Off Topic thread for Behavioral Group

For those wanting to learn about and follow the McDougall Maximum Weight Loss Program. You can also join our monthly weigh-ins.

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Off Topic thread for Behavioral Group

Postby Mark Cooper » Sat Jan 08, 2022 3:07 pm

This is a thread for group participants to interact informally and make posts that are outside the scope of the reporting thread (i.e., something other than orientation, self-assessment reports, questions about the guidelines, or requests for support from the moderators).
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Re: Off Topic thread for Behavioral Group

Postby moonlight » Wed Jan 12, 2022 2:18 pm

Hi All!

I love this thread! Thank you, Mark, for setting it up. Thanks, Stephanie, for your energic encouragement to join in. :D

Since re-joining the MWL group I have had some real challenges, but I see progress!! I struggle with # 5 & 7, too. Every day I think I will have a 100% compliant day but one of these gets in the way. I'm very pleased with staying away from cheese. That was a struggle, too. My biggest challenge is staying away from my husband's food. He eats a SAD diet filled with sweets, ice cream, and all animal products. I just have to get a mind-set and it works. So, I totally understand the habit of eating snacks at your daughter's house, Marilyn. I asked my husband to move all the cookies, crackers, chips, and cereal to another room - his office. We also have a second fridge in another room off our kitchen. Not too far for him to walk. :D He keeps his half & half, cheese, eggnog, salad dressings in there. This helps me a lot. I am so grateful to him for supporting me in this way. Somehow the mind-set of not break the rule to go into his office for the goodies in there works. The small fridge is out of mind, too. I don't have to struggle with temptation every time I open the refrigerator or cabinets in the kitchen. :lol:

Noella, I love your exercise routines! I love to hike but the weather hasn't cooperated here in East Tennessee. I keep reminding myself that the daylight is getting longer each day!! When I'm not hiking, I will row for 30 minutes. Lately, I've started watching movies on YouTube. I didn't know that was a thing until a friend told me. Free movies on YouTube. Am I the last to know?!? :lol: I am starting a yoga class online tomorrow morning. It's only once a week but I am hoping it will inspire me to add it into my morning routine on other days, too.

Stephanie, I LOVE to garden, and I love to talk about gardening. I'm getting ready to sit down with the seed catalog and start planning for spring. Do you already have a garden plot? I have garlic and onion planted that we will harvest in June. I have Brussel sprouts growing but they are small. They are very good, but the harvest will need to be supplemented to supply me with enough to last a season. Cole crops are hard to grow in ET. Not enough cool weather.

I'm not sure if this thread is too long, but one more thing to share. I have found great satisfaction with making sauces using butter/lima beans instead of the oil. Sauce recipes that use cashew nuts I have substituted beans. It works well for me. One of my favorite sauces is Jerk seasoning blended with beans. I use a Jerk seasoning that comes in a jar from Grace. It's a paste-like seasoning and hot. I'm enjoying it on just about anything.

Take care! Good luck on keeping the energy and positivity going!

moonlight
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Re: Off Topic thread for Behavioral Group

Postby moonlight » Fri Jan 14, 2022 6:22 am

Noella,

I love my iWatch, too. The activity tracker is one of my favorite features. It tracks miles, elevation, time, and heart rate while exercising. I like to track my heart rate to make sure I get up to moderate intensity range. It will sync with your phone, too. That way you can follow your exercise over time, all the way up to a year.

I also like the timer on the watch. It's great for cooking. You don't need to be in the kitchen to hear the timer go off.

Just the other day, I was thinking about if I would purchase another iWatch if mine stopped working and I realized I would. I don't have the new feature that notifies someone if you fall. Please let us know how that works, if you like it.

Happy skiing!!
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Re: Favorite Meals?

Postby Daydream » Fri Jan 28, 2022 10:44 pm

VegSeekingFit wrote:Wondering if anyone wants to share favorite meals / foods?


