Hi Maintainers! I finally 'officially' slipped down into the 140s earlier this week, and this am when I stepped on the scale starkers (& after a bm - I know, TMI!) was happily surprised to see that I've dropped a bit more in the last few days - down to 148.5lbs... so I'm almost ready to hit P3! I'm going to stick with P1 for the weekend, and move directly to P3 on Monday. I've also been been doing my daily vibracize stretches (including stretch bands for upper body) and using the twist platform daily (while carrying 2 lb weights), and see that my body & skeletal muscle % are adjusting nicely to reflect increased muscle/less fat. And 3x/week or so I've been indoor walking with Leslie Sansome as well, using the stretch band program. I can definitely see and feel better toning in my arms, legs, and mid-section. So I'm feeling pretty good about phasing out & joining you soon now.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Have a great trip! I've been considering the weighing for my trip, and I'm not sure what I'll do either. Since Im an everyday weigher...I'm thinking that I may just use the first # I see on the new scale as my "relative maintenance" weight and go from there for the remainder of my trip.
I'm jealous that you will have an understanding host! That will be my biggest battle!

Evepet: Reaching the 140s is great. Good work!

Lizzy63: Have a great trip in NC. Hopefully it will be warm. Scales are difficult as they vary so much.

Mommak8: That sounds like a good plan. Just use the first number on the scale to see if there is loss or gain.

Lizrr: You sound great and are in good health with the baby!

Sonyavaina: Thanks for that info on blood volume. I am still fitting my clothes so that might be a factor! Your trip to Costa Rica sounded fun, plus your return weight was excellent.

I am off to exercise and to enjoy the sun! I am down a pound and am happy.

Lots going on with everyone!
Lizrr - glad to hear you're doing so well; 16 weeks along already! Baby will be here before you know it
Evepet - Yay! Welcome to maintenance! That's great you're seeing the results from exercising too.
Lizzy63 - have a great visit with your family, and hopefully the weather will be perfect for you.

Looks like I'm hosting the extended family Easter dinner (on the 30th) this year. Trying to plan the menu with mom & sister...Le Sigh - do we REALLY need sweet breads for snacking AND rolls with dinner? Veggies all sauced up or swimming in butter? It's always 'bring-a-dish-to-pass' with us, so I don't have full control of the food. So frustrating!!! I will have a good (healthy) tossed salad, relish tray, no glaze on the ham, and will sneak silken tofu into a couple of dishes in place of the sour cream. It will be my VIP's birthday that day too, so will need a cake along with other desserts. Anyone else having concerns about the upcoming holiday?

Scorbett: congrats on having a successful first fun day! Thanks for giving your % breakdowns for carbs, protein and fat. When I changed MFP to say my goal was to maintain instead of lose, it gave me 1900 calories but with 55% carbs. I know I don’t want to jump that high in maintenance.

Maile: thanks for the posting about the phases of maintenance. I wonder how long it will take me to move through them.

Nolawhodatchick: it’s horrible being sick, hope you feel back to normal soon.

Maile: the state tests don’t sound like fun for you or the people taking the tests.

Sonya: I envy your vacations! I wish I could join you on just one right now but I have another few months to wait.

Liz: even pregnant, you have more energy than I do.

Lizzy63: enjoy your trip. I’m sure your family will be excited to see the changes in you. Have a great visit.

Evepet: congrats on seeing the 140’s.

Greeniris: I understand your holiday challenge. Whenever I go to my Mom’s for the holidays, we debate the need for all the old style options. It doesn’t help that one of my brother’s likes to ask for the one thing I finally talk her out of that year. When I’m at home for holidays, I usually get invited to one of the extended family in the area. They are 1 ½ hour drive away so I’ve learned to take simple cut veggies and protein snacks in a cooler for the drive and then I can survive on very little food options for the meal.

I’m on day 2 of phase 3 and it feels good to get a couple of those fab breakfasts in me. I did a temp phase out last Sept for vacation so I knew exactly what my first couple days had to be. Tomorrow I’ve made a blueberry and quinoa panna cotta and I have a chicken patty to serve on the side. In recognition of St. Patrick’s day, I added a couple drops of green food colouring to the panna cotta.

