April 2021 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group

[cmcavazos]

Weight change +/- in lbs: - .8# loss

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) with minimally processed starches. Choose fruit for dessert. -- 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). -- NO
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 and dried fruit. -- 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). -- NO

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:
Victories: Another small loss this week.
Comments: My food plan was pretty good this week. For the NO's - I had some unsweetened soy milk on my steel cut oats and also some tofu cubes in a stirfry this week. I exercised on the weekdays but didn't on Saturday and Sunday.
Questions: None

I'll be checking in again next week. Thanks.

[RebeccaF]

Hello,

I weighed in this morning at 141.8, down from 146.2 on my starter day. That's 4.4 pounds, which makes me happy. Highlights of the diet for me are the big pot of one or another kind of bean soup that I eat every day, steamed vegetables, potatoes and sweet potatoes and a couple pieces of fruit. Please note that I am a stroke survivor (March 28, 2020) contending with hemiparesis and spasticity; hopefully this diet is good for the brain as well as the body.

Rebecca

[Annabel71]

Hello, I have read all the introductory and orientation information. I would like to join the MWL weigh in group, please. Thanks.

[Rachael]

Weight change +/- in lbs: -.6
Last week: 148
This week: 147.4

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) with minimally processed starches. Choose fruit for dessert.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).no-lots of nuts on Easter
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 and dried fruit.everyday except Easter
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.not on Easter
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).yes

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:
On Easter I had the best intentions of adherence but didn't do so well. The trigger for me was my sister asking if I wanted pecans on my salad and I struggled for a few seconds in my brain, knowing I should say NO but hearing yes come out of my mouth. That was the beginning of the end. I went ahead and had dessert and candy too. I was really disappointed in myself.

Victory: I was able to get right back on plan the next day. Typically in the past, I would have said "screw it" and continued to eat crap the next day or 2, but this time I didn't do that!

Concerns: The Weekend. I have a relatively easy time adhering to MWL during the weekdays. I have very structured days due to the typical 9-5 job, but when the weekend comes that structure is no longer there. I have 3 small children so our weekends can vary greatly and they can be trying at times. I obviously love my kids but find that with parenting I can get stressed by the end of the day and just want to soothe myself with food. My other concern is the dreaded leftover Easter candy that is lurking in our cabinets. I made sure to only buy candy that I don't really care about but the kids also received candy from my parents and sister that i do definitely care about! I know that the best thing for me would be to get it out of the house but I struggle with doing that because of the guilt. That's their candy and for some reason it just feels mean to throw it out or give it away but I have been living with that candy that seems to be mocking me for the past week and it hasn't been easy. As I type this, maybe I should just put my needs first.

[vicmor104]

I had a 1.6 pound weight loss that is not included in the tally.

[Mark Cooper]

I had a 1.6 pound weight loss that is not included in the tally.

The summary for this week hasn't been posted yet, so the tally will go up at the end of today, when the reporting window has closed.

[Mark Cooper]

Weight change +/- in lbs: -4.4 lbs.

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.- Adhered to this except for breakfast, where I had berries and banana in the oatmeal.

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. - Ate a big bowl of bean soup and a bowl of vegetables or salad for lunch or dinner. No dessert because I used my fruit for breakfast.

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. - Eliminated all salt and sugar, and used a homemade salt substitute from Dr. Gregor's How Not to Die cookbook. Used stevia as sweetener.

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

5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). - Ate a couple tbsp. of homemade almond nut butter one day; otherwise compliant.

6. Eliminate any added oil. - Done

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. - Done except that I used air popped popcorn (did not see it on the list until now).

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

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

10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).- I am exercising 3-4 hours every day in home stroke therapy. This includes at least 30 minutes of walking, usually more. I would not characterize it as brisk exercise but its the best I can do.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions: I don't have a lot of questions. I have been working on a WFPB diet for a year since my stroke but now I am getting serious about it so that I can get some of this extra weight off. I need to lose 20 more lbs. to get my BMI down to 22. I know it will take awhile to do this but I am hoping it won't go on for too long. I think my stroke deficits will be easier to manage once I do that.

[Gimmelean]

Weight change +/- in lbs: -1.04 pounds
4/02/2021. 129
4/09/2021. 127.6

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). Yes

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, a ir-popped popcorn. Mostly-

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)Yes.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions. Some mini pretzels threw me off; otherwise I would have been able to claim a 10 for everyday. No bread at all this week and I felt so much better for it. The result was that I lost the 1.04 pounds I put on over the previous two weeks. I think there is really some credibility to the term spring fever for me each year. I pushed through the perceived laziness to walk every day. Now that the days are longer it’s possible to walk in the evenings after work, but I’m most likely to get it done if I really plan to walk early mornings before work. Batch cooking on the weekend was especially helpful to be able to stay on 50/50 track and walk after work too. I found that a small serving of frozen mango chunks and frozen dark sweet cherries from Trader Joe’s, both with no sugar added,are a great dessert treat and help satisfy cravings for after dinner sweets. Have A Good Week Ahead Everyone! Thank you Mark.

[PotatoHead1980]

Weight change +/- in lbs: -0.2 lbs.

