Brand/Image strategist -- Spoke with a friend of mine, this is what he wrote..

[craigcu 96]

Hi all,

All, On my recent trip to Silicon Valley, I had an opportunity to catch up with an old acquaintance of mine, Joseph Rosenfeld. I know Joseph because during the period I lived in Silicon valley, I was working in some intense environments (technically speaking) and while running a couple large teams, I felt my image was not living up to what I wanted to project.

However, as we all know, that image we feel inside was clouded/obscured by obesity, which at that time, I was at my heaviest weight of 421. Talking with Joseph then I think started me on the path to WLS, because as an expert in clothing/style/body image, he was aware the change I needed could not be helped by clothes alone.

When I met Joseph this past Saturday for Breakfast (because I am considering working with him now that I have the WLS changes in process) he didnt recognize me, even though I had alluded to that issue when we discussed getting together over email.

It was great to see him and he was quite surprised at where I was in my journey and success I've had. We talked at length about the challenges Obese and WLS patients face in overcoming body dysmorphia and the mental challenges that seems so much more difficult and insidious than the pure physical surgery, etc. I hope I represented our community well, and we discussed many things, but apologies in advance if you dont feel this is applicable to you.

Well, Joseph felt my pain I think and since he does a weekly blog, decided to do this weeks post about many of the issues I brought up to him. You can find it here http://www.josephrosenfeld.com/category/blog/.

Joseph's a great guy and has faced many of his own challenges and demons and I really felt comfortable in sharing my journey thus far and I hope starting to open the eyes of professionals in the fashion/personal image consulting area to the issues we are facing.

Feel free to have a read and leave any comments for him. Or share them directly with our group here and I will pass them along.

yours truly,

Craig Cumberland

[Miss Mac 6,261]

I like this guy! What a great supportive friend to have.