The Behavioral Path to MWL Success - February 2024 Group

[Mark Cooper]

FEBRUARY 2024 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

[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

It was a good week. I feel like this time of year when the holidays are over and it’s not summer vacation is the easiest to stay on track so I am appreciating that and using it to build my overall habits. I hope everyone has a great week.

[Starflower]

Hi MWL 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). 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:

It was another good week. I’m enjoying lots of soups and experimenting with different pasta and vegetable recipes. Exercise is fitting into my schedule better. Onward!

Wishing everyone a wonderful and healthy week!

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Team Time & Adherence,

Happy February!!! Hope everyone had a great week.

1 Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Many times – 15/21.

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.
I am never starving. I continue to be mindful to stop eating at satiation.

10 Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
6/7 again. I have a pickleball tournament coming up tomorrow that I am looking forward to. It will be a long day – so will be packing: banana, grapes, carrots, and some potatoes. Snacks are provided and experience tells me that they will be in the form of pretzels, granola bars, and chocolate – so best not to be hungry!

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

Mark – I got my bamboo mat and sheets of seaweed --- so more to come soon on the veggie sushi experiment!

Hope that everyone has a happy and productive week!

Cheers,
Stephanie

[Gimmelean]

MWL Post for week ending 2/2/24
Hello MWL Team. Welcome February.

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,)
Yes

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu,soy).
No- I have to work on this.

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. I can easily cut this out right now and plan to.

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.

11)Posting before the close of the week
Yes. Just left the gym and sitting in my car sending this post before doing anything else. This “connection “ is important.

Victories,Comments,Concerns,Questions:

8 yes/ 2 no last week
8 yes/2 no this week


Have a good week everyone.

[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 - It certainly seems like you are establishing a solid routine and getting into the groove! I appreciate your observation about the (sometimes unspoken and / or unrecognized) toll that caregiving can take take on the caregiver. I think you are right that we have to be careful not to let our own core needs go unfulfilled during the process of seeing to the needs of others. That can be a challenging thing to negotiate and I'm glad you voiced that so clearly. Nurture the good groove you have been building and move forward with grace and care!

Rebecka22 - Excellent efforts! Using this current season, when adherence feels easier to maintain, as an opportunity to fortify your routine and habituate the behaviors you've been practicing seems quite astute. Keep at it!

Starflower - Awesome! Let us know if you find any particular "standout stars" among the soup / pasta / vegetable recipes you've been trying. I'm delighted that regular exercise is becoming a better fit in the rhythm of your days. Onward, indeed!

VegSeekingFit - Happy February! As usual, it seems like you are "crushing it," Stephanie!

I have a pickleball tournament coming up tomorrow that I am looking forward to. It will be a long day – so will be packing: banana, grapes, carrots, and some potatoes. Snacks are provided and experience tells me that they will be in the form of pretzels, granola bars, and chocolate – so best not to be hungry!

Seems like a good idea and a solid plan. I hope you have an amazing time playing in the tournament!

I got my bamboo mat and sheets of seaweed --- so more to come soon on the veggie sushi experiment!

Oh, fun! Enjoy experimenting!

Gimmelean - Holding steady!

Just left the gym and sitting in my car sending this post before doing anything else. This “connection “ is important.

Thank you for putting in that effort to participate here and stay connected to the group. Have you settled on a plan for how you want to approach those higher fat plant foods? Any particular ideas or adjustments to your routine that you feel would be helpful? Keep doing your best!

[Mark Cooper]

Wow! This feels like it was a really solid week, right? Great efforts all around!

In case you missed it, Dr. McDougall shared what I believe is a new article:

18 Ways to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease

Dr. McDougall has been sharing this "good news" about dietary and lifestyle interventions for years, of course, and I imagine you'll be pretty familiar with the 18 points he covers. All the dietary recommendations he discusses are consistent with and / or included in our recommended behaviors for MWL, but there are other social and behavioral points that might be new to you (some were new to me, too). Worth checking out. I was delighted to see this particular line, which is congruent with the discussions we've had in the group.

