The Behavioral Path to MWL Success - January 2022 Group

[BambiS]

BambiS - All right! The energizer bunny! And clothes fitting more comfortably is a wonderful victory! It sounds like you've done several things to arrange an environment and routine that supports adherence. Any other tools you have found to be particularly helpful?

Being prepared, batch cooking, having frozen vegetables on hand that can be made quickly is really helpful. If I’m out, have something with me I can eat in case I get hungry.

Rebecka22 - Microwaving a bag of frozen veg is a great way to enable a 50/50 plate! Isn't it fascinating how those "vegan" temptations can be harder to pass by than more typical SAD fare? Give yourself credit for limiting the "exceptions" to that single meal, and bringing along your own adherent food for the birthday celebration. I can imagine that work related stresses feel especially burdensome right now; I think many of our day to day lives are feeling somewhat fraught at present.

I just need to keep focusing on dealing with that through healthy choices not going back to old habits of coping

You've got that precisely right.

[GreenFroG]

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Yes. I have steel-cut oatmeal every morning with fruit, and usually a salad as my preload for lunch and dinner. I batch cook the oatmeal in the crockpot and then put it into containers so it is ready to heat up in the microwave in the mornings. Once in a while I have soup as a preload, but not as often.
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 try to batch cook my food on the weekends, so then I often fix half the plate with pre-cooked food and the other half with fresh vegetables that I can steam in the microwave. We got a big bag of fresh oranges, so I have been having oranges for dessert. I will have to watch how many I eat though, as I really like oranges. Next week I am going to try to set one to the side for dessert and not go back into the kitchen after dinner. Going back for more oranges seems to be 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 started to sprinkle a little bit of salt on my food at Christmas, so that I would really enjoy my food and not have what others were eating. Then I think I have started to use more salt than is needed, and need to cut down. I have put the salt on the top shelf in the cupboard and will see if this helps next week.
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. I got into the crackers left over from Christmas. It is as Wildgoose has said in the past, In the House - In the mouth. My family was trying to use them up (Cheese and crackers) this week. I stayed out of the cheese, but could not resist having some crackers. They are almost gone, but the rest are in the cupboard on a top shelf, so hopefully this will help.
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 have been walking every day for at least 40 minutes and going to an exercise class once a day during the week for 50 minutes.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions: This is my first post in the New Year. We had family in town so was not able to post for a couple of weeks. I hope this is the correct format, Mark. Let me know if I need to be adding more information. I am not very wordy. I have read most of the posts and love all the tips and comments people have shared. Thank you for sharing. My goal is to work on my behavior modification and not so much on my weight, hoping it will change as I adjust my behavior. My challenges have to with social situations and holidays. During the holidays there are a lot of foods in the house that we normally do not have around. For the most part I stuck to the plan. Eventually my will power wanes as time goes on, so I found myself in the crackers after the holidays. I am hoping that as I continue on this journey, I will master more techniques to have in my tool kit. It is getting easier. One step at a time.

[HappyinOregon]

A 10-Point Checklist for Maximum Weight Loss
1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
(Munch on raw cut up vegetables or else canned spinach with vinegar.)
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.
(Tried 50/50 – fairly successful, but I do need to eat more veggies. Having frozen veggies certainly made things easier.)
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.
(I definitely reduced my salt use.)
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
(That actually was the easiest – since I was satiated, I wasn’t even tempted by my husband’s eating meat.)
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
(I made sure there was none of these foods in the house – so no temptation. Nuts can be a problem for me – because I tend to overeat them when I am hungry. I did have Silk Soy-based creamer in my coffee -limited myself to two tablespoons - baby steps.)
6. Eliminate any added oil.
(No oils at all.)
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 candy, cookies or cake this week. I wasn’t especially tempted.)
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
(I read the post about nut milks in soups. I’ve been having two tablespoons of Silk Coffee Creamer in the morning, but have limited myself to one cup of coffee.)
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.
(I definitely had enough to eat and was never hungry.)
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). (Trying to increase my activity – at least I was aware of it this week. Spend my days at the computer but trying to get up once an hour and try to get some steps in.)
All in all, I'm very happy to be back with Dr. McDougall. I've managed to put on 15 pounds during the last year and a half of dealing with staying home because of covid. And that was on top of the weight I already needed to lose. Didn't eat out at all but it was incredibly easy to mindlessly snack the day away.)

