The Behavioral Path to MWL Success - December 2022 Group

[Noella]

Mark - Thank you for your thoughtful words of encouragement and healing.
BambiS - It sounds like you are doing great! Keep up the excellent work!
Rebecka22- I’m thankful to hear that no one was hurt. Lockdowns are traumatizing, so please take extra care of yourself over the days, weeks and months ahead as you process what happened. Big hugs!
Eric - Get well soon!
Holly - I agree! Sugar-added treats taste too sweet - even maple syrup tastes too sweet. Fruit is often perfect for adding sweetness! Excellent planning ahead for the cookie exchange and NOT bringing any cookies home with you
Stephanie - You always inspire me! Thank you! I’m going to enjoy some mangoes.
Marilyn - It was very thoughtful for your husband and friend to work with the restaurant owner ahead of your special dinner to arrange a meal they felt you would enjoy -one with no animals and no oil. That was very sweet of them.
Gimmelean - Fear of both success and failure that can be overcome. I'm working on this, too.

Wishing everyone love, joy, peace and wisdom this holiday season.

Best regards,
Noella

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi to all!!!

Hey Noella!!!

I am so sorry to hear of your troubles!!! I am so glad to know that you are a fierce and courageous person that is not letting this get you down!!! I think it is so awesome that your hubby is helping you with no-oil 50/50 stuff!!!

I relate to what you said about pain. Have had 5 knee surgeries and knew one was bad when I woke up and felt like I got hit by a Mack truck.... You will heal!!! (Maybe this is Time too...)...

Song for you... https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=so ... ORM%3DVDRE

Chin up and you will do great!!! You have it in you!!! Post mid-week if you want... I think all folks want to support you. Don't forget that you are awesome!!!

Best to you,
Stephanie

[Gimmelean]

Noella-I’m very sorry to hear about your injuries. I hope you heal and that you are free from pain quickly. A good holiday and new year to you and your family too!

[Mark Cooper]

Hello and Happy Holidays!

Once again, I will be travelling and without access to this discussion board during this week's check-in (this time we are off to Seattle to visit my wife's father). If you are able, everyone can report as usual this week. I won't be home until 12/30, so I'll post replies to this week's and next week's check-in at the end of our reporting window on 12/31.

Wishing you all a very happy holiday season, a satisfactory end to this year, and a bright, energizing 2023!

Take care & be well!

[BambiS]

12-23

Happy Holidays everyone!

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Some 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.
No, the holiday sweets got to me.

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.
No, had snack type foods

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, concerns, questions good week, nothing eventful.

Although I’m glad to spend time with family, I’ll be glad when the holidays are over. I’ve done well eating WFPB, but have caved to eating sweets and snack type holiday foods. I’ve tried to make sure I eat my foods first so I’m not ravenous.
I’m looking forward to the new year.

[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

Well despite what I know about the stomach and headaches I still ate the sweets. Vegan junk food is difficult for me. If it’s not vegan it’s easy, but there is so much around for the holidays and everyone is home all day. I am trying not to be too hard on myself and just take it one choice at a time. Noella I hope you are having a lot less pain this week and your recovery goes smoothly. Everyone else if you celebrate, Merry Christmas and have a great week. Mark, I hope you missed the freezing rain and icy roads while in Seattle and had a great holiday with your family.

[Mark Cooper]

Well, our flight was canceled due to the crazy weather, so I will be here for check-in this week after all, but absent next week unless something changes.

Best wishes to all, for a happy and SAFE holiday!

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Team Time & Adherence,

Hope that everyone is doing awesome and navigating the various holiday challenges and / or learning opportunities!!! The past couple of days would be great weather days in Chicagoland for snowmen… for people, not so much. Seeing that this winter storm weather is hitting a good clip of the country --- hoping all keep their power and are only mildly inconvenienced…

Mark, sorry that your travel plans were delayed. Hope that you can get to see your family soon and that you have a great time!

