My Daily "Weighing in"

Share your daily McDougall menus and/or keep a journal describing your personal progress.

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Re: My Daily "Weighing in"

Postby squealcat » Fri Sep 03, 2021 5:44 pm

Well, I just posted and it seems to have disappeared !! Maybe I moved on to see other's posts too soon! I am NOT going to re-do it. sorry. Hope to be back tomorrow !

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Re: My Daily "Weighing in"

Postby squealcat » Sat Sep 04, 2021 5:37 pm

blood pressure today: 118/78

exercise: walked for 3 miles today at the gym. My knee felt a little out of place or something today so thought a nice flat walking area would be better. I started out slow but as I went along, my knee felt better ! It is fine now !

breakfast: steel cut oats, a splash of almond milk and a peach
lunch: large salad with various veggies and greens and broccoli sprouts with my hummus and balsamic vinegar on top. I also had a smallish Japanese sweet potato (I have missed those !)
dinner: ordered take out today and had a bean burrito, no chips, no salsa , extra lettuce

I am sure that burrito was not very healthy. Don't order out much so not going to worry.

-squealcat
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Re: My Daily "Weighing in"

Postby squealcat » Fri Sep 10, 2021 5:14 pm

Blood pressure still good
exercise today: walked 2.5 miles
breakfast: old fashioned oats with chopped up zucchini, chopped apple, cinnamon, vanilla (very good!)
lunch: very large salad with my hummus and balsamic vinegar for dressing. All sorts of veggies in this salad! Also added heated up brown rice and a half cup of black beans
dinner: brussel sprouts cooked in the IP with a sauce made with a touch of maple syrup , water, and Dijon mustard. Also had the rest of my cooked beans with jalapeno pepper, part of a pear (was turning brown so only ate the good parts )

Tough week because I spent extra hours watching my grandson and granddaughter. I still feel a bit tired but am sure I will be fine tomorrow. Eating-wise, things are improving ! I am working on my identity as a healthy plant-based eater. Met friends at a restaurant yesterday and I had berries over oatmeal. In the past I would never have ordered that !

Small changes !

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Re: My Daily "Weighing in"

Postby squealcat » Fri Sep 24, 2021 4:00 pm

It has been a while since I visited so I thought I would check in. My blood pressure continues to be good and sometimes REALLY good (like 104/68) ! I measure it every day to keep in touch with my primary goal which is long term health.

I weigh myself once a week on Fridays and those numbers are slowly going down, which is the right direction. YAY ! I really concentrate on eating what is the healthiest for me which is a lot of greens, fruits and other veggies. I make broccoli sprouts once a week and include them in my daily big salad. I have made a couple of good bean soups that I like too and those Japanese sweet potatoes are still my favorite.

Plan for this weekend is making mashed potatoes and also a lima bean soup .

Exercise has been a bit hard to get in but I walked 3 miles yesterday and 1.5 miles today. Hope to walk another 3 tomorrow and do some yard work. We tried to get someone to come and help with fall yard work but no one has enough help so are not doing it this year. OK, so more exercise for me !

I am glad it is cooling off now and today is a sunny day. Just beautiful ! Hope everyone is well ! I will check back from time to time ! Read some of your journals and enjoyed what my McDougall friends are typing in !

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Re: My Daily "Weighing in"

Postby squealcat » Sat Oct 09, 2021 6:02 pm

Wow ! It has been a while since I have been here! Still doing well and eating well, just not MWL.

Blood pressure is still good and today I sent a message to my doctor to tell him I have not taken my BP med since mid-August. I take my BP almost every day and sent him the numbers from this last week. I am sure he will reply and can't wait to hear from him. I am a bit nervous about what blood pressure they will get in the office since I will be excited about it.

One thing I have noticed is that if I have a really good day with low sodium, no bread or processed food, my blood pressure is really, really good . That encourages me to continue on eating that way so it is a good thing ! :nod:

Breakfast today: smoothie with lots of greens, a beet, broccoli sprouts and berries (not McDougall :( )
Lunch: large salad with my own dressing made with balsamic and rice vinegar and also a half cup of black beans and corn
Dinner: winter squash soup ! So yummy ! I also had a banana

the scale is slowly going down and I feel good about what I am eating as long as I stay away from bread. Bread and processed foods just do not make me feel good. Brain fog, can't remember people's names, don't feel like doing anything.....a loss of a day. I try to remember this when I am tempted.

