The Behavioral Path to MWL Success - June 2023 Group

[BambiS]

6-23


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).
No sure, had 1 meal of a vegetable Thai dish with rice noodles.

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 walked and rode my cubii

Victories, comments, concerns, questions good week, nothing eventful.

It was a pretty good week.

[Healthy Jenna]

I have completed the background/introductory materials and would like to be added to the group. I know there is just one week left in June, will I automatically be added to the July 2023 group? Thank you! Very excited to be here.

[Mark Cooper]

I have completed the background/introductory materials and would like to be added to the group. I know there is just one week left in June, will I automatically be added to the July 2023 group? Thank you! Very excited to be here.

Welcome! You are in!

[Hjklost55]

June 23, 2023

Hello Time and Adherence.

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
YES Continue with my soup at 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.
YES (have been eating a lot of watermelon 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

4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
YES This is the easy one.

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

6. Eliminate any added oil.
YES Another easy one.

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, went to same friends house from last week’s lemon bar episode. This week she had other very tempting treats. But I resisted this week. Thank God she also had a bowl of cherries out. So, I ate a couple handfuls of cherries. SCORE!!!!

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 Still working on this. Most days I feel like I am not stuffing myself. But then say, 30 minutes later I feel…. WOW, maybe I did eat too much. But I am much more aware of it.

10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
YES Have been making myself walk daily. My BF ships stuff daily, so I have been offering to walk down to the mailbox. It is a 4 mile round trip. One trip this week, I saw a bull moose, a momma fox with 3 kits, and a swan on his/her nest. The wildlife is amazing here. So enjoy my walks.

Victories, Comments, Concerns, Questions: WOW…. I just realized I had 10/10 YES’S…. That might be a first. I am feeling great. I will continue with the meditation, and mindful eating. Thanks for all the input each week Mark. Your references and links are very helpful. I look forward to reading them each week.

Take Care,
Holly

[Gimmelean]

Post for week ending 6/23/23

Greetings everyone. Hope your week was a good one.

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,)
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 - succumbed to a bag of “greenwashed” plant powered veggie chips.

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. Prevention. com has a great article on the Life Changing benefits of walking. While I am post-pandemicly back to the gym a few times a week, I find walking outside has become a lower priority. I’m making it a point to try to walk outside for 1/2 hr per day no matter what other exercise or activity I’m doing in order to get back to walking. It’s a very motivating mood booster which reinforces commitment to self care and staying on track.

Victories,Comments,Concerns, Questions:
My week was good; not perfect and I’m feeling fine about that . While I’m still trying to figure out the difference between casually relaxed and complacent when it comes to maintaining and losing the bit of weight I’ve gained, I have concluded that MWL is the only way of eating/ living that genuinely works for me that other prior approaches couldn’t come close to.
First day of summer this week in the US. Enjoy!

Have a good week ahead everyone.

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Team Time & Adherence,

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer. Made it to the Farmers market already this morning and the fruit is looking incredible! The weather is amazing and planning to spend at least a couple of hours outside under a tree in the zero-gravity chair finishing Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421 (uncanny parallels to the recent submarine catastrophe)!

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

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. Still enjoying the same meals – oatmeal, brown rice / beans / corn, and potatoes with various fruits and veggies.

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.
Well BOO to me here. I had planned approach for my work picnic last week --- which was tons of fun! Anyway, I ended up getting called in early that day to help resolve an issue. I had my potatoes all packed to eat at the picnic (with salad and fruit provided). I did not bank on missing breakfast --- so ate the potato instead of regular oatmeal breakfast way before the event. Was then HUNGRY and ate a vegan black bean chipotle burger which had to have oil. I have been pretty much “just in time” making meals – so will make sure to do some batch cooking this weekend to have a couple of things in the freezer to grab to go. I normally take more food than needed… I could have waited to eat until I got home, but there were several hours to go and I was afraid that I would make an even worse decision if I was hangry.

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 – mostly. No starving. Came pretty close one afternoon to stuffing on honeydew melon. It was really hot outside and the melon was cool and delicious. I really don’t like feeling a bit stuffed so will keep this in mind… Not usually a point that I have issue with.

10 Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
Yes - 7 /7. Still walking and playing tons of pickleball! Be careful if you try pickleball… it is definitely addictive!!!

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

Thanks, Mark for all of your invaluable and considerate feedback each week!

Hope everyone enjoys the last week of June!! Summer, summer, summer!!!

Cheers,
Stephanie

[Noella]

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

It was a good week

Best regards Noella

[Mark Cooper]

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

My replies and the weekly summary will follow.

