I am now 8 months out of surgery and 6 pounds away from my goal weight. I developed some great relationships with the professionals I worked with at the "un-named" university I had my surgery. I was really flattered when they called me up to ask if I could represent the program as a patient. There will be over 1000 people in attendance. If you were a potential patient coming to visit our informational booth what would you like to here? I have mentored others and I absolutely love it. All opinions are welcomed...thank you with all my heart❤️

That is so awesome that your doctors office wants to use you in that way. What a validation of all the hard work you have put in. I think one of the biggest things to share with people is your story. The facts and figures are easy to find and read. There are also plenty of doctors able to give out this information. What I would want to know are the personal stories about your journey and how you have been successful. Questions I would want to know of you if I was just looking into surgery are things like:

1. What made you decide to do something as drastic as weight loss surgery?
2. What was your surgical experience like? Any pain? How long in hospital? (I had lots of questions about the hospital stuff)
3. What kinds of things did you do to get used to the diet?
4. What kinds of exercise did you start with?
5. What do you think were they keys to your success?

All in all, I would want to know your story while still covering those topics. It is the personal nature that lets people bond with you and become more comfortable with the idea of surgery. Especially if they can find someone that they identify with. I am giving a lecture to my companies Young Professionals group about goal setting because several articles have been written internally about my weight loss success through surgery. I am focusing less on weight loss and more on how what I learned about goal setting through surgery and recovery aided my personal and professional goal setting for this new year.

Most of all, the biggest piece of advice I can give is to just be yourself. People what to know you and identify with you. Ultimately, you are the one who will determine if an individual goes with a specific doctor. I know for my journey, the only reason I went with the doctor I did beyond insurance questions was because I worked with a lady who had successful bypass surgery with him. Her testimony and story is what inspired me to reach out to his group.

I hope this helps a little bit. If you have any other questions or need help with anything else, please let me know. I am hoping to record my presentation and put it up on my blog later today or tomorrow. The link is under my signature. BEST OF LUCK!

A before and after picture is worth a thousand words.

For me, one of the main benefits of surgery was that most of my medical conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnea, profuse sweating, frequent urination and GERD went into remission. I do not know if you had any medical conditions going into the surgery, but if you did, that might be a talking point.

Another area might be non-scale victories. After loosing weight, I was dropping clothing sizes almost every two weeks until I stabilized. I didn't expect the joy I found in going to the store and buying new up-to-date fashions. Many times I hear people talking about gaining energy after weight loss surgery. I don't think that word describes the change. For me it was gaining stamina. This summer I worked on one of my projects at home and I moved 100,000 pounds of gravel and 50,000 pound of concrete landscaping blocks. I am 66 years old and I found that I could do things like I was 35. A dramatic increase in stamina. But that's me. What were your non-scale victories.

The best of luck to you in representing the weight loss surgery community.

I would definitely take before and after pictures with you. Those really inspire me to lose and finally be in a body I can only dream about. Like the others said, just tell your own story, that is definitely inspirational to connect with someone who has already gone through this and succeeded!

Thank you so much everybody I will represent proudly...your comments really did help. T