The Behavioral Path to MWL Success - December 2023 Group

[Mark Cooper]

DECEMBER 2023 RESOURCES
This section will be updated throughout the month with links to useful resources, as they are added to the thread.

Orientation Information for Time & Adherence:
The Behavioral Path to MWL Success
MWL 10-Point Checklist
MWL Program Guidelines
Calorie Density: How To Eat More, Weigh Less and Live Longer
MWL Recipes
Some of Jeff Novick's Quick and Easy Recipes
Jeff's Simple Recipes on Facebook
SNAP Meal Template

1- 28 oz Can No Salt Added Tomatoes (or broth for those who don't like tomatoes)
1- 14 oz Can No Salt Added Beans (which is about 1.5 - 2 cups)
1- 16 oz Bag Frozen Mixed Veggies (any type)
**optional - 1/2 cup Frozen Greens
1.5 to 2 cups of a *Cooked* Starch
~1 tbsp. Salt Free, Dried Seasoning/Spice

The Road to Success: Creating Healthy Habits
The Pleasure Trap: Dr. Doug Lisle at TedxFremont
How to Lose Weight Without Losing Your Mind with Dr. Doug Lisle
Dr. Doug Lisle on The Ego Trap
Dr. Doug Lisle: The Story of Willpower – What it Is & How it Works
Dr. Lisle's Three Top Tips for Dietary Success
Jeff Novick, RD - Nutrition & Health FAQ: Answers To The Most Asked Questions
A Review of the Rules & Guidelines for Reading Labels
Passive Overconsumption: The Unintended Intake of Excess Calories
Can You Really Eat As Much As You Want?
Why We Hit Plateaus and What We Can Do About Them
Top 10 Reasons for Lack of Success
Dining Out and Travel Food
Exercise, Health & You: How Much Is Enough?
Optimum BMI? / Optimal BMI - redux
Building Self-Efficacy
You Are Not Broken
wildgoose - How I determined my "goal weight"
Finding The Sweet Spot: Balancing Calorie Density, Nutrient Density & Satiety
Calorie Density & Satiety In Action
Is long time adherence really possible?
Amy's Giant List of Links to Dr. Lisle's Lectures

[Mark Cooper]

Here is the new thread for DECEMBER!

Let's do our best to finish the year in service to our important goals, and in a manner congruent with our values.

Always ONWARD!

[BambiS]

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Some days, I do well at breakfast. I struggle other meals


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
Some days


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). No intent exercise, but still moving around the house

Victories, comments, concerns, questions good week,
I had a pretty good week. I was craving raw vegetables and had quit a bit. I am just about done decluttering until the first of the year. I then will move on to my clothes.

[letsfixmyheart]

Well, after a really fun but nutritionally disastrous holiday and aftermath, I can say that I clearly, at least for now, need to plan rather than flying by the seat of my pants. When I go free-form, I end up with fried things in my mouth. That's not how I want to treat my body for the time I have left on this planet. The one thing I'm not having a problem with is eating just until I'm comfortable -- I don't tend to overeat unless I'm really stressed or something, so that part is okay.

I flipped over a new calendar page today and I'm going to give this my best shot, the planning thing. Breakfast and lunch are pretty easy -- overnight oats and fruit for breakfast, because I can prep them the night before (actually for three days' worth at a time). And I just put four big Japanese sweet potatoes in the oven; they will be lunches for a few days. I could eat sweet potatoes with either veggies or salsa every day, so that's lunch, starting with the veggies or some soup.

Dinner's the rough thing, but I'll talk with my husband and we'll figure something out. Today, he's making us a big pot of vegetable soup, which we will have for lunch and dinner. There are a few other things he makes that are compliant, and maybe I can meal-prep some stuff for dinners on the weekends, too. When I work late, we often fend for ourselves, and we food-shop together, so there's really no excuse for me not having even a can of compliant soup in the cupboard for when what he fixes for dinner isn't on my plan, right? That's the way I'm gonna look at it -- I buy the food and fix the food, there's nothing stopping it from being the food that heals my body. Right?

Anyway, thanks for being here. No one else really understands what I'm trying to do except you all and my husband, who has been through this with me so many times that it's understandable that he thinks it won't last long, so he just puts up with it lovingly and waits for it to end so I can eat junk with him again. Maybe with planning I can actually make this work.

Today's plan:
Breakfast: overnight oats with water (I'm out of plant milk) and lots of strawberries
Snacks: I have oranges, apples, pomelo, and salad with balsamic vinegar on hand
Lunch: Japanese sweet potatoes with salsa, steamed veggies, vegetable soup
Dinner: Vegetable soup (it has potatoes in it, so it's a decent meal by itself) and salad with balsamic vinegar

[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

I would classify this week as more of a win than last week as I made it through my family visits and ordering out. I made it through Christmas decorating and warm holiday drinks. I did not start a month of over indulgence and I feel good about that. I hope everyone has a great week!

