I have been meaning to say this for weeks, that IP vanilla peanut bar- is fit to eat!

Holly, sorry that the pound has you stressed. It can be really hard to do the work and not get the pay off. The scale will get in line, unfortunately in it's own time. Just keep going, one food choice at a time.

Ems, so glad that the new coach is helpful. Will keep the lady from the plane and all those affected in my prayers (especially your Dad)

Murphypuppy, wanted to thank you for the chart on the alternatives page. Fantastic! It is true, that the scale can be a fickle friend. I have stayed true to the IP protocol 99.9% of my 6 months and there have def. been weeks of no loss. Even had a prolonged slowdown in Jan. As other IP veterans have taught me, the scale is just one indicator on this journey. Maybe you are losing inches during that week?

Amber, hope your sunshine holds for you Enjoy your spring break.

Reenhag- working during vacation, now that does not seem quite fair I am doing a lot of vegging. After that cold/flu a couple weeks ago, testing and a bunch of other school responsibilities- I am tired. The weather here was good for about an hour yesterday, now we are back to cold and rain. Nice excuse to pajama it

I will have to remember that. Delicious bag of chemicals, too funny! Does not make it sound very good at all.

I've started using it on my kids. Now I guess I should apply it to myself. They'll ask for skittles and I tell them to read the ingredients and they are like "what? what is this? GROSS!"

I'm the same way... it's week 7 for me, so I guess it's "normal", but it sure is frustrating! Hopefully my next weigh-in (this Saturday) will show a loss... wish me luck!

Love this forum!

I had the same exact pattern for many months as well. I did a little research and found a paper published by a gynecologist about the patterns of our hormones and how our metabolism changes as certain chemicals are turned off and on in our bodies as we go through our normal cycle.

Went for my annual physical today. Told my doc about Ideal Protein. She was not as supportive as I would have hoped. She was glad I was loosing weight, but her main comment was "I don't see how eating protein packets is sustainable in the long run". I tried to explain about the protocol but I could tell she had lost interest. Oh well. When I go back next year at my new incredible maintained weight, maybe then she will pay attention.

On another note, NSV in my closet this morning. Two pairs of dress pants are too big! My work wardrobe is shrinking...just like me!

I have to say, it's comforting knowing I'm not alone with the "ugh" weeks. It's tempting to go home and just cry from frustration. Thankfully my boyfriend is extremely supportive and tells me that he notices it even though he sees me everyday. I'm going home in 5 weeks to see my parents and just hoping that they can see my hard work paying off!

I don't even have a scale at home for that reason. I knew I would want to get on it all the time and stress over it. Now, I just go to my clinic on Sat. to weigh in knowing I've been OP all week.

Wahoo Catlady! Congrats on the too big pants!

EMS - I'll definately keep the woman and the entire crew in my prayers.

I've come to the conclusion that TOM, I will always have a very minimal loss. Day after it all the scale went down, which makes me wonder why in the world I even weighed myself. LOL I'm officially over my half way mark and less weight then I have been in 8 years. Friday I went to ROSS and bought some size 14 black slacks for work...and they fit like a dream! Wahoo! I'm giving my 16's and 18's to the woman's mission here in town so they have career wear for job interviews etc. I'm excited that I'm finally able to dig into my clothing bins, it's like christmas. Alot of my tops are way too big and actually look too big for me. I thought too small clothes were in the past and gone forever. It's mine (all of ours) realities. Who would of thought?

Lovin' IP using alternatives, how I feel (fabulous), and how I'm looking. My husband is in the same boat as me. I'm so excited to be on this path.

Good afternoon,

It's a rainy, cool day here and I'll need to remember to take the tender plants in as we're expecting temps close to or below freezing.

I've been spending my time going through the Alternative Products thread and writing things down. My WI is tomorrow, and I'm feeling good

Just remember slow and steady wins the race. In some ways slow and steady is more than OK...your head has to catch up to your body...and there will be a lot of changes in your life!! All good...and you want to maximize your ability to really get the most out of the process. If that doesn't help..at any rate...IP is usually faster than anything else! The scale is only one factor in this process.

I was liking it was liked to hormones somehow.... Drat being a girl!!

Yes, the only "scale" I have is my wii fit board!! This was at the clinic. After coming here and just laying it all out I feel 110% better! I was down -2.5 inches. Which is low for me but I was constipated and I suspect I'm close to TOM. I haven't spotted for a long time which is odd. I've been spotting pretty much every week since starting!!

When I was 16, I had my gall bladder taken out. They diagnosed me with IBS and put me on a pill for it. I didn't want to take the pill so... I didn't. I also never experienced a symptom of IBS after the surgery. The pill? Pointless. Who knows what it was doing to me. I can say the same thing happened with metfornin (for PCOS). I stopped taking it and didn't notice a difference.

The only pill that I've religiously stuck to (for PCOS) was birth control. It has truly made a difference.

In January, my doctor was impressed with my losses but also made the remark in a negative tone "you still have quite a ways to go". THANKS DOC. She also did blood work and didn't like some of my results (testosterone levels) so she sent me to see an endocrinologist. After he reviewed my paperwork (and I paid the co-pay) he told me he was comfortable with my testosterone levels but if I wasn't I could take blood pressure meds to help! He said it blocks testosterone growth. If I wanted to get pregnant though, I would need to stop taking the meds because If I had a boy, he wouldn't have boy parts since I was blocking that growth with the medicine!!! I'm sorry, WHAT? No. How about instead of blocking, we figure out why i'm having the problem!

I fear what our medical industry is becoming. So many people are overweight and in turn, health problems. People on IP have made a drastic lifestyle change. Because IP works and because we can maintain and learn a healthy lifestyle for forever, we are no longer dependent on our doctors for meds. They don't make as much money. If everyone was healthy, the medical industry would not be as wealthy as it is. That's my opinion. And it may be exaggerated but every time I go to the doctor, they try to sign me up for another dang pill!!!

Do not let your doctor deter you. You don't need her to tell you what makes you happy, healthy and comfortable. If she isn't supportive when you go back, find another one. There are good ones out there, it just takes trial and error in finding them!

Good advice to finding another one...There ARE docs who support this kind of diet. They are of the mind anything to get the weight off...and get blood work normalized...quickly. ...Mine was great. I set up an 40 minute appointment SPECIFICALLY to discuss this diet, and nothing else..(receptionist told me my ins might not cover it...I told her that was OK...I'll pay for it. ) When I went in I had been on it over 2 months and had lost about 25 lbs already. I took everything from the program I had in with me...including my vitamins ...my weekly weight charts and graphs (which I had made myself) and the weekly measurements...And asked her to do labwork after we talked and she had time to review it all, which she agreed was what she wanted to do. We repeated the visit and all blood work 6 months later. She was impressed. I had hit goal (and was a pinch under)...Her grin said it all...almost. Her parting words to me were...

"I'm going home and put my husband on this..."


So go find you a doc that wants to do it herself....( my radiologist at my yearly mamogram last month)..or wants to put her husband on it!!!