Omega-3 fatty acids support good heart health. But since the body doesn’t produce them naturally, adding sources to your diet is essential. There are plenty of Omega-3s in a well-balanced, plant-based meal plan.

May the week ahead bring knowledge, joy, and wonderful opportunities to grow! Take care & be well!

[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

Another solid week. I always appreciate the information and reinforcement that this is the healthiest choice. I hope everyone has a great week.

[Starflower]

Hi MWL 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). 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. 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

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

It was a fairly good week, but very stressful and busy. There were a couple of non-MWL choices. I can’t post a full ten as ‘yes’ this week, but everything was compliant according to the regular McDougall plan, at least. Onward!

Mark, I’m working on recipes for lentil stew and creamy potato soup. I’ll share them when they’re done. It’s fun! Thank you for your encouragement!

Wishing everyone a wonderful and healthy week!

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Team Time & Adherence,

Hope everyone is doing terrific!

1 Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Many times – 16/21.

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.
I think so. I am never starving and continue to be mindful to stop eating at satiation.

10 Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
5/7. A very busy work week – resulted in less time available in this space. This was a one-off where a deadline was pushed forward 2 weeks – so hoping to be back to at least a 6/7 next week.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

I have a busy weekend coming up – my FIL’s 90th birthday, niece’s baby shower, a Super Bowl party… Should be lots of fun but a bit more hectic than ideal… I will be bringing lots of fruit trays --- have already got them set to go and packing potato and sweet potatoes in my purse. The red sweet potatoes are amazing, if you haven’t tried them --- check them out!

Bambi and Starflower – I am with you in eating lots of soup at this time! It is nicely warming and comforting in the cold weather for sure! Thanks for sharing what you are doing!! Gimmelean had posted a Kitchari recipe a year or two ago that was fantastic!

Mark – thanks for all that you do to support us!!

Wishing everyone a happy and productive upcoming week! Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

Cheers,
Stephanie

[Gimmelean]

MWL Post for week ending 2/9/24
Hello MWL 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.
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,)
No- I let go of my resolve and ate pizza which also makes 7 a no. I brought adherent food with me with the best of plans.

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu,soy).
Yes- I kept nuts out of sight and eliminating the trigger by not starting.

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.
Yes

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

11)Posting before the close of the week
Yes.

Victories,Comments,Concerns,Questions:
8 yes/ 2 no last week
8 yes/2 no this week
When family and work need attention and care it feels selfish to focus on my own needs and easy to let go. Please share some thoughts on striking a balance.
Have a good week everyone.

[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 - Wow! Fantastic progress! That Indian Lentil Stew looks delectable; thank you for sharing it. You cooked it the same way I probably would, just dump everything in the Instant Pot. Carry on as you have been!

Rebecka22 - Solid, for sure! Like you, I really appreciate the reinforcement and reassurance that comes from the preponderance of evidence for the benefits of these behavioral choices. It gives some extra "oomph" to one's focus and diligence, right? Have a great week!

Starflower - 8/10 during a particularly trying week is its own sort of victory, right? A sudden surge of new stresses and demands upon our time and attention can feel extremely disruptive. Having the regular McDougall plan as a "fall back position" is certainly much better than many possible alternative scenarios. Do you feel like it was the physical/mental/emotional depletion from stress that created obstacles, or was it more being busy and needing to meet demands within a finite amount of available time? Those recipes sound great and I'll be excited for when they are done; creamy potato soup sounds especially appealing to me right now. Have a wonderful week!

VegSeekingFit - You seem firmly on a path of regular, ongoing progress, which is awesome! I'm sure having something unexpectedly chucked on your desk at the last minute wasn't a very fun situation to manage, but we just don't have control or agency over every aspect of our daily lives, right? Kudos to you for being kind to yourself and adapting with grace. I hope you have loads of fun during your weekend festivities. I am a total sucker for a good fruit tray; it is entirely possible that I've even finished off a few of them singlehandedly! Have an amazing weekend and week to come!

