The Behavioral Path to MWL Success - October 2022 Group

[MakeHealthLast]

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.---Really need improvement on this one.  I did have an apple a day as a snack which was kind of before my lunch.

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 out of town for a week + ate all my meals either in the hotel room or ate what I packed for the day (very long days which usually was grazing when I got hungry instead of a specific meal time), so I didn't really have a plate meal.  But typically I had oatmeal made with water and cut up fruit for breakfast.  "Lunch" was grazing on baby carrots or grape tomatoes or raw cauliflower florets.  Then a little later I'd have a previously frozen steamer bag of vegetables that I had cooked in the hotel room that morning.  I'd have an apple we had gotten from an orchard.  Later I'd usually have some previously nuked potatoes or a bag of peas or corn.  I did have a few bags (1 for the day) of microwave no oil, no salt popcorn which wasn't MWL.  Dinner usually was fresh pepper strips followed by potatoes or whatever I had dumped into the slow cooker in the morning before we left for the day (split pea soup, lentils + vegetables with a whole grain, etc.).

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.---Added a little bit of salted herb blend to potatoes at night + a couple of the soups, just a sprinkle on the surface.  Added no sugars on my foods, but had some things that contained sugar, like a handful of kettle corn, + what you'll see below.

4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).---Did have half of a personal (5-6") pizza, so cheese, + ice cream 1 time in a tourist trap town (not that I had to fall into the trap ).

5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).---Had 1 "fun" size Mr. Goodbar.

6. Eliminate any added oil.---Oil in that pizza crust + handful of kettle corn, + 2 potato wedges, but I didn't add oil to anything.

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.---As mentioned above, had half of a small (5-6" round pizza) + 3 microwaved bags of no salt, no oil popcorn.

8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).---Had about 4 ounces of orange juice 2 different mornings at the hotel's breakfast bar.

9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.---Actually succeeded with this point every day! 

10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).---Got lots of walking + swimming in, including laps in the long pool at the hotel--the side stroke was my favorite--but I had to take it easier than I would have liked due to my heart.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:
---I'm very sorry about not posting last week.  I tried getting online Friday night (a week ago) at the hotel, but just couldn't from my own data or the hotel's wi-fi.  That's why I didn't post.  Then we were up so early and busy on our trip that I kept thinking about the deadline, but it just didn't work for me to even attempt to see if I could get online.  When I did try to get online Monday night, it worked just fine, so I don't know why it didn't work earlier. 

---We had a wonderful trip, but it was hard in terms of trying to be okay with not being perfect.  I know there was talk about perfectionism after I brought it up + I'll have to go back + read what everyone posted.  I do remember your, Mark, saying that the best time to start is now, + I agree with that + it was a lot easier for me to just drop old eating habits + start new ones within a day when I was a teen + in my 20's.

---Last week, the one I was unable to post about, was filled with some great MWL days + some bad non-MWL days. So I went into the trip with clawing my way back to MWL. On the trip, it was pretty easy to eat MWL, but a challenge with old habits, family members indulging in "treats", + that feeling of "Hey, I'm on vacation...the last few years with the pandemic have been trying...etc.." But I'm fully aware that just being with family + on vacation are rewards + are fun enough. Those are the priceless things, not the "food" "treats". ...but that's why I'm here. If I had my MWL eating act together, I probably wouldn't be here. So this time around (being back with the Group), I'm trying to learn to be okay with not having all the boxes checked as being perfect or near perfect. Of course my goal is to be 100% MWL compliant all the time, but with my eating experiences, I need to learn to be okay with divergences that are short (1 + done) and then I get right back on the path. (But I am not purposefully having non-compliant items. The vacation presented me with plenty of opportunities to eat badly. Thankfully I "only" had what I did.)

---As far as the question about worries about deficiencies with following the MWL lifestyle, I don't have any. I've been a vegetarian for so many decades, + a vegan + McDougall/WFPB eater on + off for almost as long, that I have pretty much had all the ?'s thrown at me about deficiencies with this WOE, + I am a firm believer that the McDougall/MWL WOE is THE way for all people to eat forever...so when I haven't done so, that's why I feel such a war inside. After all, there are plenty of moral lines that I have never crossed, because I have such strong beliefs of what is right + wrong. But when it comes to eating, it seems that in more recent years I've either been "on" or "off". Years ago I was okay with being about 90-100% on all the time. But as I've gotten older, read the information for myself, + have developed serious health problems, my convictions of the importance of following this WOE have only solidified even more (as if possible since already so firm). I obviously desperately need work in this area of my life. That's why I'm here. That's why I keep trying. That's why I'm not giving up. And my health needs me to keep working on this!!

