SherryW's Daily Journal

[SherryW]

Hi,

I'm brand new here, but I've been eating mostly WFPB, no oil, no salt, no sugar for a little more than 2 months now.

I'm 53, 5'2" and female for anyone who cares.
Today's morning weight: 171.6 lbs

Beverages: water only

Breakfast: sweet potato & salad (kale, spinach, arugula, red cabbage, carrot, celery, peppers, green onions, red wine vinegar)
Lunch: 1/2 cup quinoa, 1/2 cup white potatoes, 1 cup broccoli cooked in veggie broth
Dinner: 1/2 cup black beans & salad (kale, spinach, arugula, carrot, peppers, red wine vinegar)
Snacks: tangerine and 1 square of Ghirardelli 92% cacao chocolate
(pepper, garlic, oregano, etc as appropriate, but no salt, sugar or oils)

According to the MyFitnessPal app, that's only 716 calories, but I am eating until I feel satisfied and not stuffed.
I am a little worried about cutting back too much, but thought I'd work the plan as close to 100% as I can for a week then re-evaluate.

[SherryW]

Today was a pretty good day, other than I didn't get as much work done as I'd planned.
I'll get there. I'm just starting to recover from a year of bad gallbladder issues followed by surgery.

I read this somewhere recently: Stop digging the hole and start building a ladder.

It's what I tell myself daily to not only keep motivated but to remember everything is a process - which is good to remember because my health and diet aren't the only things I'm trying to improve these days, but WFPB and now McDougal are important rungs on that ladder.

I stayed on plan for my meals and go more exercise in today than yesterday, so progress is being made.
I did go to the grocery store at lunch before I ate and only had a tangerine on the way home, instead of digging into the cookies and bagels my son requested. So, yay me!

Here's what I had today:
Beverages: water only
Breakfast: broccoli and sweet potato
Lunch: quinoa, peas and carrots, salad
Dinner: quinoa, black beans, salad, apple
Snacks: 2 tangerines and 1 block of ghiraldelli 92% chocolate
Exercise: 20 minutes on the treadmill while using light weights for arm exercises
15 minute walk at work

It doesn't look like a lot when it's there in black and white, but I feel like it was a ton of food.
My food app says 982 calories - once I'm more comfortable, I'll stop tracking every day and just do it about one day a week to make sure I'm not overeating, but I'm loving the starchy foods.

I was just thinking how funny it was that I used to not want to start something like this if I it meant I'd have to give up my burgers and fries, but I'm really enjoying the food. I don't feel deprived at all. Maybe I just had to get older to figure all this out. I do, however, feel funny eating more starch than normal. It'll take some getting used to after all these years of thinking starch is the enemy.

I know the chocolate isn't on plan, but I've found a single block (about 70 calories?) seems to curb my cravings and keep me on plan otherwise, so I'm keeping it.

[SherryW]

Today has been chaotic, so just a short post to be consistent.

Beverages - water only
Breakfast - sweet potato and broccoli
Lunch - quinoa, peas and carrots, salad
Snacks - 2 tangerines and 1 92% cacao square

Dinner - I had 1/2 a piece of fresh out the oven, made from scratch french bread - not on plan, but it was really good and I didn't eat half the loaf like I would have a few months ago. so, maybe a win?

It's 10 PM - and I'm still working - maybe I'll eat again, maybe I won't.

exercise - been working like crazy since I got up dealing with problems. that should count, but probably not. So, nooooo real exercise today.

[moonlight]

Hi,

I'm brand new here, but I've been eating mostly WFPB, no oil, no salt, no sugar for a little more than 2 months...

Hi Sherry,
Welcome! Your meals look so yummy!
When I started back on this WOE a couple years ago I was concerned about the calories. If I tracked them and they were lower than 1000, I thought I needed to eat more but I finally stopped worrying about it. If you eat enough starch to keep yourself satisfied you'll be fine. Sometimes I'm embarrassed about how much starch is on my plate compared to my husband's plate (especially eating out when I order two baked potatoes with my salad) but reminding myself I don't have any dairy, meat, or oil on my food helps.