[Gimmelean]

Post for week ending 12/1/23

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,)
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

Victories,Comments,Concerns,Questions:
Hello everyone. With so much going on last week in getting ready for Thanksgiving, I did not post. I also went way off the adherence track. However,
the day after Thanksgiving, I immediately started a Mary”s (potato) mini and stuck with it to the letter the entire week. So glad to be back and back on track.
Have a good week ahead!

[letsfixmyheart]

Yesterday, Friday, breakfast and lunch were great, and dinner not so much. But it's a start. Onward!

[CUgorji22]

Hello again, everyone!

Somehow I keep finding my way back to this Group! Lol! I am grateful you all are still here, going strong!!

Mark, I have completed the Orientation and would like to participate/be added to the Group.


Thanks & have a great weekend!
-Chesca

[Artista]

Hi Time and Adherence Team

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). Mostly.


6) Eliminate any added oil. Yes, except for one day I had dessert that had flour and oil in 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, except for the exception noted in #6.

8 ) Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). Yes, except had some orange juice one 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

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: I was away from home last Friday and Saturday and didn’t get a chance to post. My family celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday on Saturday. We had a wonderful time together and I made good food choices for the most part but there were a few exceptions as noted above. I was able to get back on track afterwards.

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Team Time & Adherence,

Happy December! Hope everyone is having a fantastic start to the month! We had our first real snow of the season last weekend in Chicagoland (already melted). Enjoyed a seasonal walk in the bright fluffy flakes --- seeing kids getting their sleds out and making snowmen!

My checklist looks a bit better than last week – happily back to my regular routine in my normal environment!

1 Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Mostly. Remains at about 2/3.

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. Had a fun pre-holiday get together with a few girlfriends this week. My one friend is an amazing cook, but loves to use oil. She was texting with me – trying to come up with a dish that I would eat for sit-down dinner– asking about peas and pasta. I could picture that with garlic and a boatload of olive oil. So, I said don’t worry about me for dinner – I can’t eat oil at all on top of no animal products – I’m just looking forward to the company and don’t expect you to make anything special for me. She then responded back …. For the soup, would a bit of olive oil to saute the veggies be ok… Anyway, it ended up where we brought appetizers --- including fruit plate and veggies with McD compliant hummus – in lieu of full dinner. Had a great time.

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. 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).
Yes. Walking and strength training. Some pickleball but it has ramped down with the move indoors. Many of the indoor opportunities around here are during the week when I am working. I did sign up for my first tournament of 2024 today!

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

Thanks so much, Mark for your feedback last week - helped me to consider my perspective on "success". I think it is important how we frame outcomes in our mind and remember that this is all a learning experience where we can consider without self-recrimination options how best to handle future similar situations. Also, that this learning brings us closer to success. And we just keep moving forward trying to make the best decisions in alignment with our goals.

Going to a holiday party next weekend where I learned last year to STAY AWAY from the food table. Doesn’t matter if the folks I want to talk to most are congregating there – just go elsewhere… I am going to not arrive hungry, bring a couple of compliant dishes, and keep to the perimeters of the party. Feeling good about being able to navigate that situation.

Wishing everyone in the group an amazing week filled with good choices!

Cheers,
Stephanie

[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 - I'm happy to read that this felt like a pretty good week for you! As you describe, I find that I do really crave raw vegetables and salads whenever I go without them for a time. You have certainly been keeping yourself busy with your big decluttering project; I imagine it will feel good to transition to a new undertaking. Are there specific behaviors or actions you would like to work on in regard to MWL? How do you feel about your current state and your progress? Any present plans or concerns?

letsfixmyheart - As you observed, I think many of us in the group would consider adequate planning and preparation to be essential for our efforts. I know I wasn't able to "wing it" successfully until I had accrued a lengthy period of adherence and a great deal of practical experience in maintaining the recommended pattern of behavior. What, specifically, do you consider to be your current goals with respect to the recommended behaviors? What outcomes are you seeking? Are you tracking your progress in relation to your goals? What do you think is preventing you from reporting a self-assessment with the MWL 10-Point Checklist (which really is the foundation of our group here)? What do you consider to be the most significant obstacles that you are facing? What things might you do to remove or circumvent those obstacles? It's great that you feel able to stop eating when you are comfortably full; with that behavior under control, it is really a matter of eating the recommended foods in the recommended fashion whenever you feel hungry. The more you can arrange your environment to support yourself in that task, the more attainable it will feel.

Rebecka22 - Successfully navigating family visits, ordering out, Christmas decorating, and holiday drinks! I can see why that feels like a big win! What do you think helped achieve that? Were there any particular actions or methods that seemed really useful?

I did not start a month of over indulgence and I feel good about that.