[josietheschnauzer]

MWL Behavioral Path to MWL Success Check List 1/14/22
1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit: Yes, I am using baby spinach in the salad instead of lettuce. It is like having a treat!
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals: Yes, and I am including a piece of fruit as dessert if I am still “thinking I am hungry”.
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts: Yes, I am doing this
4. Eliminate all animal foods: Yes
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods: Yes
6. Eliminate any added oil: Yes
7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products, popcorn and dried fruit: Yes
8. Don't drink your calories: Yes
9. Eating when hungry & until comfortably full. Don't starve and don't stuff: Yes--I am trying to concentrate on this at every meal.
10. Include 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily: Yes.
I have completed two weeks of my reentry phase. I feel much better without the processed food and snacks. While I lost only about 1 pound, I continue to regiment my eating. Thankfully, I had no cravings last week!

[Noella]

Hi Mark, Wildgoose, Jeff and All,
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. Early in the week I ate a few prunes one evening because I suddenly got hungry. I hardly ever get hungry between meals but it does sometimes happen if I don't eat enough starch at breakfast and lunch. That's what happened and the suddenly the extra hunger caught up with me. I wasn't tempted to eat dried fruit again, so that was good, but it reminded me how important it is to always have a couple choices of satiating foods ready to eat, like roasted potatoes, cooked rice or precooked pasta that I can eat with some veggies on those rare times I suddenly I get hungry.
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.
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). I seem to go in spurts with my exercise and this week wasn't as good as I had hoped but my exercise levels are much more than they used to be. My exercise inside the house was mostly focussed on balancing exercises rather than strength or aerobics. I just wasn't as energetic or active this week and unfortunately I spent a lot of time at my computer - very long hours and I planned to take breaks to move around and get exercise but didn’t. I tried to do the minimum 30 minutes exercise each day and succeeded most days but it was the minimum. I got out on the cross-country trails three times this week, skiing about 10 kms. each time. Today is a perfect sunny ski day, and I plan to ski a slightly longer route.

Victories: I want to tell anyone just starting out that it is possible to lose weight even if you can't exercise due to pain and you love to eat pasta. The weight loss victories I have experienced have little to do with getting exercise. However, losing weight has allowed me to be more active. When I started with Dr McDougall’s recommendations, I couldn't walk very far or climb stairs without pain, it hurt my knees too much. Even now that I have lost a lot of weight, I am very careful about the activities I do. If it bothers my knees I stop. The weight loss I have experienced is mainly from what I eat, not exercise. I eat a lot of food each day and I focus my meals around starchy foods - my favourite is pasta. When I eat a big plate full of pasta, potatoes, rice and beans I feel happy.

I'm enjoying the off-topic thread. Thank you Mark for setting it up and thank you to Stephanie and all participants for joining in. It's fun!

Comments: It's really is worth the effort of learning some cooking techniques and recipes that include favourite flavours without needing to have added salt. Learning to read labels carefully and purchase low or no-salt-added products really helps, too, like canned tomatoes, beans and other favourite foods.Wildgoose told me about the Pomi brand Italian tomatoes and they revolutionized my cooking of marinara sauces, soups, chilis and stews, I have noticed that I feel so much better when I use no sodium added tomatoes.

Comment 2: Two years ago, before starting MWL, I ate animal-based foods, especially dairy products. Lemon flavoured high fat yogurt was my ‘addiction’. I would drive out if my way to a grocery store on my way home from work on the days I got stressed at work and I would buy two family sized containers but I had no intention of sharing it with my family. If it was a really stressful work day I would eat both containers while sitting in the car in the grocery store parking lot. That’s how I managed my stress. Looking back to those bad eating habits now It seems so obvious to me that I was using dairy products to soothe my pain.

Two years ago, I not only liked the flavours of extra milk, cheese and butter in the SAD food I prepared for my family I thought the recipes looked and smelled delicious. Twenty four months of abstinence, I've noticed that these traditional, once favourite, North American recipes don't even look, taste, or smell appealing to me. It's quite the change in palate and perspective. Lacinato Kale (cooked) and delicato squash are SO delicious and to think I had never ever even tasted these vegetables until a few months ago.

Concern: will I always be ‘addicted’ to dairy foods? If I have a taste, I fear: will the floodgates open, will I eat out of control and undo the progress toward better health I have achieved? I know I can I avoid relapsing. This diet works. Compliance works. Avoiding the pain of obesity, the pain from arthritis, the pain of migraines…. the pain and lifestyle discomfort from thirty plus other health concerns I used to be bothered by on a daily basis. I so want to be a success with this and stay with healthy eating for the rest of my life. Dairy products stole my good looks and health away from me in much the same way alcohol stole so much, including life, from my father. I never saw my problem with excess food, and mainly one type of food, as the same thief that stole my dad’s health and life. I can now see how similar overeating is to his alcoholism; clearly I was eating to excess until two years ago. I'm so thankful to have found the the MWL guidelines. It is a great thing to have found this Behavioural Path to MWL Success group. All great things worth doing are even better when we do them together.

