Nancy's Journal

Share your daily McDougall menus and/or keep a journal describing your personal progress.

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Re: Nancy's Journal

Postby Nancy Lou » Mon Jul 26, 2021 10:10 am

July 26, 2021
No weigh-in today -- don't want to be too focused on the number on the scale.

We stopped at Wal-Mart for some groceries and I saw a box display of red potatoes - $1.00 for a 5 pound bag. Looks like a Mary's MIni is in my future. :P I am trying to talk hubby into doing it with me - along with the extreme budget eating challenge. Hey, with 5 pounds for $1.00 that challenge really seems doable in the stay satisfied area. I am working on putting some ideas for meals together.

I ended up being the only one eating the Split Pea Soup so I froze the remainder of it so I will not be eating it every day. Plus it will be nice to have some meals ready to heat in the event I am too lazy to cook, which, lately, is often.

Right now, I have a batch of pinto beans in the Instant Pot: made with onion, celery, carrot, yellow bell pepper, garlic and I threw in a Chili Gaujillo - since we have an adverse sensitivity to heat I left it whole and am planning to take it out like a bay leaf when it is done. I have no idea what I did by adding that to the pot :eek: I hope I do not regret it. Otherwise, I will have to make another batch of beans, plain, plain, plain to mix with it to tone it down. I don't know, top a potato with it and it may be just fine.

When we were at the Mexican Market, we bought a yam. I am planning on using that with the beans along with a salad with fixing.
Nancy

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Re: Nancy's Journal

Postby squealcat » Mon Jul 26, 2021 5:23 pm

Oh, Nancy ! I need to follow your lead and cook up some beans ! Let me know how much heat a whole pepper lends to you recipe !

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Re: Nancy's Journal

Postby Nancy Lou » Wed Jul 28, 2021 6:36 pm

Squealcat, the beans turned out well - I could taste the pepper but, to me it did not add the heat. Hubby said he could not taste the pepper flavor at all. Since we had two different outcomes, I'll have to try my "experiment" again.
Nancy

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Re: Nancy's Journal

Postby Nancy Lou » Thu Jul 29, 2021 10:07 am

Is it just me? Or is it necessary to log in twice?

July 29, 2021
weight - yesterday's reading 140.4 Did not weight this morning because yesterday was a frustrating day for me and I know I ate off plan and more than I should have. :oops: Part of the frustration came because D1 had a forgetful moment about her work schedule and said she'd pick the kids up earlier than what I planned. I was so happy they were leaving earlier than planned because I am getting behind in my yard work. Then she called....She did it twice with each time adding an extra day. I don't know why it was a big deal for me because I originally had them scheduled to be here for all four days.

Today, air quality alert -- smoke is heavy in the air, coming from Canada. Glad I read about it coming because I would have had an anxiety attack when I let the dog out in the middle of the night because the smell was so strong. This means no working outside today.

Later on today, we are headed to GD1's place because she is having a birthday party for General Furrington -- her cat turns 1 year old today. That poor kitty; she is having a 2-day party and has him all dressed up for the photos with everyone who shows up. But D1 says if it makes her happy, go with the flow. So, we are going to a cat's 1st birthday party, presents and all. :-) I feel like such a poor cat mom because my cat turned one last month and I ignored her birthday.

Recently, I experimented and did a batch of potatoes in the instant pot - Game Changer! I loved the texture, they did not seem to be so water-logged as when I boil. Plus with it being so hot and humid it kept the kitchen cooler.

This morning, we had brunch -- GD2 slept in late so I decided to make this dish I saw on the running with plants youtube channel, the one where she and her husband did a competition of a a $5.00 meal challenge. I made her did with the pasta and vegetables with a pineapple sauce -OMG!! was that good. I skipped the orange juice and added some dried kale and basil to mine. different type of noodle, vegetable and pineapple also -- but the concept of how to make was the same.

