Hi MWL Team!
Hope that everyone is having a great week!! It is almost time to Spring ahead for Daylight Savings Time. Looking forward to being able to walk again (in daylight) at the end of the day.
Really enjoyed the discussion a few posts back on Jeff's Burgers. These are a staple for me too -- I keep the freezer stocked with them. Love that the template is so easy to follow and tweak to your spice preference. I like to add finely chopped veggies and hot sauce sometimes ... also, these work great as crumbles for in a 50/50 pasta / veggie dish. Appreciate the thought that could use all oatmeal (in lieu of rice + oatmeal) - may give that a whirl this weekend (as I am down to last 2 burgers in freezer).
I am so happy to have FINALLY after MANY MANY MANY weeks achieved 10
!!! I so appreciate this group - without which I am not confident that I could have banished the 5/7 struggles that I kept having. Thank you to Mark for continuing positive support and for nudging me to figure out what was causing this issue, to Wildgoose for great posts on "MWL is a choice" and the description of the Pleasure Trap, to Jeff for support of this group, all of the forum materials - especially the awesome Calorie Density presentation and the MWL checklist! Thank you to everyone who participates in this group. Appreciate the sharing and camaraderie.
1 Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Yes. I have been eating mainly salad this week as a preload (for B, L, D) - used fruit a couple of times. Kept in refrigerator carrot and celery sticks and chopped radishes for easy grabbing. Also, have various lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers to add in to make this starter quite easily. 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.
*I have had oatmeal with fruit every day for breakfast (again - yes, I am BORING).
*I have continued to be vigilant to ensure that I am not shorting myself on starch to better manage hunger (and keep away the calls of ).
*I have switched one of the soup meals for a 50 / 50 plate - which makes it easy to not make mistake in estimating that volume is equal (starch, veggie / fruit).
*For the meal that I have soup, I have made sure to include a bit extra potato / rice / beans.
* This has continued to help tremendously in adherence to 5/7. I still get some nighttime thoughts of 5/7 snack, but am more readily able to control them!!!
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, of course. 5 Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
YES!!!! 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.
As part of my issue with 5/7, I think I may not always be consistent in eating when hungry and I am trying to be more mindful here.
A few times this week, I have felt a little "peckish" and have made sure not to let that get to "ravenous" by eating some roasted potato slices.
For some reason, I don't seem to notice the gray area in between these too.
Let me know if this isn't right approach - it seemed to work for me this week, but I don't want to stray off into left field....
10 Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
Yes, got in 6 walks outside! Better weather!!!
* Met goal of averaging 8K steps / day for the week.
*Yearly average steps / day exceeds the 8K - which I would like to increase.
Victories, comments, concerns, questions:
I am going to quote a bit of Dr. McDougall from MWL book (p. 73)... "The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss works, as long as you follow it faithfully. You can fail yourself. Little lapses can make the difference... You may very well be eating better than ever before, but that might not be enough. Or you may not be eating as close to the rules as you have led yourself to believe."
My victory this week is that I am much more confident that I can manage my way out of the Pleasure Trap and 5/7 compliance issues. This feels really good in comparison to being super frustrated at myself for MANY consecutive weeks (and feeling a bit foolish consuming calorie dense foods). That is priceless. Outcome - I have lost 2 lbs. this week. Over the 3 week period that I have slowly "cleaned up" 5/7, I have lost 5 lbs. and I am likely within spitting distance of "compliant" weight. I know that this will need on-going attention and is NOT a given. So, my goal for next week is also 10
....
Encouraging everyone to KEEP GOING... we can all do this!!!! Have a great week!!
Best,
Stephanie