MuayThaiGoddess-there are two things that have been in the back of my mind that are concerns regarding IP. I have been told numerous times by professionals that we should never eat below our basal metabolic rate- BMR.
Mine is well over 1,000 calories a day. Yes I understand the burning fat and ketosis stuff but still, is this ok?... which leads me to my second point. In the doc's book, he talks about being on this diet for a maximum of something like 6 weeks. I am planning on doing it until July! 5 months! Can that be healthy??? I will ask these questions next time I go and I'll be interested to hear what you find out too.

Thanks for noticing! :hug: I recently joined the onederland club myself. On my coaches scale I have 24 more pounds to lose but that is evening weigh ins and on my scale I have 20 more pounds to go as of this morning. I will re-evaluate in 10 pounds if I want to keep going. I haven't seen this weight in a few years. This diet keeps chipping away at the fat and the weeks just keep flying by.

If you want to find the smilies, click on the go advanced and they are on the right hand side of that window.

Have an 'IDEAL' day!

The caramel sauce was really weird when I first tried it, but now, I actually like it, it satisfies those cravings for sweets!!;)

I have been doing Lindora products exclusively for about the last month. I lost exactly 5 pounds in the last two weeks, which was about the rate I was losing on IP after the first two weeks (10 lbs. first two weeks). I am only 15 lbs. away from goal, and I think the speed of weight loss lessens a bit the closer to goal you are. Anyway, I'm happy with the way things are going. I'm not hungry and am staying in ketosis.

I'm buying most of my supplements from www.ourhealthcoop.com: fish oil, 1000 mg, 180 softgels @$7.95; liquid calcium (calcium with magnesium, boron and D3), 300 mg, 100 softgels @$6.47; and multi-vites (no iron), 60 tablets @$3.99. You can buy an alternative potassium source from Lindora. They have potassium tablets, 120 for $5. You're supposed to take two tablets per day. I can't tell from the picture how many milligrams are in each. The supplements from Our Health Coop were actually in my IP quick-start kit so they were approved by the regional IP rep.

Hope this helps.

more on vegetarian approach
 

I concur with this... though she would need to be careful about animal product in some of the packets. Besides the obvious chicken soup, several you might not expect have animal collagen, including the "blueberry, cranberry and pomegranate" drink.

I've been on IP two and a half weeks now, and last week, I started to have some strange rashes and such. I'm working with a remote coach as there is no one around me that does IP, so I'm going between my doctor to see the rashes, and talking to the coach. Started off with my face, and the coach said it's probably either an allergy to the soy protein or detox, my doctor thought an allergy, but as I've never been allergic to soy protein and was eating it at least 2-3 times a week, didn't think that was it, he gave me an eye cream and told me to take benedryl. My coach said to stay away from products with soy protein for a few days to see. I took the benedryl, cream and one day on drinks only, which is all I have without soy protein, that went way in a couple days. Then this Monday, I woke up to a bad itchy rash on my leg. It looked strangely like poison ivy, which is the only thing I've ever been allergic to. I can't figure out where it could have come from as it just started getting warm here in PA. I put some cream I keep at home on it for poison ivy, and went about the daily business, yesterday it spread a little to my torso and arm, and today even more, so I'm going back to my doctor and talking to my coach. I'm really hoping it's poison ivy, strange as that might be, or my body detoxing, but as I have only the remote coach, I am checking with my doc to see if he can identify it. I'm also going to stick to the drinks for a couple days again, which I'm almost out of so have to order more, and if soy is really the case, my coach said she'll see about exchanging. The catch is it takes 3 days for an order to get to me, an I don't have enough drinks to do that only for 3 days, so I'm stuck eating soy, just going to cut down if that's the case. :(

Hi, Birman, you have some beautiful red hair. Hopefully, the gray stops spreading. When I was in my late twenties (now I'm 52), I banged my upper forehead really hard in the exact same spot where your gray is. The hair there started going gray immediately from the trauma. There is a blue spot under the skin there to this day. Did you maybe hit your head as well? I now have some gray throughout the rest of my nearly black hair, but very little considering my age. Also, I have a 22-year-old niece with polycystic ovarian syndrome whose hair went completely gray while she was still in her teens. It was like overnight. The roots were completely gray in contrast to her brown hair. The doctors had no idea why this happened, even with the PCOS. I don't know if the IP diet could have caused the gray spot or if it's just a coincidence, but I'm hoping for the latter.

