July 2021 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group

[texaslil]

+3.8 lbs
170

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. 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. NO
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
6. Eliminate any added oil. NO
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
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). NO
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. NO
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). YES, mostly walking and kayaking (which I loved!)

Victories, comments, concerns, questions: Ok, I'm not going to rake over the gory details, but you can see that I went WAY off the rails/fell off the wagon.. I was in a city with lots of vegan options and I took advantage of it! I way over indulged and obviously paid the price. Once I had let the floodgates open, it was like I couldn't stop. Plus I was in a hotel, which completely challenged controlling my environment. I'm fully prepared to reign it in this week and hopefully that weight won't completely stick!

Onwards to next week!

[Noella]

Down -4.2 (This is, happily, an almost complete loss of the five pound gain last week!!)

Last week 159.0
This week 154.8

1.Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
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.
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.
4.Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
5.Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
6.Eliminate any added oil.
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.
8.Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
9.Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.
10. Exercise daily.

Noella - Don't despair! Falling into the Pleasure Trap is never fun, but you know exactly the pattern of behavior that will lead you back out again; it just takes adherence + time. That number on the scale, which I'm sure felt shocking, can be erased in due course. What is most important is to get directly back on track, and preserve the many quality of life improvements you've worked so hard to attain. Do you feel like there was some specific development or change in your day to day context, environment or preparation that opened the door for the detour into non adherent food? If so, tackling that obstacle should help. Make it as easy as you can for yourself to reach for the recommended foods whenever you feel hungry, and block your access to anything troublesome, as best you can. I know you can do it; after all, you've done it before, right?

Hi Mark, Thanks, always, for being such a wonderful moderator. I have read, and reread your message to me from last week, and It really helped me to get back on track. Reading (and rereading!) everyone’s posts and your cheerful positive and encouraging responses to each person really helped me so much this week! I can totally relate to everyone’s challenges, victories and questions. Thanks so much to Jeff and Wildgoose, too. special thanks tho Dr. McDougall for making his books and this forum available to us.

I feel happy to be back on track this week. Thank you Mark! I owe this to you! I heeded your advice, Mark, referring to your supportive and kind words many times daily, as you reminded me to simply, “...get directly back on track and preserve the many quality of life improvements you’ve worked so hard to achieve.”

I also thought carefully about the weight loss obstacles I face from time to time; the same obstacles that everyone who wants to make a major lifestyle change like this faces, and I want to focus on overcoming these. I spoke to my husband, from my heart, about how I need, benefit from and appreciate his support as I follow MWL and I provided him with a couple specific ways he can help me. I feel encouraged to be communicating with him more clearly. The social/cultural aspects of fitting in with, hosting and entertaining family and friends who eat the standard foods is an ongoing challenge and I am continually trying to improve my menus and cooking skills to accomodate my needs and theirs so that there are ample MWL foods available at every meal and a few non-adherent embellishments for my husband and guests to add at the table. This is easiest if guests only stay for three nights, lol. I can only be creative for so long, haha.

I also owe some of this week’s success in getting back on track, to some backcountry camping and alpine hiking we did in Lake O’Hara, Yoho National Park, for three nights/four days. We hiked in the high alpine about 250 meters of elevation gain over six-seven km each day. I planned out our meals to be 100% MWL adherent. Everything must be carried to the campsite in our packs, stored in the bear proof shed that is shared with several other groups. Every meal was compact, pre-cooked and measured into exact servings. I took ten small potatoes for extra starch, if needed, to add to meals or eat as snacks. (Pre-loads were bananas and oranges, breakfasts were ministone soup with potatoes or Spanish rice & beans with potatoes, lunches were steel cut oats with cherrries and cinnamon --which is easy to eat on the trail-, dinners were spaghetti with Pomodoro sauce with carrots or Indian spiced veggies with rice. Snacks, if needed were a potato. I brought along some additional high calorie dense foods for my husband (non MWL adherent foods). Pre planning, cooking and preparing what you eat really helps a lot!

