New to IP (day one tomorrow)WOOHOO!
 

Hello friends! I am new to IP and I have been contemplating it for months now and I am finally going to do this. I am doing idealtogo since I travel a lot for work and when I am home it is difficult for me to get to a center.

I have been searching the forum for tips and answers to my questions, but I have a couple I cannot find.
1. I swear I read somewhere that pickles (as long as there is no sugar)are okay in phase 1. Can someone give me the dirt on them?

2. I see a few excellent salad dressings, can I use salsa? I use it all the time and I love it on my salads. I am sure it would be counted toward my veggies, but I just want to be sure :)

3. Most say you should cut back on exercise, but I have seen some that encourage it after week 2. I just finished INSANITY and I do not plan on going that hard, but I am addicted to working out in the morning and it makes or breaks my mood. Please share what you will on IP and exercise and your experience :)

Thank you so much in advance for your help. I am super excited! Any other tips, pointers, works of advice are greatly appreciated!!

Thank you so much for replying! I appreciate your fast reply and I enjoy reading all of your posts on here. Thank you again for everything and I look forward to my journey! I just lost 27 pounds from Feb to May with Insanity and following a paleo diet, but I am stuck and I think this is what I need to do to get to my goal. I have about 45 pounds to go to goal. Here I go!!!!

First day went well...so far. I did workout this morning so I did a blueberry, cran, pom before. Omlette for breakfast, lettuce salad with 2 cups of veggies and no sugar salsa with chicken a la king for lunch, but overflowed in the microwave and I was not a fan of it. DInner was lean pork chop with salad and veggies with salsa again and tonight I had butterscotch pudding (so far my fave) for a snack. I was really hungry this afternoon, but I am making it through. I hope that I do not have to stop working out all together, but I might cut back even more if I am this hungry. I am hoping to like the other foods more than the chicken a la king and the omlette was not so great, but I will make due. I am very excited about this and anxious to see results!

Welcome and congrats on your first day. The first week can be pretty difficult until ketosis kicks in and then the hunger basically goes away till it's time for your next meal (about 4 hours). My coach doesn't recommend working out for the first 3 weeks till your body adjust because this is a pretty low calorie way of eating. I started working out after the first month because I was really feeling the need to move. I now strength train every other day and do some light cardio most days. As Lisa, said, you really don't want to get your heart rate up too much or burn too many calories as that will slow down your weight loss.

Congratulations on loosing the first 27 pounds, and other than me who is on IP, the rest of my family eats a Paleo/Primal diet. I will be following that way of eating also once I am at goal to maintain.

You will love IP, and it really is "Your last diet." Can't say enough good things about it as it's the best diet I've ever been on. Good luck and check in and read the daily chat thread.

You're only allowed to have one full tomato per week- so be careful with your salsa intake!!

Day 1- feel great
 

I am on day 1 also. I feel great already. Im looking for a buddy to help me keep motivated.
Breakfast-oatmeal(sooo good)
Lunch-mashed potatoes,salad w/cucumbers and asian dressing by Waldon farms
Dinner-fish with salad and cucumbers
Snack-garlic & onion nuts

Hope to keep in touch!

Good luck to you!!!

Paleo diet
 

Another fellow paleo follower. I actually started back on the diet yesterday as well. I did it a year ago but didn't take it that seriously due to heatlth issues. I also eat a paleo lifestyle and so I chose the gluten free options. Not sure if you are also a crossfitter but I am and giving up the exercising for a few weeks will probably make it tough. Good luck to you!

Good luck! I did IP last summer, but cheated all of my weight back. I am starting over today. I was debating between doing IP again or just going straight to Paleo/Primal. I think I am going to try to lose with IP, phase off correctly this time and then eat Paleo/Primal.

Good luck to both mommyskinny and vangirl23. This forum is awesome for information and support.

Thank you all for the support and I would love a buddy!

Thanks for the heads up on the tomato intake. I saw that it was limited today when I was reviewing my materials again. I was starving today!! Good to know the hunger goes away after ketosis kicks in because I feel like a wild bear!

Yesterday I was not impressed with my omelete, today it was better. Lunch was chicken soup and a salad with veggies and salsa( I will find an alternative now that I know to limit the maters) the soup was great! Dark chocolate pudding is AMAZING! I love the butterscotch too. YUMMMMMY!

Vangirl23 how did you do??

I also follow paleo, but did not cut the fruit and I allowed minimal dairy. When I reach goal I will be following that as well. I have bee suffering with reactive hypoglycemia and very weird allergic reactions to random foods. Most recently it has been with protein and I would get all tingly all over my body and break out in a cold sweat for a good 20 minutes. I have not experienced this in the past two days, so I am happy about that! Hopefully resetting this pancreas will make things work again :)

I know there are many other links to this, but what are YOUR favorites ladies?? And what is the best "tip" you can offer to a newbie?

Keep your outfit from your initial WI, whenever you feel demotivated, try it on. And have your coach take a picture of you every weekly WI with your own camera for your records. You will lose so fast you won't see it in the mirror, but pictures don't lie. Take a weekend to go through the recipe threads & finnstevens thread (links in the sticky), they can be overwhelming so check out (and contribute) to the 'what are you eating today' thread for ideas and advice.

I can feel it working for sure, thats whats keeping me motivated. I stepped on the scale this morning just to see and I was down 3lbs! crazy. I had omelet with raw onion chopped up and iced coffee, a peanut crunch bar for lunch with cucumber and chicken, mushroom, pineapple(1 small chunk cut up) onion and WF asian sauce in lettuce wraps for dinner and the butterscotch pudding for snack(loveit!!)