Sandy..Good luck on the weigh in. That is a good way to keep accountable during maintenance. I am weighing in once a month. I am sorry you are struggling also. As you said..you have the tools. I am sure school is stressing you..as you can't be a teacher without stress. I hope you have a good day.

Linden..Hope you are feeling better..sounds painful. Have those drs found anything? Can you walk? Did they give you pain pills. I can see why those wonderful German deserts are tempting! Keep away from Austria with their deserts..

Pixl..I am drinking almond roca coffee. Your golden french toast sounds wonderful. I swear that I would buy a Keurig just for their flavors. I have even seen hot banana bread coffee.


The ice is better..Thanks for letting me vent. I will make it through the winter..I still think January and February are hard months. Off to a potluck..where I am taking deviled eggs..and will not eat anything.

Good morning ladies! Just wanted to check in and let you know I am back to where I was when I phased off in December. I don't know if you remember but starting from the 1st phase 3 weigh in until I restarted Jan 5, I gained 13 pounds! In 3 weeks since my restart I have lost 13.2. Now I am looking forward to seeing new numbers! I still can't decide if I want to maintain at 140 or 135. I guess I will see how I feel in another 10 pounds. I do know I'd like to start phase 3 March 29th so I'm hoping to be down between 130 and 135 by then.

Hope everyone is doing well maintaining. I have 3 classes on top of my full time job, kids, and life in general so I haven't been able to read a lot of the threads lately. Good luck to all of you!

Thanks for your kind words. I think that it's the stress that is making the weight stay on. I did a bunch of cleaning last night, and put out a huge donation for purpleheart (they come to the house, how cool is that!?) as well as about 7 things for people on freecycle. The downstairs guest room is starting to look like a room again. Things fell apart when we got a loft bed for my son. We basically threw his twin bed downstairs and then started piling things up around it to get the upstairs to be minimalist and clean. Now we have to refocus on the downstairs and keep donating things until it's nice and clean too. It's amazing how much "stuff" you can accumulate over the years when you don't move...

I think I am the same way re: carbs. I am also beginning to think that I have a sensitivity to corn. It seems to be the baked tostitos scoops that are the worst for me. When I start eating them, I have a really hard time stopping. It also seems to affect my digestion. Live and learn, right? I'm definitely doing that.

I've also recommited to my vitamin regimine. I realized that I was skipping my flaxseed oil for the past week and had run out of vit D and hadn't bothered to restock. I've also pulled the probiotics back to the front of the fridge and started taking those again as of last night. It's funny I can be such a huge proponent of these things and then simply just get in a funk and forget to take them. I'm my biggest enemy sometimes, I swear.



How was potluck? I had Colombian coffee this morning because I was feeling like being traditional. I also had my toast and vegemite (Happy Australia Day everyone!!), giant bowl of berries, and plain greek yogurt. I'm so much happier when I have my breakfast.

Great news indeed. Way to go! I might do a reboot soon, but for now I'm sticking with Phase 3 (Thanks Capricious for convincing me that my breakfasts are ok) and will see what happens over hte next few days. If I'm not back in my weight range by Saturday, I won't have my cheat day. I'm going to a great French restaurant next Tuesday for a work dinner, and I really want to earn and then savor a dessert there. For those of you who don't want to hear aobut it, avert your eyes now... Saint Honoré: Pate choux, coffee crème Anglaise(Cream puffs dipped in caramel on sugar dough with light pastry cream)

That sounds amazing! Enjoy!

This is me. I pretty much live life in Phase 3 and stay at my comfort weight of 132-133. I do let loose on the reins a little bit on the weekend, but for the most part, my happy maintenance place is "lower carb". I am just one of those people who do not tolerate carbs well at all, and the only way for me to actually lose is to do P1, which is hardly any carbs at all.


As long as I stay under 135, I do not fret about the day to day fluctuations, but if I see 134, I immediately do a P1 day so that I can stay at my favorite 132-133 number.

On a definite positive note, this is the first time EVER that I have even been able to say that I am "working maintenance". I have never maintained my losses before. I am very accepting that this is my way of life and I am happy to have found my way to maintaining.

For those of you who have done a true reboot, was in hard to psyche yourself into doing it? I'm contemplating a 2 week reboot, but I am just dreading it. After gaining a few lbs over the holidays, I've been eating very low carbs but the scale isn't moving And was it hard going back to Phase 1? Were you very hungry?

