I started phase three last Saturday and am having a really hard time with the breakfast.... meat is not my favorite thing to eat anyway and having it at breakfast just isn't working. My morning today was very stressful. Finally I just ate several different food items and pieced together enough protein, but it took way too much energy before leaving for work. Do I need a specific protein source? Also eating 1 full cup of yogurt or milk is not easy. Everyone sounded excited to get to phase three and be able to eat real ffod again, but honestly some protein powder in my fruit/yogurt/cereal mix would be ideal.

how long am I on this phase?

I haven't done phase 3 yet, so I can't be too much help here. But from what I understand your protein does not have to come from meat. I'm pretty sure you can use egg & or egg whites just like you did in phase 1 & 2. I know someone else had posted that they are a cereal eater and they were looking for on the go type breakfasts and the suggestion was RTD shake as milk over muesli...along with the other items necessary to meet the requirements. LizzRr has posted some phase 3 breakfasts and I know there is a couple of threads out there. Maybe do a search and see what you can find. Lots of different people have done phase 3...no need to reinvent the wheel, just find something that someone else used and tweak it to fit your needs

I am on one hand looking forward to phase 3...but on the other hand I will miss the strict guidelines of phase 1 & 2...

These links should help:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/sear...archid=5375019

Good Luck

Hi, Ddpaddler. Phase 3 lasts 2 weeks. I started today and had several breakfast options planned out ahead of time.

There are lots of convenience foods you could try - precooked bacon or sausage, or egg whites in the carton.

There is a phase 3 breakfast thread here too - just do a search. If you want something that can mostly be done ahead of time LizRR had some good suggestions on that thread.

I'm starting Wednesday. I could never eat meat for breakfast - ICK!!! I am a "Continental Breakfast" fan - not into eggs or sausage either. I put together a breakfast of Kashi cereal with 2% milk, Greek non fat yogurt with banana and strawberry slices an an ounce of low fat cheese. My Coach sent it to her boss for approval and was told it was perfect.

I used Fitday to input all the foods and played around with the portions until I got the proper amounts of macronutrients. I think both Phase 3 and 4 are much less complicated than we tend to make it.

Hitting the calorie and macronutrient goals for 14 days are the most important part of Phase 3. I did it without meat for breakfast the whole time. Good or bad, my breakfast was also very close to the same thing every day (1c strawberries, 1c non-fat greek yogurt, 1/4c cooked oatmeal, 1T natural peanutbutter).

The first couple of days it tasted good, but I was stuffed. That feeling got better to the point that I felt I was actually burning off the breakfast by the end of the two weeks (maybe sooner).

Look at the portions of your cereal and yogurt to see if you can hit the 25g of protein target while still staying within the 50g carb max. It's going to depend on your cereal and yogurt brand choices.

You can use protein powder if you need to, but I would think it would be beneficial to use whole foods if you could.

The good news is, in Phase 4, you do not need to have a big breakfast if you don't want to. You can go back to a shake for breakfast or just cereal & milk or whatever works for you longterm. I still look forward to my "mixed" breakfast of carbs, protein and fat.

Just wanted to mention that the other option instead of cereal and milk is a slice of whole grain bread and natural peanut butter - YUM!! As long as the macronutrients add up you will be fine - don't think you have to use the options on the Phase 3 handout - they are simply ideas and pretty crappy ones for my taste LOL.

I did Phase 3 for almost 2 weeks and then I decided to go back tp Phase 1 and loose a couple more. For the two weeks I did it, my b-fast was:
1/2 English muffin
1 tsp of peanut butter
1/2 cup greek yogurt (fat free)
1 bananna
1 weight watchers approved string cheese
1 hard boiled egg
1/4 cup museli

Seems like a lot I realize but I added the peanut butter to the muffin with a couple slices of banna on top, sliced the rest of the bannans in the yogurt and added the museli, and enjoyed the egg and cheese on their own. It was delicious! Missing it already.

OH that's droolworthy!!! Wednesday cannot get here fast enough! Forgot all about English Muffins - great idea!!

This is almost the same as my 1st phase 3 breakfast planned for Friday, except I was planning on strawberries instead of a banana! Sounds very yummy!!

I've been on phase 3 for almost a week and love it! I combine things to get my protien and if I come up short I do egg whites. Skim milk has 8 grams of protien. I have two different sources telling me different things on raspberries but they have a lot of protien, lowfat string cheese and ricotta cheese are good as well. Oh, and my daughter told me about Fage greek yogurt - 23 g of protien!!! Add some apple slices and PB2, cinnemon and Splenda - YUM! I had to have some bread along with it but it wasn't too much!

Wow! I need to start planning my 14 P3 breakfasts now. You all have some great ideas; thank you for sharing!

CONGRATS TO YOU LIZ!

thanks to everyone for the ideas and help. I will check about the cheese, as my caoch said the only option was the veggie cheese. THe yogurt/kashi cereal and fruit combo was good and the ability to combine the proteins helps alot.

I love my whole wheat bread with peanut butter and a banana. Just make sure with measurements, servings etc. I use Smukers (sp)all natural (1 tbsp), one banana (whatever size). I'm usually below on fat and calories so sometimes I use a little more peanut butter. Love it! It's a quick on the go thing and filling! Good luck. There are tons of ideas out there. Before you know it you'll be in a great routine.

Here is another possibility for my first phase 3 breakfast on Friday...what do you all think?

2 waffles (180 cal, 5 fat, 26 carbs, 10 protein) w/ WF syrup
1 cup strawberries (49 cal, .5 fat, 11.7 carbs, 1 protein)
6 oz greek yogurt (100 cal, 0 fat, 7 carbs, 18 protein)
1 whole hard boiled egg (77 cal, 5.3 fat, .6 carbs, 6.3 protein)
.5 TBLSP Peanut butter (47 cal, 4 fat, 1.6 carbs, 2 protein)

Totals: 453 cals, 14.8 fats, 46.8 carbs, & 37.3 protein