FEBRUARY 2021 Maintenance Thread

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FEBRUARY 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Lyndzie » Thu Feb 04, 2021 8:57 pm

Welcome to the McDougall Maintenance support group! Let’s join together for support and camaraderie while we strive to maintain our successes.

Many of us have lost weight and/or reached other health goals. We’re ready for that next chapter, maintaining the gains we’ve accomplished.

This group will have Friday check ins, where everyone can touch base. Weigh-ins are optional, and will not be tracked. Please feel free to share your non-scale victories (NSV) as well.

In order to foster group participation, we do ask that only participants post, so please do join! You can join at any time simply by hitting the “post reply” button and saying something along the lines of “I’d like to join.” As they say, the more, the merrier.


Hello everyone!

Groundhog’s Day is a holiday celebrated on the 2nd of February in North America. Traditionally, a groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil predicts the arrival of spring based on his shadow. February 2nd also happens to be the halfway point between the winter solstice and spring equinox, which in my mind seems to be a better predictor of seasons than a rodent. This year Phil predicted another 6 weeks of winter, and sure enough, here in the midwest we’re getting an Arctic blast that is forecast to last the next week or so, with temperatures staying below 0°C for the foreseeable future.

Since we are a diverse group spread across three continents and both hemispheres, how is the weather right now impacting your food choices? If you have warmer weather, what seasonal fruits are you enjoying? If you are in a chilly locale, what comfort foods are you turning to to stay warm?

The first check in of the month is Friday, February 5, 2021.

Stay safe, wash your hands, wear a mask, and eat starch,
Lindsey
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Re: FEBRUARY 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Suey51 » Fri Feb 05, 2021 2:51 am

Thanks Lindsey for setting up the Feb thread and reminding me it was Groundhog Day this week. By coincidence, I re-watched the film last week!

The weather here in Southern Spain is currently about 15-20 degrees in the middle of the day and c. 10 degrees at night. We are lucky to have fruits like mangoes, bananas, pomegranets, oranges, mandarins, grapefruits and lemons plus sweet potatoes, salads and greens all growing locally. We generally have a salad for lunch and try to eat outside if it's warm enough. It's cooler in the evenings so we have more winter-y foods like soup, stews or baked potatoes then.

I'm very grateful that my senses of taste and smell are steadily returning. I have, however, been tempted to sample some off program items just to check what I can taste :lol: As a result, my weight is a little higher than last week at 1 pound over goal. I'll now focus on getting back to normal eating.

I resumed some of my usual activities this week, which felt good, but realised that I need to pace myself as I'm still not back to full strength. The whole experience has been a useful reminder not to take my health for granted and to make the most of each day.

Best wishes to all xx
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Re: FEBRUARY 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Ejeff » Fri Feb 05, 2021 11:37 am

Sue, glad your taste is coming back. I would be tempted to sample some things also. :-D

Lindsey, I know what you mean about sometimes the food gets boring. Yesterday I made the Moroccan lentil soup from the recipe you gave me in 2019. So yummy I will be eating it every day for a few. When I don’t know what to eat or get bored I usually have fries as they seem to be my favourite.

The next few days we are hitting -32C for the lows and -24C for the highs. Might not spend much time outside other than to shovel.

Even though it’s cold I still enjoy my huge salad rice bowls. I don’t think I will ever get tired of them. As for fruits I try to have frozen blueberries most days. And I always have apples, oranges and bananas on hand. I haven’t been eating apples often enough although I likely don’t need too much fruit anyway as my veggie intake is quite high.

I made another batch of corn butter, it’s just 1/4 cup cornmeal with 1 cup water cooked on stove until thick. Then that is blended with a bit more water, salt, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar and 1 tsp lemon juice. It’s supposed to have nooch 2 teaspoons, but I was out of it and seemed quite good without it. Very tasty on homemade bread.

Have a great week!
Erin
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Re: FEBRUARY 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Suey51 » Wed Feb 10, 2021 11:55 am

Thanks Erin :) And thanks for mentioning the corn 'butter'. I haven't made it in ages so will give it a go. Gosh, that weather does sound cold where you are! You're brave to carry on eating salads at those temperatures:)

Am having a better week eating-wise after reminding myself of the reasons why I decided to eat this way, and re-reading some of Dr LIsle's book The Pleasure Trap. Realised I needed to have a good long period without any 'magic foods'. Its amazing how quickly the weight has settled back to its usual level when I cut out all the magic foods! Am feeling back to normal energy levels so did some batch cooking on Sunday and Tuesday; a couple of new recipes - barley with garlic, mushrooms and spinach (very good), a mixed veggie and pearl barley soup (needed some tweaks) plus some of our regulars - hummus and roasted veggies with bulgur.
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Re: FEBRUARY 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Suey51 » Fri Feb 12, 2021 4:21 am