Bambi, I’m with you enjoying time with family / friends, but always like to get right past the holidays (especially as they come to a close). Also, eating recommended foods first helps a ton!

Rebecka, Agree with you on the taking it one choice at a time. Learn, move on… adjust plans for future. I am lucky that there is no vegan junk food anywhere that I go – so, primarily easy for me to say no to SAD crap.

Personally, was not perfect this week, but overall did well. I planned ahead for holiday gatherings (ate before, brought compliant food to share), but did get hungry at one of them. Next time, I will bring an additional dish to that party (we stay a long time). Feeling mostly fantastic and focusing on the thought pattern that this way of eating is forever (no need to get upset over a miss) … so assess situation / other options / ways of handling and MOVE FORWARD by being kind to yourself. I am seriously getting pretty good at the being kind to yourself thing!

1 Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
No; maintaining.

2 Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals, filling half your plate (by visual volume) with non-starchy vegetables and 50% (by visual volume) with minimally processed starches. Choose fruit for dessert.
YES. I love what I eat --- and it is starch / veggie or fruit. I mainly keep to same simple recipes. I did eat this week a bit of leftovers a few days for breakfast instead of oatmeal / fruit. My son is home and he sometimes will eat MWL food with me and loves it, but really hard to plan for this!!! It could be eat a whole pot vs. eat none… Anyway, I have recommended food to make simple plates and recipes and have done this. Eating a ton of soup (black bean, potato / veggie), potatoes of all kinds, sloppy lentils, brown basmati rice, Jeff burgers, oatmeal (discovered the thick cut one and it is great)! Favorite fruit this week is gigantic juicy grapes and favorite veg is the humble carrot…

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. I did have a boo with #7 that maybe has sodium impact --- but probably not huge….

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

5 Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
Yes.

6 Eliminate any added oil.
Yes.

7 Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (i.e., bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes, puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn, and dried fruit).
No. I was totally successful at one holiday event with: eating before, bringing fruit / veggie trays. Staying away from food tables. Next event: I did eat before (maybe not enough and it was a long party) and bring fruit / veggie trays. I had trouble about where I was socializing / in front of the food… Boo!! Anyway, I think at the macro level a small impact for this (but totally not compliant)--- had 5 WFM whole wheat crackers and ½ of a French Bread roll (put plain salad in there for a sandwich). I do learn from this that I may have opportunity to bring a different (or extra) dish to this party next year (like rice or potato or bean salad / main dish).

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).
Really am impacted by the short days / lack of sun and the cold weather. I need to find an indoor alternative that I love or at least will do for the really cold days over the next couple of months. I have paced a bit around the house and done a few body weight exercises. Hilarious, I ordered an item similar to the Lemon Twist (from the 70’s) --- maybe I can hop around to some loud music (will let you all know next week ).

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season!!! Hope it is heart-warming, healthy, and safe.

Best,
Stephanie

[Hjklost55]

Week ending Dec 23

HELLO MWL group…. And Happy Holidays

1.Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. YES Still not tired of my soup. Occasionally I have a salad with it.

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, LOVE my frozen grapes for dessert.

3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts, too. If either is troublesome for you, you can eliminate them. YES, no added sugar; NO on added salts. Have still been craving something salty. So Have been adding a little bit to my potatoes and/or soup. But I really think I need to just “white knuckle” it and give it up.

4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). YES, no problem with this.

5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). YES

6. Eliminate any added oil. YES, although I ate out once this week with my son & family for his Birthday. I had an order of broccolini, a baked potato and took a Jeff Novick bean burger. But I think the broccolini may have had some oil on it.

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. NO, I think I am stress eating a little bit. I still eat compliant foods, but sometimes I eat until stuffed.

10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). YES, playing pickleball and getting over 10,000 steps most days.

Victories, Comments, concerns, questions: As a few others have mentioned, I will be glad when the holidays are over. I have done really well, but the temptations are really starting to mess with my mind! I have NEVER made it through the holidays before without going completely off the rails, saying, “Oh H-E-double-L” and throwing the towel in until the first of the year. So…. That is a victory for sure.

