Marla,
There was a great, long post on this a while back. Do a search (in the search box, top right) for "Diet List 1 Ideas" and you'll see it.  Offers many List 1 meal ideas.
And yes, you'll definitely lose weight!

I'm excited for you, you've come to the right place without a doubt. When you see Matia she'll give you hope and motivation. For breakfast I eat eggs sunny side up and spelt toast with butter and I love it. Sometimes I sauté some spinach. I look forward to it when I'm getting out of bed. Sometimes I have sparkling water (just remembered, im on list 2, Matia started me on that this time) to wake me up more, but I haven't decided if I'm tolerating it well. You will lose weight. When I was in treatment the first time around 7 years ago I went from a size 10 to a size 6 in less than a year. This time ( don't worry not many relapse with Matia, I had 2 babies in 2 years and had gone back to old habits) I've been in treatment for 3 weeks and the weight is melting off ( of course I'm also breastfeeding) just in time for my 40th birthday in July! I hate my urgency symptom but I'm grateful to be recommiting to my health and to be heading into my 40's healthier AND to have this 2nd wake up call.

 I posted a Quiche recipe yesterday.  There are some great menu ideas on the forum.  Starting new habits doesn't come easy for me, but the diet was much easier than I thought.  I started on the diet and had a few frozen blueberries the first week as I was detocxing from sugar.  Then I stopped the blueberries since they are yeast feeders.  I read Matia's dissertaion as well as the other forum topics.  It was so much easier to stay on the diet as I understood the reasons why certian foods were bad for me at this time.  As finances allow, I would start switching to the gentle products guide.  I have severe IC pain and noticed that my pain has improved as I follow Matia's protocol.  Look for creative ways to follow her gentle product guide and save money.  For example, I use olive oil to shave my legs.  There is also a natural deodorant recipe on this site.  Feel free to share cost saving ideas as you find them.  Glad to hear you are on the path to wellness!

I still have a lot of food intolerances.  I eat fish and potatoes for breakfast (usually leftover fish from dinner the night before).  Lunch is usually a salad with some protein, like salad shrimp or you could use chicken.  Dinner is usually a meat, potato, and salad or veggie that I can tolerate.  The diet isn't as hard as you think.  You will get on to it quickly.  There are some good ideas in the recipe section.  Good luck!

I started treatment with Matia about 5 weeks ago. When I first got sick last december I was fortunate enough to obsessively research other options until coming across ICAMA. I started myself on the diet in January and stuck to it quite well until my appointment in March. I LOVE cooking and baking, so I have tried to be creative because I get bored easily. I make a flatbread with spelt/rice flour that I use for everything:2c. flour1 tsp. baking soda or baking powder2 T. olive oil1 t. saltdill, basil and/or garlic powder to your likingenough spring water to get a dough that's not too stickyPut in the oven at 350 for about 15 min, but watch it because it gets dry if it's overcooked! I have experimented with this simple recipe lots using different ratios, flours, and herbs as I've added them in. I find it's an excellent homemade pizza crust too. Just make an oil/basil "sauce," add grilled veggies and chicken and bake! I find baking powder makes it fluffier than baking soda. Anyways, I do lots of grilling because I think it makes everything taste better. I eat fried eggs and spelt flakes in the morning with butter and some spinach or squash. I think runny yolk taste amazing! Experiment lots with the few ingredients and you will find most every combination tastes good. I love the salmon burger recipe on this site. Cabbage stir fried with celery, shrimp, and garlic on rice is another of my favs. I am so excited for you. I am hardly into treatment and already know I am on the path towards healing. The die-off is really tough at times (as we speak I have a migraine and cannot take anything to help it...) but what you learn while going through this about the human body, mind, and spirit is truly amazing and irreplaceable! Patience is definitely key, but this site is a huge comfort!  -whitney

Oh man! sugar free anything is a big no-no! avoid them like the plague! Fake sweeteners actually contribute to unwellness so ditch the gum and be patient. Later after you are well you can use a safe sweetener in moderation called agave syrup - or use fruit sweeteners. - make a fruit concentrate for pancake syrup substitute. I had a piece of grapefruit the other day after no fruit of a whole year and it tasted sweet as candy to me. INCREDIBLE! amazingly it was almost too much sweetness. A grapefruit! your palette will become so discerning and detect the delicate and subtle complexities of simple food in no time- just wait. I hardly even use seasoning although I do look forward to the day I will eat a slammin Thai or Indian curry. I think it will be like flavor overload! Good for you about the diet!

