I am a Kaiser Permanente patient here in Colorado as well.
It is a slow process so be prepared.
I filled out my paper work in February 2009. The weight management folks and the packet tell you it can be up to one year before you even start your classes. It usually takes 6 to 8 months though.
Once they do call you, you take 2 months of classes. (Do not miss any classes, not one or you are out of the program, no excuses!) After your 2 months of classes, you are then given your surgery date, which is in approximately 1-2 months. I am still waiting to be called. It is so frustating, I am obsessed with this!

Hi Ash!  Your post caught my eye because on May 1 I moved from Fort Worth, TX to the Denver area.  I actually live about 30 minutes north of Denver and 30 minutes South of Boulder.  Colorado is wonderful and amazing. I've been visiting the state since 1995 when my brother and his family moved here.  We are originally from NY.  I had lived in Texas for 8 years and loved it but it was time for a change.  I transferred my job with a big defense contractor and do not regret it one bit.  Colorado does have a few differences.  Cost a living is a bit higher, they have state income taxes and registering your car is not the normal $60-$70.  In fact to register my 09 Nissan Armada it was about $660.  However, you cannot help but feel more at peace in a place like this.  If you want to escape to the outdoors you onyl have to drive a short distance to the mountains.  They are everywhere and awe inspiring.  I live in Broomfield which reminds me a lot of Fort Worth, easy to get around in but not bustling like a big city.  I don't have kids so I can't tell you much about the school districts but I feel very safe where I am and its a nice place to live so far.  Lots of outdoor activities are around everywhere in Colorado. 

As far as a good bariatric office I would recommend Denver Center for Bariatric Surgery and Dr Michael Snyder and his team.  That's who I am working with right now.  From the initial seminar you can tell he truly cares about the patients and their struggles.  I look forward to getting my lap band sometime this year. 

Hope this helps.
Kimberly

Thanks Holly, we really love Ouray.hubby has been looking up on the Internet and it's so beautiful there ,but there are no jobs there .have a great tomorrow Hun .Brenda in TX  ...

Hi Brenda,
I was born and raised (mostly) in Colorado Springs.  I love it here.  We are close to the mountains, it is smaller than Denver, lots to do if you are an outside kind of person.  That said though, I would definitely move to Ouray CO or somewhere close if I retired.  It is actually in the mountains and is the most beautiful place I have seen.   
There is also Boulder which northwest of Denver and more in the mountains,  awful pretty there.  If you are a plains kind of girl, there are lots of small towns out east from the Springs.  
If you have any idea of what part of the state you want to live in let me know, I might be able to give you some more info on it.
Holly 

As I have mentioned before, I am trying out a couple of iphone food diary applications. The latest one that I am playing with is Livestrong (aka The Daily Plate). One of the features of this program is its ability to link to twitter. At first I thought, "Why the heck would you want to tweet (publicly broadcast) every bite you take in during the day?! and who would want to read it anyway?" Well, after a minute, it hit me, accountability. Am I really going to eat that fat, greasy, nutrient deficient, calorie bomb if everyone is going t be reading about it? Probably not or at least I would think twice before I did. If you are honest and take the time to enter what you are eating, then I can see this being a very valuable motivator.
I had a friend once who would constantly tell me, "I've only eaten (insert one healthy low calorie food here) all day.", but if you watched her, she was a grazer. She never apparently counted all of the chips, cookies, and treats she picked at all day long. It's like my grandmother always said, "what you eat in private, shows in public". The same goes for mindless eating, you may not count it but it shows.
Sure it takes some time to whip out the your iphone and enter the program, then search for the food, and then log it but it makes such a difference. There are tons of studies out there that prove food diaries work at helping you achieve and maintain your weight goals.
So far, I am really liking the Livestrong application for the twitter capabilities and the huge food database. The only big drawback to that huge food database is the fact that a lot of the foods are taken from user entries and therefore are not verified so you may find some of them to be inaccurate and that there are tons of duplicates for a single food. I think it is well worth the $2.99 for the download.
It even helps you to set up weight loss goals and bases your daily caloric intake on those goals and activity levels that you have entered. For example, I have 740 calories left for today to stay within my goal.
I may revise this review later after working with the program more and discovering more of its quirks, etc. but for the 4 days that I have been using it, I have really enjoyed it and found it very user friendly. It also links to the Livestrong website and your food diary there which has more detailed features and options.
As for who actually reads twitter updates of food diaries, you can show me. You can follow me on twitter by clicking on the blue birdie in the left hand column. Go ahead, you know you are curious and besides, you would be helping me by keeping me accountable!
read more at;
http://luvsexytrstno1.blogspot.com/2009/07/accountability.ht ml