Wow, I just wanted to say that this is a terrific thread. I've been hiding what I thought was my "dirty little secret", but I feel a lot better knowing that, really, I'm just doing this the Australian way. See, I eat the same basically healthy diet I ate before being banded - just a lot less of it. I abhor artificial sweeteners and any sort of highly processed, chemical, fake food. I generally avoid white carbs, and I try to eat enough Protein - but I don't obsess over any of it. And so far it's workiing for me. I've lost 50 lbs since 08/26/08.
Heather, if you substituted "late teens" for "early 20's" and "42" for "40", these two sentences could have been written by me: "I was a little overweight in my early 20's, until I decided to do something about it. That is what started the yoyo of deprivation to gluttony that got me to a 40 BMI." Hopefully we've now broken that cycle forever.
KSF in Austin