Warning: Lots of text here. i wanted to get my thoughts down.
I planned this weekend and started on Sunday. I reread Starch Solution and decided to see what it can do for me. I'm a 58 year old female with no major health issues other than medicine controlled high blood pressure and 100 pounds overweight - current weight 267. I'm looking for a hundred pound loss, but really need to get my eating to a consistent healthy eating, so that is my first focus. Weight loss will follow, I hope.
Details on me:
I do well on cooked foods and don't do well with raw food. I can tolerate a small amount of raw food in my meals - about a cup or so. Salads mess up my digestive process.
Favorite veggies are the starchy vegetables: frozen mixed vegetables (corn, lima beans, peas, carrots and green beans), peas and carrots mix and corn. I do like cabbage (red and purple), spinach, kale, frozen cut green beans, and zucchini. Spinach and kale have to be cooked.
I like old fashioned oats, brown rice, and converted rice. Also like potatoes - air fried (oil free) and pressure cooked.
My dog and I take a walk each evening when it's cool enough for the dog. (Having a heat wave, so haven't been able to walk to past few nights.)
I work full time at a job I enjoy and the money is good. It can be stressful, but I'm my own boss to some extent. I have a supervisor, but I can plan what I want to do and how I want to do it as long as I get things done.
Single with no kids.
I live with my 83 year old mom. She has health and money issues, so we decided it was easier to combine households. She can stress me out, but I can deal with her. It's her health issues that are the problem. She will not change how she eats (lots of meat protein, some fruit and vegetables) and doesn't do much exercise. She's under a doctor's care and all I can do it remind her to do her exercise and to eat well.
i don't drink coffee. My drinks are rooibos tea (decaf) with stevia and powdered creamer (1 tbsp), flavored sparkling water (no sugar, aspartame sweetened), and water (I do add a small amount of stevia to the water to make the water palatable for me. It doesn't seem to trigger any cravings for sweets).
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I read the checklist and here are my comments:
1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Not sure if I can do this. it would be one more thing I have to buy, prep and take with me to work. I like having my fruit at the end of the meal. 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.
I plan to do a half of cup of brown/converted rice or 1 or 2 potatoes at lunch and dinner with 1-2 cups of a vegetable mix along with some shredded cabbage and zucchini.
The vegetable mix is 2 pounds of frozen mixed vegetables and 2 pounds of frozen green beans. I steam the two vegetables and mix them together, so this is both my starchy vegetable and my non-starchy vegetable.I could leave or reduce the rice/potato out of both or one of the meals as I go along.2) Choose fruit for desert.
This I can do. I like apples, bananas and frozen mixed berries. I mix frozen blueberries, raspberries and blackberries together.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.
This I can do. Instead of salt on my meals, I make a gravy with 2 tbsp of potato starch in 1/2 cup cold water. This is mixed well and added to 1.5 cups of boiling water in which I put spices in it (1 tsp of better than bouillon (vegetable or garlic flavor) mix, minced garlic, minced onion, and then some spices). The gravy sets up very fast - within seconds and is tasty. I put this over all of my meals.4) Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
I've been vegetarian, almost vegan for about 7 years, so eliminating the above is not a problem. My non-vegan downfall is cheese on pizza, but I think I can eliminate it from my eating. The other non-vegan downfall has been sweet items and chips.5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
I eat tofu ~ 6 ounces a day. Not sure if I'm willing to give up that form of protein. The tofu I buy has 3.5 g fat/3 ounces, so it would add 7 g fat to my daily total. I could do beans instead of the tofu. I have a couple of packages of tofu in the fridge, so I need to eat through it.6) Eliminate any added oil.
I can so that. I don't use oil in my cooking. 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.
I can do that. I'll miss my popcorn.8 ) Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
I can do this.9) Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.
I will try. Finding that line between stuffed and comfortably full has been hard for me. I've been big eater all my life and had binge eating in the past, but I don't eat like I used to. My downfall is sweets and chips and that is where the weight has come from as well as the large servings.
When I pack my lunch and snacks for work, I fill the containers I use and that is all I take with me, so portion control is good at work. At home I have a certain bowl I eat out of so I fill it up and eat from it. What I plan to eat (see below) fills the container/bowl for lunch/dinner. I can vary the ratios of the starch to vegetables in the containers.10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
My dog and I take a walk each evening, weather permitting - it's a 20 minute walk. I have a step app on my phone and when I'm at work I do about 3,000 steps. I bought a kickbike and once the bike shop gets it set up for me, I plan to use it. I have plantar fasciitis in my right foot, so brisk walking irritates it.------------------
Here's my eating plan:
Br (6:45 am): Old fashioned oats, tofu (3 oz), and spinach (I know it sounds weird but I like savory oatmeal! Oatmeal and fruit makes me hungry.)
Sn: Vegetable mix as described above, zucchini, and cabbage
Lunch (12): 1/2 c brown rice, Vegetable mix as described above, zucchini, cabbage, tofu (3 oz), Apple or frozen berries
Sn: Vegetable mix as described above, zucchini, and cabbage
Dinner (5-7 pm): 1 or 2 potato, Vegetable mix as described above, zucchini, cabbage,
Sn: Apple or frozen berries.
(Snacks - I'll eat if hungry.)
I don't mind eating the same thing everyday. It makes it easier to shop and I don't have to think about what I'm going to eat. The gravy I make changes the flavor of the meals. I'd like my eating to be easy to deal with and not stressful.
I use my Instant pot for cooking my rice and potatoes. I have a three tiered steamer I steam my frozen vegetables.
I signed up for the MWL weigh in thread, so maybe the accountability of it will help me.
Thanks for reading this far. if you see I'm doing something that isn't part of MWL WOE, let me know. Or if you can suggest changes for me, let me know.