maren

I've borrowed my 2 year olds toddler bowls which probably fit about 1 cup and I fill them to about 3/4. Sometimes I can finish that portion and sometimes I leave about 1/2. I think as long as I stick to the toddler bowls I'm fine. I proper meal like that lasts me 4-6 hours. Sometimes less and then I have a tiny snack in between meals.

Hey, Cindy - Thanks for the recipe. Sounds like you're very determined to stay on track. Who would have thought you could drive for 20 min without finding a Mc Do in the states. renewedhope - Your new photos look great. What a huge change!! ladybird - I actually got jello as my first "real" meal in hospital. I'm still having it now while in the liquid stage. Maybe they treat it like liquid so you shouldn't have it right after a normal meal. Not sure. Bonnie - Thanks for the welcome. I think I'll have to get my Atkins book out again to try and remember how it all works. Here in Australia we've got the Bodytrim diet. It's low carb and for 3 days at the start you're only eating protein. It's all about keeping your metabolism working well so that you keep losing heaps of weight and don't reach plateaus. I think I'll follow that one after the liquid stage. For anyone who is interested: You have to eat at least 6 meals/snacks per day. Each is about 100g of protein and for the main meals low carb vegies can be added. At least 1 hour wait between each snack or meal but never leave it more than 3 hours. The idea is that your body constantly digests and that it keeps the metabolism going. I did it for a while before the band and it works well. Maren

Kizzie, Glad I could help a bit. Let us know how you go. I've heard of plenty of people who had to have the port moved or fixed so I don't think it's a major operation. Hopefully they'll cover the costs since they should have really thought of the problems that might occur in your case. After all your surgeon would have done this heaps of times but you've only had it done once. Good Luck!

So sorry to hear you're having trouble with the port position. I think your surgeon should really have discussed this with you before the op. I was banded 25th June and I'm sooo glad I asked "the port" questions before the op. I actually told my surgeon that I'd like to have a tummy tuck in a few years when I'm done with having kids and I wondered whether the port will cause any problems. He said he puts the port pretty high up (just below breast bone to the left) so that for a tummy tuck the skin can be liften and they don't even go near the port. That might be the reason why a lot of other surgeons put them higher up. So my port is around 4cm below my left boob but I'd say my bra line is 2cm above that so I'm ok. I hope you get some help.

Hi girls, I'm still at home recovering from surgery on the 25th and came across this forum and your thread. I hope you don't mind that I join in. I'm in the liquid stage for another 10 days and even though I'm not a huge no carbs fan all your posts about food sound delicious to me right now. I'll be sooo happy when I can mash up some tuna, eggs etc and when I finally stop dreaming about pizza. I've tried Atkins before and I'm very impatient so I like low carb diets because of the fast weighloss. I started my diet almost 2 years ago after gaining about 55kg (I think that's around 100 pounds) when pregnant. I then lost 20kg really quickly and was stuck with the rest. It has taken 21 months to get back down to just over 100kg, then I decided to get the surgery, did Optifast for 2 weeks and I'm now down to 96kg. I'm looking forward to chatting with you to help keep myself on track. Maren