The Behavioral Path to MWL Success - July 2022 Group

[wildgoose]

JULY 2022 RESOURCES
This section will be updated throughout the month with links to useful resources, as they are added to the thread.

Orientation Information for Time & Adherence:
The Behavioral Path to MWL Success
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
Can You Really Eat As Much As You Want?
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
You Are Not Broken
wildgoose - How I determined my "goal weight"
Amy's Giant List of Links to Dr. Lisle's Lectures

[wildgoose]

Welcome to the July Time & Adherence Group! Mark will be off until the end of the holiday weekend (hope you're having a fantastic, restful time, Mark), so I will be posting on Saturday with my replies to all your check-ins.

Goose

[Lizzy_F]

Hello to Goose, Mark, and all of "The Behavioral Path to MWL Success" members!

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

In May 2022, I completed the McDougall 12-Day Program. What an amazing experience! I now have over a month of consistent "time and aherence" under my belt. The vast majority of my days during and since the 12-Day Program comply with the 10-point MWL checklist. I am seeing both scale and non-scale health/wellness improvements, which just solidifies for me that I am on the right path.

My primary goals are to fine tune my adherence to the checklist, and to develop a strong accountability system as the frequency of meetings with my Program Support Specialist (Tiffany, who is AWESOME, for those who know her!) start to become less frequent.

I look forward to getting to know everyone, and to (finally!) becoming a McDougall success story!

[wildgoose]

@Lizzy_F Welcome, Beth, glad to have you on board! I'm also an alumna of the online 12-day program, and I had a wonderful experience as well. You're in the right place for support and "fine tuning." Looking forward to your posts.

Goose

[BambiS]

7-1

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, or larger salads


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, not an issue here

5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
Yes, no problems

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, no problem

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 made a couple of Mary’s great recipes this week!


10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).most days, got a few walks in before the humidity and heat arrived, otherwise rode my cubii


Victories, comments, concerns, questions: I hit a 50 lb weight loss this week! I started loosing last Sept and lost 10 lbs before joining this group in November.

We went to hear a local band, I avoided eating anything there. They had popcorn, which I used to have it often.

Happy 4th everyone

[Rebecka22]

1.Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. YES
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals, filling half your plate (by visual volume) with non-starchy vegetables and 50% (by visual volume) with minimally processed starches. Choose fruit for dessert. YES
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts, too. If either is troublesome for you, you can eliminate them. NO
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). YES I am committed to this one so it’s easier for me.
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). NO
6. Eliminate any added oil. NO
7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (i.e., bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit. NO
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). 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

The first day of the week after sending in my report I was like okay you feel bad, but at least you can get your eating together and I did for a day. Still struggling with a messed up stomach from Covid and then added in a constant bad taste in my mouth led me to try and eat all the things just to get the taste out of my mouth. All the no’s were originally from Saturday, but nothing helped, I still had the bad taste and my stomach felt worse. This has been exhausting. It led to more bad choices throughout the week. I’m really going to try and get back on track this week.

[Noella]

It's July! Hello Everyone! I hope everyone is in a better environment than I am.
My goal for July: I hope to improve my MWL vacation/travel skills this month. We are away from home almost every day this month. Happily, we are staying in a vacation rental and can cook our food most of the time. But, still, we are in dangerous territory: vacation mode. Overindulging is almost synonymous with us being on vacation. I watch what my husband eats while 'on vacation' and realize it is different from his at-home eating. My husband is my biggest influencer! My jealousy and self-pity over what he is eating are things I need to overcome. I sometimes look at him as he indulges in high-calorie-rich foods, caffeinated coffees/teas, alcoholic beverages, smoothies and sodas, etc. I feel pulled to join him in the drinks and foods celebration. We are immersed in the city nightlife, a mixture of Fear Of Missing Out - FOMO - and environment. It's hard for me to follow MWL when we are travelling. It's hard to order water with a wedge of lime as I watch my husband partaking in extravagant high-calorie foods and beverages. I see my husband returning to the pleasure trap and regaining some of his lost weight. However, it's not my place to control/criticize what he eats, even though what he is choosing makes it challenging for me not to get pulled into a pleasure trip with him. My husband is supportive with his words, compliments me on losing so much weight, and says he likes eating MWL at home, but on holiday, he wants to let loose and eat the Standard Diet. I can see how much he is enjoying access to calorie-rich and processed food. It's been a very challenging week. So, I'm trying my best to eat what is right for me. This is where my commitment to MWL is vital; I am unwilling to let go of the health gains I have achieved.

Dr. McDougall says this way of eating isn't all or nothing. When travelling, I will do the best I can, one meal at a time! If it's not perfectly MWL, I want it to be as close to following MWL as possible.

