January 2020 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Thread

[Pradeepa]

Hi there,
OK - I'm the first one to report in because I live in Australia.
Jan 3 - 157
Jan 10 - 157lb
Jan 7 - 158lb +1
Not exactly proud that I have put on a lb despite my efforts, but I am very inspired to increase my commitment & find what's not working. Too much starch at dinner& it's not exactly McDougall friendly because I make it work & bring home leftovers for dinner. I will keep on it. I want to know the thrill of reporting in a loss! I'm just happy to report my results in on time to be counted! Better luck this week!

[Mark Cooper]

Pradeepa - I love your can do attitude! As you are narrowing in on what isn't working for you, it is worthwhile to review each of the 10 points from the MWL checklist - that will usually illuminate areas that need attention and closer adherence. Take care!

[Michele613]

down - 1.8 #s (@167.2)

Hope everyone finds joy in their progress this week and ongoing.

Mark - question: I see that 'pasta' is on the plan...can I also eat 'all I want' as with potatoes until satiety? I'd like to get off of the potatoes for awhile and for a change up I would enjoy the pasta (ahhh maybe too much but if 'on plan'....can I?).

All the best in health

[Mark Cooper]

Michele613 - Kudos! In regard to whole-grain pasta:

Pasta is one of the exceptions to the “avoid flour products” guidelines and that is why it is not listed and the guideline says “higher calorie density foods”. Unlike other flour products, that are fairly dry and calorie dense, when pasta is cooked, it absorbs quite a bit of water into its structure, lowering the calorie density to about the same as Brown rice. The only potential issue with it is that flour products have been ground up so some people may find that pasta is not as satiating as another intact whole grain of the same calorie density. If you find this to be true, just make sure you always make it primavera style (with vegetables) and using the 50/50 is a good guideline. Ironically, in the actual satiety study, it was one of the higher foods for satiety along with the potato and oatmeal.

So enjoy whole-grain pasta, if you like, keeping in mind the above considerations, within the constraints of the MWL 10-Point Checklist.

[wildgoose]

I see that 'pasta' is on the plan...can I also eat 'all I want' as with potatoes until satiety? I'd like to get off of the potatoes for awhile and for a change up I would enjoy the pasta (ahhh maybe too much but if 'on plan'....can I)

@Michele613 Mark gave you some good information on pasta from Jeff Novick. Pasta, because it absorbs a lot of water, is less calorically dense than other flour products.

But I see in your post a little bit of my reaction to pasta on MWL. I LOVED the idea of pasta being "legal." Oh boy, something I can eat "all I want of" that I really like. Yes, I enjoyed it too much. Big red flag for my weight loss.

So I had to learn how I could eat it that would be best for me. I figured out the amount that would fill me up, and I only cook that amount. No leftovers. (Because any size pot of pasta automatically becomes a single serving container for me). I make sure that whenever I eat pasta, I have a LOT of vegetables with it. That lowers the overall calorie density of the meal and gets me full faster. It also keeps me from eating nothing but a bowl of pasta for dinner.

You get to do your own experiment. Pasta may be perfectly fine. Or you may have to fine-tune your pasta eating. Try it and see what happens.

Good luck.

Goose

[Mark Cooper]

A reminder / request for tomorrow's weigh-in - if participants would be willing to post weigh-in reports in the format below, I think it will help to provide useful information, allow us to better learn from one another's experiences, and foster group interaction. Feel free to copy and paste the template, if you like.

Weight change +/- in lbs
Points from the MWL Checklist where I succeeded this week
Points from the MWL Checklist that need greater attention
General impressions & observations / resources to share / sources of excitement / requests for input & support

As in weeks past, I'll refrain from responding to posts individually during the weigh-in, other than to address specific issues / questions. I'll reach out to everyone reporting in a cumulative post on Friday evening. I look forward to seeing everyone's posts tomorrow!

[Abe]

Weight Change: -2 lbs.

MWL Points Successful:

1. Start meals with soup or salad.
2. Follow 50/50 plate volume.
3. Eliminate sugar and salt.
4. Eliminate animal based foods.
5. Eliminate higher fat plant foods.
6. Eliminate oil.
7. Eliminate higher calorie dense foods.
8. Do not drink your calories.
   
   MWL Points that Need Attention
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don’t starve yourself and don’t stuff yourself.
   I am still working on understanding when I am comfortably full. Apparently I enjoy feeling stuffed. In addition, when I have a busy work day ahead where I know that I will not have the opportunity to snack later, I panic and eat extra so that I will not get hungry when I cannot eat.
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
    I have started exercising, which I hate. I rode my Peloton bike 3 times for at least 30 minutes, however on the alternating days I only did 10 minutes of calisthenics. My walking is about 10 minutes to my mailbox which is all up hill on the way back. I am out of shape, so all of this seems like a lot right now. It is winter in Vermont, and not that nice for walking, even with ice cleats on "brisk" is not an option.

Comments

1. Enjoying the food and do not feel deprived at all.
2. For fun I tried an interesting new starch this week called a Name (how to put the ~ on top of the N?) Yam. This is a true yam from Costa Rica, rather than a sweet potato. I peeled it, sliced it, and baked it, and enjoyed eating it. I would try it again for variety, but it is not going to replace Russets and Japanese sweet potatoes for me.

