In each edition of BariatricPal News, we’ll have a Member Spotlight feature. We’ll introduce you to a member of BariatricPal. You’ll get to read about our honorees’ weight loss surgery journeys, their personal interests, their struggles and triumphs and their advice for you. Who will be our highlighted members? You, a friend, or someone we choose!

If you want to be highlighted, nominate yourself in this forum. Also let us know here if you have a specific member in mind that you would like to nominate for the spotlight. Tell us why you would like to be nominated, or why your nominee deserves the chance to be in the member spotlight. We also welcome your suggestions on general types of people you’d like to see highlighted, such as women, fathers or people from your region. Let us know!

Occasionally, we’ll choose a BariatricPal member to be highlighted. This may be someone who’s been especially inspirational to others or who has gone above and beyond the call of duty in being a pillar of support in the forums. We hope that you let us know if you see someone like this who deserves the recognition!

You can also use this space to congratulate the members who are highlighted. If you want, ask them questions to follow up on their highlight – after all, this is their chance to share with everyone, and your chance to make a new friend!

I believe Lissa would be the obvious choice for a Member Highlight. She posts honest responses to so many topics and her insight is spot on. I think she defines the role of a dedicated forum member.

I nominate pdxman!!!

I second the nomination for PDXMan. He's always got great advice for fitness and exercise questions and he's a straight shooter.

LilMissDiva (or Stronger Diva or Fitness Diva, I can't keep up! LOL) is another great choice. I know she's admin, but she's at goal and still going strong on exercise and supporting others, both here and in other forums.

There are tons of posters here who would be great as a spotlight. I'd love to see a member spotlight on many of the old-timers, if only so that new people could see their stories and journeys: Sleeve4Me, MassIndex, Tiffykins, MeginNoLa.... I could probably name 50 people off the top of my head for a variety of reasons.

Someone who had complications yet was successful with their sleeve would be great. I'd also love to see some of the exercise gurus highlighted. It would be great to have someone who had a really high BMI, yet managed to meet their goal.

It would also be great to see a spotlight of the admin team. For me, Alex is just a name. I know he's the founder of the forum, but I don't know his story. Has Alex been sleeved? How much did he lose? How long did it take? The same for a couple of other admin people. I know Susan's story because I haunted the site looking for it. Sorry Susan, you didn't know I stalked you, did you?

Perhaps Member Spotlight could become a forum of it's own once there have been a few done.

I will be 63 years old in June and for the first time in over 30 years I have been succesful in my weight loss. When I was 41 I lost my 19 year old son to suicide and my world came crashing down. I gained 80 pounds that year trying to stuff my pain. Then diet after diet I yo-yo'd for years. In 2000 my husband had a serious construction fall that left him crippled and me the sole breadwinner. Two years later he was diagnosed with cancer, open heart surgery, more cancer, and more surgery until he died in July 2010. Since eating was the way I handled pain and stress my weight climbed to 281 pounds on this little 5'4" body. I was very unhealthy with high cholestoral, high blood pressure, dibetes, depression, bad back and bad knees and everything else that slowed me down. A year before my husband died we both decided I needed to get myself healthy if I were going to live. My children and my grandchildren needed me and at 60 years old I was too young to be in this shape. I started my doctor visits 3 months before he died so he never got to be here when I went through the surgery. I was determined to change my life for the better and even living alone I pushed forward. I had my surgery in November 2010 and it was a slow start but as of today 18 months later I have lost 125 pounds and I'm only 20 pounds from goal! I went from a PLUS SIZE 4 (28-30) to a size 10-12. For the 1st time in over 30 years I can buy clothes off the rack in any store. One of the best things I can do now is cross my legs!! No one recognizes me when I go places and my children can't remember seeing me this small. It is a wonderful feeling but most important is I'm no longer dibetic, my blood pressure is way down, my cholestoral is way down and I no longer fight with depression. I love life and embrace it with all the gusto I can! I bought a new bathing suit and look so little in it!! It's a wonderful feeling to be "normal" again. When you are obese people treat you differently.........now I'm just a regular person and loving it!! Carol

