Merry Christmas,
What a day! It has been really challenging and, honestly, it continues to be challenging. That's why I decided to start browsing the net and get on this forum... hoping to get my mind off of food. I am on my third week of the Ideal Protein Protocol and I feel like I am starving today. Hoping for a better day tomorrow!

What a great feeling to fit into something you wore a "size" ago! Congratulations! I can't wait to feel the same way. I am on my third week of IP and still feel hungry all the time. I have not cheated yet so I am hoping to get good results! Congrats again on fitting into your size 12!

Tee, there are those days when it's just HARD to stay on protocol!

Sue, that's exciting about the dress and coat! Isn't it nice not to feel poured into your clothes?

Beth, I saw your picture on FB. your legs look amazing! I'm impressed with your running. So much improvement in a short time.

Linda, I did some running in my 20's, but that was 30 years ago. This time around, I started with walking in June/July. Began C25K at the beginning of September.

Thanks for asking about my daughter. She is taking a partial break from strict P1. With the wedding, her birthday, a vacation trip, and then the holidays, she felt it was too hard to stay OP in December. She eats P1 meals about 75% of the time, but has a few carbs at dinner. She's dropped just a couple of pounds this month. She's planning to get back OP in January. We gave her a FitBit for Christmas, to help her with fitness goals. She wants to run a 5k with me at the end of January.

My practice 10k this morning was great. I ate a little dried fruit at the 4 mile point and felt really good all the way through. My only persistent problem is figuring out what to eat in the 15 hours before the run that will give me energy but won't give me bowel problems. (TMI: Today I had to stop to use a PortaPotty in a local cemetery, and that was with NO breakfast. Last night's dinner was baked chicken, 1/2 c mashed potatoes, 1c broccoli, and a brownie.) Anyway, I ran a 10:03/mile pace, which is my goal for the race in 3 weeks. Snow and freezing temps are predicted next week, so I'm going to learn about running in winter weather.

As I lay here at 330, I now understand what my coach was warning me about if I ate too much crap. Sick, I feel, yes I do...serves me right! And now I will need a couple of days to get back in to ketosis...so not worth it

got back to sleep for a little while. Stomach still feels like crapadoodle.. Christmas Eve and Christmas it wasn't the snacks or the dinner foods, it was the deserts. It wsa sugar, plain and simple. As I stood at my kitchen counter last night with the kids, eating desert, (1 of the girls has done IP over the years and wound up with her third baby a year ago...they warn you-lol-and now is struggling to get back on plan) explaining how I just couldn't help myself. Chocolate cream pie and it was really really good, a bit of coffee ice cream, a taste of pecan and a taste of fruits of the forest, but a good piece of the chocolate cream- and then after everyone finally left around 730, DBF and I did some general tidying (today is a huge clealning day- need to vaccum and shampoo rugs and was floors and put stuff back...oy-DBF asks me why we do this?-for all the stress and angst, I still love to have the family together for this chaos- 9 adults and 4 littles this year (1st year in 31 I haven't been with my son for Christmas) makes for a crazy destroyed house. So anyways, I got the living room pretty well done, except for the vac, mop and shampoo and we finally sat...next thing I know DBF is up and in the ktchen getting himself some more pie- so I said make sure you have some more chocolate cream pie so I can have a bite or 2 more. He took almost the remainder of the pie except for about an accceptable (is there such a thing?) tasting piece. Well, what did I do? I ate that so I could throw the pie plate away. To say I have felt like sh*t since I posted at 0330, is a bit of an understatement. -Oh and I never had my 3rd packet. I probably won't find myself back in ketosis until about Thursday so so much for getting to goal next Saturday. I was so close this week. I feel like self sabotage is striking. I am dreading the scale in a few minutes-but not going to avoid it. To describe how I feel, and hopefully deter anyone from going down this path- (remember-while I was eating it, it tasted so damn good- I couldn't stop- and also consciously thinking of how long it is going to take to get back to ketosis, but thinking because of Christmas Eve shenanigans I was probably already out- (even though I wasn't craving yesterday like I have read others do-today should be interesting) I have a bit of a headache (some of that could be attributable to allergies- this crazy 67 degree weather in December isn't helping) my belly feels bloated and gross, that queasy, greasy feeling, and very dry mouth. Then there is my brain that is saying you dumb sh*t. You've worked so hard, is this a taste (no pun intended) of what you are going to do to yourself when you get to maintenance?
I just weighed myself and up to 129.4 on my scale. I remember how excited I was when I got down to that number and now, to say I am back UP to that number...I was 128.4 on Thursday morning and have progressively gone up since.
To say I feel bloated is an understatement.
Otherwise,it was a great holiday- seriously, it really was.

