The Behavioral Path to MWL Success - April 2023 Group

[Hjklost55]

4-27-23

Hello Team…. I have been absent for a couple weeks, and it’s time to come clean and get back on track.

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
NO

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
NO

3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts, too. If eitheris 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.
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 '

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

10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
NO

Victories, comments, concerns, questions: Well, there you have it….. I have a TON of excuses….. but that doesn’t help any. I have been in a funk for a couple weeks now, and finally TOTALLY CRASHED!!!!! I have done a “written assessment” of my excuses, and none of them I can change the outcome of now. I am crawling on my knees, pulling myself up, and taking some baby steps to be able to successfully function again. It was like jumping off a bridge. Gravity takes you down REALLY FAST once you start falling. So, with a new pot of soup and 10 lbs of potatoes cooked and in the fridge, I am ready to start again tomorrow morning. Thanks for letting me vent…. And hope everyone has a great week.

[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. 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

A solid week. Kept it simple and stayed prepared. So thankful to finally see sunshine again! Hope everyone has a great week.

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Team Time & Adherence,

Hope that everyone is doing fantastic this week!

1 Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Sometimes. Still 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. This week have been loving – oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, brown basmati rice / beans / corn with salad veggies and fruit for lunch, potatoes with veggies and fruit for dinner. Soup, potatoes, Jeff burgers for snacks (when snacking) 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.

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, a lot of eating --- but no starving and no stuffing.

10 Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
Materially yes – 6 /7. More walking and pickleball … Had a lazy day that was a bit chilly and skipped (so, a little boo to that).

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

Holly – I am wishing you all the best as you shake it off and move forward. If anyone can do it, you can with your strength and tenacity!! Awesome that you have your soup and potatoes ready for eating!!!! Reading your checklist reminded me of this thought from Martin Luther King… “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” (And you go, girl --- sounds like you are already moving on!!!)

Had a work “happy hour” last week that included a ton of baked goods, bar food, drinks… I focused on the interaction parts --- played trivia, ping-pong, shuffleboard and socialized with colleagues. Nobody noticed or commented that I did not eat or drink anything. I had a ton of fun.

I am excited to celebrate on Tuesday 2 years of McDougalling and following this checklist. It has been amazing to continue to improve health (feeling better and better) instead of feeling down and out! Best part is that I continue to love the food and the program. Looking forward to commemorating the occasion with soup / salad / fruit / potato AND participating in my first ever Pickleball tournament (for newbies).

Hope that everyone enjoys a happy, healthy, and successful week! Let’s all keep going!! We are stronger together!

Best,
Stephanie

[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 desert. Yes
3) Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts too. If either is troublesome for you, you can eliminate them. Yes.
4) Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). Yes
5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). Yes
6) Eliminate any added oil. Yes with the exception of 1 meal eaten out. Tasted like broccoli had something oily on it although asked for it plain.
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). 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

Hello team Time and Adherence!
I felt like week was decent with packing sweet potatoes, raw veggies, and soup for days spent on the road. Traveling with friends is always enjoyable but restaurants are mine fields. Grateful for structure and feedback here. Mark, I do feel more confident about how I’m able to adhere to principles even if perfection is illusive. Thank you for your questions.
Thank you all for sharing your experiences here. So helpful to read others’ experiences with this!

Marilyn

[Ejg]

Ahoy everyone, I did not post last week, I can't remember specifically why but my daughter was with me and I'm sure I got busy with something. I didn't fall off the wagon, and have been doing pretty well. I had to go to Texas for work this week and there were two things that may have been moderately off plan but overall I was very pleased with how the eating went on my trip.