1. Start each meal with soup and/or salad and/or fruit. fruit is most accessible when travelling
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals. sometimes, I order an extra side of salad, rice or veggies to achieve this balance
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 stop them. Yes:
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). one vegan patty had some ground nuts and seeds in it; it was salty too (not at all like homemade)
6. Eliminate any added oil. coconut milk in a curry dish
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. a wholegrain wrap, a couple of whole-grain buns, a few marshmallows ...
8. Don’t drink calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). a fruit smoothie and one glass of wine
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). My dream goal for the next weeks and months is to lose more weight -five-ten pounds- enough that my knees allow me to be able to walk 'briskly.' I can now walk a fair distance, but my knees are still reluctant and complain when I push them too far. I want to get a spring in my step. We have been walking between 12000-18000 steps daily, and I need to put effort into each step.

Yikes! As I go through the guidelines, I can see that I barely hang on to my MWL beliefs and commitments.

Best regards,
Noella

“What I am about to tell you is so utterly simple and true that it may deceive you: Health feels better than sickness. You will be happier at your ideal weight than you are overweight. You will be proud of yourself. You’ll have confidence. You’ll feel so many good things that right now you cannot imagine and I cannot describe. But the net effect is that you’ll like yourself a lot more. You’ll look in the mirror and actually like what you see; you may even love what you see. You will have honored the person within yourself who longs to be healthy, beautiful, and free of all those burdens that being overweight brings. Life will not be perfect, but it will be better.”
― excerpt from The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss

[Lizzy_F]

I hope it's OK that I post a (lengthy! ) check-in, even though I am just officially starting MWL today. This serves as my baseline. For anyone who makes it through my sometimes lengthy stream of consciousness, I appreciate feedback, comments, strength and experience! And hope! If this is way too much, just let me know and I will try to be much more brief in the future! Thank you in advance!

MWL checkup: I am officially starting MWL today, even though I realize I have been eating MWL for the most part since the 12-Day program. I am reviewing the 10-point checklist so I am clear on my starting point, and I can begin to work on some tweaks to my program.

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. I have braces on my teeth right now (yes, at 64 years old LOL!) so salads are just not my favorite thing to try to eat. I have a much easier time with cooked veg. So I've been making a huge pot of vegetable soup, then dividing it up and freezing some, so I always have a low calorie density soup on hand. That has been working to be my meal starter most of the time. Other times I will start meals with cooked vegetables. What do people do who eat oats for breakast? About 2 weeks ago I made a batch of oats with rices cauliflower mixed in. Jeff and Tiffany both indicated that oats are low enough in calorie density on their own that adding in riced cauliflower was not necessary to reduce the calorie density. I do add fruit to my oats. So I guess that satisfies the spirit of this point on the check list? Would love to know how others view and process this check point for "one pot meal" type things.

2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals, filling half your plate (by visual volume) with non-starchy vegetables and 50% (by visual volume) with minimally processed starches. Choose fruit for dessert. No problem with this one - so far so good! My favorite veg right now is steamed cabbage. I usually end up eating a big pile of that (often 1/2 of a head!) first, then move on to potatoes either baked (with ketchup, of course!!!) or mashed with Mary's golden gravy. Fruit has been my dessert with ONE exception - ONE cookie at a baby shower. Do I need to eat cookies? No. Do I risk "one bite" kicking off a horror eating experiene? Yes. I'm glad that situation didn't turn into a horror experience, but I need to be very aware that my history suggests NO COOKIES FOR ME! At least not any SAD cookies. Maybe someday I will try a McDougall compliant dessert, but for now I'd rather focus on continued weight loss and the time and adherence factors.

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. With the exception of that cookie and my beloved ketchup, I don't believe I've consumed other added sugars unless part of a condiment. I'm actually amazed that this has felt effortless! My salt is also dramatically reduced. Aside from condiments like ketchup, occassional salsa, etc., I am mostly eating whole real foods. I use a lot of Mrs. Dash. I sometimes add a bit of salt to the top of my food if it tastes a little too plain. I'm also working on eliminating canned goods containing salt from my pantry. I'm not throwing away things like beans or tomatoes that have salt. I am working to reduce the impact of said salt by doing things like using 1 can of salted tomatoes to 1 or 2 cans of no-salt-added tomatoes when making my vegetable soup. Eventually the salty tomatoes and beans will be gone from the pantry - I only buy no salt added and low sodium items these days. The one exception is that I have not found any no salt added fat free refried beans. I haven't been eating a lot of those, but do have them on occassion in a (salty!) corn tortilla. The salt from that causes water retention, so it's only been worth it as an occassional indulgence. So I think I'm on a good track here, but absolutely welcome any and all feedback and suggestions.

