Hi guys :)
I am posting this here because I have some questions about products from sites that we canadians use.. so figure I would start here.

I am in week three, and using alternative products only. So far I have only been using protien powders (Isofemme and bodylogix.. just bought some premier protien from costco) and then making eggs for lunch with my veggies as well has having my veggies and such with meat at dinner. HOWEVER - I am getting bored of living basically off a liquid diet... so I am considering getting a bit more variety from online sources. My hubby will be starting the plan on monday .. so i would like to proactively have some variety before i totally lose it and dig into a cake all by my lonesome!

Can someone please bear with me and check these products out and let me know if they are ok.. and whether they are restricted or not. I have compared them with the ip sheets i have.. but still get very confused...especially in regards to sugar alcohols and fibre and carbs.

So from lowcarbcanada i was looking at the following:
Dixie Granola - Cinnamon apple (84 cal, 15g carb, 11g fib, 10 g pro)
Dixie Soy Beanits - salted (136 cal, 8 g carb, 5g fib, 10 gr pro)
Optimum Nutrition Optimal Protien Diet Bar (coconut as example) (180 cal, 21 g carb then it says 18 g carb from sugar) 20 g sugar alcohol, 20 g protien

can someone PLEASE clearly express which bars they eat that arent super restricted.. they are so confusing to me and i just want to have a couple on hand. I had an isofemme one last night cause with my pneumonia right now im having a very hard time eating meat...

from lowcarbgrocery

bakers deluxe instant hot cereal - cinnamon &spice (150 cal, 21 g carb, 5 g fib, 6 g sugar alcohol, 11g prot)
Aunt Lizzies Zero Carb Cheese straw bites - original (181 cal, 1 g carb, 1 g fibre, 12 g prot)
Miss Meringue Sugar free mini meringue (40 cal, 8 g carb, 2 g fibe, 6g sugar alcohol, 5 g protien) ** i know these are low in protien but i was hoping to have them for my treat for my boys bdays coming up in april

any and all help is appreciated.. my poor brain is so clogged. I am so happy with my results so far (almost 25 pounds) that I want to keep the momentum going.. but really need some variety!

thanks for reading and helping :D

Hi Danna, since I've used some of those products I thought I'd chime in.

I can vouch for Dixie Diner Granola, imo you can treat it as unrestricted. It's only 12g protein/serving though... I used to pour a little of a vanilla RTD protein shake on it, which upped the protein count.

I preferred the Dixie Diner Smaps - see my blog under 'Alternatives for Ideal Protein Pancakes, Oatmeal, & Cereal' - and it has 15g protein/serving as compared to 12g/serving in the Granola. Again, it's fine as unrestricted. Very tasty, and I ate it sometimes also as a snack. I used to also use 1/2 a serving of it and combine with 1/2 a serving (1/4 cup) of the Dixie Soy Beanits - makes a nice snack, and the two flavors/textures were good together.

Another cereal you haven't listed but I 100% recommend is by Nutritious Living - called Hi-Lo. It's good as an unrestricted, and so good you can eat it as a snack too. Available through thelowcarbgrocery.com (probably at lowcarbcanada too).

Since you're looking for some variety 'staples' you might want to pick up some low carb pancake mix, which is a good alternative to the IP pancake packets. Again - see that same part of my blog.

Dixie Soy Beanits - These would be comparable to IP's soynuts, which contained 1/4 cup. Treat as Restricted, same as the IP soynuts.

Bakers Deluxe Hot Cereals - have used many times, fine as unrestricted.

Aunt Lizzie's Zero Carb Cheese Sticks - never used, and wouldn't recommend... fat level is 14g/serving.
Miss Meringue Sugar Free mini meringue - I tried these once, and that was enough! They are super sweet, and have a really odd mouth feel... made my mouth feel like it was gluey.

As to protein bars.... I found this one at lowcarbcanada which I've used before and really liked. http://www.lowcarbcanada.ca/product-p/nug002.htm I've read that we're allowed to subtract 1/2 the sugar alcohol gms/serving as well as the fibre and that brings one of these bars down to 8 net carbs. The rest of it's nutritional info is good too, so I'd treat this as an unrestricted. They also make a cherry flavor - http://www.lowcarbcanada.ca/product-p/nug001.htm I think it looks fine too. It's got 9 net carbs/bar, but all calories, fat content, etc., are good, so I would personally allow this one as unrestricted too.

I also recommend picking up a couple of boxes of Pure Protein bars from your local Walmart. They're definitely suitable, and very reasonably priced. The Pure Protein RTD shakes are very good too.

Also, I sometimes pick up a box of ProtiLife (or is it ProtiThin?) Peanut Butter Bars from Shoppers Drug Mart. That product line offers 3-4 different flavors of bars, but imo the Peanut Butter Bar is the only one that fits comfortably as a reasonable alternative bar for our purposes. It's always close to where they have the IsoFemme bars. (Which are my current fav).

Hope you get feeling better quickly!!

Thank you so much Evepet for replying :) I really appreciate it. I had checked your blog and had the pancake mix and the smaps down as 'approved' already :)
I actually tried the vanilla IsoFemme bar last night when i had to go get one of my prescriptions that needed to be ordered. It wasnt too bad.. they only had the vanilla one.. are there more flavours i should look out for?

I also had the miracle noodles and miracle rice on my list.. but have seen a number of people comment on how they are ok cause they are 0/0/0..

On a Canadian Store note.. I was dreading anything in my freezer tonight until my hubby mentioned that we might have a pot roast from M&M meats. I got totally excited because I adore their pot roast so went and checked the site for nutritional info... it looks ok to me??!!

