Oh, boy! I have had my band for a year, and need to re-commit to steady weight loss. I'm happy with my progress, as I've pretty much lost a pound a week this past year. But I know that I've been a little lax with resorting to snacking, resorting to junk in general, and I definitely need to reaffirm my exercise commitment.

I started tracking today (I've never really been a tracker) with the myfitnesspal.com app on my phone and while I've only had 400 calories so far today for Breakfast and lunch, my sugars for the day are exceeded already. It's my cottage cheese (the Breakstones doubles) and yogurt! That's one of my staple lunches. ACK! How awful is that? Here I thought I was having good, healthy lunch times when I ate my cottage cheese and yogurt.

Do any of you track your sugars? This has to be very bad for me... I'm glad the app had that nutrients option, otherwise, I would have kept going with my aiming for counting just the calories, Protein, fat, and Fiber.

What do y'all eat that keeps your sugars down, while keeping you at the right calorie level? Anybody got a nice, balanced plan to share? I thought I was doing so well!

I track my sugar for everything!!! I eat nothing with over 5 grams, but really like to keep it 3 grams or less. It is my belief that sugar is a HUGE factor in weight loss. My pre-op diet was the Sugar Busters diet and I lost 18lbs in 3 weeks. Now I am not saying that once in a while I eat a cookie or something, but I do have my general rule that I like to follow and it has really helped me. I have lost 63 lbs since Sept. 10.

I don't journal but I watch my sugar for sure. Greek yougurt has more protien and less carbs than regular yougurt. I guess the least amount of sugar would be in the plain, although I can't stand the taste. Also plain cottage cheese would have much less sugar than the doubles. I highly reccomend you recommit to an excersise program, it makes a world of difference. Whenever my weight loss stalled I would increase the duration and/or intensity of my workouts and the scale would start moving again. Be sure you are getting all your water (at least 64 oz) and protien (at least 60 gms). Good luck!

My book from my doc says keep it to less than 12g per serving.

Some foods that have low fat, have much more sugar for some reason.

Make sure it's greek yogurt, or low fat plain.. not the kind with fruit, same for the cottage cheese, lowfat w/o fruit. Also I've been told in the past berries have the least amount of sugar so have strawberries or raspberries with that. Something like watermelon can have as much sugar as a candy bar.

I don't really keep track of calories, but pretty sure I land around 1200 a day.

Breakfast

Typically egg beaters with a little chopped chicken breast, low fat cheese and salsa and 1 small piece of whole grain toast

or oatmeal w/ a little brown sugar

lunch

Prepared chicken salad or tuna salad

5 Water crackers

dinner

Ground lean turkey or chicken or chicken breast with salsa or marinara and lowfat cheese (then i melt it together)

Snack

I usually have a small bowl of oatmeal as a snack (haha i'm obsessed with it)

Breakfast

Typically egg beaters with a little chopped chicken breast, low fat cheese and salsa and 1 small piece of whole grain toast

or oatmeal w/ a little brown sugar

lunch

Prepared chicken salad or tuna salad

5 Water crackers

dinner

Ground lean turkey or chicken or chicken breast with salsa or marinara and lowfat cheese (then i melt it together)

Snack

I usually have a small bowl of oatmeal as a snack (haha i'm obsessed with it)

HeatherinCA, how do you make your chicken or tuna salad? Just curious because I love those but recently discovered that my favourite mayo has 100 cal per tbsp!!!

If you like yogurt and you have a Kroger around you, they have yogurt called Kroger Carbmaster. It is pretty good and has on 3 grams of sugar and 60-80 calories. I really like it and sometimes add a pack of Stevia to sweeten it up. It's a great snack!

I keep a daily Diary. I use like a 3 subject note book turn it side ways and do the following:

Date Time food Amount Calories Protein How do you Feel?

02/18 8:00 Turkey Bacon 2 slices 70 6 O.K.

I have Chobani fat free greek yoghurt with fruit for breakfast and my Nut is fine with it. I do add 1/2 scoop vanilla whey isolate, 2 tsp benefiber, splendra, 1 protein scoop kashi go crunch (high portein).

I second the Carbmaster Yogurt suggestion. As to the cottage cheese, get the plain breakstone snack size WITHOUT the fruit.. add your own fresh fruit.. still a little sugar, but it's natural and not processed. Or really I like a tablespoon of real bacon bits added to cottage cheese. It's only 25 calories/Tbspn and wow does it taste good!

For a lower calorie Mayo, try the Kraft Olive Oil Mayo.. it tastes good and much less calories. I also like Hellman's Dijonnaise for some things.

If you can't find the lower calorie Mayo, try subbing some plain low fat (or non fat) greek yogurt for part of the Mayonnaise. That helps cut calories and ups the Protein.

I've heard some people (nonbandsters) suggest mashed avocado as a healthier sub for Mayo.. not sure how that would taste, but might be worth a try.

Good Luck. I've never really "counted" sugars, but I read labels and compare products and buy the ones with less sugar, lower sodium, higher protein, lower calories, lower fat. Sometimes you have to make a choice between which one you get.. if it's for me, lower fat, lower calories, lower sugar are my priorities. For DH.. lower sodium is my first concern because of his health issues.

I don't track just sugars. I track *all* carbs so the sugars take care of themselves. I'm only eating about 30-45gm of carb per day which means everything I eat is automatically lower in sugars.

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