♥LovetheNewMe♥

Great post, I think sometimes we fail to allow ourselves to deal with the emotional side of this journey. Your absolutley correct, It is ok to be hungry and it is great to know that the world is not going to stop if we do feel hungry.

I will apologize to the guys for this topic up front. Now I am going to warn all of you male bloggers I am going to discuss a rather x-rated topic. My panties! lol Well yesterday I finally broke down and bought my self some new underware. I know your all asking how in the world was she still waring the same panties she wore 68 lbs ago. They were a little baggy in the seat but they were dear old friends and I just wasn't ready to go to the expense of purchasing new ones. I have had to purchase new bras, on two separate occasions but the panties worked so I left them alone. Well for two weeks I have been saying to my husband, "Honey I gotta buy new panties, one day I am going to be walking down the hall at work and they are going to fall right off." It had got to the point when I wore my tee shirt spanks that my underware gave me a wedgy. TMI right but you have to fully appreciate how much our bodies change and all of the things we go through when losing weight. Well I bought two pair of really cute hipster style panties at Target. They were so cute, "Not granny panties at all" They were a soft gray pattern with this cute little bow on the front and flat ecru colored lace on the legs. And guess what they are a size "7" and they look so cute. Ok, so they are only underware and I know I am the only one that is going to see them but they make me feel thinner. I know that may sound ridiculous but they do. I have not bought underware that was not of the granny pantie style for years, I got satin ones, lacy ones, etc. Tomorrow, Monday June 27th I start my exercise at Curves®. I have to be there at 7am, so excited. Spent the weekend working in the yard and swimming in the pool. Also bought some delicious protein bars at CVS for buy two get one free. Had a yummy pretzel peanut butter one yesterday for lunch and a chocolate Carmel crunch one today. 200 cal 15 gm protein and low carbs. I like these on the weekend for when I am busy outside and use as one meal replacement. Hope everyone is doing great this weekend. I will keep you posted this week on my exercise, oh and I guess I get to wear my new panties to work and won't get a wedgy!

Have a great vacation, enjoy long walks on the beach, read a book and just relax. So sorry for the lose of your friend, I can only imagine how hard this is for you. Enjoy your vacation.

Great Job! Weird what we crave, mine was hot and sour soup. Now I can't even stomach a bowl of it.

I think finallyincontrol gave you some great advice. We are all different, and learning to listen to your band and figuring out the difference between full and satisfied is one of the hardest things we have to learn. I mind has always controlled our stomachs and we now need to listen to our bodies so we no when to stop eating. A lot of people hiccup, (I have several friends who do this) I burp, and it is not very lady like. Opps! I eat 3 times a day with one snack in the evenings. My snack is usually fiber, milk or protein and always around 100cal. I happen to be one of those people who also still likes the shakes and that is usually my breakfast because during the week I do not do well with early morning meals, on the weekend I do fine. I think it is a time factor, week mornings are rushed and not enough time to sit down and eat, easier to drink. But I take 35 gms of protein in a shake or my coffee and it keeps me satisfied until lunch. I have friends who have so much in their bands they can not even lay down to eat, they want to lose weight so much they are willing to compromise their bands and their health. Nothing is worth that to me! I hated food getting stuck, I hated being slimmed and I enjoy being able to eat my meals with my family. Our heads do play a key role in our weight loss and we need to learn to not listen to the little voice inside of us that says, "Just one bite won't make a difference". Keep postive thoughts and you will be successful. Your weight loss to date is great, think of it as 50lbs gone forever. I was banded last week of October 2010 and have lost 68 lbs. I needed to lose 108 lbs total, my doctor says that for a band patient that is great and I need not to be discouraged over the next few months because the loss will be slower. I have 40 lbs left to lose. Keep your self focused, listen to your body and develop healthy habits and routines. This truly is a life style change but you can do this and you will look absolutley fabulious. Good Luck!

