Is it possible that doing 3 packets a day PLUS the 1 restricted could be a problem? I am in Phase 1 and have only done a total of 3 packets a day, one of which can be a restricted item. Plus I have my dinner meal (8 oz protein), and required amount of veggies (4 cups total, 2 lunch and 2 dinner) and unlimited lettuce. Just a thought.... I'm sure there are others on here that could answer that question better.

I am so glad you are not giving up! There is so much info here on all the phases and these ladies are very helpful and knowledgable since they are experiencing it too. I know you can be successful I only wish you could find a coach that is more honest and helpful!

I definitely would not go back to that coach. You are in Toronto so you should have tons of choices.
Did you really mean to say 3 packets + 1 restricted a day or did you mean 3 including the restricted in total?
At your height and weight you are not a big person, that is too much aside from your "regular" meal.It appears your coach was trying to sell as many products as possible.

Go to the first post in the daily thread. Under that you will find "stickies". One sticky is about using alternatives. These are products like the ones you buy at the IP clinic. In Canada most of us order from proteinwell.ca. I also order from Nashua Nutrition in the US but you have to pay shipping and duty so it is more expensive but still far less than what you would pay the coach you were using.

As WUV mentioned some people buy things such as Adkins products from Walmart but we don't seem to have as good a variety as is available in the US Walmarts.
Under the stickies you will also find the protocol sheets for each phase.
The phase 1 sheet has likely changed since last time you were on the program.

Also there are spreadsheets with all the nutritional information for the IP products and also spreadsheets with the information about the alterantive products.
I use mostly protidiet products fron proteinwell as they are closest to the IP nutritional numbers.

You have to be very careful to get all the veggies in too.

I am a smidge taller than you but my starting weight was almost the same as yours. I started at the beginning of August. My original goal was same as yours, 130, I am a pound away from that now. I have lowered my goal a bit. My progress was much slower than average but I have slowly but steadily moved down to goal.
I started on IP with a very good coach. After two months my job became more hectic and the clininc was an hour and a half away so I switched to alternatives as I didn't have time to go to the clinic. My rate of loss was the same after I switched to using alternatives.

There is certainly many benefits from working with a good coach who knows the program well. But to keep shelling out money to one who appears to be in it to sell as much as possible is not a fair trial of the real IP program.

You are adorable! Thank you for your encouragement and interest, it truly is appreciated. I'm so excited to review all the suggestions and especially the next post from patns. I'm currently on lunch at work hoovering a turkey sammich while reading all these helpful posts!

Thanks we are all in this together! Have a great day!

Thanks patns, what a wealth of info you are! I reviewed my paperwork and confirmed the 3 packets + 1 restricted per day. In 2010 I had no restricted for the the first 2-3 weeks at all, but I believe in 2011 I was having restricted right from the start hmmmm I wonder if that made a diff. I went to the stickys you suggested, thank you for explaining those. I found a lot of posts I had read last year. Where do you see the plan has changed since I was on it? I can't find that :S

Thank you for the proteinwell link, looks like someone has caught on! I couldn't find any info on their site but do you know what their products are based on? There's no ingredients list that I could find....soy? whey? .. have you tried them? And if so, in your opinion do they compare taste wise if so?

Congrats on your accomplishment! Being so close in stats I'm definitely envious of you I'm thankful for your advice and feedback, much appreciated!

Last year I tried an alternative product, it took me forever to find, I can't seem to digest whey very well so I went with an egg protein powder, I wound up purchasing a HUGE jar of it, without sampling of course and was stuck with a really gross tasting alternative ... needless to say that venture didn't work out.