Kind of reminds me of an old Erma Bombeck column where some one asked for a recipe and the asker then changed almost every ingredient and said she felt sorry for the giver of the recipe because it turned out so terrible and the giver of the recipe raved on and on about how good it was - haha! at least my changes were still tasty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaFdZvpGiBo&ab_channel=RunningOnPlants
Nancy

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Re: Nancy's Journal

Postby Nancy Lou » Mon Aug 02, 2021 6:58 am

August 2, 2021
weight 142.6 up a bit, but then I think the 140 was a fluke and not a reality (meaning not a true weight loss)

Yesterday, I was batch cooking my walmart haul of potatoes in the instant pot - making mashed for freezing. I had a freezer recipe with cream cheese, but that is not on program. So, my experiment is in the freezer, since they were only $1.00 for 5 pound bag I thought I'd try it and see how it will turn out with not fat added. Otherwise, I think I'll have thickener for soups. I don't know. As we say, "You don't know until you try it."

2 of the grandchildren are here now. Yesterday, I was going to meal prep and make the sauce from Steph and Adam's Sweet potato mac and cheese. Only, I couldn't find my sweet potato that I thought I had laying around. but while looking for it I found 3 baking russets and decided to make potato wedges. While those were cooking, I make some tomato red pepper soup (onion, celery, carrot, red bell pepper, tomato)

My dinner was tomato soup, potato wedges, and brussels Sprouts.

I found the missing sweet potato and so I made ahead the sauce for lunch today. As I was finishing it up, D2 came with the grandkids and brought along some harvest a neighbor gave her from their garden. Lots of green beans, cucumbers, zuchinni, beets and a red onion. D2 says she wants to start eating better and include more vegetables -- yet she gave me all the veggies. I talked her into taking back a couple cucumbers and told her to just add it to her water.

I have been watching videos of plantbaseddads on youtube - he is following the starch solution. Starting the 21 day starch solution challenge today -- hoping joining an active challenge will help me get focused and on plan.

I am also watching runningonplants videos on the extreme budget for ideas. D2 says she wants to try new recipes but all those she watches have weird ingredients. Miranda has simple and does not use a lot of spices, mainly onion powder and garlic powder. I guess it all comes down to what your taste buds are accustomed to.

I will be having left over tomato soup, green beans and cucumbers today. Dinner today will be at the Pizza Ranch -- celebration for GS1--his 2 year seizure free anniversary. So happy for him, they will be starting to taper off his meds now and D1 was told he will have a 50% chance of remaining seizure free. Send positive vibes his way.
Nancy

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Re: Nancy's Journal

Postby Nancy Lou » Mon Aug 02, 2021 9:43 am

UGH! No wonder I cannot get on track - right after I posted what I was going to eat, I walked into the kitchen and prepped the green beans then thought, "Oh this would be really good with some potatoes and onion as a salad" So, I ended up boiling some potatoes to make a potato salad. I then prepped some romaine to add to it added some tomato and cucumber slices. At least I had a compliant breakfast. :)


I am finding that I am having a hard time staying on a task... most likely because I have other people asking me to do things and there is not enough time in the day for it all to get done. Too many unfinished tasks with me...
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Re: Nancy's Journal

Postby Nancy Lou » Wed Aug 04, 2021 2:23 pm

August 4, 2021
Weight 142.4 not too bad considering I had fair food last night

Went to the county fair yesterday, but before I left I had a plate of salad topped with tomato, cucumber, beans, and the cheez sauce from steph and Adam's mac and cheez; with 1/2 baked potato on the side. It was a large plate and I stayed satisfied until about 4:30 in the afternoon. The booth we chose to eat at had cut their menu in half. In the past, I always got mashed potatoes and a side of vegetables. Totally blew it - shared some french fries with everyone I was with and then we all had monster ears (fried cinnamon/sugar bread) Yep! totally blew it yesterday. Started my day today with a a repeat of my salad plate - also had water melon on the side. Getting back on track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFdQAPCPeYU&ab_channel=StephandAdam You can fin the recipe the the sauce in the description - you can leave out the cashews. It uses a sweet potato, carrot and onoion -- This is my favorite "cheez" sauce. It works well as a topping for salad too.
Nancy

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Re: Nancy's Journal

Postby Nancy Lou » Fri Aug 06, 2021 9:42 am

July 6, 2021
Weight: 141.4 Working on not eating junk for snacks and if I am losing that is sort of telling me how much wrong snacking I am doing.

