SandraB - just for you - someone posted a ketchup recipe on page 34 of the recipes thread. Apparently all the ingredients are IP approved - although I'm not sure about tomato paste.

well i am disappointed about the yogurt!! i really like it, and i am in canada, so guess mine has been at 14 carbs a packet!! that is crazy. i try not to let this diet get to complex for me, rather keep in mind that i started on sept 21 and (technically) finished on dec 20th, which at that time lost 47 lbs. as mentioned, lost nothing since, but due to circumstances. also i think i am one of those who needed a "break" anyways. i remember from our meeting that some people choose 2 goals. a mini goal, then a final goal. although i did not plan that, that is how it has turned out. i can get back on track that way, rather than feel like a failure!!! and i do try to keep in mind that the second wieght loss will be more timely than the first portion. but i think i will try to do what i did before because right up until christmas, i did not find it that hard really. sometimes i wonder if it weren't for christmas, if i would have had such difficulties. oh well. movin on!! but damn, i like the yogurt!!

and ottawa!! hats off to you for quitting smoking the same time as losing weight. i needed to do both, but did not dare attempt at same time. besides my husband told me if i quit before mexico i could go alone!! JK. i tend to get a little biotchy trying to break that particular habit. but it is on my list for may 1st!! so good luck to you!

Hi, Ottowa!! How are you going about quitting smoking?

I did mine for a week way back when I wasn't falling off every 3 days....can we all just refer to this glorious disciplined period as BH (Before Holidays)? Anyway, I was taking in between 800-1000 cals., and 30-40 carbs. I must say that I was surprised at how many carbs I was eating, I just assumed it would have been between 20-25, like Meghan.

Hey ladies! Glad to see you all over here, seemed like we were getting lost in the hustle & bustle of the new year dieter rage! I have not been on since Sunday. I am trying to make since of my diet since I jumped or flat fell of the wagon! I was not in a happy place & the minute a carb hit my mouth, my spirits lifted & my body payed the price, tummy issues & now pancreas & kidneys ache! I actually can not wait to get back on plan. So why am I not going on plan then??? I have out of town guests coming this weekend & it so much easier to cook like a normal person then deprive myself. Also my 30th bday is next Wednesday & my girls are taking me out for a nice dinner. The next day I will start OVER & will be glad to have my gals encouraging me on!

I was able to swing into my IP office yesterday to inform them of my face plant off the wagon. They gave me Phase 4 to follow until then, to give me carbs & fruit to make me happy! Not sure I understand it totally but will follow it close enough. No matter wether I follow it or not, I will have to get back in ketosis. They also put me on medical grade St John's Wort to hopefully help with the depression I am having.

I can not believe how all that CRAP food I ate before this diet does NOT taste good any more. Veggies taste good to me! Pop, ack...when did they start putting so many bubbles & syrup in it! LOL! Glad my body is rejectiong that CRAP! Maybe when I am really off IP I can succeed at keeping the weight off!

Does anyone have Phase 1 food listing that they can email me, I have misplaced mine & the link on one of the other threads is not working.

MEGHAN

Ohmygosh.....our own little thread!!!! What a great idea, OgDog!!! And so nice to see us "oldies" together again! I am glad there are so many newbies...but for me, I just don't have the time to go thru 5-8 pages of posts everyday. We have all been thru it...or are going thru it....

Well, since I have talked to some of you on Private Messages, I know that I am not the only one having trouble getting back on plan. So - I gotta be honest, here.....I am supposed to be on Phase II....but haven't done ONE day right of it yet. I am under an awful lot of stress and just need to have more comfort food! I have kept it at sugarfree candy (ok...the Whitman Chocolate covered almonds have been the "bomb" for me. I actually "go" every day now). I eat 1-2 of the 100 calorie ice cream bars daily (well, haven't had any today). I still eat approved IP in the a.m......tried going to just an omelette...so disappointed that it doesn't hold me as long as the IP oatmeal does.

I haven't read Dr. Tsan's book -- 75 pages and sitting here in the cold computer room hasn't sounded real appealing....but I think I better read it.
SandraB - good for you for going back on plan. I wish I could...but I think I have lost my drive. PLUS - I just cannot afford it anymore. My son lost his jobs, which means he hasn't paid me for the loan I gave him when my husband died in 3 months. That was $400 a month...and that was how I paid for IP.

