Have a great camping trip! I'll be curious to hear how you worked JUDDD into the adventure, since I hope to do a lot of camping this summer.

That's great, TruJones. I hope it doesn't take 9 weeks for mine to get into gear. I'm finding the down days a bit easier than in the beginning, but the "loss of appetite" on those days just ain't there yet. I'm on a DD today. Had a boiled egg and coffee for breakie; lunch will be a salad with a bit of baked leftover chicken on top; dinner is Thai fish cakes and something green, maybe another salad.

I got some glucomannan last week and made pudding w almond milk.

This is a real lifesaver since the cals are really low and it's filling.

A cup of almond milk is only about 50 cals so not bad at all.

Of course, you can thicken soups, make sauces w broth, etc.
I'm going to try some broth 'gravy' over mashed cauli tonight.

Darn! I bounced up a pound today. Hope it's just the salty fish cakes I made last night. Must not salt at the skillet anymore. Hope it's just water weight. Made it through another down day yesterday. It was the easiest one to date. Stayed at 506 calories. Surely THAT didn't make me gain.

I'm loving JUDDD! So far, I've had 2 down days and they been easy. However, even in this short time, I've already achieved the shake-up of my weight that I was hoping for. I'm down 3 pounds since Sunday and below 180 for the first time in 10 months.

I don't know if it's mattered, but I did start taking resveratrol about a week ago. I'm not using the expensive stuff from Dr. Johnson's website, but NOW brand "Natural Resveratrol," which has 200-mg of trans-resveratrol per pill. Before ordering, I websearched resveratrol on the internet, found a lot that I liked and nothing that worried me. So I decided to give resveratrol and JUDDD a full-out try. So far, so good.

Is anyone else taking resveratrol?

I did a round of hcg this time last year. I got down to 173 pounds before my weight stabilized at around 176 pounds. But, it was hard and I wasn't motivated to try more rounds. Plus, like I've done far too often, I got side-tracked during the summer and put back on about 15 pounds with alarming ease. (I started 2012 at 191 pounds. )

I know it's early, but JUDDD has been much easier than hcg. JUDDD seems to be something I can sustain, especially if I plan for down days by making foods (such as chicken vegetable soup) in advance.

Hi, Carolyn. Glad you're liking JUDDD. I take resveratrol, too. Don't know if it's doing anything. I've been doing this since March 26th and have lost 6#. I've been holding that for a week now. Hope I'm not stalling out again. But I'm going to give this a fair chance. They way it can take longer for some to get to the "not hungry all the time on down days" stage and for the SIRT-1 gene to "turn on", so I'll be patient. Still trying to do my UP days low-carb though. Don't want to re-introduce bad carbs after having weaned myself off them. I can't even imagine doing HCG. Not willing to inject my body with such stuff; not willing to eat so little either, at least not more than every other day .

Thanks for your response, Buttoni. It sounds like JUDDD is working very well for you, especially in breaking your very long stall!

I didn't use hcg injections. I took homeopathic drops, which means it's possible that they didn't have much (if any) hcg in them at all. I think the drops did something, however, because I wasn't badly hungry for the first couple of weeks of 500 calorie days on hcg. It was just that 500 calories every day of almost the same food over and over got bad by the third and fourth week when weight loss slowed and I began to feel hunger. I started new rounds twice later in 2011 but dropped out after a week because I just didn't want to do it anymore. I'm still very new to JUDDD, but I don't see it as being so hunger-provoking and depressing because there's always the next (up) day.

I am staying low carb, too. I like what I eat low carb and, in particular, have had very good results from giving up wheat. Plus, as a type 2 diabetic I need to limit carbs to keep my blood sugar down. The only problem that I have with low carb is that society sometimes makes it inconvenient (for example, last week when I was taken out for dinner on business and there was absolutely nothing low carb on the limited menu).

Well, I'm still holding at 159-160 today. Sticking to my 500 cals on DD's and the 1655 on UD's. I guess I hit another set point. Seems like my body has those at every 10# loss. That's the pattern I've seen all along at least.

Someone Juddd'ing on another forum told me cram of wheat is VERY satisfying on down days. She has a serving at breakfast and two servings at dinner. Says she doesn't got to bed hungry when she does that. I may try some at breakfast. I'm getting pretty creative with shredded cabbage stir-fries and sometimes with shirataki noodles added for volume and a feeling of fullness. If I have a little leftover meat, I might add 1-2 oz. if I can afford the calories. That's working for me. I'm finding the down days less difficult now, so maybe the "magic" is starting to work for me, as I've been Juddd'ing since March 26th, or nearly a month.

