Buns Again

[bunsofaluminum]

Thanks for your comments, Erin and Marsha. I'll get over to the Lounge and check out that thread. Brand New Vegan is a favorite of mine. I love his recipe ideas and have several favorites from him.

I'm GOING TO prepare on plan stuff for when I do get the munchies. Part of my environment, right? It's just a crying shame that my appetite wants like...melted cheese...and what I have is carrots and sliced bell peppers, you know? So time to fix a batch of not-cheese sauce and other things to make my food yummy. Keep myself on plan! dangit.

Meanwhile, for today's MWL weigh-in I'm down two lbs from last Friday, which sets me right where I was smh. but at least it didn't go up, eh? However, it did wobble up and back down over the week. *facepalm* stupid scale.

[bunsofaluminum]

Okay, another week with several "cheat and treats"...my weight didn't go up, but it also did not go down. Sooooo, let's look at where I strayed, eh?

Seems that sushi is a weekly thing, which comes from a quick stop at the grocery store on my way to my PT job. Plus one time I grabbed some teriyaki chicken at the store on my way HOME from my PT job. That was very close to being an out of control thing, and I did eat a couple of pieces (not whole pieces of chicken...just little teriyaki popcorn style chicken) but ended up tossing it. SMH I do consider it a triumph that I tossed it, but why did I buy it to begin with? It was also quite sneaky and very unhealthy, behaviorally...in addition to the unhealthy FOOD, buying it and eating while out of the house...SNEAKY. And stupid.

The other stuff: a samwich with compliant stuffing. Some avocado on a salad. Starlight mints. Some pistachios. These aren't as worrisome to me as the sneaky stuff, but it all adds up.

So. I'm going to keep myself more accountable here. I'll post the guidelines daily and go through them. Going to tighten things. Going to do that whole goal setting thing. Longish term: Make July a 100% month. To do this, I have to get 100% every day, every meal. And that means checking in here every single day with the MWL checklist. Enough screwing around. When I've been strict and followed MWL 100%, I have lost weight. Period. Every. Time.

Weight change +/- in lbs: zero change this week

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. some
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). no. I had sushi once
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). no. I had avocado on a samwich and some pistachios
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. Samwich for two lunches. It's a compliant bread, but it IS a flour product
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 overall a pretty good week. Though I did have a few off plan things, I didn't get binge-y or out of control. In fact, I had some off plan stuff at one point, sitting right there. Ate a little bit, and then tossed it. So that was a triumph, but I had to shell out money for the off plan stuff, which was just stupid. It wasn't anything laying around the house. It was at the store...again, with finding crap at the freaking grocery store! But I did put the brakes on, and that's a triumph.
I'm aiming for 100% this first week of July.

[bunsofaluminum]

FRIDAY, JULY 2, 2021

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. no
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. no. Starlight mints.
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. Avocado on some nachos
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, baked tortilla chips for my nachos at lunch
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:
starlight mints are kind of keeping me sane these days. Things are tense at home, and to avoid buying a family size bag of chips and consuming it all in an emotional eating frenzy, I'm sucking on starlight mints.
Avocado on my nachos...there was a half in the fridge and I used it.
The baked chips/nacho plate. I've been eating very simply for months, and started to slip up because I frankly got bored...and I had been starting to get cravings for really bad stuff like croissants or peanut butter spoons or chicken thighs. I figure some non-fat baked chips under non-fat vegan cheese sauce and pico, along with some cilantro and green onion AND SOME AVOCADO is better than gorging on that other stuff. So I've had nachos three times in the past couple of weeks And now the avocado is out of the house and I won't buy more.

Why not front load with some sliced cucumber in lieu of soup, since it's so hot I'm not much in the mood for soup. Or baby carrots, celery sticks, or fruit now...watermelon is an amazingly good summer front load So I know what I'll be doing tomorrow: prepping a bunch of easy-grab raw vegs. I was making soup two or three times a week and keeping it in the fridge...why not slice a cucumber or two and keep THAT in the fridge. So I know what I'll be doing tomorrow.

Here's to a successful food week!