4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). Done!! And I don't miss a single bit of it either. Well, perhaps there are moments when I am a tad bit envious of my low-carbing husband's cheese, but I just summon Dr. McDougall's voice in my head talking about cow mucus and all that - and gratefully grab a baked potato LOL!

5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). This has not been a struggle, at least not thus far. I do have a batch of potato salad where there is less than 1TBS of Tahini in the dressing for 3 pounds of potatoes. (the "dressing" is white bean based, and tastes pretty good!) Next time I will leave the tahini out and see how that goes. It's such a small amount per serving that I'm not going to toss out the potato salad. But I also don't need to use the tahini next time.

6. Eliminate any added oil. This has also not been a problem. My husband and I rarely eat out, so I do not have the challenge that many people do with this issue in restaurants, etc.

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. And here we come to an item that mentally I am already feeling resistant about. I occassionally (I would say 3-4 times per week) will toast a piece of Ezekiel bread until it's real crunchy, and then break that up like croutons when I eat my vegetable soup. Can I enjoy my soup without it? Yes, absolutely. Tastes great and I eat my soup WITHOUT the toasted bread at least 1/2 or more of the time. I think this is a mental King Baby moment where I am just whining in my head about reducing / eliminating yet another thing. I will just have to work on this.

8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). This is another one that I REALLY resisted at the start of the 12-day program I convinced myself that smoothies were THE way to get in plenty of veg without having a huge mess in my braces. While that is definitely true, (less mess in braces), Tiffany put a stop to THAT line of justification right from the start. I haven't had a smoothie since, and I've been eating plenty of veg. And just dealing with the brace cleanup LIKE AN ADULT! I need to remind myself about this example while contemplating the Ezekiel toast from point 7!

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 don't feel like I've been starving or stuffing. Well, maybe occassional stuffing. I do sometimes end up with super busy days where I eat dinner WAY late at night. I hope to continue fine tuning my schedule and activity management so I don't end up in the position of eating dinner at 8 or 9 at night. But I will NOT allow myself to go hungry. So for now, it is what it is. I think I will wait to worry about the late dinners if my weight loss stalls out, which it has shown no sign of doing so far. I can over complicate absolutelly anything, and I am going to take a lead from Stephanie and remind myself that I don't need to make a bunch of goals that aren't essential - at least not right now. KISS! However, as is true with all of these points, I welcome feedback and experiences from others! Another thing that Tiffany has talked about as I get closer to whatever my optimal weight will end up being, is that I will want to eventually start out with smaller serving sizes, wait a little to see what happens with hunger, and then go back for more if still hungry. So that is something I see in the not to distant future to start experimenting with. I don't know if I'm explaining myself clearly - Dr. McDougall touched on this in his 2005 MWL newsletter update where he encouraged more smaller meals. (assuming I understood his point correctly). But no starving. I can't deal with that! I'm processing this concept as I'm writing this, and realize that I probably have work to do fine tuning this area, especially as I continue to lose weight and my smaller body doesn't need as much food.

10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). I feel like I can be way more consistent in the exercise department. I typically get in a lot of "steps" just living daily life. As an example, I did no intentional exercise yesterday, but had over 12,000 steps on the Fitbit just from a super busy day. But every day isn't like that! I did get a good daily walking program going recently, and then let a flare up of a knee problem (torn miniscus which was scoped, but still has issues). Now my knee feels better but I haven't gotten back to the daily walks. That is my disturbing historical pattern! So I definitely need to develop better habits around exercise. I also have a treadmill, an elliptical machine, and a Body Groove subscription, so there are really no excuses. I will add here that since being consistent on the Starch Solution for about 1.5 months, that my knees are already feeling better. And when I had the flare up, it didn't seem as bad and the recovery seemed faster than before. So I'm hoping that my body is changing - I hope inflammation is coming down which will just make movement easier and better going forward.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions: VICTORY: This level of compliance since May 13! May not seem like much to the long termers, but for me this is huge. I hope the key baseline pieces have clicked into place in my brain! I want to keep this up. COMMENTS: I am so grateful for all the support offered through the McDougall Program and though this forum! CONCERNS: None at the moment. QUESTIONS: I really think perfecdtionism and "all-or-nothing" thinking have been some of my big challenges in the past. I would love to hear from others who also feel that way - how was it for you? How did you overcome these challenges in your journey?

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Team Time and Adherence!