At the risk of sounding narcissistic, I would like to nominate myself. The reason is that I do try to see out those who are struggling and give them encouragement since I have been fortunate enough to have success on this journey. Also, because I am over 50 (58) and I think older people need to realize that they too can do this. Lastly, I bring a different slant to this because I was on a 13 month traveling trip when I had it done, I was self-pay and I am continuing to travel, so my story is sort of a travel-weight loss story. I write about it on Sundays on my blog www.queenofcrop.com and I have many followers from the forum.

The forum for me has been a godsend; because I had no pre-op education or diets, very little post op and 95% of the things I learned came from here. It's been fun to see you grow. I love my sleeve and I love my life!

Queen of Crop

In each edition of

VerticalSleeveTalk.com News, we’ll have a Member Spotlight feature. We’ll introduce you to a member of VerticalSleeveTalk.com. You’ll get to read about our honorees’ Gastric Sleeve journeys, their personal interests, their struggles and triumphs and their advice for you. Who will be our highlighted members? You, a friend, or someone we choose!

If you want to be highlighted, nominate yourself in this forum. Also let us know here if you have a specific member in mind that you would like to nominate for the spotlight. Tell us why you would like to be nominated, or why your nominee deserves the chance to be in the member spotlight. We also welcome your suggestions on general types of people you’d like to see highlighted, such as women, fathers, Latino Sleevers or people from your region. Let us know!

Occasionally, we’ll choose a VerticalSleeveTalk.com member to be highlighted. This may be someone who’s been especially inspirational to others or who has gone above and beyond the call of duty in being a pillar of support in the forums. We hope that you let us know if you see someone like this who deserves the recognition!

You can also use this space to congratulate the members who are highlighted. If you want, ask them questions to follow up on their highlight – after all, this is their chance to share with everyone, and your chance to make a new friend!

In each edition of

VerticalSleeveTalk.com News, we’ll have a Member Spotlight feature. We’ll introduce you to a member of VerticalSleeveTalk.com. You’ll get to read about our honorees’ Gastric Sleeve journeys, their personal interests, their struggles and triumphs and their advice for you. Who will be our highlighted members? You, a friend, or someone we choose!

If you want to be highlighted, nominate yourself in this forum. Also let us know here if you have a specific member in mind that you would like to nominate for the spotlight. Tell us why you would like to be nominated, or why your nominee deserves the chance to be in the member spotlight. We also welcome your suggestions on general types of people you’d like to see highlighted, such as women, fathers, Latino Sleevers or people from your region. Let us know!

Occasionally, we’ll choose a VerticalSleeveTalk.com member to be highlighted. This may be someone who’s been especially inspirational to others or who has gone above and beyond the call of duty in being a pillar of support in the forums. We hope that you let us know if you see someone like this who deserves the recognition!

You can also use this space to congratulate the members who are highlighted. If you want, ask them questions to follow up on their highlight – after all, this is their chance to share with everyone, and your chance to make a new friend!

Id like to know more about you, too, alex. What motivated you to start this forum ? How long ago? How did you get out the word about it? Why did u choose to focus on sleeves? Where do u get your support? What are your plans for the future? Any thoughts about what to do with all the info already compliled here? C'mon, full confession time...inquiring minds want to know

Id like to know more about you, too, alex. What motivated you to start this forum ? How long ago? How did you get out the word about it? Why did u choose to focus on sleeves? Where do u get your support? What are your plans for the future? Any thoughts about what to do with all the info already compliled here? C'mon, full confession time...inquiring minds want to know

Happy to share the VST story

I launched LapBandTalk in 2003, after my own WLS and started VST February, 2009. We had many members on LBT that were Gastric Sleeve patients and they wanted their own community. We got the word out through our members, surgeons, health pro's and good web site optimization. I get my own support by supporting our many members, pre and post op any WLS. My plan for the immediate future is to complete the launch of our integrated Tickers and Health Trackers (arriving very shortly.) Once that's completed we hope to launch a much better version of our Mobile Apps for iOS and Android, which will include these tickers and health trackers and other useful features that are designed for a better mobile experience. Over the last few months we've seen traffic from mobile devices using our apps overtake desktop browsers! That's a crazy metric and one most people never expected to happen so quickly. Stay tuned for further updates in our VST Newsletter!

pdxman!!!

