MAY 2020 Maintenance Thread

[Lyndzie]

Welcome to the McDougall Maintenance support group! Let’s join together for support and camaraderie while we strive to maintain our successes.

Many of us have lost weight and/or reached other health goals. We’re ready for that next chapter, maintaining the gains we’ve accomplished.

This group will have Friday check ins, where everyone can touch base. Weigh-ins are optional, and will not be tracked. Please feel free to share your non-scale victories (NSV) as well.

In order to foster group participation, we do ask that only participants post, so please do join! You can join at any time simply by hitting the “post reply” button and saying something along the lines of “I’d like to join.” As they say, the more, the merrier.


Hello everyone!

Many parts of the world are under various stages of re-opening after weeks, if not months, of shut down. With all the changes that have happened this year, what improvements have you been able to make in your life? Have you had any challenges come up regarding maintaining a healthy lifestyle?

I’ve had more time to spend on walking, which is my primary source of exercise, but have found myself stress-eating subpar foods more frequently. The solitude has it’s challenges, and I miss just talking to people. What is going well for you? What area needs work?

Wishing everyone the best in this trying time. Remember, stay safe, wash hands, and eat starch!
Lindsey

[GlennR]

I'm a day late it seems for the May thread. I had a non-eventful week. In taking a critical look at myself I think I want to go back to losing weight and not just maintaining, at least until my stomach is flat.

I went to the cottage to do a small repair on the greenhouse and then packed the van full of garden stuff which I brought home. I'm going to add more raised beds to the yard to increase my food production by quite a bit.

I wish you all a good week ahead!

[Lyndzie]

No worries, I was a day late as well. Keep us posted on your garden, I’d love to hear what you get planted.

[viajera919]

I’d like to join!

My husband has Crohns and is considered immune suppressed so I’ve only been grocery shopping once so far. We have been trying to ration our food as much as possible to not have to go out as often. This is difficult with a 7 year old, a 7 month old who is in love with his new hobby of eating and a nursing mama who doesn’t have any extra fat stores. Luckily it appears easier to get our staples of rice, potatoes, beans, veg and oats again. It was concerning when everyone was buying out all of my groceries I normally get! We are getting a lot of walking in as that is our preferred exercise but we also got new bikes and have been enjoying those as well. Diet wise I have an been having more than 1 cup average of beans a day as they’re keeping me full while nursing. I’m sure that’s not ideal for kidneys but I am eating SO MUCH food that I don’t know that I can add more quantity really.

[wildgoose]

Glenn, you’re not the only one who's late. I totally missed last week and am late again this week.

Your garden plans sound great. Nothing like an abundance of fresh produce for healthy living and weight loss.

My next-door neighbor and I share a long raised bed on the property line, but I decided to also plant my raised flowerbed in food. We have all the greens planted in the long bed, and one end of the bed prepped for green beans. If it ever stops raining.

Today was a good garden day, though. Sunny (for the first time in a week), very warm, and the ideal time for FedEx to show up with my sweet potato plants. My one source for Japanese sweet potatoes has disappeared, so I ordered a dozen Murasaki plants. I put them in my former flowerbed. Let’s hope they produce!

I’m not being as productive as I would like. It reminds me of my first year of retirement, when I had a hard time imposing any structure on my time. But I’m getting enough done. I’ve been making masks, weeding and cleaning up the back yard, and juggling the grocery orders with online shopping. I’m glad I’m stocked up on beans and rice, because with the shortages of meat, even SAD eaters are going after the beans!

The Gander has decided that he wants to clean and organize the oldest Gosling's room. She left the nest 15 years ago, and nothing has been done with that room since, except to use it as a catch-all for storage. But he’s determined, and with a lot of emails and texts back and forth to the absent Gosling, asking what to do with things, he’s making progress. I get involved periodically, but it’s mostly his project.

Interesting discussion of rhubarb last month. When I was growing up, my grandmother always had rhubarb. She never made pies, just stewed it with water and sugar. We ate a lot of it every summer. It just kept coming up, like asparagus.

I wish I had interesting food to report, but it’s mostly the same stuff we always eat. I made some cauliflower bisque, minus the plant milk and nutritional yeast. Just 2 pounds of cauliflower, a pound of Hannah yams, a pound of Yukon Golds, veggie broth, a large onion, a bunch of garlic, and some spices, all thrown into the Instant Pot. I puréed it with a stick blender, then used it almost as a gravy — poured over steamed broccoli and rice, or over veggies and potato. Not as rich as the similar soups that Mary McDougall and Chef AJ make, but. MWL compliant and pretty tasty. I put some in the freezer to see how it does. "Cream" soups usually don’t freeze well, but this one might be OK.

