Jennifer, Fiesta dishware has some little dip bowls that fit inside one of their dishes but you can buy the bowls separate. They are the perfect amount of food you need to eat. Also I use the powerseed and usually after the double beat I stop eating and then notice that if I wait a minute a so I am really full. I have mentioned the powerseed before. I just love it and take it everywhere. It gives you 30 seconds between beeps to chew your food which has slowed my eating down considerably. I would think over 4 oz might be too much.

Jennifer, I'm not sure if a staple line disruption would actually cause any pain. I know right after my surgery, that most/all the pain I felt was really in the muscle wall and surface, and not on the inside. And, my doctor even cut my stomach apart where the normal staple line would be (his standard), which I think would be more traumatic/painful. Question: How fast did you eat it? I'm about 6 weeks out. If I take 45 min to an hour, I can eat about half of a cheese manicotti (mostly the cheese and not the pasta shell), and a very tiny piece of garlic bread. If I eat too fast, there's no way I could down all that. Question: What calorie intake is your doctor restricting you to? Question: How big was your pouch originally? You can always do the cottage cheese test to see how big it is now...do a search for that...I can't remember the link. But, it's supposed to be pretty accurate...not sure if it picks up sld's though. I think what you are describing sounds like too much food at one sitting to be normal, and I think your doctor should be more concerned. But, your pouch may have just stretched. Even more reason to make sure your eating habits have changed for the better and you are exercising! (I'm a hypocrite) ~Kim Open VBG 9/1/04 292/256 -36

Hi, Have you or anyone else tried Weigh****chers "Smoothie"? I tried the creamy chocolate and its very good. It has 190 calories with non-fat milk, total carbs 13 g. fiber 4 g. sugers 5 g. and protein 15 g. How does this compare to other protein drinks? I am thinking of starting to drink them for the evening meal.

I had open VBG on 6-22-04. So far, I've done really good (-80lbs). But for quite a few weeks now, I've been really worried about the amount of food I seem to need in order to satiate myself. Also, within the past week or so, I'm starting to get pretty hungry between meals. To give you an idea, we have salad bowls that are a bit larger than your average cereal bowl. I can fill it with lettuce, cottage cheese, a few sunflower seeds, about 5 strips of chicken and a little shredded cheese and eat all of it. Granted, I'm usually full for quite some time after eating this, but I think it's way too much for someone less than 4 months post-op to be eating. I have been able to eat like this for at least a month now. I brought all this up to my surgeon's nurse, but she told me that as long as I'm still losing, they aren't worried about it. I think I have a problem with that answer. I've not had any lasting pain that would suggest a staple line breakdown. But it still worries me. I go in to see the nurse again on 10-28, and I am going to bring it up again. I guess I really just want to know that this is normal and everything will be fine.

Hi Jenelle, Hope you made your Monday committment. I failed mine but will MAKE IT TODAY!!! Sharon