I am still feeling some high stress levels of over work and major life decisions that I need to make soon. There are circumstances leaving me in limbo right now which makes it even more frustrating. I am trying to relax and just deal in the moment. Today I did more decluttering with a car load of stuff going to charity. I had a great workout carrying things from the basement out to my car then into the charity store. 4 large garbage of over-sized clothes were the last of my major closet cleaning. I also did a Costco shopping trip and only bought a few items but covered the store twice. It helped up my step count.

evepet YAY!!! Welcome to almost maintenance 'again'! Your posts are so helpful, glad you're around!

mommak8 ooohhh, just reading your post makes me anxious about not weighing daily but when I did it for Scotland it almost became a little 'freeing'. Go with your plan, you'll rock it! I know it!

greeniris I'm sorry that you're family days are like that...I am going home for Easter too and I know that well, I'll make sure my family easter is around my fun day but after that my family seems to almost appreciate that my choices also tone them down. Or at least my mom does...she keeps it toned down because we're all trying to eat better but I really become the reason or excuse to have 'less' of everything. This doesn't transfer over to my Auntie though, Christmas on Phase 1 in her house was H&LL!!! You'll be awesome I know it!

KitKat169 Yay for enjoying your breakfast! I still eat the same one I decided on. Sometimes I try to change it and it always makes me miss the 'usual'.

lizzy 29 June is the big day, I'm going with flats...it's finding the flats that say "ME ME ME" that would be nice. Granted I have only looked online so I need to stop looking as I know I won't buy online, I'm too tactile to do that.

Lizz we miss you but I get that you're busy!

Nolawhodatchick Are you feeling better??

sonyainva Jealous of your travelling girl!!! Have fun!

SO! Last night I went to Great Big Sea, a Canadian band from Newfoundland...perfect time for St Patty's Day! It was SO much fun, I listened to them A LOT in college...really good hand clappin' foot stomping fun. I never liked high school but really enjoyed college so going to them was SUPER exciting for me.

Also, I started some minor running, only 15 minutes on the treadmill with 2 min walk and 3 min run...I can feel that I 'CAN' just take off but I won't because I can feel that it will hurt. I did it twice in a row and now I'm back to my video's this week....and maybe I'll do it once. I don't think phyiso will be ultra happy but I took it REALLY slow. Boy do I ever get a runner's high out of it, even that little bit...I was ready to jump the VIP HAHAHAHA

...today is 10 months of 'maintenance' and close to the time where I can say "I haven't lost or gained in this range for a year" - I started maintenance 17 May but it occurred to me that I hit my goal in April and lost phasing off but I have bounced around those numbers well...for very close to a year now...even though I was in Phase 1...kinda exciting when I thought of it that way.

Well here you all are!

I was on IP summer of 2010, and used this site regularly! I dropped 45 pounds in no time! I successfully maintained until I got pregnant with baby number two, who was born on June 13th, 2012! He is also my last child, and so I felt like it was my last chance to eat everything in sight and gain for a good reason, so I gained 50 POUNDS! Ugh! What a dummy. Anyways, I started back on ol' IP on Aug.6th 2012, at 204# and have reached & surpassed my goal of 155! I'm a healthy 152, and smaller than I was before I got pregnant!

So - here I am, in my second week of phase 3 - getting ready for the rest of my life! I am happy to see some familiar faces (skinnier! But familiar!)

This time around I am finding it hard to eat protein 3 times a day! Anyone else feel this way? I especially have trouble with lunch!

Hi Lesley, welcome back! I'm still in my first week of P3. I haven't yet had a problem with the protein but I do try to choose a mix of options to keep one meal feeling a bit lighter. I.e. chicken breast, egg or tofu for one meal, pork or beef for the other. Breakfast is yogurt and turkey bacon or a chicken patty. Others have commented that they have cut back to 5-6 oz of protein for lunch/dinner but I haven't found the need to do that yet.

Hi everyone. This is my first 'official' P3 day.