[Mark Cooper]

Rebecka22 - Hang in there! As you noted, you know what to do to move your pattern of behavior back toward the recommendations, and, importantly, you didn't go totally off plan and stay there. Setbacks are part of the process, right? Learn what you can and move on. Do you feel like there was anything in particular driving the cravings you experienced? Any changes in situation or context that may have had an effect? You can do it!

BambiS - Pretty solid! What do you feel went really well this week? Are there any aspects of your process or routine that you think might benefit from greater attention? Keep doing your best!

Hjklost55 - Woo-hoo! 10/10! Congratulations, Holly! Nice work navigating that get together at your friend's house. A few handfuls of cherries are hard to beat, right? All the wildlife you are seeing on those walks sounds remarkable. I'm glad to know your are feeling great, and that meditation and mindfulness feel like they are serving you well. Carry on!

Gimmelean - Kudos! I'm so happy you are feeling fine with your progress. I know what you mean about seeking a feeling of casual relaxation that doesn't stray into complacency. One aspect I think helps define that for me is a sense of being intentional and thoughtful about my choices, but also expressing self-compassion and not castigating myself if I stumble. Attention, kindness, learning, and time will win out over perfectionism in my book. I'll echo your sentiment, MWL has definitely proven to be the most successful and beneficial approach for me, personally. Hooray for summer! Enjoy!

VegSeekingFit - Nice work, Stephanie! I don't feel like you deserve a BOO at all. Even our best plans will hit obstacles, and crucially, you have taken the time to think through what you might do differently in the future and are taking action to make sure you have an ample and accessible supply of the recommended foods. That seems like a win, no? Enjoy the weather and that zero-gravity chair and carry on!

Noella - Awesome! Seems like a very good week! What has been working best to support that excellent adherence? Any particular winning strategies? Onward!

[Mark Cooper]

All right, everybody! One more check-in left to close out June and send us into July!

This week, I think it would be interesting to hear your thoughts and opinions about the interesting conversation that has been started by Jeff in this thread. In particular, I'm curious to know your thoughts relating to the question posed in the second post.

The following question was asked recently on the Beat Your Genes podcast. I thought it was a great summation of the way many of you, especially those trying to manage their weight, may feel.

Here it is...

"As a woman in my 50s who has eaten crap her whole life and fought her weight the whole time too, I have found that unless I quit my job, divorce my husband, drop all my friends, move to a cabin in the woods in total isolation with no form of communication or entertainment and never leave while growing my own whole foods, controlling everything in my environment is impossible and triggers and cravings are everywhere. (and some appear without any noticeable provocation and with a connection that only my brain can seem to find.). What can I do? I am trying to deprogram over 50 years of programming and habits and are surrounded by people who aren’t even trying and surrounded by an industry and environment that is bound and determined to make me sick and fat."

You can hear the question and the response they give here.

https://beatyourgenes.org/2023/06/01/30 ... lize-more/

It starts at 17.28 and ends around 40 minutes

Feel free to post any comments here.

I will be responding with my thoughts next week.

In Health
Jeff

I imagine that many of us here can relate to the sentiments expressed by the questioner, and the challenges inherent in our broader environment are not so easy to solve or overcome. What do you think is a sound approach? In what ways have you addressed these challenges in the course of your own experience? What has worked and what hasn't? How would you respond to that listener's question?


Kudos for your efforts and engagement, and thanks for your kindness. Have an outstanding week, take care & be well!

[Mark Cooper]

Hi, all! I'm traveling today (June 28) through July 6, so you will have the pleasure of wildgoose stepping up to facilitate this month's final check-in and bring June to a close. Big thanks to her for that! Have a fantastic rest of the week and I will see you all on July 7. Take care & be well!

[BambiS]

6-23


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.
No, had a few marshmallows

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

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

Is a small amount of stevia okay?
I found a lemon drink I’ve had but cut it way down with water.

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

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

Victories, comments, concerns, questions good week, nothing eventful

Happy 4th everyone!

I made some great recipes this week, it kept things interesting. I’m count down days till retirement, 15. I will have way more time.
The scale moved again this week.

My husband has joined me, he was told his kidneys are stage 4 failure and was put on a water pill, lost 30 lbs of water in 5 days. He also takes evil prednisone.

