Good Morning Lisa! I think of it more as a shake up to my routine. It seems when you can eat as lil as we do, we tend to eat the same things. Therefore we go into stalls. Our body compensates and there we are! I lost some on the first go round and I hope to do so again. I do not really enjoy the liquid, although I do 1 protein shake a day anyway. But I know my diet is boring and I also know I was not as careful before it, I have become much more carb conscience again. No I didn't do breads and pasta and rice. BUt I did get carbs(too many from other sources) I think this is a great tool to raise your own personal awareness of what you are eatting. Definitely not a lifestyle!!! As far as cheating! We kinda already have that mentality by not eatting the things we shouldn't aka bread and pasta and the like. This is just reinforcing those rules of the pouch! Kinda like a refresher course in how you are suppose to eat! We all tend to sometimes make bad choices for ourselves. No point in beating ourselves up though!!! Just pick ourselves off! Dust ourselves off! Keep going! I'm good only 3 more days! Tomorrow is food! I only can eat soft food pretty much so I'm almost home! Dai

Dear Lisa: You have hit the nail on the head once again. I HAVE decided to to this, but with GREAT reservations. On the one hand, I have the same concerns about "dieting" and "gimmicks" when it comes to doing this. One of the reasons that I had surgery was to get off of the diet train and get out of the diet thinking mode. Diets never worked in the past, so why should they work now. Half of me is kicking myself for even considering another gimmick. On the other hand (you have five different fingers.....), I feel like the slowest loser on the planet, I actually had a gain recently and will do just about anything to get back to losing. (Same old "diet" mentality, huh?) I am doing this because it is "back to basics" and it will remind me of where it started, and how to eat correctly. I have not found it difficult at all (nor did I find the liquid diet before surgery). I am pretty sure that all the liquid will flush out anything that is hanging around inside of me and all the protein will cause ketosis and I will lose a few pounds. My hope is that by returning to the basics, I will then progress slowly to appropriate portions. I figure that 5 days can not really hurt anything, and may just give me the boost that I need. But to answer your question honestly, YES, I have reservations about the whole thing. Isn't this disease awful? Thank you for asking a question that allows me to get my thoughts out here in the open! Have a lovely day! Dawn

Hi Lisa, Yesterday, I got so hungry I ate 3 crackers and felt like I had blown the whole test! I was just as hungry when I got home and ate some chicken....the one thing I did notice was that I didn't "graze" on anything after dinner....Going to try again today..... Holly

Hi All, I thought of doing the pouch test. First thought about it a couple weeks back when I saw it listed on another board. My main concern about doing it, though, is that it will flip on the 'diet' switch that I have been working so hard to eradicate from my life completely. As some of you are doing it, do you have this concern? Do you feel that you are dieting? Are you beating yourself up if you 'cheat?' What's going on inside your heads as you do this? What's your internal dialogue like? Lisa

I have eaten a small sweet potato. They are better for you nutritionally than other potatoes. I haven't had any squash so to speak. I made a high protein pancake once. Got the recipe from OH. I don't eat any breads really.