The Behavioral Path to MWL Success - January 2022 Group

[BambiS]

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Yes
I always have a soup prepared that I’ve made in my instant pot.

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. Fair
I was on vacation at home this week. I had a couple days that I didn’t get as much green/yellow vegetables, but did have soup and starch.

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. Yes

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). Yes

6. Eliminate any added oil. Yes
My husband wanted Mexican on our anniversary. I asked for my vegetables fajita to be prepared without oil, asked if they had beans with no oil, got black beans. Didn’t eat the tortilla, chips, guacamole, sour cream.

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. Yes

8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). Yes
I drink water daily

9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. Yes
I had a blood test and was fasting, I knew I wouldn’t be going home right away afterwards. I brought my oats, zucchini, and fruit in a hot food thermos with me.

10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). Yes
I had a few days I didn’t exercise with intent like usually on my Cubii, but did intense house cleaning, a lot of lifting and sweating.


Victories, comments, concerns, questions

-2, -20 total since 11-7
I am thrilled that I am now off all prescription medications. My doctor took me off my statin this week. He took me off blood pressure medication a couple months ago.

Having issues picking emoji’s, sorry, just said the response

[squealcat]

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. I still have had trouble doing this preload at dinner time but right now I have some vegetable soup cooking in my instantpot. Try, try again
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. Not sure I do as well as you Mark but I do pretty well with this one.
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. I reduce salt and do not add sugar
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). a couple of small pieces of cheese this week.
I think I can leave it out this next week.
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). peanut butter a couple of times. I need to really work on # 7 this week so if there is no bread or crackers in my mouth, there won't be any peanut butter !
6. Eliminate any added oil. oil in that peanut butter and also used margarine once
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. This is my toughest challenge. I think three evenings I got into bread and/or crackers. This will be the point I will work on this week. Bread is a tough one for me but I know if I start, I have trouble stopping. I will leave the kitchen and dining room after eating and have a cup of tea to mark the end of the meal. I tend to cram after dinner but if I can stop that cram circuit for 3 or 4 days it will get easier.
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. I am getting better at determining hunger and fullness.
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). I usually have no trouble getting my walks in but mother nature stepped in this week and I was house-bound for two days. I probably walked 4 of the 7 days this week and usually 3 miles each time. I also am including some stretch exercises in my day as well. I am reading the book "Aging Backwards" right now. So interesting !

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:Despite all the on this list, I really only had trouble on two or three days and usually late afternoon (not the entire day). I have made sure I have plenty of starches all cooked (rice and beans, bean soup, steamed potatoes, etc ) and I have a huge bag of those Normandy vegetables that are so versitile for soup and just steamed on their own. I have a large salad every day and just use vinegar for the dressing. Sometimes I make my own hummus too. Not weighing or not reporting my weight is going to make a huge change in my mindset as I really don't want to think about my weight every single day. My goal now is to just follow those guidelines and to make that path an easy one.

-squealcat (Marilyn)

[Mark Cooper]

frowsyowl - Welcome back, Jennifer!

Rebecka22 - A real improvement from last week! I'm a great lover of salads myself; you are correct that the recommendation for a preload is independent from the 50/50 plate. Great work getting fully back on track. I'm sure that wasn't an easy achievement.

Having less around helped!

It nearly always does! Happy to hear you and your kids were all negative for Covid-19; I can imagine how stressful and unpleasant (3 hours in the rain ) an experience that was. Onward!

Aspen8 - Sometimes getting started is the hardest step to take, and you've done that, so good for you! Sufficient time invested in food prep should absolutely make adherence more easy to attain; additionally, you can save yourself some of that time by aiming to keep things as simple as you can, especially starting out. Jeff's SNAP meals and Fast Food recipes are great for that. If you take a look at the SNAP template, it can also give you a pretty good sense of how the 50/50 "plate" might look mixed in a bowl (since all SNAP meals would generally satisfy that recommendation). In regard to omega-3s,

It is a situation like omega 3's. While flax and walnuts may be a rich source of omega 3's, and some will recommended a certain amount, they are not really required at all as all plants have omega 3's and you are getting in plenty even if you dont consume any flax of walnuts.

Same with nitrates, sure, green leafy veggies may have the most on average, but all plant foods have some (including starchy vegetables, roots, tubers).