[Wild4Stars]

Down 1 pound for the week
Down 2 pounds total

Start 1/3/2020 = 120.4
1/10/2020 = 119.4
1/17/2020 = 118.4

I am doing fine on the checklist. No off-plan foods. My issue this week has been portion control. I can sail right past 'comfortably full' straight to 'stuffed' without a bat of an eye when the food is especially yummy. And I find myself eating when I'm not hungry at all just because the husband unit is eating. Realizing I do that a lot.
So my plan going forward is to keep it simple and get back to grazing. Never let myself get overly hungry where overeating is a temptation. And work on portion control. Mini-meals works better for me and I know that. But I can't eat my mini-meals, and still eat regular meals when hubby eats. That is self-sabotage at its finest!

I did falter one day on my steps, but still averaging over 11,000 per day so remain on track for my million steps by March 31.

JAN 7 TU ~ 14,174
JAN O8 WE ~ 15,904
JAN O9 TH ~ 14,183
JAN 10 FR ~ 13,126
JAN 11 SA ~ 13,348
JAN 12 SU ~ 13,569
JAN 13 MO ~ 15,332
JAN 14 TU ~ 13,830
JAN 15 WE ~ 5,741
JAN 16 TH ~ 15,880

Total Steps = 223,158
Daily Average = 13,947
87.3 Miles

[MonicaHolly]

Weight loss -.4
1/1 166.6
1/10 158
1/17 157.6
Have to keep focused on the 9 pounds lost since the beginning of the year. Had a compliant week. Was a pound lower yesterday, so I know It will keep trending down. I do the elliptical 3 mornings a week, so need to get busy more on the alternate days. I set my Fitbit for 5000 target and only hit it twice this past week. (A fact I was not aware of until I just looked to report it here). So this week I will concentrate on hitting that target every day.

I hope everyone has a good week ahead.

Monica

[BlackBeanSoup]

Weight change -2.2 lbs

Points from the MWL Checklist where I succeeded this week - definitely all the food ones

Points from the MWL Checklist that need greater attention - exercise, my life is not set up for exercise right now

I'm going to have a huge challenge tomorrow - I am having a party at my house with all people who eat the SAD. I will premake my compliant food tonight to resist temptation. In the past I have allowed myself to go "off-plan" on special events like this but then I usually spiral out of control for day/weeks.

[RosieLB]

Weighing in from Charlotte, NC:

Jan 3 - 155.8
Jan 10 - 153.0
Jan 17 - 153.4

Not sure why I'm up .4 this week, but I'm going to follow advice posted above and focus on behavior and not weight. I've been having homemade broth every day before my main meal of the day. Going to try and have it before every meal. Happy Friday!

[Jocewally]

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Most meals start out with soup or salad except breakfast.

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 is going well. A couple meals this week were more starch heavy because I was excited to be eating starches again. Breakfast tends to be a single baked sweet potato, need to add the veg/fruit to that.

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 sugar. Limiting salt.

4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
Perfect

5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
Perfect. These have been my downfall in the past.

6. Eliminate any added oil.
Perfect, except Sunday dinner when we ate at Father In Laws and i think the spaghetti sauce had 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.
Perfect, except for a handful of air popped popcorn (which doesn't make me upset)

8. Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
Perfect

9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don’t starve yourself and don’t stuff yourself.
This week i had a better gauge on not filling myself too much (still getting used to the new preload 50/50 system, but definitely ate when I was not hungry.

10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
Doing great here. Realized I could bike when watching an hr of tv so got 1 hr exercise in daily. We are farmers and life is more sedentary in the winter than normal.

181 jan 3
176.8 jan 10
175.0 jan 17
Down 1.8 lbs this week
(which is unbelievable because i felt so chunky and bloated this week I was sure my weight would be up)

Goals for next week:
Preload all meals properly
50/50 breakfast consistently
Don't eat when not hungry
Continue resisting the old call of nuts and fats

[lbell]

Down 1 lb this week

I did well on eating this week. I stayed away from banana nice cream after dinner, which I tend to eat overeat.

Exercise is where I struggle as well, but I did get it in three times.

Like others, I am focusing on getting the food right, because winter is generally a time when I get off plan and snack at night.

Leah
Age 63
Height 5’3”
Weight 1/3/2020 118
Current 1/17/2020 115.5

[deweyswakms]

Friday Jan 17, 2020
Happy Birthday to me! Today I'm 73.

I was surprised to see +1 lb on the scales this morning but confess I fell into some salty birthday treats. The body is so interesting how it reacts to non-compliant foods. Must refresh myself on the MWL points and calorie density foods. My food prep and planning has been good, but need to double up on veggies and potatoes. And it has rained for days here in the NW, so I haven't walked outside as much. Will make more effort to get into the gym. An upcoming surgery too is on my mind. Not a real concern, just something to deal with plus will require recovery time so little exercise/lifting possible.

I enjoy reading everybody's progress. You all are inspiring.

12/26/19 weight is 185.2
01/02/20 weight is 184.6
01/10/20 weight is 183.6
01/17/20 weight is 184.6 + 1.0 lb

I reviewed the MWL checklist and see where I fell off the wagon:
'Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts.'
'Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).' Those salty cashews man, are gone now.
'Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes.' Haven't had my usual 1.5 mile walks this past week (rain + needed surgery).

[Stormy]

Result for 1/17/20: -0.5 lb.

I found that whole-grain pasta is way too delicious--seems to be a "trigger" food for me. So I'll eliminate that for myself next week.