---My goals for this week are to get to bed sooner + to keep on keeping on working towards better + better adherence to MWL. We have an array of apples, peppers, cabbages, hard winter squash, potatoes, + Romanesco (a cross of cauliflower + broccoli=delicious!) that we brought home from our vacation, so I have everything I need to have a great MWL week..."just" have to consistently get my head in the right place.

---Hope everyone is having a wonderful Fall (or Spring wherever you may live).

[Mark Cooper]

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

My replies and the weekly summary will follow.

[Mark Cooper]

BambiS - Congratulations on those nice-fitting clothes! Being able to comfortably wear smaller outfits is a lovely non-scale victory!

I really don’t think I eat that many calories, but will try to do better.

That is the great thing about MWL, when we adhere to the recommended behaviors, our diet will be naturally very calorie dilute and we shouldn't have to consciously worry about a calorie count. The behaviors are the path to success. Onward!

Ejg - Great progress and excellent adherence!

So I told myself "just be diligent about following the rules, and if there's no weight loss when I get on the scale, it won't be because I wasn't keeping myself honest." Lo and behold, I continued to shed weight when I stepped on the scale yesterday.

It's not luck, right? It's our adherence across time that delivers our results. As you continue to practice applying the guidelines mindfully through changing circumstances and in varying situations, you'll keep learning and adjusting and figuring things out. Much as you describe, I think for many of us indulging in that first bite of some troubling temptation can send us right down a slippery slope into the Pleasure Trap.

I've become good at recognizing the thought patterns where I'm beginning to justify to myself going off the plan, and there's always a moment I catch myself and know I'm making a decision to eat something I shouldn't, and there's still time to correct.

This seems like a very valuable skill to cultivate. Have fun camping with your daughter, do your best, and just keep at it!

VegSeekingFit - Seems like another great week; I salute your consistency, Stephanie! I'm glad you were able to make such a quick and easy recovery from that tumble you took. A nice hike to see the colors of autumn sounds like something lovely to anticipate. I hope you have a fun and successful trip to Iowa; let me know how it goes - I actually grew up in a very small Iowa town, but it has been ages since I've been back. Thank you for sharing those beautiful quotations!

Rebecka22 - Nice progress, especially considering you are on the road! Kudos to you for not letting a single deviation spiral and become just the first of many. Doing the best we can and treating ourselves with compassion is nearly always a surer path to success than trying to hold ourselves to a standard of absolute perfection, right? Best of luck with the rest of your trip; enjoy the wedding, be safe, and take care!

Lizzy_F - Awesome progress and another new low! Your motivational tracker for intentional exercise seems like a great tool. Carry on going straight down the middle of that "McDougall Highway!"

Noella - Hang in there! Travelling can be enormously challenging, even for those of us who are quite experienced. I think that makes sense when we consider that travel typically disrupts our regular routine, places us in a "food environment" that may be outside our control (and often very challenging to our adherence), and often exhausts us both physically and mentally. Throw in social pressures and expectations, and it is no wonder that we might find adherence significantly more difficult to maintain. In your efforts to overcome these challenges, don't forget to treat yourself with kindness and compassion, and remember that the imperfections and missteps of yesterday don't define us or dictate our actions today and tomorrow. Through it all I hope you are able to enjoy and appreciate the time with your loved ones.

Artista - Nice progress! It can take a little time and adjustment to get fully back into the swing of things, right? Treating ourselves with compassion is important. Focusing on the fundamental principles and working out a plan for exercise seem like worthy and achievable goals. Make it so!

MakeHealthLast - Doing our best is all we can reasonably expect of ourselves, right? Being able to get "right back on the path" after a stumble is one of the most helpful abilities we can cultivate. "Getting one's head in the right place," i.e., believing in our ability to take action, practicing self-compassion, cultivating self-efficacy, these are important. We can also make that "mental part of our game" much easier by working on our environment. The more we arrange our surroundings to encourage success, the more efficacious we're likely to be. Keep at it!