Per 1/6 of pouch (151 g)

Amount % Daily Value
Calories 220
Fat 12 g 18 %
Saturated 4.5 g 25 %
+Trans 0.5 g
Cholesterol 90 mg 30 %
Sodium 740 mg 31 %
Carbohydrate 2 g 1 %
Fibre 0 g 0 %
Sugars 1 g
Protein 26 g
Vitamin A 0 %
Vitamin C 0 %
Calcium 2 %
Iron 20 %

I really hope so because it would be nice to have something I know i really like every now and then.. plain chicken is driving me crazy! I think they have a few options for us that would work in the program and offer variety :)

I'm not in Canada, but that looks way too high in fat to me.

I think that's equal to a little over 5 oz (we need 8 per day) and there's also carbs and sugar in it.

But the chili and spaghetti from the IP packages also have sugar and carbs... and i figured this amount was super low compared to them. And I would likely have the remaining protien amount at lunch if I knew in advance I was having pot roast for supper.

That fat count is pretty high. You should try to keep it, 3g of fat per 100 calories. I believe the spaghetti is restricted.

Many IP packets have sugar and carbs...we are not to have any additional.

If it's that important to you have it, but I would venture to say most of us would not eat it.

I dont use the ip packages though.. all i currently use is boxylogix shakes. I am trying to find alternatives to match some of the dinner and other pkgs that ip offers as i am tired of a liquid diet with a few eggs and meat thrown in. i wont be able to last much longer if i dont get some variety...

sighs. very frustrated now. its gonna be a long weekend.... :(:(

You can have more than eggs (chicken, lean ground beef, lean steak, fish, pork tenderloin, shrimp, etc).

Compare it to the stats for beef, chuck, pot roast, at http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/...roducts/7481/2
We're to have 8 oz of meat/fish/poulty for dinner, so the stats for 8 oz would be:
Cals 280; Fat 8g; Chol 80mg; Sodium 176mg; Carbs 0; Fiber 0; Sugar 0; Protein 48g.

When I look at the nutrition info for the M&M potroast I see that 1 serving has 26g protein - you'd need to eat about 1.75 servings to have the recommended level of gms/protein. When I do the calculations I get:

Cals 385; Fat 21g; Chol 157mg; Sodium 1295mg; Carbs 3.5g; Fiber 0; Sugar 1.75g; Protein 45g.

Can't recommend that fat level - and I'm personally not keen on any prepared food item that has that high a sodium content. But the choice is yours. It's better to prepare the potroast from scratch though, that way you can control the sodium content, and know that it's not got added sugars and fats. (Sorry).

Has anyone tried any of the Doctor's CarbRite bars? I picked some up from the LowCarb Grocery the other day....

This is the nutritional info for the cookie dough bar:

Nutrition Facts: 1 Bar (57g) Calories 195 Fat 5g Saturated Fat 2g TransFat 0g Cholesterol 16mg Sodium 175mg Carbohydrate 24g Fiber 2g Sugar 0g Sugar Alcohol (Polyols) 21g Protein 20g

Is this a decent bar? Restricted? Still trying to wrap my head around alternative stuff and reading the labels

Danna, I'm wondering if you have the Phase 1 sheet that details the protocol, and lists all the types of protein sources you can use for dinner, as well as which veggies are 'Select' vs 'Occasional'? Just in case, I've attached the last one I have which is from June of last year.

I haven't personally tried it, but it looks reasonable as a Restricted alternative bar. It's too high in carbs to be considered as an Unrestricted. As I said above to Danna, I've read that it's ok on IP to deduct 1/2 of the sugar alcohols + all fiber, so this bar would have 11.5 net carbs. If it had a net gm count of 8 carbs or less I'd consider it Unrestricted.

Let us know how you like them. :)

yes i have the sheet. thanks. i do eat as much of the stuff on the sheets that i like.. i am a very picky eater... and i am just finding it very boring and frustrating to eat the same boring no taste meat every day. I know being sick right now doesnt help, but it has got to the point where i gag even looking at the shakes or chicken or veggies. I am worried that i will end up starving myself or just giving up so i can eat something normal that i enjoy...funnily enough it isnt choc or chips i am craving... just something with flavour that i am comfortable with. I cant eat spicy so that isnt an option to change ttastes.

anyway... thanks for your responses everyone..

They are yummy so far! I was treating them as restricted...I've tried the Lemon and the Brownie....Lemon was ok, but I really liked the Brownie...it almost tasted like the middle of a 3 Muskateer bar!

I'm also enjoying the GNC Lean Shake Vanilla Bean RTD (170cal, 6carb, 6fat, 25protein, 2sugar). Tried their chocolate flvour but I like the vanilla better...it's has a very rich and creamy taste!

And I picked up a pack of MHP Power Pak Pudding - Vanilla Cream from GNC as well (190cal, 8carb, 5fat, 30protein, 0sugar) that I thought was very good and a nice size and filling.


DannaA - I'm a picky eater too! My veggies normally consists of brocolli, cauliflower (roasted only), and onion. I've currently got rutabega fries in the oven to try them tonight....but I've been going almost 2 months on just those 3 (and lettuce). My favorite meal to cook is buffalo chicken....I can cook some of that up while I'm making whatever for the rest of the family and I'm a happy camper.

Check out some of the great recipies on here or google some.....my favourite one is FinnSteve's FB page https://www.facebook.com/IdealProteinLohja

Don't give up! Try something you've never tired before.....you might be surprised! Experiment with some spices....my spice cupboard has tripled in size since I started. :)