August 2020 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group

[Wfpb2020]

Start date 7/1/20

July loss - 9.4 lbs
8/14/20 - 1.8 lbs
8/21/20 - .4 lbs.
Total Loss: - 11.6 lbs

1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Yes
2) Follow the 50/50 plate method; Choose fruit for desert. Yes
3) Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. Yes
4) Eliminate all animal foods 4/7 had some half and half & cheese/chicken on a salad when grabbing fast food.
5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods. Yes
6) Eliminate any added oil. Yes
7) Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products, puffed cereals, popcorn and dried fruit. Yes
8 ) Don’t drink your calories. Yes
9) Eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve/stuff yourself. Yes
10) Aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily. Yes at least an hour each day

My blood work revealed a 53 pt drop in cholesterol & lower blood pressure after only one month on the program. So doctor has agreed to lower my blood pressure medication. I could not be happier. Thanks for all your help.

[calharv]

First weigh-in:
171 this morning, down 3lbs.

Did mostly well with guidelines this week.
The ones I faltered on a bit:
1. Starting each meal with soup/salad...breakfast was tough for me here...I'll try fruit next week
5. Had some tofu and tahini in a dressing
7. Had a bowl of (air popped) popcorn

Otherwise on track!
I'll focus particularly on these next week.

Cal

[goal140]

Greetings everyone!

This week was a fairly good one, much closer to being back on track.
Last weeks weight 161, this week 161.6.
So I gained .6 lbs. I can’t complain.
+.6
Being compliant is still my main issue. I’m not eating as many non-compliant foods as I was. I love starch. I could so easily eat nothing but starch! I am afraid of overdoing the starches but I guess that still would be better than eating non-compliant foods. Bread is one of my downfalls. Instead of eating bread, I will try to replace it with some starch.

[rlechols]

Last week's weight: 145 lbs
This week's weight: 145 lbs
Loss of 0 lbs

It was nice to get back to my routine this week after having guests and eating out too much last week! I feel like I've been hungrier than usual this week and have allowed myself some extra starch to alleviate the hunger. That may be a result of not getting enough to eat several times last week, who knows.

I was 7/7 on all points this week except for I had a salt heavy meal one day (so 6/7 on that) and also 6/7 on the higher calorie dense items (flour). Other than that, I've kept things up well. I shall press forward another week and see what happens.

[laura_delao]

Congratulations Noella! You have shown us how when someone wants something, they find a way to do it! Camping and sticking to the plan. Amazing! Keep going!!

[Pattyj115]

This Week loss: - 1.0
Total Change as of July 3 2020 : - 9.0

01 Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit: NO, soup became my breakfast meal. I now throw rice in it, so it actually fills me up until lunch.
02 Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals: YES
03 Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and salts: YES, reduced salt, eliminated sugar
04 Eliminate all animal foods: NO, I had 1 home grown egg this week – so hard to pass up
05 Eliminate all higher fat plant foods: NO small amount of guacamole
06 Eliminate any added oil: YES
07 Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods: ?? I had a cauliflower tortilla, is that a NO-NO??
08 Don’t drink your calories: NEVER
09 Follow these principles, eating when hungry – stop when comfortably full: YES, good here!
10 Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily: well, my Sunday night swim kicked my butt. Had to take pain pills twice this week. Did do hamstring stretches which helps the pain

Comments: I think I could have done better. However, as a “rest of my life-time” change, I have not really slipped back into old habits. I really seem to have a problem looking at those home-grown eggs and not eat one. (The old habit would be 1 or 2 a day till gone) I need help understanding why they are so bad for me because they still taste good. Other animal foods taste like Yuck and I can pretty much stick to my guns saying “no thanks” to meats & dairy. I would like to thank you Mark for your weekly comments to me. I look forward to reading what you have to say! It is always encouraging and positive and I find I really need that to stay firm. I do not have that support with the hubby, he still keeps offering foods and smoothies, (out of kindness & sharing….) But I have to say, he stops after one No thanks! He will probably always offer because he wants to share yummy foods! I really need to get him on this program ~sigh~

[Golightly]

Weight loss: -1
Very pleased with this! I ate too little some days and a lot on others so I didn’t expect to lose any weight this week. So I’m very happy with a 1 pound loss.