And speaking more generally,

Nutrients and the RDA/DRI
The RDA/DRI’s do not always apply to those following a healthy starch based diet. However by following the guidelines, especially starting meals with a soup or salad and the 50/50 guideline, ones diet with be very nutrient dense. In regard to weight, we do not recommend tracking your nutrients. Follow the plan, and the nutrients will be there.

A great way to plan for an adherent week would be to get specific about how you can address any of the recommendations that are proving to be a challenge; if a given plan or tactic doesn't work, you can adjust and try again. I would very much encourage you to consider the 10 points from the MWL checklist in a more binary way: did I or did I not adhere to this recommendation (at this meal / today / this week)? That specificity is helpful for knowing how to best focus one's efforts.

BambiS - Wow! That looks like a really great week to me! You were successful finding something adherent to eat at a restaurant, made sure to be well-prepared for an occasion away from home when you knew you would likely be quite hungry, and didn't succumb to any troublesome temptations! Congratulations on being free from medication. Simply writing the response (YES / NO) is ALWAYS fine, so no need to apologize.

squealcat - You are off and running, Marilyn!

if there is no bread or crackers in my mouth, there won't be any peanut butter

I think this is very well-observed, and makes a helpful point about the way particular non adherent foods and practices can contribute to additional "exceptions." Eliminate one and the other may fall away, too.

I tend to cram after dinner but if I can stop that cram circuit for 3 or 4 days it will get easier.

I think you are correct, break that cycle of behavior consistently, for a sufficient period of time, and it will hold much less sway over your decisions.

I have made sure I have plenty of starches all cooked (rice and beans, bean soup, steamed potatoes, etc ) and I have a huge bag of those Normandy vegetables that are so versitile for soup and just steamed on their own.

Excellent. That seems key.

My goal now is to just follow those guidelines and to make that path an easy one.

Great goal, and that latter part is especially important.

[Noella]

Hi Mark, Wildgoose, Jeff and all participants of the Behavioural Path to MWL Success,
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. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).


Victories:
I had a great week and I was successful on all points. I feel amazing about that! I set up several different exercise areas in my home: One for aerobics, one for balance and one for strength. This is really helping during the cold weather we are having.

Comments: I really enjoy tracking/graphing my weight , BMI, and progress toward my goal using the TickerFactory. Wildgoose has the directions on how to set it up:

Can anyone tell me how to add a weightloss ticker to your weigh in posts? I would like to see my progress, and have noticed people have those attached to their posts. Thanks in advance

NIJA, lots of us use tickerfactory.com, although there are several options out there.

• Go to http://www.tickerfactory.com.
• Select weight loss ticker and put in your preferences for the ruler and the image you want to use as your slider/marker. This can be changed at any time, so don’t stress about getting it exactly right.
• Enter starting date and weight, goal weight. If you want to track BMI along with weight, there’s a place to add your height.
• When you’re satisfied with what you've built, copy the bbCode (not the HTML — that’s important) from the final page of the ticker builder, and come back to this board. Open your User Control Panel, click on Profile, and paste that bbCode in the "Edit signature" area. Click on "Submit," and test to see if it worked by looking at any of your previous posts.
• To Edit the ticker (as your weight changes!), just click on the ticker at the bottom of any of your posts, and you’ll be taken back to the tickerfactory.com page. Make sure to remember your PIN that you set when you created the ticker, or you won’t be able to edit it.

The ticker I just built as a test should show underneath this post. If it disappears at some point, it just means I decided to erase the bbCode from my Signature in my user profile. You have that option, too, at any time.

Hope that helps.

Goose

I use my ticker every Friday morning and enter weight because it is fun to visualize my progress with the 'horse' trotting along and getting ever closer to the 'end of the trail'; it encourages me. I made another ticker to track of my mileage for cross country skiing.


Questions: I'm wondering about water. Occasionally I force myself drink water and I'm successful. Most days, though, I don't even think of drinking any water. Does MWL have anything to say about water or do we simply get enough water with veggies and fruit?