While in the mountains, I chatted briefly with a man (a retired police officer) who had taken a job with Parks Canada for his 'recreation'. Even though he was a complete stranger to me, he suddenly confided to me, in a few sentences, how he was feeling transformed, not by the alpine air, but by his new lifestyle: “I am a completely new person,” he said, ‘I have new passion for life, renewed energy, and better health at 66 years old. In the past 18 months I have lost 85 pounds, gone from waist size 44 to size 34!! I now believe I have a lot of life left to live. I stopped drinking beer and going to restaurants. I started cooking my own food, and buying vegetables, you know, peppers, and making salads of kale and other greens. I really love eating salads and vegetables now. I started hiking and using my exercise bike (that I used to put my laundry on), and doing some floor exercises!” He was beaming with pride to tell me what he had accomplished in such a short time. I chuckled softly, smiled and responded, ”Way to go! That’s fantastic! I've got to tell you that I must be your secret twin because I have lost 85 pounds and experienced a similar lifestyle change over the past 18 months, too!!”

That short converstaion immediately bonded us; we have both experienced the joy of weigh loss. Much like our weekly postings hereon this MWL forum bond us and inspire us to continue on with our journey towards better health! This week has inspired me to continue on and get the last ten-fifteen pounds off! I am committed to following MWL and while the last few pounds seem so stubborn and the hardest to budge, I feel reassured that, in time, by following the 10 MWL behaviours and eating my starch and vegetables, it will happen. I will eventually get there.

Additional quality of life im provements I, or my husband, noticed this week while hiking in the mountains:
-1. My stamina is AMAZING. I never got out of breath or tired on the uphill sections.
-2. My husband commented that I don't snore anymore, something that had apparently bothered him last year. Yay! I didn’t actually know I used to snore but I am very pleased to hear that I don t snore any more!
-3. My knees: they don’t hurt nearly as sharply with each step on level ground as they did last year. So, it’s definitely worth losing even more weight to help my knees. This year I could walk on the level and the uphills without pain; just a bit of discomfort from time to time. Doing the downhills wasn't sharply painful but I had to go slow when it was very steep and I took occasional 30 second rests to let my knees recover from the downhill force. I used two hiking poles for the downhills and one for the uphill sections. I took longer two-three minute rests and these really helped my knees to feel better. Once I was back on the more level trails my knees felt okay again. So the recovery time is good, and it's promising to think that my knees are healing. My knees got stiff and sore during the night so I woke up and did stretching exercises several times during to ensure my knees would be somewhat flexible in the morning. I really love hiking in the high alpine, along with cross country skiing it's my favourite thing in the world to see the turquoise colours of glacier fed lakes, so a little discomfort with my knees is manageable for me to do what I love.It's what I live for. If I had gained weight over the past 18 months rather than losing weight I could not of hiked one single step in the mountains this year. I am so thankful to MWL, Dr. McDougall. Mark, Jeff and Wildgoose!.
-4. Our hiking trip photos are mostly of the mountains, lakes, trees and wildflowers but... Yay! I look like a normal sized hiker in the couple photos that include people!

All the best to you all for a great week of MWL!
Noella

P.S. Photo of Lake O Hara
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seven_Veil_Falls,_Lake_Ohara_-_panoramio.jpg In this photo you can see from (left to right) Wiwaxy Gap, Mount Huber, Mount Lefroy , Glacier Peak, and Yukness Mountain. This fantastic alpine circuit goes from Lake O'Hara up to Wiwaxy Gap then, then there is a marked trail on the rocky ledges of Mt Huber and Mt. Yukness.

P.P. S. My husband says: "I, too, am very thankful to Dr. McDougall et. al because Noella has been able to influence me to lose over fifty pounds over the past year. And like Noella said, I also wouldn't of been able to hike as well as I did this year if I hadn't lost weight."

[Mark Cooper]

The window for reporting this week's weigh-in and behavioral results has officially closed.

The remainder of my replies and the weekly summary will follow.

[Mark Cooper]

Artista - Admirable adherence, Nancy; way to go! I agree with your sentiment that weight can sometimes "bounce around a bit" in the short-term, and that the prevailing pattern over time heading downward is where we're aiming. It seems to me what can sometimes contribute to this is the overall high volume & low caloric density of the MWL diet; sometimes what we see on the scale might be partially the bulk of the actual food as it makes its way through our digestive system. So, a temporary uptick on the scale may not necessarily indicate a gain in fat (and fat loss is what we're ultimately seeking).

