To those people who follow P2 by the book...
 

Are you having any sweeteners at all? I'm on day 11 and have't had any artifical sweeteners or stevia. I really love the detox component on this diet. But, I'm wondering if I'm making this tougher than it needs to be. I love tea... black and chai but without sweetener it does nothing for me. I would be nice to have a lighlty sweetened cup of tea but I want to do this right. BTW, I'm not having very many white knuckle moments. I'm finding it pretty easy 75% of the time, but there are those moments where tea the way I like it would be so nice. Any thoughts?

I use stevia, but no other sweetener. I don't consider that rogue at all.

I use Stevia as well and also do not consider it rogue at all. I'm pretty sure Simeons allowed aspartame anyway (or whatever was the Sweet N Low of the day). My clinic, generally by the book, allows one diet soda per day, but I skipped that.

I use stevia in my coffee and tea. the liquid stevia is good and also Trader Joe's powdered stevia. Other brands taste bitter to me. I also have a piece or two of sugar-free gum every day. If you want to stay true to protocol, look for the gum sweetened with Stevia.

OK ladies, thanks for the info. I'm going to get some Stevia... I hear the Sweet Leaf makes a vanilla creme that's good. Have you tried that one?

Buttah, as for diet soda goes, I was a Diet Coke addict and I'm so proud that I've gone 11 days without one. But I have to laugh because when I saw the words diet soda written in your post, my mouth watered. LOL

I used Sweet Leaf vanilla cream all day in my tea. No problems for me.

For me, the vanilla cream stevia takes kinda fake. I just use some stevia with pure vanilla extract. But, that's me. I haven't heard anyone complaining about it other than myself.

Sweetleaf vanilla cream is awesome with everything. Cinnamon is good in tea. English toffee, hazelnut, and chocolate raspberry are all excellent (the chocolate raspberry is great on strawberries too). Lemon, mandarin orange and berry are good in club soda for a soda-like concoction. KAL makes a liquid almond and a coconut that are both good. Skip the Sweetleaf chocolate and root beer.

I was scared by the word "cream" so I searched the internet and found another vanilla stevia (without the word cream) that I love. It saves having to add vanilla AND sweetener to things. But I do love Sweetleaf's chocolate and chocolate/raspberry stevias! I wish I could find the coconut.

Careful with the diet soda, it causes me to stall. My clinic will not allow any sodas. If you can do without, it's definately best. I was using the coke made with stevia which alot of people recommended. Alas, not for me.

I went to the Dr. Thurs. to get a new HCG Rx and the nurse there said to use Stevia. I have been using Starbuck's SF vanilla flavoring in vanilla flavored coffee- not sure if that has had an effect on me or not !

i use ez sweets liquid sucralose, don't think its had any negative effect on my losses

I thought it tasted fake as well. Honestly, I thought all the stevias I tried were just awful. But I also used stevia and pure vanilla extract in a strawberry smoothie when I just needed something to get through P2.

I also found that stevia made my head feel woozy.

I rarely use any sweeteners now. You may find that you will get to a point where you don't feel the need to "sweeten" anything, and that is a glorious place! But on P2 I definitely went through bottles of liquid, flavored stevia, just to get through it.

Good luck to you! This is an awesome diet protocol and works better and faster than anything I've ever tried.

Great idea !!!!!

Also, if you want to use vanilla extract, like I do, check the ingredients. Some of the bottles labeled "pure vanilla" have sugar in them. I make my own vanilla now. It's better and cheaper.