Protein smotein...

I'm gonna say it....I have never counted protein grams. Ever. Why? Because I had lap band surgery. I didn't want to have to worry about counting things or taking vitamins (UGH, I hate pills!). Measuring I could live with. Here's what I was told (with a few of my own gems thrown in for free!)

• Always eat the correct portion sizes. Why? Don't do it enough and you might dilate your pouch. Heck for me, I wasn't even eating the correct portion sizes (meaning I couldn't) at one point and still managed to dilate my pouch. Here's a past post on it. (I'm really not trying to scare anyone, just sharing my personal experience which was I was eating very little and had reflux / heartburn which increased over time. Problem? Too tight.) And another favorite post on fills. And yep, I used to be a tester too - here's that post.
• Don't drink while eating period. Why? It flushes your pouch. Now you aren't supposed to be so tight that food just sits in there for a long period of time, but it does take time for it to go through. I drink all the way up until I eat and then wait at least 30 mins to have something to drink after I finish. Do I do this ALL the time? Hell no. If I'm out having a nice dinner, then there's wine. No wasting of wine here - although I tend to just finish what I still have upon receiving my food and not having anymore unless the 30 mins has past.
• Make good healthy food choices (variety, variety, variety) and eat protein first most of the time. This was important for me - cause sometimes protein just makes me want to barf. Yep, it does. I'll look at a piece of fish, chicken, or beef (I'm equal opportunity) and think - Yuck, I don't want to eat you. So, I'll eat a couple bites, but I'll eat the beans or grilled zucchini on my plate instead and that's OK. There are no absorption issues with the band. I don't take vitamins either. (My blood work shows no issues.)
• Don't eat to feeling full. Goes back to the first one on amount of food, testing, etc. etc. What's your soft stop? Sigh? Hiccup? Burp? Nose run? Unconsciously start picking and moving your food around? Figure it out. When it happens - STOP.
• If you're hungry, eat something. Hungry between meals? Ensure that it is 'real' hunger vs. 'head' hunger. Good choices = real. Bad choices = head (usually - meaning maybe it's an emotional thing going on). If good, then have a snack. Feeling hungry is OK!!! Really, it is. If you are working out a lot, you are going to get hungry. Eat something nourishing and move on. I eat 3-5 times a day depending on my hunger level. Again - do I always make "good" choices, hell no. Last night I wanted frozen yogurt with chocolate sprinkles and chocolate covered raisins. So I had it and enjoyed every last bite of it!
• Exercise a minimum of 3 times a week for 1 hour. Exercise makes me feel GOOD. I feel strong and healthy. When I don't exercise I feel "off" and "grumpy". I remind myself of this more and more often. I currently exercise - as in the strictest sense of "this is exercise time" - 5 times a week. 
• The scale is only a number and does not dictate how I feel. (In other words: Scale you are NOT the boss of me!) A zillion factors can make the scale fluctuate. Believe me I was focused on the loss too, but it got out of control. I moved to weighing in weekly period. And, I beat it into my head that other measurements such as clothing size and fitness level DO matter. For a long period of time my body was shifting (not a medical term in case you were wondering). I was shrinking, but the scale wasn't moving. The scale did eventually move, but even now while I have lost a few more pounds my body has changed much more significantly than the scale indicates.
• One caveat, let's be real. There are times when we all KNOW that we have gained weight. And I'm not talking about when my behavior has matched the items I've listed here. I'm talking about like the time that I KNEW I had gained weight because I was eating a shitload of candy. So I avoided the scale. I was on a boat going down de-nial. My advice - hop on. See the damage. Don't rationalize. Embrace it as being human and move on.
• Maintenance is hard. Losing is hard. Summary: the journey is hard. You know the saying: the band is a tool. It's in your toolbox for you to use. While I say it's hard, I do think it gets easier over time. This year is easier than last, etc. (I should caveat this by saying during the losing phase it was a roller coaster of easy / hard / easy / hard for me. At some points I was frustrated as all get out!)
• NO negative talk. Read that? No as in N-O-N-E. I bet this is hard for pretty much everyone. Give yourself a pat on the back now and then. Seriously look at what you have accomplished. No matter how much you have lost, you know what? You lost. You gained weight on a weigh in, BUT not because of things you did. (Gained 2 lbs - did you really eat an extra 7000 calories??? My guess is no.) Celebrate that you followed the bandster rules. Celebrate that you walked 5 or 55 minutes. Celebrate that a pair of pants you couldn't wear last month you can now. You had a cookie? Did you ENJOY it? If not, then it wasn't worth it - remember that next time. But if in hindsight of eating that cookie were you beating yourself up, maybe that's why you didn't enjoy it? What would have happened if maybe you just enjoyed the one cookie? Maybe that one cookie would have been enough?
• And most importantly to each and every one of you - YOU ARE WORTH IT. It really is OK to make YOURSELF a priority. And, YOU CAN DO IT! (I know you can.)

I'm still trying to get pictures together and figure out how to do "now" pics, but while I was trying to find the posts I referenced, I stumbled across this. I'm currently 10 lbs lighter (OK 11, but who's counting? Hey, I'm human!) and two sizes smaller than this picture.)