Show Note Links:
Arleen's Experience with:
the P3toLife Program During Phase 3 of the hCG Protocol
Can you give us an introduction about yourself? Basics: (age, height, menopause? any medical details you feel are important- ie thyroid etc).
I started P2 a little over 170lbs and now I’m at 155lbs. I’m 5'7''.
This is my 4th round. It took me 2 times to lose to go down this weight and then I’ve gained and then I’ve lost and so forth.
I am a very active and outdoorsy person, we live on a lake so we go on a boat all the time and stuff. I play competitive tennis and I eat pretty healthy. Tried everything but not losing weight.
I do eat pretty healthy and I try not to eat too many carbs. I’m over 50 and I guess everything slows down at this age but still there’s no other way for me to lose weight. I’ve tried everything and I just don’t lose weight.
What ended up making you decide to try out the Phase 3 to Life program?
I’ve been watching your Phase 2 program- going online and reading it. This time, I want to do it seriously. I bought your Phase 2 Workbook. And I think the hardest part is the stabilizing. The being on the organized part where you can always eat 5 different food is pretty easy because that’s all you can eat. But when it becomes you have many more choices- what do you do?
Your P3toLife program came out a week or 2 before I started Phase 3. So it’s great for me to look through it. You’re the first program that has this.
What did the P3 program provide to you that you feel like you didn't have before without it in past Phase 3s?
I entered Phase 3 with a great ease because I’ve looked at your coaching videos and meals in your P3toLife site. It made me not afraid to be done with the Phase 2 of hCG. I was almost excited because I thought "Oh look at all these great food I can eat and it’s okay to eat this food." So it made me excited.
The total opposite of how I was every other time which was scared. You’re scared of what do I eat the first day, what do I eat the first week? Can I just keep eating slices of chicken breast for the rest of my life?
You got all this great menus and meals. I was like this is relaxing! this is exciting! I was looking forward to getting off of hCG and starting to eat and knowing that I’m not going to blow everything.
How did you end up following the program - did you do the original plan, the simplified, or build your own meal plan or just tweaks to one of these? Can you give a few details of how you utilized the program and tailored it to yourself and your circumstances?
I mostly did the original plan or your Phase 3 program. I followed that almost 100%. I did travel during the time so when I travel I just made ahead of the meals and pre-portioned them. My husband’s doing it with me so I made one serving for each of us for the amount of time we were out. Sometimes we were just out a whole day so I make sure the mug muffins and everything are set and ready. I ate out at a restaurant maybe twice the whole time so I try to be really strict on what your meals were.
You did come out with the Build-Your-Own meal plan and the Simplified Plan. I wanted to try everything so I didn’t want the simplified.
I did tweak the pork recipes. I don’t eat pork so I changed that out to chicken but I looked at the calories to make sure I got the same balance.
The recipes seem to be easy and yummy.
Also, I did yoga almost every day and I only played tennis 2x a week in my leagues and I do this half hour workout.
Rayzel’s note: By this time, there are now 5 weeks worth of P3 recipes in the program. The original plans has more recipes and more variety in the meals each week. The Simplified plan uses less recipes in a week, cooked in larger batches for less cooking and you eat more of the same meals to keep things…simple! The Build-Your-Own Meal plan is designed to help you design your meal plan of P3 recipes and/or simple meal combos that fit P3 guidelines well. You get all plans when you enroll in the P3tolife program.
Can you share your tangible results from following the P3tolife program? - How your weight has been, while following the P3 program? Did you have to do any correction days during P3 this time and if so, what do you think was the cause and how did your correction day(s) go?
I totally stabilized. I lost a couple lbs from my LIW. I lost and gained a couple lbs. I only gained one time and that was my bad because I did drink a little and I weigh over my last injection weight by 0.2 lbs. So I never have to go 2 lbs over and worry about a steak day or any correction day. Mostly I was at goal or below goal.
When I ended Phase 3 I was actually 1 lb under my last injection weight.
How did you feel about the portion sizes & taste of the P3 meals? Did the portions and taste of the food make any difference in how you felt about eating/relationship with food while on p3? If you still felt hungry, how did you adapt it to add calories?
It’s hard to blindly trust it but I thought I ate so much food and it tasted so good- everything was just so amazing and you’re eating full plates of food and you’re stuffed at the end. I was sure I was going to gain weight. Then you get on the scale and you lost 1 lb or 2 more- which has never happened before. I’ve never lost on Phase 3. How can that happen?
I thought the variety was great. So you’re like “This is so good and I’m not gaining weight!” What else could you want? I also thought the recipes were kind of easy so it was a win-win for me to try all the variety. A couple of recipes I may have missed because I went to lunch but even now I will try the few that I’ve missed.
