Ft. Lauderdale OH Conference was WONDERFUL!
For those that could not attend this conference I wish you could have been there! It was educational, informative, but best of all FUN! I hope you will make plans to attend when the next OH conference is scheduled in Florida. I not only learned a lot, I renewed friendships with folks I met at the OH conference in Orlando last year and made new friends - connecting voices & personalities with the faces I see on the FL board and a few from GA, too. Hugs to Julie & Sarah Margaret for "Driving Miss Vickie" Friday night and Saturday - my feet (& the rest of me) thank you!!
As wonderful & informative as the speakers are, for me, one of the high points of the conference is always the "Weight Spell Up". Everyone who has lost at least 1 lb. is asked to stand. Then Monica begins to count up.... 5 lbs, 10lbs, 15lbs, 20lb.... as she calls the amount closest to what you've lost, you wave at her and sit down. When she reaches 100lbs lost, she asks everyone still standing to come to the front of the room. It was truly amazing and inspiring to see how many people walked to the front of the room!!! At last year's OH Conference I was 5 months post-op so I sat down realtively quickly at 75 lbs. This year I am proud to say I was one of those who walked to the front of the room. Then Monica begins counting up again.... 110, 120, 130.... I sat down at 150 (actual loss 144.8 - no I'm not compulsive, Monica, just "detail-oriented". 
)..... 190, 200...210... on & on she goes... 290...300... at 300+ we have our weight loss King and Queen, at 314 (I think) our queen sits down, then there is one man standing, or should I say sitting on the stage? He got 'bored/tired" of standing while Monica counted up so he sat down to wait for his number to be called.... 350...360...370....400...410... I can not remember the exact number but Christopher, with over 400 lbs lost and still losing, YOU THE MAN!!! 
I am at my goal weight but people like you still inspire me to stay on track and to realize that anyone can do this if they are willing to work at it hard enough and long enough! Oh - by the way, the total weight lost by the "over 100lb" group was.......... drum roll, please ..........
over 8,000 pounds!!! 
I wanted to thank everyone who worked so hard to make the Ft. Lauderdale Conference a success. I thought it was fabulous! Although I missed a few things getting ready for the fashion show, I was very impressed with the speakers. I learned a lot!! There was so much useful information to absorb I just wish I could write faster because I couldn't take notes fast enough to get it all down on paper. Once again, Dr. Monica Ganz brought a tear to my eye and made me laugh - she is a true star in the weight loss world! Thank you to all the featured speakers! A special thank you goes to Dr. Shuster for sponsoring the conference and his wonderful office staff, Beverly & Paryse for answering a zillion questions. You gals are great!
Thank you to the "Mary Kay lady", Carolyn Paddock, for assisting the "models" with make-up and to Alex & Carolyn from Stein Mart for sponsoring the Fashion Show and helping select the clothing that looked so nice on everyone. Another round of thanks to Paryse for her "runway" advice, helping the models with their hair and my new hairstyle, I plan to keep it! And an extra special THANK YOU to Paula K. for coordinating the models, make-up & Stein Mart for the fashion show and for organizing and planning the Meet & Greet Friday night. What a wonderful time of fellowship, getting to know each other and trading tips, tricks & stories of our lives before & after weight loss. At the Meet & Greet, there were 26 at the table when Charlie went around asking how much each of us had lost. The total for the 26 of us was 3,869 lbs! 
I know this has been a long post but I felt the need to publicly thank the generous people that made the Ft. Lauderdale OH Conference such a wonderful event. THANK YOU to everyone involved! You have inspired and equiped me to travel a bit further down the WLS road and to continue my journey to a healthier, happier life.
Vickie J.
)..... 190, 200...210... on & on she goes... 290...300... at 300+ we have our weight loss King and Queen, at 314 (I think) our queen sits down, then there is one man standing, or should I say sitting on the stage? He got 'bored/tired" of standing while Monica counted up so he sat down to wait for his number to be called.... 350...360...370....400...410... I can not remember the exact number but Christopher, with over 400 lbs lost and still losing, YOU THE MAN!!! I am at my goal weight but people like you still inspire me to stay on track and to realize that anyone can do this if they are willing to work at it hard enough and long enough! Oh - by the way, the total weight lost by the "over 100lb" group was.......... drum roll, please ..........
over 8,000 pounds!!!