I must have IP mentality tho. When I am hurried, and haven't eaten breakfast (or perhaps lunch), I still grab a bar. I tried a lot of bars...I have 2 favorites that I got from Netrition. One was the "Oh Yeah" bars (don't have any to read the nutritional value....and the other I like is "Power Crunch" bars. Here's the values on the Power Crunch bars: 200 calories...fat 12g, 10g carbs and 13g protein. These still don't hold me as long as the IP bars...but they are a heckuva lot cheaper.

I am debating between a few things.....going on maintenance or the alternative plan. Just tryiing to keep my carb count low and low fat......I am a big fan of Hungry-Girl.com and get her digest every day. She kinda follows the WW plan...but her digests keep me updated on what is NEW out there....Most of her foods are high in carbs tho.

One peanut butter she suggests is called "Better'n Peanut Butter"...which has 85% less fan, and 40% less calories than regular peanut butter. I actually DO like it. I have spread it VERY thinly on Pretzel Chips that she recommended also.

So - back to the Lindora stuff....do they have puddings??? I have practically lived on IP puddings and bars thru doing IP.

Anyways, I am SO glad we have this new forum. I didn't want to post on the regular forum, because I did not want to damper anyone's enthusiasm....I didn't want to say how expensive this has become for me now.....I still think it is a wonderful diet, and I know I couldn't have lost 40# without it.

Hi Ladies,

Phase 2 begins once you have reached 90% of your goal. The old Ideal Protein paperwork states 80% but that has been altered to 90% now. My husband is on phase 2.

I don't understand why this diet has to be so expensive, even the vitamins are totally outrageous in comparison to what you can buy elsewhere. my husband does think that even though it works, it is a major money making scheme. ever notice how depressed and guilty we all feel as soon as we consider venturing off? i hate feeling that if i am not on IP - i can niether lose nor maintain my weight. i should not feel so dependant on it. my whole purpose of going on this diet was to learn good eating habits, and continue to practice them throughout the second half of my life. so Torchlaker, if you feel that the diet is too expensive, (which it is) just apply the habits and techniques you learned. really, if IP suddenly went out of business, would we all gain our weight back? I HOPE NOT! or else we are surrendering to being on IP for life!! soon i plan to be packet "free". for many reasons. expenses, getting boring, and missing real foods. it sounds like you are trying to make many conscious decisions in your eating, and that is probably what we were all lacking before. if we eat proper, healthy, we should not gain our weight back. that is what IP should have been all about, was to motivate us...not to keep us on thier product for life. cause no way in **** am i doing that!! if it was simply our health they were concerned about, they probably could have made this product slightly more affordable!! just my thoughts for the day!

I checked out the wildberry yogurt and crepe carbs - the wildberry I have says 14 carbs and crepes, which are restricted are less at 13g. Interesting...

I hear you all about the cost - man it's dangerous to add up all the weekly receipts for supplies. I've never had those amazing weekly weight losses - slow but steady but boy i'd like to have a week where I lose or 5 (or more) lbs. It hits me really hard during a week when I don't lose much and I head out of my weigh in thinking - I just paid $90 to lose 2 lbs. I know, I know - all the other saving but it's an easy tally and very unforgiving. I heard a rumour from someone who works in the office that the mark up is 100%. I believe it - the diet industry is big business.

I asked my consultant about the difference between Dr. Trans veg list and the IP list - she basically said that the book is older and so there have been changes based on people's questions and input. I buy that a bit - but Dr. Tran is the Dr. that developed the diet and I tend to lend weight to his entire plan and how it all works together - not just green peppers vs. red peppers that the IP people seem to concentrate on. I'm going to go and look up glycemic index numbers for veggies - Dr. Tran talks about glycemic index when he sorts his vegetables into enjoy and enjoy in moderation.

SandraB yeah - I'm like you and hoping that I will learn skills and tricks from this diet so that I can move on to regular food and not gain back my weight. I never plan on having to lose 50 lbs again.

My dad and I are trying to get medical insurance to pay for the food and the vitamins, my dad thinks we can do it, ill tell you if it works out for us, hes the one that knows what hes doing, i dont know much about how insurances work, but if it works ill tell you what he did.

Ogdog: Thanks so much, I should have thought of that!!! I think I got so caught up in the eat grains/carbs for breakfast/lunch none at dinner vs eat them at dinner and no animal proteins for dinner etc. etc. etc , that my common sense just flew out the window!!!! Right now 2000 calories seems like alot but with things like nut butters etc it should be something I can work out without too much trouble.

