school at Geisinger Commonwealth in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and completed residency in general surgery with an additional year in surgical education research at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania. She has been a practicing surgeon for over two years, with experience and training in general and bariatric robotic surgeries.

ABOUT:

If the BariNation podcast helps power your bariatric journey, become a monthly podcast supporter and help us produce the show! Visit www.barinationpodcast.com and help us support people treating the disease of obesity with humor, humility, and honesty.

Bariatric Surgery, BariNation Community Support, Bariatric Diet, BariNation, Bariatric Journey,  NSV's, GLP-1, VSG, Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy, LapBand, Roux en Y, Gastric Bypass, SADI-S, Curiosity, Thrive, Laparoscopic, Robotic Bariatric Surgery, Da Vinici 5, Intuitive Surgical

April Williams: You've just tuned into a podcast that welcomes you into a community, a resource center, and a safe place that powers your [00:00:15] journey towards personal wellness.

Natalie Tierney: Our goal is you leave us today feeling helpful, inspired, and ready to live your best bariatric life.

Dr. Hayek then does an amazing job of explaining the differences between laparoscopic and robotic bariatric surgery. And then she shares her bold predictions for obesity treatment in 2025. [00:01:00] This episode, we'll continue to talk about how we can lean into curiosity as a tool along our bariatric journey, but you are going to leave watching or listening today, uh, with new insights on where the treatment of obesity medicine [00:01:15] is headed.

All right, my friends, let's dive in. Let's be honest.

Dr. Sarah Hayek: I don't make perfect decisions every single day.

Awesome. But if that's what you're looking for out in the future, it is a freaking mirage. And if you think that you are going to do everything perfectly and everything is going to work out exactly [00:01:45] how you envisioned, no, not the case, right?

Dr. Sarah Hayek: So let's not worry about. that in the future. Let's worry about today because we spend so much time thinking about what happened yesterday.

How can I right now in this moment, even if I messed up in the morning, how can I right now? Make a [00:02:30] good choice.

April Williams: Live

Dr. Sarah Hayek: a little bit more in the moment. Enjoy it. Don't constantly be looking behind you or in front of you. This is the moment. Enjoy this moment.

It's that curiosity. Let's lean into curiosity. Let's wonder what would happen if you booked a consultation with a bariatric surgeon and and just went in and talked to them. Let's, let's. Right. Let's [00:03:00] wonder what would happen if you are three months post op and you are rock and rolling and you're worried that, um, that, that, that other shoe is going to drop.

What would happen if you leaned into that curiosity a little [00:03:30] bit and said, well, what, what if I, what if I did connect with community? What if I did try this one thing a little bit differently, right? What, what if I shifted my mindset? What if I. Just that phrase alone opens up an entire world of possibility [00:03:45] that was not open to you before.

Dr. Sarah Hayek: And so much of it is I think our perception of [00:04:15] barriers. So I do this a lot when I'm, so I work also to help intuitive and to help other robotic surgeons start their robotic journey or adapt to new robotic processes, those sorts of things. [00:04:30] And so we adapt and implement robotic surgery into other hospitals and other systems that may not have that robotics right now.

And so there's a lot of resistance. And so I always give this example. I say, I can take my phone. My iPhone and I can give it to a four year old [00:05:15] child and I can give it to my 84 year old grandmother. One person will be working that phone and it's not my grandmother. It's going to be the kid. [00:05:30] And it is clearly not because of their capability.

It is not about Capability your skill set at that moment. It is about how you perceive that barrier and if you see it [00:06:15] as something to Be enjoyable and to be fun and this is cool and I am going to just figure it out until it works Then guess what? You're probably going to rock it if you look at it and go, [00:06:30] this is scary.

I can't do it. It's too much. Then you can't do it. And it's too much because you've said that you've determined that it doesn't need to be.

Persistence is about not giving up and [00:07:15] about getting curious and looking for ways to move through and around and over and under. Perseverance is knowing I'm going to get there. I, and I'm going to do whatever I need to do to, to figure it out. But you can't persevere without curiosity. You can't [00:07:30] persevere, persevere without that phrase of, I wonder, and if you're listening to this or watching this podcast episode and you're pre op, you absolutely are a master at perseverance.