Oh Destony!
Sugar is deadly - after a year on IP with no sugar, it only took me a few off program cheats to find I am totally addicted again. I am way up with regain of 30 lbs!

I am trying to get back in program and leave it all behind with the holidays... Hang on to your one lb creep and refuse to allow it to grow more. You cannot imagine how easy it is to lose control completely. Fight that gremlin!!!! You will be SOOOO much happier to win the battles than you will be if you consume the sugar.

I am pulling for ya! Pray for me to succeed too!

Linda - you got this. You can do it. Get back to strict P1 get to your goal and phase off correctly. This is a small detour but not a dead end. I know that you can do this!! I want to thank you for posting your experience. It will be a thread that I need to go back to when I am being tempted.

One - I fear that my addiction to sugar will return again. Did you phase off or did your cheats start while on program?

Tee - I am on week 7, I remember telling my coach at week 2 or 3 that I was still hungry. She reminded me to eat my free veggies and if I needed to to have an egg and reduce dinner protein. I would say week 3 or 4 was when I started feeling better. I generally am not hungry and when I am I drink water / tea or eat free veggies. I have found when I "miss my oils" the next day I am more hungry. So if I know I won't or cant have oils with my evening meal I mix into my morning shake.

HIS I wish I had a solution for your "problem" It was a problem for me in the past as well. I always try to get going before I leave the house. But on my long walks in the morning I have been rushing home to empty out. That feeling is not fun.

Yesterday was my family Christmas. I took a long walk in the morning (love no ice on the sidewalk), then some retail therapy. I really want some new cloths as a reward, but had to justify spending the money when I will not be in them long. We have several consignment shops in the area that I think I will check out. I did by a pair of size 14 jeans (regular not 14W), I can barely get them on but since I have a hard time seeing the changes having a few pieces of cloths to measure by is important for me.

DH decided that he did not want to go along yesterday that was hard and made me sad. I decided to make the pizza burger casserole and a veggie tray. Good thing, not a bit of IP friendly food on the "snack table". I found it interesting that the item that was calling my name was not the candy - but the sour cream and onion chips. I did not answer the call.

The menu was homemade pizza and shrimp so I ate my casserole and the shrimp. Halfway through the meal my sis told me she put butter on the shrimp (ate them anyway - so that was my protocol cheat - with more than 8 oz protein for the day).

When I came home DH decided it was time to get moving so we went to the mall to go walking. He (we) did a mile with breaks (proud of him) and that pushed me over 15000 steps for yesterday. I don't weigh in till the first full week in January so I have been watching the scale at home. It is moving slowly in the right direction. I am hoping to be down 30# by then, and would love a little more to officially never see the 220's - and instead skipping to the 210's. Maybe too much to wish for.

Last day off - back to work tomorrow or tonight (to catch up on email). I need to get back to finishing the job I started on Christmas (the kitchen deep clean) -- I think I need to the the refrigerator today.

I am hoping my DH will decide to go to morning mass today and maybe then go to visit his mom.

Sue

One and Sue Thank you for the encouraging words. I went straight back to protocol yesterday. I made sure I drank a ton of water- actually, no extra, just my normal which is about 112 oz on average. No restricted (thank goodness for the crispy square) I wasn't starving all day- but I think in part was the fact that mystomach felt like schizzle until about 3PM. I was beginning to think that I was coming down with the flu and not having a reaction to the crap food. Thank goodness it was the crap food. For obvious reasons, but most importantly so that I can keep that in mind the next time I may be tempted. I am still in P1 Sue, but am very close to phasing off. My hope was that next Saturday would be the "goal" at my weigh in. Not certain that that will happen, but that remains to be seen. I haven't really had a lot of cheats, and any that I have had- they were planned-like my sons wedding-I knew that I would have some "tastes" Thursday night and Friday, I just didn't plan for them to consume me as they did. I didn't want to knock myself out of Ketosis-which with the amount of sugar I ingested, I couldn't not have done just that. I need to make sure that I have learned something from this-that deserts are my kryptonite- I thought it would be the chips and snacky type stuff- nope- had absolutely no problem with that- wasn't even tempted.
So, as I said, back to it yesterday- this morning scale says 128.6. I don't understand- it should, by all accounts (in my head at least, still be climbing a bit more because of the crap) I don't want to get my hopes up, but jeez- dare to dream!
Off to DS's house for Christmas with them this afternoon. His wife said that she was making a turkey. I sure hope that the menu hasn't changed. One time we went for dinner and she made a beef stew- with corn and carrots- I ate the meat and scraped as much of the gravy as possible off, and no veggies. I was glad that I had a drink in the car as a backup for the ride back home. I'll have a little emergency kit in the car for the ride home just in case. I'm so glad that I have this coming week off. I can't wait to check out some of the sales. I really want to start the C25K now that I am over the cold that went around. Now, it's more of just allergies, this crazy warm weather.... though they say it's supposed to get cold this coming week. Of course there are threats of rain mixed in as well.
Sue I am glad that DH is on the road to recovery. Sorry that you had to go to the party alone. Better butter than the fake stuff. You are doing GREAT b/t/w!!! I'm going to have to try the pizza burger casserole. That will be a nice change of pace - being home this week, maybe I'll actually try a few more recipes from Janeva's cookbook.
Alrighty, time to get my day going I've lounged long enough. Have a great day everyone!!!