[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

Overall this was a good week, of course not without temptation. I know I did that to myself last week, but I also had some pretty stressful days this week and I did not turn to comfort food. In response to last week’s overall question and the questions to me, I think the answer is similar. Environmental factors and programming are hard to overcome. Last week once my husband told me he wanted to eat out for Father’s Day, I knew that my checklist would not be 10/10. While I know it is possible to eat out and maintain the behaviors, it is not possible at all restaurants and I have not overcome the idea that if I am spending money on restaurant food I want something special. Once I knew I was going to have a red X week instead of a green check week, my chocolate cravings started within hours. They grew and I think that in the back of my head I allowed them to get stronger because I wasn’t getting my check either way. So, what do I do about that? I give myself grace, try not to go all the way off, and work hard to get back to my green check the next week. Also, I know I am driven by meeting my goals. This year my goal was no more than one week a month that wasn’t a 10/10 green check week, so that allows me to get right back on track. But that also allows me to stay off track once I lose a YES. Last year I had 25/52 weeks with 10/10 YESes, or green checks in my personal journal, and I was surprised by that at the end of the year. I didn’t realize how many weeks I got off track until I counted them at the end, which led to my goal of 40/52 for this year (which I am currently on track to meet). I think next year what I need to do to help myself improve even more is make a goal based on days, not weeks, then I won’t have the thought that if I don’t meet all my yeses on one day of the week, I might as well have something else off plan. I know that for me the drive to meet my goals once I have set them, while it doesn’t make it easy, does make success a lot more likely. I have seen improvement though. I used to make myself feel terrible when I went off plan overdoing the sugar and chocolate which really affects me now more than ever, giving me a headache and a stomachache almost instantly. Now I am much better at stopping, I feel more in control, and I know I can keep turning this into more and more of a natural choice. I can rewire my brain even with the environment I live in. Thanks for always encouraging us to take the time to reflect on our behaviors and for all your positive feedback. I hope you had a great vacation Mark and I hope everyone has a great week! We are finally on summer vacation after today!

[Ejg]

Happy Friday. I posted here last week but somehow it got lost in the ether and didn't show up. I had a date and so went slightly off plan this week (she knows I don't eat meat or dairy but probably not aware of the actual extent to which I go to be healthy). Assuming there's another date, I intend to make her aware, so don't intend to be going off plan on a regular basis.

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Yes. Even on my date I ate a mountain of fruit before the 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. 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. I had two black bean burgers, I assume there was added salt
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. possibly added oil in the black bean burgers I got from the store
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 ate two hamburger buns made out of white bread
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

The number on the scale continues to move in the intended direction. I've found that even with sticking pretty strictly with all ten of these for months, I didn't REALLY start to see consistent results until I paid more attention to #9. I never deprive myself of food, but I like to wait now until I have a good appetite built up, and when I'm sure I do (I know when this is the case because a big salad to start actually sounds ok), then I eat. Since I've been doing this, the weight loss has been pretty consistent. Have a good week

[trueunity]

06/23 - 06/29

A 10-Point Checklist for Maximum Weight Loss

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

6/23: Yes
6/24: Yes
6/25: Yes
6/26: Yes
6/27: Yes
6/28: Yes
6/29: 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.

6/23: Yes
6/24: Yes
6/25: Yes
6/26: Yes
6/27: Yes
6/28: Yes
6/29: 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.

6/23: No
6/24: Yes
6/25: Yes
6/26: Yes
6/27: Yes
6/28: Yes
6/29: Yes

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

Absolutely Always

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

6/23: No
6/24: Yes
6/25: Yes
6/26: Yes
6/27: Yes
6/28: Yes
6/29: Yes

6. Eliminate any added oil.

6/23: No
6/24: Yes
6/25: Yes
6/26: Yes
6/27: Yes
6/28: Yes
6/29: 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.

6/23: No
6/24: Yes
6/25: Yes
6/26: Yes
6/27: Yes
6/28: Yes
6/29: Yes

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

Kinda

I do drink coffee (black) which has minimal calories. Sometimes I do add a little oatmilk creamer to my coffee. I normally add 1 Tbsp which is 25 calories. I normally have 3 to 4 cups. ( 8 oz serving)

Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full.

6/23: No
6/24: Yes
6/25: Yes
6/26: Yes
6/27: Yes
6/28: Yes
6/29: Yes

9. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.

6/23: No
6/24: Yes
6/25: Yes
6/26: Yes
6/27: Yes
6/28: Yes
6/29: Yes

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

6/23: Yes
6/24: No - Rest Day
6/25: Yes
6/26: Yes
6/27: Yes
6/28: Yes
6/29: Yes

This has been an phenomenal week. I have turned so many things around in my life. I'm amazed at how fast your body can bounce back from a slide and how it meets you on the other side prepared to support you all the way.

I love my body, I love my mind, I love my life!!