I'm struggling with how much I should be eating at a normal meal. Sometimes I think that I have no idea of what I should be eathing. If I eat 1/2 cup to a cup of food, I feel like I'm not getting enough nutrients. I can eat much more than a cup of food (depending on the food, even if it's healthy food), and since the holidays, I have done just that. Getting back to small portions of dense foods has been a challenge, and the 10 pound weight gain since October is making me feel horrible.

So, for a healthy meal, how much are you eating?

Hmmm, if I am feeling very virtuous I will eat a rye bread with mashed up salmon with some salad.

I tend to eat what everyone else is eating just less of it. I try to drink a pint of veggie juice a day, thus getting around the 5 a day problem as I found that with the decreased portion size I can manage I would have been eating 4 a day and nothing else!, Veggies and fruit and not that easy to eat with the band they have a tendancy to get stuck ( well for me they do) so juice seemed the logical way to go.

I dont do Breakfast, never have done, I think it is a by product of years of morning sickness, I tend to have a light lunch maybe some Soup and a ryebread, but at dinnertime I will have whatever I have cooked for the family from roasts to jamaican jerk chicken rice and gravy. I always make sure that each forkful has some bulky food on it and I eat really slow. I never ever deny myself anything, and if I get upclose and personal with a tub of Ben and Jerrys I just work harder in the gym the day after, it doesnt happen that often so I dont worry about it!

When I was trying to lose I focused on a lot of Protein, chicken mainly with a spoonful of whatever sauce or gravy I had made, I still have to cut meat up really small and chew it well and it always fills me up. I reckon 1/2 a chicken breast is about my limit without sauce and nearly a whole one with sauce. The dryer the food the faster you get full, any meat based protein is good, just make sure that you cut it up well. Fish is also good but the meatier the better, think salmon or tuna rather than skate or bass.

I have to say that veggie juices are my life saver, I know that I am getting my vits so then I can relax and not worry about it.