Lucky Chick,

Your comment about trusting the plan is dead on. I'm in week 7 now and all the "newness" and excitement is wearing thin. Trusting this plan and staying loyal to my choice is getting a little harder.

So thank you for putting it so well! I know it's cliche, but I didn't get to this point overnight, so it's not going to come off overnight either. I find taking measurements VERY encouraging as the size of my tummy and the way my pants keep falling off reaffirms that I'm doing the right thing.

Juiceman...Hope you have a wonderful birthday. You deserve one day to enjoy your family and food...just stay in control of the food don't let the food control your good time.

I also wanted to tell you that your feedback regarding my husbands hunger and dissatisfaction of the food has improved. Per your recommendation he added in more protein...meat and some EAS protein powder. The scale started moving and he is feeling and acting less crumpy...marriage saved.

Thank you so much for this post. I'm starting to think of myself as a slow loser. I weighed in today and lost 1.7 but I've lost 20 lbs. in a little over a month which I think is pretty awesome. I know that this takes time, and even though it does get frustrating sometimes when the scale doesn't move much, I'm noticing more and more how much better I am feeling and looking. My husband grabbed me yesterday and told me how hot I looked He always tells me how beautiful I am but it was nice to hear that after I've been working so hard to get this weight off.

Remember to stay positive everyone! We're all in this together!

Yay! I won't eat it all the time but it's nice to have something like real food for breakfast. Have a good day everyone!

Trust in it, you will see. I know it can be hard at times but if you can run and train for 5K's and more, you can do this! Keep at it, you are doing a great job!

Thank you. I am glad he is doing better. Hope you both continue to do well in your journey and continue losing. Great job!

Thanks for your post! You made my day. I was griping and complaining about how dang slow this weight is coming off! But, you know what? I have people like you to do a reality check! It WILL come off as now I am bound and determined to lick this weight problem. It's my fault for gaining all this weight and maybe now I can let the death of my husband go to~

Hope everyone has an amazing weekend, the weather is suppose to be beautiful here so we are hoping to get the kids out for a bike ride.

I have been doing really good and am excited for my WI on tuesday!!!

WELL SAID -- I really don't think there is such a thing as a slow loser - some of us will lose more in one week then others, some of us start out with more to loose, some are older, younger, taller, male, muscular, stressed, etc etc etc -- it is the WHOLE journey which includes so much more then the weight loss and a loss is a loss --it is certainly far better then a gain and lets face it that is where most of us would be today if not for some sort of diet- for me, some weeks I loose, some I don't and in fact some I gain - but the weight loss is only a fraction of what I have learned and only part of my overall health. My NSVs are far greater then the ones I see on the scale and that is where I am choosing to spend my energy. In the beginning I was obsessed with seeing big numbers every week and was so frustrated and depressed when I didn't which proved to be an exercise in maddening futility - once I found my groove and realized that the scale will never paint the entire picture of what was happening to me it was easier to let it go and to trust the program, and most importantly trust my body and my self. I congratulate all the new people starting this program -- I too understand the obsession, frustration and the feeling of being a slow looser - but in the end it is just about being successful and confident in losing which is what we all are - that is a HUGE VICTORY!!!! I often think of this like being pregnant -- nature takes as long as she does to grow this little human - there is no rushing, tricking it out, messing with the system to make it go faster -- it takes as long as it needs to take - and so too will nature take the time she needs to refashion us ---and just maybe we are better off for it

I had my #9 WI yesterday and lost 4 lbs. but only lost 1 the previous week..ugh. I was very happy considering the weekend I had. My son had a baseball tournament in KC from Thursday to Sunday. I did pretty good eating...I may have had a little more meat than recommended but stayed OP. The bad day came on Friday night when I visited my aunt who lives near by and has a cake decorating shop as well..can you see where I'm going with this...yep...couldn't resist the tast of my aunt's wedding and sculptured cake. I knew going in I would cheat...I let my emotions take over. As she cut pieces off she didn't need I ate them. That's OK...my body said "pay back time" about 3:00 a.m. My stomach started cramping so bad...I sat on the toilet with my head in the can saying "I'm never going to cheat again, I'm never going to eat sugar again"..I didn't know which way it was going to come out...but something was going to come out one way or the other...I dont' know if I've ever felt such pain well besides having my kids. After that day I made sure I stayed OP. Of course that knocked me out of ketosis and as of today I'm still not back in. I was surprised that I lost 4 lbs but my coach said maybe I needed more calories to jump start my weight loss. We added in an extra packet a day. I hope I can get into Ketosis soon.

Lesson learned....sometimes it's not worth the cheat.

Hope everyone has a great day.

ha ha I hear ya. I am so SICK of broccoli right now, I passed it up in the grocery store yesterday!

You are SO right... I know I haven't posted lately as work has been crazy, but I see people getting bogged down in the minutia of the journey rather than focusing on the end goal. I think you put it well. Here is my 2 cents...

I forget who posted a few days ago about this... but the message was simple. When you have the college degree, no one is going to ask which class you didn't get an A in. When you are thin, you won't remember the weeks that were slow and the weeks that went well.

What matters is that you are doing this for the long-term. You are becoming healthier for your own sake and for those you love.

On the weeks that don't seem to go well, think about how they could have been better. If you pinpoint something, try it. If not, keep going. Don't beat yourself up because you didn't get the outcome you were expecting; instead, do a reality check to make sure that you are giving it your all.

For example, I read a post where someone had figured out that they were eating rotisserie chicken with lots of added sugar, etc. They didn't know it at the time and thought they were doing everything right... That turned out not to be the case. Reread the protocol sheet. Go back and try bootcamp (some people swear by it, others lose more when they eat restricted). Try a different vegetable... But don't give up!

The experiences of everyone on this board show that this diet really does work. How many times have you tried to lose weight, only to plateau after a few weeks, have your metabolism slow down and be starving, or something else? While there are some cases of that on this diet, it generally seems to me that people who follow the program lose weight. They lose lots of weight... maybe not tons each week, and maybe not as quickly as some other people, but it does work.

I've gotten a ton of compliments in the past week. I went to NY and saw people in our office there who haven't seen me in 6 weeks. I got comments from "you're shrinking" to "you look amazing!" and it really made me realize that the minutia and the details really don't matter. Look what I've accomplished in 6 short weeks. Those weeks didn't seem short to me as I lived through them, but looking back I really have accomplished a lot in a very short period of time. Sometimes we have to rearrange our perspective to remember what is truly important. I came home Wednesday evening and my husband noticed how happy I seemed. I simply said "the world is starting to notice, and it makes me smile."

Have a great weekend everyone.

Well, wish me luck. I am going to WI this morning after missing a week because my coach was out of town. I hope the whoosh fairy is on my shoulder!!!

How about an angel??

Hi all -- just tried the new broccoli cheese soup - now it isn't exactly like the broccoli cheese soup I remember but it is rather tasty. Having said that, I do like the IP soups so this one is great for those of us who like the soup and want to add variety to the rotation. For me it has more flavor then the tomato -- what a happy surprise for Friday (I am wishing I would have purchased more then one package)