Noella - Thank you for sharing what worked for you this week with exercise! I love the idea you mentioned about staying active in ways that also serve a dual purpose in accomplishing a useful task.
squealcat - Hi, Marilyn! I very often eat my meals from bowls, as well; I have a 16 Cup stainless steel mixing bowl that is my go-to for nearly all of my meals (it works great for salads, soups and SNAP meals). Not bringing those troublesome, tempting foods like birthday cake home with us is always a good choice, so well done there. I think you are right about it being helpful to prepare ourselves for those little food-related "surprises" (often these seem to be related to social occasions). Of course, it is tough to "game out" every conceivable scenario, but I find it really helpful to think through (almost like roleplaying) my potential responses to the general situation of being presented with non adherent food. Once I have "rehearsed" an appropriate path to take, I can try it out "for real" and see if it works. If it does, great; if it doesn't, why not and how can I change or adjust to be more successful? It sounds like you are making good progress managing the challenges at your daughter's house; you can get to a point of confidence with other complications, too. Time, adherence, practice and experience overcome MANY obstacles, right? Have a great week!
carwex - Congratulations on getting such an encouraging offer on your apartment, Carol! I have a couple questions, to help get an idea if and how the group can serve your goals:
Are you underweight at present, or in a healthy range for BMI? During your time following MWL and losing weight, did you ever drop into the underweight category? If underweight is a concern, this MWL group probably isn't well-suited to addressing that. I've been following MWL myself for 5+ years, and for the majority of that time I've maintained a BMI near the lower end of the healthy range, without any modifications to the MWL checklist. However, during and in the immediate aftermath of my hospitalization 15 months ago, my weight did fall significantly into the underweight category. I followed the steps outlined by Dr. McDougall in
this article (listed under
Make the Following Changes in this Order to Regain Weight in a Healthful Manner) and pretty quickly returned to a healthy weight, whereupon I resumed MWL and have maintained in that healthy range ever since. I would encourage you to review the same article,
How Do I Gain Weight on the McDougall Diet? I’m Not Joking!, if this is an issue for you. Otherwise, if your weight is healthy (or you have a bit to lose), and you want to "tune up" your diet, this group can help you do that by aiming for adherence will ALL of the recommended behaviors. If the MWL recommended pattern of behavior doesn't suit your needs at present, I certainly understand, and I'd direct you to the
Maintenance Group as a great place to work on pursuing more individualized goals with the McDougall program. Hope that all makes sense.
We want to try and make sure that everyone finds the right help for their particular need.
Gimmelean - Your closing sentiment is SO RIGHT! When we focus on aligning our overall pattern of behavior to be congruent with the goals we seek to achieve, results inevitably follow over time.
Great job making your food prep routine really work toward contributing to success.
I LOVE
wildgoose's comment about MWL being a choice, too.
wildgoose wrote: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.
Another comment she wrote that strikes me as both brilliant and relevant:
wildgoose wrote:Sometimes it feels like a tempting food is reaching out, grabbing you by the collar, prying your jaws open, and leaping into your mouth. The desire is so strong, it feels like you HAVE to satisfy it, RIGHT AWAY.
But you don’t. Nothing awful will happen to you if you don’t inhale that sweet, salty, fatty thing that’s calling to you. You will be uncomfortable for a short while. Maybe for a little more than a short while. Ignore it. Distract yourself. It will pass. And then you will be all right. Better than all right, in fact. In addition to feeling physically better, you will have achieved a mental and emotional victory that is worthy of pride.
The process is also cumulative. The more times you surf through those urges to eat off-plan, the more time you are building up between now and the last taste you had of what you’re trying to avoid. The memories of that taste are less fresh, less acute. In addition, your successes mount up and you believe in the process more and more. It gets easier.
I feel very lucky to have the benefit of her insight informing this group! Onward!
josietheschnauzer - Cheers and congratulations for your progress, Elsa! That relationship between calorie dilution and food volume that you describe was a real, "BOOM"-"mind-blown" moment for me when it sunk in, too. Jeff has a great Q&A that really solidified my understanding of that concept:
Finding The Sweet Spot: Balancing Calorie Density, Nutrient Density & Satiety. If you try out that "lasagna" recipe using brown rice, definitely let us know how it goes. I think I've made something similar using sliced potatoes in place of tortillas, in the past. Funnily enough, I made
Jeff's veggie lasagna this week, with whole wheat noodles - it was AMAZING, and a real hit with the family.
JeffN wrote:Vegetable Lasagna
made with spinach, mushrooms, carrots, zucchini, onions, peppers and home made sauce.
Tomato Sauce
2 Boxes POMI Chopped Tomatoes
Fresh Garlic, Basil, Oregano
Lasagna
1 lb frozen chopped spinach
1/2 lb frozen mushrooms
1 lb frozen zucchini
1/2 lb frozen carrots
1/2 lb frozen onion, pepper mix
2 sweet potatoes baked
Filling
Mashed sweet potatoes and thin with warm water while veggies thaw and then mix thawed veggies in with the mashed sweet potato to make the filling
1/2 cup sauce on bottom of pan
1 layer whole grain noodles
1 1/2 cup sauce
1/2 sweet potato/veggie mix
1 layer noodles
1 1/2 cup sauce
1/2 sweet potato/veggie mix
1 layer noodles
1 1/2 cup sauce
sliced tomatoes
Bake covered for 45 minutes at 375
GreenFroG - What a great, successful week! Reading your report had me grinning with pride, particularly:
GreenFroG wrote:Yes - had a take out meal of steamed veggies and rice and was able to stay away from the added sauce on it, which was full of oil. It tasted great and I felt successful. We took our meals to a park, hiked around, and celebrated Valentine's Day.
and
GreenFroG wrote: My husband helped me a lot in celebrating Valentine's Day. He said he purposefully did not buy me chocolate and we planned an outing together where food was not the main focus. We went to a park and hiked around for the day. Slowly learning to incorporate these behavioral changes into my lifestyle!
A wonderful illustration of what we can achieve with time, adherence, and ongoing practice.
Carry on!
VegSeekingFit - Kudos to you for achieving FOUR 100% days, Stephanie! Can you think of any significant-seeming differences between those 4 days and the other 3? Any changes in situation, context or routine? I fully agree with you that your challenges with points 5 & 7 are something you can overcome with time, continuing effort, and adjustments based on your observations and assessments - especially since you've overcome similar obstacles in the past.
I enjoyed some Sumo oranges this week, myself.
Really well done maintaining your exercise habit through variable conditions; it'll be a happy day when spring arrives, right?
VegSeekingFit wrote:My husband has compared me to a caged animal as I pace around the house. I told him that this is exactly how I feel - trapped!
Thank you so much for sharing that fun anecdote! A week ahead filled with starch, veggies, exercise and sunshine - who could ask for more?!?