I too had a headache the 2nd and 3rd day, nothing would crack it so pain reliever and bed were my solution. Haven't had one since except from the sinus cold I was so lucky to have carried home from school. Best of luck.

Have a great Monday everyone!

Me... again!!
 

Happy New Year to all, old friends from this forum and new!! :hug:

Enjoyed the Holidays... maybe a little too much and gained 4# in the last 3 weeks. I feel tighter in the clothes I bought in early December and decided to shed a few # more! :carrot:

Had the same body image dissociation that some of you described in the last few pages and decided I was worth a healthy weight this year... Back to brocoli and cauliflower with an IP packet for lunch after cardio workout at the gym... which I stopped also during the Holidays. :(

Glad I know about IP now!!

Hm, the weight my body seems to be resistant to pass is 165... on 12/28 I weighed in at 166.2, and the next day went up a pound and a half... then on the first of the year made it down to 165.1, only to go up 1.3 lbs the next day and then another half a pound yesterday. Today I'm down to 165.3, and of course tomorrow is my "deadline" for my Wii Fit goal of 164.5, so we'll see if I can make it, but I'm not too optimistic. I know it's not "real" weight, because that's not physically possible. I don't think I've been drinking enough water, so I might just be retaining. I've also been more active this past week, my fiance and I started pilates and then went on a monster hike on Saturday... have any of y'all noticed the scale going bonkers when you start exercising more?

It really was great receiving compliments from my fiance's family when we saw them over Christmas, they said they could really see the loss in my face. They also admired my dedication... I made two pumpkin pies to bring with me and didn't touch them, and restricted myself to one glass of wine the whole time (that was probably the toughest). It did make me think about the whole body image thing, though. I think with me, I was in denial about what I looked like and saw myself as looking probably around what I look like now. So now I'm at that weight, my body image and self are jiving, so it doesn't look to me like I've lost anything.

As far as cost goes... my coach is in Austin, TX, several states away from me, so we do everything over the phone and e-mail. She charged a $100 consultation fee, which went over everything that I learned on this forum. I buy in boxes of 7 at $27/box, but for the months of December and January she's doing a promotion where if you buy 10 boxes, she'll throw in 2 free. She will sometimes also give you a free box if you refer someone to her who signs up. I'm doing this with my mom, and am fortunate that she offered to cover the consultation fee and my first month, otherwise (as a starving college student) I would not have been able to afford this. Then again, health-wise I don't know how long I could afford to be 50 lbs overweight.

You know what I find so interesting? That despite how badly some of us went off the diet, the weight gains were minimal as compared to other times when I did the same on other diets I've been on. This is truly major fat loss.

And as someone else observed, we seem to be smaller at these weights than at other times being at them. I really don't think I ever could wear an 8 in the mid 150s before. Anybody want to give a shot at explaining that?

Well, what we're losing is mostly pure fat. Hefty people tend to have a lot of muscle, just because it takes some strength to carry around our weight. With most diets, you lose a nontrivial amount of that muscle along with the fat, so while the scale is moving down, it's not an ideal situation. With IP, you take in just enough protein so that you don't lose muscle mass, but not so much that you don't burn off as much fat as you can. Seeing how everyone else is reacting to their bodies as they come closer and closer to their goal weight, I'll probably revise mine... but I'll decide when I get closer. And remember, once we go off the diet we'll put on a few more pounds just in water weight, but still look just as good!

QUOTE Elishatamar: have any of y'all noticed the scale going bonkers when you start exercising more?

I think I remember this from my obsessive aerobics/weight lifting phase about 15 years ago. Something about the destruction of muscle (to rebuild larger) requiring extra fluid retention in them.

Lilita, YOU GO SEXY MAMA!!!!!!!!!! :D

I think there are a couple of factors at play here - one, we are losing fat not muscle. Fat is lighter than muscle which means that 5 lbs of fat lost, is a lot of "bulk" on your body. our consultant's office has a wax replica of 5 lbs of fat - is it ever a lot! Another thing - sorry to say...but sizes are larger than they used to be. Clothing retailers know that the size on the label is important to women so sizing has been creeping up over the last number of years. So, while a smaller size on the label is nice - it's how you look and feel that counts.