Hope you all are staying safe and have a good week. Mark, I’m sorry to hear your pain has been worse — hope that improves. Sue, we're going to put some tomatoes in and hope the chipmunks don’t get them like they usually do — yours sound lovely. Erin and Marsha, I may add a head of cabbage to the grocery order and start shredding! Lindsey, your chickens sound like a lot of fun — especially since they’re in no danger of bring eaten!

Goose

[deweyswakms]

Friday, May 8, 2020, in the year of the virus

Hi all,

Goose, I looked at your weight tracker thing; WOW you are doing so well.

The days seem to flow one into another don't they? It's SUNNY and WARM here in the chilly cloudy NW, so I am off to walk with a friend in the abandoned outdoor shopping mall.

After a few days of subpar eating, and subsequent side effects, I am back to eating MWL. Cooking my own food is just the best solution. I made a delicious Egyptian red lentil soup. Today I will make the NY Bean Burger recipe from the Engine2 cookbook. Need to change up my recipe routine as things are getting boring. Looking at a spring veggie primavera recipe.

Hopefully Oregon will start a slow reopening of the counties with few virus cases. Of course I live in one of the two most populated counties and they have the most cases, so likely NO HAIRCUT till June. Yikes. Yes in the grand scheme of things, it's not important. This experience has shown me what is important; I miss swimming and a haircut. After nearly 3 months, it's getting bushy.

Hope you all are well. Marsha

[Mark Cooper]

Welcome, viajera919! Glad to have you joining us.

That cauliflower bisque as you describe it sounds right up my alley, wildgoose, I may give it a try!

Marsha, I totally agree that the days (and weeks) have all seemed to merge together - summer will be here before we know it.

Nothing exciting for me to report - my weight is stable, still following the MWL 10-Point Checklist, exercising daily. This week saw some improvement in pain management, not out of the woods, but better than last week for sure.

Take care everyone!

[GlennR]

It seems that Spring doesn't want to warm up around here. It actually snowed on this afternoon's walk. Other than that strange weather, not much has changed for me this week.

My workout weights are rising fairly quickly which is pretty encouraging. I will be happier in a few months when I get muscle growth commensurate with the strength increases.

My weight continues to drift around, a little up, a little down.

Goose, it will be interesting to see how much I can grow this year. I'm looking forward to it.

Vajera919, welcome to the group.

Marsha, sunny and warm seems like a dream to me.

Mark, a stable weight is a good thing, maybe even a great thing.

[viajera919]

Hi, all! Thanks for the warm welcome. This week went well. I’m so grateful for nourishing my body this way as life itself can throw enough at us. I’m working on getting my 7 month old to nap and sleep in his crib and that’s brought a lot of sleepless nights. Coupled with cold, snowy weather and I’m not doing my daily 30 minutes of light exercise. But not to worry, this WOE keeps me at my weight easily with fuel to power through. Nursing is throwing some curveballs of having to eat before bed even though I’m not hungry knowing I’ll be starved in the middle of night if I don’t. But, this WOE means I eat some oats and a banana before bed and my health is the same. Couldn’t imagine eating any other way! My boys and I are loving brown rice with steamed broccoli, carrots and corn topped kidney beans and fire roasted tomatoes I cook in the instant pot for 2 minutes with garlic powder, onion powder and smoked paprika. It’s our new favorite this week.

[Ejeff]

Viajera919, glad to have you with us. And Mark happy your pain is getting better. Week was good, followed the MWL guideline of soup before meal at lunchtimes this week and ate less bread. Lost a pound so it really does work lol. Finally had a family meal as guidelines are loosening up here was nice to do that for the first time this year. We were celebrating my middle daughters success In getting hired to a position. This was a goal of hers that took a few years to reach so we are proud and excited for her. I have a leek in the fridge so I will be making potato leek soup soon. Huge salad rice bowls are still my favourite lunch. I also cooked up a big batch of steel cuts oats and froze them in clumps on a cookie sheet. I will give some to the kids. They are just so much better than rolled oats, for me texture is very important to my eating experience! Very easy to microwave and add a bit of water and fruit.

I usually buy frozen corn at Costco, but they were out for a while. I did get a bag this week. In between I bought a generic store brand. Quite the difference in quality as the generic brand has very tough skin. I also noticed at Walmart yesterday prices seem to be going up especially for produce. Not sure if this is price gouging or something else haha.

I’m following my usual exercise routines, but I sure do miss playing pickleball. Will be interesting to see if it opens at all this summer. Wishing everyone a great week with lots of sunshine and potatoes

[Lyndzie]

Glenn - Whoa, snow! We dipped below freezing a couple nights ago, but hopefully that is the last chill of the season. It’s good to have a critical eye now and again. Keeps us honest!