It all comes down to “PLAN, PLAN, PLAN”. I have 3 dinners in the next 2 days so spent most of the day in the kitchen today. I’m exhausted, but feeling really good about what I accomplished. Made a pot of soup, made homemade hummus, cooked 5 pounds of potatoes, make JeffN burgers, and prepped a bunch of fruit and vegetables. Plus played Pickleball and had to shovel the snow off the driveway. (Bet I will sleep well tonight!!)

That’s all for me this week. Hope everyone has a GREAT holiday weekend with family and friends. Looking forward to a New Year, and continued great health.

Take Care,
Holly in cold/snowy Idaho…….

[Gimmelean]

Post for week ending 12/23/22

Hello MWL Time and Adherence community.

1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Yes.
This week I bought Concord grapes, but the label described them as, “Jelly flavored grapes that taste like candy.” Didn’t grapes come before jelly or candy? Do they have to market real fruit as candy to sell it? I also discovered air-fried bananas. They are so good. How can they possibly be allowed on MWL! As cold as the weather has been this week I’ve enjoyed salads which I usually like only in warmer weather. In winter I tend to crave warm soups and stews which I make in advance in the Instant pot for the week.


2). Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals.
Hmmm. No. When I am at my MWL best, I prepare a 50/50 meal, plate it, and sit down to eat. For the past two weeks despite the best preparation, I’ve done more grabbing cold food from the fridge. Consequently, I’m eating more than I should because this is far less satisfying than sitting down and mindfully enjoying a real meal.


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).
No. Had dairy. Will stop this for sure.

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
No, whole mixed nuts in the shell.

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. Bread, bagels, cake. = recipe for disaster

I am not a breakfast eater. However, for my family I prepare wheat berries, oat groats, and hulled barley every week. So easy with the Instantpot otherwise these intact grains would take forever on the stovetop. If I am hungry at night or want breakfast for dinner this week, I will plan to choose these with cut up fruit instead of bagels, pretzels,cookies, crackers. Would be best to avoid the kitchen after a good dinner, but this will be my safety net until I’m ready to completely white knuckle through.


8 ) Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
Yes. This is a deeply ingrained habit.


9) Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full.   Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.
Yes but see item 2. I’m not really sure that I’m full when I don’t eat in a planned way and find myself continuing to snack and grab more food. Will stick to 50/50 this week to be able to say yes to knowing that I am comfortably full with confidence. I don’t think that I ever truly learned to follow or pay attention to my signals of hunger and fullness.


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:

Mark- I hope you didn’t have to go to the airport to learn that your flight was cancelled and that you have a good trip once you and your family are finally headed west.

To get ready for the new year on a good MWL path, I am going to :
-Continue to post weekly for accountability, support, and self realization,
- Renew and continue to learn by reviewing all of the resources provided here for us and from ALL of your shared experiences
-Shop for and prepare MWL adherent foods and have them with me wherever I go, (reminding myself that saying no once at the store means not saying no 100 times at home).

Happy holidays and all the best to everyone in the year to come.

[Hjklost55]

Gimmelean…. I’m SOOO intrigued with the air fried bananas…. Tell me more. I am also guilty of not actually plating a 50/50 plate. I too grab a lot from the fridge, eat it cold, while I’m preparing whatever else I am eating…. Then overrate. This will be my new goal to actually do a 50/50 plate, sit down, and enjoy and then be done. Thanks for bringing that up. It totally describes me!!!

Trying to get through the holidays….. without a total derailment binge!!! And I’m almost there!!! Determined!!! GRRRRRRR

[Greens]

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. reduce

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 had tofu once

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). had a glass of wine twice

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).6/7

Merry Christmas and happy holidays!
Hearty Dal soup is delightful antidote for this winter weather and the stationary bike is useful to get exercise.
Not perfect at it all but so much better than last year. Planning and having foods ready to go is making a huge difference for me. Hoping to remember this in the coming week.
Thank you for being here on this path.
Marilyn

[Lizzy_F]

Hello fellow Time & Adherence travelers! Happy Holidays to one and all, whatever you may celebrate during this season!

