March 2021 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group

[josietheschnauzer]

Weight change in lbs: +6
1. Start each meal with soup/salad/fruit: Yes
2. Follow 50/50 plate method for meals: Yes
3. Reduce or eliminate added sugars and salts: Yes
4. No animal foods: Yes
5. No higher fat plant foods (nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy): Yes
6. No added oil: Yes
7. No higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit: Birthday cake
8. Don't drink calories: Yes
9. Follow principles, eat when hungry & until comfortably full. Don't starve and don't stuff: No
10. Avoid being sedentary. Exercise at least 30 minutes daily: Yes
Victories, comments, concerns, questions: I don't believe I have really gained that weight. I am thinking/hoping I have some crazy water retention. I am going to ignore for a little while the unexpected weight loss two weeks and this over reaction....thank you Mark and Wild Goose about your posts concerning satiety. I struggle with that and appreciate your comments and taymarie for eliciting them. I really don't want to post this gain. Thank you. E.

[chef16]

03/06/2021 226#
03/13/2021 226#
0
No change this week


1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. 50%
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals, filling half your plate (by visual volume) with non-starchy vegetables and 50% (by visual volume) with minimally processed starches. Choose fruit for dessert. 50%
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts, too. If either is troublesome for you, you can eliminate them. 90%
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).100%
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).95%
6. Eliminate any added oil.100%
7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (i.e., bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit.90%
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).100%
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. 100%
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).60%

Was out and about this week so we ate out a lot. I am glad that I didn't gain anything. I tried to make good choices but, sometimes what you get isn't what you ordered and not exactly what you wanted. Next week we don't have any where to go so I will be able to control what I eat better. Fingers crossed! Thanks!

[Growing a Pear]

Weight change +/- in lbs: +0.3#

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. (5/7)
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals. Choose fruit for dessert. (6/7)
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts, too. If either is troublesome for you, you can eliminate them.
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
6. Eliminate any added oil.
7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products. (2/7)
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full.
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). (5/7)

Well, failure to prepare, a few nights of poor quality sleep, a stressful work deadline, then the pleasure trap sucked me into the bread vortex earlier this week. I've done better the last few days and my weight is down, but as I report a rolling 7-day average, I'll own the results.

Re the failure to prepare: part of it was being caught out by my husband eating the last of the soup and the prepared grain in the fridge. A delightful surprise in that he's gradually becoming more and more of a MWLer himself because of what's available and because his taste buds are adapting. (Quite a change from a man who used to insist a meal wasn't a meal unless it included meat and a boatload of salt.) My long-term goal would be to get him to become part of the system--to cook enough to replace what he's used up. And I do believe that will come.

In the meantime, I need to cook larger batches and freeze individual portions so I have something to reach for when I'm off-kilter.

When I'm rested and not stressed, thinking of how I feel when I eat off-plan is often enough to deter me from straying. But when I'm exhausted, it's like I'm already feeling so horrible, what's a little bit more? Not exactly rational, is it? Those are the days I tend to abandon exercise, too.

Oh, well. Onward! With spring's arrival, I can get out for a good walk most every day, so I expect #10 will be naturally more attractive.

See you next week, hopefully with better adherence and results!

[Gimmelean]

Weight change +/- in lbs: -.8
3/05/2021 128.8
3/12/2021 128



1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Yes.

2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals, filling half your plate (by visual volume) with non-starchy vegetables and 50% (by visual volume). Yes

3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts, too. If either is troublesome for you, you can eliminate them. Yes

4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). Yes

5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). Not quite*

6. Eliminate any added oil. Yes

7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (i.e., bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn. Yes

8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). Yes

9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. Yes

10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).

Victories, comments, concerns,questions:
This week was tough in that it took a LOT of conscientious resolve to say no to poor choices but I mostly did. I wish I could say that it’s getting easier but the reward is a lower trending number on the scale that I’m hoping will give me the reinforcement to do more of the same this coming week. Finally I’m able to reverse that number. This week, the only thing standing between me and an even healthier approach and lower number on the scale was *an occasional dip into a jar of mixed nut butter after dinner. I really did my best to adhere to the 10 point list and was mostly successful.
Looking forward to Spring! Thank you for giving the tools, knowledge, and encouragement to keep on doing this.

