I love the SP program exactly because I don't have to worry about the fats any more. The other night a friend and my husband and I put together a French dinner that was mostly made of cream... We had a goat cheese tart for appetizers, poached sole in cream and swiss cheese for entree and creme brulle for dessert. It was not exactly low-low carb, but it wasn't terribly out of the ball park. I loved eating all this good stuff without feeling guilty!
So far I have been following the SP for almost 5 weeks. I still haven't lost any weight, but at least 4 inches off my belly and it just keeps going down, so I am very happy.
I don't find it austere at all, I love aeting meats and vegetables and some fruit. I use Splenda occasionally to sweeten cottage cheese for snack. I found the Stevia was actually tasting bitter to me.
Well, I am just rambeling now, so I will stop.
Take care everyone,
Panni

By austere I didn't mean we were deprived of any thing in the fat area. I guess I used the wrong word. But on SP you must use cold pressed oils and no artificial sweetners. I find that one a little tough. I don't need a lot of sweetners in my food. Bu t for example, I want to make a cheesecake for my birthday this week. This is not allowed on SP unless you can get stevia to work right. i havn't had much luck. In the world of making the best choice for the situation I belive I can do my cheesecake by using Splenda. Not kosher with SP but perfectly ok and even encouraged on Atkins. Your dinner sounds positively yummy. Creme Brulee is great and can easily be made legal. Tarts are great too. Just don't eat the crust. Your meal was a perfect example of being able to make the lifestyle workable. 29 days out of the month i can live with no sweetners and 99% of SP rules. but once in a while a splurge is in order. It is part of what makes life good.

Bon Appetite.

Actually, for me the "austere" rules of SP come in very handy. I didn't even know I needed to watch out for those things until I read her book. But, it so happens that I have Hepatitis C and I am pretty sure that following SP really strictly will be very nice to my liver. I am also just going to start treatment in April and I hope very much that eating the SP way will somehow help me through it and support the process. So now I buy only hormone free meats and eggs, found all the organic dairy products that contain nothing else but the dairy ingredients etc. I am sure if I didn't have this condition I also wouldn't worry about these things too much...
Panni

HI Everybody,
I haven't posted here in a very long time. I got busy working and ..... well, you know.
I have read many posts just to get caught up and it seems that compared to lots of you I have been doing this a long time. I started on Schwarzbein almost 2 years ago!!!!
I started with Somersizing and read DS intro to Somers' book and switched over. I was losing rapidly with Somersizing but felt weak and was constantly hungry. My exercise which had been almost daily walking for about a year dropped to almost nothing due to weakness and I was too busy planning meals. Then when I switched to SP my loss slowed down but my energy level went right back up. I have continued to watch my carbs and hardly go over 15 per meal but the sugar snacks at work have crept in and I have had some really bad months. In total I gained back about 9 pounds from my lowest weight and that has gone up and down the same 4 or 5 pounds a million times. I feel best eating this way except I need to lose the sugar so I can lose the guilt about eating it. I still cook no carb meals for breakfast and dinner most days of the week but lunch always has carbs as does my night time snack.
Anyway, it's good to be back and I will try to post from time to time.

Hi all, I just thought I would introduce myself. I just found this bd. via a poster on the Somersizing bd. I discovered "TSP" thru Suzanne Somer's books, of which I am very grateful!

I started last year about February trying to shed my extra 30 lbs.(wanted to reach goal before my 50th birthday ~ last Sept.) and made good use of the net. First I tried calorie counting, then Atkins, and then Somersizing level 1, which worked for the first 3 months then I plateaued but stuck with it and started noticing hair loss so decided to not be so strict. I then followed more of a Sugar Busters approach and decided to read "TSP"(The Schwarzbein Principle) again and have been trying to follow that. It is working for both my hair regrowth, energy, and I am beginning to lose again very slowly but losing! I have heard that slow loss is the most likely to stay that way.

I am looking forward to reading all the posts and sharing support of this plan with all, I have found support boards to be very helpful in sticking with a plan and so glad to find fellow Schwarzbeiners(?)"TSP ers" (?) are thereany abbreviations for this ?

My story is similar except I have not tried Somersizing. I too tried losing for my 50th in September but unlike you, I didn't lose much and what I lost I gained back in the birthday celebrations and beyond!!

My hair loss is still with me, but I have learnt not to worry about it. It seems to improve in summer and now I am back on this WOE I hope that like yours, it starts returning.

I have lost 1.5 lbs since starting 10 days ago but like DebPenny, I now think the improvement in health is worth more than the weight loss.

Good luck
Judy

On the hair loss,pulled out all stops so to speak along with what I feel is the healthiest diet I could find ~"TSP" ~ I started taking all the supplements that are supposed to help in addition to the 'Dr. Art Ulene's pkt. for women(which has borage oil and chronium)', I added evening primrose/saw palmetto/soy lecithin/Kwai garlic tablets(2 daily)/ and a supplement for hair health (making sure that my total vitamin A wasn't more than 15,000 daily) If you take any medications you want to make sure none of these supplements or herbs would interfere those(ask a Dr. or pharmacist) of course.

I also bought the gentlest shampoos (Jason brand with biotin is real good) I could find and started using a low amonia type of hair color. I am also looking into Silica (sp?) as a supplement ~ it is supposed to help and be good in hair care products. The net is wonderful for finding info on these things, of course then one has to make personal decisions as to what is best for them. Something of all that I tried seemed to help.

I am losing very slowly but have been losing. I am going to start averaging my daily weight like suggested in the Heller's bks., 'Carbo Addicts'. Weighing at the same time every morning then averaging it once a week or so ,that way you see even small loses. I think I have been losing about 1/2 lb. every cpl. weeks or so ~that isn't much by some standards ~ but I would rather go down than up at that rate.

