I've been crazy busy with renos...at home & work

but wanted to say hi, & good work everyone! I'm still on plan, and am being a slow loser, but still losing

Scorbett, you look amazing!! Love the dress!!

Happy Mardi Gras! I'm so proud to say I have not had any king cake or gone OP with all the festivities going on around here. Today is a "holiday" in South Louisiana but I'm at work since it's not a "bank holiday". Someone has to come in and I volunteered. But it's super quiet so that's fine with me. It's easier for me to be at work than at home and stay OP.

Scorbett, you look adorable... I'm loving that dress! And size 6... wowza!

I keep hearing talk of these king cakes....what is a king cake exactly?

Scorbett, that dress looks AH-MAZING on you! And a SIZE 6! You go girl! You're rockin' it!

Scorbett - Looking great! All that hard work is paying off!

WI today, -2 lbs. I'll take it. We leave on vacation tomorrow. I had an order from nashua shipped to where I'll be staying, and FedEx called last night LOST???? I really hope it gets delivered. It's a rural address and you have to know your way around, especially in the dark. How could they not check that before the delivery person left, especially when he said he was unfamiliar with the area...seriously. Guess I'll pack some extra food in my suitcase just in case they fail to deliver again today...

The most simple, said to be the most traditional, is a ring of twisted cinnamon roll-style bread topped with icing or sugar, usually colored purple, green, and gold (the traditional Mardi Gras colors) with food coloring. They have lots of different flavored fillings. A friend of mine even made a King Cake Cheesecake! I keep telling myself I don't like it and as long as I don't have even one bite I can believe it and make it through the whole season without eating any. But if I have one bite - that's it - I remember how good it really is!

Okay, I'm freakin' out a bit. I ordered all my Alternative products over a week ago from Nashua and have not recieved them yet. I checked the tracking number and they aren't scheduled for delivery until THURSDAY! Ugh...I don't have enough IP shakes/soups to get me through. I'm hoping it will be delivered a day early :-( The delay is due to the storm that hit last weekend.

Scorbett - that dress looks amazing on you!!!

I had my second week weigh-in this morning. I lost 3 pounds and 6 inches.

I was (at first) disappointed with the 3 pound loss. I really thought it should of been more since it was the second week, and then I realized... this is my body and this is what I lost in real fat and to be satisfied with the results!! I had to give myself a mental slap to quit putting such high expectations on myself, stay 100% OP and it will all work out. :-)

Good morning everyone!

ChicagoPhil- you can definitely do this without a coach. You're already in the swing of things and can continue with IP products available online, phase in some alternatives, or do all alternatives and still get the same results. I never had a coach, but with info and help from people on this site, I've been doing this since January 1 with only products I've found locally, and I'm happy with my results.

Scorbett, size 6 is SUCH an NSV... big congratulations!

This didn't get any responses yesterday, so I'm going to try again. Someone mentioned using real salt, and I'd wondered what the difference was between "real" salt and sea salt. The info I found said the only difference was that "real" salt used chemicals in processing, so sea salt had a better flavor. I wonder if anyone knows if that's true, or if sea salt (maybe because of the chemicals in real salt?) causes less water retention?

Im not really a big fan of cocktail sauce to begin with. So if I am going to eat shrim, I use EVOO, lemon, garlic, salt, pepper, and parsley, and it is delish! You could either bring your own little container, or even asked them for half a lemon??

It's a bit confusing, because the sea salt they want us to use actually goes by the brand name Real Salt but it is sea salt. Clear as mud? So the Real Salt sea salt is what IP wants you to use because it's 100% natural. http://www.realsalt.com/

You're doing great JuliaB! 3 pounds is a great loss, and 6" is amazing too! When I first decided to do this program, with encouragement from a friend who was doing it, I was hoping I'd have Biggest Loser weigh ins every week. As you can see, I'm not having Biggest Loser weigh ins, but now that I understand that my initial expectations were a bit unrealistic, I'm totally satisfied with the plan and my losses! I'm still losing much faster than I have on any other plan.

scorbett - look at you! Amazing! Isn't it nice to see that number on the label? Woohoooo!!!

WI tonight and I'm expecting another rough one. I don't know what's going on but for no reason I was up 1.5lbs overnight. ACK! Not cool. Basically this means no loss at all for two whole weeks. Which sucks, because I really, really really want to be done but at this rate it'll be a while. A long while if I'm not losing! My coach is away again this week so I won't be able to talk to her about it or do my BCA which is sad but I know it can't be helped.

Sigh. I hate days like these.

Thanks Jen... isn't that interesting that interesting that IP recommends a specific brand, and it's called Real Salt, lol. But reading their webpage, it looks like they are just saying what I read of sea salt in general... that it is natural and unprocessed. I'm pretty sure that I read the ingredients of the sea salt I'm using and it said "100% natural sea salt", because I just bought more and I read the ingredients of EVERYTHING now (who knew the #1 "spice" in Italian sausage was sugar or corn syrup?!?), but I'll check again when I get home. I have no intention of ever going back to table salt (although I grew up being taught that table salt was the only way to get enough iodine in your diet to prevent deficiencies, and that's why salt is iodized) but I'd still like to know if regular table salt causes greater water retention than sea salt due to the chemicals. It sounds like it makes sense, but it would be good to know for sure.