Dr. McDougall's Online Discussion Board

Hello everyone
i've had The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss for a long time now bit i've finally decided to get serious and follow the plan. i've been a vegetarian for almost 4 years but i still find veganism extremely hard.

i would love to hear advice about getting started from anyone.
i haven't gotten new groceries yet so simple food suggestions would be great!

Welcome! Look on Jeff Novick's forum for some super simple recipes using foods you can get in any supermarket.

What is giving you the most trouble? I didn't think I could live without cheese but when I made the commitment last year I stuck it out for about 2 weeks and found that I no longer craved the stuff. It was hard at first but now it doesn't even look good to me. Give us some more info to go on.

Good luck and I am glad you found us.

I agree that cheese is the hardest to say goodbye to (especially b/c I am a Tex-Mex fiend!) but seeing my weight climbing on the scales is reason enough to kiss it goodbye.

I have found that learning to cook a lot of Asian meals helps (dairy almost never shows up there) as well as shopping at the farmers market and enjoying all of the fresh local produce

xxx

Hello!

What helps me the most is keeping my eating style simple and preparing my food in advance.

On the weekend, I cook a pot of beans, put it in a big bowl, and mix the beans with two 1-lb bags of frozen corn. Sometimes I add cooked oats too (whole oat groats, not oatmeal). You could use rice. I'll flavor the beans and grain with some sauce and then divide the whole thing up into seven servings in plastic tubs.

I cook a bunch of sweet potatos and put each one in another plastic tub.

Then for lunch each day at work, I'll take a bean tub, a sweet potato tub, an apple, a plum, and a white potato.

Getting lunch ready in the morning is a snap -- takes about two minutes to throw the tubs, fruit, and potato in my lunch bag.

For supper, I'll have a 1-lb bag of brocolli and another sweet potato.

For breakfast, I typically have whole oats and frozen blueberries.

Very simple, very little preparation, especially when I'm hungry and want to eat ten minutes ago.

xxx

why do you prefer the whole oat groats to oatmeal? thank you

I do too. The whole are chewy the way I make it.

From childhood, I hated oatmeal. It was gooey and always got cold before I could eat it all. When I started mcdougalling I didn't have a stove, and decided to try and make my own oatmeal, in the microwave. It didn't cook up creamy since I used water, it was still chewy. I liked it. Like Tom, I discovered the frozen blueberries and put them with it and yum it's great. Well, it's great for those like me who didn't like oatmeal growing up.

Now I'm wondering how Tom does his. I figured I'd throw in my easy method for folks.