I agree with you on the waist issue being important. I was told that if you carry fat around the middle, then your organs are likely to be heavily surrounded, too. Nice inch loss there! and I think keeping the goal size will be equally as important to me as maintaining the weight. After all, who wants to run a wardrobe with multiple sizes any more????

What exercise are you planning in maintenance, Oneuh? I keep toying with running, but although I have a few run spurts on my walks, I am still holding on for the butt to shrink some more and to get into true maintenance so I can assess the energy levels, as I really hate the "bounce" against my forward momentum.

Hello oneuh Thanks, I appreciate your wonderful words You've done an awesome job yourself with getting rid of the weight and shrinking

You're of course more than welcome to come here and post, we're all in the same boat just different row seats? It seems you already know what are the things that you've done that have slowed down your weight loss- the extra IP pockets, too much coffee not enough water- If you just adjust those things that you know are not in the plan, then you know your losses will be more. I always think I have two options, to either enjoy "something that is not in the IP plan" and will give me satisfaction for about 3-5 minutes OR not having it, but instead having a big glass of water or some lettuce or occupy myself with 'doing' something AND that second option I KNOW it's the best for me because it will bring me CLOSER to my goal FASTER...I want to get to where I want to be soon, I don't want to stay on it longer than I have to, and ALSO I don't want to waste my money that's why I've always done 100% OP. It encourages me that I'm getting rid of weight and inches steadily- My next WI will be this Wednesday, last week my total lost had been 74lbs and 49 inches in 20 weeks. Coming here to the forum, and reading other's successes and learning from others' mistakes also helps a lot and expressing our concerns and questions and getting help and kind words is a blessing!

I do hope that we get to maintenance together and continue to encourage and help each other to stay grounded and be able to stay in our healthy weight Keep up the good work, you're doing great!

Briael- Right now I am not working out, I'm not doing any kind of activity- sometimes I do go dance and the next day I wake up as if I have a hang over- even though I don't drink, but I think that is because the extra calories I burn with the dancing. I don't go every weekend, I have just gone about 3 times since I started IP and that's how I feel. I don't want to eat an extra IP pocket, I can barely eat our daily food allowance.
I will start working out once I begin phase 2! I will do boot camp training(weight training/cardio), and zumba. Also, during maintenance (which I think it should be starting around the month of June) I will hire a personal trainer, and concentrate on toning during the summer-I'm a teacher, so I have the summer off

I hope to be able to get enough exercise with dancing in one form or another -- regular ballroom and latin classes and dance parties and a fitness oriented dance class -- I can find zumba classes easily, plus there is a weekly class called LaBlast -- created by Louis Van Amstel (from Dancing with the Starts fame). It is a fitness routine that uses all the ballroom and latin dance moves. Another version is DanceSportEndurance which has classes near me in northern Virginia.

I sprained my ankle and now have a tear in a tendon in my ankle so, aside from the guidance from IP to avoid exercise, I am pretty much out of any exercise right now. Walking seems to be ok, and if the weather cooperates, I will try to get some walks in each week even while recuperating.

I think that strength training and stretching are critical for me too - I'd like to try some yoga (gentle yoga at first), and some work with free weights and bands is something I can do at home.

Short answer - I have lots of ideas but no formal plan yet....

Wow!!!! Ariel13 those are impressive numbers! WTG!!!

It is really inspiring to see and hear everyones progress. In terms of the sleepless nights, I find that if I get a hold of my second wind it is really hard for me to unwind and sleep. But, if I can catch it at the right moment... I sleep like a baby. But, I do have to make sure my feet are warm . Stupid diet has me freezing these days!

Ariel - dancing is very intense in terms of the number of muscles you are working out. Might want to try something a little lower on the scale.

Some of the basic moves I use for warm up (started with no weights and now use hand held weights with them after building up tolerance) are rising onto toes - which stretches calf muscles.

Standing against a wall and sliding down into a seated position and holding it for 30 seconds - this is great for your legs, butt and stomach muscles.

Stand facing the wall about a feet away. Keep your feet rooted on the spot but do mini-push ups against the wall with your arms - exercises the arm and shoulder muscles.

