I am not sure if you are able to buy individual packets; I hope so. My coach allows us to "mix it up" so I have tried everything more than once and only buy 1 each of the premade vanilla and choc drinks. The premade vanilla is an GREAT coffee sweetener for me. The choc drink with Ice and 1 oz skim milk is a passable to good shake.
I am limited to the same products you are. My coach will not budge and allow me any restricted foods til I am past 70% of my weight lost or maybe past 100 days of success. That said, here are the things I like!
chocolate drink -excellent for a hot chocolate fix, I heat the water and the put it in a blender and blend the packet in to keep it very smooth. you can go the other way, blend it first then heat as you would soup be be careful to stir alot over low to med low heat or it will scorch.
Pina Colada - my favorite!! so easy to drink, very tropical definate coconut pineapple flavor! In a blender with Ice it is a good smoothie. I have even frozen it from that state and it makes a sort of italian ice if you freeze/scrap/freeze until you get the consistency you want.
Crispy Cereal - is ok. quick not bad to taste. smallish portion, like rice crispies in powdered milk. I add a little sugar free vanilla torani syrup to make the flavor a bit better. Works for a change and in a quick moment.
Omelette with fine herbs and cheese!!! ... have you not tried them yet? OMG, they are amazing!! So great! I eat them for breakfast or lunch or even dinner if I have my meal at another time of day. The portions are good, you can make scrambles, omelettes, or crepes with them depending on how thick you make them. They microwave well for quick cooking. I add extra cooked veggies with them or make like a tortilla/crepe and roll the veggies inside! YUMMY!
Pineapple Banana drink - is good. some really like it. For me it is a 2nd tier favorite only because I can really taste the splenda and it isn't a taste I prefer. Outside of that it would be great!
Vanilla Pudding! Double YUM! Next to butterscotch this is my favorite! It tastes like cake batter and is so easy to "doctor" up for whatever. I have added extracts to it like: orange, mint, cinnamon, lemon, cherry or maple. I have also added the sugarfree coffee syrups in caramel, hazelnut, chocolate, raspberry. It never fails to taste great! It is excellent to make a vanilla shake with too if you add a bit more vanilla into the blender!
Rapberry Jello!!! SO good as a hot drink. A good jello! I wasn't sure how I would like it but it's yummy and it has the highest collagen level so it is very helpful, along with increase water, in helping you skin return to its natural tightness. Gotta love that benefit!
Wildberry Yogurt!! WOW! My absolute favorite. It satisfies my desire for a little fruit with the dried berries and for the creamy milk that I am missing. I can have it for breakfast, lunch or a snack so easily. It makes a good smoothie/shake too.
Like banana laffy taffy??? If yes, definately get the banana pudding. If not, avoid it. IMHO, it tastes exactly the same! LOL
I have had the lemon pudding it is ok. I usually doctor it with poppy seeds or use the WF blueberry syrup to create a "swirl" in the pudding. It tastes nice that way.
I really like the pink lemonade too. It is very similar to a crystal light pink lemonade, again, just my opinion here!
If you are looking for some solid new choices, my advice, if you haven't tried them yet are:
Vanilla pudding,
Omelette with fine herbs and cheese,
Wild Berry Yogurt Drink
Pina Colada drink,
Chocolate drink,
NONE of the above I have mentioned are restricted so, you should be ok if you choose any of them.
Can't wait to hear what you picked!
Carla
Thanks for the suggestions. We have to buy full boxes, or I would have had one of everything! I asked and they looked at me like I was nuts. Maybe someday. They are relatively new at being a sponsor.
The new stuff I bought to try---Pina Colada Drink, Cereal, and Omelet. I also bought more of the Capuccino, Butterscotch Pudding and Pomagr/Blueberry Drink (also to help with the cellulite).
I really had a tough time deciding. I like my morning "meal" to be quick and easy and I like "meal" at work to be pretty simple too. I figured the Cereal would be good and was hoping the omelet would microwave well with some steamed veggies (I posted that same question a moment ago before coming here to read this!)
I don't care for any of the Laffy Taffy, so I am glad I stayed away from the Banana Pudding! I was torn with the Vanilla Pudding and the Jello. I was thinking the Jello for my snack, but I am having a love affair with the Butterscotch pudding right now and was weak and couldn't just turn away from it. And I figured two puddings was silly. I know some add more water and drink it, but I like the pudding consistancy. And I have never been a huge fan of Jello consistancy, so I wasn't sure how I would like the Jelly (as they call it).