10-point checklist:
1. Start each meal... Yes! I made a delicious watermelon gazpacho!
2. 50/50 Plate...& fruit for dessert: Yes!
3. Reduce added sugar and salt: Yes!
4. Eliminate all animal foods. Yes! For 4 yrs now.
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant food. No— I had 2 slices of bread. I had some soy nuts once.
6. Eliminate any added oil. Yes! I got rid of the oil weeks ago and do not miss it!
7. Eliminate all high calorie-dense food... No. I made “chips” from potatoes and ate the equivalent of 2 large potatoes in one sitting.
8. Don't drink your calories. No. I had a kale and fruit smoothie for one of my breakfasts.
9. Don’t starve, don’t stuff.... Yes!
10. Avoid being sedentary... Yes! I walked at least 40 minutes 5 days this week.

Discovery: I love that MWL weighs in on Fridays. In the past I started so many diets on Mondays and failed by Friday that I started to believe something was wrong with Mondays! Weighing in on Friday has broken my psychological barrier about starting a diet on Monday and failing. Also, weighing in on Friday motivates me to stick to my eating plan through the weekend when in the Past I would often use the weekend as an excuse to let up on good eating habits.

[Amberlina]

Weight change +/- in lbs - (-2)
Total loss since 7/7/2020: (-9)
Points from the MWL Checklist where I succeeded this week- Points from the MWL Checklist that need greater attention- I feel very accomplished this week, as I followed all 10 items on the checklist better than I ever have so far!
General impressions & observations / resources to share / sources of excitement / requests for input & support- my mission was successful. I have discovered some things that I was unknowingly consuming that may have been sabotaging me. I have added in more calorically dense food and I successfully made my own simple dinners alongside the ones I cook for my family and I did not feel sad about it at all. I felt empowered because I have self discipline and a will to reach my goals and live a long time!

[GreenFroG]

Hello everyone,

Weight change: -2.0
Current weight: 149.4
Observations:
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 desert. Have been noticing my plate is a lot fuller/higher on the starch side than the veg side, so I am working on this.
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. Switched my balsamic glaze out for red wine vinegar on my salads to help lower my triglycerides.
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.
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. Also been working on this to really notice if I am hungry before I start eating and to stop when full.
10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).

Really focused on my 50/50 plate portions this week, making sure my portion of veggies is equivalent to my starches. Also am focusing on what hungry and full mean, and what they feel like for me. I think a lot of times I do not pay enough attention to the signals my body is sending me. I will continue to work on these two points this next week as well. I know I am a social eater at times and I eat more by a schedule overall, so I need to adjust my 50/50 portions and listen to my body signals. This is definitely a learning process as I want to make behavioral changes that become my new lifestyle.

Have a great week!

[BarbaraLynn]

Hello everyone,

Down 2.4 pounds

I had a fun week full of hiking and trips to the beach to watch the sunset. We’ve had several days of rain during my week off of work, but I’ve managed exercise every day. I did go out for lunch to a Thai restaurant yesterday so know it was higher in salt and fat than what I would make at home, but otherwise had a wonderfully compliant week. I stocked my fridge with fresh and frozen fruits and veggies yesterday ahead of Tropical Storm Laura. I suspect it will keep moving away from us in Florida though. The other gulf states have two storms heading their way! Stay safe friends!

Wishing everyone a good week! I’m off to make some collards to go with my groats this morning!

