The Behavioral Path to MWL Success - September 2022 Group

[Mark Cooper]

SEPTEMBER 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 (or broth for those who don't like tomatoes)
1- 14 oz Can No Salt Added Beans (which is about 1.5 - 2 cups)
1- 16 oz Bag Frozen Mixed Veggies (any type)
**optional - 1/2 cup Frozen Greens
1.5 to 2 cups of a *Cooked* Starch
~1 tbsp. Salt Free, Dried Seasoning/Spice

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"
Finding The Sweet Spot: Balancing Calorie Density, Nutrient Density & Satiety
Amy's Giant List of Links to Dr. Lisle's Lectures

[BambiS]

9-2

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


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.
Most days, I got busy painting a fence


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.
Had a piece of bread this week, just wasn’t prepared when I painted

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). Most days, does rolling paint count?


Victories, comments, concerns, questions:
It is my 64th birthday today! I’m so glad that I took steps to get healthier. I’m much healthier than I was a year ago.
+.6 -44. -52.6

[squealcat]

Hello Mark and everyone else ! I would like to come back to this group once more ! I will review everything and report on the 10 MWL points next week. I have been keeping up pretty well with how folks are doing and look forward to joining. I got side-tracked and should know better but not dwelling on it.

I tried something new (for me) this morning. I had cooked cabbage in the fridge that needed to get used up soon. I put it with my steel cut oats and heated it up. Added some pepper and a dash of salt and voila !! It was very good !! I have never been a savory oatmeal person but I could (and will) do this again ! Oh, I also put a little tumeric in it too. Tastes DO change !!

See you next week ! I have my checklist out and am ready to work it again !

-squealcat (Marilyn)

[JeffN]

I always look forward to seeing your weekly check-ins!

Just a reminder though on the if, when, and how one should report their weight, if they are going to (as it is not required.)

From the orientation...

If you like, you may post a change in weight at the END of your post, but it is not required, nor is it part of the formal template. If you do choose to post a weight change, please do so in pounds gained or lost, and enter it as a whole number without a decimal. If your scale displays weight that includes a decimal place you can follow the general rules for rounding; .1 to.4 is rounded down to the nearest whole number, .5 to .9 is rounded up to the nearest whole number.

Thanks.

In Health
Jeff

[carwex]

Greetings to my time and adherence gang;
1. Start each meal with a soup or salad. YES
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method, ½ starch and ½ vegetables. YES
3. Reduce or eliminate added sugars and salts. Yes
4. Eliminate all animal foods. YES
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods. YES except for miso which I add as flavoring to some dishes
6. Eliminate any added oil. YES
7. Eliminate all higher calorie dense foods. YES
8. Don’t drink your calories. YES
9. Follow these principles whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. YES still doing half meals when feeling hungry between meals.
10. Avoid being sedentary. YES Started to do tai chi which entails a long walk to the class. Swimming
over the weekend I hope.

I skipped last week because I was pretty disgusted with my behavior around the food. The emotional trigger for this last bout of non-compliance was the stress of looking for a new “home”. I took last weekend as a time for reckoning and came to the conclusion that giving up food also means giving up the behaviors which lead me back to the pleasure trap, like: compulsively munching on adherent foods while standing and prepping, sneaking bites of non compliant foods from my husband’s plate, or any compulsive need to fill my mouth with food when it is not meal time.. My problem is no longer the weight, glad to say. But it is the same addictive repetition of self-defeating behaviors- slipping -then recriminations, kind of a pleasure/pain (punishment) merry-go-round.
Glad to say the week went very well because of this reckoning and redefining of my goals—whenever I went to stuff my mouth or even thought about it, I stopped.
As far as the emotional component brought on by house hunting, I realize I’m in no hurry and I need patience and calm more than I need to worry and obsess. I need to have faith that eventually it will all be resolved, like it usually does.
Participation in this group is very important to me. I know from experience that relying on YOU, our moderators and participants, allows me to make progress. On my own it just doesn’t work. I am so grateful for the feedback and the sharing of ideas that we gain on this forum.
Welcome back Marilyn. So glad you have returned. Isn't it exciting eating porridge with vegetables for breakfast. I love to experiment with the savory porridges. Wildgoose said she uses polenta sometime. I am now using a mushy whole barley (lowers cholesterol) topped with leftover cooked veggies and veggie broth. Cooked Cabbage is great.
Carol

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Team Time and Adherence!