[Mark Cooper]

Hooray, everyone! You've completed the second week of our October group! Onward to week three!

The inherent difficulties and challenges of adhering to the recommended pattern of behavior while traveling seemed to be a prevailing topic in this week's discussion. Consequently, I'm sharing some relevant links to resources from Jeff below.

Philosophy for success while traveling / planning to succeed

Dining Out

Baked potatoes / oatmeal.

Travel food / food on airplanes

Wendy's diet

Here's a link to the articles on Dining Out by Mary McDougall.

I hope you find these resources to be helpful.

Have an awesome week! Take care and be well!

[Gimmelean]

Hello MWL Team-
I am also traveling this weekend and sorry to have missed the posting deadline.
I did let go several times but not completely this week with family visiting and surprisingly don’t have the hopeless out of control feelings that I had before completely committing to and practicing this way of eating and living. Mark, I will review every link in your final summary for supporting reinforcement and will report next week.
On a positive note, I dusted off my Couch to 10K app last week and continued with week 2/day 1 today. I am hoping that structure, exercise and knowing that I have the right fuel will help me get back on track.
Have a good week everyone.

[BambiS]

10-21

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 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, 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

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).I did a little better this week

Victories, comments, concerns, questions: I decided to put my food into myfitnesspal to check calories. During the week was around 1200 calories, but the weekend was a little more. I’ll keep on task, try to watch weekend eating habits better.
Cooler weather is in Ohio, good soup weather.

[Ejg]

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. I didn't do this for every meal this week, I went camping with my daughter last weekend (more below) and had oral surgery this week and was advised not to eat salad (which I followed for a day). Probably followed this 3/4 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. Did this most of the time except when camping
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. Didn't add salt or sugar to anything I ate, but general question for the group: how do we treat salt that has been added to something we're eating? I like to eat canned tomatoes and chili peppers with my baked potatoes (makes a lovely breakfast combo) and it does have added salt. I tried making my own but quite frankly, it was not good. Would I report this as added salt, or does this guideline refer to salt I'm adding on my own from a salt shaker?
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). No animal products
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). None
6. Eliminate any added oil. None
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. I said last week that if things went off the rails on my camping trip with my daughter, I'd be honest about it. ugh. Things went slightly off the rails, I was passing out halloween candy to about 150 six-to-eleven-year-old girls and helped myself to some of what was in the bag. I remember looking at a single piece of bubble gum in this giant halloween bag I was holding, and thought to myself "It will be fine if I eat this piece of gum!" I find it amazing how a person's brain can go from a single piece of gum, to....more than a single piece. Anyway, it didn't take long for me to tell myself "you are completely sabotaging the progress you've made: stop immediately" and so I think recovered ok. Man, is it a slippery slope though. I don't mean to compare my situation to that of an alcoholic but the thought process just feels remarkably similar.
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). none
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. good on this one
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). I think I was active every day this past week. I did something to my back yesterday lifting weights and although it feels better, will have to see what I can do without making it worse. Anyone remember Izzy Mendelbaum from Seinfeld?
It was kind of like that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd_g4aS9ypQ

Despite wobbling a little bit on my camping trip last week, the progress continues. week over week change: -1, cumulative change: -5

[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 - sugar in drinks and chocolate bar
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 - Ate a small oat milk chocolate bar
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 - a small bag of pretzels and a bar
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
More no’s this week, but overall I feel I did pretty good considering all the time in the car. There was one night at the end of 10 plus hours of driving where I didn’t have food and couldn’t find an acceptable starch so I had salad and a bag of pretzels and a small vegan bar. Overall though I was able to make sure and ask for what I needed like help watching my kids so I could workout each morning. I appreciate all the tips as they have made me so much better at this over the years. I learn so much from everyone and really value this community. Have a great week!

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Fellow MWL’ers!!!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week! Excited that we are going to have some unseasonably warm weather here in Chicagoland over the weekend. Planning at least one hike in the woods to check out the autumn colors. Thinking I should probably do some yardwork too (but hiking takes priority!).

