Re: The Behavioral Path to MWL Success - January 2023 Group
Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2023 5:01 am
I made it, sort-of!
1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Yes/No--struggled with this until yesterday; I packed everything in my lunch and paired fruit with snacks and salad with my lunch--mix-n-match style. And for breakfast just piled the extra fruit on top of my oats and ate them first (like I've read here) didn't stir them in.
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--not perfect, but good work. I had frozen broccoli on hand and had bought a tub of salad before I decided to return to MWL. I'm learning/experimenting with getting the right amount of starch; I was thinking of the soup I had made as starchy, but it really wasn't. Did better when I added bulgur or potato to it--1 to 1-1/2 cups approx.
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. Nope--many candies at work, and I had a soup cup that had too much sodium (forgot to use only half the seasonings when I made it). Rest of food was reasonable.
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). No--candy had dairy.
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). No--Small amount of soymilk in my lunch soup for the week, I added nuts to my compromise oatmeal in the evening (see journal for gorey details)....and one (I think) attack of peanut butter. I did avoid coffee with creamer this week and dumped out the last of my soymilk...Two dinners had tofu in, because I had already planned that for the week before I started.
6. Eliminate any added oil. No--candy, peanut butter.
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--added raisins to my evening oatmeal, succumbed to bread.
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). Yes. I drank tea...and water. Black coffee this morning.
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--at times I was getting very well attuned to when I needed to eat and how much. At other times, too stuffed of the right foods, or cramming in bad foods. (candy at work, bread at home).
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). Yes--Super proud of this one. I have a hard time getting this going usually, but had signed up for a local challenge to do 1 mile outside every-day in January. I didn't do every day, but I've done most days. I'm getting 20-30 minutes right now and hope to hit 30 more consistently this week.
Victories, etc: So, 3 solid Yes, two Yes-ish. I am really looking to learn to make this work. I will further clean things up and prepare better for this coming week. groceries tomorrow a.m. I think my work environment will be better going forward, we don't have vending machines, and don't often have people bringing things...just on the weeks that I'm starting my 'diet'.
I will continue to increase the starch at meals as needed, plan more finger foods for work and try to find the things that I really enjoy eating so that I can get them on 'repeat'. There are other things I need to work on, like sleep...but I'm too tired at the moment!
Happy and successful weekends to everyone!
Jennifer
1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Yes/No--struggled with this until yesterday; I packed everything in my lunch and paired fruit with snacks and salad with my lunch--mix-n-match style. And for breakfast just piled the extra fruit on top of my oats and ate them first (like I've read here) didn't stir them in.
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--not perfect, but good work. I had frozen broccoli on hand and had bought a tub of salad before I decided to return to MWL. I'm learning/experimenting with getting the right amount of starch; I was thinking of the soup I had made as starchy, but it really wasn't. Did better when I added bulgur or potato to it--1 to 1-1/2 cups approx.
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. Nope--many candies at work, and I had a soup cup that had too much sodium (forgot to use only half the seasonings when I made it). Rest of food was reasonable.
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). No--candy had dairy.
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). No--Small amount of soymilk in my lunch soup for the week, I added nuts to my compromise oatmeal in the evening (see journal for gorey details)....and one (I think) attack of peanut butter. I did avoid coffee with creamer this week and dumped out the last of my soymilk...Two dinners had tofu in, because I had already planned that for the week before I started.
6. Eliminate any added oil. No--candy, peanut butter.
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--added raisins to my evening oatmeal, succumbed to bread.
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). Yes. I drank tea...and water. Black coffee this morning.
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--at times I was getting very well attuned to when I needed to eat and how much. At other times, too stuffed of the right foods, or cramming in bad foods. (candy at work, bread at home).
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). Yes--Super proud of this one. I have a hard time getting this going usually, but had signed up for a local challenge to do 1 mile outside every-day in January. I didn't do every day, but I've done most days. I'm getting 20-30 minutes right now and hope to hit 30 more consistently this week.
Victories, etc: So, 3 solid Yes, two Yes-ish. I am really looking to learn to make this work. I will further clean things up and prepare better for this coming week. groceries tomorrow a.m. I think my work environment will be better going forward, we don't have vending machines, and don't often have people bringing things...just on the weeks that I'm starting my 'diet'.
I will continue to increase the starch at meals as needed, plan more finger foods for work and try to find the things that I really enjoy eating so that I can get them on 'repeat'. There are other things I need to work on, like sleep...but I'm too tired at the moment!
Happy and successful weekends to everyone!
Jennifer