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. not breakfasts but mostly yes otherwise. Every day during my trip I went to whole foods and ate a giant salad before eating anything else
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. So so on this one, I limited my meals to what was available at the whole foods prepared foods bar (not talking about the oversalted, oily prepared foods) and surprisingly a plain steamed vegetable wasn't really an option. When I got back from my trip, yes, 50-50 plate
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). no, see below
6. Eliminate any added oil. during one of the lunches on my trip, there was a buffet that was available and I took from all the options where the little tag said "vegan" (surprisingly there were several of these, I though Texans liked meat but I guess there are some plant eaters too). I don't know what I was thinking because I could tell from the first bite that there was a lot of added oil. Lesson learned, I ate around the oily stuff and finished the salad, and didn't eat from the buffet anymore after that
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. there was a lot of cookies, crackers, free airplane pretzels, etc available during my trip and I didn't eat any of it! however I did eat a tortilla, see below
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

There was one other item worth mentioning on my trip, I ate a huge breakfast on my travel day back home because I knew I wasn't going to have another opportunity to eat anything healthy again until the end of the day, when I finally walked through my front door. My flight was delayed by about 6 hours and this presented a problem because I was extremely hungry and didn't think I could make it an additional six hours. I ate a black bean burrito that had guacamole and a tortilla, it was sort of the least bad option. Luckily I also found a place in the airport that also sold those little fruit cups, and fresh bananas, so I ate a ton of that. No point in being starving if there are healthy options available. Overall I was pleased with how the trip went

[Noella]

Hi to Everyone On the Behavioural Path To MWL Success,

I hope everyone will have a really POWERFUL week of self-care and dedicated and effective lifestyle choices!

1 Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Absolutely - every meal!

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. Absolutely - every 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. Absolutely - every meal!

4 Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
This week, I had a tiny taste( not enough to count) of something animal-based that I used to love and discovered it tasted greasy, salty and nothing else. I couldn't believe how unappetizing it was. Three years ago, I would have gobbled it up...then I had a big serving of chard with a drizzle of balsamic, and it was delicious. I won't be going back to my old ways of eating dairy, meat, egg, fish and seafood. I am quite shocked at how much my sense of taste has changed to enjoy vegetables, grains and legumes so much more than I would of guessed is possible. I love the amazing flavours in both raw and cooked vegetables, and the possible vegetable dishes are endless!

5 Eliminate all higher-fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
Absolutely - at every meal!

6 Eliminate any added oil.
Absolutely -at every meal!

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).
Absolutely - every meal!

8 Don’t drink your calories especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
Absolutely - every meal!

9 Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.
Absolutely - every meal! I'm amazed that I can do this now. This was a real challenge for me when I started.

10 Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
Absolutely still trying to get motivated. This week I changed my exercise room quite a bit. I decluttered, cleaned and rearranged to achieve a very calm and clear environment. I brought all of my exercise equipment together and arranged things in a way that I'm hoping will help motivate me to use them more. I replaced a few items with this update and bought a few key pieces: artwork, cork blocks, mat, cotton blanket for a yoga prop, weights, leggings. I also added a peace plant, and an essential oil diffuser and a charging station for my MacBook. I also bought a pair of lightweight hiking shoes with a rugged Vibram sole but very light weight compared to my high alpine climbing/hikers.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

Holly – I have had weeks like that, too! You can do a 180 degree shift and get back on track! Yes!!!

Stephanie I like the quote you posted for Holly from Martin Luther King… “If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t run, then walk, if you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” Congratulations on two years of McDougalling! It's amazing to successfully lose weight and keep it off while eating delicious food.

I heard you gradually become an average of the five people you spend the most time with. I think this must also pertain to the five main people you read and follow online! Well, I spend a lot of time here reading Mark, Jeff, Wildgoose, Dr. McDougal and Star McDougallers reports too. I think I am gradually and steadily becoming the average of their cheery advice and recommendations to overcome the challenges associated with getting to a healthy weight and lifestyle.

If I'm not happy with any part of my life or lifestyle, doing this weekly 'Team Time and Adherence' summary report here encourages me to take a closer look at not just my meals and exercise but also my writing, my conversations, news sources, reading topics, and my social circle. I do get a bit more honest with myself about my eating behaviours and my social environment when I do these weekly check-ins: how many people do I get influenced by that are truly positive, life-affirming individuals who want nothing more than to see me reach my fullest potential?

Hope that everyone enjoys a successful week! We are stronger together! Noella

[Mark Cooper]

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

My replies and the weekly summary will follow.

