Athenyx

I finally found public scales!!!! Okay, got a little excited there. My friend recommended using the blood pressure machine at the pharmacy in Walmart, and as I was trying to kill time before the drive to Vegas this afternoon I was doing every test they had and I realised you could do weight and BMI! You just sit on the seat and put your feet up on the bar and it does what the stand up scales at home do! And it's free! I asked the lady behind the pharmacy desk and she said every Walmart should have one - so now I just need to find Walmart on my travels. Which isn't exactly hard - hooray!

Just the thought of that turns my stomach, eek.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry about that -

If you have a little time, I can second the suggestion to take the ferry to the San Juan islands. In the city, the Pike Place Market down by the waterfront is a great place to visit, and they have myriad food choices, including tons of fresh and healthy seafood. http://pikeplacemarket.org/ I did Pike Place market, that was fun, but I didn't find time for San Juan Islands - makes me wish I had now two of your are recommending it. Maybe another time!

Trip is still going strong :-D I'm in Page, Arizona for the week! Ah, I'm sticking to the West this time, but I totes would if I was out your way :-D

I wasn't told to take any Protein Shakes at all, especially not in the beginning, and I haven't been experiencing any hair loss. I just took what I could keep down, mainly milk at the time, and then eventually I moved onto protein milkshakes and other things. I don't honestly think there's a hard and fast rule about any of this - every surgeon and Nut is going to say something different, and everyone's journey will be different. Don't freak out - you're gonna be fine! just do what feels right to you, trust your instincts.

You sound like you're doing really well, probably better than you realise. Just relax, sip away (have you tried warm milk by the way? If cold drinks are tough it might be worth a shot :-D) and take little walks about the place. Everything gets easier as the days go by!

I don't think I've seen liquid ones about anywhere - though you've got a recommendation from the more observant Bufflehead :-D Have you thought about the chewable ones? Not the gummy sweet-like chewy ones, but the ones that turn to powder on your tongue? I used Centrum fruity chewables and they were fine - multivitamins and multiminerals (surprisingly, a lot of these multivitamins don't include the multiminerals).

@@KindaFamiliar Take that!! (Not the band but the sassy kind of comment)

Ha! I survived...no bites or welts to speak of, just beautiful purple bags under my eyes from those awful dreams about coffee flavoured bugs, or was it bug flavoured coffee? The hair is in tact and surprisingly frizz free: I drove onto Desert Palm Springs this morning and my hotel room has its own pool...its own fricking pool. See that behind my non bug infested hair!! It's 29 degrees outside (where the hell is my sunscreen?!) and I'm about to go lounge about by the main pool. I've totally gone from one extreme to the other. I had an iced coffee on the drive over so your expresso taunting won't work today my friend...I'm totally going to go and get another iced coffee, just because... Enjoying your Sunday morning bug coffee?? The ice totally kills off bugs in mine. Kills them right off.

Lol. Na Night [emoji23]

That was just mean but funny. Bravo. I totally will dream...watch this space! No, really...watch this space for the next six hours as punishment.

Lmao. No, I'm too tired to go up against you! You can win this round. You and your flavoursome coffee (bug juice). But, seriously, I wouldn't be laughing if there really were bugs in this bed!! but there isn't. I swear. I am NOT lying in swarm of cannibalistic bugs. Man, I just know my dreams are gonna be all kinds of messed up now. That's if I even manage to fall asleep!

Nice. Lol. I've heard that sometimes people find bugs in their coffee...sometimes they're even ground INTO the coffee, so you could be consuming bugs as we speak. Just putting that out there. Make of that what you will

Ah, it's 23.20 where I'm at now. You jest, but I'm literally sitting here itching away, lol. I've even started on my hair and it's just getting frizzier and frizzier - soon I'll be convinced I have lice and I know it's all in my head. Gah

If I drank coffee now I'd never get to sleep, but you go for it! [emoji5]

Oh the joys, huh!

I'm so with you @@KindaFamiliar - it's like when you're on the road and everyone is driving like an idiot so you get road rage and join in the fun Good luck, @@De fluff, I'm sure it'll go swimmingly!! To stop my nerves I pretty much blanked out the whole thing and pretended it was a normal day - I was watching Super Girl right up until they told me to walk to theatre - totally took my mind off it.

Haha. I'm like that with tea - if I could have neither of them my attitude would seriously deteriorate.