I had 5cc put in my band the first time I had a fill back last December. The first few weeks were very tough to learn how to eat, slow and chew. I had multiple stuck episodes with slimming until I learned what went down well and what times of the day. On my second fill in May, the put in 1.8 and it did not go so well. The doctor didn't really want to do a fill but I insisted. I had really slowed down on my weight loss and I could pretty much eat anything and was hungry between meals. I was still losing but it was because I monitored every morsal I placed in my mouth and sometimes went to bed hungry and frustrated. After my second fill I had to have .8 removed within 48 hours, I was unable to even take in water and had to sleep sitting up because of severe reflex and vomiting. since my fill in may I have lost about 10-12 lbs. I say 10;12 because 2 lbs keeps coming back and going off. I eat 3 meals a day and average about 900-1000 calories. I am not hungry between meals now but night times are still hard for me not because I am hungry so much but because I associate evening time, TV and movies with snacks. I some times have 1oz of nuts or 100 calorie bag of air popcorn and that satisfies the fat girl inside. My point of telling you this is, we are all different, some of us can do with a little fill, some have to have more fills until we reach the spot that helps us to loss weight. Losing weight is truly one of the hardest jobs I have had in my life, I have had my own emotional struggles with how this band is going to work for me, but I think until I really realized that I myself had to make some changes in how I viewed foods and eating I was never going to make the long haul I needed to get off all this weight. You being young have a lot of obstacles being thrown your way every day. We are such a social society and a lot of our activities evolve around food. We use food to celebrate, food to comfort and food to reward. This has been branded into us since we were all very young. So listen to your body, work hard at not snacking and grazing and eating on 3 meals a day. Exercise at least 30 minutes daily. Most weight loss patients that are the most successful develop a structured exercise program within their first year. I know you really want this or you would not have went through everything to get to this point. Write an affrimation on your mirror in the bath room or on your fridge that you see every day. Mine is "I will be successful and below it is a picture of me at my heaviest. Now if that is not enough to make me not want to eat nothing will. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

Well I did it! Today I made a commitment to exercise daily! :Dancing_wub: Yes you heard me right I finally got off my butt and made a full fledge commitment to exercise 30 minutes every day. So what was my motivation. Thank you Judy Jones. I read your blog the other night about you losing 59 pounds but had never been committed to exercise. I was right there with you, I have exercised off and on but never completely committed to doing the deed. For Christmas I bought myself a treadmill and have used it off and on, I have a gazelle, it makes a nice clothes hanger in the spare room. But I have just not had the drive and motivation to be consistent. So you ask why now, well it is a short story. Our insurance rates are going up at work, starting in September. To get 800 dollars back on our annually premiums we were required to do a health assessment with employee health. Well, even though I have dropped from 248 to 180 I am still OBESE! What an ugly word, but it didn't sit well with me. My total cholesterol was 196, my HDL is only 47 and my ratio was 4.7. Well that was a slap in the face, I eat healthy, I eat around 900 to 1000 calories a day, 60-80 gms of protein, I take my vitamins religiously, I drink all my water, I write my food down and I don't cheat. I count every morsel I put in my mouth. So what is left. EXERCISE! Stop being a couch potato :behindsofa: in the evenings, get off your ass and EXERCISE!!!! Sorry to curse but I need to get motivated and being the stubborn Italian I am sometimes, stupid has to slap me in the face. So today, I joined Curves, made the appointment this morning for 3pm, did my measurements, signed up and made my commitment and first 6 appointments. I am so excited and pumped this evening. You see I am one of those people who does better with goals, especially if I am PAYING for them. I spend all that money on exercise equipment but there is nothing that pushes me. Obviously if I could do things on my own I would never have gotten OBESE or had weight loss surgery. I also joined with a friend, so we made a commitment together. She had gastric bypass 18 months ago and has lost 135 lbs, needs to lose another 25 but is stuck. We both figured if we did this together we would keep each other motivated. When they did my assessment they asked me what size I wanted to be, I said a size 10. Boy did I pick a lofty goal, I am 5'1" 55 years old and that makes me need to lose 52 to 53 inches and about that many pounds to reach this goal. That would put my weight at about 128-130. I am not real sure about that goal, it may be a bit lofty for me but just to set a goal and make a commitment to myself and now all of you know so I have to be accountable to myself and the entire lap band community because everyone is watching now. I had to laugh, she said, "How do you feel about your thighs?" I had to laugh, then I said, "Well there a little chubby right now and I would like for them to stop jiggling." My thighs measure 27" each and I set my goal for 24-25 inches. All of my life I have been called "Thunder Thighs" Well Ms. Thunder Thighs is going for the gold. I will keep you in the loop, I start on Monday at 7am, my friend Janet and I decided to exercise , 3 days a week before work and 2 days a week after work and on Saturdays we will do mornings. Sundays will be on our own to commit to some type of exercise, yard work, house work, bike riding, swimming or using one of the two exercise machines I own. Dr. Anderson would be so proud of me!:Banane43:

Let's Celebrate and do the Happy Dance...:Banane47: Congratulations!!!!!!!! Next step complete the medical and schedule the surgry, way to go, were in your corner girl!