Can you share a little about your personal life- ie work full time/part time, kids or hubby or school? Would love to hear how you made the logistics work of cooking the program with whatever time constraints you deal with. How did you manage to fit in preparing the meals with your schedule each week?
What I had done was I prep as much as I can on Sundays. In my head, I try to think how to make it organized. I chopped all the vegetables that I could and maybe cook some of the meat. Vegetables would last the week but the meat I maybe cook everything Sunday and it will last until Wednesday or Thursday and then I’d have to cook a 2nd time. That works with my family schedule. We have a whole weekend schedule and we have a whole week schedule.
I try not to cook every night or sometimes I do. Sometimes I’ll just have everything ready and you just throw it all together in the pot. I have an Instant Pot so that makes everything even simpler.
I have 2 Instant Pot, you can do your vegetables in one and meat in the other.
How did you utilize the program when you travel?
There was a couple of times we were overnight at places. We made sure to get a hotel with microwave and a little refrigerator. I just made mug muffins in the little mason jars. I cooked them all before I left, put the lid on it, when I got there I just have to pop them in the microwave for 30 – 60 secs and then we could eat them. Then we just put the jars in a bag to take home so it’s not messy.
We also went to my son’s competition event, we had to travel and stay there until midnight. We’d be sitting there during the whole day so sometimes you don’t really get a break from lunch so we just bring a little cooler bag. I’d put individual portions. Each is like 2 servings so I just cut half for me, half for my husband, put it in a single Tupperware and eat it while we’re watching. I’d bring an extra apple and slice up some orange so I didn’t feel deprived or like I was going to starve and I had to go out buy a candy bar that was sitting out the hall. So I never had that thought to do that.
That to me is the easiest thing - to plan ahead and the mug muffins take no time to make and a few minutes to heat up.
Each week I was gone at least once a week for that whole day and maybe twice we were gone overnight. When you’re gone early morning until after midnight- it was not easy days.
You have to think ahead and be ORGANIZE. If you have the food with you then even if everybody’s going out and getting burgers or whatever you’re like “Oh no, I got my yummy food here. I don’t need your greasy burger. “
I eat some of the recipes cold and I didn’t have a problem with it. You had some salads that can be eaten cold, like the Buffalo Chicken Salad. I remember, for one dinner we went back to our hotel and we just stick our food in the microwave.
What were one or two of your favorite recipes in the plan?
- Apple Mug Muffins - I think my favorite which I made a bunch more.
- Blackberry Lime Zinger is good but I’m having a hard time finding organic blackberries that aren’t $5 for little tiny things. That one was really tasty. I will probably try it with blueberry.
- Fish Taco Bowl - I made it with fish one time then I made it with leftover steak.
- Buffalo Chicken Salad is really good.
- Chimichurri Steak w/ Tomato Cucumber Salad
- Greek Chicken Bowl - the dressing for that was really easy.
I never really liked the cauliflower rice before but when I made it this time, I loved it.
What do you think about the Smoothies?
I love the Mango Vanilla Coconutty Dessert Smoothie, Banana Nut Smoothie, and Blackberry Lime Zinger. Now that it’s hotter I’m going to make them more.
It feels like you’re eating ice cream and I love ice cream! So it doesn’t make you feel deprived. It tastes yummy and you’re not gaining weight from it like you would if you eat ice cream. So there’s no need to eat ice cream when you can eat this. It doesn’t taste like diet food.
Any other closing thoughts that you want to share about your experience with the program, or that might help others considering whether or not to give it a try?
To me, having the P3 program is just so easy. It’s totally worth the investment. It takes all the guesswork out of it.
I didn’t go over my weight and every time I’ve done P3 before, I’ve gained because I didn’t know when to add the almond, when to add the milk, when to eat yogurt. Then you just end up, let me try this and this and you have no idea why you gained weight the next day. So this took all that guesswork out of it which is you put so much time and effort in the P2 part of it and then you get off of it and you’re like, “Okay, what do I do now?”
I thought it is an amazing program! Hopefully, I never have to do this again. But, if I do, there would never be a second thought. And anybody I’ve talked to- my friends who are on P2, I’m like, “You have to get this program because it’s just perfect! It’s amazing! Nobody’s ever done it before so nobody knows Day 1 what do you eat?
This is all easy, laid out for you and then you have your coaching things too when you need help or how to make things. I thought all your coaching videos are motivating and helped keep you through the 3 weeks.
I wished it was longer than 3 weeks now because it just makes life so easy. You don’t have to think about what you’re going to do so I would definitely recommend it to anybody getting off P2.