Have had 5 days of very close compliance to the regular McD program and the results have shown up on the scales and in improved self-esteem. :-D I spent some time on Sunday and Monday working through things in my journal and came up with a strategy for stopping certain eating habits that have crept in these past few months, based on a combination of:
• Using Dr Lisle’s concept of ‘magic foods’ and description of neuroadaptation in The Pleasure Trap
• Questioning my own beliefs about certain off-program/magic foods being ‘treats’ and
• Practicing a mindful approach to dealing with urges to eat off-program foods in the moment.

Observing my experiences these past few weeks with magic foods helps me understand why I have to cut them out completely. If I eat one biscuit (cookie) it always leads to another one, two or whatever at the same sitting. A habit forms quickly and I want the same item in a similar situation the next day.

Jeff Novick's excellent post, Myth of Moderation, on how small exceptions can add up, was also in my mind this week.

Am going to continue with this approach for the next week

PS Very relieved to say that taste, smell and energy levels are back to normal! :D

Best wishes, Sue x
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Re: FEBRUARY 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Lyndzie » Sat Feb 13, 2021 5:11 pm

Sue - Spain sounds so lovely right now! Do you happen to know of any McDougall-approved tapas recipes? I’d like to live vicariously through cuisine as we get another Arctic blast and more -15C temps. I’ve been enjoying grapefruits, too. It’s so lovely how citrus brings a lovely brightness during the shorter days of the year. Wonderful to hear your taste and smell are returning, it sounds like that can take a while for some. Thank you for your post on “magic foods” and linking to Jeff’s post. The information is very timely.

Erin - That is so nice to hear you enjoyed the Moroccan soup! My daughter requested it a couple weeks back, it’s so nice and warming in the cold weather. You’ve got quite chilly temps in your area, wow! Hopefully the borders are open again next year and you can snow bird again. Thanks for posting the corn butter recipe. Is it jus fine-ground cornmeal, or the coarse ground like you would use for polenta?

Happy Valentine’s Day!. Are you celebrating, and if so, how? The kids and I have made homemade valentines and they get candy, very simple and family-oriented. I am looking forward to warmer weather eventually, but trying to appreciate the winter wonderland outside in the meantime (thank goodness for indoor heating!). Wishing everyone a wonderful week.
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Re: FEBRUARY 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Ejeff » Sun Feb 14, 2021 10:26 am

Sue, glad you feel back to normal!

Lindsey, I bought it bulk, but I would say the cornmeal is more fine. I don’t think it matters which one you use as it is blended at the end.

Happy Valentines to everyone. No special plans. It will warm up this week which will be a big relief. This long cold snap has been very hard on the vehicles and such.

Erin
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Re: FEBRUARY 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Suey51 » Mon Feb 15, 2021 8:18 am

Thanks Erin. I made the corn butter last week, but used frozen sweetcorn as we don't have any cornmeal. It worked pretty well; perhaps a little chunkier in texture than it would be with cornmeal, but very yummy :) Good to hear your weather is going to warm up this week!

Thanks Lindsey. My husband likes to make a veggie paella using his own recipe. We tend to have it as a main course, but its often offered in tapas-sized portions in this part of Spain. There is a McDougall recipe here but I havent tried it as I'm not a big fan of artichokes and happy to let him take the lead on this dish ;) I've made Spinach with Chickpeas and Tortilla (Spanish Omelette) a couple of times, usually for a special occasion meal, and have shared the adapted recipes below. The Spinach with Chickpeas contains almonds so I'm not sure whether it would be 100% McDougall approved at the ratios given here. If not, perhaps you could reduce the quantity or leave those out to make it more compliant?

There are a few other tapas dishes that I'd like to try doing McDougall approved recipes for, so will share them here once I've tried them out!