Best regards to everyone for an awesome week,
Noella
Current Weight 147 lbs.

[LLP]

1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Did this about 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.
I'm doing this about 2/3 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.
Just a little twice a week

4) Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
I am down to meat about 2 times per week. Dairy is completely eliminated.

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
Had some peanuts and nut cheese sauce

6) Eliminate any added oil.
As long as I’m not eating out, added oil is gone.

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.
Popcorn once

8 ) Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
I don’t drink any calories

9) Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.
Did well 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).
Worked out 6 days last week.

More energy this week. Insomnia is back which means I need to exercise more so I’m more tired.
I’ve lost 5 pounds the first two weeks and plateaued this week. I still have lots of things to change. I’m confident that once I do that, the weight will start to go off. I need to lose another 20-25 pounds to feel best.

[moonlight]

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. 65% Yikes! Down from previous week
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. 75% Same as previous 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. 93% Improved
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). 85% Improved
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). 85% Same as last week
6. Eliminate any added oil. 93% Improved
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. 67% Worse than last week..
8. Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). 85% Down a little
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don’t starve yourself and don’t stuff yourself. 96% Same
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). 5/7 Same

I love tracking everything I eat each day, marking the 10 pt. checklist for each item, then tallying at the end of the week. It helps me see patterns. For instance, I noticed that every snack I had this week was non-compliant. I’ve decided to have fruit as an evening snack. Every time I do a strenuous hike, over 8 miles, I eat more at night. Tracking also helps me, at the end of the week, see that I’ve improved in some areas, doing better than I thought. I made a 10pt. checklist for each day for the week. I print this and keep it under my placemat. It’s very easy to record my food intake when I eat.
Plan: Have more compliant meals ready to go. Eat fruit for nighttime snack.

JeffN quotes that I appreciated this week: (Thank you, Jeff!)
Reasons for Failure
Not planning ahead. If you do not plan ahead for success, you will most likely not find it.
Minimizing/Rationalizing the effect of certain behaviors and/or personal preferences, **especially in regard to certain foods**.
From The Road to Success: Creating Healthy Habits
Find a few simple recipes and a simple and safe form of activity or two that you like and then repeat over and over (and over and over).

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Team Time & Adherence,

Happy mid-January!! It's great to see so many participants in the group --- grateful that we have such an awesome opportunity to learn from each other -- as well as receive priceless feedback from the awesome moderators! Also, it is comforting to see that there are several of us in the same boat of seeking to improve our health through practicing the behaviors to adhere to the MWL 10 Pt. Checklist!!!

1 Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Same as last week -- I did preload 19/21 meals.
* I have made Jeff's Longevity Soup (loving this, made a bigger pot!!!) and continued to eat finger food salad and roasted veggies...
*I do target 100% here. The times I missed, I just ate soup for dinner - should have included a preload and 50/50.

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.
19/21 were 50/50 (see soup comment above).
* Key for me is planning, shopping, preparation to make starch, veggies, fruit easy to grab and incorporate into any meal.
* Finished week 3 of eating oatmeal for breakfast... (and I do love it!!!)
* Have roasted many potatoes, made oven fries, made a few pots of brown rice.
* I made a few pots of soup / chili / beans this week - Split Pea Soup, Creamy Beany (from this web-site), Black Bean soup (from this web-site), Red lentil chili. Upcoming week I'll probably make less pots as my son is going back to school --- he eats the MWL meals with me and sometimes even pre-loads!!


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).
5/7 Days Compliant.... This is an improvement from last week!!!!
* I have DECIDED to STOP snacking on husband's nuts and pretzels. These are not foods for me. I am sick of struggling and am just going to STOP eating these items.
* I have either: 1) delayed dinner or 2) prepared a compliant snack (in refrigerator) to face this head on -- which has really helped.
* I have wished that these items would give me McD's revenge (they do not) and I have tried to think of a way to visualize them as animal based --- or something else that would make them repulsive to me (haven't been able to make a connection). So, I am visualizing myself in Remedial Calorie Density Class as the participant who is not able to understand 2800 cal / lb. vs. 100 cal / lb. This is helping!!!
* I still have my other action items noted, but I think that I will get there with this plan. Obviously, goal is 100% compliance.

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.
Compliant 5/7 days
See #5 above. Comments are same.