1 Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Yes. Still usually salad / raw veggies, but a few times fruit. Have really been loving cauliflower lately (who knew?)... Also, picked up some new to me ''angelcots" which are white-fleshed apricots.

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.
Was a bit crunched for time - so did a few things to further simplify my routine for the week which helped make adherence easy.
* Used microwave more frequently than usual for potatoes (had a hard time keeping enough oven-batch cooked in refrigerator)
* Encouraged my husband to keep making rice...
* Dug into my stock of NSA cans of beans
* Dug into my stock of frozen corn
* Finished all Jeff Burgers in freezer (will make more this weekend)
* Focused on fruits that require little prep - frozen mango / cherries / berries, angelcots, blueberries, nectarines, bananas
* Focused on veggies that require little prep - baby cucumbers, grape tomatoes, Romaine lettuce
* Chopped massive quantities of only a few other veggies and kept in fridge - carrots, celery, cauliflower, red onion
* No time crunch will keep me from making my split pea veggie soup...

Favorite meals this week were:
1) Smashed beans, rice 50/50 with Romaine, beefsteak tomato, red onions - topped with mango salsa
2) Same as above, but in a salad with frozen corn
3) Smashed beans, potatoes, frozen corn over Romaine, grape tomatoes, red onions topped with NSA salsa and a bit of hot sauce
4) SIMPLE meal = Microwave a few potatoes add in raw veggies 50/50 (and start with fruit)


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. Reduced not eliminated.

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).
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. I didn't stuff or starve.
I have found that some nights I do tend to get hungry and it is best if I don't try to ignore this until the morning. I snack on potato slices and either fruit or raw veggies OR a cup of soup (that is part starch, but I am not sure if 50/50). 2 or 3 times this week snacked 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 briskly
* Took 2 excellent weekend walks at different forest preserves - wish that I lived closer to do this more frequently!

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

Totally connected with Wildgoose's closing post last week on being a myopic tortoise (as Doug Lisle describes) - just concentrating straight ahead and moving forward slowly but surely. This is a very calming approach to me that seems super helpful for the long-term. Spent a bit of time going through various reading materials on this forum (many from Mark's initial post in the thread) which helped to reground me a bit.

I reached today what I had estimated as my goal weight back in May of last year. I better understand now why - per the Orientation materials - it isn't even recommended to choose a goal weight, but just to keep going (assuming that you are not underweight). Coming to the realization that it is how you feel (FABULOUS) --- that will be motivating to just keep moving on. So, celebrating with soup, salad, fruit, potato...

Hope that everyone in US has an excellent 4th of July and Happy Weekend to everyone else!

Cheers,
Stephanie

[carwex]

Hi Goose and everyone,
Here’s my report
1. Start each meal with a soup or salad. Yes Since its hot now here, making fewere soups and eating more salads
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method, ½ starch and ½ vegetables. Yes
3. Reduce or eliminate added sugars and salts. Yes, eliminated from cooking.
4. Eliminate all animal foods. YES
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods. I put avocado in the salad sometimes for my husband and guess who eats it?
6. Eliminate any added oil. No I bought some prepared foods which had oil in them
7. Eliminate all higher calorie dense foods. YES, no bread this week
8. Don’t drink your calories. yes
9. Follow these principles whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Yes but am eating too much. Trying to find the balance between eating enough so I don’t lose more weight and overeating.
10. Avoid being sedentary. This week still healing from cataracts so staying out of the pool but walking even though the weather is HOT.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions: I’m trying to keep up with the pressure of our big move, finishing up dentists’ and doctors ‘appointments before moving to a totally new medical system. My daughter came for a month and helped us --mainly with the technology which is required to get anything done in today’s world. For people in their 80’s, this can be daunting, frustrating and worst of all triggering non-compliant eating.

Wanting to save time, I have let up on the food prep, do more eating out, buy more prepared foods. In other words I found myself again slipping into the toxic environment where no matter how ok it seems, it just isn’t. Example : I bought some prepared white limas in tomato sauce and only after looking at it carefully at home realized it was full of oil! I tried to wash off the oil and salt in water but it still tasted oily and salty. So after one meal of this I threw the whole thing out. I hate to waste food but was actually proud of myself.
It is now back to basics and trying to be simple in my prep for myself and my husband.
My goal for next week is to return to a clean program and follow the 10 principles as written, staying in the day, not projecting into the future.
I welcome our newcomer, Beth. You asked about breakfast oatmeal. I have always had fruit and nondairy milk on mine. But here I learned that oatmeal or for that matter any grain (eg rice) could be turned into a savory soupy porridge like an Asian congee with veggies (Asian or not). I love it.

Best of luck to all who are taking on the challenge of MWL -for health and well being.