Health 1st - Continuing improvement with adherence, and a big loss this week! Focus on healing, maintaining all those areas where you're fully adhering, and working to eliminate the remaining calorie dense foods. Jeff answered your question about the preload recommendation here, just in case you missed it.

cmcavazos2 - Sometimes we have to learn these things through lived experience to actually "prove them to ourselves," right, Christine? Lesson learned, and you are going forward with a concrete understanding of one of the reasons the recommendations are what they are. If you, or anyone, would like further explanation for why we don't recommend IF, Jeff has a great thread on the topic.

VegSeekingFit - Really excellent adherence and a big loss, too! I heartily support your efforts to focus on the behaviors instead of getting caught up with intermediate results. I also COMPLETELY agree that there is value in keeping a food journal; it was absolutely essential to my progress, for all the reasons you have highlighted. Those big batches of roasted mushrooms and veggies sound delicious, and are a great practice for staying prepared. Jeff responded to your question about Tamari, just in case you missed seeing it, Stephanie. Have a great week!

squealcat - Great idea to bring out your MWL 10-Point Checklist for meal times, Marilyn! I'm glad to hear yesterday and today seem to be going well, after a challenging week. When we are struggling, taking some time to assess the situation and make adjustments to our behavior, routine, and preparation can really help. I use bags of frozen vegetables for nearly every meal - California Mix is my favorite!

Gabby7 - Feeling ill never makes things easier, right? Wishing you a smooth return to wellness. The recommendation to eliminate higher fat plant foods is blank in your self-assessment; were some of those foods included in your meals? Doing the best you can to eliminate any remaining calorie rich foods, like the popcorn, should help support further progress. Try not to let the scale demotivate you, just keep directing your efforts toward practicing the recommended pattern of behavior; the scale will cooperate in the end. Onward!

George Ohwell - 7/7's for half the checklist, and down a pound! Entertaining and socializing can definitely present challenges, particularly insofar as it provides our "brain" with an opportunity to rationalize decisions that run counter to our goals. As you wrote, "lesson learned"; now you have a viable strategy for next time, and can move forward, right?

PonysPlants - We don't fully recognize how reliant we are on things like electricity until we are forced to go without, right, Naomi? Hope the work on your house turned out well. When an obstacle has us veering off course, the most important thing is to get back on track as soon as possible. That way a bump on the path doesn't turn into a chasm!

Zoey - You make an important point in observing that, in the absence of self-assessment and accountability, many of us have a tendency to "fall off the wagon." Your persistence, and those 10 smilies, do serve your goals; you are down 1.2 lbs for July, so far (even if the journey has you feeling like a turtle; after all, the turtle won the archetypal race, right? ). Hooray for "sticking around!"

Gimmelean - All those YESes are the best way to "help yourself!" Totally agree that small lapses so often lead to bigger deviations; that is why I've never understood the concept of "cheat days," given how difficult and frustrating it can be to get back on track, why would one want to make that part of their recurring schedule? Have a great week!

Wfpb2020 - Hang in there, Gina! The more diligent you can be about adhering closely to the recommended behaviors, the better you will support your progress. The times that non adherent foods were included in your meals, do you think that was due to a change in your environment, or routine, or something more specific to a situation?

Drew*# - Down 2.7 lbs! The 50/50 plate is such a great tool. Now just work toward eliminating the remaining non adherent snacks and other calorie rich foods, and you'll be all set.

texaslil - Thank you for sharing your experiences and challenges this week, Laila. It definitely illustrates how "vegan" doesn't necessarily mean MWL adherent (often, quite the opposite). Now that you are back in a more manageable environment, concentrate on sticking with the fundamental principles, one meal at a time.

Noella - Fantastic! Really well done getting back on track with the recommended pattern of behavior! I find your thoughtful and heartfelt communication with your husband very inspiring. That hiking trip sounds like just what you needed to bring all those improvements in the quality of your life to the forefront of your mind. Keep at it!

[Health 1st]

Question:  For #1, can it be 30 to 60 minutes before #2?  I did this sometimes and used #1 as a snack before my 50/50 plate meal.  The snack definitely took the edge off of my hunger + I ate less when it came to my meal.

If you are using it as a pre-load and for the benefits of the pre-load (reduced consumption at a particular meal), then it is best to have it right before the meal

If you are hungry and having it as a snack, then its a snack but not a pre-load.

Either way is fine but for the intended benefit of the pre-load, it is best right before the meal.