I hope that you break past your current set point soon, Buttoni.

Thanks for the idea about the stir-fried cabbage dishes for down day. I need to expand my down day menu options.

I've finished my first week of JUDDD and am down 3 pounds. I've been reading Dr. Johnson's book, "The Alternate Day Diet," and a few things stand out for me.

The books says,

I've noticed this on my last two down days. I feel some hunger at around 6 PM because I didn't save enough food for late. But, by 8 PM I'm very energetic and end up having trouble sleeping. The book recommends saving 100-200 calories for bedtime to help with sleep when you're too energetic. I'm going to try this today.

Also from the book:

Another good reason to stay low carb, especially on the down days. There's also the health benefits of staying away from wheat and sugar, plus the decreased cravings that carbohydrates cause.

Finally (for now),

I haven't been very hungry on my down days, so far. However, I'm not anywhere near the point of not thinking about food. I've spend so much time over the decades thinking of food--with both happy memories and thoughts of what I should or shouldn't eat--that it's going to be hard to reset my "muscle memory" to be less aware of food. I'd love to be that way, however.

Here's a down day idea: Progresso Light Beef Pot Roast soup.

Each can has 2 8-oz servings of 80 calories and 8 g net carb. However, there are about 1/3 cup of potato chunks in the can, which are easy to pick out if removed before heating. Removing the potato gives about 55 calories and 4 g net carb per serving. Also the can has 18.5 oz and removing the potato gets the volume down so that it will fit into my 16 oz. Thermos food container.

Hi Carolyn. I just bought 4 of the Progresso light soups at Walmart today, that one among them I think. I'm trying to stay low carb, but I'm not picking potatoes out of the soups. I won't go out of my way to buy carby soups, but figure a few bites of potato aren't going to kill me. I'm counting the calories as stated on the label, so I'm eating it as is. The whole can on most of their light soups is only about 160 calories total. Not a bad lunch all in all for a down day. I suspect pretty filling, too.

Yeah, I'm getting quite creative with cabbage stir fries, oriental dishes and cheesy creamy ones using Lauging Cow Light cheese wedges. Also I bought a case of a shirataki noodles and Miracle rice to see what I can come up with there. Haven't decided if I'll post any of the recipes and pictures on my website or not.

Tonight's glucomannan pudding was 6 strawberries, 1 c. water, 4 drops of sweetener and 1 tsp. of the gluc powder blended in the blender. I couldn't afford any half and half in it today however. But half the batch after dinner was tasty and REALLY filling. I feel bloato right now.

Back in the hayday of low carb products (around 2005-2006), Progresso used to have a great line of low carb soups. At least their "light" soups are relatively low carb, but I do miss the flavors of their "Carb Monitor" line. (Their chicken cheese enchilada soup was especially yummy)

Carbs still matter a lot to me because I'm a type 2 diabetic. 1/3 cup of potato is a blood sugar rise of about 40 points for me, so I skip the potatoes.

I'm going to be on the look-out for that brand. I've seen others mention it here, but I haven't found it in my local stores. I had a Polly-O brand twist of 2% milk mozzarella and cheese cheese today. It was so tasteless that I felt like I'd wasted the 50 calories.

I like the noodles. I've never seen the Miracle rice around here.

I'm going to order some glucomannan. I've never tried it.

I went grocery shopping today, too. I bought a pack of Hebrew National 97% fat free beef franks. Each frank is 40 calories and 3 g carb. I had one with mustard for a bedtime snack. It was very good.

I too bought some Progresso soup at Walmart. It was on an end isle and caught my eye for 160 cal a can. I have never had the glucomannan so will be ordering that too.

Last week I went camping and did not do so good on one DD. But got right back on the wagon Friday.

There is no doubt about it... I will be doing this from now on. It is easy for me and it works! I gave my book to a friend of mine who was camping with me. Hope to get her on board, too.

Congratulations on successfully managing diet while camping, tbagram. One not-so-good day isn't a problem when it doesn't derail you.

The Progresso soups were at the end of the isle for my Wal-Mart, too. That's why I noticed them.

My weight was down this morning. I've completed 8 days of JUDD and have lost 5.4 pounds. It's been surprisingly easy (so far) and I'm very excited.

I slept well last night, after my 4th down day. I saved about 100 calories for a bedtime snack, as the book suggested, and I think this helped me fall asleep.

I try to save 50-100 for a late snack, too. Most often I fix a glucomannan pudding which is VERY filling for next to no calories.