Congrats to all on successes!!

I've been MIA lately. We've been doing a major purge and are having a big garage/yard sale on Saturday. I'm tired! Add this to the new job I started on 8/6 and this makes for a busy time! I hope all settles down soon.

Kelly: so sorry for your loss.

Hello everyone! I am new to IP and New to 3 Fat Chicks and have found it very enlightening over the last couple of days and at the same time very overwhelming. I just started IP last Thursday so everything is brand new to me. I spent most of the day Sunday, reading recipes and cooking only to realize that I can't be spending this amount of time every weekend or day on food. (Although, I will have to save that the cauliflower tortillas were great, will be making those again.) I'm sure as time goes along, it will become second hand and not be so time consuming but for now, I am concerned. I'm sure there are a ton of helpful tips somewhere on the forum for shortcuts and ideas for those with little time to focus on food but if you could point me in the right direction and save me from having to read thru a thousand replies, I would be entirely grateful!!!

Hi Babs - welcome!!
This is a great thread to get started with:
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/idea...2015-a-21.html
and another
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/idea...es-4-a-23.html

How much or how little time you want to spend on food is entirely up to you and how you want to eat / prepare what IP allows.

Some basic suggestions:
Frozen (plain) veggies are fine
Salads are quick and easy
Portioning and making all your dinner protein for the week at once (ie, chicken breasts or pork chops) saves a ton of time
Find a couple staple recipes you like and could eat for a couple days that are easy to fix (a personal favorite is "Green Chili Pork" - about a 1/2 hour start to finish and gives me approx. a week worth of meals)
The crock pot is your friend

Thanks for the quotes Lisa. Just what I needed today!

Hi All,

I posted this on the alternatives thread as well. I'm in a bit of a stall and looking at everything closely. Have been using the Quest Choc Chip Cookie Dough bars as a restricted. Does this fit with Phase 1? I thought so, based on the ingredients, but maybe it's iffy...? Love to hear your thoughts!

I hate to cook. I'm a heat-and-eat kind of girl. All the IP recipes that require grating and mashing and spiralizing are not for me.

So I buy chicken breast fillets and fish fillets which are easy to bake or pan fry. I have Big Mac in a Bowl at least once a week - easy and quick. Pork chops are easy to broil. Walden Farms makes a pretty good barbecue sauce if you want to dress up your meat choices a little bit.

I mostly steam my veggies, in the microwave. I also keep a big container of rhubarb compote made up the fridge for when I don't feel like cooking.

Babs I am the same as Here I Stand - I'm crazy simple, I don't even like using pans or heating things if possible.
I was on P1 for a year and pretty much ate the same thing every day - I did all of my prep once a week, shopping took about an hour and prep took about 2 hours. I put cut veggies in baggies (I also put the leafy veg in baggies) and made enough ground beef and chicken breast for the week.
I ate the IP chips for one of my meals so I didn't have to heat anything. In the winter sometimes I had a soup instead.

Easy breezy.

Babs, I'm the same as HereIstand and Grateful4Health, I'm not into real cooking. I pick a handful of things that I like to eat and pretty much eat the same thing on the week days. I'm a little more adventurous on the weekends but not too much. I do make a spaghetti once a week using zucchini as the pasta and the ground turkey mixed in some no sugar added pasta sauce. I love the one from costco.
Keep on these threads, they're a great source of info. Good Luck!

Hello Ladies I started IP Lat year March and phased out because of medical reasons and gain pounds since.
I re-start on Monday August 17th......starting is hard i little headache and nausea here and there...but I love the result at the end.

Babs - Welcome. Hope you'll find lots of ideas here.
I know there's a LOT of information, but if you go back to the first post in this thread, there are 2 links that are a great place to start:

Fun with Ideal Protein Packets - you may get tired pretty quickly of using the packets by themselves, there are some great (and easy) ideas here for using them for muffins, bread, etc. I know I really missed bread-type foods when I started, and these are a good subst

Also,
Fun with Veggie purees - I find lunch challenging sometimes, salads are always good, of course, but I like to make up some of the veggie purees (big batches, portion out and freeze), then use them for soup (puree + chicken stock) - makes an easy lunch and gets your vegetables in.

Nas145 - Welcome back, sorry to hear you had to stop, but good for you for getting right back to it when you could. You can do it this time

My hubby cooks and I don't, but he also travels. So he ends up making a lot of crockpot soups or crockpot pulled pork or chicken, and it makes a bunch of servings that I freeze and heat up for dinner when he's out of town. The soups are pretty simple...broth, vegies, meat. I also take frozen, steam-in bag vegies to work.

Evening All!

I wanted to check in with you all since I've been struggling quietly for about a month now. After trying to get back on IP but lacking the wilpower to do so for the past month, I've decided to try maintaining for awhile.

I know myself very well and I know that I'm tuckered out. If I continue trying to stay on IP, I'm just going to beat myself up when I backslide, and I'm going to be terrible in my backsliding to "make it worth it". However, the last 6 months has made me very aware of the habits that made me obese in the first place, and given me the tools to maintain effectively. I spent all of phase 1 planning how I would eat when I began maintaining, and I know I'm ready to put those plans into action.

I lost 50 pounds, and I'm super proud of myself. I'm going to maintain this weight for a few months, then get back on IP to drop the last 25 pounds I need to lose. But I'm going to do it when I'm ready to be successful.

Before photos are from last year, what I weighed about 15 pounds less than I was when I started IP. After photo is today just before I hit the gym. Because I'm one of those people that goes to the gym now.

Shark that’s amazing.
Maybe check out the book “Refuse to Regain” if you haven’t already.
If you can maintain where you are for a while, or even the rest of your life, statistically it’s a HUGE success, huge.
I hope you check in from time to time.
We have all had similar plateaus, there are lots of good reasons to take them.
I love your pictures, have never seen you in person! You look fantastic and healthy. Yay for you.

Thanks Amber! I remember heading good things about that book here, I'll definitely check it out.

I'm FEELING healthy, which is the best part. It really feels like I've put a great investment into myself, and I feel so much more confident having done so.

I think I'm most excited to cook less. I was getting so burnt out from cooking every meal, it was just a major drag at the end. I'm packing super easy, healthy meals for breakfast, lunch and snacks, and then using MFP to pick up dinner that is within my caloric/fat range. Tonight is Baja Fresh night! I have to replace salad dressing with salsa to make it doable, but still... BAJA FRESH!

God. Who knew I'd be picking up Baja Fresh and NOT feel guilty about it?

Shark I'm so happy for you. I think you will like that book.

Maybe this is your accurate weight, you will find out.
I have had to really work "what is my goal weight" this last 6 months. I'm letting myself have two years to really land in to maintenance. As long as I stay within my healthy range, I know I'm OK.
I am doing a mini reboot of P1 now, but I wouldn't have been ready or able to do it until now.