Hi All,

Feeling much better today. And...another .lb lost. Probably because, Food Poisoning.

But..I had my annual physical today and my doctor, who was so not on board with IP when I went last year, was astonished when she saw me. We rode up in the elevator together and she did a double take and said, Andrea is that you? You look amazing! Made me feel really good. During my visit we talked A LOT about IP. She was way more interested now that she sees how successful I've been. I told her about the challenge we are having at work and that I should be at 136 to get to the right BMI but she wasn't too convinced I needed to loose any more. Maybe she's afraid I'll be one of those people who keeps dieting way beyond what they need to. That won't happen as I love food too much!

But then a weird thing happened. My blood pressure was quite low 98/55 and she discovered a heart murmur that she hadn't heard before. She said not to worry, but hey, that's what I do. She sent me for an Echo cardiogram and also a bone density test + labs and I'll find out the results in a few days. I'm quite interested to see my lipid panels.

Getting older is so much fun!

Wow Andrea I hope it all turns out OK.
If it's not one thing, it's another huh?
Best wishes while you wait. I'm sure no need to worry at all.

I had a similar doctor's office visit to Andrea's. I saw a new doctor, but she noticed from my chart that I was down about 60 pounds from the last time I had a physical. She immediately asked if I had done IP. She said that a few of her friends had been very successful with it. She very much encouraged me to talk to other women about how I'd lost weight, since it makes such a difference in your health and risk factors. The way in which my visit was different though, was that they did an EKG in the office. The doctor looked at it and asked if I worked out a lot -- apparently it was athlete quality!

Andrea, I'm sure your murmur will turn out okay -- look at all you've done to improve your health over the past year. But I know it can be a little unsettling while you wait for results.

Andrea - I'm glad you are getting fully checked out at the Drs. and hope everything is good with your heart. I'm sure waiting is hard. Love that your Dr. Didn't recognize you. That is horrible about the fish, glad your feeling better.

Amber - I do P1 more as a general practice and I generally eat a little more relaxed on the weekend. I have a Dr. who I chat with a she has done a lot of reading around weighloss and recommended one day of P1 or something like that to remind your body how to burn calories. I get grumpy if I have to do more than 1 day of P1 to get the up lbs down. i don't find the P1 day too bad.

Had my WI today, inches are the lowest they have been, weight rebounded up a bit from being sick last week so at top of range 162. I'm okay with the # cuz the inches are low so figuring I'm adding lean.

Hi to everyone and hope everyone has a great weekend.

Great work on the lean-ing, Jenny. And congrats on your heart's new status as 'athlete', winewanderer. Sounds like you are doing fine with the tools you have, Amber.
Hope the news is OK, Andrea.

I have definitely been feeling the energy with some major (for me) workouts everyday this past while. Only problem is the arthritis or fibro (who knows and it doesn't really matter) pain at the fingers, wrists, & lumbar spine. But then again not unexpected as the weather here is wacky right now. Quick swings from high pressure sunny to a fast low pressure 'almost' thunderstorm today, then tomorrow back to hot & sunny. Just adjusting how I do my muscle building component in the water so I don't hurt quite so bad. I had no grip this morning so I couldn't even use the equipment, I just had to adjust the power of my movements to get a sufficient amount of resistance.
I got called to work tomorrow at a road construction site, but it's static and won't give me much opportunity to get exercise. I was supposed to go on a hike with friends... maybe Sunday afternoon reschedule.

Liana

So far P4 has been going well. I actually went back down to my lowest weight and have a planned "fun meal" tonight. This will be my first and then I'll do P1 tomorrow. I've been interested in hearing everyone's perspective on fun days/meals. We'll see how it goes.

Hey Ipeeps! Thanks for the good thoughts. I'm sure the heart thing will be fine.

Shasta: Congrats on the low weight and success in P4. Enjoy your fun meal.

Liana: Sorry you're hurting. I hope you feel better soon and are able to reschedule your hike.

Jenny: You're a lean machine!

I was talking to a friend a couple of weeks ago about biking and she is going to let me borrow her bike for a while to see if it works for me. I'm concerned that the knee will act up. It's a mountain bike which really wasn't what I was looking at, which was either a cruiser or a hybrid. I have no intention of doing any off road/trail biking. I'm simply not coordinated enough for that. She let me borrow her bike rack as well and the whole way home I was terrified that it was going to fly off the back of my car. She lives about 40 miles away and it's all highway. I made it home ok. So now I am going to go out and buy the stuff: pump, helmet, etc.

Tomorrow I'm going to see the Dallas Symphony perform Mozart's Requiem. Our symphony is awesome and I'm really looking forward to it.

Well, as it turns out I didn't go hog wild. We went to a new restaurant which happened to mostly have sensible choices (a new Greek restaurant owned by Mike Isabella the Top Chef guy). So, I had a couple salads and some bread but didn't go overboard. I did order this cheese dish that was smothered in honey and lemon but I only had about 1/2 of it and it was enough. I had 2 glasses of wine. The scale is the same today but I decided to do P1 anyway because my stomach is feeling wonky. I think it's from the bread.

The event was for a school fundraiser at a local bar (the dinner was an added bonus). Anyway, at the fundraiser I saw a few parents who haven't seen me thru my IP journey and they couldn't get over me! A few said they didn't recognize me. This might be why I didn't go overboard.

