July 2020 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group

[Trish]

Good morning, everyone! Hope it's been a good week for you all. I keep in mind, that I am "practicing" a way of life that has new aspects to it, so every effort matters in leaning toward becoming more able to do that!

Down one pound this week

Started each meal with fruit, loving sweet potatoes as my primary starch (taking a page from Mary's Mini's), and most dinners are a large salad with beans, many veggies including corn, all raw. Very satisfying to me. I have not been hungry, it is odd for me to be so without hunger. Adding sweet potato air fries (no oil) to most meals and keeping a container of them in the fridge. Trying to eat less fruit overall and substitute.

I am experimenting with leaving out protein that is soy, tempeh. I am not sure about this long term. Running I notice my energy is less resilient and that has happened before. I do recognize that all we are eating contains protein, I am vegan so am used to the "where to you get your protein" comments and paying no mind to them, still.. I believe from how my body feels when I use it, that I may need more protein. Getting up to a cup of beans a day. Not sure what to do yet... but sticking with tempeh as a forbidden food for this week.

Made some no oil crispy chickpeas that are great in salads too, oven baked, paprika sprinkled, 225 degrees for an hour and then leave them in the turned off oven for several hours, even overnight. Crispy and NOT hard like the commercial ones, much less... NO salt!! Great crunch for salads or snack. Crunch substitutes for croutons.

Discovering frozen fruit for dessert.. grapes and sliced bananas are favorite.

What are others eating for your starch portion of the plate... I need ideas here, please share!

No added salt. One dinner my husband made zucchini noodles with no oil pesto, he used some powdered veggie broth in it that has salt, and boy, I could really taste it and it tasted like it was all salt. My taste buds are changing.

Exercised daily at least with a few miles walking the dog, and at most running 5-6 miles. Have not been going to gym even though they are open again, ordered a modest weight bench for home workouts.. need to get my strength up.

I am ok with the one pound, so long as it is going down and not up. I would of course, like it to be two..

Look forward to reading about others this week, thanks for being here

[soulforged]

July 10: 244 lbs
July 17: 241.8 lbs
Change: -2.2 lbs

Everything was pretty good this week! Really loving having a salad first thing in the morning, and keeping everything simple is working wonders! This week was much better than last in terms of exercise and I went for at least one walk everyday. I am also going to start working out again this week because I'm starting to have more energy and I want to get stronger!

The only item that needs attention is liquid calories: I had a couple bottles of kombucha this week, but overall a huge improvement over how I usually behave. Before I used to drink soy/oat milk and juice almost out of boredom, or just because I saw it in the fridge. I have also noticed that my "cravings" for juice are significantly less if I'm full which is really interesting!

Have a great week everyone!

[MaShellie]

This week weight is -1.8. I think I do better using the SNAP template than free wheeling it. Had a few days where I didnt do 50/50 and I regret that. The days I didnt eat to full I ended up craving and eating sugar 2 times and then self corrected to eating veggies at night. I realize eating at night is not ideal but better than sugar. I also need to improve exercising Every Day and drinking more water. Had my physical this week. My doc moved out of state to get married, so I'm getting used to this new guy. Old doc helped me get b12 <100 back up to 900 with weekly shots. Then moved to monthly where it settled in high 700s. New doc took me off b12 shots and have dropped 100 pts over last 3 months. Asked him to let me take shots again to get back up to 900 where I feel better. He begrudgingly said we could trial 3 months, 1 shot each month. I do get B12 24 mcg per day in multivitamin. Calcium has been bottom normal and brought it and Magnesium up to low normal using supplements (1800 and 60 respectively) in last 12 months. Long story short, I welcome advice on how to keep my nutrition up especially on MWL program. Thank you!

[Renestl]

July 1 - 239.6
July 3 - 236.4 (-3.2 lbs)
July 10 - 235.4 (-1.0 lbs)
July 17 - 233.2 (-2.2 lbs)

Short and sweet:
I was somewhat off plan. It's hard getting back on / staying on track when housemates are eating differently. But it's not impossible and the fact that I crave broccoli and apples even after eating off, is proof of that. Still did good on starting with fruits and veggies, drinking water only and I did bump up my exercise from last week. Happy the weight is still coming off and looking forward to being closer to 100% in the coming week.

[JaydaMax]

7/17 205.2 -3.2 lbs
7/10 208.4
7/3 205.6

I did well this week. No problem with the salad or the 50/50 plate, added oil, high fat veg foods, or exercise. I've still been drinking my calories with my morning decaf with some low cal almond milk. I have trouble snacking in the evening. I try to keep it to fruit but some microwave popcorn has occurred. I'm pleased with the week but I know I need to work harder next week.

[Kathie]

Hi all. I down to 234.6. I think that's down 2 pounds. I'm still figuring out how my digital scale works. And the new MWL for that matter. And how to do the ticker thingy. So here's the checklist:

1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Most of the time.
2) Follow the 50/50 plate method; Choose fruit for desert. Yes, although I estimate and don't actually put it all on a plate because I eat out of bowls, usually.
3) Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. Dislike salts, but need to work on decreasing sugar (on oatmeal and sweet potatoes).
4) Eliminate all animal foods. Yes
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, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit. Yes
8 ) Don’t drink your calories. Drank some juice a couple of days. Got rid of it though.
9) Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. Usually. Could see where I overate after a (routine) cancer checkup. Checkup results were excellent and I've often 'celebrated' by eating out or some kind of dessert. Didn't do that this time, but did eat too much MWL foods. Need to work on that.
10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily. Yes

I did overcome one major craving this week. I had gotten into the habit of eating something chocolate every day. When the craving hit, I resisted (and prayed) and eventually it left - without my even realizing it was gone until later in the day. I had forgotten just how that works. The craving hits hard, I have to consciously and strongly resist it, and then, POOF, it's gone.