[moonlight]

Weight Change: +1.6 lbs

Points from the MWL Checklist where I succeeded this week
1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals, filling half your plate (by visual volume) with non-starchy vegetables and 50% (by visual volume) with minimally processed starches. Choose fruit for dessert.
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
6. Eliminate any added oil.
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).

Points from the MWL Checklist that need greater attention
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts too. If either is troublesome for you, you can eliminate them.
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (i.e. bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit.
8. Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don’t starve yourself and don’t stuff yourself.

General impressions & observations / resources to share / sources of excitement / requests for input & support
I didn't have a good week. I couldn't seem to get back on track... I guess I hit the cravings that can come back in the extinction arc of the pleasure trap. I plan to double-down and get back on track. The preload and 50/50 plate are very good behaviors that I have incorporated into my lifestyle. This is a very good thing. I've also increased my exercise. I have fallen back on late night snacking...
I look forward to making good choices and getting back on track this week.

Thank you MWL team and all who participate. This group gives me incentive to get back on track. I hope everyone has a good week.

[Mark Cooper]

The window for reporting this week's weigh-in and behavioral results has officially closed.

The remainder of my replies and the weekly summary will follow.

[Mark Cooper]

Noella - You continue to take steps toward your goal each and every week!

I can make sure to include my favourite flavours in my lower-calorie dense MWL meals to make these satisfying to my taste.

This seems like an especially astute and useful observation. I think the patient, resolute approach you are bringing to bettering your health is quite admirable. Happy St. Patrick's Day! That "Irish three course meal" does sound delicious!

birdy birdy - Down a pound! Congratulations on dropping out of the obese BMI category! Yay! Just in case you (or other participants) missed Jeff's comments about salt, they are quoted below.

Just to be clear, the McDougall Program, MWL or Regular, as promoted here and at the 10 Day and 12 Day Program is not a salt free program. We are a low salt program just like Pritikin, Ornish, Esselstyn, Weimar, Kempner, etc who have produced most of the studies on the therapeutic WFPP diet. Your husband should feel free and confident that he can successfully follow the MWL program and add salt to his food at the table to taste.

There are a few WFPB program who are promoting a SOS free diet as a superior diet but there is no evidence for that. If you would like, I would be glad to post the articles on this including a discussion with the main promoter of the SOS free diet.

And from the MWL guidelines:

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.

Jeff addresses this fairly exhaustively in this thread. Keep striving to move those remaining Ns closer to being Ys!

taymariekay - Your scale continues on its downward slope, Taylor! I can imagine how that very restrictive (in both time and duration) meal schedule would present a challenge. Do you have any other break periods throughout the day where you could have an adherent snack? Do you think it might help to modestly raise the overall portion size at breakfast and lunch, or would the time allotted be insufficient? You could certainly experiment with including some beans in your meals; are beans a food you have found feel pretty filling for you in the past?

Belana - Hello and welcome back! Be sure and check out the updated orientation information for the group, so you'll be all set for next week.

josietheschnauzer - Hang in there, Elsa! I expect that jump in weight will prove to be transitory. As always, the best path forward is to take the focus off the specific scale reading, and apply it to the recommended behaviors. As Jeff advises, when results seem to falter it is a good time to make

a very honest and thorough appraisal of the guidelines and principles of the MWL program and calorie density and their understanding and adherence to them.

Then, make the recommended adjustments as needed.

Remember, the program always works because it is based on sound science.

You know what to do!

chef16 - Sometimes holding steady can feel like a victory, right? Dining out can certainly complicate things and make adherence feel more effortful. Making the best available choice is definitely a step in the right direction; Jeff tips for Dining Out can help to ease the difficulty of finding those good options. Being able to stick to meals you've prepared in the week ahead should certainly make it easier to follow the recommended pattern of behavior.

