Melissa's MWL Journal April, 2020

[medamoso]

Today is my fourth day of MWL. I decided to totally commit and see how it goes. I had been eating a lot of nuts and seeds and was not losing weight. Then on Friday I at a bunch of processed snacks and dairy and have just been overeating in general. I found Plantified Kiki (or some similar name) on Youtube and she was very inspiring, so I have decided to recommit. I've taken to heart the 50/50 plate, even at breakfast where I have been having a bowl of steamed vegetables (usually cabbage, mushrooms, spinach) along with my bowl of oatmeal. But actually I have been having a lot of gas, which is uncommon for me even though I eat veg and beans all the time. As I write this I am getting the idea it might be the steamed cabbage...so I am going to leave that out tomorrow morning! Before breakfast I ate a pear.

Lunch today was a large salad, (dressing=mustard, maple syrup, rice vinegar) then some baked curried (garam masala) potato pancakes (made by mashing sweet and regular potatoes along with the leftover steamed veg from breakfast, forming into pancakes and baking on parchment paper on 425 for 35 minutes.) I also had an orange.

For dinner I am going to cook some white beans, and have bean tacos on corn tortillas. I'll chop lettuce, onion, tomato, have a side of brussel sprouts, and start with a fruit...probably another pear or some homemade apple sauce. I'm actually hungry so I'm going to go make dinner now.
After dinner I was still in the mood to eat. I had a pear, and then all I could think of were the (dairy-free) chocolate chips in the cupboard. So I ended up mashing a banana, mixing some oat flour and oats, baking powder, splash of vinegar, pumpkin pie spice, and a tbsp of chocolate chips. I made into four scones and baked them (375 for 15 minutes.) I had two along with some licorice spice tea. It wasn't the best thing I could have had but it wasn't the worst. I am recording it in case I want to look back and see what I ate, etc.

I didn't do any exercise today though, so maybe I'll do yoga or a youtube low impact dance video. Usually I walk outside but today I cold and windy. I don't mind the cold as much as the wind. ...Did not do any exercise video. Just finished dinner, washed dishes, and now I'm ready for bed. It's only 7:53 pm.

A 10-Point Checklist for Maximum Weight Loss

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals, filling half your plate (by visual volume) with non-starchy vegetables and 50% (by visual volume) with minimally processed starches. Choose fruit for dessert.
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts, too. If either is troublesome for you, you can eliminate them. (wasn't sugar free because of the chocolate chips, but overall greatly reduced.)
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
6. Eliminate any added oil. (chocolate chips)
7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (i.e., bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit. had corn tortillas, which I've seen/read he says is ok on MWL
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). which is sad because I've been so consistent with my walking, but not today

Melissa, age 51
starting weight 230
Friday before recommitting to MWL: 210
today: 206

[medamoso]

Breakfast:
Orange
Oatmeal pancakes: mashed banana, oat flour, baking powder, vinegar, water, topped with mashed banana and wild blueberries.
water sauteed mushrooms and spinach.

Lunch:
1/2 grapefruit
Baked potato pancakes with garam masala seasoning and peas and applesauce (I ate this after the salad)
Large salad with white beans, mustard, rice vinegar, maple syrup dressing
Brussel spouts
date

Dinner:
baked potato fries with ketchup/hot sauce
green smoothie*
white beans
sweet potato lentil chili
apple sauce and dates

I took a long walk today (1 1/2 hours).

*Knowing we are not supposed to drink our calories, I still opted for a green smoothie at dinner because I wanted to eat some raw greens but I didn't want to have another salad. The smoothie had: 1 banana, 1 date, some frozen berries/cherries, lots of spinach, water.

I am out of white potatoes which is a bummer because I will probably have to go shopping tomorrow. But I'm also out of fruit, and onion powder, and probably a bunch of other things.

Also, my gas is way down having not had cooked cabbage today, thank goodness.

A 10-Point Checklist for Maximum Weight Loss

1.Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals, filling half your plate (by visual volume) with non-starchy vegetables and 50% (by visual volume) with minimally processed starches. Choose fruit for dessert.
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts, too. If either is troublesome for you, you can eliminate them.
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
6. Eliminate any added oil.
7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (i.e., bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit.
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).