Okay I got on the scale this morning and the number is up 2 from the last weigh in about two weeks ago. Which isn't surprising, though deeply disappointing.
I want to think about what is different between my three forays into McDougalling.
In 1995 I first heard about The McDougall Plan and bought the book. This launched me into a "diet mentality" trial of this lifestyle starting in Jan 95. I was full bore, 100% in the game, no cheating. Didn't own a scale at the time but my youngest was five months old and I had weighed at the dr's office at her delivery/birth/what have you. That weight if I remember correctly was 230, and I gained weight really fast after she was born. Jeans I had been wearing were not able to get over my thighs; I had to choose 3x tops, and was wondering if I'd need to special order my underwear, as the largest sizes at Walmart were too tight. I estimate that I went over 300 lbs at that point. What really got me wanting to lose weight was the fact that I had to ride in the back seat of an old VW van along icy roads, to a women's thing for church...without a seat belt. Because I was so fat a seat belt couldn't reach around me.
Again, not owning a scale, I do not know how much weight I lost, but within a week or two of strict adherence, I was absolutely bursting with energy and going down in clothing sizes. Seriously. I was a homeschool mom, and when we'd get families together for things, I was always joining in with whatever the kids came up with. Snowball fights in the winter. Baseball games and hikes in the better weather. While all the other homeschool parents watched. So much energy I didn't know what to do with myself.
Because I was raising kids, and we had sit down meals for everything, I was able to fix the foods I wanted for about nine months. But they wanted meat, and I sometimes cooked a roast chicken or other such, and then I started having a taste of non McDougall stuff, and then I stopped McDougalling altogether. Stuck with my whole foods, high fat, omnivore ways for a couple of decades. Gained lots of weight back of course, all the way back up to 275 lbs. In 2005 I got on a keto style something "Idiot Proof Diet" off the internet and lost LITERALLY five lbs a week, steadily. Destroyed my gut and IBS has been an issue for me ever since. It was great losing the poundage, but I wouldn't do it again. I'd rather have a healthy digestive tract, tyvm.
Got off that diet and gained back to 235, then rediscovered McDougall
in 2009. I was back with the full guns, 100% adherence, never cheating and lost 55 lbs between Labor Day 2009 and Easter 2010. Then I had a feast day and ate some Reese's miniatures, sent myself on a binge that lasted a few weeks, and gained 10 lbs in a month. Stopped myself and got back serious w. McDougalling and took those lbs off readily. From 2010 to about 2014 I either lost weight or maintained at about 175, and absolutely PACKED with energy. I worked two miles from home, so in moderate weather I walked there and back. On days that I did not walk to work, I would go for a brisk walk after getting home from work. At work, I would do push ups off the edge of my desk (I was aiming for 100 pushups a day, and did them 20 or 25 at a time) Yoga in the morning, a couple miles worth of walking a day. Even some jogging. I wasn't hanging out on this website much, but I was McDougalling and yoga-ing consistently and never felt better in my entire life.
Then I met Wylie and got "happy and fat" in a relationship. Gained 60 lbs and have kept right there for the past six years, with maybe a 5-8 lb fluctuation. I have never strayed back to an omnivore diet, though I do have a piece of turkey meat on Thanksgiving because I am not a vegan. So yes, my every day foods are still starch centered, but with Wylie I go out to eat more, and eat what he fixes when he cooks, even if there's oil in the ingredients. So I gained the weight, and I guess two years ago I decided to make a more regular appearance back here on the journal forum, to start monitoring myself and get back to serious with McDougalling.
And this past year I've gotten closer and closer to consistent compliance, until the beginning of 2020 when I decided zero processed and zero fats, added or otherwise. Thinking back, I guess I had two meals that were not within these guidelines, and six days that included chocolate as the ONLY non-McDougall item. And I just don't care. It isn't that I'm doubting this is the healthiest way to eat. I know how good I feel, regardless of the lame stupid asinine scale. But that gung-ho, 100% in-the-game mode has never come back to me. Is that because I have 10 years in it? I consider myself a strict vegetarian, and will not eat animal flesh as a regular part of my diet ever again. I love starches. Rice is my absolute favorite food, and garbanzos are second. So I don't have a problem not eating animal protein, but keeping the fats down, or staying strictly away from refined/processed is problematic.
(I have eaten whole foods my entire life, since early teens really. I've stuck with whole grain, always made my own meals at home from scratch ingredients that I bought in the peripherals of the store rather than meal kits or freezer entrees. So yeah, processed foods haven't ever been the majority of my calories even when I was eating high fat omnivore)
Anyway...this time around, getting in and staying in strict adherence mode is just not happening. I eat healthy for my meals and if I happen to find a feast waiting for me when I get home, I eat what was prepared in love. I don't avoid eating out. Hello? Eating out is a good bonding time among loved ones. Why would I avoid that? I don't do it very often, but I don't turn away from it, either.
Another difference. This time around, I am in menopause and my metabolism is lower than it used to be...heh. Didn't think THAT was possible. I'm also a decade older, and the most recent weight gain brought with it sore feet and a bum knee so the simple exercise of walking is literally not doable until I take some pounds off. Aging has also brought with it a lighter sleep cycle, and much more difficulty falling back asleep if I do wake at night. And getting enough sleep is a factor in weight loss...
But what I want to know is, where's the super energy? Again thinking "Well, I've been drifting along in McDougall Land for 10 years. Maybe I am at the energy level already." and then the thought "Holy cow, what would I feel like if I had eaten ominvore or even worse, SAD all this time?" BUT if I had eaten SAD all this time, and then picked up McDougalling again, would the change be drastic and the weight just fall off? As it is, because I've followed somewhat closely to the McDougall way, the change in energy isn't as noticeable as it was the first and second times I "started"...???
Another difference: I now work at a desk rather than running all over with disabled adults. My kids are all moved out, not busy teenagers keeping me on my toes. Sitting a lot simply saps your energy. Period.
So these are my random McDougalling thoughts after stepping on the scale and seeing the non-results after a 90% adherent month.
trying really hard to care even one little bit.
by bunsofaluminum » Fri Jan 17, 2020 2:49 pm 
It still tastes as good, even though it's the (how many days) of eating the stuff. 
to avoid nibbling the Nuggets o' Fat that movie popcorn actually is. 
I had a little stockpile of Lindt 78% and 85% bars, and I'm currently on my last...maybe I won't buy more, eh? 