There's a lot of fear behind that. Yes. Surgery is a big, scary thing and you don't really know what is on the other side of it. Your anatomy is going to be changed. We're not saying any of those things. What we [00:08:15] are saying though is all of those things are true. And what's also true is it's the most effective treatment for the disease of obesity.

It's you simply persevering and continuing to fight against this thing that you just don't have the right tool for yet.

April Williams: Yep. It [00:09:30] is safer

It is the same risk [00:10:00] factors, if not slightly safer than me taking out your gallbladder or your appendix. Because we do go through a lot of processes. It's not a walk in, get surgery next day, walk out. There is a process to this, and we are going to get you [00:10:15] checked out. We're going to make you medically optimized.

And if you're not comfortable with them, find another one. Mm hmm.

find that person. You can find that that center that that is that partner for you. So know that that you you are not limited [00:11:15] to to what is around you. We all hope that you can find somebody that you can partner with locally. But if not, pick up the phone, call, call Dr. Hyde, literally call the Kentucky Bariatric Institute, say, I'd like to make a virtual consultation.

Dr. Sarah Hayek: We do that. We operate on people from all across the country, all across the world, actually.

Dr. Sarah Hayek: okay is being afraid, is having a relationship that you don't trust and going into it with that barrier and that anxiety and that fear that this isn't okay.

April Williams: But

Because it doesn't matter that I have a rule, right? Okay. Bye. Don't eat a cheeseburger the night that you go home after bariatric [00:12:30] surgery. It sounds like a pretty reasonable rule, right? But how about we talk about why? Why do I say that? Because I'm not just out here making up rules. There are reasons why.

April Williams: Mm hmm.

I'm going to teach you my why. And I think sometimes it's hard to know your own why [00:13:15]

Surgeons teach, um, and then we have meetups that are, that are hosted peer, peer to peer. Um, but the most important thing that we really [00:13:45] focus on in Bari Nation is we are going to deliver expert education with the why. So we are going to teach you why, right? Like, how do I shift my mindset? Or we're going to help you acknowledge like, oh.

Because when we feel like I don't want to move my body or I don't feel like starting with protein today. Okay. But when you have that why in the back of your head, that why is going to go, um, but you do know that this is the reason that you're doing this. So even though you don't want to do it. [00:14:30] Okay. This is why you actually need to do it.

Dr. Sarah Hayek: Exactly.

April Williams: Right. It's a tool. It's a tool that we use to stay healthy.

And I think it's important to point out to people, there are two ways that most bariatric surgeries happen. One is laparoscopically and one is robotically and some of the research, the data out there shows that robotic can have [00:15:30] superior outcomes to laparoscopic and by superior, it's like shorter recovery times, right?

There's different things that go into it. But will you explain like what, what is robotic surgery and why do you prefer it over laparoscopic?

Please do not feel that in some way that that is inferior. It's just [00:16:00] that robotic surgery provides some additional safety. additional things which are really nice. So, awesome platform. It has come so, so far. There's been a ton of research into this. But basically, robotic surgery, first of [00:16:15] all, we are in the room with you.

So Robotic surgery is [00:16:45] something that has this big barrier that people think about, but I don't think you sometimes think about the, the benefits that it gives to your surgeon. So when we're operating laparoscopically, the instruments that we use are a [00:17:00] straight stick. So it's kind of like this long stick and the very end of it has a little dial that can twist.

And then making me kind of operate like Barbie, right? Like I can turn my wrists, but I'm locked in a straight stick from my shoulder to my wrist. Robotic surgery is a little different. Robotic surgery gives us extra joints. So we get those elbows back, we get those wrists [00:17:45] back, and we have some greater mobility and greater movement with the robot.

April Williams: I

Dr. Sarah Hayek: don't care how smooth we think we are as surgeons and how You know, steady hands. We think we have. It's gonna move.

April Williams: There is

Now that somebody else may even be Dr. Smith, who is an absolutely incredible accomplished surgeon who has done thousands of bariatric procedures. [00:18:45] But if the two of us are trying to work together and use two brains to accomplish one task, even if it's something that we've both done thousands of times.

I don't have another brain that I need to [00:19:15] communicate with and make sure that we are on the same. I get to be in control of all of those arms. Surgeons have a little bit of a reputation for having a little bit of control issues, so we kind of like that. [00:19:30] So you know there's that with checks. Um, which is great.