In Health
Jeff

That makes a lot of sense, Jeff; thank you! I think when I had the snack (raw broccoli or cauliflower florets) about 30 minutes before the meal, it did work as a pre-load for me. But I also acknowledge that my eating is still off in terms of lack of regular cooking due to my injury (not being able to stand or walk much). I am really looking forward to being able to do a lot more food prep + cooking + think that #1 will be a lot easier for me to put into practice then.

[Health 1st]

Mark, thank you for the heads up about Jeff answering my question, your encouragement, + all your hard work! Hope you're able to have a restful weekend.

[Mark Cooper]

Please note - I replied to each participant individually in the two lengthy posts linked below, provided that their reports followed the guidelines for weigh-ins.

Mark's Replies for July 23 - Part 1
Mark's Replies for July 23 - Part 2

By my count, 19 participants reported for our fourth July 2021 MWL weigh-in! If I neglected to include anyone, or you notice an error in the tally, please let me know (via PM so we can keep the thread as tidy as possible, or in a post here if you cannot PM).

Here are the results for the fourth Friday in July:

Week ending 7/23/2021: 19 participants reported a total change of -14.60 pounds
--------------------------------------------------
Texaslil +3.80
Artista +1.80
Bunsofaluminum +1.50
Gabby7 +1.50
Louie3084 +1.00
Squealcat +0.90
--------------------------------------------------
Total gains: +10.50
--------------------------------------------------
NO CHANGE / MAINTAIN/ STARTING OUT
Cmcavazos2 0.00
--------------------------------------------------
Wfpb2020 -0.20
Zoey -0.20
GreenFroG -0.40
PonysPlants -0.40
George Ohwell -1.00
Deweyswakms -1.40
Gimmelean -1.40
Rebecka22 -1.60
Drew*# -2.70
VegSeekingFit -3.60
Noella -4.20
Health 1st -8.00
--------------------------------------------------
Total losses: -25.10
--------------------------------------------------
Cumulative group loss for July 2021 to date: 49.45 pounds
Average loss for week ending July 23: 0.77 pounds
Cumulative group loss for January 2021: 117.20 pounds
Cumulative group loss for February 2021: 39.40 pounds
Cumulative group loss for March 2021: 73.20 pounds
Cumulative group loss for April 2021: 48.30 pounds
Cumulative group loss for May 2021: 35.90 pounds
Cumulative group loss for June 2021: 34.10 pounds
--------------------------------------------------

Next Weigh-In is on Friday, July 30, 2021.


Congratulations to all our participants on completing another week of MWL! Only one more week to go before we bid goodbye to the month of July!

This week I want to highlight Jeff's important writing on the topic of "hacks" and "tricks." From the MWL guidelines post,

The recommendations of Dr. McDougall and myself come from not only a thorough review and understanding of the scientific literature on these issues, but also from decades of clinical experience working with clients in a closed residential setting.

However, in the last few years, people have come up with their own personal ways to improve the MWL program ("hacks"), usually based on their own short term experience or a “N of 1.” Most often, they do not have the understanding of the literature or the long-term clinical experience we do. In addition, we are not interested in promoting "hacks" to the MWL to produce short term results that will be unsustainable for most people. As Dr. McDougall always says at the program, we are not here for instant results, we are here to get you to like the food and teach you a sustainable program. We could easily serve you an all (or mostly) vegetable diet and you would have better initial short-term results but it will be unsustainable. As Dr. Lisle says, be the tortoise, not the hare.

It is important to realize that any "hacks" to the MWL that are not in the above newsletters, or that do not come directly from Dr. McDougall or myself, are not part of the MWL program, nor do we recommend them.

As Dr. McDougall said in a recent newsletter...

"many popular healthcare "gurus" have had no formal education in the potentially life-threatening matters of your health. Almost as troubling are the credentialed healthcare/diet advisors who provide advice based solely on reading other people's research articles. The relevance of their guidance must be placed in the context that many of them haven't touched a patient since their primary dietetic or medical training."

People will often say, I was doing the MWL program but it wasn't working till I also did "X," to which they are often unaware that "X" Is already a part of the MWL program. On the other hand, people will often say they are following the MWL program and doing "Y" but they are unaware that "Y" is not part of the MWL program nor recommended.

Before making any "hacks" to the MWL program, we recommend you give the MWL program with the refinements mentioned above a fair and honest chance. If you are having difficulty, then join the weekly weigh-in group and/or contact us directly.

