September 2020 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group

[Diane Marie]

Hi All
I have been completely off the rails this week. I've gained a whopping 5 pounds. It's been an extremely stressful week - a cousin died in a farming accident, another cousin (who has MS) has been diagnosed with cancer and not expected to make Christmas. A dear friend's little dog has died and there's concerns for Mike's mental wellbeing. I've taken on a rescue dog (a few months ago) and am dealing with a few inherited issues there (have got a dog trainer to assist). So with all that, I've not focused on my diet at all. Eating on the run, grabbing high-fat (vegan) snack foods, late nights, not enough sleep. So I've had a good talking to myself - if I don't look after my own health, I'll also end up with health issues (I'm single so there's no one to look after me as I get older except me).
Here's to a better week, in all respects.

4 September - 69.4 kg (153 lbs)
11 September - 71.7 kg (158 lbs)

[wildgoose]

Hi All
I have been completely off the rails this week. I've gained a whopping 5 pounds. It's been an extremely stressful week - a cousin died in a farming accident, another cousin (who has MS) has been diagnosed with cancer and not expected to make Christmas. A dear friend's little dog has died and there's concerns for Mike's mental wellbeing. I've taken on a rescue dog (a few months ago) and am dealing with a few inherited issues there (have got a dog trainer to assist). So with all that, I've not focused on my diet at all. Eating on the run, grabbing high-fat (vegan) snack foods, late nights, not enough sleep. So I've had a good talking to myself - if I don't look after my own health, I'll also end up with health issues (I'm single so there's no one to look after me as I get older except me).
Here's to a better week, in all respects.

@Diane Marie, I’m so sorry to hear about everything that’s been happening in your life. It’s easy to go off plan under those circumstances.

Try to do the best you can. My best suggestion is to keep things very simple. You might just want to try to hit Dr. Doug Lisle's six "Starch Targets" every day. Starch, starch, starch (meaning starch at every meal), salad, fruit, exercise. It doesn’t have to be a lot of exercise, but a little movement will help with stress and sleep. Starch, salad and fruit will help keep you full and may displace some of the high fat foods. Then, get back to as many of the MWL checklist items as you can, but don’t stress about perfection.

When you get time, bake a bunch of potatoes/sweet potatoes and put them in the fridge. Potatoes can be lifesavers on the run. Grab one, put it in a plastic bag in your purse. Add a fast-food salad and an apple, you’re good! They’re also great with some steamed veggies at home when you don’t want to fix anything complicated.

You have a great attitude about your health, and I hope things are better for you next week.

Goose

[LesleyMills]

10th week weigh in, was 171lbs now 172lbs +1lb
1. start meal with soup/salad/fruit 100%
2. 50/50 plate non-starch veggies vs minimal processed starch. 100%
3. Eliminate added sugar and salt. 100%
4. Eliminate animal foods. 100%
5. Eliminate high fat food. 100%
6. Eliminate added oil. 100%
7. Eliminate higher calorie dense foods inc flour. 100%
8. Don't drink calories. 100%
9. Follow principles: eat when hungry, don't starve/stuff yourself. 100%
10. Avoid sedentary lifestyle, at least 30 mins moderate exercise. 100%
So I as mentioned last week I replaced the batteries in my scales and when I did so my weight immediately went up by a couple of kilos but I'm going to stay with what the scales say regardless of the re-calibration that occurred. I'm seriously over sitting at this weight and wanted a drop but this week it wasn't my time, despite my clothes feeling looser.

The scales were showing big differences when I got off and on again so it was time to change the batteries. Did I really stick to the program? You betcha I did, other than 6 rice cakes on Sunday when I had a craving and forgot I had these in the house (I've thrown them out now!!), I've stuck to it religiously. No salt, no extra potatoes just soup, soup, soup and 50/50 veggies and potatoes/brown rice/sweet potato on my plate, 2 small services of fruit a day. No clue whatsoever as to what's going on other than the scales 'normalising'.