Exercise doesn't have to be high intensity if you aren't finding ketosis a real boost of energy, but every little helps. Start slow and build up as you feel less lightheaded or exhausted.

Oneuh - I remembered that you were injured and unable to dance, but I had forgotten that you walked in lieu of your first love.

Question for August starters...
I recently completed a home remodel - this took about 12 weeks to finish where I was very active during that time period as I helped take down and put up cabinets, carry stuff, etc. It seemed like I would go for 18 hours a day and get up and do it all over again the next day that people told me they were going to start IP just so they would get the same energy that I had. This went right into Christmas with all day shopping, etc so the point is I have been pretty active last 3 months. Now that is all over, and I wanted to get your input as to whether you think I should start working out to replace that activity. I don't feel I was getting much benefit from it beforehand as my weight loss seemed better when I wasn't working out. I have had such wonderful results these last 3 months and I am wondering if an important part was the activity level. I don't want to find a couple of weeks from now that my losses have slowed with the drop in activity - I would rather figure that out now and anticipate and not lose time. What do you think?
I have lost 60 pounds (as of 8 days ago) since starting Aug 29 and last 2 months I have seen 9.3 pound loss over 2 weeks followed by 4 pounds over next 2 followed by 8.2 loss over next 2 weeks - I would like to see this trend continue as I am getting close to my goal and don't want to slow down now! I wonder if I am overestimating the impact the activity had and if I should primarily attribute it strictly to the diet. I am so happy with my losses that I want to keep it going and not sure if that means replacing activity or not.

Ro22, I would replace the activity! Being active is really good for both losing weight and maintaining weight ... and just being healthy in general. Most of us aren't active enough. I personally take a 4 mile walk in my hilly neighborhood every morning.

Hello Wonderful August Starters!!

WOW!! It took me some time to find our thread, I hope everyone is doing well and losing weight/inches this year! Remember, THIS is OUR year! YAY!!

I can't believe this is our FIFTH month doing IP diet, I don't know if you feel the same as me, but the time has passed so fast for me! I am very proud of what I have accomplished, and I'm very thankful for your unconditional support I have followed the diet to the t and I have not cheated at all, not once, ever, and it has paid off because after 5 months, I'm 80 lbs. lighter

YAY!! This month so far I've lost 8 lbs.- 2lbs, 2bls and this week was 4lbs- I really thought I would continue losing 2lbs per week, but I was glad I lost 4lbs this week during my TOM.

Also, I don't know if you remember, but I was concerned about my "belly" and it just disappeared, just like that, like magic I'm don't have a flat stomach but I don't have a belly anymore, I was worried that it wouldn't go away, but it did!

I'm losing all over, in proportion, I am keeping my curves, my shape- I read that when losing weight, you keep whatever shape you are but you just become smaller- so if your shape is an apple, you'll go from big apple to small apple, or like a big triangle becomes a small triangle.- And my arms are also getting smaller, obviously I'm going to have to work on those a lot, I never been happy with how they look, but I honestly tell you that I've never seen them this small! With this diet I'm losing from places I had not lost before!! I'm getting mold nicely YAY!!!

Thank you again ladies, we can continue strong this year!

Congrats, Ariel! I am so glad that you are continuing to lose at an amazing rate. I am blown away by how quickly you and several others are losing weight. I'm hoping that this continues for all of you. Pave the way and pull us along.

I'm going to end up being the slow and steady one of the group; I will get there eventually. I don't know if it is because of my age?? Who knows, I am just shocked and happy to be losing anything.

Thanks for sharing about losing the tummy. Mine is starting to come off too although I can tell I am still holding lots of fat there.

My weigh-in is in the morning. I didn't weigh last week because my coach was out of town. I'm hoping for a good 2 week number.

Enjoy your 80 pound success!

Thank you very much Lose2Win Believe me I am so happy to have lost 80 lbs, I am considering going for the 100lbs
You're doing awesome as well, I am so proud of your losses and how you've stick with the program! You're right, everyone losses differently but just as you always say, the important thing is to continue to lose and get healthier I know that age has to do with how fast a person can lose weight, the metabolism slows down as we age, but I don't know if IP would do any difference, since we're burning our fat reserves. One thing I've always done is I drink a lot of water, I have this big 64 oz bottle, which is 8 glasses of 8 oz , when I first started the diet, I would drink 3 of those bottles every day, sometimes even more, specially during the summer, I read that we need half our weight in oz of water, so I started IP diet weighing 258, so I needed to drink about 130 oz of water. Nowadays I try to drink the 3 -64 oz. of water but because I drink a lot of coffee, so I have to make up for that.