Thank you all for reading this ! I am going to read up on the MWL thread now. Bye !

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Re: My Daily "Weighing in"

Postby squealcat » Sat Oct 16, 2021 1:44 pm

We (husband and I) just got back from a 3 day mini vacation. We don't do much any more but drive around and sight see with maybe a little shopping mixed in but it is relaxing and gives me time to recharge.

I plan to post what I am eating and doing and thinking a little bit more once again. I have been reading Intuitive Eating (the book) and it has made me think about my eating path. Wearing "chubby" sized clothes at 6 and 7 years of age, mom talking about dieting when I was about 9 (that's ok mom, I understand ) joining Weight Watchers at around 12 years of age......and rejoining numerous times during my life. Finally ending my WW membership in 2020. I always have in my head calories, points, pounds..... guilt, shame. I want to be done with it. I know it will take time. When I eat according to McDougall, I come the closest to feeling "normal" because I can eat whenever I am hungry without fear of being without food. I can have food all ready to go and just heat it up! I feel good about what I am eating and feel physically good too. If I want something sweet and rich I can have nice cream and even peanut butter if I so desire. Now MWL is more restrictive but I like that too. The 10 MWL points are difficult for me to follow (well, a couple of them anyway) so I will start back up with the Starch Solution and see where it goes. Not sure I will weigh myself each week. Weighing in every day certainly doesn't work. I will see how it goes.

That's what I have been thinking. Not going to rejoin the MWL group right now as I don't want to report my weight each week and have trouble with pre-loading before meals and also will be using bread once in a while . I like smoothies once in a while too but really, oatmeal (steel cut) is my true love for breakfast. :nod:

That's all for now. What have you been thinking about lately?

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Re: My Daily "Weighing in"

Postby squealcat » Sun Oct 17, 2021 2:06 pm

I am feeling pretty calm right now. Yesterday I was tense, thinking about how much weight I had gained over those 3-4 days "up North" and also thought: "here I go again ! Gaining weight while on vacation and having to start all over again !" Also thought: "doesn't everyone gain a bit while on vacation? Do normally thin people even weigh themselves when they get home? They probably just go on with their lives and get back to their previous weight just by eating like they normally do."

I did decide to weight myself today and I had gained about 4.5 pounds since I last stepped on the scale. I will weigh again on Friday (I think). Depends on how I feel.

Breakfast: a cup of matcha tea before my walk and then a bowl of steel cut oats with mango on top seasoned with cinnamon
Lunch: a large salad with mostly greens I need to use up (starting to get a little brown on the edges), also a small cucumber and part of a red pepper. Three globs of hummus I just made in my power blender and a couple tablespoons of balsamic vinegar as dressing. I just bought a reconditioned Vitamix and just LOVE it ! That hummus was SO smooth and I could add a whole clove of garlic without chopping it !! I was still hungry after the salad so had a sun butter and blueberry jam sandwich made with Ezekiel bread and jam that had no added sugar that I got in Traverse City.
Dinner: steamed broccoli, bean soup with a half cup of rice, apple

This week I want to try to eat things I like and feel like eating and at the same time avoid bingeing on all kinds of things from my cupboard that I don't really want and make me feel yuk in the morning. So far that calm feeling is kind of nice. No urge to eat anything else and I feel satisfied.

That walk this morning felt pretty good after so much time sitting in the car and sitting in the hotel room the last few days. We enjoyed driving around looking at the fall colors (that are not so colorful this year in Michigan but still beautiful) . I would have liked to walk in nature more but my husband's hip is bothering him and also the leg that they put a stent in two years ago.....probably is closing up somewhere else now but not bad enough for him to see his doctor yet.

That's all for now.

-squealcat
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Re: My Daily "Weighing in"

Postby squealcat » Mon Oct 18, 2021 4:37 pm

I had promised myself that I would not weigh myself until Friday.......well, I did it anyway. I lost about 2 pounds since the day before. Still trying not to obsess over weight. I just want to eat and be healthy!

I had oatmeal and berries for breakfast, pretty big salad for lunch along with a bean soup with a little rice. I grabbed a few snacks too after lunch despite the fact that I had a little pumpkin smoothie with me too as I watched my little grandson. I guess I was thinking of having to wake up early for the next two days to care for little Felix so his dad can take his big sister to school. My daughter is working out of town so someone has to be home in the morning and again in the afternoon so my granddaughter and get to school and get home. Felix is special needs and cannot be transported easily for these trips. These "getting up early" days are a bit stressful for me....I don't like to be tired and watching Felix is a lot of sitting and not much activity. Oh well, it is what it is.

