That new vanilla RTE pudding that came out recently? It's not too bad! It's the color of tapioca for us tapioca lovers, nice thick consistency (I put mine in the freezer for 30 minutes), somewhere between vanilla, tapioca and generic IP flavoring. So my ranking of the 3 RTE puddings is 1st) vanilla, 2nd) caramel and 3rd) chocolate.

Legal, congrats on the loss and good for you for not giving into the excuse of "I can cheat and still lose" and recommitting to 100%. Way to flex your willpower muscle and tuck away this experience for another time things get tough to remind yourself that you can do it!

I am a bit curious, what causes people to gain their weight back? I can't imagine losing the 80-100 pounds I hope to lose and then making a CHOICE to allow the weight to creep back on. Are there triggers or warning signs that this is going to happen? Is it simply a persons personality? Are we all in danger of going there? I'd like to be prepared if I can. I'm on day 18 and not even thinking about cheating. Does that eventually change and then one thing leads to another? I'm sad to read so many people put in the effort and money to get healthy and then they have to start over. I don't want that to be me.

Interesting that you ask -- I've been curious about the same thing, and have made it a point to try to figure it out by reading all the threads. It appears that people gain weight back for a variety of reasons. One that I often see is that they never phased off correctly. From my experience, the phase off was key in slowly changing my dieting habits and making me conscientious about what I was eating when I wasn't in a totally restricted phase. I also see that people have some stressful life event and turned to food as a comfort, or were just to busy to consciously think about eating carefully. My observation is that you can't think that you will be off the "diet." You have to realize that you need to make permanent lifestyle changes. There was a reason we became overweight -- if we go back to what we were doing before, we will become overweight again. You'll see a lot of references to the Beck diet book, which provides a method to try to change the way you think about/interact with/use food.

During my first IP journey, I had total diet fatigue and became so concerned that I had to PROVE to myself that I could maintain (and really, really wanted to work out). So I phased off before I met my goal. I did manage to maintain without gaining -- because of the lessons I learned along the way . I even actually managed to lose a few extra pounds in maintenance. So I am back to lose the last few pounds. I'm actually glad to have to have done it this way, because the reboot is a powerful reminder of how much work it was to lose the weight and how good it feels to eat clean. I'm thinking I may reboot every year as a similar reminder.

I guess in the end the lesson is -- you can't expect to go back to eating the way you were before IP without the same result.

Personally, both times in my adult life I've gotten to healthy weights (165 & 152 respectively), I got pregnant, put on "baby weight" and it seems to take me years to finally find my mojo to want to do the hard work again to get it off. Now, when I lost 45#'s in 2013 doing Insanity, stress hit me like a freight train - family sickness, death, and sudden job insecurity (which continues).

So my CHOICES were:
1. Pregnancy - you will gain weight & obviously can't do IP (or any restrictive diet) while pregnant.
2. Stress - I didn't choose the stress obviously (most of us don't!), but I do own how I deal with it & need to learn to make better choices (ie - exercise not alcohol)
3. Life - not sure about you, but my social life is suffering a bit right now. While not impossible, it can be difficult to have a super-social / active life and remain 100% compliant. Maybe some / most people don't have this issue...I do. I happen to subscribe to the theory that we have a willpower threshold and when too much piles up, something has to give. Right now, I have a goal in mind and know eating IP is temporary and sometimes have to remind myself a couple times a day. I am also aware now that weight loss is going to require constant vigilance and come up with a liveable maintenance plan that keeps me at the weight I want to be at.

Yep, winewanderer said it... it's not learning how to CONTNUE to eat healthily in maintenance (by not phasing out properly) and/or it's going back to old habits of emotional eating (happy or sad or bored).
Simple as that.
The social life can be difficult if all your friends are only about meeting for drinks or dinner or coffee out or.... you get the picture.
If it's about spending time hiking the trails or canoeing or going dancing with your friends, or scrapbooking, or watching a play or a live band, or playing with the grandchildren in the park, etc. it's a much healthier social scene. Perhaps it's time to start a change for your friends ;).

Liana

We do many of those things - but there is also 'generally' a food and/or drink component either before, during, or after the events. simple is right though - it's about making choices, good choices.

Welcome. You're right, this forum has a LOT of information to read and digest. You'll find it more manageable if you break it down into smaller chunks and use the Search up on the purple bar across the top. :)

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Welcome. :)

I've been on IP twice before and both times I lost a significant amount of weight and then gained it all back and then some. I believe it was due to a mixture of diet fatigue, laziness, shame, over indulgence and thinking I could go back to doing what I did and ate before the weight loss and not gain weight. I also never embraced the need for a change of lifestyle and I did not do the maintenance phases.
I knew I was gaining but I would avoid the scale and I was to ashamed to go back to the coach I would say self-Sabotaging things like "oh what will they say about my gain I'll loose 10 lbs before going back"
but of course I didn't and just kept gaining. I remember saying that I would never gain the weight back but I did, so of course this is again a worry for me. This time I am determined to do all the phases, learn how to eat while maintaining my weight and now that I'm going to be 50 finally change my lifestyle. I know it will be something I need to be always conscious about.