Here are a few of the "hacks" people make that are not recommended. None of these are new. All have been around for a long time and seem to get recycled every few years

- A predominately raw food diet
- Eating only raw foods till 4 PM
- Intermittent fasting
- Restricted feeding window
- Extended fasts to lose weight
- Smoothies
- Juicing
- Basing their diet on non-starchy vegetables
- Eating only foods low in the GI/GL
- Not including starch at each meal.
- Delaying the starch component of a meal.
- Eating only fruit for breakfast
- Eating only non-starchy vegetables for breakfast
- Excessive or extreme exercise
- Food Combining
- Meal Replacements
- Supplements

In regard to added salt and added sugar, we recommend buying and preparing food without either and if any are to be used, to add them at the table on the surface of the food. If either one is troublesome and create uncontrollable cravings for you, then leave them out.

While anecdotal stories are interesting, and you can always find them for almost any intervention, that is not why we are here or what our programs are based on. If we go by anecdotal evidence, we open a huge door that we don't really want to because then why not believe anyone with any anecdotical stories and testimonials regardless if they are doing any of the "hacks" listed above or if they are doing Paleo, Atkins, Weight Watchers, etc.

We are here because we are an evidence & science based program.

And here is an excerpt from something I wrote in May 2020,

As always, do the best you can to be totally honest with yourself about your current efforts and what you are capable of achieving. Think about your overall pattern of behavior, and whether it is congruent with your personal goals. Ultimately, we are all working to build a way of life for ourselves - a way of life that supports our health and well-being, and that bolsters our energy, enthusiasm, and happiness. If we are fortunate, we can inhabit that wonderful way of life for the longest duration of time possible. Developing a broad understanding of the concepts we discuss here can seem daunting and involved, as illustrated in this discussion of satiety and calorie density.

It is important to always discuss satiety per calorie so we always have an equal/standardized comparison and in regard to short term (~1 hour) vs long term (~3-4 hours) satiety. While fruits and veggies have high short term satiety, they don’t have high long term satiety

Water as part of food is included as in soups, oatmeal etc. where as liquid calories as in juice, non-dairy milk isn’t.

There are many factors to satiety that are more like finer details such as chewing, fiber/kcal, %fat, texture, degree of processing etc that matter when comparing foods of equal or similar calorie density.

If some of you are interested in taking a "deep dive" into the numerous interesting and complicated factors that contribute to Passive Overconsumption: The Unintended Intake of Excess Calories, I highly recommend the following threads:

Finding The Sweet Spot: Balancing Calorie Density, Nutrient Density & Satiety
Question about Ramen noodles?
3-5 lbs of food a day?
food really unlimited??

The Jeff Novick, RD subforum is filled with fascinating and valuable information on a seemingly infinite number of topics, and the answers to many questions are contained therein.

If further study seems interesting and enjoyable to you, by all means pursue those interests. Conversely, if that feels like an insurmountable burden that you don't want to tackle - YOU ARE IN LUCK! You can reap great benefit from the collective and cumulative knowledge and experience of Dr. McDougall and Jeff Novick; their recommendations come from a thorough review and understanding of the scientific literature combined with decades of clinical experience. That is the beauty of the MWL 10-Point Checklist and the MWL guidelines - they have distilled all that knowledge and experience into a set of recommendations that are clear and actionable. Our task is simply to take action in our own lives, informed by those recommendations.

I wish you all the best for a wonderful week to come!

[Gabby7]

Thanks Mark - just to clarify, no I didn’t have any high fat plant foods. I believe it was just a random swing potentially aided by that time of the month. Checked the scale this morning and it said a net loss of .8 so possibly just some water or fiber retention. Still plan to focus on pre-loading this week and activity since I’m feeling better. Have a great week!

[Mark Cooper]

Thanks Mark - just to clarify, no I didn’t have any high fat plant foods. I believe it was just a random swing potentially aided by that time of the month. Checked the scale this morning and it said a net loss of .8 so possibly just some water or fiber retention. Still plan to focus on pre-loading this week and activity since I’m feeling better. Have a great week!

Thanks, Gabby7; that makes sense. Carry on!

[Zoey]

Thanks for cheering us on, Mark! Your detailed responses to everyone are a great help to each of us.

Dear Noella, yes, those last ten pounds are so stubborn, but I think we can out-stubborn them.