Hey that is great, sounds like your doctor does great after care. I like all the gadgets and education they provided you with. Good luck!

Congatulations! Got my fingers crossed for you, I remember the wait, the excitement when I was approved and the sick feeling in my stomach the morning I went to surgery. I am so excited for you! I agree with not telling everyone yet, I didn't tell my friends until after I was approved. My famly new because I new I was going to need their support if it wasn;t approved. But as many times as I had failed before I could not imagine what insurance company would want me to stay obese and continue to pay my health care costs. Believe me those weeks will fly by once your approved. Got to be a great feeling today.:purplebananna:

Jersey Girl, One suggestion, give up the beer. It will stretch your pouch. Any carbonated beverage no matter how slow we drink it over time will stretch the pouch. You could let it go flat but who wants a flat beet. Yuck, I was a guiness drinker and had to give it up. Try some SF drink mixes and switch to something else or maybe wine. Most of the reading says we should not drink alcohol for a year after surgery, well I fluncked that the first 2 months. The other think I noticed, is I used to be able to tolerate alcohol and now because we eat so little at meals and have to drink on an empty stomach that I am a cheap date. Two martini's and I am done! I love a good dirty martini and I have decided the olives are my fruit, veggies and fat. Two olives and one drink and I am full. I would love to find some of the CL Mojito mix, afraid I would be tempted to add a little rum and mint to that. Back to losing, some bandsters do not lose until after there first fill, it takes some of our bodies a while to adjust to decrease in activity and as you said the weight loss is slow and steady. Good luck, keep blogging and reading and you will be successful.

Corn is so hard to chew and digest, I have had it once and it was not worth it. I hate being slimmed had enough of that to last a life time. I even tried cutting it off the cob, nope it does not work. Funny though I can eat nuts and pop corn and have no problem.

I read this before surgery, the person who completed my psych exam has this as a required reading. Me being the OCD person I am read everything I could get my hands on before surgery and still do to this date. My thoughts are the more informed I am the more successful I am. When I wasn't losing weight as quickly as I thought I should be I did my internet research to make sure I was eating the right things. I keep reading we are only suppose to eat 3 meals a day, no snacks and we should be satisfied. I do not think I am at my "sweet spot" they talk about because I still feel like I have to tell myself, "No Diane, you have had enough calories today." The more informed we are the more successful we will be, the one thing the books do not say is the band has a "mind of it's own" Some days things go down and some days they don't. That's my two cents.

Sorry about the bad news but you can do this. Reducing your carbs will help your blood sugar. Our bodys turn carbohydrates into sugars to make energy but that energy does not last unless we eat complex carbs and protein. I love carbs but know that I eat them so infrequantly I feel so much better, the first few weeks of reduction was very hard but most days I don't miss them. It is important for you to get your sugar under control, there are way to many complications with diabetes. Good luck and I hope it gets better.

Welcome and good luck. The first few weeks are hard but remember it is just a step and you will move on to mushy and solid food soon.

Amazing how many of us are out her with very similar stories, you know you can lose that last 20 lbs. I have 40 more to lose but I already feel so good, but I agree I need to step up my game and my exercise. I even bought a tread mill to help me. My knees still limit me some, excess weight for all those years did its damage. We are all in this together and I really believe sharing our success and failure helps all of us. Good luck with that last 20 lbs.

<BR><BR><BR>Thanks so much~ I am really trying to focus on protein for sure I am eating about 50 g a day and hope now that i am gradually eating more solids this will increase. I also journal all my food including water and non calorie drinks (even ketchup <IMG class=bbc_emoticon alt= src="http://cdn.lapbandtalk.com/public/style_emoticons/%3C#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif"> I travel a TON with my job and am a tad concerned with making the right choices on the road<BR><BR><BR><BR>I travel with my job also and this is what I do, I take protein powder and bars for breakfast and lunch if they serve lunches that are too high calorie. For dinners I eat off the appetizer menu, there is usually always a shrimp or scallop option if not I order a house salad and get my protein on that. I always have my salad dressing on the side so not to add calories. Traveling is harder but over time as I have been banded longer I find it easier. I am very honest with people when I eat out, I tell them I had surgery and my stomach is very tiny and please bring me a togo book because I will never eat all they bring me. I have also looked up calorie and protein counts of my favorite places to eat so I usually have an idea what I can eat and how much. Most places have web sites now unless they are a mom and pop place. Good Luck!