1 Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Yes. I am doing this consistently for lunch and sometimes for dinner.

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. Mainly had oatmeal plus fruit for breakfast this week. Wow, the dark sweet cherries are an awesome addition to the berries... Made sloppy lentils (surprise, surprise) and Mary McD pinto beans smashed (added maybe 4 jalapenos). Loving these for lunch with some potato and salad / veggies. Mainly split pea soup and / or more potatoes for dinner with veggies / 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. No sugar this week - but wasn't really deliberate.

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. No starving or stuffing.
I did do some snacking this week - definitely more than usual, but ate per the 50/50 method and pretty sure not stuffing (just hungry).


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
The weather has continued to be great!!!


Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

Victory - I am maintaining my weight and feeling terrific!

Comments / Notes to folks (some from last week's check in)-

Agree 100% with Carol on the awesomeness of this group! Big thanks to Mark, JeffN, WildGoose and appreciation to fellow participants.

Marilyn - Yay, glad to see you back!!

Bambi -- If I spent the week rolling paint, best believe I would take exercise credit!!

Carol - Seems we can all have challenging weeks... You've done so great with all of the life changes going on that must be physically and mentally exhausting. I like how you describe some of the challenges like a pleasure / pain merry-go-round. I kind of had this in my own head as playing "whac-a-mole"... (and like just make it STOP)... Patience and calm sounds good --- I am trying to take a lesson from this too.

Gimmelean - from last week - glad that you rocked it!!! Also, related to so much of what you said on needing to separate food and emotion --- and re-connect with our own "why". This journey can be so emotional ... sometimes challenging to take a step back and be objective.

JaBee - good luck dealing with your spouse on the snacks. Hope that you are continuing to heal.

Rebecka - I am with you that it is so helpful to stay in touch with our why. (Also, the feeling better when following MWL part!!)

Louie - Spinning is so fun! I haven't done it in awhile .... LOVE pasta for lunch!! Hope you find something that works for you!

Beth - Really cool to read your report from last week and see how you have noted your progression / changes made! Awesome!!! (I know Mark answered this on the 50 / 50 plate --- but just to throw it in that I also sometimes use multiple dishes -- or a 1 dish mixed like SNAP --- and just consider in the spirit of starch to veggie / fruit ratio)...

Noella --- LOVED your comment on your kayaking. This is so inspiring!

Drew - Agree with you 100% on "making exceptions will not be helpful"... yep, always dancing with the Pleasure Trap here (for me). Hope you had a good week!

Happy September!!! Loving being able to have all of the windows open and air out the house. My one cat is loving that - hearing the birds.

Hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend (and a great last hurrah of summer for those in the US)!!!! Going to have potato fries and Jeff burgers to celebrate - with fruit and salad probably. Enjoy!!

Cheers,
Stephanie

[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
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 sweets got me again! I’m hoping as I get back into school routine (praying we don’t have to strike) it will be easier for me not to give in to temptation. I seem to do better about not having anything I didn’t make at work as it’s just part of my mindset now, but not so good at home. I hope everyone else has a great week.

[louie3084]

03/09/2022

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


2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals, filling half your plate (by visual volume) with non-starchy vegetables and 50% (by visual volume) with minimally processed starches. Choose fruit for dessert.
Yes


3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts, too. If either is troublesome for you, you can eliminate them.
Yes

4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
Yes

5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
Yes, except one night I had peanut butter, honey and oats!

6. Eliminate any added oil.
Yes


7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (i.e., bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit.
Had some corn thins - I was just a little unprepared and grabbed them

8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). Yes - except had a glass of red wine one night.

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 not an issue for me - I love my exercise.