Best Regards,
Noella
Down -1 lb.: current weight is 147 lbs

[jane ellen]

Hi all. I am having such fun working on behavioral changes. This is new for me. I have always been a portion size, calorie eater. I usually eat after dinner. I do get hungry, and in the past have loaded up on fruit, because it “wasn’t fattening”; it was healthy; and I like it. It never really filled me up.This week, when I was truly hungry around 9:30 or 10, I ate a small russet potato. It worked beautifully. I was satiated. It wasn’t fattening. It was healthy. And I love potatoes. I never allowed myself to eat large amounts of starch. (I focused on fruits and veggies.) Well, I watched Jeff’s caloric density talk, again, and as a result, I ate big portions of rice, oatmeal, and potatoes, really focusing on how I felt and how much I needed to feel full. I needed a lot, and I thought surely, I’ll gain weight. Nope. Not only did I not gain weight, I actually lost a little. It was liberating to know I could eat as much as I needed to in order to feel full, and not have to worry about portion sizes. Yes, I am restricting the fruit, something I thought I could never do. But I have found that it’s actually very doable. I’m so satisfied from all the starch that I am just not interested in grabbing a mandarin every time I pass the fruit bowl. The same goes for my favorite cold cereals — Uncle Sam’s, Grapenuts, and Chex. I never thought I could do without them, but I’ve been able to. I just replaced them with a huge bowl of oatmeal with a perfectly ripe banana for sweetness. Lastly, I stopped eating all my food in one big gargantuan salad bowl, with lots of salad on the bottom and my starch on top. I started making a much smaller salad, eating it first, and then eating my main starch with a side-dish, as Dr. M says, of steamed veggies. Doing that makes me feel like I have more control over what I eat, and after all these years of bowl eating, it makes me feel civilized. ‘Til next week…janeellen

[thatsright75]

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. I did really well with this. It's new to me, as I started the MWL program this week. But by the end of my meals, I was full with far less starch than I expected.
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. Also, this is a new way to eat for me, but I did great with potatoes, rice, oatmeal, or pasta. I found myself eating a lot of steamed broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots because they're easy to find in the frozen foods. If I make time to prep more, I might be able to switch up my veggies better.
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 problem at all with the sugars. I was perfect. Salt was a lot tougher. I love my salt. I had some leftover soups in my fridge from last week that I was finishing up, and they definitely had plenty of salt. It's hard to eat gravy on mashed potatoes that has no salt. Garlic salt has always been my favorite spice. Although I did far better with the salt than I thought I could, I still have a long way to go before it's eliminated.
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). 100% compliance
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). I have always eaten a lot of nuts, avocados, and tofu, so I thought this one would be hard, but I was perfect here.
6. Eliminate any added oil. Also 100% compliant here
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. This one helped me to avoid snacking. When these things aren't an option, I don't even feel tempted to snack, so I'm sure I ate a lot fewer calories because I followed this guideline.
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). I have always drank a smoothie for breakfast each morning with 6-8 cups of kale and spinach in it. I was worried about getting my greens. Instead of a smoothie this week, I preloaded with about six cups of steamed kale and spinach. It's not as enjoyable as my smoothie, but I got my greens!
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. I was never hungry and at the end of every meal felt very satisfied.
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). I don't exercise on weekends, so a perfect week for me would be 5/7. I overdid it on Monday and was uncomfortably sore the rest of the week, and I also came down with a terrible cold/flu, so I am content with the 3 days I did, and I plan to do better next week.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions: All in all, it was a pretty solid week trying to figure out how to eat this way. I was far better in putting together compliant meals than I expected to be, and I felt really satisfied all week long. I liked knowing that I was going to have to account for my behavior at the end of the week. It kept me on track. I was hopeful going into my weigh-in this morning, but I didn't want to be disappointed. Came out with a 6 lb loss this week! Can't be too disappointed with that. In the 12 Refinements for MWL, it says to minimize fruit. I probably ate 2-4 pieces of fruit per day, and it really satisfied my craving for sweet things. Am I ok to eat this much fruit?
Feeling successful this week!
-Kali

[moonlight]

1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Once I figured out a breakfast option, I have accomplished this behavior more, approximately 77%.

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.
I'm doing this about 77% of the time.

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.
I'm doing this about 86%.

4) Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
I'm doing this about 81% of the time. Still no cheese!

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
I'm accomplishing this about 90% of the time.

6) Eliminate any added oil.
I'm doing this 81% of the time.

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.
I'm doing this about 77% of the time.

8 ) Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
I accomplished this 100% this week.

9) Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.
I only "stuffed" myself once this week.

10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
I managed 5 out of 7 days this week.

