It's July! Hello Everyone! I hope everyone is in a better environment than I am.
My goal for July: I hope to improve my MWL vacation/travel skills this month. We are away from home almost every day this month. Happily, we are staying in a vacation rental and can cook our food most of the time. But, still, we are in dangerous territory: vacation mode. Overindulging is almost synonymous with us being on vacation. I watch what my husband eats while 'on vacation' and realize it is different from his at-home eating. My husband is my biggest influencer! My jealousy and self-pity over what he is eating are things I need to overcome. I sometimes look at him as he indulges in high-calorie-rich foods, caffeinated coffees/teas, alcoholic beverages, smoothies and sodas, etc. I feel pulled to join him in the drinks and foods celebration. We are immersed in the city nightlife, a mixture of
Fear Of Missing Out - FOMO - and environment. It's hard for me to follow MWL when we are travelling. It's hard to order water with a wedge of lime as I watch my husband partaking in extravagant high-calorie foods and beverages. I see my husband returning to the pleasure trap and regaining some of his lost weight. However, it's not my place to control/criticize what he eats, even though what he is choosing makes it challenging for me not to get pulled into a pleasure trip with him. My husband is supportive with his words, compliments me on losing so much weight, and says he likes eating MWL at home, but on holiday, he wants to let loose and eat the Standard Diet. I can see how much he is enjoying access to calorie-rich and processed food. It's been a very challenging week. So, I'm trying my best to eat what is right for me. This is where my commitment to MWL is vital; I am unwilling to let go of the health gains I have achieved.
Dr. McDougall says this way of eating isn't all or nothing. When travelling, I will do the best I can, one meal at a time! If it's not perfectly MWL, I want it to be as close to following MWL as possible.
1. Start each meal with soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
fruit is most accessible when travelling
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals.
sometimes, I order an extra side of salad, rice or veggies to achieve this balance
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 stop them. Yes:
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
one vegan patty had some ground nuts and seeds in it; it was salty too (not at all like homemade)
6. Eliminate any added oil.
coconut milk in a curry dish
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.
a wholegrain wrap, a couple of whole-grain buns, a few marshmallows ...
8. Don’t drink calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
a fruit smoothie and one glass of wine
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself, and don't stuff yourself. Yes.
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
My dream goal for the next weeks and months is to lose more weight -five-ten pounds- enough that my knees allow me to be able to walk 'briskly.' I can now walk a fair distance, but my knees are still reluctant and complain when I push them too far. I want to get a spring in my step. We have been walking between 12000-18000 steps daily, and I need to put effort into each step.
Yikes! As I go through the guidelines, I can see that I barely hang on to my MWL beliefs and commitments.
Best regards,
Noella
“What I am about to tell you is so utterly simple and true that it may deceive you: Health feels better than sickness. You will be happier at your ideal weight than you are overweight. You will be proud of yourself. You’ll have confidence. You’ll feel so many good things that right now you cannot imagine and I cannot describe. But the net effect is that you’ll like yourself a lot more. You’ll look in the mirror and actually like what you see; you may even love what you see. You will have honored the person within yourself who longs to be healthy, beautiful, and free of all those burdens that being overweight brings. Life will not be perfect, but it will be better.”
― excerpt from The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss
Last edited by Noella on Fri Jul 01, 2022 8:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.