Not gonna lie - the last couple of weeks have been rocky and have been inconsistent in terms of compliance. I missed the deadline to report last week, but that was due to an unexpected situation (I need to stop waiting until the last minute to check in!) and not due to me running and hiding, which is a victory right there. This past week was similar to the previous week, so multiplying this report X 2 is pretty close to accurate for me.

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. 5 of 7 days 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. 5 of 7 days 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. 5 of 7 days yes (reduced, not eliminated)

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). 5 of 7 days yes

6. Eliminate any added oil. 5 of 7 days 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. 5 of 7 days 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. 5 of 7 days yes

10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). No – I have completely fallen off of intentional exercise. I am going to get my green dot calendar back in action – it fell by the wayside as holiday madness ramped up. The good news is that my average steps per day last week just “living life” was 9,142.

Victories: Despite 2 days this week, and also 2 days last week of WAY off MWL plan eating (and dancing around in the Pleasure Trap) I feel like I am back on firm ground. I’m so glad I was able to talk this through with my McDougall Support Specialist (12-Day Program) and also connect with other McDougalling friends through this bumpy spot in the road. As suggested by my Support Specialist, I am choosing to reflect on how these food choices made me feel physically and emotionally, see what the scale impact was of these choices, and decide for future reference if it was worth it. My biggest fear is that I will struggle to get firmly back on track. If that proves to be overly challenging, then NOTHING will be “worth it.” So far, this feels radically different than any other experience I have had deviating from the “rules” of whatever plan I was trying to follow. It seems to make a HUGE difference that I just love this simple starchy food SO MUCH! It’s not like it’s some huge mental sacrifice to eat potatoes with ketchup! So, I’m treating this as a valuable learning experience. I certainly don’t want to make any sort of regular habit of eating off plan food. I DO want to experience confidence that if I make one or two choices that aren’t the best, I’m not going to fall off the cliff – I can get right back to business. I think this is an extremely important shift in my belief system that will benefit me if it takes place. I’m reminded of the saying “whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you are right.” My goal is to get through the next few weeks in a very clean eating MWL kind of way, and then re-evaluate all this for future reference. Good news – I am still in my goal weight range of 144-149. My weight went up over the top end of my goal range, but it came right back down and I weighed 147 this morning. For reference, this is a BMI range of 21.3 – 22.0. For now, this seems like a good place and a good range to stay accountable to. If time & adherence takes me a little lower, I’m OK with that too (within reason, of course). I would love to start 2023, and end 2023 in my goal weight range (having stayed there throughout the year, of course!). That would be a significant accomplishment for me!


Comments: I think my comments merged with my victories! I always need to keep in mind too, that this isn’t only about weight. Weight is just one of many health indicators. BMI is just one of many. Eating the wrong food even if my weight seems right is NOT the path to good health.


Concerns: The Pleasure Trap is sure ever present in our lives, and even more so at this time of year… not news to me or anyone else, but just sayin’ it! The struggle is real. Decision fatigue is real. And like Holly said, I'll be really glad when the food fest aspect of the holidays is over!


Questions: What are your favorite tips for getting back on track after a departure? What are your favorite mental strategies for making good choices under Pleasure Trap heavy circumstances? The mental part seems harder to me than the physical part right now. (i.e. “physical” strategies such as taking “my” food with me, not going places hungry, bring a dish that is compliant for me, meal planning and prep, etc.) What do you say when you talk to yourself in these situations? I want to get better at how I think it through.