Still eating the "Cheez" sauce today it is topping boiled potatoes, onion and green beans. That is my breakfast. Had a watered down cup of coffee and 2 cups of Tumeric Bliss Tea. I will see how I feel with that.

I am watching plant based dads videos on youtube - he has some great tips and recipes for the starch solution.

I am kind of craving some mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy so I am thinking that will be on the menu for later today along with a huge salad and some green beans
Nancy

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Re: Nancy's Journal

Postby Nancy Lou » Sat Aug 07, 2021 9:11 am

August 7, 2021
Weight: 140.4 -- Surprise! Surprise! Tried not to eat after supper. Was a bit hungry at bedtime, or so I thought, but did not eat. Maybe some of my holding onto weight is my eating before bed? Basically it is eating the wrong type of foods.

My hand, trigger finger, is still bothering my and so I have looked up the video on Bob and Brad concerning this. Found some exercises to do and he mentioned the apple cider vinegar in water. I tried that, but not a fan. But it seems to be getting better, at least now when I do the exercises my finger does not get stuck. But my hand is still inflamed.

I ordered the inflammation factor rating of foods awhile back and decided to look up the ratings for some of the foods on this program -- I was surprised to see most of the starches are inflammatory. But the idea is not to avoid, but to balance out the meal. I might try this as an experiment to see how I feel. All I know is when I cut out a lot of the junk I began to feel a bit better.

I made the mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy last night. I used this gravy recipe:

https://watchlearneat.com/chickpea-flour-gravy-vegan-gluten-free/ I eliminated the oil and used water instead. The spices were perfect. So this recipe is a keeper
Nancy

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Re: Nancy's Journal

Postby Nancy Lou » Wed Aug 11, 2021 12:29 pm

August 11, 2021
weight: August 9 -- 139.6 Haven't weighed myself for a few days, but I think I broke the plateau if I keep doing what I am doing.

Hubby agreed to watch the dogs so I could go camping. I got to the park then got a phone call that our granddaughter was having a super hard time with the loss of a friend. So, before I got my tent set up, we headed to her place to give her comfort. I managed to spend the night at the park, but my morning was interrupted and I had to come home hours before I was planning to. Now, I am fighting stress and frustration. That camping was to be my "me time" so I could rest and relax without anyone asking me to do something for them. Sheesh! I cannot get that when I attempt to get away. However, I did enjoy what little time I had at the park. It was at a cart-in site down by a little creek, which fortunately, still has water flowing. No eating at the campsite as there was not time for it.

I dug up the potatoes I planted, we got 1 -2 on each one, not bad considering I ignored the plants once planted and it was so dry. The were small to medium sized. So, I guess I am having potatoes for lunch and dinner today.
Nancy

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Re: Nancy's Journal

Postby bunsofaluminum » Fri Aug 13, 2021 7:22 am

Too bad about the interruption to your camping, and so sorry about the reason why...but what a good gramma to comfort your granddaughter.

Love it that you're getting garden potatoes! I'm thinking about digging some of my plants up. There'll be some tiny new potatoes for sure. YUM.
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Re: Nancy's Journal

Postby deweyswakms » Sun Aug 15, 2021 1:37 pm

Nancy Lou wrote:August 11, 2021
I managed to spend the night at the park, but my morning was interrupted and I had to come home hours before I was planning to. Now, I am fighting stress and frustration. That camping was to be my "me time" so I could rest and relax without anyone asking me to do something for them.


So sorry that you didn't get this vital time JUST FOR YOU. Took me years to learn that it is OK to say 'no' and that is perfectly fine. It helps to let people know "I'll be out of touch for 24 hours (or whatever), looking forward to catching up with you very soon." Maybe you can plan another camp out?

