Holy cow, that's amazing and you look great! I want to know all your secrets!!

Busymom4- You look amazing! You should be very proud of yourself! Thank you for sharing, what an inspiration!!

Thank you. No secret, followed the IP protocol 100% and not one cheat. I did continue to cook for my family (4 kiddos) and made dessert, bday cakes but never gave in.

And I drank lots of water (about 4l a day).

Thanks for keeping the thread going, everyone!

I hit the 25lbs down mark today... so I'm 1/4 of the way to hitting the infamous 100lbs after just 6 weeks. Looking forward to conversing with you all along the rest of the way!

New Question: With 100lb+ goals, how often are you doing/planning to do the cleanse, if at all? (Or for those that have lost 100lbs plus, how often did you do it?)

Woo Hoo on hitting the 25 mark

No idea what the cleanse is....

25% in 6 weeks - that's awesome!

I have seen references to the cleanse in postings here, but did not hear anything about it from my coach. What is it?

Congratulations Busymom! You are doing really well and you look so healthy and fabulous! Your starting and ending weight are exactly the same as mine LOL so it is nice to see your progress and that you have been maintaining it through hard work!

Wahoofan: Thanks for weighing in! I call it a cheat because it is not 100% OP. LOL but you are right that "cheat" gives it a negative connotation that isn't really what I intend.

For me, I want to be 100% OP except for times that I choose. This plan is SO EASY for me and I really don't feel deprived at all. I have been to baby showers, birthday parties (including big milestone birthday parties), and other events that had really yummy looking off plan food (creamy pasta ) and multiple kinds of desserts and I wasn't tempted at all to eat any of it. Part of this is that I am really not a sweets person so they don't tempt me...even when I am not on IP. But I like the progress that I am making and since the diet hasn't been hard, there is no reason why I shouldn't stay on it. I'm not going to spurge on special occasions but there are times that I will choose to have something off plan for a specific reason. I feel like if it is a choice, then I am still in control even if what I am eating is off plan. I plan to stay OP for Thanksgiving and Christmas. For right now, I am only choosing to eat off plan for my NYE sushi and champagne. After that, there really isn't anything that is that important for me to be off plan for I don't think so I choose to be 100% unless I have health reasons like Lisa to change things up.

I know for sure that I will never be able to add pasta back into my diet. Healthy carbs yes, pasta no. I just can't control myself with it. Seriously...it is scary. I'm fine with that. It is no different than being an alcoholic and saying that you just can't have any alcohol. Other than that, I am really going to focus my effort in P2 and P3 to learning how to successfully maintain. I feel good that I can do it. As long as I don't eat any pasta. LOL

FYI, i never did the cleanse

The consensus on these boards is that the Novi-Cleanse was a money-grab by IP.

I don't see the product listed on IP sites anymore. It may have been discontinued. It used to be listed on the P1 sheet. It is not anymore.

busymomx4 What a stunning transformation. Congratulations.

whirly_girly Quarter of the way already? That's some good going, keep up the stellar habits and you'll soon be there!

I see a break in the rain, I'm off for my walk (hoping I can drag DH away from his computer game for 30 minutes).

I want to keep this thread on the front page - so here is a question for today.

When did you and/or others first see a difference in how you look?

As of today, I am down about 32 pounds in about 2 months - thats close to 12% of my beginning weight. My biggest clothes are too big, but the next "set" down (larger 1x and some smaller 2x) doesn't look that much different. So far, only my coach and a good friend (who knows I am doing IP) have commented on any change. When I try on clothes, i can feel a difference, but when I look in the mirror, I can't see it. At this point, I feel better enough that I don't really need the external validation, I am just curious....

The first few months, only my husband and one friend knew what I was doing and they commented from the beginning. My first comment from someone else didn't come until the day I hit 40 lbs lost. When I got a dramatically different hair cut at 80-something lbs lost is when the comments/compliments really started rolling in - from friends, acquaintances and people I just bump into occasionally. Yesterday a school bus driver at my children's school came up to me while I was waiting in my car for school to get out and complimented me! I've never met him before (my husband thinks it was weird, I think it was sweet!).

Great Question...At almost 40 down, I get very few compliments...Not sure if that is because I am still wearing clothes that are too big most of the time or what. Of Course my husband, mom and son the only 3 that really know what I am doing compliment me all the time....
As far as body image, I always suffer with this! I do notice a difference sometimes when I catch myself in the mirror and of course I look at myself in wonder when the next size down fits! LOL then I look in the mirror and say damn I am losing weight!

Any time you get a "nice hair, you must have done something with your hair" (and you haven't for weeks) take that as a you look good comment = weight loss. It's hard for people to know what has changed when we have so much to lose. It's taken me around 70 lbs before people really realized what was happening that didn't know already. Before then it was "nice hair"starting around 40 lbs down. Then again I am looking at losing 170 before this is all done.
Clothing sizes take a lot longer to switch at the high end sizes than it does at the low end. Although I would imagine your body shape really makes a huge difference there.

It is hard to say when a difference was seen as each person I encountered may have noticed at various time and some just did not know how to comment without having to worry offending.

I know that it was generally about 50 pounds because that is when the weight finally started to leave my face since it seemed to have spent most of the earlier stages leaving my bust!

It has been a bit since I passed the 100 pound loss mark and that has been a real issue for me. I see so much change that I am getting cocky and complacent - it looks so good compared to where I had been at nearly 300 pounds that I face some emotional hurdles.

But I am in it to win so I am back to 100% but have faced some really defiantly bad days. Diet fatigue, rebellion, stress? Do not know but it is a much harder fight that getting the 100+ pounds off.