NFV for me. I went to my favorite bar to watch my Bengals (so sad, so sad, been a fan since the 70's...) Anyway, watched the game, drank my waters and the bartenders made me herbal tea. It wasn't so weird to not drink a beer, in fact, I didn't really even want one. Yippie for me. Day 5 and doing great. Thanks to everyone here!

You of course should ask your coach first, but I do know it is recommended to add an extra packet if you are going to work out that hard. I know it's difficult, here you are getting thinner and the need to move seems greater. I know it did for me. So now I just go for a walk when I feel the need to move and then head to the gym for the weights.

I've never really thought about it. I just eat meat (lean cuts) when I feel like it and I guess that would be about 3 times a week, sometimes more. We eat A LOT of chicken at home, but on the other nights it's beef. Oh, and salmon usually once a week.

I have great news!

I'll be able to start this sooner than I thought. I decided to buy my ingredients weekly and it will take me about 11 days to make enough for the necessary multivitamins and food. For cheaper prices, I probably won't be diving to eat these meals every day, but I won't be living like this for the rest of my life. I'll suck it up!

I could start sooner if I didn't have to pay taxes. The one downside to being self-employed is the taxes . . . . I'm going to need 170 to buy what I need to get started, but because of taxes I need to make 1.4 of that. Dx

Anyway, I just wanted to thank everyone that has commented on my posts or contacted me directly for being so helpful. I'm usually hesitant to talk in forums, but this place is more than friendly enough to make me want to stick around.

It depends on which Pure Protein. 15 g of protein is a bit low if you're having 3 portions of it a day. You might take a look at Syntrax Matrix. Considered one of the very best because of all the nutrients, especially the amino acids. And definitely cheaper, especially when you buy 5 pounds. Drawback? Watch out for flavors with 6 carbs per serving. That's all I can get here, except for lots of nasty bodybuilding stuff, so I put up with the carbs. If you want to avoid restricteds, you pretty much have to give up on the bars, I think.

I made my goal right after Thanksgiving and properly phased off...then Christmas hit and I went a little nuts! I was up 6 pounds from my goal weight as of last Tuesday. That's when I went back OP and I am happy to say I've dropped 3 pounds so far.

I did forget how bad the headaches are when you start this diet! ugh!

I am back on track and plan on losing another 20-ish pounds this time around. Good luck to everyone and stay on track. This is an amazing diet and truly does work.

Chapter 12 of Dr Chanh's book talks about when to eat the higher carbs. If I am understanding what he is saying, the higher carbs should be eaten at the evening meal/snack to allow our bodies to convert them to usable energy for the next day. I would recommend everyone read the book or at least this chapter as it flies in the face of conventional wisdom which is popular right now.

There is a link to this book on the first page of each IP Chat thread or here is a link:
http://www.trantiendiet.com/site/spip.php?rubrique28

Good morning!! Day 6 for me and I'm feeling really good. It helps that I peeked at the scale this morning before my official WI tomorrow morning and am very happy with what I saw. Yesterday afternoon was hard for me because we were shopping at Sam's at about dinner time so decided to go ahead and feed the kids (and hubby) there. I was feeding the baby his pizza dinner and hubby commented on how great it was I was abstaining and waiting for my eggs when we got home. I told him "It's not that I'm that strong, I just want to be skinny more than I want this pizza". It really put things into perspective for me, and made me thing of all the wonderful people on this site!!

I hope everyone has a great day!!

I thinly slice cucumber and red onion and pour a marinade of Olive Oil, Apple Cider Vinegar, Fresh Lemon Juice, Salt, Pepper, Garlic, mustard, and a touch of Splenda over it and let it sit in the fridge until I'm ready for it. I had been doing individual servings, but this week I'm experimenting with making a big batch I can pull from all week. It really helps to jazz up the veggies, and I need something simple and ready to go. I'll measure the ingredients for the marinade next week, I am just a pour and cook kind of girl, but if it helps I usually get 8-10 ounces of marinade from each batch.

LOVE the new profile picture!!! Hott Mama!!!

It's good you know when the rough times are for you and are doing things to make sure you don't give in. For me it's the late afternoon / early evening when I'm making the families dinner. I will go brush my teeth or chew gum so that I remember not to pop anything in my mouth out of habit. I tend to taste a lot when I cook so now I have to call in hubby to be my official taste tester. Day 3 might be rough (it was the roughest for me) but once you come out on the other side in Ketosis you won't believe how amazing you feel.

The exercise could have done it. Check out the sticky thread for a really good thread on exercising on IP. I know there have been some people who exercised throughout the protocol but they had to make some adjustments to the diet to make sure they were getting enough calories and nutrients to still lose. I would work with your coach and maybe stop for a week just to see if it changes things. Now that you know about the restricteds it won't happen again. I know you're not the first and won't be the last who get that mixed up.

The shakes I believe are non restricteds. If you look at the sheet posted in the alternative thread that is stickied you'll find a list of what IP treats as restricted and non restricted. The cut off as I see it is anything with 8 or more carbs is a restricted, many of the puffs have 8-9 carbs and are treated as a restricted, but the chocolate drink has 7 and is a non restricted. JMO, I don't know what the official number is. I attached the nutritional info just so you would have it. The restricted bars are actually probably a little more expensive so if you wanted to get by without any of them you shouldn't have to much trouble.

Congrats on the 45lbs and welcome back!! You're right about it being hard to get back on the wagon so to speak after tiny cheats. Dinner at a friends house was my downfall the first time because one thing led to another and soon I was justifying going off the plan until after the holidays.