[Ejeff]

Bread is okay to eat, I also love it fresh from the oven. I’m the same height as you and about 4 years older. If you stick with this way of eating you will become slim and healthy. It happened for me and I never counted calories or worried about getting enough. I eat until full and it just works.

I still have burgers and fries, fries made with no oil and veggie or bean burgers. I don’t miss beef burgers at all. It’s true that taste buds do change over time.

[SherryW]

Hi,


Welcome! Your meals look so yummy!
I thought I needed to eat more but I finally stopped worrying about it.

The meals must look yummy - my dog ate my sweet potato and broccoli this morning in the minute it took me to walk out & start the car!

The feeling I can't let my calories drop below a certain point or risk destroying my metabolism has been beat into my head for so many years that it's hard to let go, but I'm learning.

I ended up skipping my planned dinner last night because I wasn't really hungry and just had a couple tangerines before I went to bed. No idea what the final tally would be, and maybe I'll just learn to live with that.

[SherryW]

Bread is okay to eat, I also love it fresh from the oven. I’m the same height as you and about 4 years older. If you stick with this way of eating you will become slim and healthy. It happened for me and I never counted calories or worried about getting enough. I eat until full and it just works.

I still have burgers and fries, fries made with no oil and veggie or bean burgers. I don’t miss beef burgers at all. It’s true that taste buds do change over time.

That's all good to hear, and I'm sure I'll relax a little as I feel more sure of myself and less worried about backsliding.

With the high protein diets, I was fine ... until I wasn't.
It seemed like the least slip into starchy carbohydrates was the end for me. I'd go straight into a bread binge.

[SherryW]

Today was a good-ish day.

I started out with 15 minutes on the treadmill. It's not as much as I wanted to do, but I need to make this a habit. And, for me, part of making a new habit is making it so fast and easy I can't make much of an excuse not to do it. Once I'm doing it without thinking about it, I'll up the time and the intensity. This new way of thinking goes against my grain so much - I'm more of a I want to do it as hard as I can go right now kind of person. But, I've learned that doing it that way means I won't stick to it.

Then, my dog ate my breakfast. Seriously. My 120 lb dog ate my sweet potato and broccoli in the time it took me to walk 10 feet out the door to start the car and walk back in. Luckily, there was another sweet potato waiting in the fridge and he didn't get all the broccoli when I caught him. And, yes - I still ate the rest of the broccoli because I didn't have any more, and because that's how some dog owners are. It's not like I don't get covered in dog slobber on a regular basis anyway.

Then, it was work, work, work.

Here's what I had today:

beverages - water only
breakfast - sweet potato and broccoli
lunch - black beans, quinoa, salad (kale, arugula, spinach, red cabbage, peppers, green onions, carrots, red wine vinegar)
dinner - a cup of frozen cord seasoned with black pepper and an apple (I didn't feel like eating until about 10PM, so made it light-ish).
snacks - 2 tangerines and my daily square of 92% cacao chocolate

Today, I'm trying to wrap my head around not eating if I'm not hungry. In the 2 1/2 months I've been eating plant based, I've been so careful not to let myself get hungry and risk going off plan, that I've started eating by the clock. That's something I didn't do before - I was much more of a grazer and almost never had breakfast. I kind of naturally did the intermittent fasting thing because of that. First meal around 1 or 2 PM, then usually stopped eating around 9 PM - but I also had a lot of late-night, I'm so hungry nothing's every going to fill me up kind of days.

I'm examining my body for loose skin. Does Dr McDougall ever talk about that? I did a search on the site but didn't find a lot other than random comments.

I'm down almost 30 pounds from last year. 10 pounds from high-protein dieting and having a bad gallbladder and nearly 20 from plant based. I have the upper arm jiggle - but so do my skinny friends who're my age. My stomach is surprisingly OK. But my thighs are concerning - it's like the skin is sliding down.

Maybe once most of the fat is gone and I build up some muscle, it'll be OK? After some time? Or, I'll just be content with feeling better and having more energy.

[Lyndzie]

Sounds like you’ll need to cook double for breakfast and plan to share.

[SherryW]

Sounds like you’ll need to cook double for breakfast and plan to share.

