Good Morning Everyone!
Fighting fatique this am. I think I might be coming down with something, just tired, and achy!
WI tomarrow night. I hate evening WI's! So any opinions on if I Stop drinking Water tomarrow say at noon, by 6pm I should have all the excess water out of my system?
Bless you all!

We bought a house here in Alaska last May. The garden has 10 rhubarb plants!!!!! I had no idea what to do with them last year. I wish I could send everyone of you some :) Its still burried under snow right now, but the snow is melting quickly. Woo Hoo for springtime!!! I will have to look into "how to harvest and freeze rhubarb" this year.

Hello all!
Had WI#6 yesterday and am down a total of 24lbs in 6 weeks! Last weeks weigh it was not good, I was up 2lbs, definitely because of Easter and TOM, but mostly easter, considering I was definitely not good for both easter sunday and Monday, (I fell into the temptation of a huge italian dinner, not fair!!!) But, this week back on track, and down 5lbs, so I feel great!!! Hoping april's last weigh in next week is a great one!!!
Have a good day everyone!!!

If you are looking for Rhubarb in the Atlanta area the Buford Highway Farmer market has fresh Rhubarb all the time (at least they always have it when I go looking for it.) Only problem is its still sitting in my fridge I haven't really done anything with it. Any recipe tips for Rhubarb? Other than the one where you use the oatmeal Ip packet I prefer Crepe mix and chili as my restricteds...

It's funny that everyone is talking about Rhubarb because I made this last night and it was amazing...felt like I was cheating

Rhubarb Jello

Ingredients description
100 ml of water

500 ml of rhubarb

3 Tbsp Splenda (or to taste)

1 Package Ideal Protein Raspberry Jello

Preparation
In pan on stove, stew chopped rhubarb with 100 ml of water and Splenda. In a separate bowl, prepare Raspberry Jello as directed on package. Combine stewed rhubarb with jello & place in refrigerator. Can be served warm or cold.

Keep up the good work everyone!

Sure Cassie! Since we have the same stats, I look up your weekly stats and it's usually a pretty good gauge on what I can expect for that week.

Since I saw a very tiny loss this week, to give my body a shakeup, I am wondering if I should not skip the 1 restricted food each day and just stick to the unrestricted foods for a while. Is it allowed to select only IP drinks or puddings for Phase1 along with the required veggies, meat and water? I am not a fan of the soups..I am already drinking more than 100oz water each day, so not sure what else to do. I so want to blame my hypothyroidism for the slow loss :D

Blah..I had a typo above..I meant skip the restricted food altogether and stick with only the unrestricted foods..

I found the rhubarb at the Baton Rouge Whole Foods in the frozen fruits section.

I think for us shorties it's a bit more difficult. It's up to you with the restricted but I've never done it before. I have my restricted bar every morning. I've heard of it working for people and i've heard ADDING an extra packet working as well. What week are you in? Sounds like you're doing everything right.

As for the pudding/drink packet question, I basically lived off of puddings and drinks for my meals in the beginning! I still have my Mango RTD at lunch time and hot choco for a snack. But I also like the omelet and soups on weekends. The drinks and puddings are just easier to take to work. But do try to mix up the veggies and meat.

The only other advice I can give is watch out for those "extras" that we are allowed. My sheet says I can have up to 4 packets of splenda/stevia per day but it's too much for me. The more sweetener and WF syrups I consume, the stronger my cravings are. Be aware of how much extra things you are actually having. Soy sauce is a no-no for me too as sodium can cause water retention. I just changed up these things this week and the scale is moving a LOT more than normal.

Edit: Just remembered that this week i've been trying to get in at least 8 hours of sleep per night. I'm listening to how my body feels more. I dont know if it's helping the scale move but I decided to just giggle at myself going to bed at 8pm instead of trying to push through the tired.

For the majority of my journey with IP I have mainly just used the drinks with the odd restricted if I am feeling like something crunchy. The program still works the same regardless of what types of the protein products you use, pudding, drinks, soups, etc. I also do not use the restricted every day. Since doing that, my loss has seem to increase daily compared to it every day. Test it out removing the restricted, won't hurt anything. See if it makes a difference. If it does, great, if it doesn't then keep it their yumminess!

Hi Hope,
First time on IP and now again as I go for round two I cannot stand the taste of any of the soups. I have tried to doctor them up, have them with the broth, etc. and I can't get over the taste. I continue to try off and on just to see if my tastes have changed but still don't like them. Good thing is I have had no problem losing weight at all! My coach has not seemed the least bit concerned either. I too drink lots and lots of water.

I am in week2 now. Mango RTD..I tried it last week and it was yum..I plan to buy a box of it this weekend and use it for breakfast every other day next week. I am not using any of the "extras" or WF syrups or soy sauce. My TOM is not due for another 2 weeks. I should learn to be patient.. :)

This is what I did with frozen rhubarb last night:

1/4 cup water with 2T Splenda in a saucepan and brought to a boil. Put in 1 pkg frozen rhubarb. Stirred occasionally. Covered and let simmer. In a little while the chunks cooked down and it became an applesauce consistency. I ate it like that after dinner. (1/2 the recipe.) It was still fairly tart but I liked it like that. I think it would be great as a veggie with lean pork, but it also works as a dessert!

As a child we used to have 'stewed rhubarb' frequently while it was in season. We had several rhubarb plants growing along a fence. You just wash and chop it into bite sized pieces, and cook it over a medium-low heat with some water (same principle as making applesauce). Or you could cook it in the microwave until tender. It's very tart, so it will require sweetening... and since we're obviously not adding sugar into the original mixture as per the recipes, I'd suggest adding your sugar substitute 'to taste' at the end, after it's cooked.

There are also two types of rhubarb - green and red. The red variety tends to be a bit sweeter.

Here's a couple of good articles about making 'stewed rhubarb'. You'll see that one is using green rhubarb, and the other the red variety. I notice that the second recipe includes a packet of gelatin as an option. Either way is very good.

http://www.english-food-spotlight.co...d-rhubarb.html
http://www.rhubarb-central.com/stewed-rhubarb.html

Thank you MrsChill :) When I go in for the WI on Saturday, I'll buy a few boxes on the non-restricted foods and try them for next week.