Join us in beautiful Costa Mesa, CA on September 15th & 16th!

We can't wait to see you all at the OH2023 National Conference this year! We are happy to be celebrating YOU and our 25th Year Anniversary during the upcoming conference! Come join us for fun, education, inspiration, and support. Get your EARLY BIRD tickets now and save $30! Book your hotel room too!

Less than 50 days left to lock-in the Early Bird prices as this offer ends 6/15/23 Tag your friends and give them a heads-up, the more the merrier.

We can't wait to see you in the "OC"!

Weight loss surgery is a tool.  An effective tool but how you use that tool is what matters.  Take advantage of the support and advice of many OH members who have had the same concerns.  You can do this!  

Sincerely,

Member Services

 

Even though ObesityHelp members are around the world, at times like these with Superstorm Sandy, we are united and here for each other.

For our ObesityHelp members, families and friends that are in the disaster areas, our thoughts are with you.  We’ve listed some helpful links below to provide information so we can support you. 

If you live in an area not impacted by Sandy but still want to help, there’s information for you too.  Make sure you are prepared for a natural disaster by checking out the information in the links below. 

If you’d like the latest info from the Federal Emergency Management Association on Superstorm Sandy, clickHERE.

FOR DISASTER ASSISTANCE: 

If you need to find an emergency shelter near you, text:
SHELTER and YOUR ZIP CODE  to 43362

If you want to apply for assistance from your computer, click HERE.

If you want to apply for assistance from your mobile device, click HERE.

If you want to apply for assistance, call (800) 621-3362


DISASTER SURVIVOR RESOURCES:

General information from FEMA, click HERE.

Here’s how you and your loved ones can prepare for natural disasters, click HERE.

During times of disasters, the American Red Cross is always among the first at the scene.  The American Red Cross exists to provide compassionate care to those in need.

TO HELP THE AMERICAN RED CROSS:

Click HERE to donate funds for survivors of Superstorm Sandy.

Donations help the Red Cross provide shelter, food, emotional support and other assistance to those affected by disasters throughout the country including Superstorm Sandy. To donate, people can visit www.redcross.org, call 1-800-RED-CROSS, or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

You can contact the “Join The Movement” of the American Red Cross to donate funds, donate blood, and read about other ways to help by clicking HERE.

With our support,
ObesityHelp Management and Staff

Hi OH Members and Visitors,

Our technical issues have now been resolved.  Please see the details on our blog.  

Thank you for your patience and understanding.  

Sincerely,
OH Management and Staff

Meet Our Speakers: Colleen M. Cook

 

Hope & Help for the Pain of Regain

Join 17 year WLS veteran Colleen M. Cook for both a shot in the arm and a kick in the seat as she shares lessons from long-term losers and imparts insight, inspiration, and hope for WLS patients struggling with extended plateaus or weight regain. Her thoughts, stories, and personal experiences will inspire and motivate you to reach and maintain your optimum weight loss.

Also, don't miss her Keynote on Friday: Nothing Succeeds Like Success

We hope to see you in Atlanta, GA October 5^th and 6^th! Click here to book your ticket today!

Fast Facts About Colleen

-Colleen is the author of The Success Habits of Weight Loss Surgery Patients.
- She is the president or Bariatric Support Centers International, a company that specializes in providing education and support services for weight loss surgery patients and the professionals who serve them.
- Colleen currently serves on the National Advisory board for the Walk From Obesity.
-Known as Ms. Enthusiasm, Colleen helps men and women from all walks of life recognize their extraordinary potential and then inspires then to aspire.

Hello ObesityHelp Members,

The Privacy Policy for ObesityHelp has been updated and can be reviewed HERE.  We are in the process of putting together a tutorial of screenshots that show you how to change your settings.  It will be available soon.

After you have had an opportunity to review our Privacy Policy, if you have any questions or need assistance with adjusting your settings, please contact us at [email protected].  

Best regards,
Member Services

Dear ObesityHelp members,

ObesityHelp is committed to our members’ privacy.  Since our inception, we have endeavored to protect the sanctity of our members’ privacy.  Over the years, we have been asked to sell and lease our database or grant unrestricted access to the same.  We have continually refused all such request as we deem our membership to be our dearest obligation.

