“I cannot even put into words how inspiring and moving tonight’s event was!!!! Oh my gosh! So inspiring that I’m blogging @ 1030pm, which most of you know, is unheard of for me! I’m “early to bed, early to rise” like clockwork! It was amazing. I just got an email from another attendee who said she is on a “high” from the evening too! It’s all the good karma that was given off this evening! We had over 100 people in a room listening to 8 people tell their personal story of losing more than 100 pounds. Talk about goose bumps! Some of the things the participants said hit home so hard, it was like they were talking directly to me. As the moderator and able to look out over the audience and see all the smiles and nods as the panel of participants spoke made me feel even more connected than ever. It is a powerful thing to surround yourself with positive people who have the same challenge as you AND are WINNING the battle over it!!!!! It just reinforces to all of us that we are not alone in this struggle and that it IS possible to manage it and actually enjoy life more than ever. Believe me, there was NO talk of deprivation tonight! One of the participants, Ed, who has lost over 140 pounds said “Food tastes even better now! I enjoy it MORE and actually take time to taste what I’m eating.”. One very interesting observation I made was that when asked if any of them had ever gotten off track for more than a meal, nearly all said YES, absolutely. So then the audience member asked HOW they geared themselves up to get back ON track, without giving up. Many of the panel shared what they did that helped them but not one of them (0 out of 8 overly successful people) said they stopped coming to meetings. What I’m getting at, is that even when they were “off the Program” behavior-wise, they were still attending their meetings and sooner than later got back on track and moved on to lose well over 100 pounds. I’m no scientist but that doesn’t seem like coincidence to me!!!!!!!- Thank you to the 8 participants who got up and shared their personal stories with all of us. It was very generous of you!!!