Hello again everyone,
I'm back with an update and a few questions. I weighed in on Sunday and I'm down 22.8 lbs in 28 days. So far so good! More important to me was the inches lost.
But the past few days I've noticed a few things and maybe some IP vets can help out. So here we go:
-How soon did you start taking Floralax, if at all? I've noticed that my "movements" haven't been as regular or as easy as they were in the beginning.
-Could my choices in veggies have something to do with that? I eat broccoli, bell peppers, cucumber, celery and mushrooms quite often. In the first two weeks I ate lots of spinach so I'm going to try to go back to that.
-What veggies do you like and find are the most effective?
-What allowed veggies have you found you tend to stay away from?
-My coach noticed a large drop in my lean mass and asked that I start taking more protein, so something like an egg with my first IP packet of the day, in addition to my allowed 8 oz later. Anyone else experience this or have success with switching it up? I'm worried about stalling.

Thanks in advance!

Hlrd Congrats on your success!
Re your question...About halfway through P1, I needed help with constipation. It went away once I reached my goal and ate normal calories. (I did IP in 2013 for 7 months). Imo,your veggies sound fine, and it's just a side effect of the diet. I used Smooth Moves tea and that got me through it, no problem stopping it after phase off.

Veggies: I ate a big salad everyday. In hindsight, I would have had 2 salads of the free veggies, for bulk. I think your idea to include spinach is a good one, maybe a second salad of lettuce and free vegs (Sorry, I'm not current with P1 protocol--I'm suggesting the ones that are allowed in addition to the 4 cups).
My go-to veggies were broccoli & cauliflower, mostly the broccoli because it is nutrient-dense. I loved steamed broccoli added to IP chicken soup.
I didn't avoid any allowed veggie in particular, just stuck to what was super easy without thinking too much. But there are all sorts of good ideas & recipes if you search the forums here, to keep it interesting. I need my food to be not too interesting or I just want to eat more . I doubt any particular veg will matter to weight loss if you are choosing the ones on the list and measuring correctly. Looks like what you are doing is working quite well!

Re stalls: I would not worry about stalling by adding the egg white. Keep in mind that as your weight drops, your scale losses will be smaller too. A week or two of same weight does not equal a stall. Sometimes a week with little or no weight loss is also the week that you notice the biggest change in your shape.
Another thing re stalls that is counter intuitive...the diet is so low in calories that the body can react by slowing weight loss. My coach would sometimes advise people to add a packet to get out of a stall, and it worked.

Keep up the great work! Look forward to reading your progress. The forum here has gotten quiet but it picks up now & then.

holy god that is amazing losses!

Hlrd - I have done IP a couple of times. The first time I did it, I did it with a coach, did exactly what they said so didn't bother tracking or anything. I had great success. But, to be honest with you, I only ate 2 cups of vegetables a day most days and hardly ever added salads. I just found having vegetables at lunch to be inconvenient so only had 2 cups at dinner. I also did not use any restricted items throughout 5-6 months I did IP P1. I got to my lowest size ever even though I was 5 pounds heavier than my lowest.

I have done reboots with alternatives as well as with IP foods. I have also done it with 4 cups of vegetables and salads and my losses have been identical to the first time. The constant has been that I have never had restricted items - I don't know if they matter.

The first time I did IP, I was boring with my vegetables - broccoli mainly. And, I think occasionally asparagus and zucchini. I do not like raw vegetables of any type so I would never have any in salads or anything like that. Subsequent times doing this, cauliflower has become a huge staple - basically I have swapped broccoli for cauliflower and have either spinach or kale every day. I am still usually doing 2 cups of vegetables a day. I have had cabbage steaks as well as zucchini apples along with rhubarb compote. I have had jicama too. The cabbage and jicama I have only had a handful of times. zucchini and rhubard are my go to items when I am craving a dessert - those are the days that I go to 4 cups of vegetables. Asparagus is now part of my rotation too. All of this to say I have not noticed any changes now depending upon vegetable selection. And, I track like I have severe OCD :-) so I am pretty much on top of this.

Bottom line is that I wouldn't worry about stalls due to vegetables. If I were you, I may want to count my protein. A drop in lean mass is not good but I wonder if that is truly accurate. You should have about 100 grams of protein a day so I would say calculate and compare your typical day's protein to that and adjust accordingly.

Hi Hlrd: Drops in lean mass do not always mean drops in simply muscle.... Your body is reconfiguring after the big loss you've had and it needs to get rid of the excess connective tissue, and accompanying neuro and vascular support systems for the fat you are losing. I wouldn't worry too much about it. It's called autophagy and it was the Nobel prize winner for Science this year. "Autophagy is a normal physiological process in the body that deals with destruction of cells in the body. It maintains homeostasis or normal functioning by protein degradation and turnover of the destroyed cell organelles for new cell formation. During cellular stress the process of Autophagy is upscaled and increased. Autophagy degrades damaged organelles, cell membranes and proteins, and the failure of autophagy is thought to be one of the main reasons for the accumulation of cell damage and aging."
A bit of extra protein won't hurt you either, so if you feel like it, go for it.

Remember that a gazelle doesn't need the same muscle mass as a rhino, it's the overall percentage of muscle/bone/other lean tissue compared to percentage of fat that counts. BTW, rhinos aren't fat either, they just need more muscle mass for their frame size

Liana

One of my papers says Important 1 choice from each 3 groups must be consumed per day. In these groups are toast, fruit, milk. Another paper says not allowed in phase 1 & 2 and it says bread, dairy, etc. which is correct if I am just starting the program?

If you were told to have a piece of bread, an ounce of cheese or a piece of fruit then chances are you are doing a modified Phase 1 of I.P. because you have a condition. My husband has diabetes and needs to do a modified Phase 1, and one of these foods per day, keeps him stable and just on the edge of ketosis, allowing the weight loss.

However, I am not allowed any of these, as I am on the traditional plan (which is the other paper you were talking about!)