This past weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to co-host five amazing women at a weekend retreat at the beach within 1 mile of my house.  They can from as far away as Ontario Canada, and as close as Salinas CA.  Oregon, Washington and Arizona were also represented.  Why did they come?  What were they looking for?  All of us were looking for understanding of how to use our Weight Loss Surgery tools and that most important tool - the one between our ears - in order to maximize our journeys to a long term healthy lifestyle from one where obesity had held us back for years.

My co-host and business partner in WLS Success Matters, Wendy Campbell, and I made sure that began from the very first moment we opened the doors.  We had an agenda, I mistakenly left the word DRAFT on it, and guess what?  It was a draft because one of the first things we all learn on this journey to health is that we have to have a PLAN B.  We must be flexible and aware of how things can turn on a dime and be ready to deal with everything that means.

We created vision boards together, we not only talked about “bad” habits, we also created the plan for exchanging them by getting to the core of how the habit was actually serving us.  This is some tough work so we broke it up with walk/runs on the beach and at the marina.  We planned meals and shopped for them.  We ate our “regular” foods and tried some new ones.

We made friends and bonded together as we realized that this was a safe place to share our thoughts, our plans, our dreams and to develop new ones.

We set individual goals, life goals, not a number on a scale goals, and created the step by step action plan necessary to get there.

We laughed, we cried, we toasted life, but most of all, we spent the weekend being open, honest and actually living the Weight Loss Surgery lifestyle and staying present in the moment for 3 days.

The positive energy and love in that house was palpable.  On Saturday morning one of the women stepped out of the shower and came and looked me in the eye and said - “I’ve changed.  I don’t know when it happened exactly but I am a different person than the one who showed up here Thursday night.” One of many such comments.

What an amazing adventure this was.  I am sitting here with tears streaming down my face because I was honored to be able to sit and watch all 5 of these women access their individual POWER.

What a trip!  And when I think that I experienced this just because back in 2004 I made the decision to have weight loss surgery.  WOW!

If you would like to find out about WLS Success Matters and our educational programs and support groups please go to www.wlssuccessmatters.com