Reflections: I am keeping a daily diary of the principles broken down into 3 meals and a section for snacks. It's helpful in seeing realistically what I've done for the week. I thought I had been much more compliant than what showed up this week! I'll keep the daily recordings. Mark, thanks for suggestion some breakfast option for the preload. I started eating a piece of fruit while my breakfast is cooking. I like this approach of focusing on the behaviors. I lost 2 lbs. this week but that is not the main issue. The main issue is seeing where I need to focus on the behaviors. Snacks are the hardest (but getting better!). Also, when I don't have something planned or ready to eat, I go off the plan.
This week I will focus on eliminating animal products. I have excluded cheese. I had some tuna this week when I couldn't come up with anything to eat. Also, I will focus on higher calorie-dense foods.

Thank you, Mark, Wildgoose, and Jeff for making this possible! With your help I can do this!! Good luck to everyone participating this week!

[josietheschnauzer]

Behavior Path to MWL Success Checklist for Jan. 7
1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Yes, for all days. Actually to “control” my appetite, I have started with home-made broth soup, then followed with salad.
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. Yes, in the past I was concerned that I was not getting enough of the non-starchy vegetables—I was thinking I was cheating, now I just make sure I “see” plenty of greens with my baked potato. The russet or sweet potato was my starch this week.
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. This has become a habit for me and is not difficult—I say that but sometimes instead of sprinkling salt I use a little soy sauce instead. Most of the time I use nothing.
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). No animal products for me! Wish steps 5 and 6 were as ingrained in my behavior.
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). None this week, but sometimes when I am at my favorite Chinese restaurant, my gratis vegetable sushi has mango and avocado. Yes, I am a coward, since it is a gift, I say nothing…..
6. Eliminate any added oil. I had none this week because I didn’t eat out. I also fought my sugar-fat-temptation and had no tortilla chips from the corner grocery.
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. I had none this week—no dates or figs. When I wanted something, I said to myself “apple” , “apple”, “apple”— this worked, I had an apple and didn’t run to the store and buy contraband.
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). No sugar drinks or juice. No alcohol.
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. [color=#0000FF]This is a very hard one for me. I “feel” like I am hungry or full…I am still after all these years, blaming my former smoking addiction for causing me to want something in my mouth at all times.[/color]
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). Although I injured my leg slightly in August, I am still walking instead of running. I walk every day with a friend. I hope to start running again when it warms up? Who knows, for the present, I am walking.

Are we supposed to mention weight at the end? I did weigh myself—first time in a while, and I have gained weight since last June. Many excuses but all relate to pressure from family and stress from caregiving. These will not change, so I must arm myself better for the battle. The good news is that I have maintained a huge weight loss since I learned about Dr. McDougall in 2012. Thank you—my doctor gives me kudos, but IT IS THE FOOD!

[LLP]

I have reviewed the new guidelines and orientation materials. I’m excited to change behavior not just drop pounds!

[LLP]

Here’s my last week:

1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
I hardly ever remember to do this, so I really need to focus here.

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.
I'm doing this about 2/3 of the time.

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.
I’m down to a little sugar on fruit at night. Time to cut that out.

4) Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
I am down to meat about 2 times per week. Dairy is completely eliminated.

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
I have some more “cheese” sauce made with cashews in the fridge. Next time I will make it without.

6) Eliminate any added oil.
As long as I’m not eating out, added oil is gone.

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.
Im still eating oil free bread that I make. I will get rid of that this week.

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

9) Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.
Did well with this this week

10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
Worked out 6 days last week.

I’ve lost 5 pounds in two weeks doing the above. More importantly, I’m feeling better.

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all are having an excellent week!! It is truly winter up here in Chicagoland with some snow this week and wind chills below zero a couple of days. Welcome to January... bundle up, it's going to be a cold ride!!!

