Glad you are here! And love your user name! Congrats on your first week progress - awesome job! (you, too,
MaryKate!)
In the
stickies, you'll find two different threads with all sorts of recipes for dinner/lunch and a few for breakfast (most of them are for phase 1). You will serve yourself well by spending time reading as many of the
stickies as you have time. Glad you found the Daily (or Weekend) thread - another great place to hang out every day!
No, you don't have to use the soups. I made the mistake of getting the mushroom and chicken soup boxes at my first visit and I couldn't stand either, until I learned right here to make them with fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth (I use the College Inn brand; has 5 calories per cup). Also, I add one celery stick diced small and maybe a mushroom or two, diced fine. I use an immersion blender to blend the soup mix with the broth to make it as creamy as possible. Most on IP find they do get used to the packets and manage to find many that we really like, although the ones we like are different for all of us. I hope you got some packets that you like already! Some clinics will take back those you don't like, but some clinics won't if the box has been opened.
We are always glad to welcome "newbies" and you will find some of the most welcoming and encouraging folks here. In short, IP works if you follow the protocol, so get ready to continue your great results if you do that. Please stay and read and learn and ask questions. With the time zone differences, you may ask something later in the evening and perhaps fewer folks are reading, so don't be shy about asking again if you don't get an answer.