I had a P3-style breakfast this am, which consisted of scrambled eggs (1 egg and the rest was egg whites) with some low fat mozzarella cheese shreds, high fibre wholegrain crispbread and apple slices with cinnamon and a spread made by combining low fat Greek yogourt with low fat ricotta cheese & a tbsp of no-sugar-added wildberry jam. I entered all the nutritional values into Fatsecret.com and they seem ok for P3 breakfast criteria.

I'm contemplating tomorrow's breakfast, and am thinking along the lines of a home-made high fibre muffin (using a flour mix I make combining almond meal, coconut flour, oat bran, carbquik & soy flour); with apple slices (1 apple) with the same greek yogourt/ricotta cheese/wildberry jam/cinnamon spread mentioned above; plus a hot drink consists of unsweetened cocoa powder, instant decaf coffee granules, and 1 tbsp of Lite Carnation Hot Chocolate mix in 1/2 cup of unsweetened almond milk & boiling water. This combo fits well within the P3 breakfast nutritional guidelines. And it's lower sodium which I like.

Guess it's obvious *breakfasts* are on my mind! LOL.

Hope you all had a good day. Cheers for now.

Welcome, Leslie. I love your avatar pic and I'm so happy for you with your family.

I'm finally starting back on a 5 lb reboot to get rid of my vacation pounds. On Friday I had a lovely birthday dinner at a fabulous French restaurant in Middleburg, Va (remember the Kennedy's fav town?) I had a couple glasses of white wine, but (TMI warning) my digestive track didn't fare so well the next day. I'm not that much of a drinker (anymore) but I think I'll stop at 1 glass next time! I'm glad to hear that you've been successful on IP the second time around!

Fishette: I have found that eating low carb, wine can affect me more. Good luck on your 5 pound reboot. I love French food..what fun you had.

Evepet: Your P3 breakfasts sound great. I am interested that you use greek yogurt and ricotta. I may try that.

Kitkat: I have not cut back my protein either.

Lesley: welcome. You have done well to lose after pregnancy, I had twins and took too many years to get it off. If you are having trouble with protein at lunch..have you tried endame or tofu. both are quite good. Do you like tuna? I use leftover dinner proteins with my salad.

Ishbel: Woo Hoo on 10 months, You are doing it,

Greeniris: try twice baked cauliflower from Kaylyn's kitchen blog. Everyone loves it. Also red cabbage and feta cheese is good. I get anxious about big meals also.

I am focused and happy! April is coming and I am going to be one year and one half.

Evepet: welcome to P3! I like the sound of that spread. How much of each do you put in?

Fishette: good luck on your reboot.

Maile: you make me smile. I can picture you dancing around to celebrate your 1 1/2 years. I can't wait to join the dance!

I'm questimating the amount, but I know that I can easily use 1 serving of the low fat ricotta (5 tbsp) on the slices from one apple. I want to have enough spread to use it also on the muffin, so I'm going to stir together 5 tbsp of ricotta + 3 tbsp of greek yogourt + a couple of tbps of the no-sugar-added jam. One of the reasons I decided to mix them together like this is end up with enough spread to eat with both apple & muffin, while cutting back on the sodium level of the ricotta on it's own.

I think the muffin is going to wait until Wednesday's breakfast though. I've also been making extra lean beef patties tonight with some oat bran in them, and they're all formed ready to be cooked as needed. I intend to use one with a slice of veggie cheese & raw onion slices on top of 1/2 a Dempster's whole wheat english muffin. And eat my apple slices of 1 apple + the ricotta cheese/cinnamon as my 'breakfast dessert'.

I love this experimenting! I think I'll really enjoy both these breakfasts. I've been quite surprised today how full I've been all day, and I'm wondering whether it had to do with the big breakfast?

A year & one half! Congrats!!

I love the idea of red cabbage & feta cheese... guess I'll have to wait a while though. Ditto the edamame!

Thanks Evepet. I have ricotta on my shopping list to try in a couple recipes but I like to have lots of options to make sure I can use it up. I like the WF jam so I'll use that to mix with it too.