Growing a Pear - Your husband gradually transitioning to MWL must feel very gratifying (though inconvenient in that moment); a delightful surprise, indeed! The nice thing about recognizing failure to prepare as a problem is that the solution is self-evident, and if your husband contributes his share of prep work, all the better. I think feeling exhausted and stressed-out can definitely affect our assessment of choices; by extension, finding and practicing robust coping strategies for managing stress could help take the pressure off and contribute to more consistent, congruent decisions. Enjoy the improved weather! Onward!

Gimmelean - Nearly another pound gone! Kudos to you for doing your very best to adhere to the recommended pattern of behavior, even when that required a lot of intentional, conscious effort. It is always nice to get some positive reinforcement from the scale after deliberate work. Anything new or different that made this week especially tough? Are there changes to be made that could make the week to come a bit easier?

Moonlight - Don't lose heart; I'm glad you are feeling motivated to get back on track! Having several of the recommended behaviors habituated in your daily life is beneficial. Would it help to select one of the remaining points that require further attention as a (somewhat) singular focal point, with the aim to fully incorporate that behavior, too? (e.g., eliminate all animal foods.) Powerful cravings can really tax our resolve, especially when they recur, seemingly out of nowhere. By "starving" those cravings of reinforcement, their extinction can be accelerated.

If you experience cravings for unhealthy foods, you can beat these cravings by choosing healthy foods to eat and knowing that these cravings will eventually pass and stop. However, you can not beat your biology (hunger) and your biology/hunger will eventually win.

When faced with cravings, I encourage you to take steps so that you always, at least, eat of the recommended foods before deciding to indulge in whatever provoked the craving. I know that your influence over your environment is limited, but can you think of anything you can do, any changes you might enact, to make it as easy as possible to reach for adherent food whenever you feel hungry, no matter the time of day?

to be successful, you have to prepare for success and make sure you have availability of minimally processed starches throughout the day.

Is it feasible to make the foods you find most troublesome harder for you to access, or otherwise limit their availability? Make getting back on track less arduous by offering your "willpower" some direct, concrete backup; that way it won't be a resource that is persistently exhausted.

[Mark Cooper]

Please note - I replied to each participant individually in the two lengthy posts linked below, provided that their reports followed the guidelines for weigh-ins.

Mark's Replies for March 12 - Part 1
Mark's Replies for March 12 - Part 2

By my count, 20 participants reported for our second March 2021 MWL weigh-in! If I neglected to include anyone, or you notice an error in the tally, please let me know (via PM so we can keep the thread as tidy as possible, or in a post here if you cannot PM).

Here are the results for the second Friday in March:

Week ending 3/12/2021: 20 participants reported a total loss of -20.70 pounds
--------------------------------------------------
Josietheschnauzer +6.00
Moonlight +1.60
Growing a Pear +0.30
--------------------------------------------------
Total gains: +7.90
--------------------------------------------------
NO CHANGE / MAINTAIN / STARTING OUT
Belana 0.00
Chef16 0.00
--------------------------------------------------
Noella -0.20
PonysPlants -0.20
Cmcavazos -0.60
GreenFroG -0.60
Taymariekay -0.70
Gimmelean -0.80
birdy birdy -1.00
CindyD -1.00
Squealcat -1.40
PotatoHead1980 -2.70
Rebecka22 -2.80
Rachael -3.20
Texaslil -3.40
Bunsofaluminum -4.00
HoustonJason -6.00
--------------------------------------------------
Total losses: -28.60
--------------------------------------------------
Cumulative group loss for March 2021 to date: 46.40 pounds
Average loss for week ending March 12: 1.04 pounds
Cumulative group loss for January 2021: 117.20 pounds
Cumulative group loss for February 2021: 39.40 pounds
--------------------------------------------------

Next Weigh-In is on Friday, March 19, 2021.


Congratulations on completing another week in the MWL group! Ongoing, persistent steps toward the recommended pattern of behavior can add up to big changes and big results in the end. Keep at it!