Linda, one, Sue - speaking from experience, and reading other people's maintenance struggles.... that sugar/carb addiction doesn't go away. You have to learn coping techniques when those foods are present. For me, sometimes I have to actually physically leave the room, or I fall into the mindless eating/gorging/binging pattern of my past. There are some trigger foods that just CANNOT be in my house, especially cookies and cake.

And Linda, I'm the same way about eating something just so it can be gone. It's a dangerous way of thinking. (See my potato salad post from last week.) I grew up as a child of parents who lived through the Depression, and we didn't have a lot of money, so my parents really ingrained in me that idea that you never throw out food. (Oh, the stories I can tell about cleaning out my mom's pantry when we moved her into assisted living. Starting with the 19 cake mixes....) It's a hard thought pattern to overcome.

Re my running problem: I drink a cup of coffee every morning before running, and that usually gets things "moving." But lately, it seems that running triggers my gut to empty a second time. I thought forgoing any food until after the run would help, but so far that's not working.

All of the tornadoes in north Texas were east of us last night. Lots of water on the roads, though, and they're still predicting a rain/snow mix tonight. Wintry weather always makes everything crazy here, as so many people are stupid about driving in it. I hope I can get my 4-mile morning run in on Monday.

Christmas comes so slowly, so much planning and build up and anticipation, and then suddenly, it's over We had a lovely Christmas, all the family was able to get together for Christmas dinner, no one was sick this year, and Santa found his way to everyone's house

Just getting caught up with you all...

Sue Great NSV with the dress and coat. That has been what I've just loved along my journey, being able to fit in clothes that were too tight.
My sizes have dropped a lot (20W to 10P) and along the way, I made the mistake a few times of shopping retail - even on sale I got a few things I never got to wear. So - with great advice here, I discovered thrift stores. Absolutely amazing that there are some great clothes to be found! many brand new or pretty close. It was great for me, I'd get something, wear it for about a month, and then, wow, look it was too big, and it would just get donated right back!! If you haven't checked out a few in your area, you definitely should.
Glad to your Christmas was good,and you were able to manage with the food you brought, and sorry that your husband wasn't up to going, but how great that he was able to walk a mile.
Tee - yeah, we know how those first few weeks can be hard, but Sue had some great strategies - keep some free veggies and hardboiled eggs in the fridge. For me I find drinking something hot helps. At the very worst, if you have to have an extra packet, that's OK too. Or just come here and vent, we've all done that
HIS good luck with the running in the freezing weather. I can't even imagine I never thought about the practical problems of running but I'm sure there must be solutions that others have found. What a dilemma
Glad to hear your daughter has done well even though she's not OP just now, from what you've said before, she'll be OK when she gets back on track, especially if she gets the running bug like you!
Linda - what can I say, I feel your pain. And yes, it'll take a few days to recover, but look at this as a learning experience. Sugar is bad, and now you know you have to avoid it. I guess for the future, the trick is to remember that no matter how good it tasted when you were eating it, how bad you felt in the middle of the night. And I'm glad you shared this, because I can see myself doing this - I LOVE SUGAR, yes, I admit it, and even with your story (and so many others that have said the same thing, how bad you feel after), I know it's going to happen to me at some point.
oneuh - I'm sorry you've had such a difficult year, and I admire you so much for being strong enough to come back and get back on track. You've done it before, and you will this time too!

