September 2021 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group

[Mark Cooper]

September 2021 RESOURCES
This section will be updated throughout the month with links to useful resources, as they are added to the thread.

Orientation Information for McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group
MWL 10-Point Checklist
MWL Program Guidelines
Calorie Density: How To Eat More, Weigh Less and Live Longer
MWL Recipes
SNAP Meal Template

1- 28 oz Can No Salt Added Tomatoes
1- 16 oz Bag Frozen Mixed Veggies (any type)
1- 4 oz Frozen Green Leafy Vegetables (collard, turnip, mustard, etc)
1- Around 200-250 Calories of a Cooked Starch (Brown rice, Yam, Potato, WW Pasta, etc)
1- Seasoning (to your preference)

200- 250 Calories Of Starch options
~ 1.25 to 1.5 Medium Potatoes
~ 1.25 to 1.5 Cups (Cooked) Whole Wheat Penne Pasta
~ 1 to 1.25 Cups (Cooked) Brown Rice

The Road to Success: Creating Healthy Habits
The Pleasure Trap: Dr. Doug Lisle at TedxFremont
How to Lose Weight Without Losing Your Mind with Dr. Doug Lisle
Dr. Doug Lisle on The Ego Trap
Dr. Doug Lisle: The Story of Willpower – What it Is & How it Works
Dr. Lisle's Three Top Tips for Dietary Success
Jeff Novick, RD - Nutrition & Health FAQ: Answers To The Most Asked Questions
A Review of the Rules & Guidelines for Reading Labels
Passive Overconsumption: The Unintended Intake of Excess Calories
Why We Hit Plateaus and What We Can Do About Them
Top 10 Reasons for Lack of Success
Dining Out and Travel Food
Exercise, Health & You: How Much Is Enough?
Optimum BMI? / Optimal BMI - redux
Building Self-Efficacy
Amy's Giant List of Links to Dr. Lisle's Lectures

[PotatoHead1980]

I was part of this group in March and April and had great success. But after three vacations since July, I have gained some of the weight back and have fallen back into the habit of snacking in the evenings. I'm looking forward to getting back on track. I love Jeff's SNAP meals and plan on eating them for most of my meals.

I have completed the orientation and would like to be added to the group.

[Mark Cooper]

PotatoHead1980 - Welcome back, Chris! Today is a great day to return to the recommended pattern of behavior.

[Mark Cooper]

Happy September, everyone! I hope the month is starting well for you.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's weigh-in and seeing everyone's reports! Friday is this group's weigh-in day, and participants have until noon pacific time (19:00 UTC) on Saturday to post a report of their result for the week. Reports posted outside that window of time won't be included in the summary that I compile for Saturday evening. This group is all about changing patterns of behavior, so it seems reasonable to me to expect those who choose to participate in the weekly weigh-in to honor that time frame for reporting. In addition to reporting your weight change in pounds, more importantly, please be sure to evaluate your behaviors within the context of the MWL 10-Point Checklist, as discussed at the beginning of this thread. I will respond to everyone's reports in a cumulative post on Friday evening and Saturday evening, and the summary for the week will be posted Saturday night.

For more information on why participants are recommended to weigh themselves once a week while in the weight loss phase, check out this excellent and thorough article from Jeff - To Weigh or Not to Weigh

[Rebecka22]

148.6 Weight change +/- in lbs: -0.4 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. 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. 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). YES

Victories, comments, concerns, questions: I planned ahead and overcame the desire to just have easy less healthy choices. I did not eat out or eat first day of school ice cream. Planning ahead was key to my success. I will need to continue to plan and especially figure out timing with working out before school and getting all the kids to their school on time.

[Mark Cooper]

Rebecka22 - Huzzah! Fantastic work! It seems like you are doing great, and I think your observation about the relationship between intention, planning, and success is astute. Keep it up!

[Health 1st]

Weight change +/- in lbs:  -4 (262.40 to 258.40)

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.----Ugh.  This is the point with which I'm still struggling the most.

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, pretty much each + every meal.

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).----Had 1 serving of commercially bought "Ranch" Kale Chips.  No oil, but had ground up sunflower seeds + tahini, 9g of fat.  The good thing is that they were too bitter from the tahini + I really didn't care for the fatty feel on my tongue. The best thing is I didn't "beat myself up" for having such a high fat item, "only" had 1 serving, + it didn't lead to eating more non-MWL compliant items. So at least it was an isolated incident.

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.----Had some no oil, very low salt hard pretzels 1 time.