ObesityHelp conducts operations in a social network environment which means postings, content, blogs, and any other ancillary information sharing on our website message boards is 100% open and searchable by all major search engines.  This means that posting on ObesityHelp requires members to be conscientious of their own levels of comfort when posting any information to the Internet.  To support the anonymity of our members we instituted:  the screen name process (pseudonyms instead of real names), customizable avatars (no photo required), private messaging (posting on message boards not required), and email privacy (your private email is never displayed by ObesityHelp); just to name a few.  This means that anyone can protect their name and privacy simply by taking advantage of the privacy options already included in our site. 

Recent linking campaign on Facebook

The linking process was implemented to support threads that the company deemed as universally appropriate and supportive to those that suffer from obesity.  With that core support desire in mind, approximately (7) threads were linked to from Facebook.  This was done over a period of 3 to 4 days.

Technical clarity

Unlike linking to something with a single unique record locator (URL) when a company site links to a threaded comment [such as ObesityHelp] the Facebook system ‘spiders’ (searches) the URL content for a photo, first few words within the content, and even attached names.  This is not something that ObesityHelp initially considered to be at issue as search engines have had access to this information since our inception.  However, many members felt the inclusion of their photo (avatar), screen name, and short blurb of the content was a privacy violation.  Our intent was never to cause anyone’s privacy to be violated but our effort was to promote support for the individual threaded comments.

To alleviate the issue, ObesityHelp immediately ceased posting threads.  At present, only content (articles, blogs, and educational material) is being linked from the company Facebook page.  

Why do we feel linking is necessary at all?  Support and education are not limited to a singular social network.  ObesityHelp operates a Facebook page for the same reason that millions of other companies do; our members are there also.

Was a policy change implemented?

In short, no.   The linking of content from various locations including newsletters, Facebook, and other sites has always been something that ObesityHelp has done.  However, what made this particular posting different was the way that Facebook automatically grabbed information from the linking source (user generated content on ObesityHelp).  

Unless manually removed or changed, the linking takes place with default information included: avatar or photo, link, and minor portions of the content.  This was not something that ObesityHelp considered initially bad as the information is public via Google, Yahoo, etc.  Once it was brought to our attention that some of the links might contain information that would be considered by some as ‘private’ we immediately ceased posting in this linking method.  Please be assured that no policy change has taken place.

How will ObesityHelp handle manual linking on Facebook in the future?

In the future, should ObesityHelp plan to link to specific threads, the company has decided to remove any such identifying markers that would otherwise cause the link to be identified to any specific individual or group.  The purpose of the Facebook linking is not to single-out any one specific poster but help promote a general open discussion of the topic(s) at hand.

At present, ObesityHelp is committed to only link to articles, featured bloggers, and educational (resource) material. Our commitment to our members’ privacy is un-wavered we have not changed any policy nor have we engaged in any practice with the intent to share any private data of our membership. Member data remains our closest guarded responsibility; a responsibility that we take seriously and have acted accordingly.

Sincerely,
ObesityHelp Inc.
Member Services Department

 ObesityHelp is excited to announce our latest feature MY JOURNEY - here!

Since its founding in 1998, ObesityHelp.com has been serving the weight loss surgery community with education, inspiration and support. Part of this has always revolved around the power of the individual journey. It’s not any easy way out. It has never been any magic bullet. ObesityHelp.com has been proud to collect real stories of the good, bad, ugly, beautiful and everything in between from real people, for the benefit of all those seeking information, advice, insight, or support.

Want to share your story?

There are many ways to do so here, stemming from your profile, where you can maintain free form content, photos, blog posts, reviews and more.

Amid this, however, we have a journey sequence where we selected a number of questions addressing steps common to all weight loss surgery patients. Over the years we have collected over 70,000 responses from our 700,000 plus members.

This month we are taking this long-standing feature and bringing it more to the forefront. We have decided to highlight life before versus after weight loss surgery, with the intent of helping call attention to the life transforming power of the only intervention yet known to provide long term improvement or outright resolution of life threatening co-morbidities such as sleep apnea, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

In upcoming releases we intend to make it easy for people to browse the most educational journeys based on geography, surgery type, gender, initial weight, and other criteria.

Why are we doing this?