Going to get through this week without wandering!

[VivianS]

VivianS July 3, 2021
Hey, Buns! I'm proud of you for participating in the weigh in again! I'm looking forward to seeing a week of total compliance to the MWL CHECKLIST next Friday. You make progress even if you don't have perfection. I know what you mean about eating something off plan and being disgusted that you paid for it. In a sense you are paying for it twice: with your money and your life. Forgive yourself. Make a better decision next time. Congratulations on knowing it was a mistake, owning it and now release it. You are participating in the easiest, most effective weight loss plan ever devised. You are going to feel better and look better every day. By look better, I mean that literally. All those healthy, nutrient rich foods will help your vision. This healthy food program may also give you a better outlook on your body, your life and the rest of us suffering creatures who may not be beautiful to others, but because you have suffered, you will look with mercy on others. You are doing a great thing by eating well and taking care of yourself!
Thanks for cheering for me last year! VivianS

[bunsofaluminum]

Hi Vivian,

Thanks for dropping by. I know how healthy this is. I've already gotten rid of depression and IBS...years ago, as I started this in 2009 (this time...In 1995 I followed the plan as outlined in the old yellow book "The McDougall Program" (Plan?) from Jan to Sept of that year. And then fell off until 2009, when I had developed IBS thanks to a yearish on a high protein plan smh.

Anyway, the health benefits are every bit as wonderful as weight loss...better, really, because they happen so fast. I'm happy to have this accountability and keeping to it...putting it here on a daily basis is already helping me

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. no. Starlight mints
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. no. A piece of toast with honey when I was still hungry after lunch
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 walk this morning. I slept in and then I decided to give my knees a rest

Victories, comments, concerns, questions: Already this plan of mine, to post daily about my adherence to these guidelines has helped, as I did NOT stop for ANYTHING at the grocery store on my way to work...so the potatoes and zucchini slices I brought with me will be my dinner tonight. Period. This is a triumph and I'm proud of myself.

[bunsofaluminum]

Sunday, July 4, 2021

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. no. Day trip to Idaho so my meals were out, but I chose very close to compliant for both lunch and dinner
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. no
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. no. Veggie subway for lunch. Bean burrito for dinner
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:

[bunsofaluminum]

Monday, July 5, 2021

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. no. I ate a roll and some chocolate emotional eating
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's been a rough-ish day. Tension at home and overall unhappiness of all inhabitants of my household: my mom, my husband, and me. So I didn't buy sushi on my way to my PT but I did buy some chocolate and a white bread dinner roll. But the remainder of my day is at my PT job and I brought SS compliant food for dinner (a samwich on whole wheat bread) so it isn't MWL due to the bread, but it is SS and it is NOT sushi! this is a triumph.

[bunsofaluminum]

Huh...July 6 and 7 are missing. Hmmmm...could it be because the scale jumped FOUR POUNDS?

Talk about frustration. I've been struggling with doing 100% MWL or EVEN THE REGULAR SS would be good, some days. So, I committed to keeping it on target, aiming for 100% MWL, With a few exceptions (a couple of lunches with bread products; one time some avocado on a samwich) I have kept VERY close to plan. And the scale held day after day after day (exactly as it has been doing for MONTHS...up three, down two, up one, down four, all around the same 220-224 mark.) Seems not to matter what I eat, tbh.

The non-food related behaviors like eating only until satiated, the 50/50 plate, walking, reducing sugars and salt...etc. I'm doing okay with that. And honestly, even when I was stressing badly it was a little bit of chocolate and one dinner roll. At no time have I felt out of control or succumbing to cravings, and I've cut back on the starlight mints. Overall I'd say my compliance is at least 90%, Mentally doing well, physically following the plan...and I gain four pounds.

I came pretty close to saying screw it...but haven't gone nuts. However, I might not worry as much about having a samwich. Heck with it, it's summertime, and soup is too hot. Samwiches are easy and I know how to make compliant spreads and fillers. Also, I've been enjoying nachos with baked tortilla chips and not-cheese sauce.