SIL cooked a huge turkey for Christmas, and sent leftovers home with everyone, so we're having leftover turkey today. I was pretty good and stayed - if not exactly OP, pretty close. had a few dips into the dip with my veggies, didn't even try the other appetizers, then for dinner turkey, probably more that allowed, it was SO good...mashed rutabaga and asparagus (which I know had some butter). I was going to bring some pureed celery root for my "mashed potatoes" but forgot it at home - I'll have it tonight with the leftover turkey Decided not to risk even a taste of dessert.

I did good with my plan to stay off the scale - last time was the 23rd, weighed this morning, and down 1.2 from then ( I must admit I had to move the scale out of the bathroom, because it's gotten to be almost automatic to step on it each morning )

It's rainy here, and I don't need to go out anywhere today.
So today will be a lazy day for me. I might play with my toys

Thanks for the encouragement everyone - connecting with IPeeps who are focused to be on program is a big help in getting my head together for reboot - thank you all.

My big challenge no trigger is emotional eating - I am much more clear about this after past 3 months. Emotional downers (due to DH falling and going through hospital and rehab repeatedly, and his close call with 'just giving up') have sent me into mindless marathon eating binges - I did not phase off properly tho I knew that was critical. The emotions took over completely. I have never been a chip or popcorn addict but I have eaten entire bags in a sitting, and done the same with bags of M&Ms. Observe myself doing this and cannot stop. Very scary, but I have to tame the gremlins.

New year, new resolve, new me, God willing and the creek don't rise....

Thinking of all you Texans hoping all are surviving the crazy weather!

Welcome Tee - the hunger gets better. Be sure to have lots of free veggies around (cucumbers and celery) and hot tea also always helped me too

Glad to see everyone had a good Christmas

Linda - sorry about the stomach-yuks. You and I were in the same boat Friday it sounds like - but congrats on the scale maintaining...I will go into my misery below...

HIS - glad the 10K went well and the severe weather stayed north. Scary. At least you had a port-o-potty...There is a route I take I'd be in the woods My body is sort-of starting to get into a pattern but Thursday / Friday seem to have thrown it off

Blue - Leftover turkey is always good! congrats on the loss - wish I'd hid my scale

one - it really is about replacing food with another activity. I've read journaling can help - after an incident immediately journal what you were thinking, feeling, and what you ate. Maybe a pattern would show or you could identify if there are any particular behaviors you can watch for (in yourself) that signal a binge is imminent and try to head it off...?

Right now, I am really just ugh myself Part of it is Christmas let-down...I love the build up, like Blue mentioned, but then I get the "holiday blues" I guess when its all done and over. Sadly, I have plenty of things to look forward to this coming year and lots to keep me busy..
but if I am honest with myself, I am very upset about my diet / weight situation right now - frustrated.
So I had my planned Christmas dinner with ham, a serving of cheesy potatoes, sweet potato casserole and a very small slice of pecan pie with gelato - I even measured out the servings of potatoes...and like Linda, was physically sick from the amount of sugar I ingested - dizzy, nauseous
Went and ran 70 minutes Saturday - had 1/2 a banana before I started and around mile 4.5 a Gu packet for energy (100 cal) - came back, had eggs and 1/2 a protein pancake. Lunch was zoodles with 4oz leftover salmon. Had an old Quest bar before the movie then we went out and I had chicken with black beans (not P2 or P3, but it was also only 500 calories)
This morning, the scale was 149
I am probably freaking about nothing...maybe - but it's scaring me...one 1/2 day of eating a few cr@ppy things has led to a 5 pound gain that already doesn't seem to want to budge
My other thought is the malaise is stemming from sugar withdrawals
Linda / HIS / one - I am totally with you on the stress eating...right now, I just want to go stick my face in the apple cake sitting over on the dining room table I am actually going to go take my @$$ out and even though its suppose to be my rest day, take the dog for a walk.

Beth take a deep breath, let it out slowly...well, maybe do it a few times . OK, then! give yourself a break, girl! The holidays are hard. Nothing is normal . And you are still figuring out maintenance - what works for you, what doesn't. You're still in that trial and error part, as well as all the stress of the last few weeks. So those few lbs, even if they're real (and probably aren't)... just tell yourself that after almost a year on this diet, you know how to make them go away. Once life returns to a more normal routine, you'll get back on track. You know how to do this

I was talking to my sister today (she's in FL) - always ends up to be an hour on the phone when we call each other - funny thing, we've both been focusing today on decluttering/organizing our lives and spaces. Must be the time of year. I know that when I put the Christmas decs away, I'm going to start there, label everything in boxes and not just chuck everything into bins like I usually do.
I've been making lists today of things to tackle, and if I do it in small bits, I'm hoping to make a difference. A couple of years ago, My NY resolution was to clean/tidy/organize ---one drawer/one shelf, one cupboard --- each week. Did pretty good till about May that year. Think I'll do that again this year.