April Williams: right?

It's the one taking [00:20:45] the physical difficulty of this. It's not standing, you know, on one hip turned trying to look around this corner. It's Like the robot can do that. I don't need to do that. Um, so it [00:21:00] just, it's a really nice tool for us as surgeons to make sure that we are as safe as controlled as possible.

There's additional training. There's additional checks and balances. There's additional resources for us. So just kind of like there's very [00:21:30] nation in that community of, you know, population of similar. We have a similar thing. We have that for the robot. And so we have other resources for that. robotic surgeons that we are connected in with, and we can troubleshoot and we can talk about things [00:21:45] and how to make it as smooth, safe and effective as we possibly can.

So you feel a little bit better, a little bit faster. You recover a little bit [00:22:15] faster. I can be super precise about the procedure and about the movements that I'm making inside your belly to try to minimize all of that. Make your procedure as efficient but safe as we possibly can really see things in great detail.

[00:23:00] The robot fires the staple to be the exact thickness that it needs to be, not what my eyeballs are guessing it to be. So there's some really, really cool technology like that that it has.

And it's just so interesting to, to hear the differences from, from your [00:23:45] perspective as somebody that has done both. Um, my, my procedure was laparoscopic. It was fabulous. I mean, I had a great recovery, no, no qualms whatsoever. And it's just so nice to know. I mean, I guess within all. with all things in life.

And that tool is making advancements as well. And it sounds like the advancements that they've made have really made a huge impact on your ability to perform surgeries. It's helped [00:24:30] you level up. So this technology is helping you become a better surgeon, which means that. you're, you're producing better results for, for your patients.

Yes,

It's kind of like, you know, if [00:25:00] you're, if you play in the NFL, you, Play and then you go back and you watch the game again and you watch your own footage and you watch your own reels

April Williams: and you

I wasn't very efficient there or that didn't, you know, didn't go as smoothly as it did last time. Whatever it may, how am I going to fix this? How am I going to adjust this? How can I compare this to something else that [00:25:30] if I get faced with a challenge, I know how to overcome it and I have the data to actually show that.

So it's so cool that you have this technology that is allowing you to, to, to be your own money, money, you know, [00:26:00] Monday morning quarterback, for lack of a better term, and then improve your craft as you go. Exactly.

Dr. Sarah Hayek: And it's all in an app on my phone. It's the craziest thing. I can just like click it and boom, there it is.

Is it laparoscopic or is it robotic? And now hopefully you have a little bit of insight into what those differences are. And that you're leaving this conversation knowing that whatever your surgeon is proficient at, that is an excellent choice for [00:26:45] you, right?

Dr. Sarah Hayek: Exactly. You want your surgeon to perform the surgery the way that they feel most comfortable doing it.

April Williams: Yes. That's the

Dr. Sarah Hayek: answer.

Different style wrenches or just automatically switch to work boots or do like, no, no, no. Like he knows [00:27:15] what he's doing using that set of tools and I would bet on that every single day of the week. So yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you for, for helping me understand that a little bit better. It's super cool stuff.

Dr. Sarah Hayek: So really interesting. And a lot of this is [00:28:00] being driven by our insurance companies and insurance approvals is we have all of these medications now out there. We have various ways that we're getting the medication. So we've been getting the medications through insurance. We've been getting the medications compounded through other [00:28:15] pharmacies, all those sorts of things are playing in.

And, and we're realizing that, um, one. As a nation, Americans are not very good at taking medications long term.

April Williams: Mm hmm.

So, as much [00:28:45] as it is a great adjunct and those sorts of things, it's The insurance barriers are still there. Compounding pharmacies are something that you just need to do your research on, right? There are some that are great, and then there are others that you [00:29:00] just need to understand the lack of regulations, the lack of oversight, and make sure that you're just being safe with what you put into your body.

But I think we're kind of starting to realize where they fit into the disease process of obesity a little bit more, um, and realizing that it is a supplement to what we do. It's not [00:29:45] It's not the answer. It's part of the

April Williams: answer. So it's, it's the secondary treatment, not the primary treatment. It's for most people.

Yes. For most

Dr. Sarah Hayek: people. It's a secondary treatment.

April Williams: Okay. Gotcha.

