How about a MWL Challenge for Nov?

[LauraA]

Hi - It sounds like everyone is doing great. I think that I mentioned our new Vitamix, and my son's recipe for broccoli soup. Well, we made it, and it was great taking and bright green. We cooked broccoli in water on the stovetop until tender. Then, we put about broccoli in the mixer with about a cup of the water from the pot - added salt and pepper. The soup was really good and beautiful. I might end up having it several times a week. Have a nice weekend all. Take care, LauraA

[Letha]

LauraA, Broccoli soup sounds lovely on a cool fall day.

Baidarka, Feel better soon. I also have fibro which flares up with unusual activities like moving. Thanks for the tip on the recipe calculator. I’ll check it out.

Good morning all. It’s so great to see all the folks planning to participate in the December MWL challenge/support thread. I’m doing well today. On plan and planning to stay that way. I posted my menu over in Roberta’s Corner.

So I’m starting to think about exercise. I try to keep my posts positive but to tell the truth, pain is a big part of my day and I have a hard time doing basic things. I have help with shopping, cooking, and chores. For me, all movement represents pain and is something to be minimized or avoided. So for December I want to start to tackle that attitude.

I can’t really walk or stand very much but I have two exercise videos that I can do in a chair. The first is ‘Chair Dancing through the Decades’ which I have at my fingertips and the second is ‘Seated Thai Chi’ which I have to dig out of a box in the closet. Honestly, just getting myself set up in a chair in front of the TV sounds like an overwhelming chore to me.

So for the first few weeks, I want to just get in the habit of doing that, so it’s not such a big deal. I hesitate to even write this because it sounds so lame, but I’m just going to set the timer for five minutes and do the video that long every day for the first two weeks. Then take it up to 10 minutes a day for the second two weeks. Hopefully by the end of December I will have chiseled a few cracks in this mental block I have about exercise.

I was thinking I might post my little five/ten minutes of exercise in the ‘Who’s Moving’ thread each day (after I actually do it) but I’m a little concerned that it’s too laughable. What do you think?
Letha

[Mommylut]

Bairdaka - excuse me if I spelled your name wrong. I wanted to get this out and didn't want to keep going back and forth. I am also in the throws of a horrible fibromyalgia attack. I have been feeling so much better on this program, that I decided I didn't need to take my zoloft, which has helped me over the past 10 years or so. As a result, I woke up yesterday and could barely stand. We had slept over my daughter's thanksgiving and I had a wonderful time with my grandaughter (don't get me started - she is the love of my life). We were meeting friends for dinner in manhattan so we got down there early afternoon. It was cold and raw and by the time we went to dinner, I was in tears. I went back on the medication and at least I actually followed the program even over the holidays.

Believe me I feel for you. I am sure that if the move didn't cause this flare up, it probably doesn't make it any easier.

Hope everyone had a good holiday.
Marion

[Love the Lorax]

Hi Letha,

I think you have a wonderful idea with approaching exercise slowly. Truly, I do. Too many times people (and I've done it myself) jump in with the idea of doing SO much so soon, and then say "forget it!" after getting overwhelmed and don't do anything. Simply make that tiny baby step is worth so much! YOU know you are taking it seriously! Once you get over that initial hump you will find it easier to add on a few minutes every so often, but just getting started - that is the biggest hurdle of all. No way is posting your 5 or 10 minutes laughable! Start where you can and go from there. You are making a big change in your life and no way should you discount it because it isn't "long enough". You know your body and mind and what you can handle.


WAY TO GO!!!!!

LauraA, Broccoli soup sounds lovely on a cool fall day.

Baidarka, Feel better soon. I also have fibro which flares up with unusual activities like moving. Thanks for the tip on the recipe calculator. I’ll check it out.

Good morning all. It’s so great to see all the folks planning to participate in the December MWL challenge/support thread. I’m doing well today. On plan and planning to stay that way. I posted my menu over in Roberta’s Corner.

So I’m starting to think about exercise. I try to keep my posts positive but to tell the truth, pain is a big part of my day and I have a hard time doing basic things. I have help with shopping, cooking, and chores. For me, all movement represents pain and is something to be minimized or avoided. So for December I want to start to tackle that attitude.

I can’t really walk or stand very much but I have two exercise videos that I can do in a chair. The first is ‘Chair Dancing through the Decades’ which I have at my fingertips and the second is ‘Seated Thai Chi’ which I have to dig out of a box in the closet. Honestly, just getting myself set up in a chair in front of the TV sounds like an overwhelming chore to me.

So for the first few weeks, I want to just get in the habit of doing that, so it’s not such a big deal. I hesitate to even write this because it sounds so lame, but I’m just going to set the timer for five minutes and do the video that long every day for the first two weeks. Then take it up to 10 minutes a day for the second two weeks. Hopefully by the end of December I will have chiseled a few cracks in this mental block I have about exercise.

I was thinking I might post my little five/ten minutes of exercise in the ‘Who’s Moving’ thread each day (after I actually do it) but I’m a little concerned that it’s too laughable. What do you think?
Letha

[LauraA]

He everyone - this month is almost over, and we've done great! Congratulations to all of us. Letha, I strongly recommend that you consider the workout challenge that has started on this MWL board. It seems nice and friendly like this thread, and you do get some feedback. I pledged to myself to work out for 30 minutes 5 x per week. I started on Tue, I think. I walked on Tue, Wed and Thur, and then took Friday off- lots of rain. I almost took off again today, but I actually got out and walked just so I wouldn't have to post that I took two days off in a row. I want to start mixing in other activities. Nothing that you are trying to accomplish is "lame" - we all have areas of struggle and areas that need improvement. We all are where we are right now, and we are all headed in the right direction! Take care, LauraA

[Letha]

Marion, Feel better soon.