Victories, comments, concerns, questions:
I felt lighter and the scales shifted down a little despite the transgressions. Again lack of preparation (three kids under 12 and a job!) does catch me out sometimes.

[Gimmelean]

Post for week ending 9/2/22

Hello everyone!

1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Yes. More figs on my trees than I’ve had in years.

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.
Yes


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

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

10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
Yes.

Victories,Comments,Questions,Challenges: I had a good week. Challenging situations are far less challenging when I’m prepared with the right foods on hand and taking a less anxious approach. I am gearing up for the fall and change of seasons. My resolve often weakens around December, January, and February. I want to do my best to prepare for that so I can keep this good momentum going. Suggestions and tips are always welcome.
Have a good week everyone!

[Lizzy_F]

Hello fellow travelers!!! Here is my report for the week ending 9-2-22:

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Breafast, when eaten, was “all in one.” Lunch & Dinner always started with soup or cooked veg. (no salad – braces)

2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals, filling half your plate (by visual volume) with non-starchy vegetables and 50% (by visual volume) with minimally processed starches. Choose fruit for dessert.
Yes

3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts, too. If either is troublesome for you, you can eliminate them.
Yes

4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
Yes


5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
Yes – I find myself saying to myself “that is not a weight loss food” when I see nuts/nut butters, seeds and avocados in my pantry. (husband eats these) I don’t even feel tempted these days, and I enjoy that!!


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 – had a few servings this past week of Mary’s Golden Gravy. (rice flour)


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


9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.
No – I felt a bit “stuffed” a couple of times. I really need to keep working on this one. I don’t have to clean my plate. I can take smaller portions, and have more if I’m still hungry. It’s amazing how childhood patterns follow us always! I grew up in a house where there was never as much as everyone wanted on the table – you better get it fast, eat fast, and clean your plate because there are starving children in China! (thank goodness for the Chinese children that they were eating rice back then, and not eating what we were eating LOL!) How long will it take for me to figure out I am not living there anymore??


10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).

No - I continue to have frustrating setbacks in this area. It seems I get in a little (short lived) groove, and then a sore knee or whatever will surface – and then I have to rest it. The latest is that I feel like I have a painful bruise on the bottom of my left heel??? That is a new one. It feels like I think it would feel if I stepped down really hard on a sharp rock or something – but I certainly don’t recall anything like that happening. So…resting that now. Sigh.

Victories: I feel really good about my routines around food. My meal plans are super simple, but I love this simple food and I am OK with that. I expect to incorporate more variety at some point, but for now I am just laser focused on my goals (weight loss and continued reduction, hopefully, to inflammation in my body) and simple meals of veg, potatoes (or oats for breakfast) and fruit are getting me there. Weight is now down over 50 pounds total, and over 30 pounds since doing the 12-day program in May.

Comments: Mark and Goose and team T&A – I appreciate you all so much. The more I weave the MWL guidelines into my life as habits, the better I do with my goals. I feel like my behaviors are finally, FINALLY, aligning with my goals. I was all out of sync for years and years. It feels so good to finally be getting my goals, my behaviors, my thinking, my body all on the same page! MWL Team Time & Adherence is a critical component for me, so THANK YOU!!!!

Concerns: I am hoping that I will continue to experience inflammation related improvements in my body mechanics as I continue on this journey. It has only been just under 4 months of strict adherence, so I am hoping for more improvement – mainly so I can keep walking consistently and having fewer setbacks that require rest.


Questions: For others who have had challenges with body mechanics (i.e. arthritic joints, artificial joints, back problems, etc.) what has your journey been like as far as improvements in pain, ability to consistently exercise, etc.? I need to hear some experience strength and hope in this department!!

Other comments:

BambiS - Happy Birthday! I am also 64! May our best years be ahead!

Welcome Marilyn! Cabbage is my favorite cooked vegetable - your oats sound delicious!