Favorite foods... On the weekends I batch cook and do food prep for the week. Once a week in my Instant pot, I'll cook 2 pounds of some type of dried bean (black beans, pinto, navy beans, etc). Each week I'll also cook in my Instant pot some type of whole grain such as brown rice or oat groats. I love Japanese sweet potatoes so I'll bake a couple trays of those for the week. Everyday I look forward to my colorful salad made with romaine, carrots, celery, red bell pepper, broccoli slaw, red cabbage, grape tomatoes and jicama. For fruit, I love watermelon (when it is in season), Envy apples, frozen blueberries and Sumo oranges. I'll often make a big pot of some type of vegetable soup too. Sometimes I'll roast a couple trays of whole white button mushrooms. One dinner we enjoy is mashed potatoes with Mary McDougall's Fat Free Golden Gravy and corn. I love the food and look forward to it every day!
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Re: Favorite Meals?

Postby moonlight » Sat Jan 29, 2022 10:13 am

VegSeekingFit wrote:Hi Team Time & Adherence, :)

Wondering if anyone wants to share favorite meals / foods?


Thanks, Stephanie, for the suggestion to talk about what we are eating. :D No one else really appreciates my favorite foods! My husband immediately goes for the cheese and salt when he decides to eat what I've cooked.

One of my favorites that makes it into my rotation frequently is Grandpa's Meatless Loaf. The recipe is on this site. I make mashed potatoes to go with it and add fresh cooked broccoli as my side. I make mushroom gravy for the potatoes. The recipe makes several servings for me, so I freeze in 2 serving sizes containers. Since it is beany and potatoes are starchy, I have a quarter of each for my starch component at a meal. Yum!
I have fun with soups, too. One of my favorites is to roast various root vegetables - beets, onions, turnips, carrots, sweet potato. Then add to water for soup and season with thyme (my all-time favorite herb for soup). I use an immersion blender to blend a little to give it a thicker consistency. Yum!

I think today is a cooking day! It's too cold for me to want to get out of the house. I've started a fun sewing project, so I will be cooking and sewing! I hope everyone has a good weekend!

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Re: Favorite Meals?

Postby Daydream » Sun Jan 30, 2022 8:44 am

moonlight wrote:I have fun with soups, too. One of my favorites is to roast various root vegetables - beets, onions, turnips, carrots, sweet potato. Then add to water for soup and season with thyme (my all-time favorite herb for soup). I use an immersion blender to blend a little to give it a thicker consistency. Yum!

moonlight


Wow, so all you put in your soup is roasted veggies, thyme and water? Do you put anything on the veggies when you roast them? I'm always looking for ways to make a delicious soup so thanks for sharing!
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Re: Off Topic thread for Behavioral Group

Postby Daydream » Mon Jan 31, 2022 8:33 am

Noella wrote:Daydream--I didn't know about roasting mushrooms. You made them sound very tasty. do you marinate them?
Noella


Noella, I don't marinate the whole button mushrooms that I roast. I put them on a parchment lined cookie sheet in the oven at 400 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes. They are so good! Now I want some. :)
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Re: Off Topic thread for Behavioral Group

Postby moonlight » Thu Feb 10, 2022 7:58 am

Noella wrote:I want to try making the roasted root vegetable soup that mentioned! It sounds really lovely. My husband loves cheese and salt too and he adds oil based salad dressings, parmesan cheese and chipotle mayonnaise sauce to almost everything he eats. ( I never ever liked those things so it doesn't entice me in the least)


Hi Noella, have you tried the roasted root soup? Sometimes the soup tastes too rooty and not enough flavor. I think it is because the vegetables may not be the best, sweetest quality. I have added a large can of diced tomatoes and some cooking sherry.

I love reading what everyone is cooking. I forget about logging in here... Before, when I was active on this site, I had notifications set to send me an email when someone posted to the threads that I was posting on. I can't find how to do that now. Has that option been dropped with the update of the forum site?
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Re: Off Topic thread for Behavioral Group

Postby moonlight » Sun Feb 13, 2022 7:43 am

VegSeekingFit wrote:Does anyone have any thoughts on defeating the mid-winter doldrums?? Beyond counting down the days until Spring??


