Hi all,

Andrea, your food adventure sound delish! I have complete faith that you will undo the spread-age in no time.

Amber, rebooting for a short time is working for me. I decided not to weigh in, I set a time limit of 4-5 weeks. Compared to the 9.5 months 5 weeks feels like zip It has curbed my mindless summer eating and given me a new appreciation for my daily maintenance food. I am measuring my progress by the fit of my clothes- winning!

Liana, as always your descriptions make me laugh

AllMe, I understand your need to reign it back in. Maintenance can get blurry and the structure of a Phase 1 is great for re-establishing the concrete lines. Wishing you luck.

I typically "sort of" plan meals--breakfast tends to be one of two meals that always includes two eggs, lunch is typically salad and tuna or salad and some other protein, dinner is protein and veggies, often cooked on the grill. The dinner protein is chicken, pork chops or the occasional fish or steak or hamburger or tofu. Plus a glass or two of really good wine.

Great photos Liana!

Hi Everyone. Last day of P1 reboot yesterday, starting P3 today.

Had my WI yesterday, was actually down .1 which surprised me (thought it would be 0, so I'll take it) but the huge surprise was a loss of 8.5 inches (all in my tummy/hips) in the last 3 weeks. I was nearly in shock.

So weird how things go like that.
It was strange to me that the scale was staying so stable even though I felt so much better, and it did seem to me that I was smaller in clothes.

My coach said that over the years after watching so many people go through P1 and then through maintenance, that more and more she is convinced that the thing to really go by is how someone feels in their clothes. She said she herself is surprised sometimes the difference between how someone looks and what their numbers and scale shows.

In that way Slip I think I would have been better off going your route to just do the reboot and not weigh.

I had a great, long talk with the coach, and felt so at peace at the end of the conversation, I got up to leave, and then said "wait shouldn't we weigh and measure" and she said "only if you want to, if you're fine where you're at there's no need" - which was really great, as a lot of the conversation was about me just accepting where I am now as healthy and "right". But we went ahead and did it and I'm glad we did because of the realization about the change in inches.

I was on the reboot for 6 weeks, I lost 12 lbs in the first three weeks but only 3 inches, and in the last three weeks lost nearly no weight (.1) but 8.5 inches.
She said she think I might go down 2 or 3 lbs during P3 as likely I am retaining some water which will cause a whoosh of sorts perhaps.

But I feel a little freed up, and refreshed to be reminded to stay focused on how I feel and how I am moving in the world, and not quite so much on the scale (though I know it's one piece of the puzzle and can't go UP tooooo much).

I might adjust my goal weight up a few lbs but I'm going to see how things settle out the next month or two.
I also talked to her about doing a 2 or 3 week reboot around Jan. 1 and she thought that was a good plan. Also to experiment with doing a day or two of alt. P1 (maybe like a P2 ish) when I'm feeling heavy, so that I don't get too many up lbs.

Hi Amber!

Did you ever mention if you found out what why your body was holding your up lbs? Interested to know!!

CO 6 not anything definitive - probably some combination of hormones/water retention, and also some reaction/inflammation. My guess is my body isn't reacting well to higher glycemic combinations - glass of wine, extra protein bars, extra fruits, things like that.
Still working it - trial and error.

mug cake.jpgIf you haven't tried mug cake I recommend it!
A friend of mine who is an athlete has it every night before she goes to bed. Here's the screenshot of the recipe if you're not familiar with it. Super easy and super tasty, and very filling for an evening snack.
I know others who have posted similar recipes, but just in case you haven't tried it maybe check it out.

Woot woot it's Friday!!
Amber - loved ready your post, you sound so happy. I'm glad thins are coming together and your are doing what you need to do to be happy. The man you are seeing sounds lovely.

Allme - congrats on your soon to be 1yr anniversary! You have done a great job and to be within 4lbs is quite an accomplishment.

Liana- good to her MIL is settling in well. Love your pics beautiful on the inside and the out. I agree that being too busy can be a very helpful strategy leaving no time for snacking.

It seems that most of us plan the same way. My DH does all the cooking for dinner and it usually works out, lots of lean meat, turkey, and chicken. I think I got off track tho eating the pasta at nigh and likely some of the sauces were to rich. I need to include one night of eggs and maybe a night of tuna.
Did my wi and down 2 so 5 more to go which seems manageable.

Thank you Jenny. I'm leaning more toward protein/veg meals both lunch and dinner. I'm mostly only doing the carbs in the morning.
If I'm going out to a nice dinner I'll let myself mix things but keep the carb minimal, like if I'm at brunch I'll have a spinach omelette with cheese and just a few bites of hash browns, or at dinner a few bites of potatoes.
But at home I'm keeping carbs mostly minimal after breakfast.
Before the reboot my doctor thinks I was doing too much fruit, so I am trying to limit fruit to breakfast for now. Maybe I'll use it as a condiment on salads, but I was incorporating a full serving of fruit in two snacks, so three times a day, and that was too much for my body I think.