Yeah, I know that about the sizes. I remember when they did it around 2000. You think they did it again recently? Or it's just a slow creep, maybe. I can ask my friend who is a pattern cutter for a designer. She's who told me about the size-lowering they all did at once back then. But I actually still have jeans in an 8 that I wore in the late 90s early 00s that I can get into now. This diet is something. It's so different from everything else I've tried. Let's hope it's different in the long-run, too.

Weigh in today and I am down another two pounds. I also had to go look for a little black dress to wear for my dinner on the beach and I found the perfect dress and I look great. I am so excited. in one week I will be on the sunny beaches of Mexico, good thing since they are calling for another 6-10inches of snow.

I'm going to give credit to this diet. I notice that a small loss of 5 lbs makes a huge difference in my clothes. I've lost 5 lbs on other diets (more than once) and never noticed the change in the fit of my clothes like i notice with the IP diet. I'm going to guess that it's the loss of fat rather than fat & muscle that's making the difference.

I can't think of who said it, but someone in this month's thread said they'd gone down something like 3 sizes with only a 20 lb. weight loss. That's impressive. Cool. Maybe it will make maintenance as easy as they say. everything else advertised about I.P. has turned out to be true. Can't say that about everything.

Well, I did not make out as well as it sounds like most of you have. I gained 10lbs over 10 days/ 2 weeks. I do not even know how this could be possible so I am hoping I will see quicker results now that I am back on program. I ate pretty much whatever I wanted over that period but I expected to gain 5 lbs tops. I am disappointed but I will persevere again and it really is true that nothing tastes as good as being thin feels.

I really thought I would not eat in a way again that would allow that kind of weight gain. I thought I had made the 'connection' and appreciated the new success too much. I was surprised how easy it was for me to slip back into my old eating habits. I hope I got the lesson this time!

I am glad you all shared your costs because I am feeling pretty lucky. I only pay $23 a box. I have to buy a full box but if I have 1 or 2 packets and do not like it she buys the whole box back not taking into account the missing packs. Plus no consultation fees. I use my own multi vitamins and calcium and buy IP potassium only.

Well, here's to starting anew. Thank God for new chances and do overs!!

Pleased, did you keep a journal of what you ate so you can tell what put the weight back on so easily? My guess is it will come off again somewhat easily now that you are back on the program!

QUOTE, PLEASED: I am glad you all shared your costs because I am feeling pretty lucky. I only pay $23 a box. I have to buy a full box but if I have 1 or 2 packets and do not like it she buys the whole box back not taking into account the missing packs. Plus no consultation fees.

Hey, who's your dealer? Can you hook us up? My faith is restored on mankind.....

OK, I'm either encountering a remarkable coincidence, or the I.P. is having a truly bizarre effect on me, since no one else has brought this up...this is hard to talk about, but, here goes:

We had a long discussion about I.P.'s effect on our hormones, I think last month. I'd shared that my PMS and attending cycle was MUCH rougher than normal. I thought it was the added soy to my diet, and others said no, it was the estrogen released from our fat stores. This cycle has been radically different. While it's true that I'm 47, and could be experiencing the effects of perimenopause, albeit abruptly, I think,(maybe wishfully) that it has something to do with the soy protien....Has anyone all of a sudden experienced night sweats and total cessation of your period? This month, it has happened to me. I should have gotten my period over the Christmas week. All I had was spotting and terrible night sweats. As I wrote before, I went off plan for 4 or 5 days. That's when all this craziness started.

My Ladies who are already through to the other side: Did your menopause or perimenopause come on you all of a sudden? Like this, in one week? Or was it more gradual, as I've always thought(or wished) it would come?

Sorry Fellows, to put you though this, but if you should ever need to dicuss testosterone ebb, you are welcome to do so here, without judgement.

Thanks in advance. Any guidence or experiences you could share would be appreciated.