Building on our prior conversation about self-efficacy enhancement, a secondary source is through vicarious experiences. Albert Bandura posits that "Seeing people similar to oneself succeed by sustained effort raises observers' beliefs that they too possess the capabilities to master comparable activities to succeed." Observing the success of others can make us more likely to succeed; I think that is one benefit of participation in this group - when we notice the way a given participant deals with challenges and overcomes obstacles, we often find practices we ourselves are then able to adopt. It seems to me that the various McDougall Success Stories presented on the website can play a similar role. There were definitely some personal narratives and individual journals that served to inspire and direct my own efforts, and I've written about several of those in months past. Here are three that I found especially compelling, personally (links are to my posts, which include links to the specific success stories):

Cloudy Rockwell

George Sanders

Sue Pratt

I hope these, or other stories of success can inspire your efforts!

Have a great week everyone! Take care!

[Noella]

Building on our prior conversation about self-efficacy enhancement, a secondary source is through vicarious experiences. Albert Bandura posits that "Seeing people similar to oneself succeed by sustained effort raises observers' beliefs that they too possess the capabilities to master comparable activities to succeed." Observing the success of others can make us more likely to succeed; I think that is one benefit of participation in this group - when we notice the way a given participant deals with challenges and overcomes obstacles, we often find practices we ourselves are then able to adopt. It seems to me that the various McDougall Success Stories presented on the website can play a similar role. There were definitely some personal narratives and individual journals that served to inspire and direct my own efforts, and I've written about several of those in months past. Here are three that I found especially compelling, personally (links are to my posts, which include links to the specific success stories):

Cloudy Rockwell

George Sanders

Sue Pratt

I hope these, or other stories of success can inspire your efforts!

Have a great week everyone! Take care!

Thank you so much, Mark, for posting these links to success stories. I can’t thank you enough, Mark, for all of the support you provide us here in this discussion group. Thank you for welcoming and inviting us to read the individual journals section. I just spent an hour reading Cloudy, George and Sue’s experiences and I found doing so encouraging. Thanks for showing us around these additional resources.

Thank you to Dr. McDougall, and everyone who willingly shares their expertise with weight loss and healthy lifestyle practices in all of the different forums, for presenting such life-changing information. I am inspired to keep reading, learning, improving my knowledge and following the ten point MWL checklist.

Best Regards,
Noella

[Mark Cooper]

Noella - I'm so glad you found those journals to be a source of encouragement!

[bunsofaluminum]

Victories, comments, concerns, questions: Hit all 10 points with a yes for a second week in a row. No bribing myself with new clothes this time either. I have a trip coming up next Friday that I know will be hard to stay completely compliant on, but I plan to do my best and give myself grace. I also think the better I do in these days leading up to the trip the easier it will be to stay the course. We have a condo so I can cook and since I do all the cooking and meal planning it will just be the potential eating out that will be harder and the vacation eating mentality everyone else will have.

Rebecca22: I've got something similar in April. We're going to California for a week, and I know that day after day we'll have off plan food available. I'm going to take a little cooler with compliant foods, and we're also staying in a resort suite that includes a full kitchen so I will be able to make "my food" but by George, when you go on vacation, you eat out.

I'm looking forward to seeing how your vacation eating goes, and any tips you have will be much appreciated!

[Principality]

I realize I am starting late for March but please add me. A behavioural approach to these weigh ins might be just what I need. The template and at hand resources are very handy, thanks! Actually a little excited for Friday. Been starting and stopping this way of living years but knowing what is right never goes away and it nags me. I am at my highest weight ever and know this will help because it did in the past and the only change was my choice to do it compliantly. Will be nice to analyze my success via the checklist rather than focussing exclusively on numbers.

[Mark Cooper]

Principality - I'm glad you'll be joining us; today is always the best day to get started! Keep your focus on behavior, do your very best, and I'm sure your efforts will bear fruit.

[anne57]

...

[Mark Cooper]

anne57 - Hello and welcome! It's never too late to get started. Colcannon! Yum!