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

9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.----2 times I got too hungry.  1st time was when I went to get my bowl of oatmeal, saw a small bug swimming in the water , threw it out, wasn't all that hungry, + decided to wait for lunch.  Well, I did get hungry + that's when I decided to try those kale chips.  The other time was yesterday.  Didn't have enough lunch, so ate the pretzels in the car while away from home.  Didn't have as much dinner then, though.

10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).----Yay!  The last 2 nights I was able to walk the longest I have since I got started + was debilitated by the pain.  Am still experiencing discomfort + pain, especially 3 days ago, but thankfully seem to be gradually on the mend.  So excited + grateful!!!

Victories, comments, concerns, questions: 

----The heat + humidity broke this week so I wasn't perspiring buckets.

----I know I shouldn't weigh every day + plan to stop soon + only go to 1x/week, but I have to admit it is nice to see the progress since I've still been losing more per week than I thought I would at this point.  #'s are funny, though.  It was looking that I'd maybe have a 2 # loss + maybe not even make it to the 250's, but then voila, the pounds came off!  But all this clearly confirmed what I already know...the scale is a gauge but not as accurate as the positive health + behavioral changes. (Mark, just saw you included the link to Jeff's excellent post about weighing + I will definitely re-read it this weekend; thanks!)

----I talked about this further in my journal yesterday, but that cake roll pops in my head too frequently.  And I do not even have a taste for it!!!  And when I think of the ingredients in it, it makes it even less appealing than it already is.

I decided to flesh this all out mentally, though, + think, "What's so special about the cake roll?  If I were to buy + eat it, then what about potato chips or ?? !"  Giving in just to try to get this monkey off my back would probably just open a flood gate!

Again, the very good thing is that I really do not have a taste for it + find the ingredients appalling.  But I sure would like for the thoughts of it to stop or at least become waaay less frequent.  Any suggestions would really be appreciated--thank you!

----Happy Labor Day, everyone!  Wishing you all a very safe, exuberant, + MWL (or at least McDougall) compliant celebration.  Thank you, again, Mark, Jeff, + everyone else for all the laboring you do for us.  Your great efforts are not in vain.

[cmcavazos2]

Weight change +/- in lbs: -0- No loss/no gain

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). NO
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:
Victories: I'm still doing better with avoiding workplace treats by being on an afternoon schedule.
Comments: I had some baked tofu - so "NO" for #5. And I had a coffee latte out with friends at a local coffee shop -- so NO for #8.
Questions: None this week

Let's see what September brings...
Thanks so much.

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi to all MWL participants! Hi Mark and Jeff and Goose! Thank you to all who participate in any way on these threads. I feel like this is a life line and so encouraging. Thank you especially to Mark Cooper who is kind, patient, and astute...

Hope everyone is enjoying last hurrah of Summer!

Weight change - 1.4 lbs. Loss
Current weight - 134.8 lbs.
Last Week weight - 136.2 lbs.


1 Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Sometimes. Missed 9/20 meals this week. It is weird for me to quantify this because I thought that I had done better. I think that I am doing ok overall with managing calorie density down -- but maybe need to pay more attention here if scale stalls.

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. Only missed 1/20 meals this week.

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, of course.

5 Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). Well... I had peanut butter again (once, on one rice cake) after going to a party and NOT eating anything there (nothing compliant). The peanut butter was thrown away. I will have to "re-buy" when my son comes home.

6 Eliminate any added oil. Yes! I do not add oil and only have this if 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. See #5. Rice cake holds no interest for me without peanut butter.

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. Got at least 30 minutes in every day. Also met my 70K step goal for this week. Will continue that for next week.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

I have been following the MWL Checklist for about 4 months now. This has helped me to greatly improve my physical and mental health!!! I am pretty excited about it (I think I have it memorized)! Reviewing the checklist frequently has helped me to more quickly react to anomalies before they become "new" behaviors (if that makes any sense). Also, it has helped me to make sure that I am considering all aspects and not glossing over certain things that I may not prefer to follow...

I have lost 24 lbs. in 4 months. They are gone for good. I am not going back.

Habits that I like and will continue on with include regular exercise (which right now is just walking for me). I am committed to getting a new treadmill before mid-October so that I can continue this (even when weather is yucky). I need to make a point of walking about 70 minutes to accumulate average 10K steps / day. This is not really difficult to do - and is often broken up into parts per day.

I also found that I really like salads! Even as a breakfast preload!! In fact, especially as a breakfast preload. I feel great when I start the day with a walk and a salad! I do like the smashed bean and NSA salsa for dressing and also plain rice vinegar (no sodium, no sugar) with air dried chives and a couple grinds of seasoning blend. I am still experimenting here!!!