Espinacas con Garbanzos (Spinach and Chickpeas)
Ingredients
1 jar around 500g or 18 ounces of cooked garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
1 large bag around 300 grams/10 ounces fresh spinach, washed
2 thick slices of day old bread sourdough works well with crusts removed and cut into cubes
15 blanched unsalted almonds
1/4 cup tomato sauce
3 garlic cloves chopped
2 tablespoons Sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar if sherry vinegar is hard to come by
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Ground cayenne pepper to taste
Salt
Black pepper to taste
Smoked Spanish paprika; I use pimentón dulce, but you could also use pimentón picante
Instructions
Heat a large saucepan to medium high and add the spinach (in batches if necessary)
Sauté the spinach until just wilted and remove to strain in a colander
Add the bread cubes and raw almonds to the pan. Fry until the bread and almonds are browned and crispy on each side
Add the chopped garlic, cumin, cayenne and black pepper and sauté for a couple of minutes, until the garlic is fragrant and turning brown.
Transfer the ingredients to a blender/food processor and add the sherry vinegar
Blend the ingredients together until you have a thick paste (you can add a few tablespoons of water if needed to blend easier, but don't over blend and make it gooey)
Return the paste to the saucepan and add your garbanzo beans and tomato sauce
Stir gently until the chickpeas are fully coated by the sauce and add a bit of water to thin things out
Add the spinach and stir gently until it is evenly incorporated and hot
Season with salt and pepper
Once plated, prinkle a small amount of smoked Spanish paprika on top

Based on this recipe: https://spanishsabores.com/espinacas-co ... chickpeas/

Tortilla (Spanish Omelette)
Ingredients
800 grams or 28 oz potatoes (about 4 medium potatoes)
1/2 onion
16 tablespoons gram or chickpea flour
16 tablespoons water for the omelette batter
1 cup or 250 milliliters water (for cooking the potatoes and onion)
Salt to taste
Dash of black salt or Kala Namak (optional)
Instructions
Peel the potatoes and wash them. Cut them in half lengthwise. Then, slice the potatoes in pieces approximately 3 mm or 1/8″ thick. Peel and chop the onion into small pieces.
In a non-stick frying pan, of water and add potatoes, onion and 250 milliliters or 1 cup of water and bring it to boil. You may need to turn down the heat slightly, so the potatoes do not burn. Cook for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are soft. Stir occasionally. Remove the potatoes and onion from the pan with a slotted spoon.
In a bowl, place 16 tablespoons of gram flour and 16 tablespoons of water, add salt and beat by hand with a fork. Pour in the potato onion mixture. Mix all together.
Clean the frying pan and return to the hob on a medium heat. Pour in the potato onion / batter mixture and cook over medium heat for about five minutes. Place a plate over the tortilla and turn it around and cook the other side for about another 5 minutes. Turn the tortilla again if required until it’s totally cooked.

I’ve made this twice and in my frying pan, the mixture tends to stick to the bottom of the pan. When turning the tortilla I’ve scraped off any stuck bits and added them back on the top of the tortilla. (When making this for a special occasion meal with family, I panicked and use a couple of sprays of cooking oil to the pan for the second side which obviously made it a non-McDougall recipe. With a little more patience/practice and/or a different frying pan you may have more success!)

I tend to add a little salt when cooking as it seems to need it for flavour, but for a fully McDougall version, you could leave it out completely and add some when serving if needed. You could also use black salt (Kala Namak) for a more egg-like taste.

Based on this recipe: https://simpleveganblog.com/tortilla-sp ... lutenfree/
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Re: FEBRUARY 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Lyndzie » Mon Feb 15, 2021 8:46 am

Thank you for the recipes! Reading them jogged my memory, and the Forks Over Knives Flavors cookbook has a Spanish tortilla recipe, too. I’ll have to get that out and flip through.

Erin, I feel you on the cold cars. The temps here are getting low enough to cause problems, too.

This week is Mardi Gras! A good time to whip up a Cajun recipe. We’ll be having Hoppin’ John again.
Lindsey
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Re: FEBRUARY 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Suey51 » Wed Feb 17, 2021 8:57 am

Thanks Lindsey; I haven't tried the FOK recipe. Is this the one in your book?

I was looking for new salad recipes today and and found this McDougall one by Chef AJ All Hail To The Kale. It was delicious and got a big thumbs up from my mostly-McDougall husband. Lovely Asian/Thai flavours. :)

Been reading about the very cold weather and disruption in the US this week - hope all are OK x
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Re: FEBRUARY 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Plumerias » Fri Feb 19, 2021 11:38 am

It was a bit of a challenging week, but we're okay here. Thanks for asking.
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Re: FEBRUARY 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Ejeff » Sun Feb 21, 2021 10:04 am

Plumerias, what’s happening in your world, you haven’t posted in a while?

Not much to report. Our weather is like spring this week, we’ve gone from -20C to plus 5C so it’s been very nice. Lately I’ve been air frying frozen broccoli and it’s very quick and tasty. I have also been having rice/veggie bowls with canned tomatoes and green peas. Very easy and tasty.

Sue, I will try that chickpea dish soon.

Hope everyone has an excellent week with some nice sunny days! :-D

Erin
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Re: FEBRUARY 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Suey51 » Sun Feb 28, 2021 2:23 am

Hello. How's everyone's week been? What have you been eating?