Hi Debora, I by no means am an expert but here is my two cents worth. Sounds like to me so far so good. You say you are eating about 600 calories a day but how many grams of protein are you taking in? Just a warning the protein is key to a successful weight loss with lap band and keeping the feeling of satisfaction. Also protein is the key to keep your hair from failing out, with lap band we are not suppose to lose our hair but if we do not take in our protein it does start to fall out more than usual. As for suggestions for lunches, in the beginning I did well with deli meets, turkey and ham, cheese, canned tuna and chicken,(u can add a little mayo and some veggies for crunch to make it taste good) Lunch for me these days varies, sometimes it is Greek Yogurt, add a little protein powder or a table spoon of bare naked protein granola, a small salad about a cup with 2 oz's of lean protein. I drink lots of water, about 96 ozs a day. Water keeps me from snacking because I had a bad habit of munching when I was not hungry in the past. I also plan my meals everyday, I plan them the night before. I drive my husband crazy because I am always planning the next meal before the one we are eatting is over. If I plan, I don't worry about not eatting healthy. Also I suggest keeping a food diary, I use the one on lap band but also keep a paper diary in my purse, I write down everything I eat, I want to know what I am putting in my mouth, it keeps me on track. Good luck with your fill, you will notice a difference, make sure you chew chew and chew your food after the fill. What I could eat before a fill and after are different. I don't do well in mornings and breakfast during the week is a protein shake, I can do breakfast on weekends but the atomosphere is more relaxed and I am not rushed to get to a meeting. Hope this helps.

Gorda, I agree with Michael, you need to write down everything you eat all day long. Eating and not counting the calories will get you in trouble. I read in your blog that you cook a lot of rice and it slides down easy with sauce. Rice is a carbohydrate, not filling and full of empty calories. If you can eat rice you should measure it out and only have about 1/8 of cup and fill your self up with healthy protein. I am Italian and I love pasta and pizza and pretty much anything with sauce on it. I had to take a good look at everything I ate and how I cooked. I have looked for healthier recipes and converted a lot of my recipes. I noticed you said you were latino, I bet you are an awesome cook, look at converting some of your favorite recipes to a lower calorie count. You can still cook for your family but you need to learn not to taste while cooking, this was a big deal for me, I am also a taster and grazer in the kitchen and I have had a lot of bad habits to break. Remember it takes longer to break a habit than create it. Make sure you are getting enough protein in your diet and you will not be as hungry between meals and as tempted to graze. If you don't decrease your intake even if you exercise daily you may continue to maintain your current weight. Remember the lap band is only a tool it will not stop us from eatting, we still have to do that on our own. I hope I was not to blunt but I want you to be successful and feel the pleasure of weight loss that a lap band can give you. We all struggle and come here to vent and try and let others who struggle help us. Keep blogging and reading and I know you will be successful.

Michael, My physician has the same belief. If you are losing you do not need a fill. I have only had two fills in 7 months, 5cc's at 6 weeks and another 1.4cc around the 5th of May. The second fill I asked for because my weight loss was slowing and I was over zealous and greedy and wanted to loss quicker. I paid for that fill it was a pure 48 hours of hell, by the end of day two I had to go back and have .4cc removed. I learned my lession, don't ask for a fill or insist if you are lossing weight. I am ahead of the expected weight loss for a lap band and I just need to accept if I stay true to what I eat and exercise the weight will come off. I think it is great that you are able to keep your calorie intake aroound 750 and stay satisfied. My calorie intake is about 900-950 and I take in about 70gms of protein aday. You are doing amazing!