Appreciated all the awesome travel food threads that Mark shared last week! Wanted to share how I handled our recent trip to Iowa (with no microwave --- which really makes me appreciate my microwave more than ever!). Here is what I brought with - large soft sided cooler that I packed: Jeff burgers, a few gallon sized bags of oven fries, oats with thermos (from WG idea), bananas, grapes, carrots, grape tomatoes. I also took a can of garbanzo beans and a couple of McD RightFoods cups (but did not have opportunity to eat them). Brought some sandwich bags (for stashing some of the food in my purse!), plastic spoons, napkins. I was not perfect (as you can see from below!); however, feeling like it went ok under the circumstances. Mark – What a beautiful state to grow up in!!! Drove through some small towns, but we stayed in suburban Des Moines (almost looked like suburban Chicago!).

1 Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Sometimes. Loving carrots and kumatoes this week!!! Also, Cara Cara oranges and Cotton Candy grapes.

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! Have been mainly having oatmeal for breakfast with various fruit. Have been making 8 quarts at a time of Jeff Longevity soup (recipe on main website). Since it is chilly, making smaller pots of various soups (Creamy beany, split pea) which have been awesome. Ate a ton of potatoes in the form of oven fries.

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.
Mostly. Probably impacts from #7 scenario. Boo.

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. (unless any impacts from #7 scenario, but didn’t sense any oil)

7 Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (i.e., bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes, puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit.
NO. Double ding here. Had 2 pieces of bread (refined, white) at wedding. Bread is like a wolf in sheep’s clothing to me. Totally non-compliant, but yet doesn’t seem (to me) as “bad” as some other choices. Anyway, I had it because I went into buffet line, and it was the only item that I was willing to eat (not even 1 “compliant” item to be found). I was expecting that there would be salad and I had dressing in my purse (that I have been waiting to use for about 6 months!). In retrospect, I should have just skipped over the bread and eaten oven fries that I had in my purse. Would have been a good opportunity to practice that and I was at a “friendly” table --- meaning that I am pretty sure that nobody would have given me a hard time about that. Anyway, not an on-going problem item for me. Also, gave me the opportunity to (again) practice being kind to self and I am getting better at that!

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.

10 Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
Mostly. Walked briskly 5 days. Danced (at wedding) 1 day. Then, lazy traveling inactive day. Usually, I am on point with this one and am now firmly back to regular routine.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:
I was looking for a way to use a couple of cans of pumpkin left over from last year and thought to try it with oatmeal. Great results – so sharing the “non-recipe”.
½ cup old-fashioned oatmeal
1/3 can of pumpkin
1 chopped apple
1 ¼-1 ½ cup water
Pumpkin pie spice (or cinnamon would probably work fine too)
Throw it all in a bowl big enough that it won’t spill over in the microwave. Microwave for 3 minutes and then stir. Can microwave again to further soften apple (I did for 2 minutes). Voila, festive fall oatmeal!


Really appreciate this group!! Thank you so much, Mark / Jeff / WildGoose --- and all fellow participants! You all keep me sane (and on the straight and narrow)!

Wishing everyone an excellent forthcoming week with lots of fun and sunshine!

Cheers,
Stephanie

[Gimmelean]

Post for week ending 10/21/22

Greetings everyone!

1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Yes. My neighbors brought us some persimmons from their tree which all ripened at the same time and just had to be eaten. I’ve started keeping a container always full of fresh,ready to eat, raw veggies and everyone likes to pick on them too.

2). Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals.
Yes. Adding vegetables or double vegetables to grain/starch based soups helps a lot with 50/50 when soup is the main course.

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- when I completely eliminated added salt to foods and went back to eating exclusively at home, I felt better and away went cravings. No white knuckling here. I use lots of herbs, flavors, and seasonings. I also could not believe the drop on the scale with this simple change after two weeks of sketchy adherence.

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 - It seems as if the statement that you have to add some healthy olive oil when preparing vegetables is universal when others are cooking despite pleas and requests to honor my preferences. Mantra to self was manage what you can. I gave up on control the controllables to avoid arguing.

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. Always!

