AUGUST 2021 Maintenance Thread

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AUGUST 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Lyndzie » Fri Aug 06, 2021 8:33 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 friends!

Welcome to August! The days are starting to shorten, and the end-of-summer harvest is coming in. Right now the farmer’s market is bursting with fresh produce of every kind. Around here the best foods are vine-ripened tomatoes and sweet corn. What seasonal foods are you enjoying right now?

First check in of the month is today, Friday, August 6.

Lindsey
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Re: AUGUST 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Ejeff » Sat Aug 07, 2021 8:37 am

Starchyme, how great you are mastering maintenance. I am quite similar to you, it’s easier to eat simply and I try out recipes only sometimes. Also I agree, eating out is the trickiest part. You are doing better at that than I am. I have much room for improvement in that area.

This week zucchini was on sale, so made a big pot of veggie soup and have also been eating it air fried. I have a lot of romaine lettuce in my garden boxes so won’t be needing to buy any lettuce for a bit. Today I will cook up another big pot of brown rice and freeze some. I haven’t been doing so good eating dark leafy greens, but did have cauliflower this week.

I made Jeff’s recommended dressing using navy beans instead of butter beans. Quite good, will be making it again. It’s just a can or 1.5 cups of beans, few TBS of bean liquid (I used water), 3 TBS lemon juice or balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp dill.

Have a good week!

Erin
"The more disciplined your environment is, the less disciplined you need to be. Don't swim upstream."
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Re: AUGUST 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Suey51 » Sat Aug 07, 2021 8:41 am

Hi everyone!

Well another month, and another year older! :lol: We travelled to Southern Spain last weekend and have been very busy working on the house here. We are making progress, but there is still a lot to do. The weather here is much hotter than the UK so its been fresh fruit and muesli (rather than my usual porridge/oatmeal) for breakfast and salads for lunch and dinner. I made a tabbouleh yesterday which was very refreshing.

We are weighing on new scales so not sure whether we've both lost a couple of pounds or its due just the different scales! As its so hot, I'm having to remember to drink more water than usual so it could also be slight dehydration :?

How's things going with your new place Lindsey?

Best wishes, Sue xx
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Re: AUGUST 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Lyndzie » Mon Aug 09, 2021 7:17 pm

Erin - I’ve been meaning to try the bean dressing recipe, thanks for putting that back on my radar. Sounds like the Canada/US border is back open, I’m planning on being in Arizona just after Christmas, if you make it down I’d love to meet up.

Sue - Happy birthday! What house projects are you working on? Muesli has been my summer breakfast this year, too.

We’re having the usual Midwestern thick summer air. The air is filled with the sound of cicadas night and day, with fireflies dotting the lawns at dusk. It is so humid that stepping outside feels like putting on a wooly sweater. I love it.

Last week I had my annual physical and all is well. I was really fretting about my weight but I apparently was only up 1 lb from last time, which was a relief. Still waiting on the lipids panel results, but all other labs were good. I get countertops in next week, and with that are the sinks, so I’ll be able to have a better functioning kitchen. Appliances are hard to come by, so I’m not sure how long it will be before there is a stove/oven and dishwasher, but I am grateful for a proper countertop to make dinner on.

Cook’s Illustrated had a veggie paella recipe recently that looked delicious and only needs minor tweaking, so that is on my list of new dishes to try. I also stumbled upon a recipe for arepas with fresh sweet corn that sounds amazing as well.

We’ve restarted our local monthly WFPB pitch in group, and had our second meet up yesterday. It’s only the core group of eight of us, but it is so nice to share meals with like-minded folks. I’ll be hosting the next one mid-September. One of the members brought a Lentil Casserole that was quite tasty. Omit oil, of course, and top with your favorite cheese alternative sauce. It’s super easy to throw together and very filling.

Have a great week, everyone!
Lindsey
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My pregnancy journal: Maybe a Baby 2017
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Re: AUGUST 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Suey51 » Sat Aug 14, 2021 4:15 am

Hi everyone,

Erin - that salad dressing sounds good - I'll give it a try.

Thanks Lindsey. Good news on the annual check up results :-D Did you get the countertops and sink in to the kitchen this week? That'll make a massive difference! We weren't expecting to do any 'proper' house projects during this visit, more maintenance like cleaning, gardening, inside and outside painting, repair to outside render and patio tile grouting and then possibly a new bathroom next year. However, we've discovered lots of small issues related to interior plumbing, garden irrigation system and kitchen appliances. Nothing major but just a lot more than we expected! How lovely to be back having WFPB meetups again :-D

Its still very hot here so mostly salads with occasional hot rice and veggies or baked potato with salad for dinner. Bought a new hand blender so was able to make some hummus this week.

Best wishes, Sue xx
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Re: AUGUST 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Ejeff » Sun Aug 15, 2021 8:14 am

Lindsey, I will definitely let you know if we get down to Arizona, would be great to meet in person.

