DOWN - 0.2 lbs.
MWL Starting Date - April 1, 2020
Current Weight - 149.5 lbs.
1. Start each meal with 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). No …a piece of cake for a party.
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). Yes.
6. Eliminate any added oil. No… birthday cake already mentioned.
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…The same piece of cake at a birthday party.
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). No….A glass of wine at the same birthday party
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). Trying…I am still not getting nearly enough ‘moderate’ exercise each day. Many times my exercise is hardly in the ‘moderate’ range at all. I count walking through a big box warehouse for a couple hours as exercise. Why? Because it is much more than I could do when I was ninety pounds heavier. A year ago it hurt my knees so much to go shopping. I had to lean on the cart and I moved so slowly with lots of rests. Movement of all types is so much more enjoyable now! It is hard to believe that I could do anything physical carrying an extra 90 pounds with each step. My knees thank me, in their own way, by feeling sturdier, more agile and pain free with each step. Each month over the past 24 months my knees got a tiny bit happier than the month before. It wasn’t instant but the improvement in my knees has been steady. Happily I haven’t had sharp knee pain since last summer. The memory of the pain I used to have keeps me on track with MWL, though. I don’t want any more joint pain.
Victory: I got out on the cross country ski trails for the first time this season and while the snow conditions were icy, it was a beautiful sunny day. I had so much fun! I fell once and I was okay with that. I laughed to myself that I need a tumble now and then to keep myself humble. I’m so thankful. This week I stumbled with cake and wine at a family birthday celebration. it didn’t even taste good. I think I stumbled because of the social pressure to fit in, ‘belong’ and celebrate with family. Maybe a bit of social anxiety, too. The cake led me to the wine. It’s such a slippery slope, right? It would have been better if I hadn’t had a bite of cake, because once I did the flood gates to pleasure opened. I got right back to following MWL after my stumble.
Appreciation #1: I appreciate Wildgoose’s idea of December Simplicity Weeks leading up to Christmas. Simple food, simpleprep, simple decorations, simple celebrations… That suits me! My favourite thing for the holiday season is bringing fresh pine, cedar and fir branches into each and every room. Today we cut down a lovely fir tree from the forest and brought it inside our house. I am and steadily, trying to uncouple fun and celebrating with calorie dense food. In my pre MWL days every activity I did somehow always centred around calorie dense, decadent foods. I’m still trying my best to change/reduce my emotional relationship/attachment to rich food in abundance at special occasions and stressful times. For instance, my goal this coming year is to completely uncouple the joy of skiing from the joy of eating calorie dense après-ski meals, beverages and desserts. When I went cross country skiing earlier this week, I had some water at the start and an apple after, followed by a healthy starch and veggie balanced MWL meal. So much better than the pub food that’s available at the ski hill. I’m trying to do the things I love (skiing) simply because I love doing them not because it’s an excuse to indulge and overeat. I’m trying to break the historical connection I have had between food and fun and keep my focus more on the fun. At the same time, I believe it’s possible to serve delicious healthy MWL foods to guests. These can be prepared and presented to be beautifully celebratory, too. I am trying to improve my culinary skills and my craft of entertaining others.
Appreciation #2: I appreciate Jeff Novick’s post that it is a myth that yo-yo dieting damages metabolism. Prior to MWL I had received advice to not lose weight based on this myth. A friend recommended I accept being obese as my reality. I’m so grateful to know the truth. I believe that losing one hundred pounds is possible. Thanks, Jeff for explaining this and providing research as evidence.
Appreciation #3: I appreciate Mark’s gracious guidance and encouragement each and every week. Thank you for caring so much Mark!
“What I am about to tell you is so utterly simple and true that it may deceive you: Health feels better than sickness. You will be happier at your ideal weight than you are overweight. You will be proud of yourself. You’ll have confidence. You’ll feel so many good things that right now you cannot imagine and I cannot describe. But the net effect is that you’ll like yourself a lot more. You’ll look in the mirror and actually like what you see; you may even love what you see. You will have honored the person within yourself who longs to be healthy, beautiful, and free of all those burdens that overweight brings. Life will not be perfect, but it will be better.”
― John A. McDougall, The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss