I have been on maintenance for a couple of weeks now. I am staying with low carbs all of the time instead of doing the "cheat" day followed by a Phase 1 day. My weight is stable (yea!), but my problem is with wine. On a couple of occasions I have had a couple of small glasses of wine with dinner. The next day I have felt like I had been on an all night bender. The second time I had had white wine that was only 11% alcohol. Before IP, I drank two or three glasses of wine almost every night after work without any negative side effects the next day. Has anyone else experienced a very low tolerance for alcohol after IP? (I guess I should count this as a blessing since I'm sure all of the wine contributed to my weight problem to begin with!) Thanks!

Good morning everyone,

Well maintenance is HARD. I'm up quite a bit since saturday and i hope its just my body needing to adjust, today i'm tracking everything to get an idea if i have to cut down or not.

What do you use as morning snack, i haven't brought one today cause usually breakfast keeps me full til lunch but now its 10 and i'm hungry..guess gonna drink more water. I don't want to do cheese as that is my lunch fat as i don't know what else to have as i don't like any creamy salad dressing or mayo and really don't know what else i can have as fats for lunch.

Maile - The costco yogourt is delicious, i find no difference than with the liberté one. I also always put WF caramel or strawberry syrup in it and i really see no difference but the price. Thanks for the great tip!

Yes i got them at costco, i'll check tonight what they're call, pro something. There's only one brand and one flavor, big orange box.

Just checking in. I also love the Costco greek yogurt. Add a little stevia, a lot of cinnamon and fresh berries. Yummy.

I am on day 7 of a P1 reboot. Official WI is tomorrow but scale said 160.4 today. Those pesky four pounds are GONE. Wahoo. Hoping for a new decade tomorrow. Then phasing out again.

Have a great day.

Welcome back Dakin. We lived in new England for several yrs and I had some fun weeks in Boston too. Now I get to have fun times in Yellowstone and grand Teton. Too much good food here too. Lol.

In my younger years, YES it would have been vodka instead of veggies. I don't find skeeters bug me too much but the little breeze kept them away from the VIP. It's kinda funny watching him when he's outside and there is no breeze...but then the welts he gets aren't funny. It was SMOKING hot, so I didn't stay outside long.

I run twice a week and I haven't added in strength yet. Anything I've read your skin will tighten up eventually but I could never tighten up 140 lbs (some might tighten but not enough) so it's it was it is...and if and when I decide on a tummy tuck I'll fix it. I decided to own what I have...I named my tummy "Martha"

Awesome, did it feel great or were you surprised at how strong you were?!!

Speaking of pets...I'm currently in the middle of OPERATION SLIM CAT. Or as I like to call it "OP SLIM CAT"...I was worried it was going to turn into OP SPITE CAT...but so far no anger detected as subjects are still purring and wanting to cuddle. Subject Stella is 12 lbs and Subject Frankie is 10 lbs respectively. They are not large frame cats but even I was shocked at how cubby they got. SO, I now frequent a wholistic pet store...and we're trying raw meat and dry kibble combination. Their getting older (10 years each I think)...so I knew I'd have to start giving them wet food but I detest wet canned food (GAG), raw doesn't smell. Subject F is enjoying it, Subject S doesn't know what to do with it....just yet. But hey...variety is the spice of life. VIP thinks it's funny that I'm slowly moving through everyone's food intake in my life (my cats, his son, him) and changing it!

Last night Subject S was curled up on the floor in front of us and I whispered to him (the VIP) "help me...she's starving me..I have no fat left on my body...you're my last hope" (we just started a week ago, she's still 12 lbs)

2Ride. You sound like you had an energetic Canada day with your dogs. You also sound busy with training the new one and enjoying the summer. I am glad you are happy. It is good to hear from you. Are you making any ice teas for the summer?
Dakin. You trip to Boston seemed fun. Good luck on Phase 1.

Purplesky: I was surprised at the sake also..but it works. Mirin might be ok.

Andie: I find that eating low carb, wine affects me more. Try drinking a glass of water with the wine. You might feel better.

Busymomx4: I drink tea for a morning snack..and water..and try to hold out until lunch. You can get hungry in the morning! Glad you like the yogurt.

swimcoachmomma: I have gone nuts for berries this summer with yogurt. I am eating blackberries, marionberries and bosenberries. Congrats on losing the 4 pounds.

Ishbel: That is too cute about putting your cats on a healthy eating program. So far mine haven't gained weight. I am just having problems with their long hair and matts!

I ran into someone at the gym, who told me I looked wonderful. It was nice to hear a positive comment!

Ishbel - you need to help my friend, her dogs are so big... I am afraid one will get injured and it will take about 10 of us to carry him to help... she knows both dogs are overweight but she has a emotional food issue in turn so do they. I feel bad for all as the one dog has has 2 knee sugeries and is still not very well. The big one is the same age as red and though red is about 5 lbs over (still working on that swimming helps but river is too high to swim for long) and she acts like a puppy compared to him. I think he is close to 100lbs... today while walking one of the lady's we were walking with said Leelu was skinny and I explained that it better for them to be thinner for agility as it is less stress on them. Then when they said red was at a good weight and didn't have as soft as hair as leelu I explained that now i stopped feeding her chicken her hair isn't as soft. and my friend asked why not chicken anymore and I said because that made her fat... and she said ohhhh so I know that she is still feeding her dogs the roast beef, chicken and pork that her mom cooks for her dogs... Sad but true.

Maile - have not made a lot of tea, into iced coffees alot now... but have made peach team in my keurig. Love that thing. I am happy loving the challenge of training leelu in agility and how to behave at an offleash park. She is having a lot of fun, and everyone (or so she thinks) need to pet her.

The running has helped it makes them both tired and we can all get more sleep...

Have a great summer, I am going to be real busy for the rest of the week, and next week I am working away from town and have to farm my dogs out to two different friends so it won't be too stressful for Leelu.. Red just gets to go to my best friend's place and play with her dogs... she would fit in anywhere, she has become such a good dog lately... waiting for the red dog to return, kind of miss her.

Yay for you, momma! Isn't P1 just a miracle? I'm 1.5 weeks into a P1 refresher and I've deflated by 7 lbs. It's so good to know P1 WILL work whenever I need to lose a few lbs. It's great for the psyche to know that being up a few lbs isn't the beginning of the end but that you can turn things around quickly and regain control.

Awesome NSV!!!

Good morning everyone!
I'm back from France and I said I'd WI when I got back. I don't have a digital upstate at my little house, but my good old regular had me at 127. I lost 3 lbs in Paris....even though I ate cheese,bread, some desserts and drank more wine than I would in 2 months. My guess...non stop running around on the metros...up and down the stairs and endless walking between the apt., my mother in laws assisted living and all the relatives we got invited to have meals at. The funny thing is, at least in Paris w/o a car, you're just speedwalking almost all the time.
Now I get it about the power of intentional walking and will try to incorporate "spurts" of movement in my day, even if it is not in a gym.

I also want to say welcome to all of our new maintainers!!!! What a huge accomplishment! Do you believe it??? It's so nice to have fresh energy and new perspectives for us oldies to bounce off of and share new experiences as we all navigate thru maintenance..so enjoy the ride :0)

Next challenge for me...vocal coaching at a music and wilderness camp in Va. for the next 2 weeks....yes...CAMP FOOD. Wish me luck!!!!! All you IP campers....HELP!!!!

Congrats on losing 3lbs while in Paris, that's a huge accomplishment (even if you weren't trying, lol). I have a gym membership but find it so hard to find the time to go by the time i get home at 6pm, feed the kids, animals, clean up, i'm just exhausted. I would rather go in the mornings but since i leave at 7am, it just doesn't give me enough time. For the past few weeks, i now walk to the train vs going by car which is a 30-min walk, twice a day. Even when i don't feel like it, i push myself to do it, its the least i can do.

I don't think it has sunken in yet that i'm done losing weight...for most of my life i've been obese and my brain hasn't caught on yet. I still have huge body issues, all I see is loose skin (have about 15lbs from what the surgeon said). I won't even take baths anymore cause it depresses me too much (used to take one every night to relax). But maybe in due time, i'll adjust.

Since i have a "field day" with work on friday (nice 3-hour cruise) and know that it will be bbq burgers and hot dogs for lunch and bbq steak, etc for dinner, i'm going to try and keep my calorie intake on the low side for today and tomorrow since i know it might be higher on friday and i really want to feel comfortable with my weight for my first cheat day on saturday!

Have a great day everyone!

The mental challenge of weight loss and maintaining is really hard.

I still worry I will wake up tomorrow and be back at 180 pounds. I swear I didn't notice myself getting so big, and I had always been thin.

I find it hard to eat anything off a phase 2 kind of diet. I feel best this way, but occasionally think I need to branch out back to some more normal foods.

Hopefully the skin will continue to shrink back. I bet you look great as it is. We are our own worst critics.

swimcoachmomma and bigpassport WELL DONE on stickin' to the Phase 1 day....I'll need your help after I get back from Scotland in September. I'll do my best to limit the damage but I know I'll be looking to detox, hopefully not longer then a week!

sunnymae - good for you on the 3 lbs loss!!! I can't help you with the camping sorry, don't even have any plans for camping this summer.

2ride I've actually got them on raw meat (combo of raw/dry) so I don't cook the meat for them. I do put fish flakes in it for them, I feel like I have kids as I'm trying to think of how to make it smell better. I'm ordering alpaca today, apparently it's a huge favorite for the cats, they call it alcracka they sell so much. Subject Stella is still having a rough go of 'liking' it so we'll try the alcracka sometime next week.

busymom I don't know if our body issues ever go away (although that sounds depressing) perhaps we just learn to manage them. I hear you on the bath, but I find it's a huge part of my stress relief so I'm not giving them up.

swimcoachmomma and bigpassport and Malie -- Yeah for P1 and the reboot! P1 is amazing in that it kicks that extra weight right back off!!! I was kind of discouranged about gaining the xtra weight and had not tried P1 again -- it was such a relief to know that IP does work. It's the best plan out there in my book! P2 is going well -- I remembered the absolute delight that going into P2 again brought -- real meat at lunch time!!!

Friday or Saturday morning I will go into P3 again -- and I am not so scared this time (like the first time I went through the Phases) that I will suddenly gain weight and it will all be over.

So glad that now I know that going back to reboot/reset is just part of the plan and that I can get my waist back.

Pre-ordered the new Carb Sensitive Program book -- it should be here sometime in August -- I think it will probably be coming at just the right time in Phase 4 b/c it is the carbs that help put the weight back on (along with just not paying attention to separating the fats and carbs).

Hope you all have a wonderful 4th!!! It is very, very hot here -- three more days of oppressive heat.

Anyone ever have sushi, i'm dying for sushi and having a hard time finding info. I know white sticky rice is probably best to keep for cheat day but i think the place i used to go can make it with brown rice. I also only have the cucumber one (kapa), nothing else.