[Gimmelean]

Post for week ending 4/28/23


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

2). Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals. Yes

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


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

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu,soy) no- I have been grazing on nuts.

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. Some homemade “ holiday” cookies and “ specialty “ breads that have made their way into my kitchen.

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. I really overdid it last week, paid the price with over tiredness and achiness and going to ease back into cardio and weights this week. Still did some form of yoga daily.

Victories,Comments,Concerns,Questions: out and about early today. Hope I haven’t missed the deadline although it would be less easier to want to hide out with a more perfect week.
Happy May!

[Mark Cooper]

BambiS - Your progress continues! Regarding the sweets at your mother's house, that seems like a very astute and useful insight. It might be helpful to avoid being hungry when you know you'll be visiting; satiety can be a helpful contributor toward feeling "strong." Dr. Lisle discuses this in The Story of Willpower – What it Is & How it Works. Those sorts of contextual changes in our environment and routine can have a surprisingly powerful influence upon our behavior. Keep giving it your best!

Hjklost55 - I'm so happy to see you back and reporting, Holly! I applaud your honesty and bravery in making your self-assessment. To quote Jeff:

This IS part of the process. Relapse/setbacks do not equal failure, they are part of the process of change (and success) that we all go through.

I would also observe that, even during this time when it felt like things "TOTALLY CRASHED," you were still able to answer YES to 3 of the recommendations. That isn't immaterial or irrelevant. From my perspective, NOW is always the best time to take positive action, and having a big pot of soup and a load of cooked potatoes in the fridge is a great position from which to move forward. Take things meal by meal and day by day.

Rebecka22 - Hooray for sunshine and a solid week! Keeping it simple and staying prepared sounds like a recipe for success!

VegSeekingFit - Woo-hoo! Congratulations for your two years of thoughtful, diligent efforts, progress, and amazing results, Stephanie! Feeling better and better is the very best reward.

Had a work “happy hour” last week that included a ton of baked goods, bar food, drinks… I focused on the interaction parts --- played trivia, ping-pong, shuffleboard and socialized with colleagues. Nobody noticed or commented that I did not eat or drink anything. I had a ton of fun.

Awesome! I'm so glad you were able to enjoy it! Have a great week, and best of luck in the tournament!

Greens - Great progress! From my perspective, that looks like a very well navigated time on the road, Marilyn, and I agree with you about restaurants feeling like "mine fields." It seems to me you've earned that feeling of greater confidence, as you continue to demonstrate to yourself your capability and adaptiveness. Carry on!

Ejg - It seems like you have a lot to be pleased about with how your trip went for sure! Nice work rolling with the punches and adapting to some chaotic situations and developments. Doing the best we can is all we can reasonably expect from ourselves, and when we face an array of less than ideal options, choosing the best from what is available seems pretty reasonable. I'm sure taking a pass on all the various calorie rich airplane and airport fare was no mean feat!

Noella - Fantastic efforts and progress! Isn't it striking how much our palate and preferences can change and adapt over time? Much as you describe, I absolutely love the flavors of the foods I eat now, and I can't imagine going back to the standard American diet. I've heard it said that we "crave" what we eat (and do) habitually, and that feels pretty accurate to my personal experience. I think you've made some cogent observations about the influence our peers, social circle, and environment have on our behavior; it is a good reminder for all of us to step back and be thoughtful about the various media and other inputs we allow into our lives. A POWERFUL week of self-care and dedicated and effective lifestyle choices - I love that!

Gimmelean - You did miss the deadline, but kudos to you for being accountable and reporting your self-assessment! Wishing you the best in easing back into exercise and feeling less achy. Happy May!

[Mark Cooper]

That's it for April, folks! Cheers for your ongoing efforts and comradeship!

I'll post the new thread for May on Monday.

No new links to share this week, but congratulations to Jeff for surpassing one million views of his Calorie Density video! An exciting and inspiring achievement for sure.

I'm going to echo Noella as we head into a new week:

I hope everyone will have a really POWERFUL week of self-care and dedicated and effective lifestyle choices!

Take care & be well!