Why? Because he has overcome several huge hurdles in addition to weight problems, because he tells it like it is, but diplomatically, and gives good advice and insight from a different perspective.

"Over the last few months we've seen traffic from mobile devices using our apps overtake desktop browsers! That's a crazy metric and one most people never expected to happen so quickly. Stay tuned for further updates in our VST Newsletter!"

I've been mobile interactor since day one.

Looks like the band works for you. I wonder how much hype is in these recommendations. How should one read these boards??? Can't take them at face value yet so many seem to do just that. I'm not complaining: I learned a good deal here but would've appreciated a caveat or a board mentor or something ...the place is huge and the opinions flow freely.

"Over the last few months we've seen traffic from mobile devices using our apps overtake desktop browsers! That's a crazy metric and one most people never expected to happen so quickly. Stay tuned for further updates in our VST Newsletter!"

I've been mobile interactor since day one.

Looks like the band works for you. I wonder how much hype is in these recommendations. How should one read these boards??? Can't take them at face value yet so many seem to do just that. I'm not complaining: I learned a good deal here but would've appreciated a caveat or a board mentor or something ...the place is huge and the opinions flow freely.

I have two words for you: common sense! Use your common sense when reading posts. There's so much great information and it's usually pretty easy to discern good information from bad.

I have two words for you: common sense! Use your common sense when reading posts. There's so much great information and it's usually pretty easy to discern good information from bad.

I have hope and determination and desire and anguish and ... I want to latch onto a magic mantra to ease my mind and allow me to settle into a comfortable groove. Common sense doesn't stand a chance ...tho I recognize the sentiment behind it. Sorry for the late reply. My gmail app is on the fritz here. I may have resolved it

First Member Spotlight – It’s Alex!

We promised, and now we’ve delivered! It’s time for the first true Member Spotlight, and who better to be honored than…Alex! He’s the founder of VerticalSleeveTalk.com and the other communities belonging to WLSBoards.com. He manages and promotes the boards to make sure that they’re here for everyone. He is truly passionate about helping others reach the same weight loss success that he did. Here’s his story.

He’s the handsome, friendly face you see hanging out on the forums, but he took the same journey as many of you to achieve those looks. Alex struggled with obesity and diets for years without finding permanent weight loss success. He finally realized that he needed to lose the weight if he wanted to be around for his children for years to come. Alex got the lap-band, lost more than 100 pounds and never looked back. Thrilled with his new energy and health, Alex had the motivation and confidence to stop smoking. Today he is an active, lean family man who loves to run, bike and spend time with his children.

In 2003, Alex founded LapBandTalk.com, which quickly became the largest weight loss surgery community in the world. He started VerticalSleeveTalk.com in February of 2009, and the other WLSBoards, RNYTalk.com and SleevePlicationTalk.com, followed in 2011. Alex works hard to make sure that all members to have positive experiences and benefit from being part of the communities.

Do you have someone you’d like to see featured in the Member Spotlight? Would you like to be our spotlighted member? Come tell us in the Member Spotlight forum! It’s a regular feature of the newsletters to let you learn a little more about someone in our community with an inspirational story or who helps out our members. Thanks for your nominations so far!

That does it for this newsletter. Thanks for reading and for your continued participation on the boards. Take care!

Sincerely,

Alex

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Quite obviously, I don't write or select the member spotlights!!! My staff has a very good sense of humor

Definitely Lissa and PDXman!

Both DL and Vamp have been very helpful.