One more week to go and we will be in the new year - hard to believe how fast 2022 went by. But wow - what huge changes! I started the year weight about 218 or somewhere close to that, and ending the year about 70 pounds lighter along with the myriad of other health improvements. Off all medication. Far less pain. Etc. etc.! Amazing! Thank you Team McDougall, and everyone here who provides the necessary support, information, and occassional necessary (for me) whip cracking to achieve this! I'm looking forward to an amazing 2023.

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi again to all!!!

It is still so cold here... (do NOT want to go outdoors)... so, plenty of time to post...

Holly, Awesome victory --- no HE double-L this year!!! You go girl!! Going to try to remember to freeze some grapes. That sounds like a nice treat! Love your prep description!!! I am going to do some of that myself after this post!!!

Gimmelean, Great comment on the candy with the grapes... I also always found it strange that one of the types is called "Cotton Candy grapes" (but they are delicious!)... Thanks for sharing your goals for new year of MWL. Going to think on this myself!!
Also, I will +1 Holly on this air-fried banana thing (since I don't have an air fryer, making me want to heat up some fruit and maybe have over rice or something....)!

Greens, Loved your cold weather thoughts on Dal soup and using the stationary bike. OK, I am going to do the bike today. Thanks for that!

Beth, I know what you mean about the mental part being tougher than some of the physical strategies. I was pretty dramatic here when I was fighting 5/7 Pleasure Trap issues for several months. Here is what I posted in the April thread: (maybe it will help)...

Quoting myself --- copied from https://www.drmcdougallforums.com/viewt ... ot#p630119
In my opinion, the "emotional" side of this process can be especially challenging - like jumping through a fiery hoop. I am looking to build a skillset to tackle in a positive way future non-compliant episodes. I need to plan that these will occur because I know that I am not perfect! Visualizing next steps required --- for instances like when Mark reminds participants to be kind to themselves / treat yourself gently, etc. Sometimes easier said than done - especially as it seems that tendency seems to be to treat yourself more harshly than we would ever treat a good friend or family member. In this regard, thinking to change "self-talk" --- As Pink would say... "Change the voices in your head.... make them like you instead! "

For example, if I had in fact consumed any pretzels (from 7 above) --- I am going to choose to reframe my mental outlook to Option B instead of standard Option A.

Option A - Stephanie, you idiot!! You have ruined over a month of "clean compliance". Why would you think that you could do this anyway? (Feels guilty and disappointed in self, eats remaining pretzels and starts downward spiral of continuing to eat off plan... )
Option B - Take a breath. Dust yourself off. Put down the rest of the pretzels. Nobody is perfect. You have an opportunity to make the next best choice. (Throws pretzels in the trash, watches a sitcom, gets back to eating recommended foods in recommended fashion...)

Good news is that I've gotten better about this. Keeping personal judgment out of the equation to not get disappointed in self. Just dust off, think of what could have gone better and try to implement. Sometimes that may be a physical strategy. I do know that there are certain foods that I would NOT dabble in under any circumstances due to the likelihood that they may set me right back into that Pleasure Trap. Hope some of this may resonate.

Cheers to all! Happy holidays!!!
Stephanie

[Noella]

Hi Mark and Team MWL,
Happy Holiday Season to all! Sorry you missed your flight to Seattle, Mark. how disappointing!
Thanks so much to everyone for their get well wishes. My broken wrist is a bit less painful each day.I've been trying to be brave and stay optimistic but somehow I have allowed myself to eat off plan to help cheer myself up. This is a dilemma because eating off MWL I can feel the weight going back on and I feel so disappointed with myself that I actually ate a food that I've been avoiding.
1. Start each meal with soup and/or salad and/or fruit. trying - not as easy this week as now my husband is doing all of the meals, and now all the kids and grandkids are here so there is an abundance of cooking and baking that's definitely not MWL.
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals. Yes... mostly...trying
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars. 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). - Mostly but not as perfect as usual
5. Eliminate all higher-fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). very very tricky this week...
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). Yes
9. Follow these principles, eat whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself, and don't stuff yourself. I'm eating more for comfort to help deal with the pain....
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). This is an interesting challenge!