I am not 100% sure how best to fill out assessment #2 (i.e., leave comments that still apply or start from scratch). In the spirit of not being super repetitive, have edited and removed comments where they would be the same. (Mark, please let me know if this is not what is expected... )

1 Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
I did preload 19/21 meals.
* I have made Jeff's Longevity Soup (on this website) in the crockpot with a mixture of frozen & fresh veggies and no starch (used Pomi strained tomatoes, riced cauliflower, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, hot sauce, chives). This turned out great and I will continue to use this template for another preload option (and a great opportunity to use frozen veggies and keep it simple!). Thank you to Jeff for the great recipe and to Gimmelean for mentioning last week that she uses this without the starch for preload!!
* I have found that baby spinach is another great to include component for "finger food" salad (and ate a big container of it this week)!
* I am keen to try the eating bell pepper like an apple that Noella described!! Liking that idea!!!
*I do target 100% here. The times I missed, I just ate Split Pea Soup for dinner - should have included a preload and 50/50.

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.
19/21 were 50/50 (see soup comment above).
* Key for me is planning, shopping, preparation to make starch, veggies, fruit easy to grab and incorporate into any meal.
* Finished week 2 of eating oatmeal for breakfast (after 6 month streak of potato waffle). This makes a great and filling winter breakfast - loving it. Non-recipe = 1/2 c. rolled oats, sliced ripe banana, 1 1/2 c. water. Zap in microwave 2:30 and mix. Dump in some frozen berries to get to 50/50. Zap in microwave another 2:30 and mix again. Huge bowl!!!!
* Used mainly frozen fruit (instead of fresh) this week.
* Roasted many potatoes and made chubby chips.
* I made a few pots of soup / chili / beans this week - Split Pea Soup (both green and yellow; this is my favorite soup - cannot get tired of it), Sloppy Lentils Too (from this web-site), Mexi soup (from this web-site), Red lentil chili.


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.
Yes.

4 Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
YES, of course.

5 Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
Not 100% successful this week for #5 and #7 (but a bit better than last week).
* I have DECIDED to STOP snacking on husband's nuts and pretzels. These are not foods for me. I am sick of struggling and am just going to STOP eating these items.
* I will NOT EAT THESE for the month of January. This is an experiment.... (and these are non-compliant foods....)
* I am confident that if I can get a good clean clip of time in, that I can overcome this (like I have done with peanut butter - which I have had around for almost a month with my son home for the holidays and haven't touched once or given a second thought to except to make this comparison).

** Consecutive Days Compliant - 1 **

* I have listened to Doug Lisle's Cram Circuit lecture and watched Jeff's Calorie Density clip (the short version from the thread that Moonlight referenced last week - which has eat this or that including some similar items). Doug Lisle mentions impact of 10, 20, 30, 40 lbs. of cramming... (And I know from Calorie Density that these foods are quite contra-productive to my intent here... which is NOT to pack on lbs....)
* Last week's comments from Wildgoose (to a fellow participant) rang true for me. Thank you, for the lecture link and helpful insights. I only do this non-compliant snacking at night, after dinner -- and seem to have created a bad habit!!!
* Also, last week's comment from several participants made me think a bit more critically about my intent. Thank you to: Elsa (with the faces and legs!), Noella (not food for me), Chesca (decision to adhere). Maybe this is a communication nuance, but I found that how I articulated my own intent was a bit more wishy-washy .... so have changed that thought.

* If non-compliant foods call, continue to eat the recommended foods (in the recommended fashion). THEN do something else after eating compliant foods (i.e., journal, exercise, read)!!! Close the kitchen after dinner! Hide the non-compliant foods.

SAVING in CASE NEEDED below additional actions:
1) Evaluate results and adjust approach, if this isn't working.
2) Consider further reducing sodium (could this be unleashing this craving?).
3) If above doesn't work, seek coaching assistance.

6 Eliminate any added oil.
Yes!
* I did not eat out this week).

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.
Not 100% successful this week for #5 and #7 (but better than last week).
See #5 above. Comments are same.

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

9 Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.
I try to be mindful of this guideline. I think that I am successful -- except this has to fit in somewhere with my #5 and 7 stuggles... Cramming seems like I am not really hungry, but having a little something (not broccoli, not grapes)... Hmmm.