I do chew gum once in a while. I have always only chewed 1/3 of a stick. So now, I tear that in half and chew 1/6. I like to have it if I'm where drinking water is a pain. Like a movie(don't want to have to get up and leave) or if I think my breath might be bad(like when I went to the dentist). Sometimes if I have a craving it helps. I might chew a stick a week, but probably not, so I don't think it hurts me at all. I chew Extra.

Josh, congratulations to you! What an inspiration you are! :-)

Had my weigh in yesterday, due to TOM I was up .6 but all my other numbers had improved. My counselor told me not to worry about drinking the occasional soda sweetened with Splenda, as long as I'm not using large amounts of Splenda in addition to drinking the soda.

I fel in love with the premade vanilla drinks yesterday. *sigh* Also, had a vanilla peanut bar - OMG. Those could be addicting, just like the pesky Reese's Easter Eggs used to be. They don't even look or sound good anymore though. That's what I love about IP, among other things. I had an amazing salad last night while my friends ate greasy burgers and fries, and while I enjoyed the smell of their food I wasn't tempted in any way to try it or get some for myself. That's progress, folks!

Going shopping with a girl friend today. Usually have a drink with lunch at the Mexican place or eat chinese. Guess that won't be happening!!! She is great, tho, so won't care. We have sunshine and supposed to be in the 50's. That is exciting in our country for March. Today is also DH birthday, so out for dinner tonight. Luckily he is watching things, too, so we will go somewhere for a nice salad or steak and veggies. Have a great day, everyone.

Check out my new avatar...
 

Yep. I hit the 50 pounds lost this morning.

1/24/2010 - 244
3/24/2010 - 194

That's 50 pounds in 59 days and a reduction of 20.49% of my weight.

Yay.

At 190, I'm moving to Phase 2.

Have a good day, everyone!

Scott

Gum--I chew Spry on occasion which does have .7 carbs per piece or something like that. Also, I found Mega T Green Tea Gum that has zero carbs--the only down side is that it doesn't last very long before almost falling apart in your mouth, especially if you are talking while chewing.

Congratulations, Scott! I'm so happy for you! :)

Novak - you're right about me! I eat seafood now so technically I'm not vegetarian anymore. Was strict about it for 8 years (no eggs either) until 2008. When I go off IP I am going to try to eat vegetarian again, and maybe switch to raw foods. It might be healthier for my body. I can tell that animal protein aggrevates my sensitive skin. So Birman - I'm going to bug you about how you count all your protien substitutes with the carbs/protein, how you count everything, etc. And how you eat on a daily basis. ;) I'll send you a message. I think I go to phase 4 starting on April 1.

babs181 - Do you have eczema? That's what it sounds like to me. Wierd rash on parts of the body like legs, inner elbows, neck, foot, forehead (that's where I've had it). I have it and I always think it's a poison ivy rash. But it's not! I even put some strong Rx cream on a spot on my forehead thinking it was poison ivy and now I have a little mark/scar there. Ooops. Have you asked your doctor about eczema? It's hard to even know what causes it. They think that it could be caused by food or environmental irritants. Although there's no way to test for each person to see what causes it for that person. Switch to a gentle soap that's not really soap - like Dove or something all natural like vegetable glycerin. Use fragrance free laundry detergent. Can't hurt, might help anyway, even if you don't have eczema! I also use only products for beauty care that do not have animal products in them (they are less likely to cause irritation that way since they are more natural to begin with). Ask your doc about eczema. Mine didn't appear until I became an adult - I never had it as a child. But I also grew up on a farm so I think the natural countryside had something to do with my good health! I hope you can figure out what your rash is and what is causing it. By the way, my mom lives on a farm in PA and I think it is too early for the poison ivy to have the oil that causes skin reactions on it. I'll ask her to be sure. Also, eczema is incredibly itchy and it spreads when you itch it (think the skin just gets more and more irritated, not that it's an oil that spreads)! Gosh I hate it!

Hooray!!!!! :broc::broc::broc::broc::broc:

Congrats on 50 lbs down Scott :)