There has been a fair amount of things documented about the chemicals that the original Teflon gives off and the damages it does to the body (some info can be found if you google) but apparently some of the newer and more expensive non-stick products are not as bad.

I am using the patch to quit smoking. I used it the first time and was very pleased with the results, as I did not have any side effects other than a lack of patience etc which may or may not have been from the quitting, (LOL maybe I am just a b%&&%ch somedays). Last time I substituted mints for smokes and am not doing that this time as I think I have changed my way of thinking about anything I put in my mouth!!!

Sorry guys, female subject, I have found that my hot flashes have come back now that I am not on the IP foods (not happy with this to say the least!!!) and I find that it somewhat works (mostly not always) with what I happen to eat or drink such as sucralose or sometimes things that might have other chemical fake sugars, things such as sugar free jello and puddings. I guess it has something to do with the insulin load that using these things produces in the body as it thinks that it has real sugar coming into the system and needs to release insulin to process it. I am trying to use stevia for my coffee and tea etc but there are so many sugar-free products that I thought I would eat now that end up containing fake sugars. I wonder if using just very small amounts of sugar or other things like honey for sweeteners might help?

I basically am wondering if using things that are sugar free and contain fake sugars are going to start the fat storing process for us during maintenance?

Anyway, got to run and thanks for all the help and nice to see everyone!!!!!

Josh, somewhere among the older posts someone else was successful at having insurance cover the costs of IP. Good luck. If it works for you I'm gonna try!!!!

First, it is nice to see all the familiar faces on here again!!! And I love that we are opening up as usual!! I missed y'all.

MeghanO...taking a break is okay. You are taking it and still thinking of the diet, its not like you are just going hog wild and are going to go back to your old ways of eating. You are thinking healthy!! Which is a definite victory!! You should be proud of yourself and how you are thinking about continuing healthy eating (maintenance) while not dieting.

Ottawa, have you considered taking soy supplements to help with the hot flashes? My mom did and they helped some. Wow, you also have restructured how you are thinking of food...not using mints to quit smoking. Again, another NSV!! Good luck with the quitting smoking, it is another big, tough step in your life....you'll do it!!

Mom22 and Sandrab, I'm with you 100% on the expense which I why I turned to www.lindora.com and www.newlifestylediet.com. I am very careful when ordering the products, I read all the ingredients and the carb/protein counts before ordering. They have great products that are VERY similar to IP and at over half the cost!! Off of Lindora I HIGHLY recommend the chicken noodle soup, the chicken bouillen (sp?) soup, and the creamy tomator soup. All with low carbs and ingredients similar to IPs. I ended up leaving my coach because she was charging me $30 for a box, which is $2-4 more than the rest of y'all :(. Okay, that and the rushing from work in traffic for a 1 hour drive wasn't pleasant either. I have my scale and my food, I'm happy.

Torchlaker, what is the carb count for the "Better'n Peanut Butter"? Is it real PB? LOL. Where do you find it? As for Dr. Trans book. I scanned through the first few chapters. It is later in the book that he gets down to the eating and the foods, which I am finding very intersting. I also am tending to lend him a little more credibility about the veggies, what to eat and in what moderation. He is the founder of this diet. Haha, okay, so I love red and yellow bell peppers too and he doesn't discriminate against color. ;) And yes, Lindora has puddings...not butterscotch, but some others that look good...I haven't tried them yet as I still have IP puddings left. Lindora also has some good bar choices, a little higher than 13 carbs, but the the taste is pretty good. Echobaby (I think) has tried some and likes them too....read through the post, she recommends one in particular and which one it is escapes me at the moment.

Well, hopped on the scale this morning and only down .2 pounds. :( Given I had 2 glasses of wine last night, but finished the box (yes, the box) and have decided to not buy another one so it isn't there calling to me after a tough day of work. Water, water, water!!

I am still concerned about gaining my weight back after this diet. I know that there are phases to the maintenance, but are they long enough to really work? Helping Ottawa with the Phase 4 stuff really opened my eyes and I think that I would be comfortable eating that way, but am still nervous. Reading most of his book has helped motivate me more. And having y'all is a comfort too...thank you. For those of you who have read the book, what are your thoughts on where he says the we need to expect to go on Phase I at least 10 days per year???!!!