Right on!!! :bravo:

Amen!:D I'm on sabbatical from full on desserts, bread, and southern fried and soul food. Not going there with my coffee :dizzy:

Me too... as long as I keep losing I'm keeping the cream and 1 sugar in my coffee. There's some things you just don't mess with! Lol

I don't know... men are pretty low calorie and carb... :rofl:

Hi all, I am glad I found this thread....I need advice. I am on week 4 and my confession is...I drink Diet Coke! Gasp....that is not what I need advice on though.
I am off to Vegas for 5 days in 3 weeks and I will not even pretend that I am not going to drink. I have no issues staying away from booze at home but Vegas is my let loose time. I read skinny vodka...so what do those with more experience say to bloody mary's and Ultra light beer? My drinks of choice when I am there. I am worried as I have been doing well so far and I will try to be somewhat mindful but I am looking forward to a break from IP food as I don't love it.
Thanks for any advice

I'd just be careful about how much you drink. Your tolerance might be quite a bit lower than it was before you started. I am a big wine drinker and I didn't have any my first two weeks on IP. When I had a small glass after that, I really felt it!

Maybe not what you want to hear, but if you don't enjoy IP food, why are you willing to prolong your diet by taking this break? With three weeks to go, you could do a condensed phase off rather than shock your body with an all or nothing approach. I have also read many people struggling to get back on plan after giving themselves permission to take an IP vacation.

I had a good chuckle at this. I use to think I couldn't give up ice cream so I understand.

Exactly what I was thinking of talking to my coach about at the next weigh in. Also, it is worrysome about getting back on track once I get home. Thanks for the advice.

ruby11 - you do not have your height or weight posted so it is hard to know how to offer any ideas.

But what I CAN say is my experience. I would LOVE to be off IP and start working other food into my day but because I have gone off IP a couple of times, I am off my hoped for schedule to hit goal.

Why? It is not so much the food I ate while off IP (although it certainly contributed), it is the really, really tough time getting back on. It is not the purely physical issue of eating food not the best, but also the mind goes off too, and it is harder, I think, to get that back.

Good luck with your decision. You and your coach are the ones who know what is best for you. All I can say is that I wish like heck I had not taken 'vacations' from IP, whatever my motivation for doing it. I would be at goal if I had not had to re-lose some of the weight a couple of times.

It's been a while since I've been looking forward to a weigh on (the big C, time of the month happening every three weeks, vacations) but I can't wait for tomorrow! Last week I was up .4 - why? I have no idea. Got lectured by coach "it's impossible to gain weight on this diet!" Well, I stepped on the scale the next day and was down 2 pounds. Of course. Then had another random TOM start over the weekend. My scale showed me down another 2 this morning! I didn't do anything differently, except maybe try harder to make sure I got all my water in. Whatever the cause, I'll take it! I'm phasing off in a few weeks so I'm glad to be dropping a couple more pounds before then!

I'd tell your coach to stuff it. Of course the scale can fluctuate on this diet, just like any other diet, maintenance, etc., etc. Doesn't mean you gained fat. She is mistaking minor scale fluctuations for weight gain. I mean, really? She's scolding you over .4? Does she have a boss you can complain to since that's really unacceptable behavior?

I really just kind of rolled my eyes. Like I did a few weeks earlier when the other coach told me I should going #2 every day (ok, then I almost laughed - I have chronic stomach issues. I will NEVER go every single day.) Overall, I really like her a lot. She just wanted me to keep track of what I was eating this week to see if she could figure out what the problem is - I'd had several weeks of small losses before that so I wasn't showing the kind of progress she was used to and then the small gain... I know why my losses were smaller though and wasn't upset by it. The gain was a little disappointing but I also know some days are just like that. Just glad this week should be more successful on the scale!

The thing that was far more discouraging than small losses was that my measurements didn't change at all for about four or five weeks straight. Even with small losses, it should have changed a little bit. I think that will be different this week too, as that pair of size ten work pants I pulled out of the closet this morning fit perfectly!

I MUST have my creamer in my coffee in the morning. It's just a tablespoon. Otherwise I'm 100 percent on the diet. My coach told me I absolutely cannot have cream in my coffee. My thing is, I either have a tablespoon of cream or 5 tablespoons of milk to equal it out.

Throughout this diet I have probably had a little extra fat and it hasn't effected me (ok, maybe I would have lost faster than an average of three pounds a week). What I didn't allow were cheats that had carbs in them. I was always more fearful of getting out of ketosis than a little too much olive oil or meat. I don't think cream has carbs.