I really love that we have so many new members in the maintenance thread. It keeps it so wonderfully active and alive. Congrats LaChick on your weight loss in Phase 3! And a very warm welcome to the maintenance thread!
PaintLady- Your summation of maintenance was so eloquent and bang on. It was so inclusive and true... thank you for writing it.
Sandy & Pxlkitty- thank you to both of you to continue posting through your struggles. It is such a mentally challenging thing trying to stay on top of the maintenance ball. When struggles, stress, being overtired start being added in it becomes very difficult to stay on the ball but it doesn't mean it isn't worth the fight. It is heart warming to see both of you fighting and sharing your fight with us. Thank you.
The past couple of days have caught me in having bites and an extra bar. While I truly did feel hungry I think the hunger was due to not adding vegetables to my salad at lunch and I will be making a more concentrated effort to make sure that I do so today because feeling guilty for being hungry just isn't right. I just have to make sure that I'm taking the right steps to prevent that feeling. Having my breakfast, drinking my water, eating my veggies. I'm like you pxlkitty- I'm such a huge proponent of these things and then I forget to do them as I get caught up in the current of life and wonder why I'm having to fight against cravings so hard. Then remembering I forgot to eat my vegetables. Duh.
The conversation between patns & paint lady reminded me sandy that in the post I deleted I had written that I appreciated your having offered me the advice about having tilapia in the evenings when I stalled out for the first time on IP in Phase 2. And following it I broke through in my second week with a 3 pound loss. The support we have to offer each other is invaluable. Thank you for sticking it out with us and continuing to fight!
Jennydoodle- when you are eating phase 3 style do you still have the fat at lunch (like cheese or dressing on your salad?). I'm just curious because I always find this to be the hardest part of doing a phase 3 type day. I can give up the carb but boy do I miss my dressing and feta
Maile- I never lived with my sister and her children. The picture of me with her twins was taken when I went to visit her this summer. I am very much enjoying my new home as there is now ample room for my large family of five. We had my son living out of our walk in closet in the last home and had more than run out of storage space- it was quite cramped. I feel very blessed to be living in the home I am now. Very thankful for it. My husband bought me a Keurig for my birthday and I tried a raspberry chocolate truffle flavor yesterday that was scrumptious. Ended up having two cups. The banana bread and the french toast are next on my list to track down those both sound wonderful as well.
I could so identify with your feelings in regards to the scale. My number seems to be 137.2. It's just where my body likes to be and it's a number that I'm comfortable with seeing. I saw 135.5 a couple weeks ago but I don't think I was eating enough. It was uncomfortable feeling. But 139 popped up when TOM was looming and I tripped out. I was on Phase 1 in the middle of the week for that number. I can handle seeing 138 but it certainly won't put a smile on my face like 136 will. Terrible that the scale can set my mood for the day.
Had to laugh at your going to a potluck and knowing going into it that you won't be able to have anything... know that feeling. Hope you at least got to have veggies.
Lee- I haven't done the reboot yet- we'll see on my one year anniversary... but I do know that it is harder getting through Phase 1 after having been in Maintenance. Still worthwhile but harder. I did three Phase 1 days in December when I was chasing my weight and was incredibly grateful when I woke up to a normal breakfast on the fourth day. That said I find Phase 1 to be a groove that you need to get into. And all the things that worked the first time around need to be implemented again to ensure success. No cheating. Use the packets. Post in the daily thread. It's a big undertaking but I'm sure that if you undertake it and succeed (which you know you can because if you did it once you can do it again) are you going to regret that success? No. But how long are you planning on being on it for? It's only a few pounds isn't it? You might not even need to do a week. Take it as it comes. Phase 1 until you hit your weight range and decide from there if you want to keep going with it.
itsabouttime- very happy for you that you are soon going to be seeing new numbers! Good for you for tackling the holiday weight gain with such vigor when you have so much going on in your life. Your goal seems doable- good luck!
I've been reading a bit about 'eat right for your type' thanks to jenny doodle & patns mentioning it. Apparently 'o' type doesn't process carbs well at all and should stick to animal protein and veggies- just curious if paint lady & maile are you both 'o'? Because I know that carbs seem to reflect quite quickly on the scale if you have them. I was a bit taken aback that my 'a' type is supposed to be vegetarian and stick to soy protein. Guess this could be why IP worked well for me... so, so much soy protein! Anyway, I am not the biggest tofu fan but this is purported to be the best protein friend of my type. So I played along and made a baked tofu and braised bok choy recipe that I found. Yum! Was even better the second day. I think my taste buds must have changed a bit because for this to be something that appealed to me- well that's a pretty far jump from where I was.
I have a wicked sweet tooth. It is absolutely the one thing that I have to clamp down on and control. Sugar is one of those things that I have to accept living without for the most part. Once I start I can't stop and it leaves me feeling empty inside. Even though I can inhale it rapidly it will never be enough. There is no satiety it and no joy. And it affects my immune system I've noticed lately. If I have too much sugar on a free day I will almost assuredly have a cold the next week. It is the part of IP that I'm most thankful for- getting me off the junk because I was caught. I knew I needed to get out and I didn't know how. This program worked beautifully for me and I will be ever appreciative.