So this coming Sunday we're allowed to have 2 hrs out of the house exercising as they relax our lockdown slightly and I've decided to start running again with my extra hour, I'll probably be at death's door for a few days until I get back in to it but I've got to try something to encourage things along.

I've had a serious talking to the scales and they've promised to behave so onward we go.

[josietheschnauzer]

Weight: 102.8 No change from last week. Total loss since April (start date of MWL): 28.4

1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. YES. Eating salads now. Love Mrs. Dash's garlic and herb and Italian for my salads.

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. YES. Eating more sweet potatoes. I found Hannah yams. They are like cake. 3 servings of greens a day to "prepare" my body for any covid attack

2) Choose fruit for desert. YES. Controlling my fruit 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. YES.

4) Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). YES. Care for the animals!

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). YES--No avocado/cucumber sushi gift from restaurant

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. YES.

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. YES. Had raspberry zinger tea several times to see if I was hungry, thirsty, or tired

10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). YES. Finished 480 mile "Santiago de Campostelo" virtual trip through Spain. Started two others, Route 66 by myself and around the world with a team of ten.

[Cathy Ann]

0 loss
Current Weight 224

Sept Start weight 225
Start weight 245

Sept loss -1
August loss -8
July loss -12

10-point plan
Was a fail., there were a few meals that were compliant. I really need to go back to the very basics, and I need to get back in control of my food, change doesn't happen easy. I have now realized that I'm an addict. I was starting to feel health benefits by the McDougall life style. But my addiction has got back in my brain, I have to figure out something fast to gain my control back. When I follow the 10-point plan I feel great with myself, take up a tiny bit of temptation, it all went belly up for me, I'm struggling to get back. I just need to continue with breakfast in the morning, (compliant) and I will. Thanks for this group, I feel that this support is going to get me there. I just wish my family was 100% for me, they say that they are, but their actions are not. But I cannot blame them, they do not have the addiction and don't understand. This is my personal battle that I have to control myself. I am so thankful that I have found this McDougall plan for weight loss. Thank you for the group. have a great week everyone. next week can only get better.

[NateKruse]

Height: 6' 5"
03 January 2020 weight: 276.6 pounds.
21 August 2020 weight: 219.2 pounds.
28 August 2020 weight: 222.0 pounds.
04 September 2020 weight: 216.2 pounds.
11 September 2020 weight: 214.6 pounds.


Change this week: -1.6 pounds.
Change this year: -62.0 pounds.

I was pretty adherent this week except for slipping up by making a batch of sweet potato muffins (recipe from the Whole Food Plant Based Cooking Show on YouTube) on both Sunday and Monday. The recipe starts by blending two cups of oats into flour and also uses a cup of dates. I ate the entire batch of 12 muffins in one sitting both days.

I did a long bike ride on Sunday and on the way back stopped at a farmer's market and picked up a two pounds of passionfruit and a bag of oranges. I introduced that additional fruit into what I had been eating so I exceeded the two servings of fruit per day rule.

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.YES
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
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 Still using garlic salt for seasoning, but much less than I was before.
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 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. NO Made muffins with oat flour and dates.
7. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). YES
8. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. YES
9. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).YES

[calharv]

166lbs. down 3 this week

I was pleasantly surprised as I noticed:
#1 still a challenge for me to start each meal with soup, salad, and/or fruit
#3 an increase in use of salt this week
#9 still eating more often than needed (as opposed to only when hungry), although I am eating less each meal

#8? I also had some wine this week

Slow and steady...
Cal

[Creaky]

08/15/20 Start: 267
Last Week: 265.4
09/11/20: 261.1
Change: -4.3 (loss)
Total Loss: -5.9

1. Soup before meal: Meals are soupy except for breakfast.
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals: The soups are 1/2 starch and 1/2 veggies.
3. Desert = Fruit:
4. Little added sugars and added salts:
5. No Animal Products:
6. No higher fat plant foods:
7. No added oil:
8. No Processed Food/Dried Fruit:
9. Don’t drink your calories:
10. Eat when Hungry/Don't stuff myself:
11. 30 minutes exercise/day:

Much better this week. The lower GI issues from last week have figured themselves out.

