I would try and stay away from the protein shakes and eat solid foods which keep you full. I work nights too and have a weird eating schedule. I don't have that much fill and I eat at least a cup and a half of food at meals and still have been loosing. I eat a lot of salads, I eat the meat usually chicken first and what is left in the salad until I feel I've had enough.

Protein shakes are the ultimate sliders. They satiate only for a short time.

tmf

What I do when I think I'm hungry is keep my hands and my mind busy. I watch netflix now because tv has so many commercials and a lot of them are about FOOD! no cable, no commercials! Also have completed projects I had given up on. It's a win win situation. Get banded, have more energy, get more done in the house, way better sex life and things I didn't have 'time' for. It helps when my tv viewing was cut. Never realized how much tv I did watch! Plus I drink so much much more water than ever before.

As for the "bad habits" well I like to think of them as different habits that no longer work for me. I need to learn different habits now. When I would say bad habits, it would make me feel like I was a bad girl for doing someting bad and needed to be punished (gain more weight). Then start the downhill spiral of being fat on purpose, not being good enough for whatever, being too dumb to know better and even worse knowing and still doing the wrong things, etc. When I changed my way of thinking, I changed too.

Each day is a new beginning.

It really is a shock when we realize how much we can really eat. 6ozs does not seem like much but it does satifiy us if our bands are in the green zone. I do agree that shakes can be the ultimate sliders unless you have them programed into your program, I can not do just the 3 meals a day and keep my metabolism up to lose weight. I do drink protein or eat a protein bar twice a day between my breakfast and lunch. I probably only eat 3-4 ozs of lean meats at my meal times because I become over full with 4ozs. I still eat between 1000 -1200 calories a day and get between 90-120 grms of protein. I think everyone has to find their personal sweet spot and adjust there eating along the way. What worked for me a year ago does not work for me today. The right balance of diet and exercise is the key to long term success. I don't believe any food should be off limits if we can learn portion size and correct balance, this is not a diet for me but a way of life. Good luck to you and much success!

Thanks for the comments. To LovetheNewMe, your right, the protein shakes between meals is in my program until I hit my goal weight. What kind of Protein Bars do you eat? I cant wait to get in my green zone. Food is not having any trouble going down at this time but I take bites the size of my pinky nail and chew chew chew!! I think I am just scared to push it. Thanks for your encouragment:) I was down 3 lbs this week...Yay!!