I'm going to see how this pans out.... I'd like to add a few more in there but my doctor said it appears my body is esp. carb sensitive.

Does anyone else tend to freak out after an indulgence day when they get on the scale after doing the recovery P1 day only to find out the weight did not magically disappear? When I started my IP journey several years ago I had a coach but back then, very little info was given out about P4. I have been reading a lot of previous post on here and also on FB page Phase 2,3,4. I have been very successful accomplishing my goals by myself during reboots but always seem to struggle on P4.

Week 1 of reboot down, not the best I definitely had many small cheats along the way. Officially I am down 2.4 lbs. Not bad really considering i was not 100%.Time to really buckle down this week.

Jenny - you are sooooo lucky to have your husband make dinner. My husband would make dinner but it would not be vegetables and lean protein!!

Grateful - congrats on finishing your phase 1 reboot. It seems like you are figuring out what will work for you which is the hardest part.

Toothgirl - I found the indulgence day is too much for my body to handle. I do an indugence meal only. Every body is different you have to find what works for you.

toothgirl, I am relatively new to maintenance, but it has been the same for me as AllMe writes - I can't do a whole indulgence day. Even a meal is a little tricky for me.
My observation for most of here is that maintenance becomes very individual for what works and doesn't work - for some people the Indulgence/P1 days work fine, for others of us, not so much.

I can have a few indulgences here and there (maybe once a week or on vacation type things - I usually limit it to when I'm out of the house at a nice meal and can really enjoy and appreciate the indulgence) but it needs to be tempered with overall healthy habits - I lean toward doing mostly P3-type days on most days in regular day to day life.

Happy Monday Maintainers!

I'm almost back where I want to be on this reboot. Only 3 more lbs. to go!

Once I get there, it'll be a couple of days each of P2 & P3 and then jump back into Maint. And this time, I'll stick with the ratios or just do more P3 type meals with occasional carbs(pasta, yams or rice at dinner). I don't want to cut out carbs altogether as I don't want my hair falling out again nor do I want to feel like I am always "on a diet". There has to be a happy medium. I just need to find mine.

I had a setback last week with my knee. Even though I got a Synvisc shot before I went to New York (7 weeks ago) and these shots usually last at least 8-12 months for me, I had shooting pain in my knee. Went to the Ortho and had to get a cortisone shot. He said my arthritis flared up. Sigh, this is my life. I've been hobbling around since Wednesday, but it's getting a bit better now. Ugh.

toothgirl: I did a couple of "days" early on in Maint and then the P1 day after. I stopped doing that because I felt so yucky afterwards; i.e.; puffiness, bloating, and general sick to my stomach feeling for putting things in my body that I'm not used to. The P1 day got rid of it, it was like magic! Now, like others have said, I just do a meal, but I don't do P1 the next day, just cut back carbs and calories the next day. For a while I wasn't even doing a meal and I started some "stinking thinking" in that I started thinking that I could do more than a meal at time for days at a time and that got me into trouble. I think the "cheat day" sets you up for problems. Just like when you are on strict P1, if you cheat, you're only cheating yourself and setting yourself up for failure. What must be focused on, at least for me, is eating properly 90-95% of the time as a rule. "Cheating" is what got me to 206 lbs in the first place. I don't ever want to go back to that. Also, I think the word cheat indicates that you are doing something bad. That you have to feel guilty about what you have done. I don't want to feel guilty about anything that I put in my mouth. I want to enjoy it. Completely. So I do. It's an adult decision. Then I have to act like an adult and get back on the program. End of rant.

Sure, I can have the occasional treat, but I have to reign it in. I strayed from protocol and saw a steady climb in my weight. Hence, this reboot.

Thanks everyone for the feed back. It is a way of thinking and perhaps I do need to think indulgence "meal" instead of "day" and maybe, (insert gasp) not once a week. Do other maintainers here do once a week or more like every couple weeks?

This has been an interesting exchange of information to me the past couple of days. I'm up 5-6 lbs in maintenance - some of them expected but a few that seem to be lingering.

I've been struggling with believing they'll go back down by keeping the ratios, etc. I kept thinking about how much I loved P3 and would like to do that indefinitely. And now many of you seem to be saying it works for you if you have a 'indulgence' meals once a week or so.

I think I'll stop worrying about separating fats and carbs and just eat carbs in the morning when they seem to have the least impact. For lunch and dinner I'll stick to lean protein and veggies with an occasional potato or other starchy vegetable.

I think keeping the rules simple helps keep me in check and focused. I'm glad to hear many of you seem to feeling the same albeit individually driven. P3 isn't feasible 100% of the time but it sure is 80-90% of the time.

Hello Maintainers, I hope everyone is well.
After 6 months in maintenance with an initial 5 up right away and then after a rough month of July an additional 12 up I have started week 4 of my reboot. I was curious if other rebooters have done a complete two weeks of Phase 3 after getting back to their goal weight? I am and will continue to be strict P1 until I reach my new goal weight and figure it will take me another 2 months or so. Thanks in advance for your advice.