twheelz,
and good for you on doing the most important first step: reading the book!
Like
Schmoodle said, Dr. A doesn't concentrate much on portion sizes in the book other than for nuts (lots of calories) and "sweet treats" (consuming too much of sugar alcohols can make you sick). If you eventually find it hard to get the pounds off, you might consider entering your food on
www.fitday.com, which is a free site used by a lot of members here. It's not necessary, though. I lost over 130 pounds without ever constraining my portion sizes (except for nuts and sweet treats) or counting any calories.
As for the dairy--have you talked with a doctor and/or nutritionist to find out why you have trouble with low-fat and fat-free dairy? I'd think finding that out would be a very important first step in deciding what to do here. Dairy can be such an important part of a healthy diet, but the more saturated fat you consume with it, the less healthy it can be for you. If it were me, I'd find out why the lower-fat items make me sick and then decide how to handle it. In the meantime, use the full fat items, but use them sparingly, and be very observant of which brands/kinds have the lowest fat. Does swiss have less fat than cheddar? Is Kraft higher in fat than, say, Cabot? Also, investigate whether the "part-skim" mozzarella makes you sick. Since only part of it is skim milk, maybe it won't be as likely to make you sick. Can you do 1% milk instead of 2%? If you can handle 2%, you can look for cheeses made with 2% milk. Good luck!