cvwolff wrote:Nettie,
Congratulations. You are a living testimony.
Would you mind sharing your typical menu for a day? Also, please share what you have learned from Dr McDougall and wish to pass on to others.
Thx,
My general suggestions are:
-2 or 3 fruits a day, fresh or frozen.
-at least one (preferably 2) huge salads a day with romaine, spinach, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. with some kind of fatfree dressing. (I use Kraft ff French, as it's the only one that doesn't list oil in the ingredients. I'm too lazy to make my own dressings.)
-eat a 1/2 to 1 cup of beans a day, whatever kind you like
-eat potatoes every day to keep from getting hungry
-NEVER eat refined carbs (like breads, crackers, chips, cookies, cereal, anything with white flour). It just sets you up for cravings and they will sabotage your weight loss every time!
-of course, NO OILS of any kind, even olive oil
-brown rice (NOT white)
-whole wheat breads or ww pasta in limited amounts, but probably not daily; whole grain oatmeal (preferably steel-cut) is probably ok. Stay away from bagels: they have about 300 calories each!
-green & yellow veggies up the wazoo - turnip greens/kale/broccoli/cabbage, etc. - unlimited; they're loaded with phytochemicals & anti-cancer nutrients
-lots and lots of fresh water; no tea, no dairy (soy/rice milks ok)
I eat a lot of stir-fry on the weekends. Snacks are always fruit.
You may even gain weight in the beginning as your body adjusts to the new diet. It's just water weight; don't worry about it. Be prepared for the fact that you will NOT lose a lot of weight in the beginning; it takes about 3 weeks for things to kick in. (I actually lost more weight the 2nd month than I lost in the 1st month.)
Here's my typical week:
Monday through Thursday Breakfast is 2 fruits - (This is because I can't eat breakfast at home because I take a pill that I have to wait an hour after taking. So I eat the fruit once I get to work.)
Lunch is huge baked potato and a huge salad (as above).
Dinner is varied. Always some kind of greens (I adore turnip greens) and/or cabbage, steamed broccoli, etc.; beans (either right out of the can or more often fixed as a soup/stew that I made the weekend before), maybe a sweet potato. It's my largest meal of the day, and I make sure I'm not hungry afterwards. Or I may eat some leftover stir fry. Or perhaps 4-5 ears of freshly cooked corn! Whatever!
Snack is always a big fruit - half a cantaloupe, or half a small watermelon, or big bunch of grapes, an apple, or whatever is on hand.
On Friday through Sunday Breakfast is 2 servings of oatmeal with 2 fruits cut up (banana and whatever berry is on sale [strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, etc.], plus a tablespoon of ground flax seed and a dash of cinnamon.
Lunch is some bean recipe I make from the McDougall Quick & Easy Cookbook. I usually make 2 recipes from the book or the website every weekend so I have something to eat at night during the week. Plus greens of some kind. Salads.
Dinner is similar to lunch. Stir fry (2 1# bags of Birdseye frozen veggies, plus a huge bunch of chopped fresh bok choy, plus a couple of cups of brown rice). Potatoes, whatever it takes to keep from getting hungry.
I pretty much eat all day, actually. One meal sort of morphs into the next one.
Fruit for dessert as we're watching TV.
From the Q&E Cookbook I make the Barbecued Beans & Rice, Quick 10-minute Chili (my husband puts this on bread for a sandwich), the Mexi Soup, Southwest Chili and whatever else I might want to try. I also make a recipe called LoriM's Easy Chili I got from this forum. I make it every weekend! There are tons of recipes in the Recipe Forum.
Other than oatmeal, I avoid most cereals. I can overeat on those, and they definitely slow down (and sometimes reverse) my weight loss. Brown rice is fine.
Buy the Quick & Easy Cookbook. It's great for a busy person like me. As you can see, I eat pretty simply, and the same things all the time. We go to Moe's Southwest Grill and get their "Art Vandalay" (veggie burrito, no cheese, sour cream or guacamole) every weekend. I get mine without the burrito now (called a "streaker').
By the way, all of the above I actually wrote a year and a half ago in a PM to someone who asked me what I ate. In looking it over, I find I'm eating exactly the same, so I cut and pasted it into my answer to you with very few edits.
And, you have to
believe that you deserve to be a normal weight person. I think some of us who struggle with food issues have a lot of self-loathing that gets in the way of our success, especially if we're very obese.
Nettie
by Nettie » Tue Feb 09, 2010 5:50 am 
), I go back to MWL. That's where I am now, although I do add in an extra fruit.