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.
I try to be mindful of this guideline. I do really well all day except as it may relate to my non-compliance on #5 and #7 (which happens during the witching hour, after dinner).


10 Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
Yes, 7/7 days.
* Walked outside 4 days and exercised inside the other 3 days.
* Met goal of averaging 8K steps / week.
* Will be focusing on continuing indoor exercise, stepping at least 8K average / day, making friends with stationery bike.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

Observation: I have found that my tastes have changed since I started following the Checklist. For instance, I rarely use condiments anymore --- not that I have specifically been trying to cut down usage, but I just don't add them. One example is oven fries - I season them with rosemary, smoked paprika, and a bit of garlic and love them like that. When I started, I would use BBQ sauce to dip. Also, enjoying raw veggies without vinegar, etc.

Comment: If anyone wants to chat with fellow participants, mosey on over to the Off-Topic thread in this forum that Mark kindly set up last week.

Comment: We can all do this --- progress over perfection!!!! Onward to next week!!!

Thank you to Mark, Jeff, and WildGoose for all that you do to support us!!! Thank you to everyone who is participating - you all inspire me!!!

Cheers,
Stephanie

[Gimmelean]

Post for week ending 1/14/2022

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

Yes. In this cold I am loving soup. Maybe took it to a new extreme by having a veggie filled broth based starter followed by a starch based hearty lentil soup this week. Mark I love the idea of saving the pot likker in the fridge to add to the broth or nuke in a mid day hurry. VegSeekingFit- I’ve jotted down the stuff you batch cooked that you listed on the board because I think we’re in the same “food wavelength” and will try them too I love Noella’s idea of whole peppers and Josietheschnauzer’s apple, apple, apple mantra as well as avoiding “contraband”.
Cugor, once I have room in my fridge again, I’m going to try your suggestion and make the zucchini soup. The recipe looks really good and easy.

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 desert.

Yes. Love the idea of HappyinOregons canned spinach with vinegar. I must have at least 10 different kinds of vinegars.

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.

Terrible terrible terrible this week and always after dinner. Sweets and homemade baked goods. On p2 of this board, in response to Jane Ellen’s similar concern Wildgoose posted the link to Dr. Lisle’s video, “ The conditioned Cram”. I’m going to watch the video again, read and re-read Wildgoose’s advice. Once I can master this again, I’ll feel well back on track.


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. See item 3.

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

Never has been a problem. I’ve been doing this for years and trying to drink water every day. Mark you responded to Noella’s question about drinking water. This month I tried drinking 8 glasses a day. I felt great afterwards. But getting it down is revolting. So glad I have “permission” not to do that if I’m not feeling it.

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

Yes. For now.

10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
Yes- headed out for a walk now with 4 layers under my coat and not exaggerating.
When I return to running when the weather warms up a bit I’ll go back to the C2 ten K free app. Tried others and it’s my go to favorite. Josie- when you are ready to begin running again it’s a great way to painlessly ease back. PopSugar made their Active app free online and it’s pretty terrific for indoor cardio and strength workouts.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:
-New Years was just 14 days ago but feels like old news by now!
-Noella I am very inspired by your 93 pound weight loss and commitment and helpful comments. Like you, my family loves all of the foods I make and have been inspired to cook more plant based dishes. When they want other things- - well, that’s their contribution.
-The scale still shows that I’m on the right path towards maintaining a healthy weight. Fortunately most of the habits I’ve learned to practice and have said yes to are part of my life. I just really need to always keep a watchful eye on the hardwired, not so helpful choices that can take over in a moments notice. I’m grateful to have this support here to help do that. Have a good week everyone. See you in the supplemental thread.

[Drew*#]

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.****I have begun having a low sodium soup before one or two meals a day. It fills me up a bit before the main course.
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.**** I was pretty right on the mark with this. There was one or two meals that deviated from the 50/50 plate.
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. **** I have for the most part done this. There are times when I have a small "treat" but so far so good...
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).***** 100%. No deviations.
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).*** Mostly did so but did have a couple soy based meals with starch and veggies. Overall doing OK.
6. Eliminate any added oil. ****I have have avoided adding oil and cooked with water. The two meals with the soy may have had a little 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. *** Mostly complied here. When I deviated I was quite mindful of the action.
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).**** I checked the mineral water drink I drank earlier this week and it may have a couple splashes of juice. Soy milk is probably something I can do without in the coming week.
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.**** During meals I mostly ate to satisfaction, not over-eating. At one meal I realized I was satisfied and left maybe 7 bites in the bowl.
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). ****I would say the average was 30 minutes a day. I have an Achilles issue that got a little bit intense during a kickboxing/calisthenics class last night. Feels better today. Seems to be healing. Will check with my doc on what to do. I may switch from a minimalist shoe to a normal running shoe with molded heal and arch support. Also, I do sit a lot so am either standing more, getting up for 10 minutes and moving every couple hours, and/or walking on a treadmill and a slow pace.