Re: makeup > Matia says that doesn't tend to be a problem. Just avoid Clinique; people have had issues w/ their lines.  I can also recommend Everyday Minerals - very cheap, tons of colors.  And Bare Escentuals lipsticks are very plain, can get from Sephora and haven't caused me problems.
Re: sugar cravings > It usually takes about a month. And it can definitely feel like withdrawal, because it is really! Hang in there - even when it feels like you NEED that chocolate cake, as impossible as it may sound now, those strong cravings really do fizzle out.  And many people (me too) claim after a while of abstinence, even the casual desire for dessert goes away.
Re: gum chewing > I recently researched this further to get my husband to stop.  Figured this is good to share w/ everybody.  Great summary info here from Dr. Mercola (mercola.com):
One should rarely, if ever chew gum. There are neurological connections between the jaw and your pancreas. The act of chewing stimulates the pancreas to make digestive enzymes. This is why it is so important to thoroughly chew your food. However, if you are chewing and your pancreas believes it will be getting food it will make enzymes to digest it, but the enzymes will be totally wasted and one"s biochemistry will become unbalanced. It is a huge waste of precious enzyme activity, which is the major reason why people should not chew gum.
 

When we change out diet to this simple cleansing one then yes I think our bodies begin the process of cleansing- so you could be a little sick or it very well could be the die off process beginning. You could be cleansing having die off and its making you sick as well as going through some sugar withdraw!  In chinese medicine theory phlemg is a dampness condition-a problem condition and   candida  (yeast) are also considered dampness conditions. A diet high in sugar contributes to a dampness condition and harms the immnue sytem in our GI tract. the lungs and the large intesting have a strong connection and relationship to one another.l In TCM all the organ systems and meridian( energy pathway systems ) systems support each other and are influenced by one another. So its intersting that you are expelling phlemg from your stomach? - its actually fabulous but probably really unpleasant! I beleive that in general matia feels that tylonal and aspirin can really exascerbate IC pain so if you have to - take ibuprofen but keep it to a spare minimum. I took it for menstral cramps but I also kind of felt the ibuprofen was  irritating me as well but i don't have to take it anymore. Folks report headaches and migraines as a common symtom of die off. Its so cool how our bodies when given the right precription of food are like- yes- ok now I am going to do what I need to do- it starts the process of cleansing and shedding off the crap it doesn't need or is harming it. FOOD is very powerful medicine- especially on this cumulative level and diet is such a huge part of getting well. migraines and phlem in your stomach won't be an issue in the future if you eat well.   even though everyone around me has been getting sick I stayed well this year- on an acute level- no flus or colds or allergies.  keep up the good work! you feel so terrible everyday. I recall when I started the diet it seemed like my symtoms were some immediate dieoff- I couldn't see Matia right away- for a whole month but I wanted to get a head start on the whole process. boy did I feel crappy- but i felt better after starting the herbs and probiotcs. not everyone gets that but many have that reaction. still I'm glad I started when I did and that I haven't cheated at all- at least not conciously. somtimes its an accident and you eat something you didn't mean to- its fine you just keep going. having that month of preparation made it easier when I needed to add in all the herbs. I got the hang of it after awhile  but I remember feeling sort of overwhelmed too-like just double checking i was doing everything right until it became second nature. anyway I'm rambling again. peace. 

On shampoo- apparently I didn't know this for a long time but you can usethe bomasense soap as shampoo too.  at the health food store you could ask for a sample and try out this - Neem shampoo. forget the name! Its a green and yellow bottle I have used it  with good results and no reactions. I apply a little teeny bit of jojoba oil to my hair as conditioner every once and a while but haven't needed it too badly.  look out if she puts you on goldenseal - it will dry your hair out bad! but then after you are off it it will be really shiny and healthy. I hear californina baby makes a gentle shampoo? might lookinto that. there may be simple fragrance free shampoos out there I found one but I forget its name. look for ones that omit common additives like fragrances and essential oils like rosemary and vitamin E.

hey! my leg KILLS me esp. my left leg. it hurts worse than my bladder sometimes. im constanly having to rub it, it drives me crazy!!im sure its all die off

upper thigh, glute, and sacrum burning were some of the major issues that i came to matia with (in addition to the vulvodynia). like everything else, that pain waxes and wanes. but, i can tell you that those areas definitely are effected by the herbs/treatment. i have definitely had increases in burning in those areas in relation to the herb changes she makes. also, about a month back i was having INSANELY bad burning in all those areas for more than a week and i was concerned that the herbs were making me worse. but, matia said not to worry, that that area is a common area of release for toxins, so if you are cleansing that can get really bad. well, she must have been right because eventually it subsided and i felt a lot better. hope this helps!