Victories,Comments,Questions,Challenges: I’m posting early to make up for missing last week.
-While I’m sad that my family’s visit ended, it feels good to be back on track. Now I have to figure out how to get back to the mindset of cooking and shopping for two vs ten. -Transitioning from salad to soup weather has been fun this week.
-Lastly, learning to deal with perfectionism and an all or nothing mindset has probably been the most significant change that has helped me to achieve weight loss and weight maintenance success. Sometimes perfectionism sneaks back and I have to remind myself that if I dropped a plate of fine china and chipped it, I’m not going to throw the whole set against the wall. The same is true when it comes to food yet we do it all the time. Mark, you’ve talked me through getting beyond this type of thinking many times.
Thank you for support and accountability.
Have a good week everyone!

[Lizzy_F]

Hello fellow T&A travelers! I'm providing an abbreviated report this week since I am once gain trying to get it in under the wire. #timemanagmentissues

I feel like I am in cruise mode on numbers 1 - 9 right now. Going along the same as last week in a way that might not be "perfect" but way that I feel good about. I focus on keeping my meals really simple, and balanced per the guidelines with starches, non-starchy veg, and fruit. Weight loss has slowed waaaaay down. Just out of curiosity, I entered a typical day of food in Cronometer just to see what overall calories typically look like. Boy those calories add up quick LOL! I truly am a volume eater! I'm not stressing about it at all. I'm communicating with my McDougall Support Specialist about this stage of the journey - getting close to a reasonable goal weight - and what decision making that implies. So it's all peaceful in my head right now. I'm always interested in hearing what others have to say about this topic - shifting from weight loss mode to maintenance mode. What changed for you, if anything?

#10 has been my nemesis. I started an accountability system which so far, knock on wood fast, has been WORKING!!! I printed out a monthly calendar. Each day gets either a green dot (sticker) or a red dot (sticker). To get a green sticker, all I have to do is some intentional exercise for at least 5 minutes. It's like I have a committee operating inside my head. Let's call it the Itty Bitty Sh*tty Committee. The committe discusses things like "we don't have time for exercise today!" "Let's exercise tomorrow!" "I don't feel like it!" Blah blah blah. Now, I can just talk back to the committee and all their blabbering, and say "I can do anything for 5 minutes." Once I have my sneakers on, I have ALWAYS (so far anyway!) done more than 5 minutes of whatever. Thus far, mostly walking outdoors, which I love. But anything counts as long as it's intentional exericise. I started this system on October 7. I had two red dot days early on where I simply forgot to do it! Now I am on a streak - today will make 10 days in a row of exercise. I guarantee that hasn't happened in..... I don't know, but probably a long time. And my "average 5 minutes of exercise" is probably walking 2 miles, which takes way longer than 5 minutes! But every day, I give myself permission to only do five minutes to accomplish the goal. I don't have to do any more unless I want to.

So much TRICKERY with the IBSC to get exercise going! But hey. It's working so I'm rolling with it.

Hope everyone is having an awesome October!

[Noella]

1. Start each meal with soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Yes...ALWAYS, this week. I'm also improving at keeping my fruit to a reasonable daily serving. I eat unrestricted servings of salad.
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals. Yes...ALWAYS, this week. I look at my plate and balance my starch with veggies! I eat unrestricted servings of vegetables, and I enjoy eating vegetables more and more. Lately, I greatly enjoy delicata squash, and happily, our garden has lots.
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. Sugar: Yes...I NEVER added sugar or maple syrup while cooking or at the table this week; Salt: YES...I NEVER add any salt while cooking, and I ALWAYS use a reduced amount of salt or condiments with salt. I'm ever vigilant about salt because it can be troublesome for me.
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). Yes...This week, I NEVER ate any dairy products, meat, or eggs.
5. Eliminate all higher-fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). Yes...NEVER, this week. Even though these rich, high-calorie foods are available for others in my family, I am usually not tempted. I keep these in a drawer of our fridge and consider these items as not food for me.
6. Eliminate any added oil. Yes...NEVER for all meals except one. I couldn't easily avoid this week at a restaurant birthday party with family and friends. First, I try not to stand out as being different, demanding, or difficult. The salad I ordered with no added oil came tossed with an oil-based dressing and topped with cheese instead of no dressing and balsamic vinegar on the side. I sent it back, and the error was corrected, but then for the main meal, I had ordered the vegan pasta with tomatoes from the menu, and it came swimming in oil and garnished with thin slices of cheese! When I asked for it to be returned, the server said they couldn't do vegan even though it was described as vegan on the menu. I didn't want to make a scene, so I accepted it. It's so frustrating at restaurants. I don't enjoy the oil flavour on my food anymore, so I didn't enjoy eating it. Also frustrating is that it was costly as restaurant prices have increased.
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...NEVER this week; even though these rich foods are available for others in my family, I am usually not tempted. These items are kept on one shelf of our fridge and one section of our pantry to make it easy for me to know and remember that these items as not food for me.
8. Don’t drink calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). Yes...NEVER
9. Follow these principles, eat whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself, and don't stuff yourself. Yes...eternally vigilant on this.
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). I need to do more exercise.