Overall I am satisfied with the my weight loss trend this week. I am not "there" yet, but am moving towards my goal.

Drew*#

[CUgorji22]

Hope everyone's having an awesome weekend!

*Guidelines:

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Compliant 5/7 days
- Non-compliance/reason: In both cases of the 2 starters I missed this week (Tuesday-lunch, Friday-dinner), I was multitasking and very distracted. I had starters available but I was preoccupied and started eating as I was doing another task. 
- Decision to Adhere: I need to slow down (which I've been told before by many people-lol!), focus on preparing my meal & eat according to the guidelines I've committed myself to. As I review my week I can now see that taking care of myself in this way is actually more important than the "urgent" tasks at hand. 

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. Compliant 7/7 days
- Victory: My week was fast & furious the moment we landed home from Chicago. I didn't get the chance to do a big grocery pick-up like I normally do at the beginning of the week. (Our departing flight was canceled so we left a day later than expected.) But I was able to use veggies I froze before our trip, like brussel sprouts. I dug around the freezer & was pleasantly surprised to find bags of frozen veggies I could use, as well. Hooray for frozen cauliflower! I was more prepared than I realized! YAY!

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. Compliant 7/7 days

4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). Compliant 7/7 days

5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). Compliant 7/7 days

6. Eliminate any added oil. Compliant 7/7 days 

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. Compliant 7/7 days

8. Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). Compliant 7/7 days

9. 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

10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). Compliant 4/7 days 
- Non-compliance/reason: This was definitely a challenging week for me physically: traveling to a different time zone, recovering from delayed/canceled flights that threw off our schedules, then returning to PST. I honestly felt like a zombie for most of the week. I just couldn't physically bounce back quickly. I returned home to 2 major commitments that were time sensitive. I did not have the energy to workout & I didn't push myself. 
- Decision to Adhere: Love the idea of breaking up my exercise time...thank you, Mark! I do think that will help me. Even this week, I felt so overwhelmed at the thought of doing something for 30mins, as tired as I felt. It was also super helpful to read last week's comments from others with ideas for indoor exercise. Our townhome is 3 levels; we have LOTS of stairs! Using my stairs is a workout idea I didn't consider until reading your summary last week! 

*SUMMARY*
I think my determination during my trip set me up to stay focused with many guidelines this week. I'm so happy to report I did not eat out/order take-out 1 time during my trip, even though my family did. I reheated food from home or cooked grocery items I purchased in Chicago! HUGE victory for me!! As you know, eating out with my family usually trips me up, across guidelines. I can see/feel the right habits forming day-by-day, week-by-week. Very encouraging! I know weight is not the focus but I was pleasantly surprised by my loss this week...it was unexpected! Overall, I can say this was NOT a normal week for me due to all the travel drama returning home (I will spare you the details of our airline fiascos). My husband & I agreed; we will spend this weekend recovering & regrouping, as a family. Onwards and upward...

Oh...and I have to add. My daughter's birthday is Monday...so exciting! I talked to my husband and explained I DO NOT want to bake a vegan cake, which I normally do for my kids. I just know the tasting/testing/having cake around for several days would be a disaster for me. He is totally on-board! We plan to buy a treat my daughter asked for...which is something that doesn't tempt me AT ALL! Definitely a win-win!

*Weight Change: -1.4lbs *loss*

Enjoy your weekend, Mark! Thank you for all of your support!!

-Chesca

[Mark Cooper]

The window for reporting this week's behavioral results has officially closed.

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

[Mark Cooper]

kirstykay - Woo-hoo! First new post of the new year! It seems you did quite well, considering the post-surgery restrictions, Kirsty. What tools and techniques did you use to create adherent meals that were soft enough to accommodate your dental recovery? Wishing for you to continue healing well, for an easy return to "normal".

frowsyowl - Building time for exercise into your schedule and ditching the popcorn are definitely good steps to take, Jennifer. Are you planning to take any other actions to facilitate closer adherence to the recommended behaviors? May you have nights of restful sleep in your future!

thatsright75 - Another solid looking week, Kali! What methods and tools have you found most helpful for attaining such consistent adherence?