Tomorrow is another day. Going to a book club meeting now. This is a lot of fun and I look forward to it.

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Re: My Daily "Weighing in"

Postby squealcat » Wed Oct 27, 2021 3:40 pm

I am still here and doing well. Still walking 4 or 5 days a week for 3 miles each time.

The last 3 days:
Breakfast: overnight oats made with steel cut oats, finely chopped spinach, cocoa powder, blueberries, plant milk.....don't remember what else but it was delicious ! I didn't know you could make over night oats using steel cut oats
Lunch: very large salad with broccoli, apple, cabbage and carrots, a little bit of raisins and a bit of seeds. Delicious !
Dinner: large bowl of soup made with sweet potato, collard greens, spinach, peanut butter, onions......I think it is a bit like Mary's African stew. It was also delicious !

Not much new. Looking forward to a few days off from watching my little grandson. I had to get up much earlier than usual the last two days. Also looking forward to getting up a little later tomorrow. :nod:

I need to make plans for the next few days as far as menu. I had better get on it !

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Re: My Daily "Weighing in"

Postby squealcat » Thu Oct 28, 2021 5:42 pm

OK, grocery list done and my plan for my walking next week is done. My goal for November is to get into the 180's which is very doable . I will write it down along with a couple of very doable things that I will DO to achieve that goal.

Dinner today was Delecata squash (1/2), small baked potato and broccoli/cauliflower mix. I put a little of my homemade hummus on the potato. Now, this hummus is made with added sweet potato and lime juice instead of lemon. It tastes good on it's own but not really on white potatoes. I won't do that again.

exercise today: walked 2 miles (I had to stop because I was meeting a friend for brunch today at 10:00. I also get my covid booster shot today. I don't expect to have any problem tomorrow with side effects.

Hope everyone is doing well !

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Re: My Daily "Weighing in"

Postby squealcat » Fri Oct 29, 2021 9:16 am

My eyes popped open at 7AM today and I got up to start my day. Brushed teeth, washed face and dressed in my gym clothes . It is raining today most of the day so I went to the gym and walked 3 miles followed by stretches.

Before exercise: ate a banana as I was pretty hungry
Breakfast: steel cut oats and a pear ( just love oatmeal :) )
Lunch: large salad, my homemade sweet potato hummus, balsamic vinegar, half of a Japanese sweet potato
Dinner: steamed green beans, brown rice and garbanzo beans, apple

I jotted down a lot of thoughts and goals and plans today. I read over some a Wildgoose's writings on the MWL page (I have printed them out ). She really inspires me and helps me to get my hat on straight :nod: . I have plans for the menu for today and will let you know later what I ate.

Great day today ! It has been a long time since I had a day where I just ate when I was hungry. It feels good ! I liked everything I ate today. That is key for me ! :!:

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Re: My Daily "Weighing in"

Postby squealcat » Sun Oct 31, 2021 3:01 pm

I have been doing well so far with a bit of going off road today but back on right now. When I get tempted to eat things I (really) don't want, I often forget to think the thoughts that will help me get through it all. I don't know why that is. I decided to write in my personal journal all I eat and what goes on each day.

Yesterday:
exercise: walked 3 miles

banana before walk as I was hungry
breakfast: one whole grapefruit, steel cut oats, soy milk, a cup of matcha tea
lunch: large salad, hummus and balsamic vinegar for dressing, sweet potato, banana
Dinner: rice and garbanzo beans, small salad, green beans, frozen grapes

Today:
no walk today. Instead, I worked in the garden to chop down grasses and things to get ready for winter. I knew that if I walked this morning that I wouldn't do the work in the garden. "know thyself !"

Breakfast:
2 cups of decaf coffee
steel cut oats, a splash of soy milk, blueberries
Lunch: rice and beans, (I had a very "hungry " feeling just then and didn't want the salad I usually have. ) I ate a quarter of a sweet potato thinking it would slow down those feelings I was having. Then I had 3 slices of bread, toasted with margarine, peanut butter on top, some rice crackers, 2 dates and more peanut butter. (there ! I said it !) Later, I had some granola with brown sugar and a little more soy milk. I think I am done now. It is all written down.