Welcome, Viajera! Congrats on the little guy. I’m still nursing my 22 month old, and also have 6 and 7 year olds, all girls. Beans can be a lifesaver when you need the extra nutrition. Does your husband follow this way of eating as well? If you’d like to share, what part of the world are you in? And, Happy First Mother’s Day! (P.S. my toddler just slept through the night for the first time last week, so don’t sweat it if it’s not happening yet, especially with breastfed babies. They get hungry in the middle of the night just like you!)

Goose - Good to hear from you! I’m so excited to hear about those sweet potato plants, let us know how they do. Aren’t the headlines about the reduced meat availability ridiculous? You’d think the world is ending. Good luck with the home organizing, that spring cleaning bug has happened here, too, at least halfway with unfinished projects nestled in various corners. It’s a good time to tackle those things.

Marsha - Lovely weather for a walk! Stress-eating wouldn't be surprising in a time like this, kudos to you for the quick return to MWL. Fat Free Vegan has a yummy A to Z pasta salad that is worth a try. Good luck on the new hairstyle, everyone is looking a little shaggy these days.

Mark - Such good news that you are on the upswing. Hopefully this week will have continued improvements.

Erin - That sounds so wonderful to get together with family again! Oh, those simple pleasures to be appreciated once more. Have you started planting yet?

I’ve had some rough days with stress-eating, but today was very solid and hopefully there will be smoother sailing ahead. My city is one of those opening up despite the continued increase in cases, so we’re (my family) planning on staying the course here and staying home. Thank goodness for curbside pick-up! Hoping to get the tomatoes, squash and flowers planted this week. We got four more chicks to add to our flock, and they have a cheerful chirping sing-song. On the menu this week is chickpea salad and hopefully warm enough weather to grill some of Jeff’s bean burgers. Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms!

[deweyswakms]

also cooked up a big batch of steel cuts oats and froze them in clumps on a cookie sheet.

What a clever idea! I will try this. Thanks, Marsha

[deweyswakms]

Monday May something, 2020

Are we allowed to post recipes here? I really want this vegan paella! Tired of my round of recipes.

https://simple-veganista.com/vegetable-paella/

Right now I have potato fries roasting in the oven.

Hope everybody is feeling good and making it work!

Marsha

[JeffN]

Are we allowed to post recipes here? I really want this vegan paella! Tired of my round of recipes.

Yes.

Just a few things....

- Only post recipes that you yourself have made and tried.
- Only post recipes that conform to the McDougall guidelines.
- If you have adapted a recipe to meet the McDougall guidelines, please clearly list the adaptations made.

Also, don’t forget, if you are in need of any recipe ideas, the recipe section of this website is filled with compliant and delicious recipes from Alu Gobi to Zucchini Corn Salad.

In Health
Jeff

[viajera919]

Welcome, Viajera! Congrats on the little guy. I’m still nursing my 22 month old, and also have 6 and 7 year olds, all girls. Beans can be a lifesaver when you need the extra nutrition. Does your husband follow this way of eating as well? If you’d like to share, what part of the world are you in? And, Happy First Mother’s Day! (P.S. my toddler just slept through the night for the first time last week, so don’t sweat it if it’s not happening yet, especially with breastfed babies. They get hungry in the middle of the night just like you!)

I’ve had some rough days with stress-eating, but today was very solid and hopefully there will be smoother sailing ahead. My city is one of those opening up despite the continued increase in cases, so we’re (my family) planning on staying the course here and staying home. Thank goodness for curbside pick-up! Hoping to get the tomatoes, squash and flowers planted this week. We got four more chicks to add to our flock, and they have a cheerful chirping sing-song. On the menu this week is chickpea salad and hopefully warm enough weather to grill some of Jeff’s bean burgers. Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms!

Thanks, Lyndzie! I actually also have a 7 year old son who I nursed for 2 years while McDougalling as well. He only started sleeping through the night at 6 and truth be told sleeps on a cot in our room because he’s scared. My husband does follow McDougall but with a lot more overt fats than I do. I’m in Michigan. I hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day with lots of sleep! I have come to a happy medium of having him sleep in the crib for naps and at the start of the night and then middle of the night is whatever is easiest because he needs breastmilk and I need sleep! It’s been amazing having my hands free for a few hours each day now.

I hope your city fairs well. Here in Michigan it’s not time yet for that at all and I know I would be stressed as well. I think your plan to stay home and wait it out is the sane approach - there are too many unknowns and it sounds like you’ve got a lovely set up at home to enjoy!