So it's official and I'm now in Phase 4 or what IP'ers call 'maintenance'. That means I'm at the point where I eat this way for the rest of my life AND I must incorporate exercise into it as well. I will be eating relatively clean most days and then attempting to go onto phase 1 after a binge or 'fun' day and once a year I fine tune my diet by going back into phase 1 for 2-4 weeks. Most people choose to do it in January after the holidays. It makes sense since that's when most people indulge in sweets/carbs the most.
I lost .2 lb of fat last week on my last week of Phase 3 but no inches. I was eating quite a bit: breakfast was huge. I almost found it to be too much but it's the only way you can get your pancreas to readjust without a lot of weight gain and shock. So breakfast is carb (like oatmeal, cereal or bread), protein (eggs), fat (butter, a piece of bacon), and fruit (another carb) like berries. If you saw my breakfast tray (and yes, I use a tray because I have so many cups or ramekins and plates for all my food!) you'd be overwhelmed. It's a lot of food but it really is necessary to eat. Lunch and dinner are still 'clean' but you separate fats from carbs. So the idea would be to eat protein and fats with one meal and protein and carbs with the other. It's a very European way of eating which makes sense since the founder of this plan is French. Yes, one will end up eating fats and carbs together occasionally (Like I DID last night!) but you eat super clean (phase 1 or a version there of) the next day and drink lots of water to get all that stuff flushed out.
Because this whole weekend was a huge celebration, I ended up using Sunday as my big cheat day (my first day on phase 4 too!). I was shocked at how easy it was to eat the forbidden foods. I really thought my body would say STOP! Guess what.... it doesn't right away. It will later on....when your belly is distended or your intestines get mad or however your body responds to these kinds of foods.
I ended up gaining 2 lbs from yesterday BUT I also know I hardly had any water so I just need to eat clean today and flush it out and also do my planned exercise. It will be gone by tomorrow if I follow the plan.
So yesterday's brunch was a breakfast casserole, spinach frittata, fresh fruit and mimosas. Now I haven't had alcohol (other than a sip of wine at Church) in 9 months so this was a little scary for me. I ended up not having one reaction to the sparkling wine so it seems watered down alcohol (and one glass) is enough for me. I don't want to tempt my body into taking all this sugar and gaining all these pounds back so that will be a rare indulgence. The rest of the breakfast was actually on task for a normal meal. I didn't have much dairy though. I had a quest bar in the afternoon but no veggies. For dinner, Mark and I went to one my goal restaurants (Azteca) for Mexican food. I have 3 places I said I wanted to go after I reached goal so this was one of my big rewards. I ended up with carne asada, shrimp with rice and beans. Yes, I indulged in chips for the first time too. I ended up eating probably about 15 chips. YES, I COUNTED. I really wanted to enjoy the texture and taste and I did. That kind of scared me that I kept wanting more. I let myself have some fun there but after that I realized that beans and rice were coming (which I also haven't had in almost a year) so I stopped. The shrimp and beef were fab....I knew that was okay to eat so I enjoyed that. The beans were also an awesome treat. Super fatty but yummy. The rice....well, that tasted good but I found myself kind of shying away from it. I realized that rice really isn't a big deal for me (this is the Asian girl talking too!) and I can live without it. I also did not take any tortillas so that I could justify the chips and rice. I still feel bloated today because of it but I have no regrets. I enjoyed the taste and texture of everything. The thing is, your brain, your memory, your senses will NOT stop you from eating unless you consciously make the decision to eat only a specific amount. Your body will pay for it the next day so you have to remember that. The chips about drove me crazy because I did want a lot BUT I told myself I could have only so many. When the main course arrived I told myself to have only a couple of spoonfuls of rice since the chip quota was exceeded. That actually worked for me.
So now today is a phase 1 day and I will drink a ton of water. I don't expect to lose all 2 lbs today but I know I will lose it within a few days. The body will work with you if you feed it right. I'm prepping to make Wheat Belly (low carb/higher protein) foods and mostly sugar free treats from now on. Mark needs to lose about 50 lbs and we really can't afford to put him on IP right now so I'm going to just change the daily diet to make it work for the two of us. I know that he'll lose weight much faster (guys are lucky that way!) so I hope to have him at least 25-30 lbs down in 8 weeks.
I don't intend to stop blogging about this..... It is an ongoing program for me for life and I need to be able to see the progress (both forward and backward) so I can see the patterns and stop bad habits from forming. I'm really proud of what I've accomplished and will continue to learn and adjust my ways. Now that exercise MUST be a big part of my maintenance I am looking forward to running and biking. I'm going to get started on that shortly..... I still have another 10 lbs I'd like to lose but it will be more of a fat loss/muscle gain kind of thing so the actual weight may not change and it will be more of an inches kind of thing!
I'll be posting regularly...hopefully at least every few days! Thanks for staying on the journey with me!
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