So, I'm not going off the rails, but dangit, I'm done hunkering down and white knuckling the MWL guidelines and watching the scale be stuck or GO UP. So "low key screw it"

[SilverDollar*]

(((((Hugs))))) Drink the water&hang in there. One day at a time. Remember it's not perfection. RAS

[deweyswakms]

Huh...July 6 and 7 are missing. Hmmmm...could it be because the scale jumped FOUR POUNDS?

Talk about frustration. I've been enjoying nachos with baked tortilla chips and not-cheese sauce.

So, I'm not going off the rails, but dangit, I'm done hunkering down and white knuckling the MWL guidelines and watching the scale be stuck or GO UP. So "low key screw it"

Yep, it is so frustrating to think one is doing the MWL program only to see the scale tell the truth!! My suggestion is to make ONE change and stick to it. (those nachos, get rid of them) Get rid of ALL flour products (bread and sandwiches for example).

Give it one week, and see what happens. This program is really about behavior change. For me, I cannot have sugar products (cookies), or chips. Not that ONE cookie will cause me to gain weight, but because it is a slippery slope thinking "well, 1 didn't hurt so 2 (or 4 or half the bag) probably won't either."

Good luck, Marsha

[bunsofaluminum]

Thanks RAS and Marsha...

I'm still too frustrated about the scale going up...seriously. In the week of out-of-control, when I felt so bad about myself and the frenzy of eating all the things and how mindless I was...the scale stayed put. Then I get it together and follow VERY closely (the nachos...I've had them three times in the past four weeks, right? not eating them every day or anything) and the scale sticks. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday all stuck at 220...which okay, I'd rather see it go down, but whatever. And then Wednesday it's up to 224? WTF.

And that's where it has been the rest of the week. It's just too much. I hate it and I'm extremely frustrated right now.

[Zoey]

Sending sincerest virtual hugs to you, Buns. When it seems I have about a fifteen pound difference between eating anything and everything OR being conscious and mindful, it has been tempting to say, "Eh, maybe these extra pounds aren't so bad!"
But they are. And what we ate weeks ago still shows up today. So several weeks from now, you'll reap the benefits of staying on plan now.
I just wanted to pop in here to be both a shoulder and a cheerleader.

[VivianS]

VivianS July 11, 2021
Congratulations, Heidi, on sticking with it another week!

[deweyswakms]

I hear ya!! I can slip up a day or 3, the scales seem ok, but day #4!? It has caught up with me. And then it takes me the same 1-3 days to lose it. Makes me so disgusted with myself. What works for me is to DECIDE daily (sometimes hourly), no I won't eat _____ because I really like the weight I have lost, I really like my healthy blood work now, and I don't want to gain it back and then fight to lose it again. Sometimes I write myself post-it notes and put them up where I can see them.

And really, the problem isn't the problem. Meaning, the weight struggle is probably masking something else. Stress at work? unhappy at home? eat to relieve the stress. comfort food, etc. You are eating your feelings.

Hope you have a better week. Marsha

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Buns!

I am sending you big HUGS from Illinois (hoping that you may remember me from a few years ago and don't think I am a creep... )!! Completely understand what you are saying about your recent challenges and empathize with what you are going through... Remember that you totally rock and have sustained many changes in your diet over time that are so healthy!!

I can so relate to your frustration with the scale. I really don't like how it "grades us" on how "good" we have been. Nothing should have that power, but it really does... (and power to change our emotions... BOO!!)

Seriously, wondering if you may not want to hide / put away / decommission your scale for a month or so... I only say this because it seems to be a measure that may not be helpful to you - if you are looking to follow the MWL behaviors (then you know how you did and don't need a grader). Maybe you have jeans you want to fit into -- or something else ??

In case this may help you, I want to share the dumb fact that I when I gained 23 pandemic pounds, I was "mostly" following McD... I really didn't go off the ranch (or did I??), but some stuff like peanut butter and bread (or Cheerios or rice cakes). I was still starch-based and ate produce.... So, I may have "passed" the MWL checklist except for a couple of exceptions ...

Just food for thought... I wish you the best and am pulling for you!!

Cheers,
Stephanie