So, that is my food for next 2 weeks. That will take me to the 1 month mark and that was the committment I made to myself....try it hard core 1 month and see. I am finding that I am starting to crave more textures and tastes. Hopefully this change in food will help. I am also experiencing the bad breath/taste. I thought I was before, but it is getting worse. And I don't want to try gum (don't really like it, and don't like that it has stalled some people's weight loss). Any other suggestions?
Also...in regards to women's cycles and weight ...I think I also posted a ?? about it. But, now I have experience (ew and yeah!) ....this week is cycle week for me, starting Tuesday. Since Monday when the scale said I had lost -7lbs. I have GAINED weight each day (less than 1lb each time....but GAINED...EEEK!). So when I went to buy food, I couldn't help but get on the scale. It was NOT nice. I didn't panic...but my coach simply said "I happens to every women the entire cycle length, unless you are cheating, the scale will move in the right direction, plus some". And she followed it with a couple stories of success to give me motivation. SOOOO....for all those women here that are cycling this week....lets just stay clean and look forward. Isn't womanhood great!!!????!
For the first time since I started...the clothes I wore today were not comfortable 3 weeks ago and the pants barely buttoned and were so horrible to sit in. I wore the pants last week and they were better. Today they are baggy. BAGGY, in one week!! I know what I am doing is working and the weight gain MUST be hormonal.
Also, she also pointed out that as we are burning fat, we are also releasing some more hormones that were sort of stuck/stored/kept in the fat cells and this will play a role in scale each week. Also why women seem to suffer more with the dizziness and moodiness while on this plan (so she says).
Interesting stuff, so I shared.
Welcome to the new people who posted! Sorry this was long.
A friend introduced me to Almond Butter this past weekend. Not that I have eaten it yet, but it sure sounds good & I can not wait to open it & have a try! I purchased mine at Costco, she said they are dupper expensive in the regular store.
Ohh...Is this allowed? We used to have it all the time as one of the schools the kids went to was a no Peanut zone, but Almond Butter was allowed. I like it, but don't buy it regularly.
Last edited by committed1; 01-21-2010 at 08:34 PM.
Had my weigh in today. I lost 1 pound. Not great, not bad, I just wanted more, still kicking myself for cheating on Sunday. I am also a bit plugged up, that probably didn't help, I need to find something to fix that problem.
Next week, I'm changing things up a bit and having my lunch as my dinner.
I may be rethinking my goal to 120lbs. Even though I was 105 when I got married, after 3 kids, 120 ain't bad for 5'2". I guess I'll reevaluate in a couple of weeks.
I made tuna salad with the WF Coleslaw mix. I put enough Spicy Brown Mustard to cover the taste and used big leaf lettuce as the wrap. My turnip chips came out great, and need to get more. Those are my comfort food!
Week 1 -6lbs.
Week 2 -2lbs.
Week 3 -4lbs.
Week 4 -1lb.
Total -13lbs. since December 16th
You are doing GREAT! Don't worry about a 1 pound week. I get one of those every month because of my menstrual cycle; it all works out during the month and I am still averaging more than 4 pounds a week after 8 weeks!
I too had a bit of "back-up" somewhere between weeks 4 and 6. I messed around with it alot to find out what my UNIQUE need is. I would suggest check how you are eating every day, are you drifting from the program? Are you getting in all your salt everyday? Are you taking in all your vitamins? How about your 1 -2 tsp of oil? How much water are you getting in? VEGGIES! Are you skimping on your veggies or lettuce? All of these things can effect the way our body is eliminating the waste (including our burned fat and toxins). If all of those things are correct, you may try a few things that have worked for others.
add some fish if you aren't already eating it and like it
increase your oil or switch to a high grade omega 3/6/9 or flax seed oil
increase your salt a little
increase your water
add some red meat if you haven't had any and can/will eat it
add fattier cuts of meat
have some strong coffee if you don't drink it
add some lemon juice to your water
do some light/easy walking after a meal (about 10 minutes)
All of the above can effect your bodies elimination process.
If those things don't work, or even before, you might talk to your counselor or doctor about using some extra magnesium for a few days. Very often a lack of magnesium can cause some back-up. I know it seems strange given the added vitamins we get but some people may be eliminating or using more magnesium than others as we increase water and change our bodies processes. FOR ME, the magnesium ended up being the trick. I am now back to my normal routine.
Hello to all!