Weekends
 

Is it just me, or does anyone else really get "out of whack" over the weekends? I'm in the midst of week 8- I don't mean going out and being social and all that, just more that the weekends seem to throw me completely out of routine and I know it's not a big deal, but making sure that I eat on time, spacing everything and all that. During the week, I am up at 0430 and go to sleep somewhere between 8&9 in the evening (though it's usually 10 when I finally get up and go in to bed) so I know my 4-6 hour spacing, but on the weekends, I usually "sleep in" and get up around 730-bed is still about the same time, but it seems like I don't get hungry enough in time to eat at intervals that I am supposed to. I almost feel as though I am overeating...(a ramble I know, but just wondering if anyone else experiences this and do they have any "tricks of the trade" they can share?
As always- thanks for the support and inspiration that you all provide!:dizzy:

When I lost 50+ pounds with LA Weightloss back in high school, I had a bunch of skinny friends. The kind that can eat anything and stay skinny. Heck, one of them was trying to gain 20 pounds! That was my problem, I was surrounded by people who were thin and could make terrible food choices. It sucks going out for dinner and seeing all these skinny girls tuck into cheeseburgers and fries and dessert and you get a plain salad with water. It was very much a case of "if they can do it, so can I".
Then I went to university and lived with 6 other girls, all awesome cooks and we all cooked for each other and baked for each other. I never say no to croissant baked by an actual french person, lol!

IDK, this is my first rodeo and After losing 100+lbs the last thing I want to do is regain. I have been trying to get myself "ready" for maintenance since the beginning. I may not have regained after IP but certainly have after all other diets. I have given away all bigger size clothes, read and followed the Beck Diet Solution and for me, most importantly, went to therapy to try and deal with my food and body issues. My mother is in hospice right now and I haven't turned to food yet which frankly, is shocking to me. I do feel a little lost at times because I don't know what to do with myself. I posted yesterday under Summer Starters about replacing one vice with another.

So my CHOICES were:
1. Pregnancy - you will gain weight & obviously can't do IP (or any restrictive diet) while pregnant.
2. Stress - I didn't choose the stress obviously (most of us don't!), but I do own how I deal with it & need to learn to make better choices (ie - exercise not alcohol)
3. Life - not sure about you, but my social life is suffering a bit right now. While not impossible, it can be difficult to have a super-social / active life and remain 100% compliant. Maybe some / most people don't have this issue...I do. I happen to subscribe to the theory that we have a willpower threshold and when too much piles up, something has to give. Right now, I have a goal in mind and know eating IP is temporary and sometimes have to remind myself a couple times a day. I am also aware now that weight loss is going to require constant vigilance and come up with a liveable maintenance plan that keeps me at the weight I want to be at.[/QUOTE]

Re: social life. I "commited" to this plan for one year when I started. I looked at it like I was pregnant. Eat healthy, don't drink. I have a crazy busy social life. My friends like to have a glass of wine or three. :) Initially it was hard to be around food or drink and not partake, but it does become easier. The first party I was at I was talking to people but in my head all I could think of was the spread of food and how I couldn't have any. My friends love my designated driver status this year. I can hang in a bar or club with water and lime and it really doesn't bother me. I went from thinking my friends wouldn't invite me to events or being stressed about the temptations all around me to focusing on the people and the social interaction. I've brought my own food or sparkling water and lime with me. I've eaten prior to events. It has become very easy and I am hoping this will be something I continue into maintenance.

Yes! This is a challenge. I still have trouble getting all of my water in over the weekends. The day just gets away from me. Please we usually eat out at least one meal over the weekend which can also be a challenge. I try to plan out all of my meals (and my family's) for the week and post them on the fridge. Helps me keep on track, remember to take something out of the freezer and plan for events that might knock me off schedule or plan. Planning is key to IP. You can do it!

Day 4 of the reboot and the hungries are here in a major way. I have already had two of my packets for today :( and it's not even 10. Working from home today is making it extra tough, nothing really to distract me with until 1 when I have back to back meetings until I go to a doc appointment. Maybe I'll go for a walk or something.

I didn't gain everything back, but am way above the point where i am comfortable so I am doing a reboot until Memorial Day. I hit my goal in late October and phased off right before the holidays. Thanksgiving was my first full day in maintenance and my first "fun day." Phasing off into the season where it's nonstop food-centered events made it more challenging for me, and the weight came back on as I tried to stretch my fun days to allow for all of the events. I had a lot of false starts to get those holiday up pounds off. I was able to get back down right around goal, but I felt puffy and bloated all the time, and not too great. Then vacation and easter hit and it was the same story.

If I could do it again I would have waited to phase off until after the holidays maybe just let myself be a little more lax on Thanksgiving and Christmas. But live and learn. Now knowing what I know, I'll be more prepared to be more mindful about how to approach events and "seasons of food" as I like to call them. :)

Penn Jillette
 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/p...-lbs/25508667/

Good for him! Over 100 pounds in 3 months! Sure sounds like he did a program very similar to IP. I didn't track down the People magazine article but the USAT one says 'about' 1,000 calories per day, and his maintanence program sounds pretty healthy (although I like animal products and think they can be incorporated into a healthy woe)

Destony I know what you are referring to. For me, I usually brought the interval down a little, around 4 hours sometimes sooner for a snack. I did usually did the snack packet right before I went to sleep, and if I wasn't do hungry I had it be a drink, or even a drink with dinner - that goes down really fast. After a few more weeks you'll probably kind of settle into your weekend routine. It's still like that for me on maintenance - I just eat a little less on the weekends that I'm not as active.