10 Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
Yes - 6/7 days. 1 day was a rest day.
* This was the week where the weather shifted (BRR!!!) and I had to execute partial indoor exercise plan.
* Walked outside 3 days (yay!!) and exercised inside the other 3 days.
* In the spirit of the best exercise is the exercise that you will do, I have implemented "Pacing with a Purpose". This is walking around the house. Sounds pretty weird and isn't quite as fast as brisk walking (so as not to bump into furniture or walls). I have been able to incorporate this though, which has resulted in more daily steps than I would have thought possible. I am targeting average 8K steps for the week. (I logged over 10K steps one day this week indoor alone....)
* Have also done short stints on stationery bike and been walking up and down basement stairs.
* Joined a remote Zumba class (only the instructor is on screen) and have done a Leslie Sansone walk.
* Will watch the weather closely for opportunities to take it outside on a day by day basis. Otherwise, no way will I be sedentary.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

* I am relieved to have found some do-able indoor exercise!!! It was planned, but sometimes that can be easier said than done (and indoor exercise is not my preferred type!).
* Excited to have found a starter soup for the cold!!
* I thought last week's thread was excellent - appreciated everyone's experiences and took away from the collaborative sharing.
* Thank you, Mark --- your support is priceless!!!! Really appreciate all that you do to keep us on the right path to wellness!

Question:
I am wondering if it is possible to have a separate thread for Time & Adherence participants more informal interaction? Or, how best to communicate with others without clogging up this thread? Not sure if anyone else would have an interest here. I know we have option for journals and PM's, but not thinking these are widely used.

Hope that everyone has a great week !!! So appreciate reading everyone's comments and Mark's feedback!!

Onward to positive changes....

Cheers,
Stephanie

[Gimmelean]

Post for week ending 1/07/2022

1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.  

Yes. If I haven’t batch cooked a soup or if I am not home it is not difficult to grab an apple or firm pear to take along for hunger or pre-loading. While more veggies are considered better for MWL, this helps me stay on track. Plus it helps avoid temptation.

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.

Yes. We bought beautiful persimmons this week and haven’t had them since summer. I used to think nothing of spending $20.00 on a cake but berries were too expensive. Not any more!

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.

I need to do better in eliminating sugary treats but I have greatly reduced how much and when I eat them. As much as I know about setting up my personal environment for success, I cannot control others in my household. I can ask for their support. But I can only depend on me and my decisions about what I eat. It does help to keep food that is not mine on a higher shelf or out of sight.


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

Pizza and cream cheese are terrible temptations but this week I did not have any at all.

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).

Yes.

6) Eliminate any added oil.

Yes

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.

I’ve greatly reduced bread. I need to work on eliminating it. I sliced baby cooked potatoes for compliant dips such as homemade oil-free hummus with various flavors. It’s very good and replaces the habit of dipping with bread.

8 ) Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). Never has been a problem.

I’ve been doing this for years and trying to drink more water every day.

9) Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full.   Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.

Yes. For now.

10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).

Daily exercise and movement is mission critical for me to maintain a sense of well-being. I try to walk every day for at least 30 minutes if it’s not raining or snowing sideways. Also do two virtual strength sessions per week. Love the app Insight timer for yoga, qigong, and meditation. Lots of options and no exerscuses for me anymore.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

Last year, I deleted all groups related to food and diet on social media and have focused my attention here. So glad I did that for so many reasons.
It is a good feeling coming into the new year without extra pounds to get rid of or habits to begin working on because I refused to “ let go” and have continued with MWL and your (collective) support this season.
Thank you Mark, Wildgoose, Jeff, and every single member of this group.

[CUgorji22]

Hope everyone's new year is off to an awesome start!

*Guidelines:
1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Compliant 7/7 days
- Victory: IT WORKED!!! I decided I wanted to bring my starters with me on our trip to Chicago, from this week's batch of Mary McDougall's zucchini soup. (Yes, I made it again! Lol!) I looked up "how to travel with soup" to ensure I could get it through airport security. I portioned about the bowls I need for the trip & froze them. Airport security went through my food bag/cooler. And my frozen soup passed through!!!! YAY! This is a game changer for travel. 

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. Compliant 7/7 days
- Victory: I made a batch of kale+spinach & stuffed it in a big bowl, for our trip. Fit nicely in my food bag/cooler. It was also checked by airport security & passed through! This is also a game changer. Since we got here I've been able to build my plates easily because half my plate is ready to go! Only reheating necessary. Great time saver!!

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. Compliant 6/7 days
- Non-compliance/reason: I ate vegan Truwhip with baked peaches for dessert Wednesday night. Baking fruit is my new go-to for desserts, which is so nice during winter. I went back-and-forth about adding Truwhip to my peaches...or not. Then decided to add a small dollop. I think perhaps I got caught up in the experience of two things I think go well together. 
- Decision to Adhere: I need to be more aware that when I take something out of the fridge/freezer for my family, I have to make a choice for myself. I can ask my husband to hold me accountable to the choice I make. 