I have spent the past hour or so reading blogs and catching up on the lap band community. As I was reading it came to me that we have all been given a wonderful opportunity to have the support of thousands of people. People like us, who can over advice from first hand experience and learn from all of our successes and failures. I never introduced myself when I started blogging, I just started pounding away spilling my thoughts and feelings on the page. So her goes, my name is Diane, I am 55 almost 56 this November. I am married, have two children, a boy and a girl and 3 grand children, a dog, Lexi ( She is posted with me in my picture) and a cat, Sassey. I love animals and if I lived in the country would have many more than I do, animals love us unconditionally and don't care if we are fat or thin. How and why did I chose lap band? I have been what you call the professional diet queen. I am 5'1" and have struggled with weight gain after the birth of my first child in the late 70's. I lost the weight and just gained it back with the birth of my second child. I lost that weight and did pretty good until I went to nursing school and packed it right back on. In those early years I could keep it around 180 or 190 but still thought I was fat, but I never realized what fat was until I hit my 40's. That is when I really started to plump up, I reached a high by the time I was 50 of 260's and believe me on a 5'1" frame that is a lot of weight and my knees began to tell the story a few years ago. Three years ago my right knee went out, swollen, painful, difficult to walk, etc. I went to the doctor, they x-rayed and MRI. I had some beginning stages of osteo, thinning of the cartilage on the inner part of my knee joint. The doctor injected with steroids, last about 48 hours and then I did the weekly injections to rebuild the cartilage. It puts the cushion back between the joints. That lasted about 8 weeks. Then the dreaded conversation came up, Diane you need to drop a few pounds. I knew this already, I had two bouts of pneumonia over the past two years, my BP was out of control, and I was having sleep apnea. Oh by the way I forgot to mention I have been a nurse for almost 30 years. You would think as a health care worker we would have better health habits. But no, we probably are one of the most unhealthy group of people because we are always taking care of others and not ourselves. I am very stubborn, duh so I refused to wear a CPAP for the sleep apnea, and when I saw the metal they would put in my body as a joint, I said no way. Off to Jenny Craig I marched, I joined for 500 dollars, bought my meals at 120 plus a week and lost down to 195 lbs. Then it became too expensive and I just knew I could do this on my own, portion control and 1200 calories, a piece of cake I thought. NOT!!!!!!!!!!! I plumped back up to 248 lbs within 2 years of stopping Jenny Craig. So that is how I got to lap band. Live a life of pain and not enjoy life or get off your butt and do something about it. As for the nursing, I am a critical care nurse, so you would think I would know better and make better choices. Oh well that is the past and this is the new me. I involved my family in my journey, I made my appointment for the information meeting and took my husband with me and told all of my family. I figured if I was going to make this a life style I better include the persons in my life so they could be supportive. I thought about not telling the people at work, because sadly I was one of those people who thought weight loss surgery was a cop out. Boy have I changed my mind. so once I scheduled my surgery I told all of my peers at work I was having Lap Band surgery on the 28th of October. Now a very good friend of mine at work, Ron, looked at me shocked and said" your not fat enough to have weight loss surgery." I could have kissed him but instead, I stopped and said, "Ron, I am morbidly obese. My BMI is 47.5. I have to lose weight or I am not going to get to enjoy watching my grandchildren grow up. He looked shocked and said, I had no idea you weighed that much. Thank god for the Ron's and the Paul's(my husband) who love us whether we are skinny or fat and see us for something more than how we look. I will tell you I was scared, I think my biggest fear has been that I will fail, fail to loss and keep it off. But that very fear is my driving force, I will not gain this weight back and I will be successful. The difference for me know compared to back in the dieting days is I am choosing to change my life style with a gentle nudge from my band. I always lost weight on the planned programs I paid for, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, South Beach etc. But when I stopped paying I gained the weight back. Lap Band is a permanent solution to me because as long as i listen to my band, make healthy choices and exercise I will be successful. I know a lot of people struggle with weight loss and the band but in my opinion we fail because we fail to change our behavior. When I don't lose weight now, i sit down and look back at what I am doing. If I am honest with myself, I am snacking between meals, eating past satisfied and not exercising. I chose not to eat sweets, potato chips(which I love), I stay way from carbohydrates, pasta, rice and potato's. Not because I can't have them but because I like them to much and they make me feel over stuffed. I love pizza, can I eat pizza yes, should I eat pizza no. It is full of carbohydrates, so I look for alternatives that satisfy that void. This truly is a journey and you learn about your body and your inner self along the way. For me this journey is not about being skinny it is about learning to make the right choices, developing a healthy life style and spending quality time with my family. So now you no my story. I was banded October 28, 2010. I weighed in at 248 on surgery day and as of today I weigh 180. ( I have been stuck here for several weeks) I started in a size 24 and now wear a size 14. I have lots of shrinkels but who cares, I consider those my battle scars.

Congratulations on your first fill! Now the hourney really begins, I thought I felt restriction before my fill, but after the fill it was really different. Remember to chew,chew, and chew your food. I highly recommend the two days of liquids after a fill, you can eat but you have an increased risk of getting stuck and remember musheys have more calories. Drink your protein drinks and lots of liquids. The reason for the liquids for 48 hours is tightening the band is irritating to our stomach, causes a little swelling and it takes about 48 hours for that to go back to normal. Good Luck, look forward to reading about your success.

