Hi Mark,
The past two weeks have been challenging in regard to MWL as we have been travelling . My husband is supportive, so it's always great to eat at home, and I can easily ensure I have veggies and starch at every meal. However, it's extremely challenging to get the basic starches and vegetables foods when we travel and stay in hotels (or even when we stay with relatives) that cannot easily accommodate my diet or understand it. So this week's analysis clearly shows the frustrations I faced at each meal while we were away. To reduce the challenges, I usually had just two meals daily: brunch and dinner. Some points are easy enough, if the meal is a buffet, it's possible to select a limited number of foods that fit the criteria. My best and healthiest meal on our entire trip was at the airport on our way home yesterday, and I appreciated how delicious it was while also being McDougall approved. I ordered a number of sides, and everything came oil free: steamed broccoli, salad, black beans, rice, salsa.
1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
This point is the easiest one for me to follow and perhaps it is the most helpful one for me. It gets me started healthfully at each meal. It establishes the foundation. I can build a healthy meal on it. I feel successful at the start! in restaurants, airports and buffet meals its possible to do this step and reap the rewards.
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.
This point is way trickier. Sometimes it helps to order an extra side of rice or baked potatoes to get enough starch. Most times, the veggies are too few, so again, ordering an extra side of steamed veggies helps.
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.
Processed foods that aren't MWL approved seem to have one flavour you can count on: salty!! I tasted some cheese (see#4), and salt was the main flavour!
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
I did my best to remove visible cheese or asked for the cheese to be on the side so it was easier to avoid. I know that some of the very rich, high-calorie-dense things I chose to eat (like crepes) included butter, cream, and eggs. Travelling in Quebec, it is challenging to avoid these.
5. Eliminate all higher-fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
6. Eliminate any added oil.
Added oil and butter! It was everywhere! A beautiful baby leaf kale salad at an elegant breakfast buffet breakfast glistened with oil. Yes, I still decided to have a large serving of the beautiful kale salad to get my greens. However, I truly do not enjoy oil on my salad anymore, for health reasons AND for personal flavour preference. At the same breakfast, I had Quebec-style maple syrup baked beans; they had added butter/fat to the beans, too, and would have tasted better to me without the added oil. This experience inspires me to learn how to bake a MWL-adherent version of baked beans without added oil now that I'm back home.
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.
See #4 I chose to eat a couple of croissants and crepes.
8. Don't drink calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
I had three glasses of wine over the two weeks I was away with my daughter. It was because of the social pressure and just wanting to belong. I'm not one of those people who doesn't care what others think of me. Relationships are important to me. I'm highly sensitive and need extra love and belonging - especially from my daughter. I had travelled such a long distance to see her, and I never want anything other than distance to come between us. Drinking the wine seemed like a good choice at the time. Looking back at this behaviour today and recognizing my high need for love and belonging, I could have 'pretended' to drink the wine, and it would have had the exact same effect socially.
9. Follow these principles, eat whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself, and don't stuff yourself.
This was easy enough.
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
Lots of sitting at airports, on planes, trains, cars, etc. I didn't try with enough effort to get daily exercise. I did take my exercise clothing and shoes with me, and I did look at the exercise facilities at each hotel...but other than swimming, I didn't use any of the equipment.
Well...reviewing my MWL behaviours via the checklist today was eye-opening! Could I have done worse? Yes, I definitely could have done much worse on this trip but could I have done better? Clearly, yes, I also could have done better in several important ways. I'm not perfect; nobody is. I am learning about myself, my strengths and my weaknesses.
My clothes/belts feel tighter after a winter of not cross-country skiing due to breaking my arm last December and extensive leisure travel. The cross-country skiing, which usually extends into mid-April really does help to keep my waist nice and slim. One winter off from skiing proved that! Well, I haven't really been weighing myself since the focus here on this discussion board switched to emphasizing monitoring our daily behaviours rather than using the scale. I find that simply measuring my waist once per week tells me everything I need to know - and right now my belt is saying I've gained some weight back.
I'm travelling to stay at a seaside cottage for two weeks in June, and our focus for this trip is strictly relaxation, healthy eating and exercise: walking, swimming, paddling, and cycling. We'll be preparing our own healthy meals, and I'll be back into the MWL groove I enjoy most.
One REALLY great bonus of being within a normal weight range is the delightful feeling of being slim in a bathing suit. I LOVE swimming, especially so at the resorts we recently stayed at. I didn't feel embarrassed about my figure at all as I was getting in and out of the pools, so it was a more enjoyable and relaxing experience than pre-MWL.
Thank you to everyone who contributes to this discussion board. It's so helpful to read your posts. THANK YOU!
Best regards to everyone,
Noella