4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). Compliant 7/7 days

5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). Compliant 7/7 days

6. Eliminate any added oil. Compliant 7/7 days 

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. Compliant 7/7 days

8. Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). Compliant 7/7 days
- Victory: It's pretty customary for my husband to buy my fav Starbucks drink (soy cahi latte with an extra pump of chai syrup) before we board our plane. He was so excited; there was a Starbucks super close to our gate. He told me he was going to get me a drink. I said, "No thank you!" I CAN'T BELIEVE I TURNED DOWN STARBUCKS!! I usually focus on not going to a drive-thru but to have Starbucks offered to me and then decline it is huge for me!! 

9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don’t starve yourself and don’t stuff yourself. Compliant 7/7 days

10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). Compliant 5/7 days 
- Non-compliance/reason: I did not workout 2 days this week. One day, I had a headache most of the day and went to bed early. The other time I didn't workout was the day after our arrival to Chicago + the 1st day of iur Conference. I could not fit exercising in to my schedule that day. 
- Decision to Adhere: With a week of travel, I'm not quite sure what I could have done differently. Open to ideas...

*SUMMARY*
Overall, I had a great week with victories I'm proud of...even though the scale shows I gained weight. (Which I think may be due to the change in my body this time of month.) I can confidently say I was intentional this week about traveling and how to make it work. I started with the conviction, "I will be compliant during my trip!" And then I thought through ideas of how to make it work for every meal, every day of my trip. My husband wasn't thrilled about me taking a cooler on the plane but he knew I really wanted to do my best to be compliant, while here. I feel empowered to continue thinking differently! And an added bonus...I've seen many friends at our conference I've known over the years. I have received many compliments on my weight loss. YAY!!

My family is ordering Chicago-style pizza tonight. I have already made the decision to eat the food I cooked/brought for dinner. I feel really good about my decision!

*Weight Change: +0.8lbs *gain*

Have a wonderful weekend, Mark! Take care.

-Chesca

[Mark Cooper]

The window for reporting this week's behavioral results has officially closed.

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

[Mark Cooper]

Noella - Successful on all points; that is what I like to see! You should feel amazing! I think the exercise stations you mentioned are a really great idea. This thread should answer all your questions regarding drinking water.

Drink when you're thirsty. Stop drinking when your thirst is quenched. Obey that one rule and there is no risk of dehydration.

Here is another way to look at it.

Most Americans eat foods that are very dry and concentrated in calories (refined carbs, sugars, flours, grains and highly processed and refined foods). They have a very low moisture content, averaging somewhere around 30-40%, with many refined processed foods as low as 3%.

On the other hand, fresh fruits and vegetables, starchy vegetables, intact whole grains, and legumes are around 70-90% moisture (water content).

jane ellen - Hi! Glad you are having fun making these changes to your behavior! If you would like to participate in the weekly check-ins, be sure to post a self-assessment report, as explained here.

thatsright75 - You are off to a great start! It appears the recommended behaviors are working for you just as we would expect, Kali. This post and this thread should give you a sense of how to approach your fruit consumption. Just to clarify, eliminating salt completely is not a requirement, unless you find it particularly troublesome.

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.

moonlight - I'm happy to hear that fruit is proving suitable for starting your breakfast meal. I think tracking adherence on a meal-by-meal basis is a great tool for gauging progress; as you observe, sometimes our impressions of how adherent we've been are distorted, and regular assessment against the checklist helps give a realistic picture.

when I don't have something planned or ready to eat, I go off the plan.

This is an important observation, as it points toward a clear solution to that challenge. What strategies are you going to use to help make it easy to eliminate the animal foods and other calorie-rich fare? What are some of your favorite adherent snacks? Keep driving those percentages higher!

josietheschnauzer - I'm delighted to see your report, Elsa! It is a solid return to form, getting back to that pattern of behavior you have practiced over time, right? "Apple," "apple," "apple;" I love that! You aren't required to post your weight, unless you really want to do so.

