you have done so well so far. Hang in there. What an amazing weight loss you have had. Congrats. Have fun in Disney, and please tell Mickey I said hello!!!

Yes, one day does turn into two, etc. Be strong girl! Again, you've done so well before. Maybe consider not boot camping and eating more of a variety in your veggies?! Sounds like you need it!! Then if you want go back to the bootcamp ways.

I hear you about the on/off thing.

Also, anyone heard from Mirazon? She and Meghan were ths fastest, most consistent losers. Of weight!!

I think I mostly belong over here in the Alternate IPers thread. I only do a few weeks of the IP diet every now and then, and mostly eat non IP foods/products even when I'm on the IP diet.

I find IP awfully hard to do for long lengths of time. I am also not 100% convinced that it's healthy to do for month after month. I really like the Suzanne Somers diet. Don't let the name throw you off. It is developed from diet techniques based in France -- I think particularly Michael Montignac's diet. Years ago a friend mentioned this diet to me. She was older (sixty ish, so therefore slow metabolism) and lost 10 lbs and 101 points of cholesterol in 1 month. I have now done the SS diet too off and on. And I have to tell you, the thing works! It's not as fast as IP. But is much much easier to do, and very balanced. It's a good long term way of eating.

Here is the really interesting thing. It's quite similar to what Dr. Tran Tien recommends for maintenance. (Perhaps not a coincidence that he too is from France.) It's a food combining thing, separating your carbs from fats. You don't eat crap, and there are a few vegetables that you can't eat, like corn and potatoes. However, in addition to proteins and vegetables you can eat stuff like whole grains, fruits, and cheeses. Actually, you can eat lots of fat on this diet and still lose weight (like Atkins.) That's what I really miss on the IP diet -- fatty foods! You can also eat a lot of food in general and still lose weight.

Anyways, just thought I'd mention this for those wanting a break from IP.

This seems to be the weekend for cheating... on Saturday, my fiance and I went to one of the best bbq restaurants in Atlanta, and we split a smoked beef rib and a smoked wings plate. I managed to stay away from the mac & cheese and jalapeno cornbread, but the wings were smothered in a sugary sauce and I had two beers. Deliciously dark, calorie-filled beers. Kicked myself out of ketosis, and haven't gotten back in yet. Not this Saturday but the next is a winter beer carnival that I was planning on cheating with, but I'm getting so close to where I want to be that I just don't know if it's worth it. I've decided that my ultimate goal is to be a comfortable/loose size 8, regardless of what the scale says, and right now I'm a size 10 (comfortable in some brands, snug in others).

Also, it's not completely on plan, but I've been using Marie brand yogurt-based salad dressing, specifically the feta one. They are creamy and delicious and probably have the same number of calories as any dressing I make myself, and aren't high in carbs. So, for those of you who are allowing a little bit of dairy or who are on maintenance, I highly recommend trying those out.

On the subject of alcohol... I read that while many alcoholic drinks have low to no carbs, apparently one gram of alcohol is 7 calories, and your body will burn those before burning fat. To put it in perspective, a standard shot (one and a half ounces) of 40% alcohol drink has almost a hundred calories in it. Just something to think about.

And I still can't find my camera charger!

Watch yourself Birman, you might get chastized for your thoughts with the people on the other forum!! Just a fair warning.

Loving the Michal M's diet: "Pioneer of the GI diet and bestselling author in France, Michel Montignac shows how you can eat the foods you love – cheese, meat, chocolate, with wine – and still shed pounds."

Mmmmmm, chocolcate. Mmmmmmm, cheese.

Elisha, good attitude with your comfy size 8 and no matter what the scale says!! Oooo, what bbq joint did you eat at? Gosh you make me miss Atlanta! I need to get with my friends and come visit. Maybe that will be my reward once I reach my goal!!

Ogdog, am I safe over here?

you are safe over here. BTW I love your cat (s) I saw your post on the other thread about them. I had to put my house cat down about 3 months ago. It was really hard. We also have 3 dogs, a rottweiler and 2 great danes. I feel empty without a cat though.

Birman, you are definitely safe over here. We aren't quite as judgemental as we've strayed and admit to using "other" methods in addition to our IP madness.

Do you have the Michel M cookbook? I looked it up on amazon, $101...OMG!!

Hi Birman, of course you are welcome here. I was aware of the similarity between Suzanne Somers' diet and Dr. TT's maintenance tips. I was not going to bring it up on this forum until we were all closer to maintenance.

But since you opened up the subject of food combining, I think it is a great way of eating! Tony Robbins (motivational speaker) lost wt. (he used to be very overweight) with the original food combining diet and that is what he recommends to his "followers."

As usual, I always think I am the "only one" doing something different with this whole IP plan, and then I come to the forum and I find that others are thinking along the same lines. Must be the "beehive mentality" and we sure have it here.

