November 2021 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group

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Mark's Replies for November 26 - Part 1

Postby Mark Cooper » Fri Nov 26, 2021 2:15 pm

BambiS - Hooray for staying true to your intentions! :D A victory for sure! It sounds like you are doing great.

Rebecka22 - Getting right back on track in the wake of a lapse can be an important (and sometimes, hard-won) achievement. :nod: Being mindful of those sensations of discomfort after a nonadherent dessert can certainly help to inform future decisions. Focus on making the recommended foods the next things you choose to eat, and keep building from there.

Hope410 - Awesome! I believe you are down more than 6 pounds for the month! You have your plan just right, in my opinion; SNAP meals are a great tool, keep repeating the recommended behaviors, again and again, and your healthy habits will be built. :thumbsup:
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Re: November 2021 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group

Postby VegSeekingFit » Fri Nov 26, 2021 10:13 pm

Hi Everyone!!!

Hope you all enjoyed a very Happy Thanksgiving and were able to connect with friends and family over the holiday.

I am reporting last week's weight because I forgot to weigh this morning before breakfast. Duh.... :shock: So, for this week am really just doing the behavioral assessment part.

Weight change - 0 lbs.
Current weight - 127.2 lbs.
Last Week weight - 127.2 lbs.

1 Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Yes. Still mainly salad - liking 1 bigger salad per day and 1 cabbage / cole slaw type of salad. Have super easy method for both!! Lazy girl salad!!! I didn't preload all dinners.

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 think that I did mostly all 50/50 with fruit included sometimes in the 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. Yes.

4 Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). YES, of course. :D

5 Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). Yes.

6 Eliminate any added oil. Yes! I do not add oil and only have this if eating out (which I hardly ever do).

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 --- except another meeting with a handful of pretzels on the night when my son came home and several not MWL snacks were out on table as we were playing games. Kind of "reflexive" vs. thoughtful... Anyway, not in danger of becoming bad habit from this, but yes -- it happened. And I have to stand with the thought that the pretzel is not the best tasting thing to have to confess to!!! :mrgreen:

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. I continue to focus on hunger and am not stuffing and not starving.

10 Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
Yes - 7/7 this week for walks - was off work and mainly did 45-65 min per day. Weather ranged from decent to despicable... but I have the clothes for the cold weather walking.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

Thanksgiving was not a problem for me with complying with MWL. I brought a fruit tray, fancy crackers (not MWL), veggie tray, and hummus to family event. The hummus is always a hit (even without tahini). I adapted below recipe from the Vegan 8 "Buffalo Hummus". So, hummus, veggies, crackers were all decimated. :cool: (I did not convert anyone to this WOE, but I made them eat more veggies, fruit, beans....)

* Roast a bell pepper and jalapeno on parchment paper in oven - 425 degrees for maybe 25 min
* Blend the following:
*2 cans Great Northern Beans
*1 T smoked paprika
* 1T lemon juice
* 4T Franks Hot Sauce (or other hot sauce; check the label -- some are much worse on sodium, TJ also has a nice hot sauce with lower sodium)
*1 T water (or to thin to your preference)
* Garlic!! I use a couple of spoonfuls of the minced refrigerated stuff.
* The roasted peppers.
* Can top with minced green onion, parsley, smoked paprika, etc.

I am feeling great still. Also, I feel like my mindset has shifted to a bit of a better place. For instance, I can come up with a hundred reasons not to walk outside in the cold, but instead I am buying lots of fleece stuff and enjoying the fresh (albeit crisp!) air. Still working on indoor options - as I am not wanting to go to the regular gym.

Hope that everyone has an excellent week!!!! Onward....

Cheers,
Stephanie
"Just put one foot in front of the other and don't worry about the length of the path.
Once you get on that path, and the longer you stay on it, there eventually will come a time when you will not turn back." - Martina Navratilova
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Re: November 2021 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group

Postby CUgorji22 » Sat Nov 27, 2021 11:01 am

Hello everyone! Happy Saturday to all!

*Weight change: -1.6lbs (loss)*

Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Compliant 7/7 days
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. Compliant 7/7 days
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. Compliant 5/7 days
Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). Compliant 7/7 days
Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). Compliant 4/7 days
Eliminate any added oil. Compliant 6/7 days
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. Compliant 5/7 days
Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). Compliant 7/7 days
Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don’t starve yourself and don’t stuff yourself. Compliant 7/7 days
Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). Compliant 2/7 days

*Summary:
I feel good about my loss this week but if I'm honest I know I went off the rails for a few meals, 2 days this week. I really want to have the conviction that my self-discipline AND my weight change (in a week) are equally important.

