After yesterday's weird nutbutter/jam episode, I am definitely not feeling the breakfast love.... It doesn't help that the supplements I take for fibro & now menopause are supposed to happen on an empty tummy. Ugh, tough, when the tummy isn't a happy camper in the first place.
BTW what kind of silly supplement for menopause hormone rebalancing says "Some people may experience drowsiness. Consumption with alcohol, other drugs and/or natural health products with sedative properties is not recommended. Exercise caution if operating heavy machinery, driving a motor vehicle, or involved in activities requiring mental alertness."
Ummm, hey people, women in menopause have a life too, you know. Some of us work, drive, use heavy machinery, heck... do 'activities requiring mental alertness.' Oh, and drink wine... but maybe they mean don't take the pills with a glass of wine, lol.
This is not the Udo's Oil - it's something new I'm trying in addition (since the Udo's works great for hot flashes but I don't think works on menstrual irregularities)... FemMED Hormonal Balance.
Ahhh, Jenny, time for me to take my own advice and breathe.... Mimi, try just going back to your reg low carb plan & see how it goes. Zen breathing for you too, Off to aquacize this morning to meet up with a new MFP friend who is in the same 50+ Active Women group thread as I am.

Liana

Liana I’ll be following in your footsteps in the next few years with peri-meno. so watching what you’re finding. Too bad I won’t be able to drive, work, drink, or drive a combine tractor when that happens. Giggle.

That nut butter - I’ve had a few of those nights.
One thing that I realized this week - I notice I’m going for the nut butter at night esp. when I haven’t gotten quite get enough protein in. Tonight I had a little leftover ground turkey with a little rice and broccoli on the side around 9pm, it wasn’t all that pleasant per say but it satisfied the hunger and now I can sleep soon, and don’t crave any further snack.
I know I won’t always want to do that and sometimes I’ll just want to have some almond butter and celery and that’s cool too, but those nights when I’m esp. hungry it’s good for me to remember I might need some more protein. I did an esp. hard workout tonight so I was glad to do it.
I noticed my protein grams were lower the last few weeks because I was trying to lower calories but I think that made my body upset.


Mimi I agree with Liana - going to P1/VLCal for a day, esp. when I’m regularly exercising, has not worked for me. I end up starving (can’t sleep), I eat more calories the day after the P1 because then I’m really starving. If I just go back to my normal and do more like a strict P3 type day, it’s much better, and if I had a more indulgent day just drink a lot of water the next day or two and don’t eat whatever I ate more of.

For me it’s been when I eat out - I eat fairly well, but whatever restaurants put in food causes water retention for me, and I just need to wait it out.

Jenny I’m still zen breathing with you….still have have the 5 lbs lingering and water retention, but waiting it out and not doing anything out of the ordinary to try to “fix it”….though I don’t like having my tummy feel so fluffy, remembering to just zen it out….


Overall, I'm taking a page from what everyone has shared the last few days and just keeping my food steady - I’ve been pretty low carb since I started maintenance - around 1700 calories with adjustments for exercise - no sugar, and higher on fats in the macros but not going crazy about separating it all. It’s been fine the last few months, and the only time I’ve run into trouble are: going too Low Cal thinking it would help, trouble with stress/not able to exercise as much as usual (and then sleep issues), and hormones/meds changes.

I realized this week I need to give myself some time just to stay steady and not freak. So I’m going to try not to do (or need) P1 days until August, and just keep my calorie levels steady - if they go a little up or down one day no big deal - just try to keep it even for the week.
If I re-assess in August and want to do a little reboot, I’ll think about it, but that’s a while a way and August is a slow month for me. I think I would like to do a little alt P1 reboot sometime later this year, but I’m open to the timing.

Thanks for the advice, ladies. Kept low carb, ate at home and chugged the H20. Down 2 so far on this formula....

Good morning Lovelies!

Jenny: You look AMAZING in that dress. WOWZA!

Liana: I know that if I had access to a tractor on some of my hormonal days I could have caused some serious damage!! I hope you find some balance on the menopause stuff but the Zen breathing might come in handy for that too!

Amber: On the nut butter attacks - I went back and looked in MFP and I was also seeing a deficit in proteins. I had an attack last night and looked at what was going on and sure enough not enough protein. I had a boiled egg and half an avocado and was satisfied. Another mystery solved.