Carol

[Artista]

Hello to all the Time and Adherence members! And welcome to Lizzy_F!

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 desert. 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). 6/7 I had 1 or 2 oz. of a fruity, carbonated (unsweetened) drink one day at dinner. It had been a stressful day and I think I was looking for something a little extra to help me feel better. It didn't help me feel better, though, but it was a good reminder to not use food or beverage to try and manage my emotions or stress.

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! this is the first week I’ve managed to not miss a day of exercise.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions: Wildgoose, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts last week and for the link to Dr. McDougall’s article on HDL. I love the idea of the myopic tortoise. Do you remember which Dr. Lisle video that is from? It so perfectly describes exactly where I need to be. I visited the dietician in my doctor’s office and she had a copy of Dr. Esselstyn’s book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease in her office. She knows I’m working on my weight and cholesterol and told me I was "doing everything right”. It was a wonderful confirmation of my diet and lifestyle choices.

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Noella

I wanted to post in support of you because it sounds like from your weekly Assessment that you may be feeling a bit stressed (as I was a bit in past couple of weeks)...

I hope that you can enjoy your vacation and feel great!!

You are an inspiration to all of us in the Group!!! You have lost 95 lbs. --- how awesome is that?? Better yet, you have a long list of quality of life improvements that is spectacular!!! I don't know if you keep a list, that might help to motivate you ... if not -- check out below post you made in July 2021 which is super-inspiring!!!

https://www.drmcdougallforums.com/viewt ... &start=120

So, you kind of said it yourself in your weekly report --- doing the best that you can under the circumstances... Who could ask for more than that?

I will share that it took me FOREVER to understand Mark Cooper's advice on being kind to yourself (and that it did apply to me...)... He once used my capitalization quirk and said... this is why we like to call it ASSESSMENT vs. JUDGMENT... (Yeah, it still took me awhile to get it...)

Positive self-talk --- think about how to not beat yourself up. Nobody else would... You are still a success even if you had a couple off-plan items. You come back home and de-Pleasure trap yourself and shake it off...

Wishing you the best,
Stephanie

[Noella]

Hi Stephanie,
Thank you so much for your suggestions and encouragement to reread what I wrote a year ago. Following MWL has renewed my health! Life is so much better for me when I follow MWL. Feeling fabulous requires careful adherence to MWL over the long haul and one week of too many restaurants and non-adherent meals is a short-term challenge that I can handle. I appreciate your reminder to assess rather than judge myself as I do my best.

It sounds like you are doing great, and that inspires me...thank you! Noella

P.S. I love your quote: "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

[Gimmelean]

MWL Post for week ending 7/1/22

Hello everyone! Wildgoose thank you for being here for us.

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

2). Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals.
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.
No-instead of eating prepared steel cut oats and barley I had ready in the fridge, I caved and ate shredded wheat cereal with raisins and almond milk after dinner. Just one evening. The cereal and dried fruit were definitely not MWL adherent and I know that letting go a little becomes a lot. I am going to try Stephanie’s suggestion and have potatoes, sweet potatoes, and vegetables ready for after dinner mini meals this week.

8 ) Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
Yes.
In the summer when it’s hot, I enjoy water in an infuser pitcher and love experimenting with herbs, fruits, etc. to flavor the water. I don’t recommend lemon and cucumber outside of the refrigerator though. It made pickle juice!

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,Questions,Challenges:
Much better week with 9 yeses.
I also love the page on the McDougall site that reminds us that it is not about perfection and immediately following everything from the start. The more you do, the better your results.
Change is a long time process, not a single event. It takes patience, discipline, and a long term view to change habits of a lifetime that are hardwired within us.
I also had to learn to stop chastising myself for not being perfect enough and to stop self judging. Sometimes guilt and self judgement come back, especially if I’ve had a lapse, but I’m not going to let them derail me.
In addition to learning the program and how to manage choices in many situations and environments, the emotional components so critical to successful weight loss and management are wonderfully supported right here every week. This is the best place thanks to all of YOU.
Have a good week!

[CUgorji22]

Hello to all & Happy Saturday!

I have completed the Orientation and would like to be added to the Group.

I am returning to the Group; my last time around was Nov 2021-Jan 2022 with great success. My focus this month is my behavioral patterns in eating. This will be a hard month for me. The 1st anniversary of my Dad's passing is at the end of this month. I have grown leaps and bounds in my Grief Recovery Group but definitely need accountability and structured eating this month to not fall into the pit of emotional eating (which is VERY easy for me to do). I am determined to not eat my way through sadness this month.

I'm glad to be back!

-Chesca