Welcome to the wonderful world of lap band. I have been banded for almost 7 months now and so far so good. I think the reality of the lap band really set in for me after my first fill. I had some restriction immediately post op but could pretty much eat anything if I chewed it well. After my first fill last December I really begain to realize what having a lap band meant. The one bad habit some of us fall into occassionally is letting the band do all the work. You have to become very in tune with your band. Always remember the band is just a tool, all those feelings and addictive behaviors we had before banding are still there, and believe me they will play with your mind and you can become very creative on how to get food to go down. I sometimes say the lap band is harder than any diet I ever participated in because it forces me to make healthy choices or suffer in the aftermath. My advice is stay away from slidder foods when on solids, a slidder is anything that will go through the band easily and add up the calories and you do not stay full. Stick with the 3 meals as it recommends on the web sites, it is easy to get into the habit of snacking between meals or grazing all day long. Because we can only hold small amounts at each meal if we eat the wrong foods or drink with meals it empties out our pouch and we are hungry. I know it is hard not to drink before, with and immediately after meals but if you don't do this as it recommends it really makes a differience. You stay satisfied longer and less likely to eat between meals. If you do feel the urge to eat between meals, stick with healthy snacks and stay away from carbohydrates. If you like sweets, find a good protein bar you like and that can be your sweet treat. I sometimes consider my gummy calcium chews and vitamins my sweet fix. They are small, I have to take them and I feel like I am getting a treat. A few protein bars that I have found good are the Zone Bars, Biggest Loser, Chocolatey Coconut ( I love german chocolate cake and this reminds me or it) also the Pure Protein Bars. All of these are low carbohydrate bars, I don't buy bars if the are over 200 calories or more than 16-17 gms of carbohydrates. The Prue Protein are very low carb but have sugar alcohols and in some that causes gas. Gas-x is your friend once on solid food, I got tired of the pills and chewables and found some strips that dissolve on your tongue in peppermint and cinniamin. Keep some protein drinks on hand they are great when you are in a hurry, hungry and don't have time to eat. This is a web site that I like for protein drinks. There drinks dissolve well and they dissolve in only 4ozs of liguid. There are recipies for some of them to enjoy them hot in the summer. I love the unflavored, I can add it to soups, drinks, yogurt and just about anything to get my protein. WWW.bariatriceating.com. Good luck on your journey, you will be surprised how many people actually will read your blog and be supportive. Good luck on your journey, remember we didn't get here overnight and it truely is a journey. Remember to celebrate all of your successes and DON't become a slave to your scale, all of us seem to loose inches along with pounds. Good Luck!:bananajump:

So sorry, I love my fur babies. They are the second love of my life next to my kids. I wish our pets could live as long as we do, I have lost many pets over the years and never seem to be ready for the hurt and sadness it causes. I am going to pray that your cat responds to the medications your vet gave her, keep her comfy, lots of love and pain free. Enjoy this weekend with her, remember she relys on you to be strong and take care of her. Thanks for sharing, I feel your pain.

I hate busy days, meetings start at 7am and go until 5pm. Not even a minute to take a pee break, I try to tell my assistant to schedule that in but some days it just does not work out. I have been home for 3 hours and I am still dealing with issues. Knowing it was going to be a busy day, I powered up this morning with a skinny latte from star bucks and added my 24 grams of protein powder to it. Total of 35 grams of protein that took be about 2 and half hours to drink. But it was yummy, I call it my high octane drink that carries me through a busy day, I consider it a treat. I did manage to squeeze in a small salad with some chicken and blue cheese but for dinner, not so well. I had a cup of popcorn and 4 ozs of white wine. OK, I know that is not in the any of our books but I just was too tired to cook, and as you all know fast food just does not work. i did sprinkle a tablespoon of Parmesan cheese on it, does that count and it was air popcorn. I guess I feel guilty, maybe I should run around the block a few times. I used to keep a few frozen dinners in the freezer for nights like this but my MD said, "Diane, frozen dinners have way too much sodium. Wonder what he would say about the 100 calorie pop secret and wine. Hey I just realized now why they call it pop secret, you can eat it and keep it a secret. I think they may call that stinkin thinkin, what do you all think? So this is my confession for the night, I ate a bad dinner, I feel guilty, my stomach feels like crap and I know by 10pm I will be hungry. I will tell you one difference in the old me and the new me, the old me would have never thought a thing about what they ate and ate another meal on top of the one she just ate. I would have felt a twinge of regret but would have never looked back. Thank you all for listening and be my second conscious. It's great to have others who understand how you really feel some days and you don't have to apologize for not being perfect. Hope everyone has a great weekend. To end on a happy note, I wore my second new dress today and I looked good.......................................