Mimi: I think we may have figured out some stuff here the last few days, huh? I'll keep checking in here at this thread but I'm not going to be posting menus as they don't fall within the P4 guidelines.

Dropped to 139.5 for absolutely no reason this morning, but I'll take it. Something about saying One thirty instead of One forty does something in my head. It's silly, but there it is.

Hope everyone has a fabulous day.

woohoo, Andrea!!! Love those no-reason drops (much more fun than the hard-earned ones )

Advice needed:

I am looking ahead to maintenance so I have been reading all of your posts. Here are my questions:
1) Does everyone follow the maintenance plan like IP suggests. (separate your carbs and fats, cheat day once a week followed by P1 day, etc) OR are people counting calories and just watching their carb intake?
2) What do you recommend I read before entering maintenance? I keep hearing about macros. I don't know what that is.
3) Do you all pay attention to the glycemic index?
4) How do you track your food daily? MFP, journaling on paper, etc.
5) How often do you weigh in?

Thanks for all of your posts and inspirational sayings... I love the one about "picking your hard"...

Betsy

Hey Hey Ladies,

I'm still around...it was/is difficult for me to watch a weight loss forum and a mommy forum (for those that don't know I lost weight with IP, kept it off for 1.5 years and had a baby) so during mat leave I stuck with the mommy forum.

I did my second journey with IP and lost the baby weight now so I'm back at goal and in the process of phasing off. My little girl is one year old already! WOWZA!

Good to see some familiar faces...does maile ever show up anymore?

Liana, I hope you find a cocktail of drugs and supplements that get you through menopause as comfortably as possible.

Jenny, you look fantastic! Glad the dress worked out for your sister's wedding.

Andrea and Mimi, yay for down lbs!

Grateful, I'm sure it will help for you not to stress/obsess over it. You have a good plan in place, enjoy your success.

Bootros, I just track calories and try to keep my net carbs at 100 or less this works for me when I follow it, so I don't bother with the 3:1. But everyone is different and what works for one may not work for others. It seems some people with start off somewhat low cal/carb and gradually increase both to see how their individual body performs best.

I believe macros are a break down of what your goal is to eat that day. Like x grams of carbs, x gram of protein... This way you are not only tracking calories but making sure you use up your calories and fulfill your macro goals.

I use MFP and weigh daily.


Ishbel, welcome back and great job working on a healthy you, something your little girl will appreciate and learn from

I have a few up lbs from a bad weekend that I am working on so I am rapping my knuckles and paying more care to what I am eating, and I just started a new workout routine. Yesterday was the first day and I am feeling it today, mostly in my legs which surprised me, I guess my running and soccer playing use different muscles.

Keep up the great work Maintainers! It's not easy.

I'll answer your ?? with what is working for me. As others have said, it's so individual. What may work for me may not work for you.

1) I was very strict for the first couple of months doing the "cheat day" and a P1 day. As a result I had wildly fluctuating weight swings. I didn't like that very much. I gradually upped my calories/carbs/fats. Started Maint at about 1300 calories and upped about 100/200 calories every 2 weeks to see what would happen. What happened was I wasn't hungry all the time, weight stabilized, and I am within 2-3 lbs of my starting Maint. weight. Have leveled off at about 1700-1800 calories per day and keeping net carbs around 100. Maintenance can be so intimidating it was better for me to follow what few rules there are when I first started. Now I am creating my own rules. For that last 4 weeks I have been watching my calories, have not done a P1 day in several months, nor am I watching the carb/fat separation, although I try to keep my fats under 80 grams a day.
2) Read the thread called Life after P1. It's full of good info as are any of the Maintainers threads here. Macros is short for macronutrients. This is the breakdown of what you eat into carbs, fats, protein, sugar, fiber, etc. and their %.
3) Most of us know the glycemic index by now after spending time on IP. It's better to stick to the lower end simply because: CARBS & SUGAR. But it's not something I consult before I eat something. The majority of the "allowed" veggies on P1 were the lowest on the glycemic index. For fruits I stick to berries, pears and apples which are low glycemic. But I also throw in bananas, grapes, oranges. With the exception of the bananas, I usually stay away from the tropical fruits since they are so high on the index (pineapple, mango, papaya, etc.)Variety is the key for both fruits and veggies.
4) I track my food in MFP daily. It recently upgraded so you can see Macros/Nutrients/Calories on a daily basis. I didn't like it at first, but I'm getting used to it. You can choose which macros you want to track in MFP. Most of us track Calories/Carbs/Fiber/Fat/Sugar
5) I weigh every day in the morning before showering or eating. It's a data point for me. I can see if there are up lbs and I look in MFP and see sodium was high, then that explains it, usually. I don't let it define how my day is going to be.