GreenFroG - Welcome to this new thread for the new year! I'm sure having time with family was a delight for you! You've used the reporting format correctly; thanks for sharing the description of your batch cooking routine, which serves as a great example of how simple, helpful strategies can be applied. Getting those foods we find troubling out of sight (and out of reach ) is almost always worth trying; let us know how that works for you this week. Celebrations and other social occasions are a recurring challenge for many participants; experimentation, testing, and readjustment can be key to finding what works in a given situation. Something I've found to be helpful for those type of occasions is to have some of my most favorite adherent foods on hand, something that feels a little "special," that I perhaps don't buy as often. It helps make festive occasions still feel celebratory. As you said, "one step at a time."

HappyinOregon - You are off and going! Do you feel like this week went the way you were expecting it to go? Did you do any particular preparation or planning that contributed to a fairly adherent week? Anything that was a surprise or unforeseen challenge? What is your plan for phasing out the soy-based creamer? Have you been able to find a no-salt-added canned spinach? If so, I'm sure others would be interested to know the brand or label. Keep it up!

josietheschnauzer - Feeling much better and with no cravings! That sounds like a great place to be, Elsa! I would say 10/10 makes for an excellent reentry! Were there any particular practices or actions that you found to be most helpful for returning to MWL and being able to fully readapt so quickly?

Noella -

it reminded me how important it is to have satiating foods ready to eat, like roasted potatoes, cooked rice or precooked pasta that I can eat with some veggies on those times I suddenly I get very hungry.

This is an important point, and worthy of repetition. Thank you for sharing your experiences regarding weight loss, activity level, and how the foods we choose (i.e. our prevailing pattern of behavior with respect to food) are such a key contributor to the results we experience. I absolutely LOVE the POMI tomatoes, too! I totally know what you mean about "traditional" foods not looking or smelling appealing; I've become quite sensitive to oiliness in particular, a VERY unappetizing smell that is quite noticeable when I'm around folks eating more "traditionally." The question of whether one might ALWAYS remain "addicted" to a particular hyperpalatable food is somewhat complicated, I think. I would say that highly-palatable, calorie-rich, processed foods, when consumed, nearly always pose a risk for triggering the Pleasure Trap. That is how the Pleasure Trap works, right? That said, something achieved once should be achievable again, no? I believe there is no lapse from which one cannot recover, provided continuing life and agency. It is much easier though, in my opinion, to avoid troublesome foods completely, rather than tempting a relapse. Far less arduous to STAY on track, than to GET BACK on track, yes? Best regards!

LLP - Insomnia is never fun! Hoping you experience restful nights ahead. As you note, once we can achieve and maintain the recommended pattern of behavior, the results follow given time. You mention that you "still have lots of things to change," what are you planning to do to make adherence more consistent and attainable for yourself? Planning any particular actions or interventions to support your efforts? TODAY is always the best day to start taking positive steps toward what we want to achieve.

moonlight - Being able to clearly recognize those patterns is so helpful, right? Knowing specifically WHAT we are doing when things work (and when they don't) can aid us in taking corrective action. Choosing fruit for an evening snack seems like an excellent practice to habituate; if you can keep it within reach, or easy to see and access, all the better. Adequate prep to have adherent foods ready to go solves the vast majority of problems, in my experience. In the areas where you saw improvement from last week, what do you think contributed to that? In those behaviors that had some regression, what would you say was the cause? Can that causative factor be addressed? Great quotes from Jeff!

VegSeekingFit - Happy middle of the month, Stephanie! Sounds like you have a solid food prep routine established. How fun that your son has been eating MWL, too! Continued improvement this week, yes? Let us know how the visualization works out as a means of motivating the elimination of those specific foods. Something that I have found personally helpful - establishing a specific action or behavior that is "triggered" by an impulse toward a food I want to avoid. For example, "when I find myself thinking about having pretzels or nuts, I will go to the refrigerator, get my adherent snack, and sit down to eat it." I've found my tastes have really changed, as well, right along the same lines you mentioned. Onward!

Gimmelean - Walking with 4 layers! Kudos to you! You have the majority of the recommended behaviors habituated; as you wrote, it is now just a matter of being able to adjust a few particular food choices, often made "in the moment." Having a predetermined, specific "substitute action" to turn toward at a moment's notice can be helpful in breaking those seemingly hardwired patterns. I compiled a collection of comments from wildgoose related to the Pleasure Trap and "cramming" below, along with a link to Dr. Lisle's lecture.

eating after dinner is a very common issue. The trouble is, at that time we usually eat richer, more calorie dense foods, often when we're already full. We don’t want to cram in another bowl of broccoli or a final handful of carrot sticks — but if there’s some tasty "treat" around, somehow we find room for it.