We recognize the continuing need to educate the public at large, including employers, law makers and health professionals, about the clinically researched benefits and risks of surgical intervention for obesity as a disease deserving as much proper understanding and respect as any other disease with genetic and environmental causes. The more you share of your own experience, the faster we can educate the public at large as to the realities of morbid obesity and of surgical interventions. Please help us turn the tide in obesity discrimination and even outright well intended ignorance.

What will we do with your story?

Very soon...Any journey questions that you answer will appear on your member profile (which you can have public, private, or public only to people on your friends list). It will also appear, upon approval, in our main Journey section. These will be available for public browsing, where interested viewers can click to learn more about individuals by viewing their profiles.

Get Recognition!

In February we will be selecting our first round of story sharing winners, based on story submissions we receive in the month of January. Winners will receive free admittance to OH events, a year (or additional year) of OH Magazine subscription, and invitation to the ObesityHelp Journey All Stars roundtable. (Stay tuned for more details).

Everyone has a story...tell us yours at MY JOURNEY!

For any questions?  Give us a holler at [email protected]  

Mega Holiday Perks!

Each month we work with generous sponsors to bring 3 lucky OH newsletter subscribers a perk giveaway.  A BIG thank you to all of our 2009 sponsors! Here is what was a part of our past perks:  Celebrate Vitamins, Bariatric Advantage Vitamins, Chef Dave’s Cookbook, achievONE®, CLICK Espresso Protein Drink, Dr. Garth Davis’ Book, Chike, and Just The Cheese.

But we’re not done yet…To finish the year out, OH went holiday shopping!

For December, we have a special MEGA holiday perk line-up for OH Newsletter subscribers. 

So far we have…

1 - Nintendo Wii Game Console + Wii Fit board & Game

3 - 10mp Kodak Easy Share Digital Cameras

2 - Apple iPod Nanos

2 - Tanita Scales PLUS Body Fat and Body Water Monitor

3 - MIO Heart Rate Monitor Watches

5 - Emsa Perfect Measuring Beakers

To be eligible for the holiday perks giveaway please make sure you are subscribed to the OH newsletter by December 9th. Winners will be selected at random from the OH newsletter subscribers list. Winners will be announced in the December issue.

Don’t forget to spread the holiday cheer and let others know!  
Happy Holidays

Last week we released two major updates. First was the public release of OH Groups where any ObesityHelp member can now create their own Group. Second was the addition of Activity Tracking to Health Tracker, which provides a robust and easy to use tool to track and monitor your exercise and activity. Today we have added My Meals and an Activity vs. Weight Loss Report to Health Tracker. 

My Meals My Meals allows you to group and store multiple food and beverage items as a custom meal that can be used over and over again. If you have meals that you eat on a regular basis, you will no longer need to log each food item individually.

To access My Meals, go to your Health Tracker in My OH and click on the Nutrition tab. You will see My Meals listed under Nutrition.

Creating a new meal works similar to your Food Log. You can search for food items on the right and add the foods to the meal on the left. A Calorie Breakdown chart and Nutrient Summary Label are also available for each meal.

Once a meal is created you can add that meal to your Food Log from My Meals by clicking "i had this" or you can search for the meal from your Food Log.

When searching for a meal to add to your Food Log, all meals will be returned when "My Foods" is selected in search. So, to "drill down" on meals that you have created, select to only show "My Foods." When a new meal is created it may require up to 30 minutes for that meal to be indexed and become searchable.

Activity vs. Weight Loss Report Adding to the Macronutrient and Export Reports previously available, there is now an Activity vs. Weight Loss Report. This report will allow to compare Average Time in Activity vs Weight over time, providing you with further insight into what impact physical activity as on weight loss and weight loss maintenance. In Health Tracker, click Reports and then select Activity vs. Weight Loss.

We hope these additions to Health Track reduce the time required to log your daily food intake and makes it easier to view how physical activity impacts your weight.   Create your first meal now! If you have any questions, comments or concerns about this release, please post them on the Main Message Board.

We are excited to announce a number of big updates to Health Tracker; the most exciting being the introduction of Nutrition Tracking. We are hoping to release Friday, August 7th.

Nutrition

While we may be a bit biased, we think the new Nutrition Log here at ObesityHelp manages to be one of the easiest around to use without sacrificing functionality. What sets it apart from the others? Most nutrition logs force you to search for foods on one page, provide the details for a food item eaten on another page, and yet another page to actually view the items you have eaten for any particular day. Bottom line, you can't search for and add items while also viewing what you have eaten. We have streamlined the food logging process so that you can find the food items you are searching for, add them to your food log, view your food log and receive summary reports all on one page. You can also build a favorite foods list, create custom foods and share your foods with the community.