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. No
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. No
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. No
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). No
6. Eliminate any added oil. No
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. No
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. No
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). No

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:
Well Easter Sunday was a doozy. We had family over and there was a ton of candy in the house and I ate a bunch. Plus chips and crackers and other junk, I just went completely off the rails. And then on Wednesday my wife made enchiladas, which I love. They're McDougall compliant but not MWL due to the tortillas. I was planning on eating my SNAP meal, but I couldn't resist, they smelled so good. Other than Sunday and the enchiladas, I ate my normal MWL food for every meal, but I also had a few pieces of candy almost every day. The discussions about keeping a clean environment really apply to me because I just can't resist good candy when it's within arms reach. I think I'll divide all the extra candy between the kids and tell them to keep it in their rooms, so I won't see it, (or maybe I'll just throw it out). But I'm determined to get back on track this week. The good news is that the scale still moved in the right direction, just barely.

[chef16]

04/03/2021 224#
04/10/2021 224#
No change

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.100%
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).65%
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.65%
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).65%

Just doing enough to stay a float! : Really need to get on with it!

[CindyD]

April 3, 2021 141.5
April 10, 2021 141.5
RESULT - NO CHANGE

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. YES
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals 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).YES
6. Eliminate any added oil. YES, except the crackers which have a little
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. NO, CRACKERS
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. YES
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). YES

So I didn't buy more pretzel thins, which had been a problem! However, I bought some multigrain crackers which turned out to have sesame seeds and I ate a lot of those (I do all the shopping for myself and non-compliant partner, so it's in my control). So, no more of those! Otherwise, I really do snack on things like broccoli, potatoes or an apple. No change this week is fine with me!

[Noella]

Hi Mark,
I just really want you to know that I am so thankful for this discussion forum!
It encourages me to THINK about how to look after myself (and my family, too!) and that is a great gift!
Noella

[JaBee]

Weight change +/- in lbs: - 3.7

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. 5/7, really helps with satiety
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. 7/7
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. 7/7
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood)./ 7/7
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). 7/7
6. Eliminate any added oil. 7/7
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.7/7
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). 7/7
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself
5/7.
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). 5/7

Victories, comments, concerns, questions: Re: last week, Mark you were correct as I used too much salt even though sprinkled on top.

This week- no salt added, simple meals much better results. Keeping simple boring meals work best for me!,

[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]

connielovesdogs - Better than a decent start; it sounds like you made steady adjustments to your behaviors and environment across the week, and finished the week fully on track! Jeff's list of travel foods might give you some ideas for your backpacking excursion; many of his suggested foods would be MWL adherent. Good luck and have fun!

HoustonJason - Congratulations! That is excellent progress! Diligent adherence and time will deliver you to your goal by and by. Sounds like you might need to buy a new belt! I'm sure the compliments at work felt really gratifying.

Noella - The reading from your scale just continues to drop! Your adherence is exemplary! I'm right there with you in appreciating the bounty of delicious, adherent foods; every day feels like I'm having my "favorite." Thanks so much for your kind comments; I believe taking time to really think about the connection between our environment, pattern of behavior, and state of being has great value - especially so, when it spurs us to take positive action.

cmcavazos - Nice progress, Christine! You are down a pound over the past two weeks! Keep at it, aiming for steady, achievable improvement where and when you see the opportunity.

RebeccaF - WOW! I'd say you've done a pretty great job of "getting serious!" Carry on practicing the recommended behaviors, and adjusting in those areas where you discover discrepancies. When using stevia as a sweetener, are you sprinkling a modest amount on the surface of your food at the table? (That would be the recommendation, just as for any added sugar). Jeff addresses the gamut of sweeteners in this post. Wishing you an excellent recovery.

Annabel71 - Welcome! I'm glad you're joining us and I look forward to seeing your report next Friday. Let me know if questions arise.

Rachael - Kudos to you for getting back on track the very next day! Celebratory social occasions can be VERY challenging, and often require some practice, trial and error, planning and adjustment to manage with ease. Don't beat yourself up over the Easter setback, but do take some time to consider what things you might do differently next time. Challenges offer some of the most fruitful opportunities to learn how to make this way of eating work. Is it feasible to inject some of the structure you find helpful during the week into your weekend schedule? Do you have any favorite (non-food-related) activities that you could use for self-soothing after an exhausting day? I can understand what you mean about it feeling "unfair" to throw out your children's candy, but wouldn't eating it be equally "unfair"? Or is it more that the presence of the candy is inspiring other cravings? Any way that you might sequester that candy away so you aren't constantly confronted with it? Or could you have an open conversation with your kids about those candies you find most troublesome, and why it would help you if they weren't tempting you? You'll get everything figured out, practice makes perfect.

Gimmelean - SO very close to 100% and down 1.4 pounds! Cheers to bouncing back from "spring fever!" Having ample, prepared, adherent food on hand is a key contributor to success, and batch cooking is a solid means of attaining that buffer. Your dessert sounds scrumptious, right up my alley. YUM!

PotatoHead1980 - Holidays are hard, Chris; it isn't at all unusual to stumble when faced with festive "treats." What is most important is getting right back on track, and trying to learn from the challenges. What are some things you could do in the future to make things easier for yourself? I think your idea to split up the candy and keep it out of sight and inaccessible is solid (or throwing it out, of course. ) You can do this, focus on making your next right choice!

chef16 - Staying afloat is better than sinking, right? What would you say are the primary obstacles interfering with your adherence? Are there changes you could make in your environment, routine, or prep-work to remove those hurdles?

CindyD- I see a lot of YESes there! Those darn crackers were the only snag. Lesson learned, right? Enjoy that lovely trio of adherent snacks, instead!

JaBee - Woo-hoo! Awesome work! Finding the specific routine and pattern that makes this way of eating manageable within each of our individual contexts is the real work toward achieving success; keeping it as simple as possible almost always makes things easier. Carry on your diligent, thoughtful efforts!