I think I'll do more reading about MWL and all in the next week. Y'all have a great week!

[Beeshell]

July 17:
will just post weight right now, have some things going on that prevent me from writing in detail now - husband having heart issues (yes he is a successful WFPB no oil story but has genetic predisposition) - and cats got into some medication and we were back and forth from the vet er and regular vet yesterday...

weight change +/- in lbs: -1.4 pounds.

Points from the MWL Checklist where I succeeded this week

- done pretty well overall. Still struggling with more processed food than is ideal.
- also ate frozen fruit bars for dessert a few times.
- ate some sweets yesterday after the stress of the day. It was that or drinking alcohol, I know this is not good but it was better than drinking wine.
- I did buy fresh organic green leaf lettuc that I hope to use for salad at meals particularly lunch. which is a challenge for me
- still mostly no sweets except for those few times noted. This is a big challenge for me and am glad to find that fruit is a welcome substitute that I enjoy and am able (mostly) to not eat processed sweets.

Points from the MWL Checklist that need greater attention-
- higher carb processed foods (pita chips) and peanut butter which tend to be lunch go-tos (still)
- still trying to explore eating something else for lunch.

General impressions & observations / resources to share / sources of excitement / requests for input & support

[abible]

Last Week: 192.9 pounds
This Week: 192.4 pounds
Wgt Change: -0.5 pounds

Barely keeping up with the program. Many distractions. Hoping for better each week.

Best wishes to all,
tony

[Petunia]

Good afternoon. Petunia here. Hope everyone had a wonderful week. My week was OK. I have a few things I need to work on, but all in all I am loving following MWL program. I say OK only because I really need to practice making better decision when I eat out. I know what I should order, but take me to a restaurant and I feel entitled. Tomorrow we have a graduation party to go to. My first strategy is to eat before I go. This way I will make a small plate and nibble from it. When I am eating at home, I am good as gold. Anyway here are my numbers for this week.

Starting Weight: 273 July 2020
Current Weight: 271.8 July 17th
Weight Loss: 1.2 lbs. I'll take it!!!

[francnm]

Date Weight
7/23/2019 169.0
7/01/2020 127.8
7/03/2020 (1st weigh-in) 126.4 – 1.4bs.
7/10/2020 (2nd weigh-in)123.4 – 3.0 lbs.
7/17/2020 (3rd weigh-in) 122.2 – 1.2 lbs.

10-Point Checklist for MWL (successes and need more attention)
1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. YES
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals. Choose fruit for dessert. YES, but I did eat my beans in two corn tortillas at one meal. On three days, I had a third serving of fruit (berries).
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. YES (no added sugars, but I do use chili paste with salt as a condiment
4. Eliminate all animal foods. YES
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods. YES (I really miss having seeds on my salads!)
6. Eliminate any added oil. YES
7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products, puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit. YES
8. Don't drink your calories. YES
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. YES
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). NO I averaged 40+ minutes a day over the week, but on Thursday I did not walk or rebound; I spent too long on the computer ( I am taking the ECornell plant-based nutrition series) and napping.

[wstokes]

-.4 lbs
BMI about 25.7 ...progress may be slowing down?

[GreenGables]

Weight change: -2 lbs

100% compliant on #4, #6 and #9. I ate 3 corn tortillas (baked w/o oil) during the week, otherwise I was compliant with #7. Discounting what I do to comply with medical advice, I was 100% compliant on #3, #5, and #8.

Working on #2 and have added more veggies to my one-pot dinners each night this week. My blood pressure was even lower this week, so I didn’t make much progress on #1 or #10, too weak to spend much time on my feet. However, I did take a stroll one evening when I felt steady.

Experimented with having basically the same thing mid-day. Thought I might get bored with the monotony, but I didn’t. Mark suggested I be mindful of getting enough starch so I added another potato mid-day. It made a difference in satiety for the rest of the afternoon, plus I found I ate less for dinner. – Thanks, Mark!

[Golightly]

Weight down 1 pound in week #2 for a total of 4 pounds lost.
I did great on the checklist except:
Exercised only 4 days
Ate small amount of nuts twice
This week I want to exercise more and reach for fruit or veggies for snacks.

[hollyhock]

Weight Change: -1 pound
Points: 9/10 Exercise still not 7 days a week

General Impressions: no added fats of any kind is a very strange lifestyle. Im not hating on it, it's just weird. It's been easy because I havent had oil in my house for over 3 years, so it's just the nuts, seeds, avocado and...eating out....boy, I was decadent back in the day.

Thank you for including me.

[Corey M]

End of week 1:

Weight: -6.1lbs
Checklist: I was able to follow 9/10 each day but seemed to not quite reach 10/10. Next week I want to focus more on exercise.
Thoughts: I can't believe it worked this week!! I hope it keeps working.

Corey