Holiday Challenge Midpoint

[limberone]

Hello to everyone who is following along with the Holiday Challenge, MWL style!

Today is day 15 out of 32, so we are almost to the midpoint of this exciting event!

Good news/bad news: I've lost seven (7) pounds, and after being weighed at the gym, I discovered that my home scale is not accurate. It's a cheapo analog scale. I'm not going to replace it, but now I know that I just need to add about seven pounds to the total that it reads to get a closer to accurate weight. What matters most is that I have seen the weight decreasing (it has registered a loss of seven pounds -- woohoo!). But now it looks like my ticker is actually correct. I can't bear to go in and adjust it up just so I can reflect the loss -- so, I'll just leave it as is until I lose more weight! Oh, and my husband has lost 11 pounds -- Dr. McDougall says that men typically lose more (and this year, the two of us have the unique opportunity of both actually starting MWL at the same weight)!

After the first three days of MWL (we started day one (1) on the Friday immediately after Thanksgiving), I was complaining about having spent so much time in the kitchen that weekend. Now, after two weeks, we are about to finish up all the leftovers from that original first seven days of menus. So, although initially there was a lot of cooking, we have been coasting nicely on the leftovers -- makes for very easy dinners during the busy weekdays!

For dinner tonight, I'm making three-bean chili from The New McDougall Cookbook, p. 175. Even though it was one of the recipes I included in the original Holiday Challenge Menu listing about two weeks ago, I must have gotten distracted and made something else that day. Therefore, tonight's dinner will not be a repeat. And today, I woke up thinking about cornbread -- I have a super-yummy McD-friendly recipe -- but it is not appropriate for MWL, so I will wait until after Christmas before I make that cornbread!

Breakfast has been very exciting for me. Normally, I will eat breakfast tacos or muffins, or a bagel, and then I will be hungry again very soon. Now I have been eating oatmeal with just a very few raisins and a splash of soymilk (I know I need to drink the nonfat soymilk to be in compliance with MWL). But most often now I will eat a variation of the Sweet Potato Beginnings on p. 224 in the MWL book. Here is what I do, and I just love it so much! I use one small or half of one large sweet potato. It is already baked the night or several nights before, so it is cold from the refrigerator. I use my crinkle cutter that I got from Pampered Chef (but I've seen them in kitchen supply stores as well -- and any regular knife would work just fine, too!), and I cut very thick "coins" -- the width of the sweet potato. I put those giant coins into a ceramic bowl and microwave for 45 seconds. Then I put cinnamon, plus one small apple or half of a large apple, cut into chunks, plus the juice of a whole key lime. This is delicious, very easy, very quick, and even my toddler loves it!

It's definitely a "keeper" breakfast that I will take with me after I stop doing the MWL on Christmas eve.

I hope you and your family are well this holiday season. I love the holiday list someone made last year about the holiday season (I am sorry I cannot remember the author of that post, but it was sort of like this (I'm sure I left something out), and it makes so much sense to me!

Halloween
Thanksgiving
Christmas
New Year's Eve
Super Bowl Sunday
Valentine's Day
Flu Season

[Clary]

I love the holiday list someone made last year about the holiday season (I am sorry I cannot remember the author of that post, but it was sort of like this (I'm sure I left something out), and it makes so much sense to me!

Halloween
Thanksgiving
Christmas
New Year's Eve
Super Bowl Sunday
Valentine's Day
Flu Season

Great, upbeat, encouraging, motivating post! Thanks! I love it when a McDougaller takes the time to report on his/her successes following this simple program. (As they say in the 12 Step Programs--Simple, but not always Easy! )

The above "Flu Season" reference might have been to this post of mine in a thread about the flu. You added to that thread just below my post.

I have watched this "seasonal" process over and over and over again, as a Mom, Grandmom, teacher, and medical assistant. I like your additions of SuperBowl Sunday and Valentine's Day! I'll add those to my list in the future, too.
http://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/viewt ... hlight=flu

[limberone]

Clary,

Yes, this is the post to which I was referring -- thank you for letting me know you were the one who posted it!

It's amazing that you posted this 13 months ago, but as you say, it is something that gets repeated each year. I've noticed that we actually avoid the flu most years, but as I posted last year, we also avoid the flu shot every year as well.

One thing we have seen twice in this family is the Norwalk virus or some similar variation. I remember it very well in 2002 and then again in 2004. I'm sure there is a vaccine in the works for this, but I'll let my family skip that one, too.

Anyway, I hope you are well, and thank you again for speaking up!

Big hugs to you!

[Faith in DC]

Excellent, and you are doing something so positive for your body during this holiday season. Heck everyone around you is destroying theirs with all the junk. You have to feel good.

Those taters sounds good. I like sweet potatoes for breakfast too, but never thought to put an apple with it. Yum