I'm having troubles eating all the vegetables still and other issues are much better. Will those who have resolved or lessened your challenges (e.g., difficulty eating veggies, stomach problems, etc.) on IP share what you did or any suggestions. It would be so helpful for us seeking additional solutions to those things we have tried.

hi Qsuzi,

I got this idea from someone else on the boards but I do it all the time. I add spinach to my chocolate shake and put it in my magic bullet for a long time. I can't drink it from the clear cups (it just freaks me out) but I put it in a solid cup with ice and straw and I can hardly notice the difference. At the end there are some spinach that settled to the bottom but the ice has melted so it is just a few big slurps of spinach but it gets my veggies in so I am willing to take them.

I found that too many raw vegees were hard to digest, so I started boiling them and pureeing for lunch- soup, then did a stir-fry at dinner with the olive oil. Much easier for me, and it both methods lend themselves to trying different spice combos.

Other than that, I tried to open my mind to new things. Every week, I would set a goal to try a new vegee or recipe and was surprised that things I would have turned my nose up at, ended up being some of my favorite things. Maybe it had to do with boredom on what I was allowed to have and wanting to take advantage of every vegee on the list...

Good luck and hang in there!

My biggest challenge was giving up milk or cream in my decaf coffee and/or tea. I took Sewmam's suggestion a while back, and switched over to a better blend of coffee, and I'm now quite happy drinking it black. It's the Tim Horton's blend, and it made a hugh difference to my palate. After doing this for about a week, I'm happy to report that I don't even think about 'dosing' it with milk/cream and/or sugar substitute anymore. I'm a bit amazed how much a difference it made to me, because I was struggling wanting that cream.

I also generally drink a couple of mugs of decaf Earl Gray tea at some point through the day... generally after my dinner. I craved a bit of 2% milk for the longest time in those cups of tea, but gradually have become accustomed to using 1 tbsp of Atkins RTD vanilla - or EAS CarbAdvantage RTD vanilla shake - per/cup. Tastes fine. That solution didn't work for my coffee though - it took much more of the RTD shake to make an inpact in the coffee, and I didn't want to use that much... hence the decision to go black for coffee.

Also - a couple of times/week I have an alternate Hot Instant Cereal for breakfast. It needs a touch of something 'like milk' to go with it, and I've again turned to just a little (generally just 1/4 cup) of a RTD Atkins or an EAS CarbAdvantage RTD shake for that too. Actually is quite tasty, and I sprinkle a little extra cinnamon in with it.

I'm also happy to be using Knox gelatine, rather than the normal sugar-free jello powders from the grocery store. I flavor mine with some MIO and avoid the aspartame. A nice strong flavor, and a guilt-free 'extra' snack if I need one.

These little things are are definitely helping me stay 100% on my IP-alternative product program.

I do have a question that relates to this topic.... I'm wondering what you all are using for marinades for steak, chicken, pork, etc? Are you using the WF products as a base and 'doctoring' them... or some other home-made option?

This only occurred to me yesterday, because I'd bought a couple of lovely top sirloin steaks over the weekend. I used a marinade recipe that has about 1/4 cup olive oil in it.... lots of other things as well, but they should all be ok I think. I didn't use any additional oils in my meal preparation yesterday (or so far today) but I'm wondering if I should be sticking to oil-free marinades in future. The steak has probably soaked up more than the daily allowance of 2 tsp of oil.

My favorite marinades start with fresh lemon or lime as a base...I will use lime juice/ginger/garlic some white vinegar and a little olive oil.

Or....soy sauce/lemon/ginger/white wine vinegar & a little oil.

Thanks for your response GemIAm. I guess 'a little oil' is the operative word. I'll go ahead tonight and eat my well-marindated sirloin steak (it should be really tasty by now)... but be more aware and careful in the future.

I started using broths, but was told not to, so I just cut up my vegees (or use frozen ones), cover with water and boil until tender, then use the immersion blender. I dissolve the IP soup in the shaker and add it at the last minute just to warm it up. I used alot of green onions, mushrooms, green peppers, zuchini, brocoli, cauliflower, sometimes turnips, spinach, celery, kale. Sometimes I'd just throw in a handful of dried parsley, salt/pepper, Italian seasoning mix. Sometimes I'd throw in garam masala, a sort of curry powder that I'm totally addicted to now, or I'd go with a Mexican theme and use cumin and chili powder. A little cayenne pepper is great too - warms you up in the winter. Since the regular onion was not supposed to be cooked until tender, I just went with green onions - I like the milder flavor and it doesn't matter what you do to it - the glycemic index is lower than a regular onion.

I mostly had the chicken soup, mushroom soup, broccoli/cheddar, leek if it was mixed with another one - didn't like it by itself. The tomato soup needed too much work to make it tasty to me, and the potato puree makes a great soup. I also took to making the 2 cup vegee portions into a soup and freezing them, so that all I had to do was thaw it out and add the IP soup. The frozen bags of cauliflower, brocoli and green peppers come in handy. The easier you can make it for yourself, the more likely you'll stick with it. I froze my meat portions too. I still do.

Hope that helps...

PS: Rhubarb is definitely roughage, and we need all we can get of that!

PPS: I love the spinach smoothies too.... I put ice in it and make it a sort of ice cream, which will be great in the summer. You can use one of the puddings, like chocolate, and add WF choc dip, or use vanilla pudding with some of the WF caramel dip - quite tasty! I even put some kale in there and I can't taste it! Just make sure you use the blender or food processor and completely pulverize it.

How much Mio are you using for the jello? Mio tastes fine to me, but it doesn't seem strong enough to get a real nice tart jello out of it. I've started using unsweetened Koolaid and adding stevia to it. Not very natural, but there aren't many options for non-aspartame jello out there....

Of course, there is always a real lemon or lime, and the tru-lemon/lime/orange stuff is good.

It's hard to be specific, I don't recall exactly how many 'squirts' of the MIO I'm using. I made some jello today with Knox + Mio, and also added a couple of packets of the True lemon crystallized stuff. I used the strawberry/watermelon flavor today. It has quite a nice strong flavor. I just add squirts until I'm satisfied with the intensity of the flavor.

I do a lot of dry rubs. Make my own or read label on store brand to make sure there is no sugar. There are many that don't! I made a pulled pork in my crock pot the other night with pork tenderloin. I put in WF bbq sauce, ketchup and a little WF strawberry jam so it was a little sweet sour. Pretty good.