Carol - I love your reflection about your "reckoning." For me anyway, the Pleasure Trap is cunning, baffling and powerful, and it doesn't present itself in my life by standing in the middle of the road and screaming "come on in!" It lures me in quietly with seemingly small and seemingly insignificant steps, that ultimately lead me right back into the jaws of the trap. It sounds like maybe it is that way for you too. I love how you recognized what was happening, and took the necessary steps to course correct before the jaws had you. I love what you said about having faith that things will work out with your house search. I'm sure it must be a frustrating process and you are such a strong example to me of how to navigate challenging circumstances without succumbing to old coping mechanisms. Sending you a virtual hug!!

Stephanie - I love your menu and I want to come live at your house!!! I get so much hope from your posts - that maybe I too can achieve a slender weight and maintain it happily by just following this program! Thank you for all that you share and for your positive spirit!

Rebecka22 - The Pleasure Trap is no joke! I feel you on the challenges for sure.

Louie3084 - I can't imagine the challenge of trying to get this program figured out while juggling 3 young kids and a job! My hat is off to you for your progress and committment!

Gimmelean - I love what you said about preparation being the key to success. That is working for me right now too, and I need to never forget how important preparation is to my success.

Big shout out to everyone else - may we all have a week we can feel great about!!!!

[JaBee]

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Yes, 7/7 days
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, 7/7
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, 7/7
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).yes, 7/7
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). No, 6/7, see #7
6. Eliminate any added oil. Yes, 7/7
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, 2/7, see *
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). Yes, 7/7
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. Yes,7/7
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). Yes, 7/7

Victories, comments, concerns, questions: *Still struggling with spouse’s snacks in the house- #s 5 and 7; they’re all gone now and promised to not bring anymore in our home, am cautiously optimistic but I decided to start meditating to practice’mindful eating’ to help, and also reflect on why i’m eating this way

I am happy about my my resolve to continue this journey and continue to post even with the slip-ups

Thanks everyone for your feedback and remarks!

My weight is stable at 175#….

[Drew*#]

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.****Yes, most of the time.
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, most 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. **** 5/7
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. ****5/7 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. *** 3/7 days
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). ****4/7 (long duration on days for exercise)

I am working on eliminating a couple items from my weekly habits. My challenge for the coming week will be to grab a compliant food to fill up like potato and veggie with bean. For the last three days I have had to blend the veggies with bean because of new parts to my braces on my teeth that are quite sore. I may keep this up since it is easier to chew this way. Even the partially mashed potatoes (just water, garlic and blue, red, and white potatoes) hardens up a bit and must be re-mashed a bit for ease in eating!

185 lb...have lost 4 pounds so far since late July/beginning of August.

Drew

[Noella]

Hi Mark, Wildgoose, Jeff and all MWL September 2022 Participants,

1. Start each meal with soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals.
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.
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
6. Eliminate any added oil.
7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods, including flour products (i.e. bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit.
8. Don’t drink 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'm excited to be starting fresh this September! I have a tiny skin rash that comes and goes that I haven't been able to figure out, but I think it might be food-related and aggravated by eating hot chili peppers or black pepper so I am going to eat WFPB strictly without added hot spices to see if it helps.

I wish everyone the best as summer starts to wind down and we step into the fall season later this month. Lots of transitions!
Best regards,
Noella
My weight is stable at about 145
“These positive psychological benefits may prevent relapses to the old eating habits, especially since a positive self-image encourages more positive and life-supportive behaviors.”
― John A. McDougall, The Mcdougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss

[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]

BambiS - I hope you are having a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Feeling happy and healthy is perhaps the best gift you could give yourself, right? I can imagine that a session of vigorous painting could offer a fair amount of exercise. The challenges that accompanied that change of activity are a good reminder of how important preparation can be. Any significant change in our context, environment or routine is likely to present obstacles in our path of adherence, so the more we can anticipate and plan for those, the easier we make it for ourselves to stay on track. Have a great week!

squealcat - Hi, Marilyn! Welcome back! It can be pretty easy to get side-tracked by the vagaries of life and the broader environment; it happens to nearly all of us at some time or another. What is most important is making our way back to the road we aspire to travel, one that leads toward well-being. Savory oats with cabbage sounds great!

carwex - This week looks great, Carol! Added stress and powerful emotions can really have an unpredictable and forceful effect upon our behavior, right? Kudos to you for reckoning with those areas of incongruence between how you were behaving vs. the lifestyle you desire. Food isn't really a solution for any problem other than hunger, but our brains sure seem to try to convince us otherwise. As you observe, assessing and processing those stressors and emotions leads the way to resolution.

