When my family lived in San Angelo and I was six or seven years old, one of my chores was to take out the trash. Every few days, I would drag the bags out to the fenced in area in the alleyway behind our house, and drop them in the cans for the weekly garbage pick up. One time, I tried to try my aim by throwing a bag into one of the cans from a few steps back. Not surprisingly, I missed, and trash went just about everywhere except in the can. I remember looking at the big mess on the ground and facing that moment of choice, where I could clean it up or just say, “Forget it.” I chose the latter. I figured, nobody else ever went back there anyway. Nobody would know.

I came back out a few days later and saw that the garbage man had picked up most of the trash. The whole area around the cans was pretty clean. Since no harm had been done, I decided to test my aim again and hauled the bag I was carrying toward the cans. Yep, you guessed it: I missed. Maybe it was because I was frustrated, or maybe just lazy, but I decided a second time to leave the mess scattered all over the ground.

The same thing happened the next several times I carried out the trash, but after that first instance, the garbage man stopped cleaning up after me. Within a few weeks, close to a foot of trash was piled up inside the enclosed fence, while the cans themselves stayed empty. A nasty heap of kitchen scraps, cigarette butts and litter was now baking in the West Texas sun and starting to cause a stench. But, it took at least a month before anyone in my family discovered my dirty little secret.  Click here to continue...

Magazine Cover Story
ObesityHelp Magazine is joining in the celebration of my eight year WLS anniversary. The new issue, hitting the streets this week, will feature the story of my WLS recovery journey, called "From Sumo to Sinatra".

The parent entity of ObesityHelp™ Magazine, ObesityHelp™, has grown to become the Internet's number one site for support of patients and medical professionals involved in the bariatric surgery industry. Since its inception in 1998, ObesityHelp has attracted more than 300,000 members --the largest organized member support community for obesity in North America. I encourage you to subscribe to the magazine, and to visit their online community.

Reaching Out
One of the simple truths that I have learned along this journey is that "everyone needs support, and everyone can offer support". One of the best ways to relieve ourselves from the Bondage of Self is to reach out a helping hand to those who may not be a far along the journey as you are.

You can reach out to others by letting them know about RenewedReflections.com. You will notice a new link on each page that allows you to email a link to that page to a friend.

Book Progress - Physical Bankruptcy™
Along with writing the content for the book, we have started the process of self publishing. The current challenge we face is fundraising. To help with this you will notice that we now have Google Ads on the site, at the top of each page. Google advertisers pay for each click on one of their links. Please click your little fingers numb as we raise money for the printing of Physical Bankruptcy™.

Physical Bankruptcy will be a guide for those who have undergone weight loss surgery and are now searching for answers to the mental, emotional and spiritual questions not addressed by the physical nature of the surgery alone.

How YOU Can Help
I have found a common trait among most of us PostOps is that we are great at giving, but have a very difficult time asking for help. I am by no means an exception. However, to lead by example I am listing some things that I could really use your help on. My goal is to give back to the weight loss community. You can play an important part by helping with these three humble requests:

1. Share the good news. Please forward this newsletter on to anyone you feel might find it motivating or enlightening. Encourage them to sign up on the newsletter list themselves at RenewedReflections.com.
2. Tell others about this resource. Direct friends and loved ones to read some of the articles on the site.
3. Provide prayer and encouragement. I find that the more I write this book and share the good news of the hope I have found, I come under what I can only describe as an attack. Please keep my lovely bride Leslie and me in your thoughts and prayers as we navigate this path to completion.
4. Visit Our Sponsors. You can personally help financially support RenewedReflections by simply clicking on the Google Sponsored Links at the top of each page. There is no limit or penalty for numerous clicks; sooo... Get Yo Click On!

Thank You
You will hear me talk about the importance of experiencing gratitude the more you get to know me and my work. I recognize every day the many people near and far who have had a direct hand in my progress on this journey. Here are a few that have truly blessed me over the past month.

1. Leslie Thompson - The most beautiful woman in the world
2. Dr. Lawrence and Coral Kennedy
3. Dr. Neecie Moore
4. Dr. Jay and Regina Rosenberg
5. Dr. Sanae Tanaka (Tokyo)
6. Dixie Feldman - Author of Dixieland at RetroRadar.com
7. All of the awesome folks in the Obesityhelp chatroom