I am only 5 months into Maintenance and there are others who have far more experience at this than I do. Hopefully some of them will chime in. My advise to you is start out slowly by building up your calories/carbs/fats. Keep pushing it until you maybe gain a couple of lbs. Then back off. You've found your limit. Then work with that. Don't be afraid of carbs. They aren't evil, just watch what types you are eating and stay away from fast food, sodas and processed foods and you should do great.

Ishbel: Good to see you. Your daughter is so cute. Congrats on getting back to Maint. weight.

DD: I'm jealous of your workout! Those up lbs. could be inflammation from your new workout, especially since you are sore in the leg muscles. I so want to get back to exercising. I go to my post-op Dr. visit next week. Hopefully she will let me do some things. Since I got a new gym membership through work I'm ready to go!

Wow, Andrea, thank you so much. Maintenance is scary. Your response makes it less scary. I am going to reread this many times and go back to the posts you suggested. Thanks again!

Thank you for your response.

Betsy I think I answered most of this on the Daily Chat as far as how I have been personally working it, but it’s only been a few months for me.

I agree with everything DD and catlady/Andrea wrote above…. I also WI pretty close to daily, and try to use it as a science, though it does slightly affect me when things go over a few lbs, but I’m hoping over the course of the year I’ll get to know the patterns better, which is why I want to keep doing it, just as a check on myself and also so I get to know how my body cycles through inflammation and water retention.

Let us know if you have more questions. Good luck as you phase through!

Liana - your evening if wine sounds lovely and I admire that you even have a place to keep your wine. I think ours goes in our liquor cabinet which has kid stuff all over it. Love all the warnings on the supplement bottle, perhaps they expect woman to stay home and put their feet up. Hope you had a good aquacize class and doing your zen breathing.

Mimi- how did low carbs and clean eating go? Sometimes a couple days of that and lots of water works well.

Andrea - got to love the whoosh. How are you feeling?

Bootros
1)I'm on month 10 and have separated fats and carbs for lunch and dinner. I follow IP maintainence for the most part and live on P3 with some extra snacks like almonds, simply bar, fat free Greek yogurt etc. I will do some carb like pasta or potatoe only a couple times a week.
2)I read this thread, life after, refuse to regain in preparation for maintaining. Also what are you eating today thread. I've got to say the macros still confuse me but there are some great explanations and just ask someone will respond.
3) I eat a lot of what was encouraged in P1 with the exception on frozen berries in the morning or fresh berries when in season.
4) I tracked with MFP until I had a pretty clear sense and enough menu ideas. I rotate between pretty similar menues which helps
5) I'm obsessive about weighing, even in the night when I get up to p. Ideally I would like to get to once a day.

Good luck looks forward to seeing more of you on this thread.

Determineddieter - how are those sore legs? what's your new routine?

Thanks for all the compliments on me and the dress ladies. I feel so much more in control this week, I think last week stress played a part in holding on to lbs. I was up 2 from the wedding but today back down to 162.7 which is good. Keeping to low carb and lots of water to flush things out.

Hi to everyone.

Maintainers-

Did you all do a full 2 weeks of phase 3? I am planning ahead for my first glass of wine

Absolutely. This is crucial to introducing higher levels of carbs back into your diet. Don't skip this. The wine can wait until you are fully in Maint. Be prepared for a weight jump when you drink alcohol. For me it was a couple of lbs the very next day. It's not fat so don't panic, but be prepared. Your body is not used to it and this is how it will react. You may even drop a few more pounds in this phase. I did.

Jenny: I'm feeling pretty good. I really want to work out but I can't. It's frustrating. But I'll get there. And this morning the whoosh was gone. Blergh!!