bump!

that on recover days you can have fats like hard cheese or nuts (cashews, almonds, peanuts, etc.)

and that there have been some cases of people sensitive to allergies for the ready to drink mixes. I broke out in hives for 7 days talk about insane!

What are recover days?

This is once you reached Maintenance Phase 4 you are allowed one cheat day a week followed by a recover day where you go back to Phase 1 or 2 depending on what your coach instructs you to do.

what the heck is a "recover day"? Never heard anything about it....
**oops, just saw the reply....well it will be a long time until I have to worry about those days!

Somehow I missed this... LOVE IT! So right on the nail!

Here are a few things I really wish my coach had told me:

1. If you are taking pain medicine you usually gain weight; or it is very difficult to lose it. This is of concern if you have fibromyalgia and must take daily doses.

2. If you have hypothyroidism, it is very difficult to lose weight.

3. Also, with hypothyroidism you should not eat soy products. This includes soy sauce, tofu, and all the IP products with soy isolate. There is only ONE IP product that is low carb that doesn't contain soy -- strawberry pudding. (And I'm getting a little tired of it.)

4. Likewise you should avoid foods that interfere with thyroid function, including raw broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, spinach, turnips, soybeans, peanuts, linseed, pine nuts, millet, cassava, and mustard greens. You should only eat them cooked and keep the servings modest.

5. The IP foods are low in vitamin C so a small supplement, 60 mg or less, may be helpful -- especially in the winter time.

6. Recent research shows that people should not have more than 400 mg of folic acid a day. Two daily IP multi-vitamins contain 520 mg, although most over-the-counter vitamins contain 400mg or more in one tablet. So watch it if you're taking your own vitamins.

7. And very important -- if you have hypothyroidism you should never take a calcium supplement within 6 hours of taking your thyroid medicine. The calcium interferes dramatically with thyroid medicine.

And here I am munching on my restricted salt & vinegar chips on day 4 because my coach said I should have one a day. I bought things individually, so didn't have the nutritional value. After reading several of these threads, I got curious and looked up the nutritional value for all of the IP foods. Geez! I am going to limit myself to one restricted per week (because after all, they are sooo good!) and on that day cut back on something else. These are all good things to know because my coach left out most of this (except the hair falling out part - she did mention that. But, she said, "they have a pill for that!" lol)

I am on day 4 and frustrated already with the limited eating choices and lack of seeing the scale budge at all yet.

I am on day 6 and I feel pretty good, better than I felt while I was eating lots of carbs. I am getting bored with salad and veggies, but I know there are lots of interesting recipes out there that I can try. I just need to get creative and kick my butt into gear.
I haven't been on the scale and I don't plan on going on it until my WI, plus remember it is just a number and it doesn't reflect inches.
We can do this together, that's what so great about this site!!
Good luck on your journey...looking forward to sharing it with ya

Holly

Hi Holly! Good luck to you, too!
This is the most extreme low-carb weight loss program I have tried. I was on South Beach combined with Myoden and B-12 injections and I lost 70 pounds in a year, but due to some extreme stress and hormonal issues, I put it all back on plus 10 in less than 5 months. I like that this one teaches you HOW to eat carbs for the rest of your life. I am feeling a little better today, but still no energy or anything yet - and I was eating MASSIVE carbs before the program. I will be back on the boards later today hunting for recipes because I am beyond bored with the salads, although I enjoy my excuse to buy shrimp every week Have a great day!

What do you wish your coaches had told you?

Bumping for newbies & oldies alike...

hugs

I wish my coach had told me that getting your body adjusted to eating 4 cups of veggies a day, when you go from virtually none, will screw up your intestines for awhile. Waiting to get back to normal!

I wish that my coach and also this site stayed on top of the actual IP protocol. IP no longer wants people to wait 3 weeks before eating the restricted foods! It is now protocol to allow a restricted food per day.

It does vary by coach. Also, how carbs effect everyone varies as well. If someone is having a restricted a day and not losing as fast as they are hoping to then perhaps dropping the restricted items back could be the answer. I think most people on this site are up to date and some of the more senior members are speaking from personal experience from their own journey..............which does not necessarily mean not "on top of IP protocol."