Love the Lorax, Thank you for your supportive and encouraging note.

LauraA, Thanks again for starting this thread. It’s been very helpful to me. This will be my last post here. Tomorrow I’ll start posting in the December thread. I think you are right that the MWL exercise challenge thread will provide more friendly interaction then the Who’s moving thread which feels more impersonal. But I’m kind of drawn to the impersonal feeling with regards to exercise. Perhaps because I’m so self-conscious about exercising. I think for December I’m going to do Who’s Moving in Roberta’s Corner and then after that we’ll see.

So, I’m doing well today. On plan and planning to stay that way. I’ve worked up two different menus for this coming week. One is interesting and creative and labor intensive. The other is dull and repetitive and a lot less work. It’s time to do a grocery list so I have to choose…..and I think we’re going with dull and repetitive this week.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this thread during the month of November and I hope to see you all over in the December MWL challenge/support thread. Best wishes to all.
Letha

[LauraA]

Hi Everyone - I just want to say thank you to all of you for joining me in the MWL Challenge for the month of November. I'm a real people person, and I have really enjoyed the "connectivity" - thanks Wordweaver, on our new Dec Challenge for the great word! I feel so motivated when I see posts of your successes, and I hope that you feel the same to see mine.
In Dec I'm going to stick with the Thursday weigh in day, and I'll count my weight today as the starting weight, and my weight on the last Thursday as my final weight. I didn't weigh often in Nov because I was away from home. I am down two more pounds, so my total Nov loss is now 10 pounds! I'm very happy about this loss - I'm hoping for 2 pounds per week, and since November was a new beginning for me, I guess that is why I lost a little more. From now on, thanks to Letha, I'm hoping not get off plan and need a new beginning. I'm on plan and planning to stay that way!! I hope to see all of you in our new Dec Challenge. Take care, LauraA

[Baidarka]

You have the honor of being the first email I've been able to write in days. We just got our Internet hooked up this afternoon. The Internet is such a given these days...but there are still places out in the country--like here!--where it is not taken for granted. We're in rural NC now, but we lived in Alaska when the only way we could get Internet was to pay AOL $6 an hour to check our email and surf.... So things are better, but this ain't Manhattan!

Yes, the fibro thing....it is multidimensional. I tend toward chronic depression myself, and with this way of eating, I was feeling great that I'd given up the Prozac for some months...yet, as always happens, when the weather turns cold, the pain worsens and my mood tends to plummet. Damn, damn, damn.... I am a psychologist, and I can think of so many people, over the years, who seem to THRIVE on depression...you know? But I'm not one of them, and I'm sure you're not either. It is so miserable...to feel miserable! I think the best thing to do is just be frank and open about it (hopefully sans whining!). I grew up in the kind of family where "quit yer bellyachin'" was the standard response to any complaint (all the while my parents whined and btiched about everything)....so it isn't easy for me to say "I'm in pain." And we want to be the super-people we've been at other points in our lives, don't we? But this is just not easy.

So I have no answers for any of this, but....let's don't give up. Letha, I'm entirely willing to hear about your five minutes of exercise if you're willing to hear about mine, and maybe soon it will be ten minutes! Hey, it could happen...

And let me just say one thing: my diet has been AWFUL for about two weeks now, and it has shown me beyond a shadow of a doubt that this way of eating REALLY makes a difference, because I've seen the return of so many symptoms that had become memories to me.... And the hell with that. It's December 1st, and our kitchen is still a mess, but I made a bit pot of bean soup today (cutting the veggies with a paring knife, the only kind I could find!), and it's back to the straight and narrow. It's worth it, and we need to remind ourselves that we didn't get this sick in six months, and we're not going to get well in six months, either. But we can share friendship and support and delicious food meantime, and do the best we can. Sometimes it's good to push a little harder, and sometimes it's good to cuddle up in an old quilt on the couch with a cup of herbal tea and an old movie....only we can decide, and it's absolutely okay to take care of ourselves.....

I'm BAAAAAACK.......!! Must go put away a few things.....just a few, though. I'm tired.

Baidarka

Bairdaka - excuse me if I spelled your name wrong. I wanted to get this out and didn't want to keep going back and forth. I am also in the throws of a horrible fibromyalgia attack. I have been feeling so much better on this program, that I decided I didn't need to take my zoloft, which has helped me over the past 10 years or so. As a result, I woke up yesterday and could barely stand. We had slept over my daughter's thanksgiving and I had a wonderful time with my grandaughter (don't get me started - she is the love of my life). We were meeting friends for dinner in manhattan so we got down there early afternoon. It was cold and raw and by the time we went to dinner, I was in tears. I went back on the medication and at least I actually followed the program even over the holidays.

Believe me I feel for you. I am sure that if the move didn't cause this flare up, it probably doesn't make it any easier.

Hope everyone had a good holiday.
Marion

[wendysmiling]

What exactly is MWL? I know what it stands for, but how do you DO it? Usually there's a small intro in the first post of a thread like this to explain a bit. I'm a newb, sorry. I skimmed through some of the posts in this thread, but didn't find an answer.
Thanks!!

[VeggieSue]

What exactly is MWL? I know what it stands for, but how do you DO it?

You can get a short comparison of the 2 basic McDougall plans on this web site:

http://www.fatfree.com/diets/mcdougall.html

but for all the details, get hold of Dr. McDougall's book that he wrote, The McDougall Plan for Maximum Weight Loss:

http://www.drmcdougall.com/store_mwl.html