Guess who has her Phase 3 yogurt, strawberries and raspberries in her fridge?! Me!!!!

YAY! One of life's little pleasures? Not on your ever shrinking waist. This is BIG.

Way to go JC! Enjoy!

So I had my first Phase 4 weigh in last night and I was up 1 lb. Not bad considering that I indulged in some pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday and it's my TOM. For the past few weeks I seem to be fluctuating between 138 and 140, and I'm OK with that!

Today I had one of those weird hungry days! I had my big breakfast at 7 a.m. and then was super hungry at 11 a.m. so I had my lunch (greek salad with turkey). By 1:30 I was hungry again so I had a protein bar. Just finished supper (chicken breast with zucchini and kale chips) and broke down and had a small bowl of ice cream since my son was having some. After having the ice cream I don't feel like having carbs or fruit.

MY QUESTION...is a bowl of ice cream for dessert (or something similarly off plan) considered a cheat needing a day of Phase 1 the next day or do I just carry on as is and have my IP protein for snack per usual and tomorrow continue with Phase 4? How big does a cheat need to be to warrant Phase 1? Any advice, tips, suggestions, opinions???

Boy, I think that's going to be different for everyone, since everyone's metabolism works differently. You'll probably just have to find what works for you.

I think of a cheat in phase 4 as more of a full blown cheat than a few bites of something. I had a small piece of cake (frosting scraped off) a few weeks ago and just continued on the next day normally, it was fine. If I would have had a huge piece of cake with frosting and ice cream, I probably would have gone back to phase 1 for a day. Everything in moderation seems to be a good phrase to live by.

I thought I'd share my first phase 3 breakfast (all packed and ready to go in the fridge...I weigh in at 9:30, and I'm NOT eating all this before I go:

2 hard boiled eggs
1/3 cup unsweetened Alpen Muesli
2/3 cup Nancy's Lowfat Plain yogurt
1 cup raspberries.

That will give me (according to Livestrong)
417 calories
14.55 fat (whew)
20 carbs from grains
15 carbs from fruit
27 grams protein

As near as I can tell, that fits into the guidelines for phase 3.

No, I wouldn't consider it worth a day on Phase 1. For me a Phase 1 day would follow a day of eating whatever and whenever I wanted, not the day you just described.

Thanks Stacey41 and BevS. I just went right back to the routine last night for snack and today for breakfast and lunch. I even exercised at lunch today too. Lovin' Phase 4!

So. How was it? What was it like to eat a real breakfast again -- my favorite meal of the day.

It was wonderful, thanks for asking! I was so excited. It was funny, though, people at work came in and kept asking me questions, and I kept thinking 1. I need to eat this all in one sitting, so I need to keep eating but 2. I wanted to savor every bite.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

Ok, I did something similar to what Christina did and made some menu's that I had available at home...I used Livestrong's MyPlate to research the content to make sure I was within limits. Her menu's helped me, so I thought this might be helpful to someone as well. I didn't list all the fat/carb/protein contents, etc like she did...

I realized that I was eating a lot of eggs and the Cholesterol was high in them, so I made something like the Nature Valley that I'm really excited about having tomorrow. Plus, I'd never had Almond Butter before...um, wow. Why have I been eating anything else?

Breakfast #1
1/3 cup Swiss alpen muesili
3/4 cup yogurt (regular or Greek) Trader Joes or Nancy’s
1 cup strawberries
2 eggs, hard boiled
(w/greek this is high in protein)

Breakfast #2
Eggs (2)
Bacon (2 slices)
Butter (1 pat)
Sara Lee wheat Bread or English muffin (2 slices, 1 muffin)
Apple

Breakfast #3
Sara lee bread (2 slices)
Egg (1)
Almond butter (1 teaspoon, or less, this one is a little high in fat)
Apple
¾ cup yogurt, Greek or regular

Breakfast #4
Almond butter (1 tablespoon)
Raspberries (1 cup)
Sara lee bread (1 slice)
Muesli (1/3 cup)
TJ’s Greek Yogurt (3/4 cup) or regular at ¾ cup

Any suggestions of what type of bread to use when beginning phase 3?

You know, this stressed me out, too. In fact, it stressed me out to the point that I am using Muesili instead of bread for my carbs - basically because I couldn't find most of the breads on the sheet.

Then I decided to chill, this whole phase three thing was causing me too much stress. Yesterday I was cleaning my freezer out (holy cow that needed to be done) and found a loaf of Sara Lee 45 Calorie whole wheat bread. It had less than the 30 carbs from grains, it was low in fat and high in fiber, so I used it. I think keep to the guidlines, make it higer in protein, under 30 carbs and you're good.

Good luck!

I've had almost 3 days on phase 2. While it was an adjustment to thinking about eating reconstituted powders at the start of Phase 1, the convenience sure grew on me! There's definitely more planning going forward than is required in Phase 1. On the other hand it's nice to have more real food to eat and digest.
My body seems quite happy with the change.
I've been thinking about Phase 3 and may try starchy vegetables (sweet potatoes, potatoes, squash, pumpkin, etc) for some breakfasts. I used to add pumpkin to a protein shake and really enjoyed it, especially with cinnamon and nutmeg.

10 days in Italy and stayed close to plan. Just came back from Istanbul and did ok there too. But now I have a house full of Halloween candy... and no willpower. Could someone please come pick up the chocolate and help me get back to IP???? Please............

I need some advice from my phase 4 friends...I'm starting to feel something completely foreign to me...hunger. I've been on phase 3 since Friday, and today a couple of times wanted to eat another protein drink, but didn't. Any thoughts? I'm guessing its that I'm starting to get out of ketosis.

How did others handle it? Buck up?

JC