My meals (2 snacks, Lunch and dinner) are all soup-like - more stew like than soupy. I make a big soup using Jeff's Longevity soup (https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/educ ... evity-Soup) as the base. Changes are an additional one pound frozen cut green beans and one pound frozen green beans. Instead of adding the rice pre-cooked, I add 1/2 cup raw rice in the soup and cook all for an hour. At the end I add 1 cup pre-cooked beans to it. Breakfast is the 8 oz frozen spinach and 1 cup old fashioned oats.

Absolutely no cravings! Good week.

[Golightly]

Good morning!
Weight loss: -3
Sorry I didn’t weigh in last week, but I had 0 pounds lost anyway. This week was a delightful surprise with a 3 pound loss. This has happened to me before where I would be at a zero loss, a plateau, for a couple of weeks and then have a big drop. Something I’m learning about my body is to just stick with the plan and let my body do its thing.
Since May 18 I have dropped 18 pounds. This is consistently losing 1 pound each week for 18 weeks. I am delighted and pleasantly surprised that I continue to lose even though there have been some ups and downs and plateaus in the process. Over the long run I see that I can do this way of eating and lose weight until my body finds its equilibrium.
Thanks so much for the wonderful support!!!

[wstokes]

-1.2 lbs
One difference this week may be smaller portions...doing better with #9 on the MWL checklist.
NOW, I can worry about giving up some of this progress in the coming week!!!

[Wfpb2020]

July loss - 9.4 lbs
August loss - 2.8 lbs
9/4/20 - .8 lbs
9/11/20 - 1 lbs.
Total Loss: - 14 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. 4/7 had candy, potato chips and cookies
4) Eliminate all animal foods 5/7 had some butter on corn on the cob
5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods. Yes
6) Eliminate any added oil. 6/7 oil in potato chips
7) Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products, puffed cereals, popcorn and dried fruit. 6/7 potato chips
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.

Eating out of stress. working on that.

[CindyD]

Female, age 51, 5'8"
Starting weight July 6, 2020: 211.7

Sept 04, 2020: 182.3
Sept 11, 2020 180.6
Result: -1.7
Since July 6: -31.1

Good on all 10 points for the week, except I had some red lentil pasta (about a cup, twice). The only ingredient is lentils but I don't believe it is MWL compliant (unlike whole wheat or corn pasta). It was not bad, but it turns out I can live without it.

I love that this board has a New Zealander whose Friday is so much sooner than many (most?) of us. Hello Expat in NZ if you are reading this - great job not being derailed by sourdough!

Hello Mark and thank you! It sure feels like soup season is upon us (US Midwest).

[jkcook]

No change

Very bad this week. I made a giant batch of tofu, vegetables, and whole wheat penne and have been eating that all week instead of potatoes. I still have my two green salads each day and exercised, but also had a giant vegetable pizza, no vegan cheese, but lots of olives, which lasted three days. Next week, Monday through Saturday we will be traveling, so that will make eating problematic and weighing in impossible. It will probably also cut down on the amount of exercise, but I will do my best. See you in two weeks.

On the bright side, I live in Utah where are the temperature dropped 50°F this week and So I had to pull out my jeans. I am happy to report that the jeans that I could barely barely zip up last winter slip on easily over my hips without even opening the button. Of course, that means that they fall off, too, but that’s a nice problem.

[frowsyowl]

1st weigh-in: 215.4
Weight change: 0
Points from the MWL Checklist where I succeeded this week: The last two days, I worked on the 50/50 plate, and removing highly processed food. Did well yesterday until after dinner.

Points from the MWL Checklist that need greater attention: Most of them!

Happy to be on the right track again, working on making morning walks more of a habit, and gradually increasing time walked in 5 minute increments. Grocery day tomorrow. Always a dilemma working on my food while living with someone who needs all the calories (C.R.A.P.)!

[frowsyowl]

I want to work on MWL item #1. Does anyone have a favorite soup/recipe to use as a starter?