Yes! Personally I count them as a restricted veggie and limit my intake, but my coach told me all peppers were okay. The carb count in the colored ones is higher though so I limit them to 2 times a week or so.

Congrats!!! Isn't it amazing what you can do and adjust to once you set your mind to it?

Congrats and welcome back!! I remember you from the first time I started and hope you have the same success again! Personally the withdrawl the second time around was worse for me than the first time, but happy to say I'm on day 6 and feeling just as great as I did last time I was on IP.

In my limited experience on IP, I had a similar situation. I didn't exercise the first 3 weeks, as recommended and was eating seafood or eggs for protein because I've never been much of a beef eater. One evening I broiled filet mignon in my oven until perfection (quite by accident because, I haven't cooked beef much), along with a salad and WF dressing, I was in Hog T Heaven!! The taste was fabulous! I began eating tenderloin beef or salmon daily. (I didn't know until reading your post that beef was on a limited list. ) Also, I got back to swimming, walking, and horseback riding. Suddenly, after an office WI, my at home scale went up 2#s. Horrors!! My coach had just told me in the WI to limit the beef and salmon but, I had it already cooked in my fridge and didn't want to waste it.

I made sure my portions were within limit and once I ran out, began eating eggs (I have my own chickens so these are extra healthy and tasty), white fish, etc. I didn't reduce the amount of exercise and I'm happy to report the at home scale has moved down 4 lbs, net -2#s.

I also cut down on consumption of WF syrups just in case that was a culprit too. The lesson learned for me is to stay OP as designed and don't try to make life more interesting by having beef more often or too much WF syrups. The diet is temporary however, the more I deviate, the more I draw it out.

I started IP Thursday this week and so far am feeling great! I was worried about the headaches so paid extra attention to getting my salt in before they happened and so far have been headache free I am so excited to finally get this weight off of me once and for all, I have been a lifetime dieter. My husband says I'm really good at losing weight...I say I'm just not good at keeping it off! This time WILL be different, I have HUGE motivation...

5 months ago I delivered my beautiful son by emergency c-section after a traumatic pre-eclampsia related delivery. We both made it through and were home recovering. About 4 weeks into my recovery I started getting severe headaches, and even once left side numbness and vision loss. After going to the ER they found that I had a large brain tumor. It was luckily benign but had to be removed immediately. My surgeon was amazing and my surgery was a miraculous success with no side effects that could have been. Once home recovering from that my son started getting sick and was airlifted to Children's hospital where we were for 9 days and a stomach surgery.

Needless to say 2011 was a trying year, but it was also an eye opening year! Life is too short to spend it miserable and unhealthy. God has given me a second chance at life and I want to show Him how grateful I am by living it in the healthiest body possible! I owe it to me, my surgeon, my son, my husband, and Him! I WILL do this!!!

OK, so I do have a question...I tried the Big Mac in a Bowl last night...delicious as everyone says, but my question is what does everyone do to get the 2 cups of veggies in with it? The lettuce doesn't count and the pickles are pretty minimal so what else do you do with it?

So excited to have found this site!!!

Don't worry I wouldn't stress. In fact, I haven't eaten squash on plan to see how it affects losses, but my coach did tell me once that you can occasionally eat it.

Wuv - I meant to ask you yesterday, but is the Black Cherry MiO you were talking about the new Energy MiO with the added caffeine? That was all I saw in my store (and I bought some, you're right, yum!) but I wasn't sure if it was the same. Thanks!

Has anyone ever asked their coach why the tip is to avoid having the restricted as a snack when the book talks about having the bulk of your carbs at dinnertime? Just wondering...

Really interesting pg 78-81 discusses above. Thanks galpal!

Today is the morning of day three and I just had the cereal made in the the "non restricted" pancakes. I must say they were pretty good and fillings. This will probably be a weekend breakfast for me as during the weekdays I am always too rushed to cook anything.

I just wanted to put out there that I asked the doctor (chiropractor) who is running the center that I go to many questions at my first appointment so I thought I would share some of the answers. The center I go to the doctor is the area director everyone there has been to the most recent IP seminars. They seem very informative and helpful. I even got a call at home on day two to see how I was doing. Here is some of what they said are changes to the diet as of the newest IP seminar:

8 oz of lean meats- If your paperwork says anything less it's old and your center or coach has not been to the newest seminars.

green, red, yellow, orange peppers are all allowed- she said it used to be only green and other colors were limited use.

If you are eating eggs as your protien you can have the whole egg now. You no longer have to have 2 whites plus one whole. She said they determined that eggs, as we all know, are great protien and the whole is better for us.

Walden Farms products 2 Tablespoons 2 times a week- I did question this one as there is really nothing in these products that is bad for the diet. She said that with the products that are 0/0/0 they found that there is a difference between the canadian products vs. the products in the U.S. and that the product in the U.S. have some traces of sugar causing you to come out of ketosis. This one kinda throws me.

The other thing she said is that IP only opens new centers now with someone running it that is a licensed M.D. She said that IP is trying to monitor and shut down those older centers who are not following proticol or do not have a doctor running it and following the new plan.

I have read that some of you on this site are having issues with coaches who really are just selling the products and are not educating you or helping you with the diet. She said that IP wants to know this and you should contact them and give your centers info and they will guide you or get you to a qualified center.

Hope some of this helps.

I am bumping this post again because so many of the newer posters are saying how much they are exercising. It is so important to understand why the plan is set up the way it is and Dr Chanh's downloadable book is an easy read.

Pat