Body

Body has a new look and we have added the ability for you to manage (add and remove) the variables that you would like to track.

Tickers & Widgets

You can now specify if you would like your tickers to display "amount to go" or "amount changed". Tickers can now also be automatically inserted into your messageboard signature and/or profile introduction as you create them.

A widget displaying your macronutrient breakdown averages for various date ranges has also been added. This widget can be placed on any personal website or blog.

Reports

Custom reports can now be created using any number of variables from body and nutrition. These reports can be downloaded as a spreadsheet and make a great document to share with your physician, dietitian, personal trainer and friends.

What Are We Working On Next?

Activity tracking and other oh so fun stuff! Until then, enjoy the new features!

Comments, issues or concerns? Click here to head on over to the main message board and let us know.

We are thankful to have members like you helping us to maintain and build our community. As you well know, our membership is full of diverse personalities, opinions, experiences, and knowledge.  Throughout the years we have built numerous forums in an effort to support your interests and surgery paths. It is important to ObesityHelp.com staff that our members have a safe place to learn, share, and connect.

Recently, we have had an overwhelming number of report posts and email complaints about varying issues concerning the surgery type forums.  It is apparent that some of our members are finding it difficult to view or dialogue in a select few forums of their choice, without fear of personal attacks, internet trolling, and angry banter.  Having any of our members feel isolated, attacked or subjected to abuse of our features goes against all that we stand for as a community.  Our members deserve better!

We encourage you to talk about your personal surgery experiences, and to educate and support one another, however, we do not condone hate speech, abuse, impersonation, intimidating others, and invading the privacy of our membership.  As we move forward, we do not want to become a heavily moderated website, but it is important for the community to help us spot serious violations as well as to refrain from participating in or inciting “flame wars.”  Please report the abuse so we can look into it, eliminate it if need be, and make future development plans. We ask that before you report, that you reflect on if it is true abuse vs. something that you personally do not like or agree with. The “report post” option submits the post for evaluation; it does not mean you will get a reply back.  If we deem action is necessary you will be able to see that via the removal or edit.  We are aware that you may not agree with our decisions or the time in which we deal with them, but rest assured we are taking actions in some manner to try and make your experience fair and in line with our efforts.  

In conclusion, here is a summary of how you can help better the OH community:  

• Don’t respond or participate in “flame wars” -Report them, don’t support them!
• Don’t interact with “internet trolls”; they feed on your attention– Your best recourse is to ignore.
• Don’t take other member's photos and use them to harass or mock.  We do not condone this and when it is reported, removals will be made.
• Don’t forget this is an all ages’ community.  Flag your images appropriately and select your privacy and adult content settings to best suite your personal user experience.
• Do respond to message board posts in an encouraging, informative or supportive manner. Keep in mind each person has his or her own interaction preferences.
• Do utilize the block tool when need be.  This is an enhancement that many requested; utilizing it is your choice. We encourage you to take the opportunity to create your own personal desired atmosphere. 
• Do Blog, Blog, Blog!  The words you write may help to inspire and educate others. Posting your opinions there will allow people to comment to you directly. 
• Do submit B&A photos.  Take part in sticky posts such as Post-Op Wow Moments and Who Inspires You.  These are opportunities for you to share your successes. 
• Do enhance your profile with your experiences, add your photos, and build up your personal support network by inviting people as friends. 
  

What’s New at OH?

We have many new items planned for release this year! Currently we have a few items that are in testing and should be available soon:

     Profanity filter for the forums: You will be able to adjust your
     settings. (The same setting that is currently in place for photos.)

     Move thread:  This is on the administration side and will allow
     us to move topics that are getting out of hand and detracting
     from the individual forums.  

     OH Groups:  This is in beta testing currently with the Support
     Group leaders.  Eventually in a future release, OH Members
     will have the ability to create and moderate their own groups.

There’s more to come! We’re working to develop new features and enhancements, while trying to keep in mind the most fitting solutions to overall wants and needs.  Thank you for being a member of ObesityHelp.com and for your commitment to helping us to maintain and build a community rich in resources, support, and empowerment!