You will still be welcome to post a change in weight (+/- lbs gained or lost) but it is no longer part of the formal template. If you do choose to post a weight change, please do so at the END of your post, rather than at the beginning. Please also enter it as a whole number without a decimal. If your scale displays weight that includes a decimal place you can follow the general rules for rounding; .1 to.4 is rounded down to the nearest whole number, .5 to .9 is rounded up to the nearest whole number.

This sums up how I tend to gauge "comfortably full,"

Do you feel uncomfortable? Are you stuffed? If you overshoot the mark, take note and do your best to slightly adjust next time, but don't spend energy fretting and beating yourself up over that - if you stuffed yourself on MWL suitable foods, the calorie density was low and it seems unlikely that you will be continuously stuffing yourself at each meal, each day, on an ongoing basis. Don't overvalue the importance of these episodes, or think you need to perfectly manage hunger cues, as compared to the impact from including troublesome foods in your menu or planning not to adhere on a consistent (or occasional) basis. If you are over consuming problematic foods, the problem isn't your appetite, it's the food, and you can direct your efforts accordingly.

My congratulations for sticking with the McDougall plan over a significant period of time!

LLP - Feeling better is definitely a happy and important result, right? What do you have planned for eliminating the remaining animal foods? As you mentioned in regard to bread, getting "rid" of troublesome foods is one of the surest ways to support adherence; would it be possible to completely remove animal foods from your environment? In addition to eliminating the cashews from that sauce,

Another ingredient to use with care, that often features in "cheesy" sauces - nutritional yeast. Jeff covers the topic here - nutritional yeast is ~1700 calories / lb (just as calorie dense as sugar), so if one were to choose to use it, it should be used very sparingly - I would limit consumption to less than 2 Tbsp in a given day.

As with added salt, completely eliminating added sugar isn't a requirement, provided that it isn't particularly troublesome for you (i.e., consuming more than is recommended, triggering other maladaptive eating behaviors).

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.

VegSeekingFit - The way you have filled out your self-assessment is fine, Stephanie; I think you capture the gist of how to proceed with this: "Evaluate results and adjust approach, if this isn't working." Your version of the soup sounds really delicious! I think you are right that getting very clear and specific about our intended behavior is quite helpful; our brains seem to have a sneaky way of exploiting any wiggle room they can find. "Pacing with a Purpose!" I REALLY like that! I think you will probably appreciate this thread. Solid progress overall. Keep honing your approach to those remaining challenges, and you WILL get there in the end.

Question:
I am wondering if it is possible to have a separate thread for Time & Adherence participants more informal interaction? Or, how best to communicate with others without clogging up this thread? Not sure if anyone else would have an interest here. I know we have option for journals and PM's, but not thinking these are widely used.

I can certainly post a separate thread for informal interactions and commiseration, maybe something like January 2022 Informal or Off Topic?

Gimmelean - Good week of progress!

As much as I know about setting up my personal environment for success, I cannot control others in my household. I can ask for their support. But I can only depend on me and my decisions about what I eat. It does help to keep food that is not mine on a higher shelf or out of sight.

I think this is a meaningful and important observation. We only have control over our own decisions and actions, right? Finding the best way to help ourselves, and make adherence easier to achieve will be largely context-dependent, and what that looks like won't be the same for everyone. Finding a strategy that works in a given situation is what is important. Using sliced, cooked potatoes for dipping - great work finding an adherent option.

Last year, I deleted all groups related to food and diet on social media and have focused my attention here. So glad I did that for so many reasons.

I am right there with you on this! Jeff has discussed "The Trouble with Social Media," too. Carry on!

CUgorji22 - Excellent progress! Your feeling of pride seems well-earned to me, Chesca!

I can confidently say I was intentional this week about traveling and how to make it work. I started with the conviction, "I will be compliant during my trip!" And then I thought through ideas of how to make it work for every meal, every day of my trip. My husband wasn't thrilled about me taking a cooler on the plane but he knew I really wanted to do my best to be compliant, while here. I feel empowered to continue thinking differently!

I'm so impressed with your efforts to find ways to succeed while away from home; you are proving that adherence while traveling is quite possible with thoughtful attention and prep. One idea for fitting physical activity into a packed schedule might be to break it up into small segments of time (5-10 minutes, maybe) and just try to slot it in wherever you can. Generally, though, I'd say missing a single day under rare circumstances is less of a problem if we can get right back on schedule the next day. Maintaining the HABIT, rather than letting it slide is what is paramount.