Thank you all for contributing to this thread. Even if I'm not posting regularly, I am avidly reading everyday and appreciate all of your different perspectives. Andrea -- hope the murmur turns out to be innocent. Both my kids and DH have had murmurs, and thankfully, all turned out to be innocent.
Liana -- hope your pain recedes soon.
Jenny -- yay for losing inches!
Amber -- I was also feeling bloated for most of this week and could not figure out why (no eating out really, no new carbs at dinner). Somehow it just disappeared yesterday morning (just in time for my day-long shopping excursion )
sahara -- I'd be nervous about a month out of the country also, but just the fact that you're already thinking about it is awesome.
shasta -- were you at kapnos? Been wanting to try that place!

On the topic of fun days, I haven't really had a whole day yet, maybe just a meal or two. Still really watching the carbs though, so I'd say those fun meals (dinners) were still generally carb-light (i.e., lower glycemic carbs) but did have more fat than I would otherwise have at dinnertime. I did follow with either a P1 or P2 day and felt fine after. My weight seems to fluctuate between 120 and 122.5 over the course of the week. Haven't yet pinpointed what causes that fluctuation -- probably just life. Also, on a couple of occasions when I knew we'd be eating out and I was going to have what I'd consider my fun meal, I planned ahead by doing a P3 breakfast (which I don't think I'll ever be able to give up again!) and then a P1 lunch. Who knows if that does anything, but it makes me feel better.

So, I know I'm supposed to know this, but a question for you all: Why is it OK to combine the carbs and fats at breakfast, but not later? Will it really mess things up to have that "combo" meal at lunchtime or dinnertime, instead of first thing in the morning?

Mimi - Yes we were at Kapnos. We enjoyed it (for me especially as I can walk there and I wasn't expecting to be able to so easily stay on program). I have had the same question about breakfast. When I was contemplating maintenance I really really missed just having a sandwich for lunch and couldn't understand why I couldn't just do the P3 breakfast for lunch instead. But, I was so worried about deviating I just stuck with it and I've mostly had open faced sandwichs for my P3 breakfast + fruit. And interestingly, I haven't missed my old lunches anymore.

This is a good idea -- I should try it. Do you have something like an egg sandwich? Or cold cuts? I know Liana sometimes has a breakfast "pizza" or the like. I've just really been craving tacos/burritos, etc. (not just the taco salad that I love and have every week) but would like to have them at lunch or dinner. Major no-no?

Mimi- I think it's ok to combine carb and fats in the morning because we have the whole day to burn it off. I could be wrong. You could do the tacos for lunch as a fun meal or if I know I'm having lunch out or on vacation we had pizza for lunch I did a P1 breakfast and then veggie and protein dinner and it worked out. I may have done a P1 day after. Sounds like you've figured things out well and your weight is pretty stable.

Shasta - love that some of the parents didn't recognize you. Sounds like you did well figuring out your fun meal. It's amazing how our eating habits have changed since P1 and we can stop eating when we're satisfied.

Andrea - I hope you enjoy the bike. I imagine a mountain bike is very different than a rode bike. I am hoping DH a gets a job so I can get one. Talked to a group on Saturday and they were heading out for a 100km ride. One of them had a good recommendation on we're to get an introductory bike. Let me know how it feels for your knee

Liana - yikes that is roller coaster weather your having. I can't imagine the added pain it causes. Sounds like your energy is coming back. Did you get out for your hike.

Went for a family hike yesterday, I think it was a first for us. Hoping to make it a more regular thing. Ran quite a bit this weekend, 11km yesterday and 18km today😅. Ate Thai food last night so added some P1 food this weekend in hopes of creating some balance.

Hi to everyone and hope everyone has a good week.

Hi Shasta, Liana, Jenny, Andrea, Mimi, Sahara, andreabmva, DD, winewanderer....
Great to follow along with you all, and hope you have a good week. How nice that our struggles are mostly focused on what type of exercising we are able to do and whether a meal out can work for us, and focusing on those 1 to 5 pounds, and health issues unrelated to weight or eating. We are a lucky healthy bunch.

I am doing well, continuing to learn what works and trusting the process. I was never one to think that TOM had a true effect on me, I always wondered if it was a bit of an excuse, but I'm here to say today after having a crampy heavy flow weekend that it definitely makes me hungrier!!! It was nice though because I avoided the "give me fat and chocolate" intensity and just ate more yogurt/fruit/nuts type snacks, had to add about 300 calories, but glad to see I can do things like that from time to time and it's fine. Kind of like my "fun snack" - what makes it fun is that I don't kill anyone around me.... which feels like the alternative when my body is in that TOM mode...

I have continued to do Pilates, I am definitely sore in the areas I want to be sore like my abs and arms, and that makes me happy. I feel my body getting stronger and wanting to get stronger and build more muscle.

Andrea I used to bike a lot and the mountain bike was a nice change up sometimes, even when not doing a lot of "off roading" - it was fun to be able to jump curbs and be on dirt a little here or there - it also feels very sturdy which was nice.
Also I spent Saturday listening to Mozart's Requiem - funny coincidence. I love that piece.

Oh I also have a quick question - I have been looking at the Quest Bars, Proti-Thin, etc. on nashua nutrition - I noticed the sugar alcohols look fairly high - I remember you all writing something about sugar alcohols - can you remind me what the concern is, and also how many you recommend staying below? Thank you!