Sue, nice you got a hand blender to make hummus. I made a big batch this week and thinned it out for my daily salads. I like to add a few dashes of Frank’s hot sauce as I love spicy things.

Spent the day at a lake yesterday with the kids. Was quite nice to just people watch and relax, although the smoke was bad again. It had cleared up for a couple of days, but I guess the winds changed again and blew it our way. We ate at a pizza restaurant on the way home. Bad choice again...ordered a pizza, but it came with Daiya cheese. Need to remind myself to always have that removed. Other than that it’s been a great week food wise. I bought a watermelon and have been eating a slice each day. Gosh it’s so good and refreshing. Just wondered do you usually put red cabbage in your daily salads? Not sure why it’s called red when it’s purple lol. Anyways I really like some crunch in my salad so I sometimes add finely chopped carrots. But I really enjoy adding lots of cabbage which I slice thin on my mandolin.

Sweet potatoes on sale this week, well they are yams actually. I plan to buy several and enjoy those this week as my main starch.

Wishing everyone a great week.

Erin
"The more disciplined your environment is, the less disciplined you need to be. Don't swim upstream."
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Re: AUGUST 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Lyndzie » Sun Aug 15, 2021 7:49 pm

Sue - How hot is it in your area? You are in Spain at the moment, right? We’ve been vacillating between very hot spells and hints of fall this past week. Good luck with all the menial household tasks, homes can be never ending projects! Europe has such a long history and some of buildings are impressively old, particularly in comparison to the States.

Erin - Hot sauce and hummus are such a winning combination! Sriracha is a good one for that, too. Sorry to hear about the smoke in your area, the wildfires this year have been unbelievable. Eating out is always a challenge, but it sounds like you have a plan for the next time you get pizza. Watermelon is so perfect in the summer! I personally enjoy cabbage in salads for the same reason - it adds nice color and delicious crunch. Have you seen the Chef AJ video on making the perfect salad? I’ll have to dig it up, she has really good advice for making a delicious and filling salad.

My countertops go in tomorrow, and sinks the next day - yay! Electricians finish up in the morning, too. Unfortunately, it looks like a stove will be at a minimum 6 weeks out, but I can get pretty far with a food processor and instant pot if I have a place to wash up the dishes when I’m done. One of my favorite summer treats is a chocolate smoothie - 2 frozen bananas, 2 tbsp cocoa powder and 1/2 c vanilla almond milk. Tastes like a chocolate shake, so yummy! Hopefully I can whip up a batch of chickpea salad for quick lunches, too.

The Delta variant seems to be spreading quite quickly all over the place. Be cautious out there!
Lindsey
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Re: AUGUST 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Ejeff » Fri Aug 20, 2021 7:49 am

Lindsey, thanks for reminding me of siracha. I use it also. I just made a salad dressing and added it, spice always ramps up the dish for me. I have probably seen the perfect salad video by Chef AJ, but will find it again. That’s so great your kitchen is almost completed now, so hard to function without a sink. I will try that chocolate shake soon. I made nice cream last night and it was pretty good.

Made some banana muffins this week that actually turned out. My muffins usually don’t rise well. This recipe called for some plant milk so I used cashew, perhaps the lethicin in it made a difference. I will have to try the recipe again using homemade oat milk as an experiment. Perhaps I over mix the batter. Also made the Mexican lasagna recipe one of the McDougall favourites. It was tasty and easy to make so will make it again. I think I would add more veggies next time like green peppers. I was tired of all the little bags in the freezer with herbs and such so made a big pot of soup. It’s been lunch preload all week. Green beans were on sale and so nice and fresh tasting.

From cooking with plants I made the lemon sauce. It’s really quite nice for pasta. I always used to love Alfredo sauces and this is a nice substitute. Most of the creaminess comes from potato, but the recipe does call for 1 TBS tahini.

Was invited to kayak down the river this week. We had a perfect day for it, not too hot and nice and sunny. It was about a 3 hour trip and was nice and peaceful. My friend has blow up kayaks, super handy as everything needed fits in one bag, pump, paddle, seat etc.

Hope everyone has a great week. :-)

Erin
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Re: AUGUST 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Suey51 » Fri Aug 27, 2021 12:46 am

Hi Lindsey. Its been up to 36 degrees here but thankfully not as hot as some other parts of Spain. We've adapted to the weather, doing jobs in the morning and having a siesta or just staying in the shade in the afternoon. How are things in the kitchen?

Erin - the kayaking sounds fun!

