Hey Dave....did you find the aardvark?? :chin: Inquiring minds want to know.

Deb

WELCOME MEDICMOM!! So glad you joined us!! Give me a call anytime, would love to talk to you..

Hello all!

I am sorry I have been absent all week -- back to work now so I have not a lot of time:( IT is great to be able to read thru the posts everyday tho! I have def been lurking!!

Everyone has been doing so well! What a great thread this weekend!! All of the positive comments/ success stories and motivation just keep me super motivated~! Did I mention I freaking LOVE IP??!!!;):carrot:

For me, I am down 30 lbs, everyone at work noticed and I am just so happy!

Have a great IP my friends and I hope to catch up with you all soon!

Take care..

[QUOTE=salesgod;3506853]And now for something the ladies won't care at all about:

The Atlanta Braves (my baseball team of choice) clinched the National League Wild Card spot with their win today. A celebration is in order!



:dancer:
WooHoo! I live in Georgia and grew in in ATL! The Braves are the BEST!! Glad they are your team too :D

Hey Candace5

We started the same week and I am down 26lbs! So congrats to you! Way to go!

JUST wondering...what is frogs eye salad???:^:

My coach told me that walking on the treadmill was okay for a cardio workout. However, she said not to get into the heavy weight-lifting which would build muscle mass --- which is what we do NOT want. Hope this helps :-)

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend.

I'm new to IP and was told about the progam from Cinders35. She is a friend of mine from work and has been an absolute HUGE supporter and motivator for me. I've struggled with weight issues my entire life and have probably tried every diet and program out there with little to no results. When Cinders35 told me about IP, I hesitated but said to myself "I might as well try 1 more thing" and let me tell you how thankful I am. I have never felt as good as I do now and I just started over a week ago!

I had a really hard first week. I cheated a little but more importantly, overcame some huge hurdles. I consider my first week my practice week. At my weigh in I lost 4 pounds and 1 inch. I know it may be on the lower side but considering the stress I was in last week with work and struggling to switch to a new program, a loss is still a loss and I have to keep my head up and move forward.

Going into this week, I know I have to make changes to my habits and the good news is, my husband is going back on his diet too which will also help me. I find that winning the small little battles, such as me walking out of the room at my work conference when they brought out chocolate cake (which is one of my previous favs!) was a small but very rewarding win. Those small wins and choices are what will allow me to reach my goal weight.

Cinders35 introduced me to this site and i'm very glad. I've read some very helpful tips and more importantly, have been inspired by all of you!

We'll all get to our goals, 1 step at a time.

I never did find the bottle cap, but I was able to get my aardvark renewed. :D

Hey Friend!

You said your post wasn't very good... I couldn't disagree more with you! I found your post to be very thoughtful.

I am proud to be going through this journey with you! You are doing fabulous and will continue to do so.

Week 2 will be cheat free and your weight loss will reflect all your hardwork!

You go girl!:hug:

Hi Mama!
I am so glad you brought this up. :hug: Please do not take this as any kind of harsh message, it is not meant that way, but instead to cheer you on to success.:carrot:

There are a lot of different opinions, and you'll have to decide what you think is best for you. That said, as a person in Phase 4 (and no weight gain 5 weeks in...) here is my take on it....[WARNING: SOAP BOX HAS BEEN PULLED OUT FROM UNDER THE COUNTER...:o]

(ahem...) IMHO The whole point of IP is to learn to eat differently. FOREVER.

If you are not ok with that idea, you will ultimately gain back your weight and have wasted all the money (and hard work!) you are putting in now. So if that idea makes you think, "holy cow, I thought I was just going to use this to lose some wait for x months, and then I could eat 'normally' again!" my personal advice would be to quit IP now and save yourself all the money and time.

If, however, you really want to take control of your life for the REST of your life, and you are OK with the idea that you will NEVER go back to eating what was "normal" (for me that meant pasta-based meals, cheesy or creamy sauces, wine every night with dinner, french fries or fried food 1-2 times a week, potato-based casseroles and dessert at least 3-4 times a week) then IP is for you.

SO: for me, the whole point of IP was to use the weight loss time/process to learn how to cook and eat differently for THE REST OF MY LIFE.

In that world view, going off plan for holidays is self-defeating.

Instead, it's important to use that time to figure out how to eat well and love your life through the holidays.

How to find what parts of the food around the holidays are actually important, and which are not.
AND really importantly--to disconnect the love and comfort and family and spirituality (and whatever else the holidays mean to you) from the food. They are NOT inextricably linked, but you need to decide that they can be unlinked--or at least most of them can.

In my life, based on that measure....
Christmas cookies...not important
Sugary and other bad food at Christmas parties....not important
Eating a reasonable portion of my 80-yr-old dad's molasses baked beans at Christmas dinner...pretty important.

For you it could be a special Hanukah meal, or some ritual food that is important to your core values. But you need to make those priorities and separate them from the typical 6-8 week excuse for eating bad food which we typically call "the holidayz"

So, I would urge you to consider staying on plan through the holidays. Will it be hard, omgosh yes! But if you stay FULLY on plan, you can also be taking serious stock about what matters to you and what you will or will not engage in NEXT year, and every year after...by deciding what is actually important to you--and why.

And my opinion is that if you go off plan during the holidays, then you are giving yourself permission--now and for the rest of your life--to eat badly every time the situation is just "hard". So I would urge you to just quit IP now and save the money.

Of course, its easy for me to say, because I am in maintenance now. And I can pick one day a week to "splurge" in the holidays.

But to get here I had to live through months and months of weddings, vacations, my daughter's graduation and accompanying series of parties, 4th of July and Memorial Day picnics, etc., etc.

My point is that there is always a reason to eat badly (overeat or eat the wrong foods), no matter the time of year.

If IP is going to be the last diet you are ever on, then you need to learn how to make it permanent.

I wonder if we need a new thread to just talk about the holidays. Even for those of us in maintenance, it presents a whole new set of challenges. And it is pretty dauntingly looming in the future. So, maybe we could all help keep each other focused through this next few months? [because I talk a good game, but this is going to be a challenging and interesting time of growth for all of us!] ;)

ok, returning soap box to under the counter now....

Busy weekends
 

I was able to take small breaks and read some of the posts. It is always nice to here about peoples success. It helps to stay focused on goals especially when around over corner there is hotdogs and cake (well at least there was for me this weekend).

But I am glad to report that I made it through another busy weekend cheat free.

I hope everyone else had a good weekend as well stay true to your goals.:)

BRAVA! Honestly, you can't get better advice, Mamatothree -- at least in my opinion.

Rocky Monarch I quoted your post in a holidays thread that Carla started. It should be on the first page of threads now.
Oh and what Linden said, Brava! With the soapbox safely stowed, you can now pick up these :encore:

I've had a perfect Phase 1 day -- all my veggies, oil, salt & water, chicken for dinner and didn't have my usual 4th packet to make it through. Maybe I should put a gold star on my calendar to mark the event. :D ;)

I have good news and bad news. A nonscale fail and a non-scale victory? ... Bad news, I have muffin-top wearing my jeans. The good news? I have muffin-top wearing my jeans because my belly has shrunken and my hips are now what's keeping them on! At the risk of being immodest :rofl: I crack myself up sometimes.

You crack me up most of the time.