I have been sick for a couple of days with a sore throat and head cold so I thought that I wasn't thinking very clearly and kept going off of IP over the last few days and weekend. I have concluded that it was a "holiday" mentality that overtook us! It was both Valentine's and President's Day and Chinese New Years (and some birthdays) all rolled into one.

And I am so tired of the cold weather. I want comfort foods! I am tired of dieting! But I don't want to gain all my weight back either. So I am definitely at a standstill here.

But I am willing to maintain and wait for a breakthrough. Signs of spring would help.........

Love you guys and thanks for being here.

Birman - you are welcome here!! no judgements. I think we've all found that as time goes on, you have to find other methods that work for your weight loss - cost, boredom, etc all play a part.

i did the suzanne somers diet a few years back - it was easy and i lost weight - i think for me, at the time, it wasn't strict enough - too much grey area. as i recall, the basics were carbs plus veggies or protein plus veggies. not allowed carbs and proteins in the same meal. it worked well and eating out wasn't a problem. i think after i've been on this diet for this period of time, i would be able to stick to that way of eating and have good luck.

i've been thinking of buying some protein powder - i'm in a very small town so i'm going to see what's out there - i looked just in passing before but found lots of them are high in sugar - i need to do a better search. do you guys think that you could mix protein powder, chicken broth and a bit of oxo and get the chicken soup? maybe the protein powder can be flavoured, etc. and it would work to replace a couple of packets a day - i'm getting so broke. it's bad when you're spending your money on diet food (IP) instead of new clothes - especially since i can finally fit a size 10!

Melissa, OgDog, Mom22, and Lilita, thank you for the welcome. :-)

Gotta say that wouldn't be the first time I'd be chastised on a message board for suggesting alternatives! I guess I am just not a vee-must-all-goose-step-together type of person. I like individuality and choices.

Ogdog, no I don't have Montignac's recipe book. I have "Dine Out & Lose Weight" and "The French Diet", but not that one. Really though, all the regular Suzanne Somers or even the Aktins recipes work.

Melissa, I'm sorry you lost your cat. :-(

Mom22, Some protein powders have an off flavor and/or are hard to mix. I like Now's Unflavored Whey Protein Isolate (available from Netrition). I mix it with a zero carb / zero fat vegetable broth seasoning (I'm a vegetarian) to get a yummy soup with 113 calories, 0.3 g fat, 1 g carb, and 26 g high quality protein. The cost for both the broth and protein? $0.79 per serving. You can sauté veggies and throw them in to make it extra yummy and healthy.

Lilita, if this thread is for people wanting to focus on doing only IP, and I am sometimes interested in talking about alternating IP with other diets, would it be preferred if I started a new thread for that?

Any of you who order Matol from aimtobeheathy.com notice a considerable price increase? I'm trying to find the original charges on my bank card statement, but if I'm remembering correctly, the start-up pack price was $75 less than what I'm seeing now. Could it be that this has gotten so popular that they jacked up the prices? Well, that settles it, I'm going strictly Lindora or Newlifestyle from here on out. Torchlaker is right, the IP products keep you full longer, but geez, that's expensive.

OK -- I figured out a way to not eat!! I have been SO busy sewing..that I forget to eat until I have a huge headache!! I am forgetting my water...I haven't taken the supplements (except potassium when I get cramps) since I returned from Ohio. Funny thing is.....I feel pretty good. Maybe I feel good cuz I am accomplishing something BESIDES dieting. It seems like IP took over my life when I went on it in September.

I don't mind talking about other diets/ways of eating, etc., on this forum. Those of us that have been on a long time have to be feeling the pinch financially....and the boredom with the same old foods. I even started adding butter to my veggies cuz I couldn't even look at them in olive oil anymore.

I used to make a pudding on Atkins using cream cheese and it was fillling. Any of you do that? I was trying to think how I could just use regular sugarfree puddings and make them filling......I wish i could do shakes...there are more viable ones out there than there are for puddings.

Sewing is going slow....just can't pound it out like I used to. I love garment sewing....but it just takes too much focus now. If anyone ever comes over here and I look decent, I will have them take a pix of the white shirt. I am gonna take tomorrow off and go shopping. Haven't taken my new car any further than 2 miles since I got it!! (Well, if it quits snowing....). Thursday is Red Hat function at a mexican restaurant. This one might be tough...cuz I usually just go to restaurants that I know I can get a salad. I LOVE this restaurant, tho.....maybe I should just make it my birthday dinner, huh??

I also went back to eating one sugarfree Klondike bar in the afternoons...it seems to satisfy my need for icecream. It DOES look like I have lost a little weight on the new scale (but I am gonna HAVE to go out and get another digital one....this one is too vague!).