Hi
mfirkins and
From my experience, the first meeting where you get your meal plan is a group meeting then from there out you meet one on one with a counselor. At my center, the first couple of times I met with the person that signed me up then they switch up counselors each time I go in so after a while I've seen each of them. I have noticed that each counselor has a different approach and different goal encouragement, such as one focuses on the amount of water intake and encourages upping or keeping up drinking the water amount and another one focuses on setting goals then what I want do to treat myself for reaching the goal...etc.
For the HNS's, in the beginning I mixed them with extra water to make them less as strong. One counselor suggested freezing a box of the kiwi-melon so that when I wanted a sweet treat I'd have a frozen HNS popsicle. So I tried it and WHOA it was super sour and strong, I couldn't do it.
It has been recommended to mix them with the flavored water (check your plan for which ones you can have, if you don't know then call your center and they should also be able to tell you where to get it, usually Wal-Mart carries several flavors), I do this for when I make a creamy vanilla shake in the evening sometimes.
A helpful hint that worked for me, read through this forum, they have tons of ideas and recipes that are really good. Glad to see you here and I look forward to hearing about your journey!!