I'm glad your puppy is feeling better, and I hope you feel better soon too!
I've always had a pretty bad sweet tooth, before and during IP I used to add 2 sachets of stevia to my coffee, also my cravings for sweets increased during IP, so I thought I'd go wild on sugar when I finished.. however, that was not the case. Now I use only one sachet of stevia in my coffee and in general sweets don't appeal to me that much. But, as I said, DURING IP I definitively did crave them. I think it just might have to do with the fact that we are deprived of sugar and so the body responds by craving it.. but once you reintroduce it.. it doesn't tolerate it as much.

If I haven't said it before, I'll say it now, you have truly been an inspiration for me! You know, I think that I have tamed my cravings after IP, however, I still find it a struggle to cope with social situations.. and you seem to do so well with them! Any advice on that?
Also, now that you mentioned winter, do you still get super cold after being on maintenance for a while?


Congratulations! 13 lbs in 3 weeks is great. Good luck for the rest of your IP journy.

Well I"m doing a reboot now (day 11). Basically I'm doing it because after finishing my first round of IP I went on vacation for 3 weeks, then for 2 weeks after that I continued eating as if I were on vacation. I gained 9 lbs total. I did have one false-start. Which means I started phase 1 then I had a social situation where I didn't follow IP (just one meal) , so I restarted again. I hasn't been hard going back to IP as far as cravings or being hungry. My main problem has been social situations. In general though, I need to know how to handle those. I'm one of the lucky people who have never experienced headaches because of lack or overload of carbs.. so I think that helps. Mostly I just get cranky the first few days if I don't eat my meals on time..other than that, no problem. I had oral surgery a few days ago and I couldn't eat solids, so that prompted me to have more cravings.. but more for foods that I could chew than for carbs. My husband offered to me the little "ball donuts" that he likes.. he said they didn't need chewing, he can just put them in his mouth and swallow them haha, but I wasn't tempted.. what I wanted was just to chew, so steak would have been just fine!
So... it wasn't hard on my psyche.. mainly I think, just as in the first round, it required planning.. especially when social situations come up. Also, if it helps, I keep remembering how good I felt when I finished the first time, and that motivates me.
Good luck if you decide to reboot!

Thanks for your comments... I kinda feel like I'm complaining all the time, but then I realize that it's free therapy for me, might be helping others, and then I'm not complaining to my hubby all the time. He can eat 6000 calories a day and gets upset when he is hungry because he has to eat all the time... Talk about polar opposites. So, long story short, he doesn't want to listen to me all the time, nor can he related.

I'm going to sit down and make a list of all the great phase 1 dinners that I concocted while doing the plan, and make an effort to add variety back into my lunches and dinners. I really love my standard phase 3 breakfasts, but part of my issue now is that I'm bored with all the things I've been eating for lunch (salad with chicken again...) and dinner. I think that mixing things up will help me get my energy, so to speak, when it comes to eating well.

Congratulations on your new home. Sounds wonderful.

I hope you enjoy the Keurig as much as I have... I have many different teas, and even use it empty to brew hot water when I use tea bags. My favorite new coffee is the Barista Prima. They have "house" -- good but heavy, "Colombia" -- divine!... I also like some of the donut house coffees as well as various organic ones. I also like the vast selection of decaf, keeps life interesting.

Love the german chocolate cake, and vanilla biscotti, also liked the gingerbread, and chocolate mint...
want to buy so many more to try, but since I didn't like coffee before this... oh my 4 cup habit a day. not good.. now looking for some good iced coffees any suggestions?

Have a good day all.

OOOh... I see some new flavors in my future.

Hi everyone! Not sure if you remember me, but I started IP last March, and have been on Maintenance since August 2010. I read through several pages of this thread, but haven't gotten to all of it. I hope you're all doing well, and was hoping to join y'all. Since August, I've gained around 8-9lbs, and am starting to get tight pants. I miss the way my body looked on the diet, and right afterward. I did really well until Holiday season, and all of my well-prepared meals and veggies kind of went by the wayside.

