Dr. McDougall's Online Discussion Board

Debbie,

what you describe has not been my experience, but i was just trying to help. hopefully someone else will have some advice that will be more helpful to you.
i was going with the data i had, not the label on the box, don't worry, i do know how to read a label, but thanks:)

Emily

Thanks for the great examples of how to figure % of calories from fat. Very helpful.

After reviewing your post, I see where you got confused. You are refering to percentage of calories as fat, which is a totally different issue. Try to think of it this way:

you have a gallon of water and add a tsp of oil
the percentage of calories as fat calories is 100% but the percentage of fat to the total foodstuff is very low.....does that make sense? It's a low fat food when combined with so much water and/or other low calorie substance, just using water as an example here.

I may not be the best to explain this to you, so I'll quit trying:)

Wishing you the best.

Hey debbie

looks like you're going MWL for 15 days. I'll keep track of ya, if you'll peek in on me w/my 30 days MWL.

keep on going. i feel really good, four days into my MWL -athon.

blessings, Heidi

Debbie-

Thanks for stopping by my journal. I've been reading your saga about the family and have to say I'm sorry. I am lucky that I have a very supportive immediate family and an extended family that may make comments but then go about there own business. The last time I had a change in my eating and lost a lot of weight (140#) I had many of the problems you are having but not with family. What was sad is that I was just eating a calorie restricted version of a SAD food plan with just a few restrictions (no fried foods or breads) and you would have thought I was doing something radical. I was going to a support group and kept being reminded "no one cares what you eat and no one is watching what you eat- it is all in your head." Well that wasn't my experience- I had people coming up all the time commenting on what I was or was not eating or if I chose not to eat at a certain function, or brought my own food in case there wasn't anything I felt safe eating etc- they were definitly watching what I ate and for some reason cared. I was trying very hard to be unobtrusive about it but once my weight loss started being noticeable I didn't have to say a word for people to start watching.

I had a friend give me some suggestions of responses. Her pat responses are "Hmmm", "you don't say", and "well, you might be right" over and over again and never otherwise engaging people about the subject. Obviously not to people who were asking honest questions just to people who think they have a reason to "educate" me over and over again. For the most part that worked. I did however have one coworker who became almost harasing if I wouldn't eat whatever she thought should be eaten. I had to have a talk that began with "I want to have a good working relationship with you but that is not going to be possible unless you accept that I get to make the decisions about what foods I eat and when I choose to eat them...." Unfortunatly I didn't have that conversation quite soon enough and somewhat went off on her at a department party one day. I hope you have better luck setting boundries about your families food choices and can do that in a nonemotional way.

Boy this got long- sorry for hijacking your journal.

Lisa

Could it be that by commenting to your MIL you signalled to her that it's ok with you to comment on other peoples food choices? If so she might not understand why now you're upset that she is doing that.

"I have them talking and maybe, just maybe one day, like when I get the weight off, they will say Hmmmmm. And that is what I am after. Just to get them thinking:-)))"-

You know Debbie, you have to lead by example. I have lost almost 20 lbs, but last Monday, I saw a couple friends I have not seen for a while. Not one of them said, Jan, you have lost weight!! Now I know I have more to lose but I was talking to another friend today & asked her, is it just me or can you see I have dropped weight? She is like, yes, Jan, you can see it. So while I dont need them to notice, it would be nice if one of them said something. But maybe at 30-35 lbs. they will notice or say something. Funny thing is, 3 yrs. ago, I took off about 40 lbs, doing that horrible kimkins thing. They all saw me & they all commented, even before I got to 40 lbs lost. And one of my friends commented on how healthy I looked. Healthy??? I look at my skin, my hair, I look so much better now than I ever did back then. I have about 15 lbs to get to where I was then, so I am curious, will they say anything or is it because I am doing this "vegan" thing & that is why they wont say anything. Because they all do know that I am doing McDougall. I dont know & I dont really care. I am doing this for me, not them. Most of the time, I dont want people to notice, but you get to a point where you wonder, is it just me or what?
Ha,ha, maybe they are all talking about me behind my back!!!

Jan