Just went to see my old clinic... the head honcho for the district is coming tomorrow with all kinds of stuff to talk about apparently, although the owner wasn't sure what it was about yet. They have my # and will call if it's anything 'maintenance.' Kinda wondering...
Amanda, you may have been joking above, but I bet it does have something to do with this new alleged requirement that a couple of us heard about to have IP Meal Replacement shakes at least once a day in P3! Sure hope this requirement doesn't carry into maintenance!
I just finished P3 last month, and they (IP central) are suggesting the meal replacement for breakfast and giving less information about the "whole food" breakfasts. My particular clinic does not offer the Meal Replacement unless you really want to special order it, because they feel strongly it is best to use whole foods during P3, and they said they felt it was too expensive just for a two week program, but if that is what is easiest for someone, like a grab and go situation, they are willing to order.
My Clinic doesn't do the P3 Meal Replacement either, but they do have some on hand for travelling or special circumstances. Then again, they were doing the more detailed P4 maintenance plan since they opened in Jan 2012, before a lot of other clinics were on the bandwagon.
I sincerely hope it's just a better approach to maintenance that educates people who are phasing off a little better, and has nothing to do with the meal replacements. I don't believe that the meal replacements are great for educating people on how they need to eat in order to maintain their weight as it's unreasonable to think people will buy IP meal replacements for the rest of their life.
Guess we'll all soon see what the announcement is!
I agree Kira. It was a little challenging to figure out the macros etc., but "challenging" was like a hour of sitting and looking at it and then going shopping, I figured out 3 breakfasts and was good to go. What I liked about it now that I am in P4 is that I continue with those breakfasts, and also it helped me self-educate about macros in general, so I can watch them for all meals and for my overall day, and start to learn if I gain a little weight what the cause might be.
I also agree that I think whole foods are a healthier, less expensive, and better option ongoingly, at least for me that is true. I still eat a bar or a drink there and there when I'm on the go, but try to only do it once a day or less.
I was glad that P2 and P3 eased me into "normal" eating routines, and I think it was good for my body also, to get used to new things step by step.
I agree with you Amber & Kira - I think the P3 big breakfasts were important to teach people they don't need to starve themselves to maintain (some even continue to lose in P3), but rather you can actually eat a LOT of food, you just need to be eating the right things.
If this is a new P3 based on use of meal replacements, I hope we will keep the links here on 3FC for the existing protocol sheets for P3 that give real food guidelines. I have saved them to my home computer for future reference in case they are overtaken by IP updates...
Good idea oneuh2 - I don't know what will happen in April, but what my clinic said is that they are no longer providing the "examples" of P3 breakfasts, they are just giving the general breakdown of what to include that is usually on page 1 of the .pdf, so it is making it harder for their patients/clients to figure out what to eat. I found an old .pdf on here and actually sent it to my clinic and also sent them an excel sheet of my breakfasts so they had some examples to give people.
It's tricky because I actually considered using the Meal Replacement since it just sounded easier and I was so used to the easy "grab a packet and go" drinks in the morning, but I'm happy that I decided to do the food, as I wrote above.
Last edited by Grateful4Health; 04-01-2015 at 05:56 PM.
Just in case the sheets get updated when the protocol gets updated, I went ahead and downloaded all four of them to my computer, so I'll have them. Here they are: http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/5040423-post79.html
New Announcment
and also sent them an excel sheet of my breakfasts so they had some examples to give people.