Stephanie,
I know those winter bah bah's! Planning my vegetable garden layout always gives me a pick-up. Yesterday I ordered a grow light to help give the seedlings a better start indoors. Today I plan to buy some organic garden dirt and start a mini greenhouse. I saw this technique on YouTube. Take an old plastic storage bin and a bag of dirt. I will put the dirt onto the ground but in the video, she just put the bag on the ground and cut an opening in the top, leaving the sides and about 2 inches of the top intact. Plant lettuce or spinach seeds. Put the plastic bin up-side-down over the top to create a mini greenhouse. It might work and if I don't get any lettuce, I will still have some good dirt to use in the spring.

I also started some indoor sprouts. You can do this all year but I'm all about planting and growing seeds right now. I'm sprouting broccoli seeds. Sprouts are very nutritious. I like them on salads.

I hope you get your energy back up. Spring will be here soon! 8) :nod:
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Re: Off Topic thread for Behavioral Group

Postby moonlight » Mon Feb 21, 2022 10:46 pm

Hi Carol,

Congratulations on your good health report! This way of eating makes me feel so good! I don't have any friends who eat the same way. My husband eats a very SAD diet. He eats eggs, bacon, toast with jelly in the morning then complains because he's tired and wants to go back to bed. Some people just cannot give up their tasty food even though it makes them sick...

Thanks for the polenta recipe ideas. I'm going to try the green pepper made into a sauce. That sounds like it would have a good texture. I've used butter beans for sauces, but I can get tired of it pretty quickly. I'm planning to try the lasagna recipe that Mark posted on the MWL thread. It sounds good.

moonlight
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Re: Off Topic thread for Behavioral Group

Postby Daydream » Mon Feb 21, 2022 11:54 pm

Carol and Moonlight, I also don't have any friends that eat this way. Fortunately, my husband eats the McDougall diet (most of the time!) and he is supportive of how I eat and I'm thankful for that. Our 3 kids and my friends think I'm weird that I eat this way.

Carol, the way you make your polenta sounds really good!
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Re: Off Topic thread for Behavioral Group

Postby Daydream » Tue Feb 22, 2022 3:27 pm

Carol (carwex), I eat MWL nearly all the time except for Christmas Eve when I make a vegan lasagna using tofu in place of ricotta. I do not lose weight eating MWL and in fact if I eat too many starches, I will gain weight so I have to be careful to not overdo it on the starches.

If losing too much weight is a concern, you can still eat MWL foods but try eating more starch and fewer green/yellow veggies and fruits.

I don't want to be tempted into the Pleasure Trap either so I avoid peanut butter, bread and nuts although I have 1 Tablespoon of flaxseed meal on my salad every day. I don't have any desire to overeat flaxseed meal so that's not a problem for me. I avoid restaurants because they usually don't have compliant food that I enjoy.
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Re: Off Topic thread for Behavioral Group

Postby JeffN » Thu Feb 24, 2022 7:39 am

Greetings Everyone!

After much consideration and discussion, we have decided to close this thread as of 2/28.

Here is why...

1) In the 2 months of this group, we have not seen any post or discussion that we would consider “off topic” from the "Time & Adherence: The Behavioral Path to MWL Success" thread. Any post related to the MWL program from anyone who is in the monthly group, really belongs in the monthly group thread as they would only enhance the value of the Monthly group. The monthly group is not just for weekly check-ins but a place for the group members to share and discuss their experience and support each other. As Mark said this morning in the monthly thread, "... since the substance of the discussion seems quite germane to our focus and some helpful observations and anecdotes are being shared. I think seeing that discussion would benefit the whole group."

2).I am actually having a hard time trying to think of anything that would be “off topic” to the monthly group but still belong in the MWL forum.

