I am the webmaster for www.fathappens.com and would invite users to
view the site and give me your views on how helpful it may be to you?

This is what Anne Diamond says

"The Smile Is Back on the Me In The Mirror
by Anne Diamond.

Just managed to get the zip done up on a pair of new jeans this morning
- size 14. I can't move in them, nor could I breathe properly -
but what an achievement! I can get the darn things over my bum - and
I couldn't have dreamed of that three months ago. Now it's a
reality - and in just a few weeks time, I'll be wearing them out
and about - but what a long and difficult journey it has been.

I may be Anne Diamond but I'm not unusual. In fact - it's
becoming more and more common for men and women to battle with their
weight problems, and more often than not, to lose the war. We're not
fat and lazy - and we're not stupid - we've somehow become
caught up in an epidemic that is now one of the biggest problems facing
Western Society. It's called obesity - and behind that revolting
word stand millions of human beings who are suffering - both the
disease itself and the prejudice that surrounds it. Obesity is now
designated a "rising epidemic" by the World Health Organisation,
who consider it public enemy number 1 and who are calling for realistic
and effective counter measures and treatments. If they'd just go one
step further and call it a disease, we might be able to get help to
those who need it most, and stop the stigma. I still get letters from
people who watched me in Celebrity Fit Club and who tell me and other
fatties that losing weight is easy - it simply requires discipline
and control. That is so ignorant. Would there be 1.4 million morbidly
obese adults in the UK right now if it were that easy? And that figure
doesn't even come close to the other million or so fatties who're
living unhappy lives desperately yo-yoing on dangerous and faddy diets.

Because I've had ENOUGH of all the negative, miserable, unkind and
destructive things being said about fatties who want to be slim and
trim. I am disgusted with the attitudes of the media and some
individuals who should know better.

Fat isn't a sin - and it doesn't need punishment.

You know what they say when things go wrong? Don't beat yourself up
about it - "sh.t happens"! It doesn't mean you're a bad
person, it doesn't mean you deserve it. sh.t happens - it's part
of life.

So...fat happens. It just happens. Whose fault is it? Who cares?
Beating yourself up won't help, that's for sure. Just find a way to
deal
with it. Fat happens. But when it happens to you - it can be
devastating. To others, it's a nuisance, and to many, it's a
lifelong struggle.

That's why I have set up a new website - called
www.FatHappens.com.  It's for the millions of us to whom fat has
happened - and who spend so much
time trying to do something about it. It's not for those who like
being fat, or who reluctantly accept it. It is a site for men and women
who are going to battle the bulge in their own way, in their own time
- and not according to the fat fascist attitudes of the outside
world. We can all learn from each other's stories, laugh at each
others' mistakes - and gawp at the inspirational before and after
pictures.
These are all real people, not media victims on stupid slimming
regimes, not puffed up experts who enjoy persecuting fatties - but
ordinary men and women who've got experiences and opinions that could
really help others. And they're intelligent thinking people - not
idiotic, useless, pathetic dumbos as the media likes to portray them!
Why is it that, when you put on a bit of weight, people automatically
think you're stupid? Suddenly, with a few extra stone on your
carcass, your opinions don't matter any more. You are overlooked for
promotion. You can't be trusted because you have "let yourself
go" .

I was moved to set up this forum by the thousands of viewers, listeners
and readers who've been following my progress in the media over the
past few years. Time and again I was struck by their own stories. These
were men and women from all over the country, and of all ages, who hold
down important jobs, who run families, who deftly juggle the problems
of everyday life and yet who cannot, for some reason, manage their own
body weight. It confounds them, like it confounds me. And, like me,
they're furious that they become the focus of such prejudice,
backstabbing and spite from the thin world. I wanted to provide a new
environment, a meeting place and a living magazine for them all to
contribute, share views, inspire and entertain with collected stories
and experiences. Because in my years of weight-warring, I've learned
that there is no ONE way. It's not a case of  "one size fits all"
as many so-called diet experts would dictate. And these experts -
have they ever been fat? Do they understand the misery? Have they ever
tried to live on a couple of lettuce leaves, only to find the scales go
UP the next day?

What works miracles for one fatty, is hell on earth to another. What
makes one person "click" when it comes to finally shifting those
pounds, is useless to another.

In the end, as everyone now knows, I opted for weight loss surgery, but
that decision was made only after I'd spent most of my forties yo-yo
dieting in a struggle that made the diet industry yet richer and me
less healthy and more fat. I wasn't going to spend my fifties in the
same madness. I went for a gastric band operation - and now, some six
months later, it's working well and I wish I'd done it years ago!

But weight loss surgery isn't for everyone - though it is now the
recommended treatment by NICE (The National Institute for Clinical
Excellence - the people who advise the NHS) for everyone in the UK
with a BMI of 40 or over. That doesn't mean you'll get the op on
the National Health, though. It depends on your local health authority.

I was astounded at some reactions. To be called a "cheat" for
having the surgery astonished me. It's as though you have to
struggle, you have to suffer, if you want to lose weight. You have to
spend hours sweating on the treadmill at your local gym, you have to
eat miniscule portions of boiled fish and lentils. You have to do it
their way!

And by the way - weight loss surgery isn't the "easy" way,
either! I have had to learn a whole new attitude to food, I concentrate
keenly on healthy choices - and I still have to exercise to lose
weight! What makes the real difference, this time, is that I can be
confident I'll never put on weight again.

It's put a smile back on the face of the "me" in the mirror!

Ultimately, how you fight the flab comes down to personal choice -
and there are a million options. But that doesn't mean you don't
need loving help and support - and that's what I aim to provide
through a buddy system via the world wide web.

I think the most important message is - you are not on your own. Some

members have wonderful friends or spouses and a brilliant support
network of their own. Others feel isolated even within a loving family.

In their home, they're the only ones who regard the fridge as the
enemy, the only one who dreads being invited out to parties - the
only one who knows that today's fun picnic is simply going to wreck
yet another diet, and shatter another dream. Their husbands sneer:
"if you want to lose weight, just eat less!" and their children
moan: "why aren't you ever happy?"

Whether or not the experts ever agree that obesity is a disease, or an
eating disorder, or just a chronic condition caused by a plethora of
junk food and unhealthy advertising - one thing's for sure. It's
a tough one to treat.

After all, you don't treat an alcoholic by telling him to just cut
down to one drink a day.

Few smokers can cut down to just one or two ciggies a day.

You don't treat a drug addict by encouraging him to limit himself to
just one daily snort of coke.

You just wouldn't do that, would you?

No, the way you treat them is you tell them to accept that they're an
addict who can never use again - because just one cigarette, drink or
snort will lead to ruin.

But with a food addict, that's precisely what we're told to do -
and we're blamed if we can't summon the willpower to make it work!

Once you've put it on, losing weight is a much, much bigger battle
than thin people can even countenance. Sometimes you feel you're
climbing a sheer rockface whilst others are throwing stones at you. In
that sort of environment, it's little wonder so many fall.

When fat happens to you, you need friends to give you the encouragement
and support you deserve - on www.FatHappens.com. It's a growing
community."