As another said, please feel free to post no matter how you are feeling.  It helps us all to know that we are all in the same boat when it comes to the intense emotional, physical, spiritual challenges of this disease.This is my second time in treatment.  I'm so grateful I have the benefit of the first time I was in treatment with Matia.  From that, I know without doubt that I will get better, because I have before (and now I know what to do to STAY better).  You will too.  Just hang in there, you will get to Matia and you will keep getting strengthened by her persistent care, experience and brilliance and by staying in touch with this website, and by your journey to get healthy.It is SO hard to deal with this syndrome with family and friends, I know.  That's why it's so good to come here and pour out your heart, because we understand better than any of our family and friends can, loving and caring as they may be.  We know what it's like to have this chronic, torturous condition, that is invisible to others and doesn't have the same attention as a more life-threatening disease.  What many people around us don't know is that IC has the power to kill – people have committed suicide rather than live with some of these symptoms.But we are all so lucky to have found Matia, and so we have hope and so much more. I've only started treatment this time 6 or 7 weeks ago, and people are telling me I look amazing, and so young (will be 40 this year).  And now I know I need to protect myself against IC in the future, so I will continue this way of life from now on, under Matia's guidance for as long as I need to.  I feel that if it wasn't for IC, I don't know what would have ever motivated me to be and stay healthy.  I would just keep eating sugar, not exercising, etc., b/c those are the issues I've struggled with.  The IC has really taught me that I was really having a hard time loving myself and my body and now I feel so much more committed to myself in that way.Stay the course, you can do this one day at a time.  There will be many good days ahead. 

Kriste gave great advice.  Just want to say good luck & safe travels. So happy you're starting your journey - literally & figuratively!

I had my first appointment with Matia last Friday.  I walked out with 2 bottles and spent roughly $50.  I just placed my order for my next bottle and I was shocked by the price.  I'm very happy about doing this, but I'm certianly going broke!!  Does anyone know why the shipping is so expensive?  I only ordered one bottle of herbs which weigh next to nothing? It was $44 all told for one bottle that will last me 9 days! I live in the US too.  The expense of it all is very frustrating to me.  Herbs from my acupuncturist used to be around $5 so I don't get why these are so pricey.  I might add, though, that Matia's herbs are working!!
I also bought Matia's dissertation which was worth every penny as I always need to know they WHY behind everything we are doing and it's very helpful in that area.
 
God luck!
Sam

I had my first appointment with Matia last Friday.  I walked out with 2 bottles and spent roughly $50.  I just placed my order for my next bottle and I was shocked by the price.  I'm very happy about doing this, but I'm certianly going broke!!  Does anyone know why the shipping is so expensive?  I only ordered one bottle of herbs which weigh next to nothing? It was $44 all told for one bottle that will last me 9 days! I live in the US too.  The expense of it all is very frustrating to me.  Herbs from my acupuncturist used to be around $5 so I don't get why these are so pricey.  I might add, though, that Matia's herbs are working!!
I also bought Matia's dissertation which was worth every penny as I always need to know they WHY behind everything we are doing and it's very helpful in that area.
 
Good luck!
Sam

I have talked with both Rachel and Matia about this plenty of times. In the past we used to have to pay COD on the herbs and it was even more expensive. Honestly I think they have an arrangement with FED ex with there printing labels ext that is why they use them and only them.
It doesn't seem to matter about the weight it's the amount of time the delivery takes. If i know i am going to be on an herb or taking a supplement I will order more then one bottle. Even if i end up not using the whole thing chances are I go back to it at some time. I have ended up going back to all of my herbs during the corse of treatment. It is definatly more expensive for us long distant patients.
If you can afford to buy your apontments 10 at a time that will save you a hundred dollars but that means 1000. up front.  so instead of them being 110 each they are 100.
Also the probiotics I always order my 90 caps and get 3 bottles at a time for the discount. the 3rd bottle is 15 dollars. For me I have been taking them the intire 11 months i have been in treatment so it's worth it to stock my fridge.
I know it's expensive there is just know way around it . I wish i had some better answers for you. They didn't even take credit card when i first started treatmetnt it was all cash. Maybe there will be more options in the future.