Awesome!

Gimmelean - I imagine it feels really great to be back on track in the wake of the holiday celebration, particularly since you were able to immediately reset and stick with it. Did the Mary's Mini feel particularly valuable in that regard? Any other things you did in returning to adherence that felt essential? What worked in guarding against a lengthy detour? What are your goals for the week ahead?

CUgorji22 - Hi, Chesca! Welcome back! Today is always a great day to begin, resume, reset, or recommit!

Artista - I'm delighted to know you had a wonderful time celebrating with your family! Being able to make food choices that support your goals, minimize "exceptions", and get right back on track afterwards seems like an experience that could feel both empowering and instructive. Are there any new things you feel like you learned during that time? Any tools you relied on that felt essential? In what aspects do you feel most successful? Anything you might do differently in the future?

VegSeekingFit - Enjoying a nice walk amidst fluffy snow flakes, kids with sleds, and snowmen! That sounds like a really lovely experience, Stephanie. Eliminating oil from cooking and recipes does seem to be one of those sticking points for many people unfamiliar with or unpracticed in this way of eating, right? The funny thing is that cooking without oil is really pretty easy once you get used to it, and washing dishes is SO MUCH easier. I can't imagine going back to my old ways. Like you, I've found it much simpler to bring my own food to events, and try to be clear with my friends, family, and acquaintances that I never expect them to provide some "special" dish for me. I feel like it makes things easier on everybody.

I think it is important how we frame outcomes in our mind and remember that this is all a learning experience where we can consider without self-recrimination options how best to handle future similar situations. Also, that this learning brings us closer to success. And we just keep moving forward trying to make the best decisions in alignment with our goals.

Thank you so much for sharing these thoughts; I agree 100%!

[Mark Cooper]

We are off and running for the month of December! I'm delighted to be in such good company as we continue our individual and collective efforts in practicing the recommended behaviors during the final weeks of the year.

I've been reflecting on the history and development of this group. In doing so, I was reminded of some past discussions and posts that felt worth sharing as an opportunity for the present group to engage (or, for some of us, reengage) with the topics discussed.

A little more than a year ago, we had what I thought was an excellent conversation exploring the meaning and context of "success". Wildgoose started things off with this post, and I closed the week here, the bulk of the responses are situated between those two posts, and are really worth exploring. As I wrote at that time,

I found reading through everyone's thoughts about "success" to be a truly profound experience. Something that seemed particularly significant to me: while there were many different ideas, measures, and situations described, ALL of them seemed completely appropriate and relevant to that person, and IMPORTANTLY, to my mind they all describe a very healthy and reasonable assessment of what "success" looks like.

I'm also sharing some thoughts I posted in 2020, examining direction, mindset, motivation, perfectionism, and the pursuit of excellence, which I hope you will find interesting.

Thank you all for your dedication, kindness, and camaraderie! Best wishes for an amazing and successful week to come. Take care & be well!

[Gimmelean]

Mark, thanks for your reply!

Marks reply 12/2/23

Gimmelean - I imagine it feels really great to be back on track in the wake of the holiday celebration, particularly since you were able to immediately reset and stick with it. Did the Mary's Mini feel particularly valuable in that regard? Any other things you did in returning to adherence that felt essential? What worked in guarding against a lengthy detour? What are your goals for the week ahead?
******
The Mary’s mini after multiple small detours and then a huge overindulgence was the perfect antidote for me. It was very valuable because it provided a simple, predictable, and structured way of eating. It showed me that I wasn’t really hungry and tended to eat regardless. The first three evenings were the most difficult to overcome cravings.
I felt so good after eating only the right foods that it gave me the motivation to continue to stick with it. I made sure that my foods were prepared in advance and were exactly the same every day, every meal. No extra choices. I avoided eating anything at the office that wasn’t mine because I had plenty of adherent food with me that I enjoyed. I knew I wasn’t physically hungry after eating my prepared planned meals and for me that’s the first step in eliminating recreational eating. My goal for the week ahead is to do more of the same on purpose.

[Mark Cooper]

The Mary’s mini after multiple small detours and then a huge overindulgence was the perfect antidote for me. It was very valuable because it provided a simple, predictable, and structured way of eating. It showed me that I wasn’t really hungry and tended to eat regardless. The first three evenings were the most difficult to overcome cravings.
I felt so good after eating only the right foods that it gave me the motivation to continue to stick with it. I made sure that my foods were prepared in advance and were exactly the same every day, every meal. No extra choices. I avoided eating anything at the office that wasn’t mine because I had plenty of adherent food with me that I enjoyed. I knew I wasn’t physically hungry after eating my prepared planned meals and for me that’s the first step in eliminating recreational eating.

That all definitely makes sense to me, and may offer a useful framework for others to apply. Thank you so much for sharing!