*Challenges:
Thanksgiving was a bit of a doozy for me. This was my 1st major holiday without my Dad. I knew I wanted something traditional since Thanksgiving meals are linked to my Dad + extended family. But since my husband worked for most of Thanksgiving (he's in healthcare) I knew I could not carry cooking an entire meal by myself. My husband & I agreed on take-out. I ordered from a fixed menu at a local vegan restaurant, thus enters 1 day of non-compliant eating for a few guidelines. For the "plate" I ordered, I spread it out over lunch and dinner so I didn't stuff myself in one setting. I cooked cabbage to add to lunch and collard greens to add to dinner. I was able to still have a 50/50 plate for both of those meals, which I felt good about! The day after Thanksgiving my family was invited (along with another family) to a dumpling making party, by our Korean friends, who taught all of us how to make dumplings. My entire family had so much fun! But it wasn't until I got there, looked at the dumpling stations & realized (silly me) the wrappers are made with flour. UGH! I did limit myself & did not stuff myself on the 4 different ways our friends served the dumplings we all made. My friends hosting were kind enough to make a "special" veggie filling for me...except it had tofu mixed in because, to my friends, I'm "vegan." I realized I did NOT think through our invite very well...at all. Looking back, not sure what would have been best after arriving and feeling stuck: should I have just made dumplings with everyone but not eat any? Or perhaps when I'm invited to someone's home now, I need to text them what I can/cannot eat...which didn't even occur to me until right now. I'm starting to see thinking on-the-spot/in the moment about how to respond to non-compliant situations is hard for me. Also, disappointed in my lack of exercise. I was very distracted this week and didn't make it happen. Honestly, I was so focused on making it through this week without losing my mind because of grief. I have the chance now to re-focus since I survived Thanksgiving!!

Oh, and...I have to tell you. (I think this is hilarious!) One day I used a pat of vegan butter to saute cabbage before boiling it. I served cabbage & roasted potatoes (no oil or butter) for lunch. My husband said, "What did you use on the cabbage? It takes so good?" Long story short, after hearing I used vegan butter he said, "Make sure you tell the Forum what you did. That is NOT compliant!" :lol: :lol: I included that meal/day in the guideline: Eliminate all higher fat plant foods. It's good to know I have accountability all around me...haha!

*Victories:
- Finally getting the hang of starters before each meal! I made tomato basil soup that I used several days this week. I also got quicker at making salads by pre-cutting my veggies. Game changer for me!
- Nailed the 50/50 plate this week!
- Dropped oat + rice milk! Thanks for the feedback.
- I shared with my husband the restaurant card idea & how I'd like to make some for times we do in-person dining, since we're starting to venture out more and more. He thinks the cards are a great idea!

I'm on the fence about participating in the Group for December. Full disclosure...part of me wants to be "free" because sticking to the guidelines is hard, part of me doesn't like feeling like a failure each week when I report non-compliant days, part of me KNOWS the discipline is really good for me esp because my emotions (due to grief) are ALL over the place, part of me knows accountability helps me stay focused, part of me enjoys the feedback from you because it really helps me keep my head in the game & out of the food cloud. I have a lot to think about...

Hope you're enjoying the holiday season, Mark!

-Chesca
Last edited by CUgorji22 on Sat Nov 27, 2021 11:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: November 2021 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group

Postby Gimmelean » Sat Nov 27, 2021 11:17 am

Weight change +/- in lbs: +2.0

11/19/2021. 126
11/26/2021. 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) 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 until Thanksgiving.


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: Hi everyone.
I’m up 2 pounds but considering that this is the day after Thanksgiving, I’m not worried because I am back on MWL track right now. Hopefully I will see them disappear this week. It truthfully doesn’t feel great after the fact to overeat but it happens really easily! Have a great week everyone.
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Re: November 2021 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group

Postby Health 1st » Sat Nov 27, 2021 1:57 pm

Weight change +/- in lbs:  -2.7  (286.2 to 283.5)

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.----Some, on the right trajectory.

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.----Probably 60% of the meals I ate were. Did worse earlier in the week, but am building good momentum.

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, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).----Had left-over cheese earlier in the week. I know. Should have just thrown it out.

5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).----Had a few raw walnut halves crumbled on green beans for Thanksgiving.

6. Eliminate any added oil.----I didn't add oil, but had some processed food that contained 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.----No, but did better than last week.

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.---Did pretty good with this this week.

10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).---Yes, walked outside anywhere from 25-45 minutes 6 out of 7 days. Also did a lot of shopping earlier in the week in huge big box hardware + grocery stores that added up to several hours.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

----I only weighed myself Friday for weigh-in, but I think it's safe to say that I easily could have gained weight earlier in the week when my eating was still kind of wonky (finishing the cheese + other things...chips, candy, etc..). So I was surprised to see a 2.7# loss, especially since I ate later, heavier, + more sodium on Thursday evening, Thanksgiving, than I usually do.