With the arrival of March tomorrow I did a quick search for Spring recipes and came up with this McDougall Spring Roll recipe! By coincidence I bought some dried rice pancakes a few weeks ago to make what I would call Summer Rolls, which look to be a pretty close match to this recipe. Think I have all the ingredients apart from a couple so will give them a go this week...

Plumerias - relieved to hear that you're doing OK. :)
Erin - be interested to know how it goes with the chickpea dish! Quick, tasty and easy food sounds like the perfect combination:)
LInsey - how did the Mardi Gras Hoppin' John go?

Watched the True Health Initative interview with Heather McDougall and Dr Lim talking about the online 12 day program this week. It was interesting to hear them talk about the program as well as share fun facts like what they both eat for breakfast! Dr Lim also mentions that people wondering whether the online program might be suitable, can book a one-time consultation with him, the cost of which is completely refunded if they subsequently sign up for the program. Nice!

My husband made a big pot of dark green lentils with rosemary and mashed potatoes which we ate across three days with frozen or fresh green veggies. It was good to be able to assemble a quick and tasty evening meal in a few minutes. It's been another week of learning as I continue to work on the evening snacking habit.

My husband has agreed to talk about his experience with making lifestyle changes as part of a new men's programme run by the community organisation in the UK where we both volunteer. (Public speaking is not something he enjoys so I'm very proud of him for agreeing to do this.) This week he's been preparing some slides and wanted to re-watch Forks Over Knives to check some of the stats that Dr Esselstyn quoted about his heart disease research. After looking online and not finding a way to stream FOK here at the moment, I sent him a couple of videos of presentations by Dr Esselstyn and Dr Ornish. After watching them he announced he was going to make some further refinements in his diet which will bring him closer to the McDougall way of eating:)

Best wishes xx
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Re: FEBRUARY 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Ejeff » Sun Feb 28, 2021 9:01 am

Happy last day of February!

Sue, those lentils with rosemary over mashed potatoes sounds so yummy. Thanks for the link to that video I will watch it this week. That’s so wonderful about your hubby willing to speak and help others. He is already helping his own health in the process for an added bonus. Most of what I watch on YouTube is healthy eating related and I think that is one of the keys to long term success for me. It’s the ongoing reinforcement and education that consistently confirms I am managing my health via my diet. And also exercise of course. :-D

I made some burgers this week which had brown rice, oat flour, corn meal, kidney beans, salsa and veggies. My hubby liked them as they were a bit crunchy since I baked them for almost an hour. I have been trying to eat more beans. The kids are coming for supper so I made a lemon cheesecake from straightupfoods. I will be making tacos and we will have falafel and a cauliflower walnut meat. I made a batch of dorito ranch hummus which we will have with celery, carrots and peppers.

My favourite thing is to add roasted peppers to my big bowls. They are so darn sweet it’s like having candy. I had a bit of bulgur to use up. It’s a very handy grain, just pour boiling water over it and let it sit.

I have been out walking more now that the weather is so much warmer. There is a large group of walkers from the Pickleball club and it’s been fun to walk and catch up on things.

Have a great week everyone.

Erin
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Re: FEBRUARY 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Lyndzie » Sun Feb 28, 2021 8:05 pm

Plumerias - Thanks for touching base, I look forward to hearing more when you have a free minute.

Erin - Spring is on the horizon! Air frying frozen broccoli sounds like a great idea, does it turn out crunchy? I am with you about the youtube videos. What channels do you like? Spot on about bulgur, I love it in the summer when it is too hot to cook. I’m so glad to hear you are able to socialize, it’s been a long winter and we all need our friends more than ever.

Sue - That spring roll recipe looks great. They are such a quick and yummy dish. I like to dip them in Forks over Knives peanut sauce. Thanks for posting the interview, it’s really good to know that Dr Lim does consultations. And, that is such great news to hear that your husband learned some new information and is making positive changes. Your great example has been a good influence. (I also had recently seen the Forks Over Knives is no longer streaming. Drat. Gonna have to buy it.)

This week I made the Vegan 8’s Cheesy Mexican Tortilla bake. It’s really great if you are hosting SAD eaters, and got lots of looks of surprise that it is cheese free. It’s definitely not low-cal with all the cashews, but a great bridge for people skeptical about this way of eating. I’m planning on starting a couch-to-5k this spring. I’ll be moving into my new house next month (yay!), and hopefully will start the exercise routine shortly thereafter. Also, I made a strong commitment to staying on plan 100% this past 10 days and of course the extra pounds just melt off. This Friday I leave on a ten-day vacation, so please wish me luck while on the road and staying with friends.
Lindsey
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