Or, be more careful. After he did that, and got yelled at, he still looked at the 2nd sweet potato going into the microwave like I was heating it up for him.

Most of our dogs love sweet potatoes. He loves broccoli too. In fact, he has enjoyed all the plant-based stuff I've made that he's tried. He gets excited when I start to make it. He's old with bad hips so we try to keep his weight down.

[bunsofaluminum]

Oh that dog! My dog did the same thing, only he stole a baked potato right out of my lunch box, which was open on the counter. I turned my back to get something...five seconds?...and he was snarfing it down. Little punk!

Your question about loose skin brought me here. It's a genuine concern, but I'd say the fat that stretches the skin is a worse concern than loose skin. It's possible that it won't be really bad, if the weight comes off slowly. But guaranteed, if loose skin is part of having the fat gone, it's worth it. I never had huge flaps of loose skin, but when I lost 55 lbs quickly, at the beginning of this McDougall journey, I got me some "bat wings"...my upper arms were pretty loose on the underside and I called myself The Avenging Angel because I had guns AND wings And boy did I look better clothed than naked LOL.

[SherryW]

Oh that dog! My dog did the same thing, only he stole a baked potato right out of my lunch box, which was open on the counter. I turned my back to get something...five seconds?...and he was snarfing it down. Little punk!

Your question about loose skin brought me here. It's a genuine concern, but I'd say the fat that stretches the skin is a worse concern than loose skin. It's possible that it won't be really bad, if the weight comes off slowly. But guaranteed, if loose skin is part of having the fat gone, it's worth it. I never had huge flaps of loose skin, but when I lost 55 lbs quickly, at the beginning of this McDougall journey, I got me some "bat wings"...my upper arms were pretty loose on the underside and I called myself The Avenging Angel because I had guns AND wings And boy did I look better clothed than naked LOL.

The loose skin might not be so bad. And, don't get me wrong - I'd rather be thin and healthy with loose skin than fat with everything tightly stretched. And, I probably watch WAY too many of those My 600 lb Life shows, but I love it when things click and they turn their life around.

I've lost 30 lbs in the past year. 10 prior to going plant based. Then 20 in the 10 weeks or so I've been plant based, but this week on the MWL plan, it's falling off. I started the week at 171.8 and this morning it was 169 point something or another. I keep telling myself slow is better, and I'm sure it will slow down, but it's hard not to ride it out when something's working.

[SherryW]

Pretty good day.

Beverages - water only

Breakfast - black beans, quinoa, basic salad (kale, spinach, arugula, vinegar)
Lunch - quinoa, peas, basic salad (kale, spinach, arugula, blueberries, vinegar)
Dinner - Sweet potato & broccoli
Snacks - 2 tangerines, 1 square of 92% cacao

Exercise: 15 minutes on the treadmill

[SherryW]

Friday's weight - 169.2

Beverages - water only
Breakfast - sweet potato & broccoli
Lunch - quinoa, green peas, salad (spinach, kale, arugula, red cabbage, peppers, green onions, carrots, vinegar)
Dinner - quinoa, black beans, salad (spinach, kale, tangerine, blueberries, vinegar)
Snack - 1 square of 92% cacao chocolate

No exercise today

[SherryW]

Today was OK'ish.

The scale was down a little at 168.9.
But, I had some cravings today. The first time, the dry roasted peanuts in the cabinet were calling my name, but I decided to have lunch a little earlier than planned. Next, I made my son a sandwich and the bread looked really good. But, I had an apple instead. So, I guess that's a win.

Today's the first day I've struggled in a long time. It was also the first day I gave up the single piece of dark chocolate I have because I read a page here about chocolate and heavy metal contamination. I actually tossed my last little square into the trash. It looks like it's going to take me a few days to adjust.

Today's food:

beverages - water only
breakfast - sweet potato, broccoli, tangerine
breakfast - black beans, quinoa, basic salad (greens, red cabbage, blueberries and red wine vinegar)
lunch - quinoa, peas, corn, basic salad (greens, red cabbage, blueberries, red wine vinegar)

snacks - an apple

exercise - 30 minutes on the treadmill

I tried out the chronometer site that a lot of people recommend. I like it a lot better than myfitnesspal.