Thursday, November 20, 2008

Obesity Help Los Angeles - Celebrating Ten Years

On January 16th, 2001 I joined Obesity Help. Aftercare was a little understood concept when I had weight loss surgery so I was very fortunate to have stumbled across this site. Obesity Help was started in 1998 by Eric Klein. Ten years and approximately 600,000 grateful members later, I am proud to be one of them and thankful for the education and support of friends I would never have met otherwise.

On October 31st we met in Los Angeles to celebrate those ten years....and celebrate we did! It all began with a Halloween party and the costumes were big fun.

Here's a few!

















It never hurts to be photographed next to the tallest and hottest blonde (Laura Preston) at the party!


And the Click girls!
















And the winners of the costume party!
We had a cheerleader that got back into her uniform for the first time in years, a trophy wife, a devilish woman and a Sarah Palin look alike.


The next morning I kicked off the meeting and special thanks to Melting Mama for the picture.








There was an incredible woman at the event named Kim that told me she was inspired by me. I don't remember her stats exactly but she previously weighed over 300 pounds. This is a picture of us below. Doesn't she look incredible??

I was honored to speak at the event and as I looked out at those in the chairs before
me, I can't help but worry who will be missing five years from now...or four..
or three. Each person is a precious soul trying to save their life and I can only hope that those chairs will be filled by the same precious souls next year. On that same note, I fully expect to be standing in front of those souls talking about my passion...and the miracle that was given to me.
So thanks Obesity Help for ten years of changing people's lives...
one at a time...
including mine.
Here's hoping you'll be around another ten years.
Love and kisses,
Yvonne McCarthy
aka Bariatric Girl
I can never get the text to line up with the pictures so the bees are Debra Flores and Ramon Lopez, second row left is Melting Mama and Sarah followed by Rusty in the horns.
To see all the pictures posted from the event, please CLICK HERE!

Friday, November 7, 2008

The Weight Loss Surgery Channel Launches!!

November 1, 2008.
A day that will live in infamy…. well for me anyway…as it applies to my weight loss surgery life.

What happened you may ask?
Well, even if you didn’t ask, you know I’m going to tell you.

I was in Los Angeles, California attending the ten year anniversary event for ObesityHelp.com and I received the news the Weight Loss Surgery Channel had officially launched. The secret is out!

A few months ago I was contacted by Craig Thompson and his wife Leslie regarding a new site they created for us...the weight loss surgery masses. How awesome that I would be priviledged enough to talk to WLS post-ops on camera about their weight loss surgery journeys. Craig is a seasoned post-op veteran himself and he is certainly the only person I know who is eleven years out. (He had weight loss surgery 11 years ago)

After understanding Craig and Leslie's vision we went straight to work finding WLS post-ops that had stories to share. To say the experience was awesome would be the understatement of the century. Craig has provided a platform for the ultimate resource for WLS success education....learning from the journeys of others that have traveled this road before you.


I am a firm believer that if you want to learn how to succeed at anything, you should seek out those who have gone before you and ask them how. This belief has served me well and I hope you will join me and my guests talking about their stories on Weight Loss Surgery Journeys.

To see this labor of love....

Weight Loss Surgery Journeys on the Weight Loss Surgery Channel. The first show is with my dear friend Debra Flores....an incredible woman who had a tough time with a VBG but got it all straightened out with revision surgery.


A special thanks to Craig and Leslie Thompson for inviting me to be part of their vision.

Oh, and make sure to check out all the programs on the site. Much more to follow on this!

Blessings,
Bariatric Girl

p.s.On the next post I promise to share my experiences and pictures from the Obesity Help Los Angeles ten year anniversary event!