I need to reboot my pancreas and maybe even get off that last little bit of "mommy apron" I had at 130lbs. I was feeling like a big failure and didn't want to fess up here to all of you who were (in my mind) following P4 to a tee and not gaining even a single ounce back. I hate that any of us struggle, but it's kind of comforting to know that others are in the same boat and have some of the same feelings/challenges that I do.

Anyway, that's it for now. Just wanted to say hi and I think about y'all and wonder how everyone is doing. And if you wouldn't mind maybe giving me a little kick in the pants to suck it up and start phase 1 again.

Also, could I be invited to the latest challenge on fatsecret? I'm Cajunladybug22.

You guys were busy in here today, a lot to process. First of all, if you are asking about blood type, I am in fact o positive. I'm hoping that's what you mean by o type.

I love the idea of the different flavored coffees, but am often disappointed in the actual flavor. I prefer a strong roast and most of the flavored ones are light roast. French toast sounds heavenly, but I bet it's light roast. Please let me know.

Oh my, I think we should have an Edmonton Keurig tasting party. I'm sure if we carefully plan it in the few hours between the -30 temps and the approach of the giant mosquitoes everyone would want to fly in to join us.

Seriously though we has a fancy keurig machine in the office but just the plain coffee. I will have to buy some of these flavours to try.


Joanne you are doing fantastic! I know you didn't get down to the exact weight you wanted to but if your stats are up to date you have transitioned to maintaining really well during the hardest part of the year. Also when I started you were such a help to me giving me all the info on where to buy stuff around the city. I have actually become quite a regular at the Tweet place it is near one of the schools I have to go to. That said, I haven't been there since Christmas, I hope it is still open.

Cajunladybug, it's nice to see someone else who is built close to the ground doing so well. On the main threads I find you are mostly ignored if it doesn't seem like you have a lot to lose. But my 30 pounds down has been just as hard as 60 on someone taller.

I have been hanging around on this thread and on the restarter thread because it seems there is so much knowlegable information on these two.

I follow the posts by so many of you here because you all seem to continuously work to discover your own unique makeup and monitor what works best for you.

So now I need advice. I had really slowed down to a crawl for a while but accidently discovered while trying to banish the big C problem I had actually cut my fat intake to next to nothing. I have switched up my protein choices ( was always having chicken breast); added krill oil and added olive oil to my big salad with lots of lettuce. That helped the original problem but to my surprise also caused my weight to start going down again.

So I am 2 pounds from my original goal of 130, I went on an "ideal" weight site and it said at my age (63) and height my ideal weight is 127 so I lowered my goal.
So when do you all think is the best time to move to phase 2, now or at 100% to goal?

Also hubby and my doctor are saying not to lose any more. This is mainly because as my mother goes into advanced old age she is becoming smaller and smaller and is extremely fragile. So the doctor says it's best to have some heft to you as you age. Of course adding heft has never been a problem for me.
But I still have too much belly. Someone on another thread said they looked like a pretzel stick with a cheerio around it and I had to laugh because that's me!

I am now in a size 10 and if I could get the belly down some more I would be in a comfortable size 8. Anyway just running through my mind what is best to do. I know I will do maintenance like Jenny because of my extreme carb sensitivity. But I'm not nearly as active so have to start gearing up in that department too.

Oh, Capri, so glad you like your new house. Did you have to sell one before you moved? We are going to put ours on the market this spring but it likely will take awhile because it is a good piece outside the city.

Pat

I have always (since the beginning) used regular salad dressing on my salad. I cannot stand WF or any "fake" dressing. I make the Good Seasons dressing using Apple Cider vinegar, water and olive oil. So that has not changed. I eat 2 salads a day with this dressing. I sometimes will add in the other fat (cheese) and sometimes not. Usually if I am eating out, I will go with the cheese, but if I am making the salad myself, I don't. I guess if I really wanted it, I would add the fat everyday, even though I follow P3. Because technically, I am in maintenance, and we can have the extra fat. It is the extra carb that I usually chose not to eat.

I am also O+, and do not process carbs well. It is because of this book that I originally cut wheat from diet. After being off wheat and then doing IP, it is how I discovered that I cannot eat wheat.

Touching on this same subject, has anyone heard or read the book "Wheat Belly"? I want to read it and just need to download it to my Nook. If you are intolerant of wheat, I think it is a must read. It basically talks about how the wheat of today is not the same as the wheat of old, which is why so many people can't tolerate it. And how a most people don't even realize that it is the wheat that is making them bloated and tired. I can't wait to read it, just haven't had the time yet. Anyway, I thought it was worth mentioning because I believe there are a number of us in here who have said they have a wheat intolerance.