Like you said Judy the improvement in health is very important. In the past I tried crazy diets that zap your energy and health, which eventually takes it toll on looks, etc. With Dr S's plan you build health along with gaining control on cravings.

Hi ladies!
Glad to have found this site. i too found it from the Somersizing forum. i originally started with Atkins last summer and lost 18 pounds. then of course, gained some back over the holidays. started somersizing in the fall, enjoyed the addition of carbs and fruit, but only lost what i had gained. SO.....all that to say, i am ready to begin TSP. yesterday was my first day, and i was amazed at how long i was satisfied after my meal. on SS i was hungry again in 2-3 hours. yesterday it 5 1/2 hours TWICE! yeah!!!!!

question: is it ok to start my day with a snack, and then have breakfast late? i work 2nd shift and need to eat bigger meals later. what about an extra snack/ and no dinner? thanks for any input. looking forward to feeling WAY more energy!!!!!

keep on keeping in!

I am certainly not an expert, but my 2 cents worth on your question would be that any WOE/WOL (way of eating/life) has to be made *just that* ~ *your* WOL. One has to adjust meals and snacks to you own schedule to work.

I was surprised also at how my satisfaction level lasted longer between meals when I stopped 'food combining' and started TSP meals! I do not mind portion control either as whole/real foods are so filling anyway. Also eating fruit regularly helps keep me from having desserts call my name as much. I think the food combining of Somersizing may help a lot of people who have digestive problems (produce too much acid or?) but I never had that.

Hello to Everyone:

Glad to see this thread was revived, gives me a chance to introduce myself!

I've been doing TSP since January. I'm a vegetarian so it seemed the most vegetarian-friendly program I could find. Pre-low-carb, I started out at 195 and lost about 70 lbs altogether from low-fat diets (read: starvation and food obsession!). Then of course came the inevitable gain. I knew I wasn't doing healthy things to my body, and I was looking for a program that made sense and would give me more energy.

As others have mentioned, I don't think I've lost a whole lot of weight (I keep away from the scale), but I've definitely noticed a difference in inches. It was really hard in the beginning, but now it's gotten much easier. Although I have plenty of weight to lose, I'm more interested in the health benefits and especially, the lift in energy and the improvement with PMS symptoms.

Kimberlina: I do what you do in the morning. Because I wake up so early and have to rush off to work, I have a snack (usually cottage cheese and vegetables) and have my breakfast later at work. It works out well for me.

Hope other lurkers will post to this thread!

Tal

Hi everyone, I am new here and new to the SP approach. I read the book last weekend and have been following it most of the past week.
I have a strong family history of diabetes and 4X the normal amount of insulin for my age, so it's pretty obvious that I'm well along the way towards that condition. I also am recovering from CFIDS, which made me very inactive for several years (could not walk 1/2 block without resting) so I am very unfit. My doctor has prescribed Glucophage to reduce insulin but I'd rather try this approach for awhile. She doesn't object to Atkins (but I do - no way I could follow it!) so I'm going to try this for awhile and get another insulin reading to see if it's any lower as a result.
What I've noticed so far is that I get FULL on this food! And I stay feeling full for much longer. I love carbs of every kind, with a weakness for good breads and bakery items, so that's a bit hard but I hope the cravings will diminish. I tried the Zone diet a few years ago, lost 15 lbs but found it boring and hated calculating the contents of every meal. Gained the weight back instantly. Lost 15 lbs last summer counting calories and walking, kept it off until I quit smoking in December when I gained back 8 lbs. I'm not calculating my carb intake now, just strictly avoiding any grain products and almost all starchy vegetables, as well as being very careful not to eat bad fats. It's weird to eat things like nuts and full-fat cottage cheese again!
I would love to exchange recipes or recipe resources with folks here. Also I have yet to check out all the features available on this site... I'd welcome any direction from more experienced folks on how to make full use of SP or this site. Thanks!
Wren

Welcome aboard, the waters fine and drink plenty of it. This site has a ton of great recipes, but be careful because SP has a lot of rules that I know you are becoming aware of. SP cook book is wonderful. Check it out. I find keeping it simple has been the best aproach for me. The less time spent with food the better. But you do need to be prepared. I sometimes cook a lot at once and just have to reheat when hungry.

One more example of how different things work for different people: Another method is to keep standard ingredients available and ready to use. I use a lot of chopped onions and sliced mushrooms. So I keep them cut up in plastic containers in my refrigerator. When I run out, I just chop up a bunch more. I also keep cut up broccoli and zucchini in the refrigerator.

I also keep single-serving portions of chicken, steak and pork in the freezer, so all I have to do is pull out the number of servings I want to cook.

I finally realized when I started this program that one of my problems is leftovers, I don't like them. So if I cook more than I need, I either eat all the portions at once (or used to with high carb ) or throw them away.

I have been developing for myself a lot of single serving one-pot dishes (I'm single and live alone). This has helped me a lot.

;-Deb

It is so true that different things work for different people. Don't be afraid to experiment and question so you can find your own way to success.

Hi Everyone..

Back from a great vacation. Enjoyed catching up on the recent postings. Some of the posts happened to touch on a subject I'm finding a bit confusing. I read Suzanne Somers' book and found that it was very close to the SP(understandably). It appears from many posts that people have tried both WOE styles with mixed results.

Is there any compromise to both of these methods? Does a person follow one over the other? How long do you follow one till you decide to switch over? Whole milk or non-fat milk? Nuts or no nuts???

Eckkk......my head is swimming!

Please...can someone get me back on track??????

Carrot