Moderators: JeffN, f1jim, carolve, Heather McDougall
Focusing on the fundamental recommendations is always the best approach; keep it up!JeffN wrote:In regard to added salt and added sugar, we recommend buying and preparing food without either and if any are to be used, to add them at the table on the surface of the food. If either one is troublesome and create uncontrollable cravings for you, then leave them out.
Chin up! You are heading in the right direction continuing to adjust your behaviors, the weight will follow where the behaviors lead.wildgoose wrote:You're trying to do two things:
- Lower the overall calorie density of the meal
- "Preload" with very low calorie density foods (soup, salad, fruit), so that by the time you get to the starches, you're not as hungry and you eat less of them
Jeff talks about this and gives some studies to back it up in his post on Salad, Soup and Success.
So to your questions... Do you need to preload with salad, soup or fruit? All I can say is that it has been found that preloading is an effective tool for increasing the effectiveness of the program for weight loss. The purpose of the checklist, and of this group, is to maximize your chances of the greatest success. You get to decide whether you "need" this step to achieve your goals. You may find, as many people have in the past, that you go along without the preload step for several weeks or months, but as you get closer to your goal, your weight loss slows or stalls. At that point, revisiting the preload idea can become very helpful.
Your second question speaks to the same idea. By eating veggies first, you're essentially preloading. I don't know if it affects digestion, but it certainly starts the process of filling your stomach so that the stretch receptors tell you sooner that you're full.
I am not much of a salad eater (unless I can get Subway to make a chopped salad for me, which I don't do these days and never did that often in the past unless I was traveling -- I'm cheap!). Occasionally I will get on a salad "kick" for a few weeks, then not have another one for months. So salad for preload wasn't a good option for me. I love soups, and I do this frequently in the cooler seasons, but soup in July and August just doesn't work for me! So, many times I ended up doing just what you talk about -- eating vegetables as my preload.
I also developed a raw veggie "salad" that I use frequently in the summer. I take my handy pull-chopper and finely chop about 10 baby carrots, some onion, about a third of a cucumber, some raw cauliflower, and a whole chopper full of spinach. (Of course, I do this in batches, not everything at once.) I dump this in a bowl, drizzle a little balsamic vinegar over it, maybe sprinkle some Mrs. Dash seasoning blend (of whatever flavor I feel like) over it, and mix it up. Instant "salad" without too much fuss.
The idea of a preload is to take some very low calorie density food (soup or salad work very well, but raw or cooked vegetables can also serve the purpose) and to have it first, before you fill up on starches.
Here's a description of his steak fries, which are similar.JeffN wrote:Chubby Chips Recipe
-Take your favorite potato (white, sweet, yam, yellow, etc)
-Slice into rounds, about 1/4 inch thick
-Layer them on a non stick baking pan
(or line it with parchment paper)
-Add Seasoning (garlic, chili powder, cinnamon, curry, etc)
-Broil till golden, turn them over and repeat
(Or roast till golden)
We love to add garlic &/or chipotle seasoning to the regular potatoes and curry &/or cinnamon to the sweet potatoes.
We like them thick and chewy and that is why we call them "Chubby Chips," If you like them crisper, you can just cut them thinner and if you have a mandolin slicer, you can cut them fairly thin and even. We also use a waffle knife (or slices) to make wavy cuts and make "Chubby Ruffle Chips."
JeffN wrote:"Baked" steak fries - Cold baked potatoes cut into wedges and broiled till golden.
After they are baked, I let them cool down a little and then slice them lengthwise into steak fries. Then I place the steak fries under a broiler and broil the steak fries to golden brown. I have done this with both regular and sweet potatoes.
This gives them a little more flavor and make them easier to carry and to eat.
moonlight wrote:Controlling the environment: Suggestions, please!
We have learned that controlling our environment goes a long way toward success with our diet goals. Willpower will only get us so far. When we are tired, for example, willpower is nil. My husband follows the SAD diet so there is no way I can control the environment the way I would like. We have rearranged a lot of food and the system works great. However, he must cook, eat, and leave his dishes until kitchen clean up time. If I’m triggered too much while he is cooking, I can go to another room. We do like to spend time together while we eat our meals, though. We have the refrigerator to deal with, too. We have separate shelves, but I can see what is on his shelves. He keeps all his different varieties of cheese and lunch meat in the drawer, so I don’t see it. Many times, I can think “Not Food” when I actually look at what he is eating but sometimes the smell of an old favorite, like pesto and pasta, just drives me crazy! I just wonder if anyone in a similar situation would care to share their strategies for how to cope with this. Most of the time I can get past it with self-talk, diversion, or eating something compliant, but other times I cave….
