May 2021 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group

[Noella]

Duplicate report deleted.

[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]

Ruff - Nice progress! How fun that your husband is shifting closer to a MWL way of eating, Katie! I imagine that could make adherence feel easier for both of you. I love your idea for a new tea ritual! Great work thinking through that problem and arriving at an excellent solution. Mono-salads to the rescue! Carry on!

cmcavazos - Dining out while travelling can definitely present a challenge, Christine; of course, it is also a great learning opportunity. Nearly everything gets easier with time, effort and experience. Have a great week!

Gimmelean - A really solid week and down 2.2 lbs! I'm glad the challenge I presented to start the month has been helpful for you; I really do believe that planning for success is fundamental to actually succeeding, and if we don't TRY to do hard things, how can we know just what we are capable of achieving?

Have a good week and stick with it!

You, too!

carwex - I'm so sorry you've been dealing with digestive issues and vertigo, Carol. That does not sound like fun at all! Thank you so much for sharing the observations and perspective on your experiences with medical professionals during this phase of your life. I'm sure others will find some common ground with that. Glad to hear you are feeling better. Take care and be well!

Zoey - 10 THUMBS-UP and down .4 lbs! That excellent week demonstrates that you have a lot to feel proud about! Speaking as someone who has been "alcohol free" for years, it does get much easier, but being "sober-shamed" always stinks. I'm not sure why people (as you note, sometimes people you wouldn't expect) have a tendency to do this, but I'm so impressed with your response:

Anyway, it saddened me, but then strengthened me, so I'll use it as a gift.

Good for you! Onward!

CindyD - Hang in there! Were the flour products and hummus a result of a social event, an unexpected challenge, or some other obstacle? Visiting a new trainer does sound very exciting, and making the most of this lifestyle seems like an admirable motivation. Enjoy that, focus on the fundamental principles of MWL, and things will be headed in the right direction.

texaslil - Aw, sorry your dog has a sore leg, Laila! I hope he gets to feeling better. Looks like a pretty decent week; if you were facing a repeat of that family get together, is there anything you might do differently next time? Have a good week!

Noella - Huzzah! Down a pound and on track! I'm so pleased to hear your knees have made some improvement; as someone who also experiences ongoing pain, I'm quite sympathetic to your desire for continued progress. It can be a long journey, but noticeable (even if imperfect) gains in our quality of life is surely worth it, right? You'll get there.

[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 May 21 - Part 1
Mark's Replies for May 21 - Part 2

By my count, 16 participants reported for our third May 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 third Friday in May:

Week ending 5/21/2021: 16 participants reported a total change of -11.00 pounds
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CindyD +2.40
Kappagator_96 +2.20
Cmcavazos +0.20
Squealcat +0.20
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Total gains: +5.00
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NO CHANGE / MAINTAIN / STARTING OUT
HoustonJason 0.00
Texaslil 0.00
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PonysPlants -0.40
Zoey -0.40
Bunsofaluminum -1.00
Noella -1.00
GreenFroG -1.20
Ruff -1.20
Gimmelean -2.20
Rebecka22 -2.20
Frowsyowl -2.40
Carwex -4.00
--------------------------------------------------
Total losses: -16.00
--------------------------------------------------
Cumulative group loss for May 2021 to date: 30.00 pounds
Average loss for week ending May 21: 0.69 pounds
Cumulative group loss for January 2021: 117.20 pounds
Cumulative group loss for February 2021: 39.40 pounds
Cumulative group loss for March 2021: 73.20 pounds
Cumulative group loss for April 2021: 48.30 pounds
--------------------------------------------------

Next Weigh-In is on Friday, May 28, 2021.


Cheers, everyone! One more week to go in May! Let's make the most of it by taking some time to focus on our immediate environment. So often, problems and challenges that feel like they derive from emotional issues, lack of motivation, or a shortage of willpower can mysteriously vanish when we are in a focused, controlled, intentional environment that SUPPORTS our desired pattern of behavior. Even if you can't make your home completely "clean," there are likely things that can be done to better enable your adherence. Just think about what you can do to make the behaviors you want to encourage feel trivially easy, and the behaviors you want to discourage unpleasantly difficult. Folks in this group have often arrived at some pretty creative practices to set themselves up for success. You can do it.