We have changed our [00:30:30] world a lot for better, for worse, for, you know, a lot of things. changed when COVID hit. And we became a lot more isolated as [00:30:45] individuals. And so I think we're starting to come out of that. We're starting to pull our heads out of it, realizing that we want those interactions back. We want to be, we, we are social creatures.

Right. And connecting them like we are seeing more of that, especially social media. It has really helped kind of connect people and more and more people are coming to us saying, I'm [00:31:45] curious about it because I've seen this, I joined this group, I, you know, whatever it is, but there, They're coming because of the social interactions that they're having with others.

April Williams: And I

April Williams: It, [00:32:15] in, in the, in the words of Lizzo, it is about damn time. I mean, I got, it just makes me so happy. I mean, I kick myself sometimes because I waited 10 years to have surgery when, when soon after I [00:32:30] got married, uh, my husband, Grady was like, have you ever thought about, you know, weight loss surgery? And I was like, Oh, hell no.

Stop trying to build your house without the right tools. This is your year to [00:33:00] get curious and do something differently. Do something differently. And, and it makes me so happy to know that more people are open to that, that they are being curious and they're moving forward and they're saying, you know, I know enough people, I follow people, I'm a part of a [00:33:15] community, I know, I have an idea for what life is going to be like on the other side of it and I'm ready to learn more.

It's just, it's a disease. [00:33:45] The fact that you've been told in the past that it's on you and you need to treat it and you need to do all of this is miseducation. It just is. You are wonderful and perfectly fine and [00:34:00] a wonderful, perfect human being. You would not be here. if it weren't for you having a wonderful, amazing body that has gotten you this far.

April Williams: It is such an empowering question, right? What if, what, what, what if I tried something differently? What if I thought about this differently? What if I [00:34:30] Connected with a community. What if I, yeah, because the question that scares me the most, and that I will ask myself when I'm making a big decision is what if I don't, what if, what if you don't do something differently this [00:34:45] year, what is going to happen?

I'm going to learn a little bit about that. And if you do make the decision of barrack to surgery. That is a, that is a moment where your, your life is never going back, but it is [00:35:15] a moment and it is a decision that can give you your life back. That can set your life on a different path, on a different trajectory.

If things are going [00:35:45] well, get curious. What, what would happen if I just stayed the course? If you know that something has to change, like

I'm so excited. Like it has energized me so much to figure out what if, right? Yeah. What if [00:36:15] we did do this? I can't wait. It's been crazy. Like it's been crazy to go through it. I'm learning so much, you know, and that's been my, like, what if, what if I just embrace this and go along and stop trying to be the doctor?[00:36:30]

And start trying to be the support person.

Hayek, you are a part of Ferry Nation as well. You have an entire community that you get to lead into as well. [00:37:00] Yes.

Dr. Sarah Hayek: I'm embracing it. I'm here for the weird.

And we are just so excited to continue to check in with you and to check in with him and to see the power of curiosity play out. in real time.

Dr. Sarah Hayek: So, um, Kentucky Bariatric Institute, you can find us, Google us, find us. It's myself, it's Dr. Eric Smith. Um, we see [00:37:45] patients just outside of Lexington, Kentucky, but we also see patients all over the country.

It's surgeon underscore Sarah underscore MD. Follow me. Um, I do a lot of like just [00:38:15] education, talking about tips and tricks to stay healthy and to stay positive and to really embrace this and Hopefully, give you my wise and make you think a little bit about your wise. [00:38:30]

April Williams: As you guys can see, Dr. Hayek is an amazing human.

Places that you can find her are linked in our show notes. And if you are a patient of Dr. Smith or Dr. Hayek, and you have not started, you've [00:39:00] not accessed that amazing three months free membership to very nation. Reach out. Roma. It's like, do it. Oh my gosh. Reach out,

All right, my friend, I think we did it. Alrighty. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for sharing your husband's story. And really thank you for helping us kick off this new year with, with that dose of [00:39:45] hope and inspiration and curiosity.

Dr. Sarah Hayek: I'm so excited for it.

I can't wait to get the updates.

That wraps up another empowering episode of the Bari Nation podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, keep the conversation going by joining the Bari Nation membership community. Where you can attend live support events, access on demand resources, and find a caring community.

Jason Smith: And just remember at the end of the day, you've got this, we've got you [00:40:30] and we'll see you next time. Bye everybody.