Good Luck to you

Nuclear, your signature line has disappeared!!!! At any rate there  is no link there.

As we do not malabsorb any nutrients, there are no specific guidelines. Just make healthy choices. If you need figures, just google any site which gives recommended daily intakes for someone of your age and gender. 

Having said that, some doctors and nutritionists do make clear guidelines so you should ask your own medical team.

i never counted anything except occasionally (just to make sure I was on track)  calories. 

Hi just had my band removed and feel like I wa**** by a truck. The anesthesia us the worst part the cut where the port was is very sore feeling exhausted. Headache will not go away which I think is due to lack of food and coffee. 

Does anyone have any stories about the recovery time? When does the gas pain go away?when do you start feeling better?

thank you

Don't feel too bad about yourself because of this because I am another one that the lap band failed and yes I do indeed blame the band not myself because I followed every rule and ate exactly the way I was supposed to and had been eating that way for over a year before I got the band. Like you I never had a feeling of being full or even satisfied. I would be just as hungry 2 hrs after eating as I did before eating. Even if I felt full right after eating I was hungry again by 2 hrs later, I mean actual stomach growling hunger so even at over 8cc in my band I was still hungry, the band never did work for me. I had mine removed a little over a year ago because of the pain it was causing even tho it was empty I was getting to where I could hardly eat I was so tight. So I had it removed and it caused permanent damage to my stomach that has made me lose down almost to goal weight now because I can barely eat without terrible stomach pains. Now all I can eat is usually protein and veggies but I have to eat the protein then wait an hour or so and then the veggies because I can't eat but a few bites at a time.

Anyway I agree with Kate for the most part liquids are useless because they go straight thru. Eat your protein and veggies first then if truly really hungry eat a fiberous carb like sweet potato or healthy grain like wild rice or quinoa something that isn't just empty calories, but I think if you eat several ounces of protein and some non starchy veggies and then wait a few minutes you will find you are pretty full. I follow the Atkins type diet because it severely limits carbs. carbs are horrible for me I am very sensitive to them, I swear all I have to do is look at them and they slither onto my hips!! You may be that way too.

We all tend to prefer sweet stuff but it is the sweet stuff that kills us and is usually full of carbs. If you go to Atkins.com they show you an induction diet that helps wean you off of carbs and like Kate said you will get the "carb flu" head ache, shakey and just feel like crud but to me it's worth it to dump the carbs. What I usually do when I need to get back on track with it is do one week of say 75 grams of carbs, then a week of 50, then a week of 25, THEN I drop down to the 20 grams they have you do for induction. That way you don't get so icky feeling. That is another thing to do weigh and measure your foods so you know how much you are getting and log it into myfitnesspal.com that way you know exactly what you are eating then you can see where any changes need to be made. Your kids might even like some of the newer foods you eat, don't use them as an excuse to eat cereal. When I was growing up I hated that all we ever had to eat for breakfast was cold cereal! It was a happy day when I was allowed to cook my very own scrambled eggs!! I would have lived on scrambled eggs and bacon. So who knows they might like something else. One thing I don't agree with is eating fruit because it is just straight sugar and therefore a carb. For me I may as well just sit down and eat a hand full of sugar cubes because it hits my body the same way. To me fruit=sugar and I can't eat it, it doesn't bother me to not eat it because I don't like fruit, never have liked it either. Seems I was born to be an Atkins eater!

You say you don't exercise much I say don't worry about it because the word out there currently is that you lose far more weight by watching your diet than by exercising. Now Exercise is good for you and taking a walk with the kiddos everyday might be a nice habit to get into for all of you. You don't have to go workout at a gym or anyplace like that and it doesn't have to be a big ol' cardio workout either just a walk will do as much good.

I don't think working at night and sleeping during the day is gonna be a problem, you can eat what ever kind of food you feel like. It doesn't matter what time of day it is. In fact it may work to your advantage because I don't imagine you want to eat real heavy food right before you sleep anyway so you can just have a light meal, maybe a salad with some protein in it before you go to sleep. That way you could have 2 light lunch type meals instead of a dinner right before bed. I would be more than happy to keep in touch with you too if you'd like. You can do this you just have to get yourself organized a bit and put your mind to it. If you do all these things and still have trouble losing then you can always see your doc and show him exactly what you've been doing and say look here, this is what I've been doing and this band isn't doing it, let's go for the sleeve? Hang in there kiddo we will help you as much as we can!