I'm so thankful to be part of this group. It helps strengthen my commitment and dedication to be within a normal weight range/BMI. I want to keep getting healthier!

Best regards,
Noella

[quote] “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

[MakeHealthLast]

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.---Improvement from last week.  Often it wasn't a salad per se, but some raw vegetables like baby carrots, pepper strips, cauliflower florets, etc..

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 never had fruit for dessert, but most of my meals (lunch + dinner) were 50/50.

3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts, too. If either is troublesome for you, you can eliminate them.---I had great MWL days along with 2 not so great MWL days.  On the not so great, I did consume things that contained sugar + salt.  Otherwise, I only added nominal amounts of salt to some of the MWL compliant meals, like soups, at the table in my individual plate/bowl.

4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).---Yes on the fully MWL compliant days; no, on the not so compliant days.  Never had meat/seafood, but some cheese and egg white "patties".

5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).---Again, on the fully compliant days, no.  On the not so compliant, I had some dry-roasted in the shell peanuts + air-fried tofu.

6. Eliminate any added oil.---Same as the previous #'s, absolutely no oil on all the compliant days.  The 2 days with some non-compliant items I had potato + tortilla chips.

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 1 dry whole grain English muffin.

8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).---Those 2 days, I had some sparkling apple cider (100% juice, no alcohol, total of 3 cups over the course of the 2 days) because I was so thirsty from the chips + all the water I was drinking didn't really seem to help + I already "blew it".

9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.---One day I got real hungry, + don't you know, that was the start of the 1st day of having non-compliant items followed by the 2nd day before I got back on track.

10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).---Five out of 7 days I took walks outside, the other 2 I did a lot of housework/moving + cleaning things + it was raining.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

Greetings, everyone! 

---Mark, thank you for all the links to Jeff's wonderful advice when traveling.  (Unfortunately the links in Mary's article didn't work for me.)  Thank you for all your help.  I really appreciate the sacrifice of time you and your family give to spending a good chunk of your Saturday replying to us.

---Well, as you can see above, this week was a struggle for me.   At least I was able to get back on track after 2 days of  non-compliance + I still ate healthy things on those 2 days, too, so it wasn't "all or nothing".  I know how I could have done better, including having a cleaner environment.

---I did not do well with last week's goal of getting to bed sooner, + I know that that didn't help with the night time munchies (chips).  It's my goal again this week to consistently get to bed sooner, thus getting a sufficient amount of sleep.

---Can you address how important (or not important) complete compliance is for a period of time to help change our tastebuds + to re-wire our brains?  I've heard + read various things, the most severe of needing 6 totally compliant months in order to re-wire, + if there is even 1 slip, the 6 month period starts again.  Is there any validity to this?

---May everyone have a wonderful last full week of October, + may we all keep getting better in our compliance and/or staying compliant.

[Mark Cooper]

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

My replies and the weekly summary will follow.

[MakeHealthLast]

---Phew, I know I shouldn't have cut it so close (11 minutes to deadline) to post my submission, but wow did I have a lot of trouble signing in today. Despite not having signed in for a week, I was told 3x's that I had signed in too much + had to do the whole list thing of bad foods 3 x's, too. Hmm...maybe that was God's way of reminding me that the Eggs + Cheese I consumed this past week really are no-no's.

---I wasn't able to preview my above post or add emojis. Yeah, I know: I need to post sooner, my fault.

---Have a awesome week!!