Don't forget we're more than half way to get to our goal and when we get to our goal, we'll still need all the support we can get to stick to our maintenance and keep the weight off!

Good luck to you on tomorrow's WI!!! Please let us know how it went

The WI was great! It was for two weeks, but I lost 4.2 pounds! Thrilled to have lost 6 pounds in my last 3 weeks. I am happy with 2 pounds a week.

Wow, I can't believe you drink so much water. Maybe I need to up mine and see what happens. I struggle to get it all in, but I do. I try to finish my liquids by dinner, so that I am not up all night long going to the restroom. I seem to be able to drink water more quickly out of a Tervis cup with a wide straw, but I still can't imagine drinking the volume you are. But if that could be what is working for you, I might need to give it a try.

One change I have made in the past month which seems to be helping with weight loss is walking. I love the idea of the c25k program, but I am just enjoying a one hour/3 mile walk most days. I know that I can do that and not need additional packets (I feel fine after the walk), and I am trying to avoid doing anything that will cause an injury. Maybe running will come later as I come closer to phasing off.

Although walking may or may not be the exercise that I choose to continue later, I feel like I am creating a structure in my life that includes exercise. I know that exercise is extremely importance for weight maintenance. So the walking is a "placeholder" for whatever I might do later.

Alright August friends and others, have a great IP day!

Woohoo!!! Grats on your loss!! those are very good news! What about inches? Have you been losing inches? I keep on losing inches from my waist
The walking is good, I would like to start walking a mile every other day, I have the Leslie Sansone, but I think I will start doing those once I lose about 8 or 10 more pounds.
The water seems like a lot, but that's how big I was and how much my body needed, before the diet, I think I would only drink one glass of water a day, and that was sometimes, I would only drink coke or sugary drinks or black coffee. Now, since we're supposed to only have one cup of coffee, and anything extra we have to make it up with water, I continue to try to drink all that water daily, but it isn't hard at all anymore. When I started the diet, my mouth started getting very, very dry, and that helped with consuming all that water, I would drink water and I would still have that dry mouth feeling! Now, I just crave it, my body wants the water, I continue to get that dry mouth feeling, but it is not as often, it begins when I haven't had my water, so I guess, since I'm always drinking water or coffee, my mouth doesn't have the time to dry up, but if its been a couple of hours without any liquid, that's when I feel the dry mouth.
I bought one of those bottles for a coworker, and she started drinking water, and now she can't leave home without it, and she began to lose some weight just by drinking water daily, and she just joined IP diet last Monday-after seeing with her own eyes how much weight I had lost- I also gave one of those bottles to another coworker, and now she's also drinking water, and always carrying the bottle with her. I found mine at Aldi's during the summer, but then I saw them at a dollar store on sale for $5- They are big, have a handle and a big straw that flips up when you want to drink it and you push it down when you're not using it. You can always add some flavor to your water, one of my coworkers would add frozen fruit-but we can't have that, but I sometimes add lemons or limes or even cucumber. I know there are some flavored pockets that IP sells that can also be added to your water.
You're doing a great job Lose2Win! Keep it up!!

Happy to find others that started in August! My husband and I gave ourselves IP for our anniversary. He is now in maintenance! I am looking forward to joining him!

I enjoyed reading about your progress and exercise plans/thoughts. I have started walking and using hand weights as my main problem areas are "saddle bags" and upper arms. My proportions are so odd between hips and waist that I have worn skirts for years because pants just don't fit me - waist is waaaay to big! I am trying to find jeans that will fit a figure like mine, if any of you have advice on brands I would love to hear it!

Hi Feelinggreat,
I'm glad you found us! It is awesome you did this with your husband. Please tell him congratulations on getting to goal. I am historically a pear shape, but right now my tummy is a little larger than normal making my hips and stomach proportional...at least right now. Sorry that I don't have good recommendations.

Come back and let us know how you are doing!