breakfast-my leftoever sandwich from last nite lunch-hopefully a salad dinner-no clue liquids are good, 1st dose of vits done, and shooting for a walk with Leslie

Okay, so it was Laurie - sorry!!!

b - oatmeal s - hot chocolate w/ protein l - oriental chicken roll up & some fries s - SB diet breakfast bar d - ring bologna, cheese, cracker (ate five of these and was STUFFED) NOT enough calories in today at all - I'll try and find something else later tonight. water: not a good day here. 20 oz water, 2 glasses of ice tea at Applebees for lunch, then I got a large ice tea after spending 1 1/2 hours getting groceries (ugh) and after dinner I had a glass of 1/2 OJ and 1/2 water.

You kmow after reading ypur posts, and some others on the GRAD boards, I realized that I signed up for this! And when I did, I knew that there were some things that I should have missed, but don't becuase I still indulge. Not that I wish my body would ill-react to anything...(O.k., well some things) I do very well with all types of foods, dumping is a rarity except for EXTREMELY HIGH fats and sugars, and becuase they're so frrekin high, I do have the good sense to stay away (most of the time) Anyway as far as the back to basics thing...thats where I have to go...not just in food, but also mindset...not sure about you, But in my basics stage I was actually scared...now I'm just ****y.

I understand where you are coming from, Aliya. I don't think one has to go on a liquid diet or something drastic to get pounds off. The thing posted often is "get back to basics" meaning protein first, non-starchy vegies next and fruit and only then some carbs. I think we can do that at any time if we need to. Personally, I think the woman from the main baord is looking for a magic way to lose weight and keep it off. Heck, weren't we all originally to a degree? I think at this point in our journeys we realize there isn't any magic. Yes, weight came off. In fact, it.came off pretty easily at first since we could eat so little. Yes, we had to completely turn our diets upside down which was far from easy and but it was hard not to lose. Now we've all gotten to the point where we either have stopped losing and still want to lose more or we've gotten where we want to be and are working our arses off to stay there or are fighting small regains already. Regain is definitely a fear instilled in me. Doctor tell patients to EXPECT a 10% regain. Yikes! How scary. I know none of us (okay maybe a few want a few pounds back) want that. Rich had regained about 22 lbs (he was pretty stable at 245 or so and got up to 267). He has remained very active so obviously his diet is in question. He definitely eats more than immediately post-op but I let him eat how he wants and it is up to him to figure it all out. I will say that we "brown bag" it most of the time from stuff we've cooked and we eat high protein foods though Rich does allow himself some semblence of carbs and I don't. To get 7 lbs of the 22 lb regain off - he cut back on 'em. Uh hum. Yup. BTW, 22 lbs is about 10% of his weight loss. Weird, eh? And it happened right before his 2 year mark. (Insert eerie music here...) Folks in my support group talk about that dreaded 10% regain that so many have encountered at the 18-24 month timeframe. Again, scary. But then I look at how they eat. We meet at Paneras for our get togethers and I've seen sweets eaten and such and heard discussion of sweets, pizza, Starbucks regular iced lattes and such. So, I think old food choices and habits perhaps have crept back in a bit? The reason for regain? Plus I'm not really sure how many of them exercise with any regularity anymore. I'll have to think about that. I read on the main board how some folks don't worry about what they eat - though they eat in moderate quantities and maintain their weight very nicely. Then I read they go out for a 30 mile run. YES, the one gal, 30 miles. No wonder she can eat sweets and all sorts of things. Honestly, I never want to aspire to those lengths. I like my simple 1.5 hour workouts (1 hour cardio, 30 minutes weights) several times a week. I can live with that. I can allocate time for that. I guess what I'm trying to say is I wonder if I'll ever eat "normally". Anyone think that way? My body is so sensitive to certain things that I feel like I won't be able to eat them again unless I want to pay the wrath of the scale or dump or worse both. I don't mind how I eat now at all. I can go out to eat and order interesting tasty things. Are there things I miss? You betcha!!! I'm not done experimenting with myself to see what foods trigger weight gains and dumping in me. So my list of *keep away from* foods may expand or shrink depending on the outcome. Gosh, you really got me fired up on this, haven't you! I'm enjoying trying to sort through my thoughts on this topic. Kathy