[QUOTE=Pauley;4227641] I will try to figure out who the others are as well.

Pauley I'm on mfg as willowgirl11. I live in Pac NW and would love to "track" with you as well.

You Maintainers are AMAZING... I've learned so much following you over the last 6 weeks. I will stop "stalking" you and officially introduce myself.

I started P1 in Sept. and lost 25 lbs over two months. I then phased out for the holidays with the plan to restart January with my DH. Unfortunately I did NOT follow P4 the last two weeks of December and gained a total of 10 lbs between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

My DH and I started at P1 January 4th. My "secondary goal" was to lose the 10 lbs I gained over holidays plus another 10-15 to reach "revised" goal. My primary goal is to LEARN what to do the rest of my life and MAINTAIN at "goal" weight (still not sure what that is???). Third goal was to have DH join me so we could learn the tools to have a "healthy household". That's when I started "stalking" you.

At first I was discouraged when I realized how hard you all work to maintain and how careful you must be with carbs/fats. After getting over my initial dissapointment I realized this is exactly what I needed to hear to prepare myself to "phase out" and go into maintenance.

I'm now under initial goal weight but 2-7 lbs over "revised" goal weight. We decided to phase out now in preparation for trip to Maui in 5 weeks. If necessary we'll hit P1 again after vacation.

I work at a fitness club (started as a member in April and employee in August). I joined the club when I realized I could wait no longer to get the weight off before I started strength training. I'm 51 and have alot of ground to make up for the years I did no disciplined strength/cardio training. I've continued to work out the whole time I've been on IP because I worked too hard for that gained strength and was receiving too many health benefits to discontinue. My DH has worked out the whole time he is on IP as well. We both are experiencing slower than average weight loss... but we're OK with that. I had surgery in January and unfortunately have had a lot of complications. I was NOT able to workout the last four weeks and REALLY missed it. I started again this week and am truly appreciating the overall health benefits.

After being "stuck" at same weight for two weeks I decided to NOT eat any restricted the last two days. Today was weigh in... lost 2.4lbs and 2.9inches. I'm also .3% away from reaching my Body Fat % goal.

Even though my DH is 10+lbs away from goal weight we're going to start P2 today to prepare for trip. We'll continue to excercise while "phasing out". I'm struggling with what to have for lunch (protein) on P2. It would be alot easier to just have an IP packet. I'm not crazy about meat and have to get really creative for dinner. Now I have to double my creativity!!!

Having learned from you the importance of "tracking" I first joined MyFatSecret??? (oops don't know if that's the name). I find MyFitnessPal a little easier to use so I reopened an old account. My user name is willowgirl11.

I'm sorry for the long intro... I didn't know where to start (or obviously stop). Again, thank you for all your contributions which have helped me/DH immensely!!!

It funny how we are all different.
I also work out regularly. I have found adding restricted to my diet improved my weight loss! I lost 3.2 pounds this week...I am surprised to lose so much close to my goal.
What is your bodyfat goal? I know the scales are innacurrate, but I would like to see 15% and have a visible 6 pack. I can see it now, but am probably 5-7 pounds from that.
I am 40. I know every year makes it all harder. That's why I never stopped exercising throughout ip.

For me maintaining worked using a combination of low carb week days with more flexible weekends. I never added grains back to my diet. I don't expect I will.

The only six pack I'll ever see is the one that will be in my fridge once I get to P4.

Ha ha ha. Maybe that should be my philosophy too....

Wow. What body fat percentage are you at now? I have no ideal what to make my goal.

On the bio impedance scale at my clinic I am at 17%. I have a reasonably large build, with quite a bit of muscle. I normally work out 6-10 hours a week.
These last few pounds have really brought out muscle definition on me. But to really see that I do expect I would have to get down near 140.

I stopped talking about things. If someone said that I looked good, I said "thank you" and that was it. For the few people that said "you are bordering on being too thin," I had two responses. If I knew them well, I said "ah, yes, but you haven't seen me naked..." For others, I simply said "I'm working with a doctor and he is monitoring my goal weight and we will revise it together if he feels I'm getting too thin."

People have a mental image. You are challenging them. Also, they are probably not happy with themselves and this is their way of saying that you should stop so that they can feel better about themselves.

Let me see... Fatsecret weight tracker time... Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of when I started Ideal Protein... I hit 154 on July 22nd... and 145 on Sept 15th... So, the last ten pounds took about 7 weeks. I know it seems like a very long time, but then at least you are struggling with the last 10 lbs and not the first 50 or whatever the number might be.

Don't change a thing if what you are doing is working for you.

Vertebra's not healing the way it should but I'm in a new brace and have hopes. And am planning a 5 day little trip to Paris soon so life looks good. I'm thinking of stopping in to Dr Chahn's office there and checking out the packets. Thanks for asking.

MAINTAINisGoal, you don't have to have meat all the time. I enjoy fish soup, Dover sole, tuna salad, sardines, smoked salmon and mackerel (organic, low salt smoked), shrimp cocktail (heavy on the lemon juice and horseradish), etc. Of course, I guess one has to like fish.

A couple thoughts. One, several of us have been working off a few pounds gained over the holidays or are doing an annual IP reboot, so we might seem more diet-y than the rest of the year. Two, Phase 4 is figuring out what works for you then sticking with it. Once you do find what works for you, if you can keep a routine it's not too hard to maintain. The real challenges are vacations, holidays, special occasions, etc. Welcome to maintenance. You're going to do great!

I found them at Shopko. They match my salmon colored sweater from Costco! You have had a very inspiring story with loss and sharing with your husband.
On the meat issue: I make frozen turkey burgers and keep them to grab as needed. Also sometimes I use tofu or endame for a protein.
Good luck on Phase 2 and your trip to Maui.

I honestly cannot remember..I am guessing two months.
Hang in there! It will come off..you can have weeks of no or slow loss.

Pauley: I am glad you are back on track and feeling better. I cannot figure out why I have days when I am freezing cold also..then other days when I am not as cold.


Ishbel: That would make me furious also. People who are insecure try to lash out and control you. I have definitely experienced that at work. My boss told me that I was thin enough and that I could stop losing. I confronted him and told him that my dr. agree with my weight and that my BMI was normal. I would suggest using the dr route of saying this is a healthy weight for me ...and my dr agrees.
However, nothing will penetrate that idiot who talked to you.

Just yesterday someone at work said to me..are you still losing? I said no I have been maintaining for 4 months. The said good..you do not need to lose anymore.
Now again they have no right to tell me what I should weigh.

A friend told me that being overweight is now considered the norm in the US. So those of us that are normal or thin are considered strange.
I heard that in 2020 they are predicting that half of the people in the US will have diabetes due to being overweight.

Linden..I have been thinking about you also..I am sorry you are having a slow recovery from your accident. I hope that brace helps you. Paris sounds exciting!

Last 10 lbs...

O7/13/2011 147
08/17/2011 136.5