Is canned tuna (canned in water) allowed on IP? Thank you in advance.

It's actually my weekend breakfast treat. I like them, just have to make sure you have a no stick pan and olive oil spray. I put about 4 oz of water and make about 4 med size pancakes. They're thin, almost like crepes but I'm fine with them. Then I pour Walden Farms maple syrup on them. I kinda like them.

hmmm....will try them or get the WF chocolate syrup and use it on the plain crepes! I do love chocolate! Thanks for the input.....

Don't let me scare you off! I've found that a lot of foods make me feel that tingle in the back of my throat. It could have been my reflux acting up or something else. My coach really likes them!

Went out to dinner tonight on "date night" with my son (age 6, our little ritual once a month). We went to one of my favorite places, a very upscale restaurant, and I was a bit nervous, but he loves and requested it. I am SO proud! Woodfired redfish on a cedar plank, broccolini, and NO creme brûlée with homemade vanilla bean ice cream! My son still had his favorites and normally we share, but after I ordered, he said, "Wow, mommy. You sure are working hard on this diet. I'm so proud of you. Next year you'll even be able to ride the roller coasters with me, right?" He was so excited and so proud, that he broke my heart. I may or may not have cried a little in a fancy-schmancy restaurant. You can bet your steadily shrinking backsides that this year, I'll be riding EVERY ride with him. Even that stupid giant yellow slide with the ultra narrow stairs.

Jolie

Oh, and the best part. Just now tucked him in (an hour late!) and asked what was the best part of his night. He hugged me so tight, and said, "Spending it with you mom. All of it was my favorite because we were together. And now that you're working to get healthy so you can live longer, that means we'll get to spend longer together loving each other from Earth, not Heaven." Children really hit the nail on the head sometimes.

I'm going to have to try that too. I went to Paris in September, and every morning I got the chocolate crepes and cafe creme for breakfast. I can make that at home, w/ IP vanilla drink in the frother, & espresso, IP crepes and WF chocolate syrup.

Question. I just ran out of sea salt, and ran to the store to pick some up. I thought I was getting a great deal because it was in a big container. Sea Salt in big white letters. However, when I got home it was white and not natural color. Does that mean it was bleached, and is it a problem?

We threw out our white salt knowing that the darker it is the better it is for you. I believe if it's white it is bleached and they add back the iodine in but it's a man made iodine.
Regarding your alkaline question yesterday, I see my coach on Monday and I can ask her. They seem fairly knowledgeable about alkaline vs. acidic. Good questions. :) I'd like to know too.

Good to see you back Carla! Welcome back.

I love the chocolate muffins with caramel sauce drizzled on top of them. Too bad it's a restricted.

Linden, Would you share what are the symptoms of being allergic to soy? When you said people can be allergic and not even know about it....Then my friend was telling me her doc told her people should stay away from soy. She didn't say why though.

I was gone for a day (spring cleaning at home) and I had a lot to catch up on! I WI on Monday, I'm getting closer to my original goal of 160 but decided to go lower so I won't be overweight anymore. My high should be 159 and low is 134ish.
Great job everyone, especially the newest memebers sticking to it. It will change your life!

Hmm...the brand is called Hain. It says on the front, "this product does not provide Iodide..."

Thanks for checking your coaches. I'm pretty lucky I seem to have some good coaches. The one I see most often lost about 60lbs on Ideal Protein, so she knows the diet from experience. She was researching gout last time I was there.

Thank you! I normally have allergies only march to may and late september to november, our blooming season. This is probably the earliest I have been hit and I have lived in this start for 40 years! I have been taking my zyrtec all along and have been using my spray med it just doesn't seem to be making much difference. I did pick up a homeopathic earlier and it may be making a dent in how I feel. I will keep me fingers crossed that tomorrow is better.

Also, I just saw your pictures. You can really see a difference! You must be so proud and excited each time you look at yourself in the mirror. :)

What a nice pair of compliments! Sometimes we have a better sense of what we look like and what we want to look like than those around us. ;)

Romaine is preferred because of its nutritional value. You may have other lettuce mixed in to break up the monotony but, try to keep as much romaine in as possible. YES, you must have the lettuce. It is a strong contributor to the nutrion/vitamins that we are needing. Our multi-vitamin is designed to supplement the diet not be a complete substitute for those vitamins.

Sounds like you made pretty good choices for a phase 2 day. Sometimes that is the best you can do when you are "traveling". I wouldn't worry about it much. Tomorrow will be more normal and there should be little to no impact.

What you lost was water so, yes, you got the same overall nutrition and volume. You are doing just fine. It is the same as when you cook down a cup of spinach. In the end, the spinach looks like one over sized soup spoons volume. It is still the same calories and nutrition though. Be aware of that so you are not tempted to over eat cooked veggies and end up with more hidden carbs that you expect. Did you know that 1 cup raw spinach is roughly one carb but 1 cup cooked spinach is 7 carbs? That could sneak up on you pretty quickly if you did 2 or 3 cooked cups of spinach a day.



1/2 tsp is approximately 1 carb. In an entire recipe it is almost negligible. It is the same carb impact as 1tsp of garlic powder added to a recipe. It is equivalent to 1 cup of romaine or spinach. If you are sharing that recipe there would be virtually no impact. Just make a note to yourself that you used it so you can see if you have any personal impact, some people do not respond well to corn products (allergy usually) and will retain some fluids after exposure to an allergen.