I happened upon this post from Jeff in the Maintenance Group, and thought I would share it; it seems equally applicable to our efforts here.

While some of us have found achieving and maintaining success on the McDougall program to be a simple and easy process, many of us find there are ongoing challenges in maintaining the program over the long-term. Don't be disappointed. We live in a society and environment that makes healthy living a challenge. It has been formally recognized as a "toxic food environment." In addition, some of us find that we are the only one in our family following the program, which only adds more challenges. If so, this group is for you. We understand and get it and are here to support each other.

Thank you all for your willingness to keep working, be accountable, and to offer mutual support. It isn't easy, but good company helps, right?

Take care, be well and have an amazing week!

[RacingSnake108]

Hi,
I am late to the May party, but I was wondering if it's ok that I join now rather than wait until June?

[Mark Cooper]

Hi,
I am late to the May party, but I was wondering if it's ok that I join now rather than wait until June?

Absolutely! Today is always a great day to get started!

[RacingSnake108]

Absolutely! Today is always a great day to get started!

Thank you Mark

[Zoey]

I just popped in for a mid-week hello to everyone. And hi RacingSnake! I hope everybody is having a calm and productive week so far.

[PonysPlants]

No loss this week.

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. YES
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts, too. NO
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). YES Easy. Vegan for life

5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados,) 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. YES
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily. NO. Did a few days but having family here has made it a little trickier.

Not hugely surprising that I didn’t lose, I’ve had a family visit this week and we ate out twice. I tried to pick compliant food and asked for no oil but I’m sure that both meals had plenty of oil in them anyway. Both times I got basically rice, beans and veggies but they account for this weeks nos anyway. Although there’s no loss I’m glad that there wasn’t a gain. Previously I would have seen having a meal out as a ticket to say “oh well, might as well have what I want and get back on track tomorrow” but actually I know now that it isn’t that easy to get out of the pleasure trap and having a few days of fighting that battle isn’t worth it for a veggie burger.

My dad is now coming to visit for the weekend and my sister and her kids are coming down on Tuesday so I’ve got a few hurdles this week. It’s crazy how ingrained it is that the way to celebrate is to eat and drink. I feel so far removed from that mind set now. It feels like a shame that we have a disconnect here now, I haven’t seen these people since last summer and I don’t want to do the things they do. Cup of tea, a long walk and some soup when we get home hasn’t gone down as a fun option. Shame.

Thanks so much to Mark as always! And of course, our other lovely moderators.

Wish me luck and onwards to next week!

Naomi

[Kappagator_96]

Weight change +/- in lbs: +.4

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. 90%
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. 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, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit. No, bread crumbs
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:

Very hungry overall this week, and took me a few days to realize that the steroids I was prescribed were probably causing some of that. Luckily, I am off of them now and hope my appetite will go back to normal. Sometimes when I went back for seconds, I neglected the nonstarchy 50% of my plate this week. I can definitely do better! Had some breadcrumbs in a stuffed zucchini recipe I made, just bored of eating very simple foods especially when the scale is moving in the wrong direction! But, I know if I want to see better results, I need to adhere to the guidelines, and push the pleasure trap aside. I am in the bad habit of daily weighing, so this week, I’m going to wait the full week to step on the scale. Moving on and leaving this week behind me.

As for victories, I upped the intensity of my exercise by adding some jogging intervals during my non-gym walking days. Proud that I am challenging myself.

Thank you for your support!

[RacingSnake108]

First week, weight 156.7

I'll list my compliance since starting MWL so this is only for a partial week

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. NO. Some meals but not all.
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. Some meals but not all.
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/NO. No added sugar but I use salt and don't hold back. Still slightly less than ususal.
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. I ate flapjacks with seeds
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. NO. I made and ate flapjacks which are fairly dense, plus contained seeds.
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. One day of stuffing
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). YES

[frowsyowl]

Weight Change: -3.8 Didn't expect this!