To everyone, thanks for sharing the victories and the challenges. There is usually something in each post that I can relate to and learn from. Yay for jobs well done and lessons learned.

[VegSeekingFit]

A) Is there an acceptable substitute for Low-Sodium Tamari?
B) Or, is it acceptable to dilute this product with water to add a little soy flavor?

Low sodium tamari is just a source of sodium. Like all sources of sodium (Salt, soy, Tamari, miso, braggs), what matters most is the total amount of sodium contributed. Yes, if you want to have some of the flavor and less sodium, they you can dilute it with water. Some products, like coconut amino's are already much lower in sodium but I don't know if they will have the flavor you are looking for.

C) Or, is it recommended to find a completely different condiment that meets the guidelines, but can't really replace but would be used in lieu of Low-Sodium Tamari??

All the sources of sodium mentioned above are allowed, The issue is not which one, but how much. Just add to taste at the table and/or dilute like suggested and you should be fine.

(i.e., something like Chili Garlic with no sodium, no sugar)

All of these have to be checked. Often times, when something is lower in sodium, it may be higher in salt or vice versa. And some of these may have oil in them too.

In Health
Jeff

Thank you so much, Jeff for your response to my question. I really appreciate that you took the time to do so and I now understand!!!

On a side note, I made a batch of your basic bean burger recipe last week (added a bit of raw onion) and the burgers were delicious!!!

[VegSeekingFit]

VegSeekingFit - Really excellent adherence and a big loss, too! I heartily support your efforts to focus on the behaviors instead of getting caught up with intermediate results. I also COMPLETELY agree that there is value in keeping a food journal; it was absolutely essential to my progress, for all the reasons you have highlighted. Those big batches of roasted mushrooms and veggies sound delicious, and are a great practice for staying prepared. Jeff responded to your question about Tamari, just in case you missed seeing it, Stephanie. Have a great week!

Thank you, Mark for all of your support to the members of this Board!!!

I was inspired by your journal way back in real-time... However, appreciate that you linked it here and I have re-read. I am in awe of all that you have accomplished!! Your journal is a Roadmap that anyone can follow (with pictures even!!) to see a great example of how to achieve success. I have copied down a couple of your recipes (tomato soup, tomato spinach soup, SNAP stew) to try over the next couple of weeks. I sense that we have similar likes for spicy stuff...

I don't know if this is fair to ask 2.5ish years later... so, completely understand if you can't answer... there is a crushed tomato sauce in several of your photos... What is that made of?? (Sounds yummy...)

Also, I am hoping that you are continuing to be able to manage your pain successfully with this WOE.

Best,
Stephanie

[VegSeekingFit]

One thing I think I need to work through is having people over. I’m torn between wishing people could just enjoy what I eat and serving what they like. Sometimes it makes me just not want to have people over. I need to plan a graduation party for my husband, but some of the people would definitely not be okay with my menu. Sometimes it feels so extra though, like you don’t like strawberries and watermelon because all the food is vegan??? I think I just need to figure out my role in it all and how to not be annoyed.

Hi Rebecka22,

I understand completely what you mean by this (including the "how not to be annoyed").

Not sure if this may be helpful to you, but what I do for parties is to cater / order SAD food separately for the masses. Then, I send ALL of the leftovers home with people. In addition, I always have plentiful McD friendly food (fruit and veggie trays, hummus, salsa, bean salad, other depending on the celebration).

I struggle a lot with serving (and buying) meat products (and I won't cook them or put them in the refrigerator). However, as my husband doesn't eat this way -- I just make available at parties what (most) people want to eat.

One thing to consider is that your friends and family didn't change their diet, you did... (for the better, but they don't want to change with you... )

Wishing you luck!!
Stephanie

[JeffN]

Thank you so much, Jeff for your response to my question. I really appreciate that you took the time to do so and I now understand!!!

My pleasure.

On a side note, I made a batch of your basic bean burger recipe last week (added a bit of raw onion) and the burgers were delicious!!!

Glad you like them1

In Health
Jeff

[Mark Cooper]

I don't know if this is fair to ask 2.5ish years later... so, completely understand if you can't answer... there is a crushed tomato sauce in several of your photos... What is that made of?? (Sounds yummy...)

At a guess, I would say it is probably Tuttorosso No Salt Added Crushed Tomatoes with Basil; it comes in a 28oz can at my local grocery store. It is really tasty.