----Unlike how I started MWL on 7/13/21 (cold turkey--lol--in light of Thanksgiving ;-) ), this time I'm crawling back. I'm definitely more than halfway there :) :-D + I love all the great, healthy MWL foods!!!! I have thoughts I want to put to "paper" but see the time getting later + will have to do so later, hopefully by Sunday night. ....I did more Black Friday shopping from my phone yesterday than I had planned, otherwise I was going to work on this post then. But many, many thanks to Mark + Stephanie for your addressing my question!!! Thanks, too, to any others who may already have. Am writing this on QuickMemo+ + will read everyone's posts later.

----Wishing any of you who may celebrate Hannakah a wonderful one! Interesting, too, how you will get around the fried foods? :?:

----May everyone have a terrific week! :nod:
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Re: November 2021 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group

Postby Noella » Sat Nov 27, 2021 2:00 pm

hi Mark,

DOWN - .3
Starch Solution SW- 240
CW-149.7
Victory: On the social emotional side: I feel so much more comfortable socially!
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, I did some but not as much as I would like. I hope to be out on the cross country ski trails this week.
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Reporting for November 26 Weigh-In is now CLOSED

Postby Mark Cooper » Sat Nov 27, 2021 2:01 pm

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.
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Mark's Replies for November 26 - Part 2

Postby Mark Cooper » Sat Nov 27, 2021 2:12 pm

VegSeekingFit - Delighted to hear you are still feeling great, Stephanie! That shift to a mindset of capability brings a new and different energy with it, right? As with the building of the exercise habit, mindfulness in various contexts will continue to develop with time and attention; keep practicing and learning as you go. :D

CUgorji22 - Down 1.6 lbs! While not a "perfect" week, it seems like things went pretty well for you overall, Chesca. Sometimes, as you note, a solution for a particular challenge or situation doesn't occur to us until we're on the other side of it; however, we then have that "tool" to use moving forward, so long as we capture and apply that new knowledge. Thanks for sharing the funny story about the cabbage. :lol: Your husband sounds so remarkably supportive of your current efforts. A foursome of nice victories for you, too! As you mention, there can be a lot to think about with respect to our attention to current goals: are these goals important? what are they worth? what is one willing to do to achieve them? From my perspective, it can be helpful to frame things with the perspective of what one is or will be willing to maintain for the long term; the primary goal is building lasting habits, after all. We definitely had a lovely thanksgiving here, and it sounds like you enjoyed the holiday, too. I made a pureed soup of butternut squash, cauliflower and onion with garlic and smoked paprika - it was fabulous, along with brussels sprouts, green beans and jersey white sweet potatoes! :)

Gimmelean - Based on your self-evaluation, to the extent you overate, it was on the recommended foods, correct? Stick to the MWL guidelines and I would not be at all surprised to see those pounds disappear before long. :) Have a great week!

Health 1st - Nice loss! Even though you feel like you're "crawling" to get back to full adherence, each week you are doing better than the week before, correct? Consistent progress will get you there in the end. Any time you have to spend with some planning and preparing of adherent foods will certainly pay you back in easier adherence. Keep at it!

Noella - Feeling confident and comfortable when socializing is a GREAT victory! Your diligent adherence continues to carry you forward, toward a ever nearer milestone. Onward!
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Weigh-In Report Compilation - November 26, 2021

Postby Mark Cooper » Sat Nov 27, 2021 2:22 pm

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

Mark's Replies for November 26 - Part 1
Mark's Replies for November 26 - Part 2

By my count, 8 participants reported for our final November 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 final Friday in November:

Week ending 11/26/2021: 8 participants reported a total change of -3.70 pounds
--------------------------------------------------
Gimmelean +2.00
Rebecka22 +1.60
--------------------------------------------------
Total gains: +3.60
--------------------------------------------------
NO CHANGE / MAINTAIN/ STARTING OUT
VegSeekingFit 0.00
--------------------------------------------------
Noella -0.30
BambiS -1.10
CUgorji22 -1.60
Hope410 -1.60
Health 1st -2.70
--------------------------------------------------
Total losses: -7.30
--------------------------------------------------
Cumulative group loss for November 2021 to date: 43.80 pounds
Average loss for week ending November 26: 0.46 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
Cumulative group loss for May 2021: 35.90 pounds
Cumulative group loss for June 2021: 34.10 pounds
Cumulative group loss for July 2021: 64.95 pounds
Cumulative group loss for August 2021: 49.30 pounds
Cumulative group loss for September 2021: 18.84 pounds
Cumulative group loss for October 2021: 7.10 pounds
--------------------------------------------------

Next Weigh-In is on Friday, December 3, 2021, in the December MWL group thread.

Congratulations, one and all! You made it through Thanksgiving AND the month of November! Now, on to December, with the potential for more holiday festivities (and attendant challenges) ahead!

I'll post the December group thread on Monday, and I hope to see you all there.

Take care, be well, and keep living in congruence with your values and in service to your important goals!
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