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. 6/7
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. 6/7
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. 3/7
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. 7/7
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). 6/7

Victories, comments, concerns, questions: Made my 90% compliance goal--just! It would have been higher, but I didn't want to hunt for whole wheat couscous at the grocery for a recipe I wanted to try and used regular. Surprised by the amount I lost this week, I had been holding steady since Saturday. Hoping to simplify my prep this week and to hit 95% or more.

[HoustonJason]

From Houston Jason

May 21 = 202
May 28 = 199

Weight change +/- in lbs: - 3 pounds

Total = - 53 pounds

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. No, most of the time.
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, most of the time.
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 – a parent bought me a “teacher appreciation / end of year” veggie wrap with avocado on it. Other than that I did great.
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. No, the aforementioned wrap used a wheat tortilla. I also had some baked tortilla chips.
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). No, I have a little unsweetened almond milk in my coffee and oatmeal.
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). I jumped on the rebounder 5 out of 7 days with small hand weights. I’m doing sit-ups and push-ups as well.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions: After a couple of no loss weeks I was hopeful and ate well except for a couple of treats this week and sure enough my results showed on the scale this morning. I’m out of the 200s now. This was the last week of school and parents were allowed outdoors on campus. I got a lot of compliments and “tell me your secret” kind of conversations so I am spreading the good word. Thanks as always for this forum and your feedback!

Original Weight = 252 on January 1, 2021 Jan. 8 = 244 Jan. 15 = 237 Jan. 22 = 234 Jan. 29 = 231 February 5 = 226 Feb. 12 = 225 Feb. 19 = 221 Feb. 26 = 219 March 5 = 218 March 12 = 212 March 19 = 210 March 26 = 210 April 2 = 209 April 9 = 207 Apr 16 = 207 Apr 23 = 206 Apr 30 = 206 May 7 = 202 May 14 = 202 May 21 = 202 May 28 = 199

[Rebecka22]

157.4 Weight change +/- in lbs: - 1.8 pounds
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. 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. 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: All of my no’s were from one takeout meal when I was out of town with my husband, but considering I had six meals on the trip I feel pretty good about limiting the weekend and the week to just that one meal. I packed myself salads and oatmeal and fruit and potatoes. The hotel ended up not having a microwave anywhere which was a little disappointing, but I just ate my food cold. I also ordered a compliant, yet bland meal one other time so I was proud of that. The accountability of this group is really helpful for me to get right back on track even when it’s not the easy choice, so thanks!

[bunsofaluminum]

Weight change +/- in lbs: +1

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. mostly. I've had savory oatmeal for brekkie a few times
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. no those dadblasted starlite mints
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. Avocado with a fake tuna samwich one lunch
6. Eliminate any added oil. no. Some chips and salsa eating out
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, rice crackers and mochi biscuits
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). yesyesyes

Victories, comments, concerns, questions: Looking back, my food this week was not great. I had some rice crackers one afternoon, plus some mochi from the Asian market on several different occasions. Not high fat, but talk about refined and processed. Also, we ate out for Mexican one evening and I had some of the gratis chips and salsa. And every day I had some starlite mints.

The triumph for the week is that I did stop upon satiation for every meal, and pushed my plate away rather than eating past full. Also, the burrito I ordered at the restaurant was packed with grilled veggies with no oil. I passed on the tortilla AND I ate only half of it, bringing home the other half for lunch the next day.

Exercise has also been really good. I'm enjoying my morning walks, and putting between 5,000 and 7,000 steps a day. Which is huge, considering that a year ago I couldn't walk to the end of the street. Helping my hubby with a big project in the back yard, removing flagstone and laying sand for a walkway of pavers every day after work...lots of shoveling, lifting, carrying, etc.

So I'm going to focus on #7 this coming week. Staying away from flour products. Period. The rice crackers are my biggest cheat