Set your sights on a personally meaningful goal, task or behavior adjustment that feels challenging, but achievable. Spend some time putting together a plan for how you will succeed in your chosen endeavor. Practice executing that plan, make any needed adjustments, and try again. Practice builds confidence and success teaches you that you are effective and able to achieve reasonable goals that you pursue with diligence."Mastery experiences are the most influential source of efficacy information because they provide the most authentic evidence of whether one can muster whatever it takes to succeed. Success builds a robust belief in one's personal efficacy."
-Albert Bandura, Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control
I was thinking along these lines last June“People's beliefs about their abilities have a profound effect on those abilities. Ability is not a fixed property; there is a huge variability in how you perform. People who have a sense of self-efficacy bounce back from failure; they approach things in terms of how to handle them rather than worrying about what can go wrong.”
-Albert Bandura, Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control
As Jeff noted,Mark Cooper wrote:In pursuing excellence, mistakes and failures can provide an opportunity for growth; I can learn something each time, surmounting that obstacle (usually not on the first attempt) and be better for it. That feels like the path to mastery - not being perfect or free from mistakes, but navigating situations with confidence and poise, knowing how to apply the fundamentals, recognizing what "doing the best I can" looks like in a given situation, and striving to do even better next time. That may be a goal that is always just out of my reach, but I find the chasing of it inspiring.
JeffN wrote:Self-efficacy is the extent or strength of one's belief, perception and convictions in one's own ability to complete tasks and reach goals.
I think that may be *the* individual characteristic/trait that makes all the others possible, at least in the current environment because while the program itself is easy, doing it in this world, is very difficult. Without a "greater degree of self-efficacy," it becomes even more difficult if not impossible due to the lack of social and environmental support for this way of life.
Noella wrote:moonlight wrote:Controlling the environment: Suggestions, please!
We have learned that controlling our environment goes a long way toward success with our diet goals. Willpower will only get us so far. When we are tired, for example, willpower is nil. My husband follows the SAD diet so there is no way I can control the environment the way I would like. We have rearranged a lot of food and the system works great. However, he must cook, eat, and leave his dishes until kitchen clean up time. If I’m triggered too much while he is cooking, I can go to another room. We do like to spend time together while we eat our meals, though. We have the refrigerator to deal with, too. We have separate shelves, but I can see what is on his shelves. He keeps all his different varieties of cheese and lunch meat in the drawer, so I don’t see it. Many times, I can think “Not Food” when I actually look at what he is eating but sometimes the smell of an old favorite, like pesto and pasta, just drives me crazy! I just wonder if anyone in a similar situation would care to share their strategies for how to cope with this. Most of the time I can get past it with self-talk, diversion, or eating something compliant, but other times I cave….
Hi Moonlight,
When I started this journey I decided that I am one of those people that can’t eat the standard diet and be healthy and fit. It wasn’t working for me, and there was no point in feeling sorry for myself. I had to make some very big changes. Without a 180 degree turn, I was headed straight toward a variety of health problems and LESS of all the important things that make life worth living like having good health, energy, mobility, LESS of everything I loved to do: hiking, skiing, kayaking, travelling. We had just booked a trip to Morocco and Portugal and I knew I would have trouble walking, climbing stairs and keeping up. My husband was worried about how we could travel with my knees hurting me so much with each step. So I made the decision on December 29th, 2019. I was changing. I wanted MORE life not LESS. I had always enjoyed gourmet cooking and baking cookies, loaves cakes, breads and pastries. My hobby of cooking and baking had also expanded into pairing foods with just the right sort of wine, because we live in an area with vineyards and wonderful wines. I immediately shifted my love of gourmet cooking and baking to the MWL way. This was a dramatic shift! I sensed my husband’s worries about how my changes would affect him. I wanted to alleviate his worries so I found ways to make some of our favourite meals leaving certain non-MWL ingredients out of the recipe but putting these in bowls on the table to be added individually. Rather than bake, I bought things in the bakery section for my husband. That way he wasn’t forced to change with me. We like bean burritos with all the extras. I put the bowls of grated cheese, sour cream, chopped olives on the table for him so he could choose what to add. All the other ingredients were MWL approved. I continue to buy his favourite condiments, croutons, oils and salad dressings for him to add to his soups and salads. With pasta dishes, he gets to add Parmesan or other grated cheese to his. I love to set the table attractively, and I love serving two or three courses and enjoy a leisurely dinner together. I have decided my new hobby is to learn how to cook of vegetables, legumes , squash and grains. Last week I roasted a fennel bulb with a lemon paprika marinade that was so amazing! I’m encouraging my husband in his cooking, too, by noticing and complimenting everything he makes that is MWL adherent. I call him my ‘Chef Gary’ when he is chopping veggies for a soup or stew that we share. I appreciate the way he cooks and experiments with oil free salt free alternatives. He still adds non MWL to his servings at the table. That probably won’t change. We are always eating together, and sharing cooking in this new healthier way together is becoming more fun each month as we transition. We get organic veggies delivered from a small local company and our fridge is packed with yummy greens.