Suggestions that have helped me:

• Don’t have rich foods in the house, or if you must (if spouse or kids insist), keep them hidden, locked away, or anything you can do to put obstacles between you and temptation.
• After dinner, clean up the kitchen and walk away. The kitchen is now closed for the night.
• Make sure you’re not restricting your food, particularly starch, during the day. That’s a sure way to get you munching at night, when your supply of willpower is depleted.

Now for the big question: How do you handle the Pleasure Trap? Because that’s what you’re dealing with. You want "yummy" food. What you want, quite honestly, is fat. Creamy stuff. Vegan butter. Almond milk in your Starbucks. I get it. That’s how we're wired, to seek out rich food like that.

I can tell you a few things. First, willpower is a finite resource. You will run out of it, if you depend solely on willpower to get you through. So structure your life so that doing well is easier and doing less well is harder. Clean up your environment so you don’t have to make choices between food that’s compliant and "edible food-like substances" that are not. Maybe (hard though it may be) experiment with giving up Starbucks for a month. Make your life as easy as possible, keep the stress low and try to minimize the number of decisions you have to make about food.

Second, cravings for fat take up to 3 months to go away. The more often you feed those little fat receptors, the longer it takes for them to downregulate. Your taste buds will adjust, but you have to put up with a period of time where food doesn’t taste as "yummy" as you might want it to. I did 35 days on just 5 foods when I started. I don’t recommend that approach, but I do recommend keeping food very basic and simple, especially at the beginning. If you’re wearing yourself out trying recipe after recipe, looking for something that tastes good, you’ll give in or give up.

MWL is a choice. A choice you’re making for your health and your weight, to get where you want to be. It gets easier with time. Does the Pleasure Trap ever quit tempting you? No. You learn to stay away from the biggest temptations, and how to get right back into the groove if you stray. But are you ever totally immune? No. It’s always a choice. I look at a year-plus at goal weight, a level of health that I haven’t known in years, a wardrobe where everything is comfortably loose and everything in the closet fits — and I’m OK with not having some of my old comfort foods around.

I also believe in keeping a clean environment. That bread of the Gander's is in a high cupboard that I don’t go into. He doesn’t bring anything else into the nest that is tempting for me. We did a LOT of negotiating and communicating on this, and it was worth every occasional disagreement to get the environment as clean as possible. Willpower is a limited commodity. The more tempting CRAP (calorie rich and processed) food that’s under your beak and easily accessible, the more willpower it requires to resist it. And it’s not a matter of if you will cave in, it’s a matter of when. Make the good food easy to get and the CRAP food much harder to get, and you’ll be more successful.

The Cram Circuit, The story of binge eating and overeating through the lens of Learning Theory. Carry on!

Drew*# - You've made a good start at implementing the recommended behaviors! Consistent progress is the aim, right? What tactics and techniques seemed to be helpful for you this week? What actions and further changes do you have planned for the days ahead to support further improvements? Keep moving toward your goals.

CUgorji22 - Another great looking week, and a very thoughtful self-evaluation, Chesca!

I need to slow down (which I've been told before by many people-lol!), focus on preparing my meal & eat according to the guidelines I've committed myself to. As I review my week I can now see that taking care of myself in this way is actually more important than the "urgent" tasks at hand.

This is something that was also a real challenge for me, and I agree that making time to take care of ourselves is, at the least, every bit as "urgent" as other daily concerns. Your excellent preparation and planning definitely served you well this week. I'm so impressed with your VICTORIOUS travel experience! Happy birthday to your daughter! Great work finding a satisfactory way to celebrate her happy day!

[Mark Cooper]

Please note - I replied to reporting participants in the two posts linked below.

Mark's Replies for January 14 - Part 1
Mark's Replies for January 14 - Part 2

Hooray, everybody! We are well into the new year, halfway through the month, and have a vibrant community of participants working hard to practice the recommended pattern of behavior in daily life.

I think the observation below really shows how simple changes can make a real difference in our behavior. Keeping adherent foods "in sight" helps (as does keeping troubling items out).

I bought a fruit bowl, now fruit is in one place and in sight.

Likewise, a solid routine for food preparation is a great support for adherence.

I batch cook the oatmeal in the crockpot and then put it into containers so it is ready to heat up in the microwave in the mornings.
I try to batch cook my food on the weekends, so then I often fix half the plate with pre-cooked food and the other half with fresh vegetables that I can steam in the microwave. We got a big bag of fresh oranges, so I have been having oranges for dessert.

