Don't feel bad that you can't eat your veggies, I have a cousin on the program now for 6 weeks and he doesn't like to eat veggies at all. The only thing it did to him was make him constipated for after about 4 week's in. He is now just starting to eat veggies, finally found something that he can manage to get into him. I'm no doctor but I do believe the main purpose of the veggies is to keep your regular.

Hopefully you feel better soon!!

Hi there. I can't answer your questions, as I'm still very new, but I am also taking effexor while on the IP diet. If I miss two days of effexor I get the WORST headache!! Hope you start feeling better!!

Start out just sauteeing everything! It makes 2 cups look a LOT smaller! My favorite at first, when I was really having trouble, was sauteeing 1.5 cups of kale with half cup of cucumber or zucchini in 1 tsp EVOO and a little water, garlic powder.

It's not the greatest, but it's decent, and the kale shrinks a lot, so it makes the 2 cups more manageable.

You'll find a veggie or 2 here and there that you can tolerate more than others. Then you'll discover different ways to cook them, different spices to add to make them taste better. Before you know it, 4 cups a day of veggies is no problem!

PS. Sauteing 2 cups of veggies in lean ground beef is really simple and tastes great for dinner!

No kidding! The only time I cooked before IP is when I had instructions in front of me, which was MAYBE once a week. :P In order to prevent myself from getting too sick of veggies, I forced myself to experiment. Everything has turned out well so far, except for the sauteed mustard greens with garlic and cayenne pepper. Youch! I would've done better to look up what goes well with mustard greens before I did that....

Try the recipe thread. Big Mac in a bowl seems very popular and you can have pickles as your veg.

Found it! I can't wait to try it. Any ideas how to make it without the WF Thousand Island?

Use mustard!! It still tastes great, like a burger.

when I don't feel like eating my veggies I make kale chips. 2 cups of kale shrink A LOT and I have no problem eating them at their new shrunken size! Besides they taste amazing! Sometimes I make 2 batches because my fiance and daughter both gobble them up.

It's funny, I had never even thought of these things before, especially as a snack.....but all of a sudden, I'm seeing them in health and whole foods stores in bags! It must be a fairly new product as most places have them in a stand off the shelves, like they're promoting them. Wouldn't it be awesome if good ol' IP helped to get these being offered in stores? Of course, it's a lot cheaper to make them yourself and you're guaranteed what's in them but it might be a good option when you don't have the time yourself.

As some of the others have said on here, there are tons of recipes offered on this site, and others, so experiment and have fun. So many different ways to do stir fry and with different meats or bases. Good luck.....this diet rocks!

Hugs,

Mary

I've never heard of this diet, i'll have to check it out. Can someone tell me what the basics of it are please Tying to lose weight for my mother-in-law's suprise pool party in July and the date is RAPIDLY approching..lol

Ok---the basics as I understand them....

You find an IP center near you and get a coach. You buy IP products and essentially live off of them (B, L and a snack) and veggies with the exception of one meal a day where you are allowed 5-8oz of meat, chicken, or fish and veggies. You have to take supplements (you buy them from your coach). This is a low carb, very low calorie diet. ((it is pricey---for me it works out to about $415 US a month including supplements) It requires a great deal of discipline, but the weight (for many) comes off FAST). If you are looking for an easy "lifestyle change" this is not it. If you cheat (AT ALL) you pay for it. Because of the expense, some people use alternative products and get good results---you can search the forums for info on that. You also are supposed to drink at least 64 oz of water per day but that varies by coach--some say half your body weight in oz).

That's pretty much it. This is a SUPER supportive forum. If you decide to do it, this is a GREAT place to get help! Cheers!