Gimmelean - Nice progress and follow through with your plan for eliminating the "triggering capacity" of those higher fat plant foods! I feel like I understand what you mean about how focusing on one's own needs can sometimes feel selfish in the face of urgent needs for attention and care from loved ones or one's workplace. Something that I think has helped me in that regard has been "breaking away" from the notion that care and the meeting of needs has to be a binary proposition. The care we give ourselves needn't always be at the expense of the care work we offer to others (though that might not be avoidable at all times and in all places). I try to view things through the frame of "having my baseline needs met allows me to offer better and more capable care to others." In my case, since my CRPS/RSD is so sensitive to any little deviation and can be somewhat debilitating, that is probably a much easier connection to make. I can definitely imagine certain calls for care, especially from loved ones and depending on the specifics of the situation, feeling pretty all-encompassing, and rightfully so even. All we can really expect of ourselves is to do our best with the capacity we have at a given time and within a given context. Wishing you the best in striking a balance that feels satisfactory for you (which might feel like "walking between the raindrops" at times)!

[Mark Cooper]

We continue working our way through February and 2024! My congratulations to everyone for your continuing efforts.

Just want to highlight a few things from the reports and discussion this week:

Bambi shared a recipe!

One of the recipes I tried , I left out fenugreek , fennel, and black cumin seeds, I didn’t have any. I also just used green lentils. I also just put all in instant pot. It still was quite tasty.

Indian Lentil Stew

1 1/2 cups dry yellow split peas
1/2 cup dry red lentils
1 cup brown rice
8 cups water or low-sodium vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups diced red onion
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons whole coriander
1 teaspoon cumin powder
2 teaspoons black cumin seeds (optional but so good)
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
2 teaspoons fenugreek (check Amazon if your store doesn't carry it)
2 teaspoons turmeric powder
1 teaspoons ground black pepper
lime juice, for garnish

Rinse your yellow peas, lentils, and rice in a colander for a minute. Meanwhile, place broth in a large pot and add onion, ginger, garlic and spices. Turn the pot to medium-high heat.
Add in the rinsed grains and stir. Bring to a boil, then turn heat to low and cover.
Check the kitchari every 15 minutes, adding more broth or water as needed. Stir to prevent sticking.
Cook over low heat for approximately one hour.
When finished, ladle into bowls and add a squeeze of lime. Hot sauce is also a good addition

and here is a similar recipe that Gimmelean shared a couple years back

I made my version of Kitchari-
I throw everything into my 6 quart instant pot without pre sautéing or extra work and it comes out perfect and different every time. There is no right or wrong way to throw it together and there are many recipe versions out there. The name means “a mess”. Omit the oil and salt for any recipe. I prefer 1 cup of rinsed split mung beans or yellow dahl to 1/2 cup of brown basmati rice because it gets very thick. Add 1tbs whole cumin seeds, 2tsp whole mustard seeds, 1 1/2 tsp whole coriander, 1 tsp ground turmeric, 1/4 tsp ground cayenne, 1/4 tsp ground cardamom, 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 inch fresh ginger peeled and grated, 2 cinnamon sticks, 3 bay leaves. 1/4 tsp ground black pepper, 4 cups of any vegetables chopped. Add 6 cups minimum of water or no salt vegetable stock. I fill the pot up to the maximum line with water. Seal and cook on high pressure for 22 minutes and natural release. I like to experiment and change up the dal and vegetables every time.

As broached in our earlier discussion, it can be hard to find the time and muster the energy for taking care of ourselves when there is other important care work to be done. I think this can be especially complicated for some, given the often unspoken expectations and sociocultural norms about who is responsible for providing care in our society. How can we strike a healthy and stable balance between what we need to live well and our connections and obligations to family, community, faith tradition, workplace, &c?

Wishing you all the very best in the days ahead! If you are celebrating Valentine's Day, may your celebration be joyous, and also congruent with your values and goals.

Take care & be well!