I came home tonight psyched to review alternatives and take another stab at this. I've spent an hour reviewing page after page after post after post and have learned this much - everything tastes different to different people, I can expect much of the same as noted above if I'm to jump on the alternative bandwagon, which makes for an additional expense, also the most popular ideal alternative seems to be EAS shakes from Walmart ... which consumer reports seemed to have smacked down as containing an unacceptable amount of this n that. My head is spinning with thoughts of soy and whey and Splenda, Sucralose, Fructose, Electrolites, Net carbs, sugar alcohols, ketosis and on and on ...

jeeze I may just bite the bullet and commit to 2 months of ideal, cut out the restricteds in the beginning and see what happens IF my coach will have me back ... I think he will but as I perused the forum here I'm reminded of Ideal company protocol when it comes to having off and on'ers.

patns - I would still love to hear about the 'new phase one' if you can assist!

IF your coach will have you back??? I would not even give him a chance. I would find a new coach. One of the things that I know has changed in phase 1 is that they want us to eat 8 ounces of meat at dinner.The first time I did this it was 5 oz of meat or 7 oz of seafood. That is the only difference I can see. Also the first two times I did the diet I was with the same coach and was not allowed any restricted items. I decided to change coaches for this time to someone who had actually done the diet herself. This time I have been allowed one restricted item a day and am still losing weight. I know for sure they make it easier for me to stick with this. Toronto is a big city so hopefully you can find someone else you can work with easier! Good luck.

Hi, i was not sure which protocol sheet you would have. I think the latest one is from March 2011.
The changes as sweetie said are 1 restricted a day right from the beginning and 8 ounces of protein at the regular meal.

I forgot that proteinwell doesn't have the ingredients listed at least where I can find it.
I goggled protidiet and found the products on another site with the nutritional info there. Most of them do seem to have whey protein.

Pat

Hi Pat, The post I found in the sticky spot was dated March 2010 posted here http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/idea...et-phases.html this was what I was instructed to do as well.

Basically the new plan allows for more protein ... I'm ok with that lol

I have sourced new coaches, they all want to charge for these consults as if we're not getting hosed enough with the food. I don't mind seeing my old coach, I just need to take more control and not be a doormat when things aren't working. 3 fat chicks has been super for the recipes as I originally came here for and now it's even more obvious I can get better support here, even just reading posts sometimes.

Well see, I emailed him the other day and had to follow up with a 'hello'? email to get an answer. It's possible he's as about it as I've been in the past but I'm not interested in making a huge deal of it with him so hopefully he doesn't make an issue with me! We both have something to gain with this transaction, I'm prepared to self direct so hopefully he will be ok with that

Thanks for all your help this past week everyone!

Great success with alternatives. Things are getting tight with the weekly cost. Happy with the results but cannot keep it up for much longer because of the cost. Any Alternative suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Check out the sticky thread, there are several that have links not only to nutritional information for alternative products, but also the information for the IP products. Tons of help there. I've done a combination of both and I really enjoy it.

What a suckie day This is my 4th time on IP and I'm really regretting screwing up my initial success on the program 2 years ago. Today is my 11th day, I went for my weigh in this afternoon and granted I'm not having the best BM's and am on day 2 of my period (sorry I don't remember the short form for this but most of us are chicks here so whatever) I've only lost 2lbs. This restart is particularly hard because this program really didn't work for me last time. In speaking with my coach today we decided to try a cleanse during the program for the next two weeks and if things don't improve I'm throwing in the towel where IP is concerned and we're going to have a look at my hormones ... man I hate this.

I know that I had to look at my veggie carbs, When my weight loss slowed down alot the first time I did IP, and then found out about the different carbs in veggies once I learned to keep my carbs between 20 - 25 per day and increased my protein just a little bit my losses were better. There is a chart somewhere in these posts, I just haven't found it again.

WOOHOO -5.1 lbs this week yay!

Thanks, I'll have to take a closer look at that! Can anyone address a quantity issue I've been wondering about. I bake my veg sometimes, 2 cups of veg like cauliflower, zucchini and sometimes fried mushrooms doesn't look like 2 cups when I'm done cooking it - 2 cups cooked or raw?