Stephanie - Huzzah for no snack attacks and congrats on your excellent adherence! Enjoy your walk & your week!
ltolar - Going off plan for a period of days can certainly lead to a struggle in "recovering." Any ideas for how you'll make your path to adherence more attainable in the coming week?
colleenaprn - Let me take a moment to affirm and acknowledge that 3 lbs in a week is great progress! Also, unless I'm mistaken your weight has dropped 13 lbs since the start of January, which is a nice, steady and safe progression of weight loss over that duration. I can imagine how frustrating it can feel when our progress toward a goal is happening more slowly than we would wish (especially when it feels incongruent with the level of effort we are making). I think you are wise to concentrate on "trusting the process" - keep in mind our goal is for you to learn the program, enjoy the food and change your lifestyle in a way that will be healthy and sustainable. It is somewhat analogous to "cramming" for a test vs. really studying and learning to integrate the new information and concepts. One can stay up all night frantically trying to study, take the test in the morning and maybe even get an "A," but was anything really learned? Most of the time that info vanishes from the mind almost as quickly as it was crammed in. Similarly, there are numerous ways that people can lose weight fairly rapidly, but how many sustain that weight loss in the long-term, much less build a lifestyle that promotes health? I think your continued attention to journaling, and adhering to the MWL 10-Point Checklist is exactly the right tactic, and is worthy of taking a moment to acknowledge
that it is no small achievement. Good for you!
moonlight - Having several MWL principles become routine is great progress, and kudos for successfully eliminating animal foods even though it was difficult this week! I appreciate knowing that the group helped to provide beneficial support in enduring that struggle; I think many of us (myself included) easily forget what an important part community plays in all our lifestyle choices and habits. Thank you so much for your kind words.
Vee - I'm sorry your week felt difficult - dining out can be such a challenge. Making decisions consistent with the McDougall plan rather than retreating to a SAD diet is certainly progress worth noting. I applaud you for showing up and reporting even during a week that you consider less than ideal.
JaBee - Kudos on a nice loss and putting the 50/50 plate into action! One idea might be to make your "helping" of food slightly smaller, then go back for similarly modest portions for seconds (or even thirds), so you have a bit more granular control over feeling satiated without being stuffed. Another strategy might be to slightly increase your ratio of starch and see how that works in relation to satiety. Your weight loss generally seems to have been quite steady, so fine-tuning the amount of starch might be worth some experimentation.
Carrieann - It sounds like the points that you feel require more attention would all probably get easier with some extra time spent on planning and preparation, so I think your intuition there has you on the right track. Nice progress on your daily activity and good for you not allowing other nuts, nut butters, &c. to work their way into your daily meals. (Carrieann, I know that you are already aware of the following sentence on calorie density; I want to tell you directly that I'm not intending the information below as a way of second-guessing your doctor's advice or decisions related to your medication and present health situation). Just so there is no confusion for the group in regard to the principles of MWL, and particularly for the benefit of newer participants or guests who may be reading along - brazil nuts are not recommended for MWL as they are higher fat and calorie dense. Jeff covers some additional considerations for brazil nuts
here.
BlackBeanSoup - I'm relieved to hear you are feeling better and your appetite has improved! Now that you are actually feeling more hungry, it makes sense to allocate some attention to the 50/50 plate. I'm so anxious for spring! What type of exercise are you considering?
Drew* - That soup sounds like a dish after my own heart! Yummm! Kudos for you excellent adherence this week. Speaking for myself, if I was walking briskly (for me that's ~4 mph) and getting in an aggregate amount of walking at that speed in excess of 30 minutes, I would consider myself as having successfully fulfilled the guideline that day.