The great thing is that over fourteen months of doing this, my husband has started eating the MWL way, too. He has always been healthy but he says he has more energy and he loves that. He knows how to sauté without oil and he makes a wonderful veggie marinara sauce for pasta, great mixed greens salads and makes also hummus from scratch , and chili...all without any salt or oil. My husband has thanked me for emphasizing healthy eating and healthy lifestyle choices. Choosing health is choosing MORE.
So, eating this way is a mindset that develops over time. It is a complete change from thinking the standard foods most people eat each day are nutritious and ‘good’ to thinking that that the MWL sorts of food are the most nutritious and the best for their health giving properties. Once we make the very best decision to eat food for our health, we know that we are nurturing ourselves with our selections and it won’t bother us if others are eating non-adherent foods. These non MWL foods will gradually become less pleasurable until they are of little or no interest to us, whether they are on the table, counter, fridge or cupboard. Just like we might not want to read someone else’s favourite book or magazine simply because it’s not our personal favourite topic to read about, our new food favourites will gradually and steadily become more and more MWL approved and we won’t want those old favourites anymore.
Let’s not forget to be a good friend to ourselves and spoil ourselves regularly by buying the best, freshest, high quality whole grains, squash, vegetables, fruits, berries, mushrooms, herbs, legumes, choosing mainly that we like best. (I like to splurge on fresh berries! Berries are a treat!)As we learn how to cook delicious, colourful, nutritious health-giving food for our family we discover favourites that everyone enjoys eating. Habits and the skills to create them, take time to develop. Be a good friend to yourself and be patient with yourself as you go through the process of learning and growing in your skills and knowledge of healthy cooking, serving meals attractively and eating together with joy. My advise is to be inclusive and cook food that everyone in your family will enjoy, allowing the option for others to add higher calorie dense foods and condiments to their meal at the table.
I'm so glad this has been working well for you!bunsofaluminum wrote:Okay, front loading with soup is amazing.
taymariekay wrote:I have kind of a nuanced question! I am sure this has been asked and answered, but wasn't able to find (still not great at knowing how to search correctly).
How full should I feel on preload/vegetables before moving onto starch? Sometimes I feel like I'm too full on vegetables with not enough room for starch, which causes me to not feel as satisfied then I get hungry too soon. Then again, sometimes I worry that I am able to eat too much starch after my vegetables. I could be reading too much into it, but wanted to see if anyone had some insight!
I am also trying to re-learn my true hunger/fullness cues, and eat until COMFORTABLY full and not stuffed. I think I am probably a volume eater too, which makes it harder to gauge too I think. Being present at meal times is helping!
taymariekay wrote:I have kind of a nuanced question! I am sure this has been asked and answered, but wasn't able to find (still not great at knowing how to search correctly).
How full should I feel on preload/vegetables before moving onto starch? Sometimes I feel like I'm too full on vegetables with not enough room for starch, which causes me to not feel as satisfied then I get hungry too soon. Then again, sometimes I worry that I am able to eat too much starch after my vegetables. I could be reading too much into it, but wanted to see if anyone had some insight!
I am also trying to re-learn my true hunger/fullness cues, and eat until COMFORTABLY full and not stuffed. I think I am probably a volume eater too, which makes it harder to gauge too I think. Being present at meal times is helping!
Thanks in advance!
JeffN wrote:Follow the principles of calorie density which allows us to eat when we are hungry until we are comfortably full, even if we are a volume eater. There are several discussions listed under the hot topics in regard to this.
The issue is not really volume, but the content of that volume.
Mark Cooper wrote:It should not require Holmesian levels of attention to know when you are full. Do you feel uncomfortable? Are you stuffed? If you overshoot the mark, take note and do your best to slightly adjust next time, but don't spend energy fretting and beating yourself up over that - if you stuffed yourself on MWL suitable foods, the calorie density was low and it seems unlikely that you will be continuously stuffing yourself at each meal, each day, on an ongoing basis. Don't overvalue the importance of these episodes, or think you need to perfectly manage hunger cues, as compared to the impact from including troublesome foods in your menu or planning not to adhere on a consistent (or occasional) basis. If you are over consuming problematic foods, the problem isn't your appetite, it's the food, and you can direct your efforts accordingly.JeffN wrote:When hungry (regardless of whether you may think it is true hunger, appetite, or something else) just eat. Eat of the recommended foods as outlined in the 10 point checklist.
Over time, it will work itself out.
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