[Creaky]

Start: 267
July 21: 264.7
Change: -2.3

1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. No, but my meals are stew like
2) Follow the 50/50 plate method; Choose fruit for desert. Yes
3) Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. Yes
4) Eliminate all animal foods: yes
5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods. No, eating the last of my tofu - have about two weeks left of it.
6) Eliminate any added oil. Yes
7) Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products, puffed cereals, popcorn and dried fruit. No, Potato starch gravy
8 ) Don’t drink your calories. Yes
9) Eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve/stuff yourself. Yes
10) Aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily. Not every day, walked about 3500+i steps per day.

Overall a good week and a nice start to it all. I think I've dialed in what satisfies me. See how it goes this week. Weekends are hard for me, so fingers crossed. I have plenty of rice and potatoes on hand.

[BlackBeanSoup]

I would like to re-join MWL. I participated all of Jan/Feb of this year and did great. I thought I could maintain it during my move from Upstate NY to NC, but I could not. The move alone made following the program so hard, then throw in Covid stuff on top of it and I struggled. But now I am settled in and ready to start up MWL again. I will report my weight change next Friday!

[Noella]

Dear Mark, Wildgoose, Jeff and everyone following the MWL guidelines for August,

Weight change since last week: -.5 lbs.
Weight change since starting McDougall Starch Solution Jan. 2020: -67.5 lbs.
Weight change since starting McDougall MWL Apr. 2020: -25.5 lbs.

Thank you, everyone, for sharing your experiences...it is so encouraging. Thank you, Mark, Wildgoose and Jeff for your reminders, recommendations, information and support. The more science based knowledge I have the more confident I am to reach and maintain a healthy weight for my height.

Behaviours: I was able to follow all of the MWL behaviours while hiking/camping this week.

Observations:
1.) It’s possible to go camping for a week and adhere to MWL! We ate lots of fresh veggies and fruits, soups, sauces with starches such as oatmeal, roasted potatoes, quinoa and whole grain pasta. I precooked the starches and this made our meal preparation easy! The 50/50 plate guided our meal planning and we believe we had our healthiest and tastiest camp food ever!

2.) We had to hike to get to our campsite. My knee joints are steadily getting stronger and less painful due to losing almost seventy pounds but my knees still immediately started complaining when I tried to carry the weight of a backpack. Rather than cause joint damage, I let my husband be the hero and carry everything heavy. I used hiking poles and I’m sure using these helped reduce the weight on my knees and made our coastal hiking/camping trip a success.

Best regards,

Noella

[laura_delao]

Weight change: + 1.4
Current weight: 136.6

Non compliant meals this week were pancake bteakfast at restaurant, Japanese noodle soup high in sodium (cleaning pantry items) and a bag of Munch (peanut brittle, cleaning pantry too). It is so nice to be able to zero in on non-compliant foods because now I know where the problem is and know how to fix it. Thanks for all the feedback. I increased my water intake to 64 oz a day and by the third day my weight went up to 138. I'm happy it's come down. I exercided three times this week but failed to walk the rest of the days. Will work on that this coming week. Thank you for having this great program available and for your great dedication, positive encouragement and leadership as moderators. Have a great and successful week everyone!

[Beeshell]

Weight change: -2.1 (scale was acting up and got numbers all over the place but this is the one that came up 3x)

Observations: overall continuing on making better choices. I had a few days where I stress-ate sugar. The fires are bad in No Cal and it was worrying me. I know this doesn't help. Working on changing my reactions and patterns. I tossed the oreos that were consumed - as I've noted, this stuff doesn't taste good and makes me feel icky if consumed now. Which is good.

I made some soup this week with a bunch of different vegetables that I haven't cooked with before to make soup (even though it was in the 100s here) so that was a good way to get a healthy filling meal. Hope to do this again this week - ironically, it's been so hot here but I bought herb salad instead of greens so it didn't taste good as a main meal salad. So it was soup!

I actually ate a subway turkey sandwich this week ( ) which I haven't done in months. Again, felt like a stress response. Otherwise, no meat or cheese.

Still enjoying fruit for breakfast and for dessert.

Exercise not a problem - swimming and walking mainly. Yoga at night. None today as the air quality is bad.