Two eggs or two eggs plus egg whites are just fine morning, noon, or night although one gets a bigger protein bang having protein isolate in the morning. The reason I asked is because I was curious why one would eat eggs and a packet together and MrsMurphy qualified that nicely.

ah ok.......and thank you..... SEE ? I just learned something new on this site yet again........ thanks Linden !

I HATED the tomatoe basil soup...

Hey Everyone,

So, I have two questions. One - What are some good vitamins comparable to the IP vitamins? Maybe this was already discussed, if so , you can point me in the right direction.

Also, I want to make sure i'm eating the right way, so i'm going to just lay out my schedule and anyone can comment and let me know if it sounds ok. I did look for a coach in my area, the closest is an hour away. I already drive an hour to work everyday. So, driving another hour in the opposite direction any day of the week is not something I want to do. Someone had suggested for me to contact IP about a possible phone coach. However, the woman i spoke to said they don't do that. Anyways, so with the help of this site and ordering and buying alternative products i'm trying to follow the IP diet as closely as possible.

With that being said, here is my eating schedule I have started.

Breakfast - Egg whites and a shake.
Snack - Pickles
Lunch - 2cups of vegetables and a shake.
Snack - lettuce and pickles
Dinner - Chicken + 2 cups of vegetables.
Snack - Shake

I guess i'm just wondering if it looks like i'm getting enough protein, not enough, if I should add something, yada yada. I plan to incorporate different vegetables or snacks once I get more in the groove of things. I'm trying ot keep it as simple as possible until I get the schedule down and things are running smoothly. I did just order some protidiet stuff from nashua nutrition. So I'll be starting to incorporate those things next week.

Thanks in advance for the feedback and the continued support. I am so thankful I found this site!!

I would recommend having a protein bar once a day instead of one of your shakes... I think you may be a little too low on the carbs with the 3 shakes. Perhaps you can have it after your veggies at lunch? Also, a lot of people including myself break-up the protein portion at dinner and have some at lunch. For instance, I usually have 3 ozs of meat at lunch and then eat the remaining 5 ozs at dinner.

Hope this helps!

I'm not doing alternatives but I tend to bounce around and read a lot of the threads.

I just want to make sure you know that pickles are included in the amount of veggies you are allowed everyday. They are not considered free. Also, I believe SOMEWHERE there is a list of vitamins (perhaps in the alternative sticky's?) that you could take down to the health food store and say "I want something close to this". If you can't find it, post in the daily thread, maybe someone in the great abyss will have it poking around their own computer and will share?

I also agree with Sara, you should have a bar in there. Sometimes the balance between not enough and too much carbs is very fine.

These are just some observations as you're finding your way. Lots of different things work for different people.

If you really want to do IP you can Google IP to GO. That's run through the main offices in Canada and the US and you can easily do the program that way. It would also solve the problem of getting the supplements. There is NO OTC replacement for the K/Cal. You can mix and match for the others but do it with a really reputable, knowledgeable person at a high-grade health and nutrition store. I'm not referring to the chains or big box stores. And I'm not being snobbish. I truly think this is important.

About pickles. Think of them as little green sodium machines -- unless you can find really low sodium pickles. One regular sized dill pickle = 1181 mg of sodium. Ideally you should stay around 1200 mg of sodium per day.

Until you get down another 50 or so pounds you could consider using another packet. As to bars, some people cut them into little pieces, freeze them, and have half for one snack, half for the other.

There are good reasons for splitting your meat/fish, like you can't gag it down all at once. But there's also a very good reason for having it all at night. It takes a lot longer to digest real food than the packets, especially those made with soy. So if you eat all your meat at night, plus the evening shake or whatever you have, your body won't go without sustainable protein for as long as it would if you only had protein isolate at night. This is important.

Here's what I'd aim for: 1200 mg of calcium and sodium a day; 4700 mg potassium; and 400 mg magnesium. Here's where having a knowledgeable doctor or coach would be absolutely invaluable -- to adjust the amounts and ratios to you, individually. Then there are the esssential amino acids which you should be getting in your packets plus some red meat. Plus 2 t long or medium chain fatty acids and LOTS of water. About 1/2 ounce of water for every pound of body weight up to 240 pounds. Enough water is crucial; too much flushes out all the good vitamins and minerals. Balance is key. I do hope you're working with a health provider? And if you have hypothyroidism, there are a whole set of other considerations.

So, WELCOME, keep on planning and questioning, and the very best of successes to you. (And please remember, what I've written are general guidelines. I am NOT a medical professional.)

[QUOTE=mrsmurphy;4155485]What are some good vitamins comparable to the IP vitamins? Maybe this was already discussed, if so , you can point me in the right direction. [QUOTE]

Here's link I found that provides what you get from the vitamins you take. http://www.ihpweightloss.com/Supplement_Overview-IP.pdf. Based off of this information, I was able to find what I needed at my local Walmart/Target/Walgreens. The key word is elemental. The potassium on IP is 800mgs, but only 312 is elemental. Based off of that, I was able to locate a similar product and increase the amount I take to match the requirement for IP.

Hi Linden,

I have tried to google IP to Go, even as Ideal Protein...because this is not the first time I have heard of this site to order from.... no luck.......site does not come up, or if it comes up, you cannot move further ie: to see where the diet centers 'are'......suggestions? have you ordered from them?

I was able to access the following link: http://www.idealtogo.com/idealproducts.taf This is also where I found the nutritional information to compare to alternate products. Just click on the food and it will show you the nutritional information.

yep i got to that page, thanks......... and sent them an email to set up an account....... hopefully they mail out from canada as the US postal fees on nashua are horrid! 27$ shipping omg thats another box of IP right there

Here's the IP to Go website http://idealtogo.com/ You have to enter your information I believe and they'll contact you to see if you're a candidate for the program. I haven't personally used them, but there are some others on this site who have used them.

There is a vitamin sheet somewhere on this site where someone made a PDF of all the vitamins and the amount in each supplement. I tried searching in vain for it a few weeks ago, but I will try again later today. And if anyone happened to save it on their computer maybe they'll repost it.

Like Linden said pickles aren't free veggies so they'll need to be counted in your 2 cups of veggies. That being said I buy the mini kosher dill pickles and will occasionally have 1 or 2 when I'm starving as a little pick me up and forget to count them in my 2 cups but I don't eat the whole jar and I don't do it every day.

The other thing I would tell you is that once you get into ketosis you might want to see about simplifying the plan you have a little bit. I know in today's culture we're conditioned to thing we need to snack every 2-3 hours and this plan doesn't seem like you could ever not be hungry but trust me it's totally possible to get through with a Shake for breakfast, bar for lunch, dinner, and night snack (with all the appropriate veggies and supplements of course). If this plan works for you great, but don't burn yourself out trying to eat every 2 hours, especially after the first week when you will probably find you're not nearly as hungry.

I also agree with the PP, I would probably think about adding a bar in there. Personally I love my bars / restricteds for lunch with some raw veggies. Super easy and simple to carry with you and you get the crunchy of the veggies and the sweet of the bar. I've even started making my own salad dressing to dip my veggies in at lunch. Obviously not the same as a fatty ranch dip, but it changes up the flavor just enough.

I hope this helps! Please feel free to post anymore questions you have!! And GL on your continued journey!

JUST got this reply from IDEAL TO GO

Subject: Ideal To Go
Sent: Jan 4, 2012 8:44 AM

Hello Theresa,

I'm sorry, but at this time we're not set up to ship into Canada.

Tom

Bummer! Have you looked into Lindora?

no do they ship to canada? are the prices good?