Good to know! Thank you all for the feedback. Perhaps I will give that a shot. I am just dragging today. I have been maintaining and put on some 6-7lbs of holiday weight and figured I would do 30 days of phase 1 to loose the holiday gain but also hopefully lose another 5-10 not to mention retrain my tastebuds and get some healthy habits back in place. Not seeing any movement for a week has been hard. Darn scale. Maybe tomorrow since I finally went to the bathroom today will show me some love.

All of the advice you've been given so far will help!! Just remember, RELAX! Don't stress yourself out too much! Last week I got annoyed and tried to fix everything I was doing but was reminded that we must let our bodies do as they can. Follow the plan, take this extra advice and don't give yourself such a stressful deadline if you don't have to. I understand wanting to get it off in 30 days but maybe your psyching yourself out! You got this!!!

First off suda and sunflwr, take a deep breath! You're both doing great. It's not unusual to have slower weeks especially after big, quick losses and neither of you have a huge amount to lose (relatively speaking, of course). The closer you are to your goal the slower the weight will come off.

How are your clothes fitting? What does the measuring tape show? How do you feel? The scale is just a measure for that one specific point in time and while it's exciting to see the numbers go down, it's not the only measure of success. For instance, the scale showed 0 lost this week, but this weekend I put on size 8 pants and they fit! A month ago I was wearing 12s.

I know it's hard not to get impatient, but you didn't put the weight on in a few weeks and it's going to take some time to get it off. Concentrate on getting everything on the sheet in and learning (or re-learning) some good habits. Measure and weigh everything. The weight will come off, just not always as fast as we would like.

So hang in there! We're all rooting for you!

Eandc2006, the EAS shakes are pretty high in sodium, if your body is sensitive to water retention.

Ruthann, did not realize that about adding the oil. Going to try it because "C" is definitely an issue for me.

Ems, sorry that you are disappointed. More time to lose before your weigh in.

Kontesanera, glad IP is going so well for you.

You are all right. I cannot stress about this...and maybe it will take more than 30 days to get to where I really want to be. I suppose that is OK since I won't get there any other way.

Slipfree I have noticed that the EAS is higher is sodium. I will look into reducing my salt on my food.

Just thought I'd share a NSV - I'm in size 8 pants today. Last week my 10s (which I thought I'd NEVER be able to wear) were suddenly sagging on the behind. I needed this - I've been feeling a bit fed up and actually had a terrible eating binge on the weekend - first time I've fallen off the protocol since starting back in September. This has given me the pump up I needed to recover and move forward. I've been so ashamed of myself that I can't even open up the 100% thread to read it as I normally do daily.

Ruth Ann...you always have such great advice

Sarahbell-Condolences on the loss of your grandfather. I bet you will receive lots of compliments for your hard work in losing weight!

I am on cloud nine because I am finally out of plus sizes. I was so happy to fit in a pair of size 14 jeans-I bought 5 pairs of pants just because of the size! (This was at Ross-so they weren't too expensive)

Congrats on the size 8s! That is great!

And yes, getting right back to 100% is the way to go. You can't change what happened but you can change what happens now. Keep working that "determination muscle" and you'll make it super strong!

Aw thanks. I've learned so much here, only seems fair to give back some.

Yeah for being out of plus-sizes! It's still hard for me to go into the store and not immediately head for the largest size available - my brain doesn't always remember that I can wear smaller sizes!

thanks Ruth Ann. I love the encouragement and advice from these boards. My coach is not very good and I am the type of person who needs to get feedback and change things up.

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Carol

My coach texted me last night and the clinic had to cancel all coaching appointments today. Apparently they are having some chamber of commerce event and it will be too crazy.

Luckily I got rescheduled for tomorrow at the same time. Kind of a disappointment, but oh well. I seem to do better on Wednesdays. Maybe I'm superstitious.

Yay to everyone's victories - on AND off the scale!

I had a NSV today as I am wearing a pair of size 6 jeans I ordered off of the internet and they fit! Never in my wildest dreams did I think a size 6 pair of pants and a size medium shirt would be for me.

I am so thankful for IP. I've lost weight through the diet and exercise route before and kept it off by working HARD, until I gave up and the weight crept back on. With IP, I weigh myself often and if I notice the scale creeping, I reboot. I'm not saying its not hard, I'm saying if you stick with it, it is so worth it. Nevermind the added benefit that the initial results don't take as long as the traditional route.

My intital goal weight was 150 and every so often I drop it by five. I now weigh 138 and have much more endurance while running. Even during these last 3-8lbs (still haven't decided how low to go), it is coming off MUCH slower, but that's okay! I feel great and I'm wearing a size 6, dang it!!!

Sorry for the ramble, but I just want to encourage anyone with doubt that if you stay the course, wonderful things can AND WILL happen to your body and your self confidence.

This is what tinny wrote in the 90% thread and I think that it is an appropriate response to the way you are feeling:

I think the downside of being black and white 100% is that you set yourself up for feeling like a failure if you do have a slip - whether it be planned or unintentional. I think the black and white mentality can lead to thoughts like, "Gee, I've really blown this day by licking my kid's ice cream cone, so I might as well have pizza and beer for dinner."

If you allow yourself to consider the occasional slip as OK, you can view that same situation as, "Hmm, I wish I hadn't done that, but I know that there is a little bit of wiggle room in my day. As long as I stick to the straight and narrow I should be all right."

ahhhh I know how you feel! I had one previous slip and I just thought, "I can't change that so I'll just continue on!" But the last couple of days even though I haven't been hungry, I've been wanting to eat! I finally caved a couple of days ago and had some cheese and two restricted in one day... this time I was feeling really down about it and questioning if I should just phase off before my Hawaii vacation... I decided to give yesterday 100% and see how I felt... yesterday went good and I had a great talk with my coach who encouraged me to just follow through and get it done!!

I think most of my issues were definitely head games and I think I was trying to sabatage myself! Today I feel positive and ready to get the last of this weight off... no more beating myself up!! It happens, just as long as its not often!! I also started in September so I thinking I'm doing OK!