As for a substitute, you could try arrowroot powder. It is much lower in carbs, virtually zero in 1 tsp. It can be added to hot recipes to make gravies but, it needs to be added slowly, in the last 10 min or so of cooking and should be done over a much lower heat setting as the heat will break it down and the sauce will revert to a thinner consistency.

DAFFYDOWNLILLIES:

My opinion is adding more skim milk is a problem only because, "add a little, add a little" more begins to happen. Skim milk is low on fat but higher on carbs and will add those unnecessary carbs quickly. Try using the ready to drink vanilla shake as your coffee creamer. Or mix a vanilla pudding to add in. I prefer the RTD. It is rich, creamy and adds a nice sweet, vanilla flavor. If you use too much it counts as a protein but, my coach allowed my to have 1/4 per day and not count is as a protein. It did not slow my weight loss to do that.

You may add any zero cal, zero fat, zero carb food. You should be looking for products only sweetened with stevia (rebianna), acesulfame K (potassium), sucralose (splenda), xylitol, or mannitol.

The things you ask about are allowed by some coaches and not by others. This would be your call with your coach or, if you are doing this on your own, your call based on adding one item to your week, noting the impact to your weightloss COMPARED TO A WEEK DONE PERFECTLY TO PLAN, and then deciding if your body can handle it.

Many people have had surgery. Depending on the surgery you will need to discuss the preferred diet with your doctor. Many are perfectly fine with the program. Some prefer you go to a phase 3 plan so you have a slightly more balanced diet, more calories, and more complete nutrition. They want to ensure your body has all it needs to heal properly. Plan to have some kind of stall. It may not happen but, if it does you won't be shocked. Very often a stall is seen during an illness and following a surgery. When the body is healing, it frequently builds additional fluids necessary to the healing process. As you get back to normal those fluids will go away. Don't stress. If you are watching your diet, you will just jump back on plan.

WOO HOO!! That is awesome! She must have been so proud of you and so excited to have you keeping up!

I know what you mean! Me visiting my grandmother's was like a trip to the candy store! I always nibbled. Now, it doesn't even occur to me. Congratulations on your NSV! I know exactly how you feel. :hug:

Yes. BUT, look for a low sodium variety or one with lower sodium values. Make sure it is water packed. My coach regularly used canned tuna. It made it possible for him to manage the costs of the diet and meet his goal. He did great, lost 67 pounds in 65 days (he's a guy so kinda of normal), and used the tuna several times a week.

You will be so surprised how quickly you'll love seeing yourself in pictures. Even if you don't want to, let him take pictures of you from many angles and regularly now. Don't look at them if you don't want to. In about 8 weeks, start comparing how they look. IT IS SHOCKING the transformation you will make in 2 months! You never have to share those starting pictures with anyone but your husband but, you will regret and wonder if you don't have a way to compare where this journey began.

Trust me, I am the girl who had more pictures taken of me running from the camera than from the face. And, there haven't been many pictures before recently. I now value the pictures that were taken. At one point, I was changing so quickly, my mind couldn't comprehend it and those pictures really provided a reality check.

That is such a sweet story. You have an amazing little guy!

There are so many things you don't get to enjoy in life when we step away from "normal" sizing. It is so nice when you realizing you are getting those things back.

At one point we had a thread talking about what we most looked forward to while losing weight and reaching goal. So many of us posted things like: crossing my legs, sitting comfortably in plane and stadium seats, wearing boots again, and things like that. I will have to see if I can find that thread, your amusement park plans remind me of it.

;)Regarding taking pictures that only you will see and your loved one.....I just have to share this story. When I started a diet years ago, I had my sister take a picture of me in my bra and underware and I lived with her and her husband, well she forgot to hide them and he was eating his lunch at the table, saw some pictures and thought they were of the kids or something. I didn't see him look at them, but I can imagine his reaction when he saw those.
So....warning, if you get pictures taken, hide them!

There are several ways of retrieving sea salt, some methods do include chemicals, and some methods retrieve the white salt off the top of a dehydrated salt bed and leave the "dirty brown" salt behind. Unfortunately, it is the "dirty" looking salt that is most rich in the minerals. One of which is the iodide we need. The sea salt you have is "ok" and better than table salt but, it will leave you iodine depleted unless you eat many iodine/iodide rich foods. Try looking for a sea salt that says it included minerals. Redmond's real salt is one, so are several varieties of hawaiian pink, himalyan pink, french grey, celtic grey, celtic pink, and some varieties of land salt (like those from the Salzburg area) can be high in minerals too.



Thank you! It is so nice to see you! You are looking so GOOD in your picture. :) How were your holidays?

The only really obvious symptom I had was hives one day when I'd only had soy packets. Other days sometimes my eyes would be itchy, or my ears. But I didn't make the connection until I read that people with hypothyroidism should avoid soy AND it mentioned that "a lot of people are allergic to soy but don't know it."

Since I'm allergic, or food sensitive, to a lot of things -- corn, nuts, tomatoes, beef -- you know, the staples of American cuisine, I asked to be tested and sure enough.

What is a normal water %? I bought a new scale that has the function but I am not sure of where I should be? Mine says 46% and I drink all my water +++! Is this normal?

French sel de mer and sel gris as well as Italian sea salt all have natural iodine in them.

Edit: Sorry, AMY, I answered this before I saw that Carla had. But since I'm in here, let me make one last plug for Hawai'ian pink salt. It, too, has natural iodine and, for my money, the best tasting of the lot -- if you can get it. But then you could always just come for a vacation and. . . .