I was so excited to see this forum. I am on my second day of the IPD and I am having a tough time eating the veges. Any suggestions on how to get them down? I love most of the food. The chocolate pudding was not my favorite. It tasted a little chalky. Does anyone have any suggestions?
I do the same as Levelheaded Girl and steam my veggies adding some to breakfast omelette, having steamed as a mid am snack, adding to soup, adding warm to salad, using in Turkey meatloaf and stuffed mushroom caps.
I HATED the chocolate pudding. I started to experiment and found I like it as a shake. I add a little chocolate flavoring or a little sugarfree syrup of chocolate flavor, or raspberry by artisan or torani syrups. I also love to add some peppermint extract. The mint gives a really crisp/cool chocolate mint effect like a less sweet andes or after 8 after dinner mint!
thanks for the suggestions for how to make sure to drink enough water - I just need to make it a habit.
As for the coffee - I've been drinking too much and I knew I wasn't supposed to - I contacted the IP folks but they didn't have an answer. They just said, you can have 1 cup in the morning and if you want to drink more than that, you need to drink an equal amount of water (plus your 8 glasses). I wanted to know why - why can't you drink coffee?? So I googled it - turns out coffee does something with glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity - here's a quote I found “a new study that shows how caffeine destabilizes blood sugar levels in Type 2 diabetics. According to the study, when people with diabetes consume caffeine with meals, it causes their blood glucose to swing wildly and their insulin to go out of control. This study is being published in the journal Diabetes Care." I guess, for the kind of diet we're on, stay away from coffee is the bottom line. Maybe my weight loss will improve with those changes.
I believe from what I learned in the past, caffeine creates a chain of events for the endocrine system. It activates the adrenals (and central nervous system for some people), and the thyroid, and the pancreas. The adrenals respond to stress as does the pancreas, the thyroid will respond to both sugar and caffeine as a stimulus. ALL of them will use a small level of insulin to facilitate the chain reactions that each organ goes through in response to the "caffeine" input.
ALSO, caffeine is something that will act as a diuretic in the body. We are not trying to dehyrdate our selves so, using to much caffeine may be counterproductive.
According to my coach, Ultimate bookcamp is from the founders of IP, not something she came up with. The goal is to pick the lowest carb IP foods & lowest approved carb count veggies. So last week I had the chicken soup, vanilla & butterscotch pudding, Lemon pudding only has 1 carb. THe veggies that I ate were Celery, Radishes, Spinach, Mushrooms, Red Cabbage. there were other veggies on the list that I had a hard time finding that are low carb, for example under 2 carbs per serving. The goal was to stay under 15 carbs per day. I also had to include another homemade protein surving of about 150 calories. I lost 4.2 last week, it worked & this week I am back on "regular" IP.
Have you (or anyone) tried the omelet in the microwave?
I got a box today thinking I could bring some veggies, steam them and then add the omelet. I don't really like cooking everything in the microwave, but it is my only choice at work.
I microwave mine in a small glass pyrex dish. It takes me about 1min 45 seconds or so at 80 percent power. I stir it twice usually. They taste great and I can eat them in the car on the run if I roll the eggs up in a large romaine lettuce leaf!
Thanks for the suggestions.
The new stuff I bought to try---Pina Colada Drink, Cereal, and Omelet. I also bought more of the Capuccino, Butterscotch Pudding and Pomagr/Blueberry Drink (also to help with the cellulite).
I am finding that I am starting to crave more textures and tastes. Hopefully this change in food will help. I am also experiencing the bad breath/taste. I thought I was before, but it is getting worse. And I don't want to try gum (don't really like it, and don't like that it has stalled some people's weight loss). Any other suggestions?
Interesting stuff, so I shared.
Committed1: Thanks for sharing I loved reading your coach's input! I was wondering about the dizziness I get once in awhile during my cycle!
I think you wiill like all the new stuff! The cereal may need a bit of doctoring if the milk flavor bugs you. I have a trick I use. I eat the cereal first then if having coffee add the milk to the coffee with my 1oz skim milk. If not having coffee I just drink the milk!
I too wanted more texture and still do. (Strangely, I crave beans!) I have been experimenting with recipes. I have made a turkey meat loaf that uses a bit of the IP leek soup as a seasoning and add shredded zuchinni, chopped mushrooms, and grated cauliflower tops to it. It tastes great! I also grate or finely chop the tops of the cauliflower (think pieces the size of the rice) take about 1 cup or more, place it in a glass or pyrex bowl and microwave WITHOUT WATER, uncovered or using saran wrap with holes in it, for about 3 minutes. It takes on a texture like rice and is great with a stir fry and stir fry sauce on it!