Beth - I agree holidays are hard, and even though I have only been around for short period of time I know that you got this under control. You know how to manage this from the food perspective.

Blue - I love your idea of a one per week for organizing and cleaning. I have been working on my kitchen this weekend - still need to do the fridge - yuk.

I am also an emotional eater - stress, boredom, happiness - just about any emotion and any reason. Good day for me today except for constipation again . I did my walk this morning and my husband was able to go to church with me. We had pizza for lunch - DH had the pizza I brought home for him yesterday and I made Janeva's Perfect Pizza Crust with sauce and veggies. Very good and filling (turned out better than the pizza burger casserole). For supper I had cauliflower tortillas stuffed with the pork I made on Christmas and a coleslaw made with 1 TBS homemade mayo and WF ranch. This was also very good.

DH and I went walking in the mall again and we did an additional 1.25 miles. He is starting to use less pain meds. I have about 2500 steps left to make it to 15000 for the day so I think the lucky dog will get a second walk today.

I decided to go on-line last evening and see if I could order some vanilla crispy squares, I have never had them but everybody is raving about them. I decided to order 3 boxes because I am trying to stock up on some food to take on a cruise at the end of January.

I do not plan to phase off for the cruise, but I would like to consider moving to phase 2 for the cruise. Thoughts? My original plan was a week commitment to IP instead of a weight. I planned for 22 weeks so that I could phase off and be on phase 4 for a trip to Hawaii.

Looking forward to the holiday week at work -- the e-mail influx always seems lower during this week so it has been a good time of year to get set-up for success in 2016. We have a storm coming in tomorrow so I will work at my location closer to home instead of driving the hour to my main locations.

Sue

Hello Everyone. It's been some time since I posted. It's great to see my old IP pals chugging along doing so well. It's wonderful to see new people too.

Well everyone...I went to Disney World and totally gained a ton. I had no control. AND I'm going back next Thanksgiving. What will I do? So starting January 4th, my hubby and I are back on Phase I for at least 10 weeks to do a mini-reboot. Ugh. But we are learning I think, so that's good.

I wish everyone well. I will take some time before the 4th to read in detail where everyone is. I think I need to stay better connected so I don't go on vacation again and get totally derailed. Talk to everyone very soon!

MiWi, it's good to see you back! Sorry that maintenance has been hard, but it's definitely a learning process. Sounds like you're on the right track for getting back to a healthy weight.

smdawheel, when is the cruise? I've done two cruises, and personally, I'd fail at doing P2 on a cruise. Too much tasty and unusual food options. But I'm kind of confused at your question: Do you plan to be in P2 or P4 for the Hawaii trip?

Beth, I think it is far too soon in your maintenance journey to get discouraged. That was your first splurge day, right? So you're still learning what you can and can't have, and how long it will take to lose any gained weight. On top of that, you're running - a LOT - and I suspect that your muscle mass is increasing. Finally, a positive attitude makes a HUGE difference. Instead of focusing on the end of the holidays and the slight weight gain, start thinking excitedly about the new year and all that it will bring - especially your first half marathon and a whole 12 months with your new body in maintenance. In P1, we get so used to daily affirmation, with weight loss and new clothes and all that. In P4, we have to learn to find joy in smaller successes, whatever those may be.

Yesterday was a rest day for me, and I quite literally barely moved off the sofa all afternoon. DH and I watched football and kept the wood stove stoked, and that was about it. I went to bed at 9 pm, and slept 11 hours. My body must have needed the recovery time.

A winter storm moved in overnight. I had thought I could possibly brave the roads for a 4 mile run around 10 am, but it's 31 degrees and very blustery, with a wind chill of 20, and I'm not exactly equipped for winter running clothes. This is the very first day I haven't wanted to get out and run. So I'm trying to decide if I should go do 4 miles on the gym treadmill (yuck) or run later this afternoon, when the temp is supposed to get up to a whopping 38 degrees.

On top of the weather, my stomach is feeling a little queasy this morning. Not sure if I'm coming down with a bug, or if something I ate yesterday is making my stomach unhappy. Either way, eating anything right now just sounds unpleasant. I may try some yogurt and see what happens.