Hello. I am new to this site (today) and four weeks into I.P. I had a sad and sorry 1.2 lb. loss as I handed over my visa card for payment, and had to review where I have gone awry. The science is sound, so it must be me I am figuring. It would appear that my two meals of marinated pork roast (bought that way) are deliciously sweet because they contain all the things I have been trying to avoid...sneaky when they get embedded in meat!

A smaller note, of interest to me and my "historic" Weight Watcher brain, is that I tried having two I.P. "treats" one day and none the next, figuring they would balance out over the week, again - wrongo!

When they say that mistakes can be costly, they must be thinking of I.P.!

About a week into IP, I remembered I had a couple of those turkey tenderloins in my freezer. Easy meal!!! Yay! I was so excited . . . only to pull it out and see "Rotisserie Flavor" on the package. Drat, sure enough, "sugar" had snuck its way into the ingredients.

IP is a learning process. You'll get it. Not all mistakes are costly. Sometimes you'll get right by. Don't get discouraged; it doesn't sound like you are and that's good. You'll become much more suspicious of all packaging and read the ingredients as if you are cracking a code.

Wanna hear something far worse?? My second week on IP, I became convinced that I had to be doing the plan wrong, because no one, but no one can eat so little . . . so I convinced myself that the restricted item was completely extra. I was having 3 packets + dinner + restricted item. Ack! Still lost that week, but not as much as I thought I should -- I smartened up quick! It's all part of the process.

Meat rubs have become my friend. I make them myself from recipes I find while Googling. Lotsa flavor & all ON PLAN!

We learn quickly what works & what doesn't.

I need to find a good rub to replace my favorite one from Rachael Ray . . . it involved brown sugar. gah!

My "stupid" story--

I didn't have my sheet with me and was sure it said yucca was okay. I bought it and made it into chips in the microwave with this thing I got from Pampered Chef. They were "meh" (and peeling it was not easy) but I had been trying other veggies that I had never tried before, so I was proud. I made some baggies of chips for future meals and put them in the fridge. Then I looked it up and apparently Yucca has more carbs than potatoes!!! I felt incredibly guilty and stupid, but lesson learned. I threw out the chips and always keep the sheet with me now.

My coach told me right away to not use the "pre-marinated" stuff (I had a bag of "perfect portions" of chicken breast in my freezer).

I just marinated a flank steak with WF dressing, low sodium soy sauce and Frank's Hot Sauce. Yummy!

Wow, I may be new but I am already finding value in this website...I will try the marinade with WF, low sodium soy sauce and Frank's hot sauce, instead of my marinated meat disaster, and also find that having that one page ingredient list with me at all times is a good idea.

My one trick to make this process easier so far is to dice my foods. I love my protein much more than I love my veggies, but if it is all diced into small pieces then with each mouthful I have a taste of what I love along with a taste of what I am not as crazy about...I can fool myself quite easily as it turns out.

I've learned how to tweak marinades and stir fry recipes so that they are OP. it takes a little practice to get it right, but it can be done. Word of warning- if you use Bragg's in stir fry, definitely dilute it with fat free, low sodium broth (SUPER SALTY). Make sure sure rice vinegar is natural. Otherwise, it will have sugar in it. Always double-check labels for sugar and its aliases (and aspartame). For a dry rub base in a pinch, I use McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak (be careful, some of the other grill mates have sugar - like the lemon pepper). A few shakes on pork loin chops, chicken, or beef before grilling (indoor) helps solve those dinner dilemmas when I just don't want to make the dinner I had planned. I'm not a big fan of the WF products, so I try to get as much flavor as possible with herbs and spices. Besides, part of my goal for maintenance is to avoid a lot of processed foods.

I would love to see a thread just for rub recipes. I found a great one on here that someone had posted for crockpot chicken. It was fabulous and packed with so much flavor. My family keeps asking me to make it!

I've been using alot of the Mrs Dash seasonings, they are very tasty
and most have no sugar or msg. or salt, but I only salt after my meat is
cooked to taste.

D

One of my tweaks for IP is when a recipe calls out brown sugar, I will replace it with a mix of stevia and WF maple syrup. You get the sweetness with the hint of maple that is close enough for brown sugar for now.