These were things I ate today and choices I made. I found it hard to think much about it all until now. I have plans on what to do when I get urges but sometimes it just doesn't work. This is what Dr Lisle describes as the CRAM circuit. I know where the richest food is and am drawn to it. Hard to stop.

My plan for the rest of the day is to have that salad with my hummus and balsamic vinegar and also the rest of the sweet potato. I am not hungry right now . Will see how it goes.

I am joining the MWL group for this month. I love the help that is available there. I really want to get into the 180's this month if I can.

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Re: My Daily "Weighing in"

Postby squealcat » Mon Nov 01, 2021 5:46 pm

Exercise: walked 3 miles on our street. I had to get out my winter hat and gloves today ! Brrrrrr!!

Breakfast: steel cut oats, blueberries
Lunch: large salad with my hummus (can't wait to finish this hummus....don't like it as well as my regular recipe...I used lime juice instead of lemon ) balsamic vinegar, part of a Japanese sweet potato
Dinner: steamed broccoli and swiss chard, rice and beans, blended plant milk, frozen banana, vanilla and cocoa (needed something sweet )

My goal continues to be to get into the 180's
I listened to a YouTube today of Jen Howk. It was just what I needed to hear. I need to really work on my environment more and embrace wet starches (oats, potatoes, grains ) and eat to feel good. I must also realize that this is a slow way to lose weight and not to get impatient. That is my downfall. I want to be done with this weight loss thing and make it go faster. Where has it gotten me???? Nowhere ! I am in the same place I was in two years ago ! I must accept slow :nod:

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Re: My Daily "Weighing in"

Postby wildgoose » Tue Nov 02, 2021 2:19 pm

squealcat wrote:My goal continues to be to get into the 180's
I listened to a YouTube today of Jen Howk. It was just what I needed to hear. I need to really work on my environment more and embrace wet starches (oats, potatoes, grains ) and eat to feel good. I must also realize that this is a slow way to lose weight and not to get impatient. That is my downfall. I want to be done with this weight loss thing and make it go faster. Where has it gotten me???? Nowhere ! I am in the same place I was in two years ago ! I must accept slow :nod:

Ahh, Squealcat, I SO-O-O-O get this! I don’t know how many times I was up and down out of the 170s and 180s and 190s! And I really wanted to be done with the whole weight loss thing too.

But what finally worked for me was figuring out that I was never done. That isn’t a bad thing. I also listened to a lot of Jen Howk and a lot of Doug Lisle. The idea of structuring your environment, very important. The idea of "channel factors" (making the desired behavior easy and the undesired behavior hard) as a part of structuring the environment. Jen's "potted plant" analogy (structure your environment to best suit your personality, like giving a potted plant its best possible growing conditions). And Dr. Doug's teaching that weight is simply a matter of equilibrium between food and body.

So if you lose weight and go back to your former way eating, you gain the weight right back. Yep, been there, done that, over and over. Another maxim of Drs. Jen and Doug: only make those changes that you can live with permanently. Translation: doing something drastic to crash off 20 pounds just leads to more frustration, and you end up right back where you started.

If you would have told me 5 years ago that I would be eating pretty much MWL-style, for good, I would have run screaming. But that’s how it worked out, and honestly, it just feels right. That may not be how it ends up for you. The thing is, it really helps to start thinking in terms of what you can live with, more or less permanently. Make a few of those changes and see what happens. Follow the MWL guidelines. Get yourself out of the Pleasure Trap for a good 3 months. Then see where you are.

Slow is OK. There’s not much difference, in terms of total time, between going fast 10 times and still not getting there, and going slowly. The tortoise approach works better in the long run. Doug Lisle says tortoises also need to be very nearsighted, just concentrating on what’s in front of their noses and never looking too far ahead. Get absorbed in the process, let the results take care of themselves.

Goose
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How I determined my "goal weight"
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Re: My Daily "Weighing in"

Postby squealcat » Tue Nov 02, 2021 6:07 pm

Dear Goose,

If you are reading this, you need to know that your message was well received today. I am trying to get all this into my head and it seems like so much. In truth, it is (probably) so simple. Yes, I need to do what works for me and what I can live with permanently otherwise I will just regain and have to start all over.

Ok, I need to get out of the pleasure trap and give it 3 months. That makes sense to me.

Your encouragement means a lot to me. Know that you make a difference to many of us here. Thank you ! Now to get out of that pleasure trap ! :angry:

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