Hi there, How are you doing with the Prism and are you still on it? I'm in MD also! Thanks!

I don't think this is a fair assessment at all.

The plan allows 2 fruits and 2 cups of grains per day. They even allow rice cakes, corn tortillas, Ezekiel breads, and lentils and beans.

Phase 1 is more restrictive than the rest of the plans.

This is actually a diet fairly similar to Phase 2 of South Beach.

You are not allowed refined carbs of any kind (sugar, refined wheat, prepared foods, junk foods).

Overall I find it to be a very healthy diet.

The restrictive part is the limit in calories. It encourages you to eat between 1200-1500 calories and you do need to log your foods.

I find I DO NOT lose if I don't log my foods. Lately I have noticed more and more diets emphasizing this as a KEY in weight loss.

Dawn

I didn't see this post when I joined 3FC, I did Prism a few years ago and did the first phase and had good results, then I had to stop going to the meetings, they were too far to continue driving there every week. I am just beginning it again today! So I will check in here now, it works if you can stick to it. I just tell myself I am choosing not to eat certain foods.
I also use spelt flour now instead of wheat and love to bake my own healthy breads. After phase I, that is. Glad I found this site.
Pam

Hi, i'm Lmarie! I started Prism today and i'm so excited to start this weight loss journey, I currently weigh 228lbs and my starting goal is to lose 30lbs. If your on prism please let me know how your doing...Thanks!

Hello to all you using the Prism weight loss program. I used this program with a friend almost 10 years ago and had excellent success with it. I had never been on a diet before and had that year just reached a point in life where I believe age and slowing metabolism caught up with me. I was 44 then. I'm 5'10" and my life long adult weight range had been between 130-140. I have had four children but was very fortunate that it never affected my weight.

My weight gain was so gradual I hardly noticed until one day getting on a digital scale at a dr. appt. showed I was 178! That made my eyes open fairly wide but I kept myself from going into immediate shock.

Many weeks later a friend gave me all the materials she got from the Prism Plan which had an active group in our community some months before. I set the stack in the corner in my office and would glance at the stack once in a while. I didn't want to start and fail so I contemplated it for a while until one day I picked up some of the materials and started reading them. I "practiced"
the diet for about 3 or 4 days by preparing foods and meals according the the first 6 week plan. I thought this was going to be a piece of cake--not litterally though! I called my friend who gave the materials to me earlier and said "We're going on a diet." Without flenching she said, "O.K., when?" I told her Sunday since the food journals go by week, we would start on the first day of the week. We did. We recorded our weight and measurements on the chart the program provided. Every six weeks, at the end of each phase, we were to measure. The chart was large enough to record our progress over 6 months so I figured we would be on the program until December. About the end of the first phase, my friend and I added to our program meeting at 5:00 a.m. for a 3-mile walk. That was great! Our reward would be a 30 minute coffee session at her house right after our walk then we went off to begin our individual days.

Right here I want to say that using the "buddy system" is I feel the best way to accomplish weight loss not to mention many other projects or goals in life! You keep each other honest, on track and in focus. We had no trouble following the plan, no difficulty and neither of us felt deprived, especially when we knew that in the 2nd phase we got back some of the foods we couldn't have the 1st phase.

I would recommend this plan to anyone. It is a healthy, sensible and balance diet. Dieting can though, have different affects on different people. I want to share some cautions:

Please be careful of the habits and tendencies you might acquire while on any diet program. I lost 13.5 pounds the first 6 weeks, 14, the 2nd phase and should have moved to the maintenance phase. I had it ingrained in me that I had to go to December, I think, in the beginning just because that's how far the chart went.

However, I became a robot about weighing and measuring my food. I became attached to the food journal and had it with me at my side throughout most of the day. If I went somewhere it was in my pocket or my purse. My diet became my friend and it took on a personality of its own with me and after going through the 3rd and 4th phases and weighing in at 137 my doctor called me and asked me to come in. I thought it was a check up for another issue I had been seeing him for. He told me to quit dieting because I was becoming too thin. I couldn't imagine anyone saying that to someone who was being successful managing their weight. I told him I used to weigh even less. He said that was then, this is now and he had to tell me that he was concerned.

I went home stunned. When it came time to cook the next meal I was to have that day I began to experience feelings of loss and I could not bring myself to stray from the diet. He made me start coming in for regular weigh-ins. I took a long time, another 3 or 4 months before I was comfortable letting go. My weight came up to 145 and I stayed there for the next 7 years but I can barely keep from using measuring cups, spoon and my food scales. He wanted me to weight at least 150.

I struggle with my body image now and I am on somewhat of a viscious cycle with particular eating habits. While I have never been diagnosed or told by a health professional that I have or might have an eating disorder, I think that I certainly have those tendencies now. I have never known of cases of eating disorders in any age group but teenagers. I have long periods of very strict, regimented eating. Then something in me, I don't know, snaps? I can only describe it as a wreckless, rebelious feeling. I spend 3 or 4 weeks eating enormous amounts of food. When my weight begins to climb (and I watch it as though to dare or defy it from going up) I become hard on myself which I can only handle by becoming very regimented again. I've been going through this cycle for the last 3 years. I purged in the beginning thinking that was how I could erase my mistakes until I could get a hold of myself. I'm not doing that any more but I think about it-a lot. I think that throws me back into the regimented, measured eating.

I wonder sometimes if this would have been the result had I never put myself on that first diet.

My mom is going to be doing Prism starting next week.

I'm hoping she gets some good results! My mom is ridiculously healthy in almost all aspects but her weight! I'm getting worried about her though as she's over 60 now and she's become grossly obese in the last 15 or so years. So she's trying Prism to help her out here at the beginning. I'll be praying for all of you that are on it that you keep the dedication and lower the stress levels enough to get some good results!

Please keep my mom in your prayers too! My mom is precious to me!

Nice finding this discussion group. I'm starting Prism Coorespondence program Monday, September 13th. I'm nervous but also excited because I know that the program works. Just wondering how everyone else that's on the program are doing? Do you ever post of the Prism discussion board?

I was in the prism program 12 years ago and am now trying to help others I lost the 50 lbs and so did my husband and we have kept it off. PRAISE GOD!! (that was all we needed to lose) any way I have some single moms who CAN NOT afford the program is ANYONE willing to contact me to give me a little info from phase one (it has been SO LONG)
I am needing The key principles or a few things, maybe questions, out of Phase ONE they need to be thinking about. If anyone has an old workbook EVEN USED they would be willing to donate? if not thats totally fine.
I was able to find PHASE 2, 3, and 4 used BUT NOT ONE..... any help?
I LOVED the program and it works as long as you do!

My cousin & I went to a church group that was beginning the Prism, I didn't sign up to do this one, but she did and she did amazing at it. Years later I bought the book from amazon, but for me, it was no help at all, I think I would need the workbook to accompany. It is no longer offered in my hometown, has anyone tried it "longdistance" and had any luck?

I did this MANY years ago.. Raised my kids and now I have 7 grandkids so..sad to say the weight is back... And I want to gt back to Phase 1. My husband is doing it with me BUT I CANT FIND the information. I kind of remember the basics.. I just need all the Phase 1 info and I'm sure the rest will come back to me. I KNOW no bread ,potatoes, or pasta phase 1 but that's all I got..does anyone have a way so send the guidelines to me. I'm an "exact" person so not having all the detail freaks me out and I know to succeed I need it. Id really appreciate any help .