* Key for me is planning, shopping, preparation to make starch, veggies, fruit easy to grab and incorporate into any meal.
* Finished week 3 of eating oatmeal for breakfast... (and I do love it!!!)
* Have roasted many potatoes, made oven fries, made a few pots of brown rice.
* I made a few pots of soup / chili / beans this week - Split Pea Soup, Creamy Beany (from this web-site), Black Bean soup (from this web-site), Red lentil chili.

Another great point here:

it reminded me how important it is to always have a couple choices of satiating foods ready to eat, like roasted potatoes, cooked rice or precooked pasta that I can eat with some veggies on those rare times I suddenly I get hungry.

Regularly tracking your behavior can be a great tool, especially if you are struggling and feel at a loss for what to do.

I love tracking everything I eat each day, marking the 10 pt. checklist for each item, then tallying at the end of the week. It helps me see patterns. For instance, I noticed that every snack I had this week was non-compliant. I’ve decided to have fruit as an evening snack. Every time I do a strenuous hike, over 8 miles, I eat more at night. Tracking also helps me, at the end of the week, see that I’ve improved in some areas, doing better than I thought. I made a 10pt. checklist for each day for the week. I print this and keep it under my placemat. It’s very easy to record my food intake when I eat.

I also wanted to take a moment to celebrate Chesca's awesome TRAVEL VICTORY!

My week was fast & furious the moment we landed home from Chicago. I didn't get the chance to do a big grocery pick-up like I normally do at the beginning of the week. (Our departing flight was canceled so we left a day later than expected.) But I was able to use veggies I froze before our trip, like brussel sprouts. I dug around the freezer & was pleasantly surprised to find bags of frozen veggies I could use, as well. Hooray for frozen cauliflower! I was more prepared than I realized! YAY!

I think my determination during my trip set me up to stay focused with many guidelines this week. I'm so happy to report I did not eat out/order take-out 1 time during my trip, even though my family did. I reheated food from home or cooked grocery items I purchased in Chicago! HUGE victory for me!! As you know, eating out with my family usually trips me up, across guidelines. I can see/feel the right habits forming day-by-day, week-by-week. Very encouraging!

Let me remind everyone of our expectations for the self-assessment reports -

For each point from the list, please elaborate by discussing what contributed to your success and/or what actions you plan to take to better fulfill that recommendation.

The intention here is to share effective practices and propagate them through the group. Likewise, when struggling with a particular behavior, we want to encourage participants to consider how they can overcome obstacles and devise an action plan for addressing challenges. Simply relying on "willpower" alone is often insufficient for success. If you are feeling stuck on a particular point, and you're completely at a loss for what to do, ask the group so that we can help. Our goal is to help you adopt a pattern of behavior that will lead you to achieve your important health goals.

January is a great time to get in the habit of thinking through possible solutions for ongoing challenges, and ways to circumvent common obstacles. Readjustment and adaptation based on ongoing self-assessment is key for progress. We'll be getting stricter in holding participants accountable to the expectations laid out in the Orientation as we head into February.

To close out the week, check out Jeff's brilliant method for producing a constant supply of adherent meal options. Dr. Lisle discusses a similar concept in his Three Top Tips for Dietary Success.

Enjoy!

Best wishes for an amazing week! Take care and be well.

[frowsyowl]

frowsyowl - Building time for exercise into your schedule and ditching the popcorn are definitely good steps to take, Jennifer. Are you planning to take any other actions to facilitate closer adherence to the recommended behaviors? May you have nights of restful sleep in your future!

Thanks Mark. After more trouble last night, I've also decided to go upstairs after dinner and avoid the living room (and watching TV) which has a direct view to the kitchen. I have plenty of crafty things to do.

I also found this comment helpful (and Funny!) from [b]VegSeekingFit:[b/]

I have wished that these items would give me McD's revenge (they do not) and I have tried to think of a way to visualize them as animal based --- or something else that would make them repulsive to me (haven't been able to make a connection). So, I am visualizing myself in Remedial Calorie Density Class as the participant who is not able to understand 2800 cal / lb. vs. 100 cal / lb.

I seem to just think of junk as "a little of this and a little of that"...and getting away with something....but really, these foods should cause more concern.

Edit: I forgot to ask something... I was thinking about what I had planned for lunches this week and wondered if I needed to change it? I made a red-lentil chili with mostly lentils. I was going to have raw veg as a starter and a cooked veg as my 50/50, etc, but should I add potatoes or something to the chili so that it's not 95% beans. I plan on eating it every day this week for lunch.