1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.---Really need improvement on this one. I did have an apple a day as a snack which was kind of before my lunch.
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.---I was out of town for a week + ate all my meals either in the hotel room or ate what I packed for the day (very long days which usually was grazing when I got hungry instead of a specific meal time), so I didn't really have a plate meal. But typically I had oatmeal made with water and cut up fruit for breakfast. "Lunch" was grazing on baby carrots or grape tomatoes or raw cauliflower florets. Then a little later I'd have a previously frozen steamer bag of vegetables that I had cooked in the hotel room that morning. I'd have an apple we had gotten from an orchard. Later I'd usually have some previously nuked potatoes or a bag of peas or corn. I did have a few bags (1 for the day) of microwave no oil, no salt popcorn which wasn't MWL. Dinner usually was fresh pepper strips followed by potatoes or whatever I had dumped into the slow cooker in the morning before we left for the day (split pea soup, lentils + vegetables with a whole grain, etc.).
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.---Added a little bit of salted herb blend to potatoes at night + a couple of the soups, just a sprinkle on the surface. Added no sugars on my foods, but had some things that contained sugar, like a handful of kettle corn, + what you'll see below.
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).---Did have half of a personal (5-6") pizza, so cheese, + ice cream 1 time in a tourist trap town (not that I had to fall into the trap
).
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).---Had 1 "fun" size Mr. Goodbar.
6. Eliminate any added oil.---Oil in that pizza crust + handful of kettle corn, + 2 potato wedges, but I didn't add oil to anything.
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.---As mentioned above, had half of a small (5-6" round pizza) + 3 microwaved bags of no salt, no oil popcorn.
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).---Had about 4 ounces of orange juice 2 different mornings at the hotel's breakfast bar.
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.---Actually succeeded with this point every day!
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).---Got lots of walking + swimming
in, including laps in the long pool at the hotel--the side stroke was my favorite--but I had to take it easier than I would have liked due to my heart.
Victories, comments, concerns, questions:
---I'm very sorry about not posting last week. I tried getting online Friday night (a week ago) at the hotel, but just couldn't from my own data or the hotel's wi-fi. That's why I didn't post. Then we were up so early and busy on our trip that I kept thinking about the deadline, but it just didn't work for me to even attempt to see if I could get online. When I did try to get online Monday night, it worked just fine, so I don't know why it didn't work earlier.
---We had a wonderful trip, but it was hard in terms of trying to be okay with not being perfect. I know there was talk about perfectionism after I brought it up + I'll have to go back + read what everyone posted. I do remember your, Mark, saying that the best time to start is now, + I agree with that + it was a lot easier for me to just drop old eating habits + start new ones within a day when I was a teen + in my 20's.
---Last week, the one I was unable to post about, was filled with some great MWL days + some bad non-MWL days. So I went into the trip with clawing my way back to MWL. On the trip, it was pretty easy to eat MWL, but a challenge with old habits, family members indulging in "treats", + that feeling of "Hey, I'm on vacation...the last few years with the pandemic have been trying...etc.." But I'm fully aware that just being with family + on vacation are rewards + are fun enough. Those are the priceless things, not the "food" "treats". ...but that's why I'm here. If I had my MWL eating act together, I probably wouldn't be here. So this time around (being back with the Group), I'm trying to learn to be okay with not having all the boxes checked as being perfect or near perfect. Of course my goal is to be 100% MWL compliant all the time, but with my eating experiences, I need to learn to be okay with divergences that are short (1 + done) and then I get right back on the path. (But I am not purposefully having non-compliant items. The vacation presented me with plenty of opportunities to eat badly. Thankfully I "only" had what I did.)
---As far as the question about worries about deficiencies with following the MWL lifestyle, I don't have any. I've been a vegetarian for so many decades, + a vegan + McDougall/WFPB eater on + off for almost as long, that I have pretty much had all the ?'s thrown at me about deficiencies with this WOE, + I am a firm believer that the McDougall/MWL WOE is THE way for all people to eat forever...so when I haven't done so, that's why I feel such a war inside. After all, there are plenty of moral lines that I have never crossed, because I have such strong beliefs of what is right + wrong. But when it comes to eating, it seems that in more recent years I've either been "on" or "off". Years ago I was okay with being about 90-100% on all the time. But as I've gotten older, read the information for myself, + have developed serious health problems, my convictions of the importance of following this WOE have only solidified even more (as if possible since already so firm). I obviously desperately need work in this area of my life. That's why I'm here. That's why I keep trying. That's why I'm not giving up. And my health needs me to keep working on this!!
---My goals for this week are to get to bed sooner + to keep on keeping on working towards better + better adherence to MWL. We have an array of apples, peppers, cabbages, hard winter squash, potatoes, + Romanesco (a cross of cauliflower + broccoli=delicious!) that we brought home from our vacation, so I have everything I need to have a great MWL week..."just" have to consistently get my head in the right place.
---Hope everyone is having a wonderful Fall (or Spring wherever you may live).