VegSeekingFit - Another great week, Stephanie! What could be better than feeling terrific? Fruit, salad and Jeff's burgers and fries seem like an appropriately festive (and delicious) meal to me!

Rebecka22 - Hang in there! These times when maintaining adherence feels arduous do seem to rear up from time to time. Getting back to or reimplementing a successful routine can definitely help. Is there anything you can transplant from your school routine and mindset that might also serve you at home? The more you can take the burden off of "willpower" and arrange your immediate environment to make it easier to adhere and harder to stray, the better things are likely to go. You'll get there. I hope any work negotiations are resolved in your favor, and a strike won't become necessary.

louie3084 - It's always nice to feel lighter, right? I can imagine how rearing 3 young children and working must dominate much of the available time. Maybe there might be some way to simplify or streamline prepping adherent food, to make it as quick as possible? Perhaps something like what Dr. Lisle describes toward the end of this video?

Gimmelean - Hooray for good weeks!

Challenging situations are far less challenging when I’m prepared with the right foods on hand and taking a less anxious approach.

These feels like such an important observation, and undeniably true. Something I have found helpful, when anticipating a challenging situation or period of time is to, in advance, take a step back and get specific about my intentions. What do I want my behavior to be in relation to this? How do I want this to go? And why? What am I hoping to achieve? The answers to those questions usually offer a good jumpstart into a plan for moving forward.

Lizzy_F - Congratulations on the results you have achieved (50 lbs!!!) and the work you are doing to build upon and add to your list of victories!

I find myself saying to myself “that is not a weight loss food” when I see nuts/nut butters, seeds and avocados in my pantry. (husband eats these) I don’t even feel tempted these days, and I enjoy that!!

The more I weave the MWL guidelines into my life as habits, the better I do with my goals. I feel like my behaviors are finally, FINALLY, aligning with my goals.

I think these two observations may be related! As we habituate a NEW pattern of behavior, old patterns exert less influence and start to fall away. Speaking for myself, I have found strict adherence to MWL to be quite effective in reducing/managing inflammation. (Severe inflammation is a pretty typical symptom of CRPS/RSD). I hardly ever experience any swelling from my disease now. That said, for me diet alone was insufficient to fully address my chronic pain. Therapy - physical, postural, and psychological - have all been essential in bringing my symptoms to a manageable level, along with appropriate medication. The better we do with diet, the better we are likely to feel, but sometimes challenges with body mechanics require solutions that also address those mechanisms specifically, in my opinion (and again, speaking only for myself). Trust the messages your body gives you, do what feels achievable, and seek expert assistance if it feels appropriate. And be patient with yourself - this is a marathon, rather than a sprint.

JaBee - That is quite a few 7/7s!

I am happy about my my resolve to continue this journey and continue to post even with the slip-ups

That feels important! I am sure that the absence of those particular challenging items from your home will make adherence feel easier. Reflecting on what underlying factors may be driving our behavior pattern, and to what extent those factors can be changed or accounted for is always useful. To my mind, in addition to our environment, our beliefs are another big factor that can set "behavioral boundaries."

Drew*# - Cheers for the progress you've achieved! I hope you experience improvement with the soreness from your braces - that can't be too fun. Turning toward adherent foods to satisfy our hunger is perhaps THE most fundamental aspect of the program, so that is always a good focal point. Are there any other tactics you plan to try in your efforts to eliminate those particular items from your routine choices? Keep at it!

Noella - Look at all those smiley faces! I echo your enthusiasm for making a fresh start this month! Wishing you the best in resolving that rash; let us know how your experiments with eliminating hot peppers work out. Transitions are nearly always exciting times, right? Onward!