I'm not sure why you aren't making your own salad dressings! There are a ton of recipes out there, they are so easy, and you get in your oil too. Also, you don't need to eat salads every day. Most days I grill or roast my 4 cups of veggies and I don't put them into salads. Make a sort of casserole or something with the veg too! Yesterday I make grated cauliflower (like a rice substitute), mushrooms, celery and mexican spices all cooked together. With a nice cucumber salad on the side.

I make salads during the week for lunch occasionally with cukes, mushrooms, celery and my own salad dressings with lots of different herbs and spices, mustard based, or just oil and vinegar.

I'm a vegetarian too and I found it a lot slower as well. I do add quorn naked cutlets and other veg meats for my quota as well and they end up being around 5g carbs that I put into my daily rollup of carbs. I like tofu but I wouldn't be able to eat it everyday. I don't really like eggs, but I include them as a quick fix.

I forgot to mention I take a biotin supplement for my hair and nails. It works great!

I know you're right! It's so true. I'm going to work on starting to better prepare, so I'm not quite so sad when it actually happens.


Originally posted by SweetStina: Kelsey ~ Sorry to hear that you're feeling down...you'll figure it all out I'm sure so don't stress about it too much!


My weigh in is tonight...not sure once again what the outcome will be. Hoping for a loss...will keep you posted.[/QUOTE]


Feeling much better. Good luck at your weigh in tonight! I'm sure it will be great!

Have you read the recipes in the first recipe thread? Ogdog13, alone, has written an entire cookbook for us. Of her over 900 postings I'll bet you can find something you'd like to eat.

Yes.

I think a lot of people stalled in their weight loss around weeks 7 and 8. But they were still losing inches. Sometimes it's just TOM. So keep measuring yourself to keep up the motivation.

My skin actually improved on the diet. Carbs tend to cause breakouts. And my nails look great from all the vitamin supplements. One caution: my hair started falling out some after 3 months on the program. This happens to 10% of people who lose a lot of weight fast with any method of weight loss, not just Ideal Protein.

Don't give up. Your weight loss will pick up again. Check the inches lost.

Had my weigh in today. Down another 2.2lbs! Next week I'm hoping to see the 180's AND next week I should hopefully be at a total of 50lbs lost since I started IP.

Does anyone know if all the IP pack have soy? If not which ones are soy free?

Check the first page of this thread. In message 5, there's a pdf that has ingredients for almost all the packets.

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/idea...deas-tips.html

Gabby Lou According to the IP ingredients list I got from my IP doc 5 months ago, the raspberry jelly, all of the drinks (blueberry, cranberry, pomegranate; pineapple and banana; cocoa;cappuccino; peach and mango; pina colada smoothie mix and yogurt berry don't have soy. Also, salt and vinegar ridges don't. This list says vanilla box drinks do have soy but
I drink 3x a day and the ingredients list on the cardboard cover says whey protein. At bottom it says "may contain soy". Hope that helps you!

Thanks for all the helpful info. Now I will experiment and see what packets bother me and stick to the ones that don't.

Good evening all! Just got on my lap top, was busy sewing all day, haven't felt hungry all day but stayed on the plan! The ketone strips say I am burning a small amount of ketones, so that's good. I do find it very difficult to drink all the water though...i do add more water to my IP drinks and more in my puddings (and freeze them) I carry around water with me all day and keep drinking..
I hate to ask this question, but does constipation go along with this diet? I know calcium is very constipating. ouch!

Yep...I'm a constant sufferer! I bought the NOVALAX all-natural herbal supplements from my IP coach and take 2 a day. I also add ground flaxseed to my IP blender shakes. When it gets really bad, I also drink some special tea you can get at most drugstores and/or health food stores to relieve occasional constipation. Hope this helps!

Lots of people mention constipation, or the Big C. I haven't had a problem with it yet on the plan, nor ever in my life. (maybe as an infant or toddler, I'd have to ask my mom ) There are lots of simple natural laxatives, the one I purchased from my clinic has psyllium husk, aloe vera and prune powder. I take one capsule with water a few hours after my evening meal.

On a couple of days when I have had less fiber because of the vegetables I've chosen, I add 1 tsp psyllium husk to a chilled herbal tea, whisk it, and down it quickly. The nice thing about bulk psyllium husk is that you can adjust the amount gradually, 1/4 tsp for a couple days, 1/2 tsp etc.

I was at a Walmart this weekend looking for the low carb protein powders, drinks and bars many of you have mentioned. Sadly they don't seem to be available at my local WM. While there I did see that Benefiber had boxes of single portion packs, kind of like Crystal Lite. There was a strawberry one, but it contains aspartame.

Great work passing on the potatoes and all the samples at Whole Foods.

Thanks for sharing that. I may pick them up this week and try them. I'm looking for a break from all the sweet packages.

Great planning. Sounds like a fun girls trip away, enjoy!


Thanks to whoever shared about how they use the soups and the veggies. Maybe it was sgorny? I tried that yesterday and today, using partially steamed broccoli and cauliflower in the soup, and found it satisfying. I'll have to work on some herbs and spice variations. Cumin comes to mind.

A behavioural victory - I work near a large commercial bakery that bakes truckloads of name brand bakery products. Today walking to the transit stop, the "oven fresh" aroma was delicious. I found it delightful and I didn't have any cravings for that stuff. I could just enjoy the pleasant aroma as being much nicer than the usual city street smells!

The weirdest thing just happened to me.....

I was sitting on my couch watching "The Bachelorette" and got this sudden wave of nausea and had to run to the bathroom. Well, I think I lost about 5lbs between the 2 ends it came out (Sorry for being so detailed....).

I feel fine now- no headache, no stomach pain, nothing. Has this happened to anyone else????

I have a hypothesis about why it happened but I'm not sure. I've been having to rely mostly on the EAS Carb Control drinks as the clinic I go to has been out of my 3 staples. Could that be it? Could it be the change in food/drink? I'm baffled. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Hi all!!
So I went home for a few days to spend some time with my family, and for some job interviews. I was telling my grandpa about IP, and he said he could tell I lost (I think he was just saying that) and was being super supportive. He said "the reason you've lost the weight is because YOU wanted to lose it." And he also told me for every pound I lose over 40 pounds he's going to pay me $3!! Talk about incentive!!

I also made myself a chocolate pudding--as a drink--after lunch at my moms. I poured a little into a cup so my older brother could try it, because he said he couldn't do a protein shake with water, he had to have milk. He loved it!! Then my two year old brother wanted a drink, so of course I gave him one, and then my six year old brother asked what it was and the two year old said "chocolate milk!!" And the two of them proceeded to finish it off for me. I got one drink of the whole thing.
But I guess you know it's good when two sugar crazed kids won't let you have it back!!

For lunch my mom made meatballs --in thick sugary sauce-- homemade macaroni, and cream potatoes and peas. I made a chicken breast with sauteed veggies and chicken soup as a gravy for myself and my daddy who is low-carbing. :yum: ALSO Please keep my dad in your prayers. He is a Loss Prevention manager exclusively at Cracker Barrel, and had to have me pack his chicken up, because there was an active shooter at the West Memphis, TN store and he had to get there. I'm sure the shooter was gone by the time he made it, but he will be investigating the case, which always makes me nervous.

My last exciting news of the day...You know you're getting too big when your Spanx don't fit anymore. Today I slipped them back on!!