This week I made Plantiful Kiki's Warm Potato and White Bean Salad which was easy and delicious. We had some baked potatoes in the fridge so I chopped and roasted one with the seasoning mix in the recipe. We liked it so much, I made it again the next day with the last baked potato! It uses a ranch style dressing and I did the white bean version. I generally avoid making creamy sauces as my husband doesn't like them on pasta. However, he enjoyed this one so I'll make it again for other salads. I'll also use the seasoning for roasting baked potatoes on their own. Yesterday I made one of my fav Spanish-style dishes of chickpeas and spinach and we have leftovers for today :-) Last week I made another of my fav dishes, Ottolenghi's Bulghur Pilaff (without the oil) when we had a friend over for lunch.

We had some fresh lychees from the garden which have been a real treat :-) There are various other small trees in the garden here - lemon, orange, mandarin, plum, pear, almond, peach, mango and avocado - but they look a little neglected. There a few tiny fruit on some of the trees so we are giving them some feed and lots of water to so if we can persuade them to produce more fruit next year. We've fixed some problems with the garden irrigation system and that seems to be working now. :-D

Best wishes, Sue x
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Re: AUGUST 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Lyndzie » Fri Aug 27, 2021 7:58 am

Erin - Do you have a regular muffin recipe you go to? My middle daughter has been requesting blueberry muffins. The McDougall Mexican Lasagne recipe looks simple and so yummy, I’ll put that in the queue. Do you have a link to the lemon sauce recipe?

Sue - The warm potato salad recipe looks like a winner, thanks for sharing! I’ll need to give that a go once my oven is in. The bulgar salad looks delicious as well. Fresh lychee fruit from the tree? That sounds amazing! Hopefully the love you give your trees now will pay off with next year’s harvest. How long are you planing on staying in Spain?

Recently I have been thinking about why off-plan foods have felt extra-tempting to me this past year - is it pandemic stress? Divorce stress? Work stress? Then, I had a lightbulb moment: Doug Lisle’s lecture on The Perfect Personality. As a person that craves variety, eating the same basic dishes every meal leads me to seek novelty outside of the house. With the kitchen appliances on order, I’m not going to be able to completely rectify the situation immediately, but by accurately diagnosing the dilemma, I can work towards the solution.

Once I get a stove top in I plan on making this Paella de verduras (sorry for the paywall, you can at least read the accompanying article). Some oil is using for sautéeing, which is easily replaced with water. After I make it I will post the recipe if it is as good as I am expecting.

It took a fair amount of digging, but I found Chef AJ’s 8 S’s to Superior Salad Satisfaction staring at 29:00 on Gustavo Tulosa’s youtube channel (which is an absolute treasure)! Here is the cheat sheet to keep handy for your next meal:

Chef AJ’s 8 S’s to Superior Salad Satisfaction
1. Salad - greens, cabbage, lettuce
2. Sweet - fruit: fresh apples, pears, grapes, berries; thawed mango; canned pineapple
3. Salty - celery, dulse?
4. Sour - lemon juice, lime juice, 2 tbsp
5. Savory - herbs: mint, parsley, red onion, qetc
6. Starch - wild rice, brown rice, beans, potato, quinoa (1 cup)
7. Specialty - (optional) pomegranate seeds, artichoke hearts, hearts of palm
8. Sauce - dressing: vinegar

Bonus! Crunch - cucumber, jicama, water chestnuts
Chop it up!!

Since this does not involve a stove, I’m going to include this in next week’s meals. I’ll use either Jeff’s tahini dressing or the Esselstyn’s 3-2-1 dressing since I do not do MWL.

“Talk” to you all soon!
Lindsey
My food journal: Adventures in Eating
My pregnancy journal: Maybe a Baby 2017
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Re: AUGUST 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Ejeff » Sun Aug 29, 2021 7:55 am

Lindsey, here is the link to the lemon sauce. I didn’t have the kala/namak.
https://youtu.be/giCJccYfgi8

As for a go to muffin recipe, I don’t really have one. Usually my muffins don’t rise, but this is the banana one I tried, maybe you could add blueberries to it. These did rise nicely.
https://faithfulplateful.com/banana-muf ... wfpb-vegan

Good you had a lightbulb moment for yourself.good to understand why we do the things we do to help us improve.

Thanks for the superior salad information. I will have to try the mango, as I have some in the freezer and I’ve never put into salad. I usually add peppers that I’ve previously air fried and frozen for the sweet.

Sue thanks for the warm potato salad recipe, I will also try it.

Week has been good, lots of salads as my garden romaine needs to be eaten. Played in a very fun Pickleball tournament yesterday, won a $25 gift card to a local restaurant. Also got in a couple long walks this week while chatting with friends. Didn’t do too much cooking with recipes. I made date paste which is handy to have in the fridge to add to oats sometimes.

Have a good week.
Erin
"The more disciplined your environment is, the less disciplined you need to be. Don't swim upstream."
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Re: AUGUST 2021 Maintenance Thread

Postby Lyndzie » Fri Sep 03, 2021 1:17 pm

Lindsey
My food journal: Adventures in Eating
My pregnancy journal: Maybe a Baby 2017
www.lindseyhead.coach
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