Regarding the breath! Take a bit of peppermint oil and shake it up in your water. It will freshen your mouth and give a crispness to your water. You can use the peppermint extract but the oil is better overall and will keep you mouth from drying out much which will make the breath worse!
So glad I am getting a chance to know you and go on this journey at the same time!
Committed1--I like the cereal, but for me the trick is to make sure the water is ice cold. So, when I am going ot make it I set my water with a couple of pieces of ice out about 10-15 min before I am going to be ready to mix and eat.
It is a cold, rainy night here in the Southwest, USA! We are actually under a tornado warning which, is a very rare thing here, ESPECIALLY in the metro area! :0
Because of the cold I was in the mood for soup, REAL Soup! LOL I made a homemade chicken soup with my own broth and lots of green veggies! YUMMY My salad was a nice field green mix with romaine topped with celery, cucumbers, red cabbage, and a homemade Italian vinegarette!
I have a question for those ladies who have been on this for more than 2 or 3 months. Have any of you experienced any changes in your menstrual cycle? I am noticing that I am no longer having any of the "pms" like symptoms I use to get? Is this true for others? Does it last
I am so excited...just found out yesterday that I can do IDP To Go! I haven't ordered anything yet (probably later today or this weekend), and will start as soon as I receive everything. Thanks everyone for the tips on likes/dislikes, as well as recipes.
I am a little disappointed about the no exercise thing. While I'm not and never really have been, an avid exerciser, I was considering beginning Callanetics to help firm things up as I lose. I really would love to wear sleeveless this summer without the "bat wings" flying in the wind! In case you haven't heard of Callanetics b/4, it's basically controlled ballet movements/ pilate type exercises. There's no weight lifting and it's non-aerobic, so I wonder if this would fall into the no exercise rule??? Anyone have any thoughts on this?
I was also considering doing the 100 day pushup challenge...found this on another thread here although can't remember the name of it at the moment... could be 100 day challenge? Anyway, the jest of this challenge is to work up to being able to do 100 pushups a day by day # 100. Do you think this exercise would be allowed? If so, anyone up for the challenge?
I have been reading through all of your posts for a while. I decided that it was time to actually join in. I am on day 5 of the program and all in all it hasn't been too bad. The first few days were shaky at best but it is getting easier by the day. I must tell you guys that you are the reason I signed up for the program. All of the terrific losses, great meal ideas and all of the support you have for each other on this forum. I have a long way to go but it will sure make it easier having this forum.
Startin day 4! Things have been going so well. I am very nervous about the weekend though.. Im in my early 20's so I'm still in that going out every weekend stage and I know alcohol is not allowed.. I am honestly worried about overcoming this. My close friends and fiance know that I can't socially drink anymore and they are supportive but I still think its gonna be really hard passing it up. Especially since one of our friends birthday is Sat night and we are celebrating at the bar! ughhh I can't sit at home and be a loner because then I will just want to EAT!! haha.. Lose Lose situation here!
Does anyone have any advice or has anyone had similar issues?
I have been reading through all of your posts for a while. I decided that it was time to actually join in. I am on day 5 of the program and all in all it hasn't been too bad. The first few days were shaky at best but it is getting easier by the day. I must tell you guys that you are the reason I signed up for the program. All of the terrific losses, great meal ideas and all of the support you have for each other on this forum. I have a long way to go but it will sure make it easier having this forum.
Welcome! I am on Day 4 of the program. Things have been getting better! I just joined the forum 4 days ago but have been using it definitely as a support system! Its nice to share the jouney with others! I wish you strength and luck through your process!
I totally understand about the desire to drink socially! My husbands birthday next week and his buddies are having a party for him. There will be so much wine and beer that I have to say no to. I am just going to keep the mindset that this is just a few months of no alcohol to have a lifetime in a better body. I am going to sip mineral water, enjoy the party and be the designated driver. I think you will be surprised how much fun it is to watch your friends get drunk and silly. Good Luck!
And I figured two puddings was silly. I know some add more water and drink it, but I like the pudding consistancy. And I have never been a huge fan of Jello consistancy, so I wasn't sure how I would like the Jelly (as they call it). 
Don't worry about a 1 pound week. I get one of those every month because of my menstrual cycle; it all works out during the month and I am still averaging more than 4 pounds a week after 8 weeks! 
