Hi all,
New to this forum, but not new to McDougalling. Here's my story:
Vegetarian since 1973. Back in those prehistoric times, the big concern about vegetarian diets was "you have to make sure you get enough protein." To that end, the vegetarian cookbooks at the time tended to include a lot of high-fat dairy products, and we were also encouraged to eat fatty sweet desserts to make sure of getting enough protein. So eating that way became a way of life for me, not knowing any better.
Fast forward to 2006. Diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and feeling VERY annoyed that my "healthy habits" had let me down, I gave up trying to eat and live in a healthy way, and gained a whole pile of weight. Up to 217 pounds, which is way more than I should weigh at 5'8". I don't remember what it was that finally shocked me into cleaning up my act in about 2010 or so, but I do remember being at my local bookstore's going out of business sale (the owner was retiring) and seeing a book called "The McDougall Program." The book looked interesting and the sale price was attractive, so I bought it and read it. What an eye-opener. I knew this program was right for me, and I began implementing the recommendations into my life. I didn't have internet at the time, and had no idea this forum existed but I bought a couple other McDougall books and read everything my library had of his. And it was amazing. I thought my age (around 60) would make weight loss difficult, but it was easy. I lost about 2 pounds a week, quite consistently, for a total of 80 pounds. The difference to my appearance and vitality was immense. I had no trouble adhering to the eating pattern and planned to stay on it for life. Until it all came crashing down.
It started, literally, with a crash - I fell on the ice 3 or 4 years ago, breaking my right wrist in 2 places. And food preparation became pretty much impossible, with my dominant hand unusable. If you've ever tried to chop vegetables or peel fruit using only your nondominant hand, you'll have some idea what I mean. Even opening a can or tearing open a bag of frozen vegetables was beyond me. So I ate what I could manage, which was frozen pizza, deli soups and salads - stuff like that. And when the cast came off 5 weeks later, my hand was still totally unusable. All the muscle was gone, and the wrist was rigid. It took several months of physio to get my wrist strong enough and flexible enough to be able to actually do much with it again. But the worst part was, those months of eating fatty, processed crap were enough to reawaken old addictive eating patterns (I consider my fondness for cheese and rich desserts to be addictions). So even when I could have gotten back on track, I didn't. I told myself I didn't care, and kept eating nanaimo bars and pizza, to name but a few of my preferred "treats."
Which brings us to last fall. My blood pressure was going up again, and I was already on 3 blood pressure meds. The doctor referred me for a sleep apnea test because he thought that might be behind my ever-rising blood pressure, and the test showed moderate sleep apnea. I was and am skeptical about that because the people who do the test also sell the sleep apnea equipment (seems like a big conflict of interest to me) and because I don't think I have any of the symptoms of sleep apnea, but whatever. I knew there was no way I wanted to sleep with that thing on my face for the rest of my life. I begged the doctor to give me an alternative, and he said that losing 10% of body weight should make a significant difference, so I told him I'd do it. I knew how. And I finally had the motivation.
I dug out my old McDougall recipes, and in looking around at online resources, I ran across this forum. It seems like a very supportive and positive place, and I've decided to post my story here. Was going to join the Maximum Weight loss Program, but I have a problem with a couple of the guidelines there (it's not the guidelines that are the problem, it's me) so for now I'll just post my weekly updates here I think. What I'm currently doing worked for me 10 years or so ago, and hopefully it will work again. We'll see.
First recorded weight as of December 10, 2020 - 204.
Most recent recorded weight as of August 8, 2021 - 177.5.
So far the loss has been a bit slower than it was last time, but some of that is because with the pandemic and the very cold weather we had here last winter, I wasn't grocery shopping regularly, and I wound up eating things that I had on hand to use them up - and that included a fair bit of cheese, so weight loss during those winter months was very slow. But now that I'm fully vaccinated, shopping doesn't feel like such a risk, and of course, it's not -30 so my car is more reliable than it is in really cold weather, so it's easy to keep a good supply of fresh produce on hand for healthy meals. I don't know where I'll end up - if I'll lose as much as I did last time, but guess I'll find out. Last time my weight reached 137 and stabilized. Of course, I'm now significantly older than I was then, and I'm already finding out it's not quite as easy and effortless as it was last time. We'll see. I've lost the 10% that the doctor recommended and I'm enjoying being back to healthier eating. For now, what matters most is that I am practicing healthy eating, and I'm enjoying feeling more energetic than I have in several years.
