Andrea, I hope you will be cleared for increased activity soon.

Jenny, I am doing the 21 day fix. I liked the idea of a food/exercise program. I find my planned meals close to what I was eating P3 so it helps me stay on track food wise AND I get in some good workouts. Also I can adjust the food portions to maintain or lose...

Morning, gals: still in my range although I don't think I'll be back at 132 by June 21, lol. My thing to focus on this month is properly getting all my supplements in. I keep forgetting certain things and then I am out in town and can't take them at that point. *SIGH* Seems there's always something. Gotta figure out the new 'cocktail' I guess, DD.
Re: Two full weeks of phase 3 - very important, and I'd wait on maintenance for the wine...
You will probably find you are now a 'cheap drunk' lol, and wine definitely curbs inhibitions, including good food plans. REALLY watch out for this.

I weigh a couple times a week and I still do the 3:1 ratio (it works for me because sometimes I 'crave' the richness of the fatmeal, and sometimes I look forward to all those carbs (relatively speaking, hahaha)). I eat a bit more fat than a lot of the gals, I think. I have been in maintenance for 1 1/4 years now and when I have things under control (ie: no crazy snacking from hormones especially late at night) I can eat between 100-125 net carbs/day. I can't remember the last time I ate cereal, because it feels like such a waste of carbs to me (I'm pretty sure my Organic GF cereal is stale and rancid by now - I haven't checked). I would rather have toast and savoury stuff in the morning if I'm feeling like breakfast - otherwise it's a protein smoothie. I do miss huge servings of rice - I used to eat 4 servings easy at dinner with stirfry.

Jenny and Andrea-

I am learning so much!!! Thank you for all of the advice!

I am on day 3 of Phase 2. The past two days I have been really hungry between meals. Is this normal? I would think more food would mean less hunger. This diet is crazy!

Hi all - I had a strange thing happen. I forgot to weigh in 2 days in a row and when I got on the scale today I was at goal. I never reached goal during P1!! I phased off due to spring break and lost a few in P3. But not to goal and decided that I was okay with that. I didn't do anything special to lose so imagine my surprise today. I got on the scale 3 times because I thought it had to be a mistake. I think in those 2 days I went down 4 pounds. So, just like not believing in those 3 up pounds a few days ago I'm not sure I believe it (but I will change my signature! I might as well claim it right?!).

Maintenance is perplexing me. But it's been 2 months and okay so far I guess... I am eating sensibly. I am not tracking everything. I am not following 3:1 per se but I am eating my carbs mainly in the morning and a slow carb for dinner. I'm not really doing fun days. But, I am having some desserts, some extras (chips and dip at a party).

Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences. It helps me also!

I am phasing off a little early due to summer. I am happy with where I am and am really, really tired of phase 1. So it thrills me to hear about your success on the scale when you weren't even trying. However, I doubt I will have your success since I plan on having my cheat meals for sure.

So I have done this diet 3 times now (I am VERY motivated for this to be my last full out phase 1) and know the diet pretty well. I especially know P1-P3. Maintenance has eluded me however . What does everyone mean by 3:1?

That's great shasta, own it for sure!!

Bootros, 3:1 is about separating your fats and carbs in your meals. Supposed to be for your lunch and supper meal. One meal is to be a carb heavier meal, so that when you look at the macros for the meal you are having 3 times more carbs than fat (3:1) and then for your other meal you are having a fat heavier meal where your fat is 3 times higher than your carbs.

Thank you DD. That makes sense now. I knew about separating the "two kids in the classroom that don't get along". (ha, ha) I just didn't know what the 3:1 ratio was. Now I do!

Wow there's some really good explainations of separating fats and carbs here. I doubt I could have explained it as well as some of you!

I can't say I put that much thought into it anymore in fact I was at the point where I was just having a fun meal because I felt so gross after a fun day or even fun half day. Looking forward to my breakfasts soon and will be doing a run next Friday.

Thanks for the welcome back determined and catlady.

Bootros - I am bigger then you and probably much older and I see your height/weight and I want to tell you that you ARE catching your weight early as you are in a very healthy range. Yes, you've done P1 3x but I think that if you've stayed in a range of 15 pounds even then you are doing very well. This time maybe reduce the "scream weight" to say 5 pounds. I think for me I realize that this is a life style. I joke with my friends that I am on a diet for the rest of my life. And really that is true. I must eat sensibly from now on. I think the change for me is to realize that I can have whatever I want to eat but I have to balance it out for the day or week. I really think about what I am putting in my mouth and try to figure out if it's worth it. (Not that I am a poster child for maintenance either. I am fluctuating too much which I would like to figure out. I did Atkins before my wedding and maintained it for 2 years. So I know that I am never out of the woods. It's a slog but I wish I didn't wait so long to start IP. I had kids and lamely tried weight watchers and south beach but let 10 years go by. My only regret is I didn't do IP sooner)

Hello everyone, welcome back Ishbel. You and your baby look gorgeous.

Hello to everyone else here.
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I am having a lot of water retention and inflammation the last week and for the life of me I can't figure out why - the scale is up 10 lbs in the course of a week, going up a lb or so every day, not down, and a lot of muscular pain from the inflammation. I see my doctor on Monday and will talk it through. I think I must have a sensitivity to something but I haven't eaten anything very different so I'm still not sure what it is. I did eat a few new bars, they had very similar ingredients and macros to IP bars I've had, but I'm wondering if it's sugar alcohols or something. Shocked that my body is that sensitive to sugar, but I'll see....

I know there is an hormone interplay and I'll start my TOM tomorrow probably, but that isn't enough to warrant the extreme amount of water retention. I'll let you know next week how things pan out and what I discover.... I know I just need to keep going but this is for sure frustrating and a little demoralizing and borderline depressing.

I had decided last week not to do P1 for a while, but I changed my mind and decided to do a P1 day today and may continue tomorrow if it makes me feel better, also because I know the first thing the doctor will suggest is try P1 to get the lbs down. I did two days last week and it didn't seem to help, but I want to try one more time just so they can see the records and see that it's either helping or not helping.

I read through Novak's last post again last night and it helped. I feel that Maintenance is just going to be pretty challenging for me and I really need to stick in there esp. the first few years and I am going to go through trial and error figuring out what really works for my body.

The good thing is that in the past what I did when this happened is just feel the feeling of giving up, and start to gradually eat more, because I'm inflamed and exhausted and want the extra energy from the food to get through the day. So I want to use the time to really figure out why this is happening, and not go the old route of just eating more to get the energy and cover the negative feelings.

Hang in there Amber (G4H), hopefully the dr. will help you figure out what is going on. And good for you for not letting your frustration beat you!

Thank you DD

Keep us updated Amber on what the doc says!

I am going through the same thing...up 10 lbs and I have no idea why..super puffy...could it be something in the environment here (im hoping)? I have been diligent about P1 but no result yet...waiting...

CO6 you're still in P1 phase and went up 10lbs? Very strange. Did your clinic have any thoughts?

I dont have a clinic, which i am now considering due to the plateau/gain. I have been using alts since day 1. Most of my loss was during the first 5 months. I had my thyroid levels checked and hormones and everything is looking ok. stumped