@@LuckyOne53 Thanks! [emoji1] You know, I decided the other day I'd try sparkling mineral water because when I have still water on its own it just makes me feel sick/hungry and I get around that daily by mixing a bit of pure apple or orange juice in, but I thought it'd be nice to have an icy sparkling water with no juice...that is so not happening again. Upset my stomach so badly and in a different, more painful way to the coffee and I just thought, this is so not worth it. Suckage.

If anyone reads this they'll probably wonder at the totally out of the blue update, but I found a couple of sachets of Kenco Smooth (my usual brand) in my suitcase, tucked way underneath some clothes I haven't worn yet and I totally did a happy dance. I made a cup with half a sachet yesterday and it hasn't upset my stomach at all :-D Yay. Maybe I just needed what my stomach was used to? In that case, America, why don't you have Costa coffee?!

I was sleeved Jan 19th and so far I've lost 38 lbs and everything's going really well. I can eat pretty much anything, it's just all in tiny amounts - I don't measure these amounts because I find it too consuming - I just use my judgement. I only weigh myself once a week, so I don't become obsessed with that, and in terms of exercise, I swim as many lengths as I can every other day if I have access to a pool, otherwise I walk. Yesterday I hiked in the Olympic NP and along the beaches - it was exhausting but made me feel great after. I'm actually traveling at the minute - road tripping the US alone for nearly 12 weeks, and it's been fab. I don't often eat out, but if I do I just pick a healthy meal with high Protein and eat my small portion as 80% protein then a bit of carbs and veg. Sometimes coffee upsets my stomach if it's too strong, but other wise I haven't had any issues. I take my Vitamins twice a day too. As for specific foods, I eat a huge variety. When I Wake up I have a cup of tea (fat free milk and sweetener), then a little later I have Breakfast (scrambled egg with turkey bacon, porridge, low fat sausage and poached egg, low fat Greek yogurt with honey or fruit). lunch is usually some kind of meat - roast turkey or chicken with some cuts of cheese (any kind, but low fat usually) and some romaine lettuce leaves or cherry tomatoes or sliced cumumber and a few low fat crackers. I have a bottle of Water with me, made up as 10% real fruit juice and the rest water. If I'm out and about and don't have time to sit down properly, I take a Protein Bar and a piece of fruit. dinner I have cooked shrimp or chicken, a little wholewheat Pasta or rice or a couple of mini potatoes, sometimes with goats cheese, and some veg - like courgette or spinach. The bread here doesn't taste nice to me, so I avoid it, but sometimes I have a bit of whole meal flatbread instead of crackers. I drink several other cups of tea or coffee through the day - always with fat free milk and no sugar. And a large glass of the juice mixed with water with dinner - or milk, every now and then I drink a big glass of milk. There's literally SO much out there you can eat, so don't feel discouraged. It's all trial and error about what doesn't make you feel that heart burn sensation - you can have bread, just in small amounts, and if something upsets your stomach just leave it to try again in the future. If you eat out with friends, pick something healthy with lots of protein and just eat what you can - usually whoever I'm with picks at my food or finishes it for me because I can't eat it all. Same with finishing my drink - in a way, it's nice to share and I don't feel uncomfortable or embarrassing about it. Embrace your new tummy - work with it and feel proud of the step you've taken to get healthy ???? See the advantages not the disadvantages. Some days your mood can be shit, losing weight this way messes with our hormones, but other days will be great...so hold out for those. Also, you are young, but you've saved yourself years of depression and anxiety, so that makes you pretty brave in my books. I'm 29 and I wish I'd done this at 20 - now my 30s will be my best years instead of my 20s ????

I have fat free milk here (skimmed at home) but I have no problems with drinking glasses of it, or any other dairy - I'm a big cheese lover too. I don't put any sugar in my coffee and I don't get syrup if I get it when I'm out. It's definitely the coffee itself. I managed to find some Nescafé Original in a store today, which is more like the brands I'm used to - at home I have Kenco Smooth but I haven't seen that here anywhere. Tomorrow I'll try the Nescafé but if it upsets my tummy again I'm gonna have to give it up for the foreseeable future. I love coffee - but thankfully, keeping with British tradition , I'm an equal lover of tea so it's not so bad.

You're right @@Christinamo7 these new tummies are funny A part of me is wondering if it's worse at the minute because instant coffee here is not as nice as instant coffee at home...it sort of tastes wheat-y to me, if that makes sense. Ground coffee here is better but I'm rubbish at not making it too strong. I'll just stick with my tea and try to ignore the nice coffee smells all around me - argh!

Woah. How'd that happen?!