Hey Marny,

I'm planning on coming tomorrow! See you then! 

Congrats on your two years Kelly! You've done so well! 

I ordered this last year and didn't have to pay any additional fees. It did seem to take a while to cross the border, but it came through eventually and was worth it for me to get the pack. I loved most of their flavours.

Glad to hear you are doing better now out of the hospital and can rest up at home. Feel better and keep us posted! 

Great to hear Joyce. Thanks for the update! 

Rest well Kelly! 

Happy Surgiversary! What a wonderfully written and inspiring story. Congrats on your successes thus far and I'm sure it won't be long until you make it to goal! 

All of the Celestial Seasonings Teas are very good (at least the several flavours I've tried) and I'm fairly certain most, if not all, of them are caffeine free. They carry some of the flavours at most grocery stores, but they have a large selection including the Christmas flavours at Bulk Barn. Have you also tried the flavours of Hawaiian Punch Sugar Free? I prefer those to Crystal Light personally. They come in many yummy flavours and I know you can get a few different flavours at Dollarama. 

Hope these ideas help! 

I think it depends on how you tolerate it and what choices you make. I tried pasta at about three or four months out. I bought Atkins low carb high protein pasta from the Low Carb Grocery. I had a craving for Mac and Cheese and figured I'd give it a shot. It tasted pretty good. I made my own using the pasta, low fat cheese and homemade sauce. When I was finished, it was still within a cup size portion and the stats and calories weren't too bad, however, it was dense and heavy and I could only eat half at a time. It satisfied the craving though. 

I've also tried Dreamfields noodles as a side dish and have it as my 1/4 cup of carbs at the end of my meal. This is good because my whole family likes it, it tastes just like regular pasta so that's nice. 

With both these though, I don't have them frequently, just when the craving hits because they do sometimes sit dense in my stomach, even now being 1 1/2 plus years out. I actually had to throw out the Atkins pasta box because I didn't fini**** all before it expired LOL

For the strata, I don't see why not. However I'm not familiar with stratas. I've made quiches myself (eggs, cheese, mushrooms, chives and bacon bits) and found it a delicious meal (well several meals actually). 

Bread (as in slices of bread for toast or sandwiches) I didn't really get into until a year or so out for the most part, just wasn't worth the bang for the buck in the protein department at the time. 

Hope these help!

I have it and really enjoyed it. The workout has a quick warm-up, then three circuits and a cool down. I did it for about 25 days because it just wasn't feasible some days to do it. She has three stages (beginner, middle and advanced) that I went through for about 10 days or so at each level. I found it was good because they showed the basic exercise and then a modified version, so depending on your level and comfort with the exercises, you could decide which was better for you. Although I'm not a fan of her on the show, I found her motivating in the videos.

I really like Torani Brown Sugar Cinnamon and use DaVinci's Peanut Butter, Cookie Dough, French Vanilla, Banana and White Chocolate pretty regularly as well. 

I use them in shakes, in Greek Yogurt, in oatmeal, in baking, in Ricotta Pancakes, in hot drinks and to reconstitute my PB2.

Hope these ideas help!

From my understanding, the hair loss we experience is a result of the shock of surgery and the rapid weight loss forcing all of our hair into a state of telogen effluvium. My understanding from reading on the forum is that our hair normally grows in cycles of growth, rest and falling out. We don't notice as much normally because not all of our hair is the same state at the same time. When we have surgery and loose weight rapidly (which are two reasons for pushing someone's hair system into telogen effuvium) then all of our hair goes into the falling out stage. So it will fall out regardless, but regrowth starts at the same time as well, which is why you won't go bald, just may see balding spots with clumps of hair falling out at once. While it is scary to see in the shower or when you bru****'s probably not as noticeable to others as it is to you (or at least that was the case myself).

So what does this mean for dying your hair? Essentially it's not going to do any more or less damage than it would to you hair prior to surgery so if it's bugging you, go a head and dye it. I still had my hair highlighted and it didn't effect the quality of my hair, but have since stopped because to me it did make sense to dye my hair if I didn't need to because it was just going to be falling out soon anyway.

Like I said, this is just what I took from reading other posts on this forum, but I hope this helps! 

Congrats Kelly that's so exciting! 

I eat popcorn occasionally as a snack. It does have some protein in it, but is mostly carbs so if you are okay for your protein goals and are far enough out from surgery (like more than 6 months or so) you should be fine. My only concerns with your idea is the flavours. While personally not my choice for flavour, I can image the pepper would make the popcorn even drier and then the vinegar would make it super tangy, making me want a drink immediately afterward. I wouldn't be able to do the 30 minute rule and so this would be out for me. I guess it depends if this would make you thirsty or not?

I hope that helps some!