Helpful Hints for the New IP Person!

A few suggestions for a new IPer...

1. A great way to get personal support for your new IP life is to have someone you know share it with you.  Invite your spouse or a close friend to join with you.  You can always use that extra encouragement and support at home!  You always sign up for a group meeting with Estelle too!  Get to know some new people in the area and gain some close friends going through the same thing as yourself.
2. When you first begin picking out your first IP products, take your IP partner and each pick different IP products that you think you'll like and then trade a few packages from each box so you get to try twice the amounts of food and you'll get to know what you like and dislike more quickly.
3. Don't forget to buy a couple of the Walden Farms products before you leave the office!  Trust me... you'll thank me later! This includes selecting at least 1-3 salad dressings you would typically use at home, pancake syrup if you are trying the IP crepes/pancakes and any specialty syrups if you like flavoured coffees (and again, trade some items with a friend to trial more product before you commit to too many items!).
4. Grab a binder and some page protectors and make your self an IP recipe binder.  Whenever you find a great recipe that youI know will be suitable for the program, you can make a copy of it and print it out for your IP Recipe Binder.  As you create each recipe, keep the recipes you like (make notes on the page = ie: "Yummy!") and throw out the ones that don't work for you!
5. Create a menu planner for your refrigerator.  I created a simple 2 day menu planner in my word processing program on my computer.  It has spaces for my IP items, my meat at supper and my IP products.  Planning your menu, even if its only for 2 days will help you get through the first stages of the program.  I slipped my planner inside a page protector, hung it on the fridge with a magnet and I write on it with a fine tipped Dry-Erase marker. Easy to wipe off and reuse time and time again.
   
6. Keep the sheet that tells you all of your select vegetables choices, your restricted vegetables and restricted IP products in a few places!  Make copies of this sheet; keep one in your purse (or photograph it with your smart phone), one on the fridge and one at your desk.  You will reference this sheet frequently for the first few weeks, especially at the grocery store!
7. Grab at the grocery store things like: fresh or dried herbs you can use (no MSG/no carbs), garlic, lemons, ginger, Tamari Sauce (like Soya Sauce), white or apple cider vinegar and some Extra Virgin Olive Oil or Grape Seed Oil.  You will need these staples on hand at all times!
8. Know that your first few weeks are going to be the hardest.  Headaches are quite common in this time period.  For relief, try an 1/8th teaspoon of your IP salt in an 8oz glass of water; drink.  This usually relieves your headache within 15 minutes or so.
9. Take the time to take BEFORE pictures.  You want to be ale to show off your comparison shots - even if it's just to family!
10. Invest in a lettuce farm, because you're going to see a LOT of it in the near future!  :)

Just a few helpful hints!!!

~ Allison ~