3) If anyone who is part of the MWL group wants to post something they still think is “off-topic” to the group but still related to MWL, then it should just be a new post in the MWL forum.

4) For anyone who has reached their healthy weight and is looking for a maintenance group, one already exists called the "McDougall "Checking-in" Maintenance Support Group, where some still follow MWL and some don’t. I am sure they would appreciate more members joining their discussion.

https://www.drmcdougallforums.com/viewt ... 13&t=62051

5) We encourage you to keep your MWL discussions going, just in the MWL monthly thread.

6)Unless anyone objects, I am going to merge the existing posts from this group by month, into the respective monthly MWL thread.

Thanks for your understanding and your ongoing participation and contributions to the board.

Jeff
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Re: Off Topic thread for Behavioral Group

Postby carwex » Fri Feb 25, 2022 8:01 am

Hi Jeff and Mark,
I appreciate your dedication to these forums and your creativity in devising ways that keep them interesting and relevant. However, I would like to object to the closing of this forum. Here are the reasons:
1. I have recently joined and it has helped my adherence to the 10 points immensely.
2. It is a more intimate group.
3. I don't believe that the tone in the off-topic is the same as the Time and Adherence group. It is more free flowing. Discussions are less specific about the 10 points. There is no leader. (WE LOVE MARK AND YOU, DONT GET ME WRONG) But a group with a leader has a completely different dynamic than a group where everyone has the same status.
4. There ARE off-topic discussions in the off-topic group: around gardening, recipes, keeping warm, family, more questions directed towards other members. They can be considered off-topic in that we often do not discuss them in the Time and Adherence group. Which leads to another question: what topics do you mean by off-topic?
5. As far as going over to the maintenance group: Yes it's great that everyone there discusses different plans (mainly MWL and regular McDougall) but what I need in order to stay at this weight is support from other members who are maintaining their weight on the MWL. I keep making the same mistake, thinking that in getting to my goal weight I will be alright to add in higher fat ingredients from the regular McDougall program and then find myself on my way again down the slippery slope toward the Pleasure Trap. I realize that maintaining this way of eating is very difficult in the long run, especially when we are surrounded by family, friends and a society that belittle our goals, ("What's the problem, just eat less"), looks at us as crazy for subjecting ourselves to such a rigorous program of eating in a world gone crazy with food. It can be quite lonely actually and then finally I find a group that fills that need--and you've decided to close it.

Thanks for reading this rant of mine.I will of course go along with any decision that you and the group make but I just had to say my piece. At my age (very close to 80) I look back and regret not speaking up in situations that were important to me.

Love you all for saving my life.

Carol
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Re: Off Topic thread for Behavioral Group

Postby wildgoose » Fri Feb 25, 2022 8:27 am

carwex wrote:As far as going over to the maintenance group: Yes it's great that everyone there discusses different plans (mainly MWL and regular McDougall) but what I need in order to stay at this weight is support from other members who are maintaining their weight on the MWL. I keep making the same mistake, thinking that in getting to my goal weight I will be alright to add in higher fat ingredients from the regular McDougall program and then find myself on my way again down the slippery slope toward the Pleasure Trap. I realize that maintaining this way of eating is very difficult in the long run, especially when we are surrounded by family, friends and a society that belittle our goals, ("What's the problem, just eat less"), looks at us as crazy for subjecting ourselves to such a rigorous program of eating in a world gone crazy with food. It can be quite lonely actually and then finally I find a group that fills that need--and you've decided to close it.

Carol, I think I understand what you’re saying in regards to weight maintenance. One of the ideas that has been tossed around is a thread on "MWL for life" — under the umbrella of the MWL forum, just like the "off topic" thread. The idea would be that people who are at/near goal weight but feel like they need or wish to stay on MWL or something close to MWL permanently would have a place for discussion or support. I certainly fall into that category. Would that be something that would interest you?

Goose
My story: MWL works!
How I determined my "goal weight"
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