I wanted to thank everyone who worked so hard to make the Ft. Lauderdale Conference a success. I thought it was fabulous! Although I missed a few things getting ready for the fashion show, I was very impressed with the speakers. I learned a lot!! There was so much useful information to absorb I just wish I could write faster because I couldn't take notes fast enough to get it all down on paper. Once again, Dr. Monica Ganz brought a tear to my eye and made me laugh - she is a true star in the weight loss world! Thank you to all the featured speakers! A special thank you goes to Dr. Shuster for sponsoring the conference and his wonderful office staff, Beverly & Paryse for answering a zillion questions. You gals are great!
Thank you to the "Mary Kay lady", Carolyn Paddock, for assisting the "models" with make-up and to Alex & Carolyn from Stein Mart for sponsoring the Fashion Show and helping select the clothing that looked so nice on everyone. Another round of thanks to Paryse for her "runway" advice, helping the models with their hair and my new hairstyle, I plan to keep it! And an extra special THANK YOU to Paula K. for coordinating the models, make-up & Stein Mart for the fashion show and for organizing and planning the Meet & Greet Friday night. What a wonderful time of fellowship, getting to know each other and trading tips, tricks & stories of our lives before & after weight loss. At the Meet & Greet, there were 26 at the table when Charlie went around asking how much each of us had lost. The total for the 26 of us was 3,869 lbs!
I know this has been a long post but I felt the need to publicly thank the generous people that made the Ft. Lauderdale OH Conference such a wonderful event. THANK YOU to everyone involved! You have inspired and equiped me to travel a bit further down the WLS road and to continue my journey to a healthier, happier life.
Vickie J. 
Betty,
You're too sweet! I can't imagine being an inspiration to anyone but it is sweet of you to say so.
The conference was wonderful and fun! I hope you can make the next one!! Can you believe it? I didn't take a camera so no pics from me. And I'm a scrapbooker - shame on me! But other folks took pics so I'm hoping they'll post links to their pics soon so be on the look out for them.
Vickie J.
Well said Vicki ! 
It was an inspirational conference indeed! 
I especially enjoyed Dr. Shuster!
It was great to finally meet you and others. You have changed so much---and look so GREAT!
I am running late but I just had to stop by and say "HI"
I have pics and will post them soon--btu I am getting ready for work!
Beckywhowishedtheweekendwaslonger Becky,
I'm glad you thought it was inspirational, too. I feel so excited, recharged and ready to work on improving the things I'm not doing as well as I should.
I need to increase my protein & water intake and reduce the carbs. After hearing the nutrition lecture I feel better informed about what I should be doing and how to do it. And after Monica showed us the Food Counter book I knew that is exactly what I need. I still record everything I eat on FitDay but I need to have something I can look at before I eat something so I can make better choices.
I'm glad you enjoyed Dr. Shuster's lectures. I think he is not only a skillful surgeon but a truly kind and caring person. I'm sure happy with my results!
Let me know when you get your pics posted. Charlie was trying to take some pics to share with me but had camera trouble so she wasn't able to get very many. I want to do a few scrapbook pages about the conference so I'll have to get pics from those of you that remembered to bring a camera, which I didn't do.
Don't work too hard!
Vickiewhowishestheweekendwaslongertoo!
Vicky,
I will agree it was so great all the information and meeting so many of the wonderful people who post on the boards!! I am so motivated to get back on track so to speak and be more concious of what I am doing. Those that helped put all this togeather for us you all did a wonderful job. Thank you so much!!!
Linda R
Becky 
I want to thank everyone for making my friend and I feel so welcome it was great eventhough I missed some of the speakers the company said plenty I gained strength courage and got a push to go on I enjoyed the fashoin show also I hope someone got clear pictures maybe they can send me some I want to make a 8x10 for my granny see ya next time paula thanks so much!!!!
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