My favorite appliance is 2 quart slow cooker. This week I have made: split pea veggie soup, no chick brown rice soup, black beans, and sloppy lentils in it. I have a small refrigerator - so like a manageable amount of leftovers.

I have been reading some old MWL threads. There is a wealth of information out there!!!

Wishing everyone a compliant and WONDERFUL weekend! For those of us in the US, Happy Labor Day!!! I am making Jeff Basic burger recipe and oven fries to celebrate!

Best,
Stephanie

[Zoey]

Weight change +/- in lbs: only down 0.1, my usual.

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.
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 (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. mostly
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:
September? Seriously? We're moving along quickly!
I had another good week with only one round of stress-eating. At least I reached for a cucumber to do the least amount of damage. As I've said before, I don't like the behavior. I'm just trying to put more time and distance between the incidents, and make the object of my wrath a fresh vegetable instead of any addictive foods that I've been known to choose.

[veggiemelt]

Weight change +/- in lbs: -2

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. No
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals. Doing way better!
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. Done! ✔️
4. Eliminate all animal foods. Done! ✔️
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods. Almost! I had some avocado this week.
6. Eliminate any added oil. Done!✔️
7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products. Almost
8. Don't drink your calories. Done! ✔️
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. Done! ✔️
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily: I increased my steps some this week but I need to add in some intentional exercise.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:
The week started out great, and then slowly rolled back to SS after my mom ended up in the hospital with an intestinal blockage. She has dementia and is also a fall risk, so two of us are splitting shifts to that she isn't alone. This is tough!

[PotatoHead1980]

Weight change +/- in lbs: -2.5

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. 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, 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). Needs work

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:
I'm off to a great start! I've done this before so I know that it works, I just need to stay away from the snacks and stick to my meals only. I've been eating Jeff's SNAP meals and I made a batch of Heather McDougall's vegetable lentil soup from the Forks Over Knives website. Great stuff!

[Gimmelean]

Weight change +/- in lbs:0

8/27/2021 127
9/03/2021 127

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).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. 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). Yes.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions. Now that the record rains, floods and tornadoes of this week in my locale have passed, the weather has cooled down considerably. It’s almost as if Mother Nature realized that it’s September and poof— heat and humidity gone. As if the continuing threat of Covid is not enough, my family worldwide is very fortunate to have not been impacted by the most recent disasters and weather related extremes and I’m grateful. Wishing for the best outcomes for those who have been impacted.
This week, I dusted off my Couch to 5 k app, just ordered a brand new Fitbit since my old one quit, and started a little running program. I found a metronome app that simultaneously works in the background which keeps me on pace. (Both apps are free). Sounds extreme but I betcha I can run a mile without burning a single calorie if I don’t. This new exercise routine for fall has helped me to stay connected to eating wisely and well -at least for now. Still not going to any gyms.
I’ve lost 16 pounds since joining this forum and 21 pounds before that. I’d like to lose a few pounds more but this seems to be a good place. I’m still marveling that I’m at my lowest weight in my adult life. Maintaining is just as tough as losing and will always need to be top of mind for me. Thank you to everyone for continuing to moderate, educate, share, motivate and inspire. I hope everyone has a good month ahead.

[texaslil]

o lbs
169.8


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, had avocado and tofu
6. Eliminate any added oil. No, popcorn
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, ate wheat flour
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: I'm a bit late to report, so I'll make this short and sweet. Still not at 100%, I think when it comes down to it, I still am craving fats and higher pleasure type foods/recipes. I haven't been able to just eat simply.. I still am cooking vegan meals from family that sets me up for failure.. I'm moving forward, but glad I didn't gain at least..

Thanks as always!
Laila

[Noella]

Hi Mark,
Still travelling
This week’s Weight Change: none: cant weigh this week due to travelling
Last Week’s Weight 151.5
Goal Weight: 140 lbs.

1.Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. NO I tried but I couldn’t quite do this at every meal while travelling
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 I really tried to keep this up! But it was tricky and once I ran out of pre cooked potatoes it was more of a challenge
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 …I got a sore throat and used cough candies
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. NO a couple meals prepared for us had added oil that I couldn’t totally avoid
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 had bread as my starch A few times.
8.Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). No…three non MWL beverages this week
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. Exercise daily for thirty minutes (brisk walking). YES YES

I have succeeded in keeping to the MWL guidelines quite well while travelling, so I’ll call the week a good one over all! I got sick though, and got tested for Covid and then had to self-isolate until I got my, happily, negative result back. So, our travelling got a bit more challenging mid week. I have been using a lot of cough candies to keep me from coughing.

Question: what can we use in place of cough candies that is MWL approved?