I so look forward to meeting old and new friends alike at the upcoming OH Conference in Pittsburgh, PA set for March 12th and 13th!!!! I'll be arriving Thursday night and will be driving back home on Sunday.

I'll be presenting on exercise, maximizing one's first year out from surgery and breaking plateaus, and have included slides from my presentation here.

Looking for more info about the conference? Visit ObesityHelp.com's conference site at http://www.obesityhelpevents.com/may2006-pittsburg.htm .

My bio for anyone who doesn't know my story is as follows:
From the age of 19 to 34 years, Caroline Ann Martin lived her life as a super morbidly obese person. During these years, she dieted her way up to 370 lbs losing and regaining over 100 lbs several times.

In May 2003, Caroline's life changed when she underwent gastric bypass surgery. In a short 16 months, she lost 225 pounds reaching goal, and has maintained her weight loss for the past 1 1/2 years. In the first half of year 2005, Caroline underwent three rounds of reconstructive surgeries to remove excess skin resulting from her weight loss.

Caroline earned her M.A. in rehabilitation counseling from NYU and for years worked as a vocational rehabilitation counselor in both NY and CA. Since losing her weight, she's found a new passion in life related to weight loss and physical fitness/weight training. Caroline obtained her certification as a personal trainer during the Fall '05 and has since been working at the Bally Total Fitness in King of Prussia, PA as a Certified Personal Trainer.

Along with being active within the ObesityHelp community, message boards, and chat room, Caroline runs several online groups for weight loss surgery patients as well as for those seeking plastic reconstructive surgery.

Caroline will be presenting on exercise (with a specific focus on maintaining muscle and metabolism while losing weight) along with maximizing one's first year out from surgery and breaking plateaus. She'll be giving a demo showing the exercises she did herself during the weight loss phase of her journey, which helped bring her to goal healthy.

Her personal WLS story can be found at http://AButterflyEmerges.com , and her ObesityHelp Profile can be found at http://tinyurl.com/bkld .