Good luck! Marsha
start weight 210 on 7/25/14; MWL recommit 7/2019 weight 197. 6/11/2022 weight 165.0. Height 5'8".
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Re: Nancy's Journal

Postby Nancy Lou » Tue Aug 17, 2021 6:53 pm

August 17, 2021

Just got back from another camping trip, this time with 3 of the grandchildren and our oldest daughter. 2 nights and 3 days, we all had fun. Since it was car camping D1 brought cooler with gallons jugs of ice so we could have drinking water as they melted. Our camping spot that we choose was in "the field", wide open space with lots of shade in the morning and early afternoon and then again in the evening. The sunny part was the hottest part of the day, so we went to the lake for that time. The swimming area was shallow but the kids did not care, they had lots of fun. This was first time tent camping for the kids -- GD2 asked to do it again.

Because of the fire making restrictions - our meals were limited - we were allowed to cook over a gas stove - translate that to we ate canned foods, D1 brought 2 big bags of lettuce, plus bread and peanut butter and jelly. I found prepared pancakes at Costco -- not compliant foods but, hey! we were camping.

This is just a quick update - I hopped on the scale when I got home and lost a pound, but I was too busy packing up at the campsite, then unloading the gear when I got home and that was a "I did not really eat anything for breakfast and lunch" weight - so it does not really count as a loss.

We need rain!!! Leaves are falling off the trees and they are dried up and brown, the grass crunches beneath our feet. We are close to the Mississippi River and there are spots that we can walk across now. The campground hosts said the the lake is dropping an inch every three days.
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Re: Nancy's Journal

Postby Nancy Lou » Fri Aug 20, 2021 8:39 am

August 20, 2021
No weigh in today - GD2 woke up before me and my coffee time - my morning routine is a bust this morning. She is 6 years old and a chatterbox - so hard for me when I have am not fully awake yet! But she is a little cutie and such a joy to be around. I'll get over it.

I had some overripe bananas so I decided to make the fluffy pancakes from the The Starch Solution book. A while back, as I was going over some of my computer files and found a booklet about lentils - on the bread file it said one can substitute 1/4 cup lentil flour for 1/4 cup of the whole wheat. So, when I made the pancakes I substituted 1/8 cup green lentil flour for the flour in the recipe. Could not tell it was there. I'll have to remember that for future recipes. GS2 had 6 pancakes so I am thinking it was a good recipe for him or else he was super hungry. :)


Dinner last night was a recipe I saw on youtube plantbasedDads for instant pot garlic noodles. You know, the other day, hubby mentioned some conspiracy about "them" being able to read our minds - Well, 2 days earlier, I was thinking about making pasta in the instant pot - did not say a word about it to anyone and then, WHAM! there in my youtube feed was the video for instant pot garlic noodles ---- you are now entering into the twilight zone.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b5aW08ivHU&ab_channel=ChaZacIsa

Anyways, that was a really good recipe and had a "I ordered this from a Chinese restaurant flair" to it. I used angel hair noodles and they stuck together, not sure if it was due to that or if I did not spread them out enough before cooking. But definitely a keeper recipe, I added Normandy Vegetable mix to the dish. Served it with cold beets and watermelon.

Here is his video, watch it if you want to make it because there seems to be a technique to how to put the noodles in the pot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2M5o7aqQvY&ab_channel=PlantBasedDads

I am definitely getting back on track and having less aches and pains. I wish the trigger finger would get better, but I keep aggravating it with the chores I do. But, at least now I am able do some of the exercises I saw on the Bob and Brad channel without it getting stuck as I bend it, so I think I may be in slow recovery.

Still hot and dry --- we need rain
Nancy

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Re: Nancy's Journal

Postby Nancy Lou » Sun Aug 22, 2021 8:31 am

August 22, 2021
Weight 138.8 - down a bit, but boy do I have to make a huge effort not to overeat. I am finding I like to have that overstretched feeling to fill full; but not that I just ate Thanksgiving dinner full. I am working on changing that since the guidelines are to stop when feeling full. Sometimes I feel when I stop eating at that point and not the oops I should not have had those last couple of bites, that I almost become obsessed with the feeling.

I am also finding that it is so important to eat slower so my mind has time to catch up with what I am putting in my stomach. If I eat too fast, I still feel hungry when my plate is empty, but if I wait a bit then I realize that I am full. I also notice that when I stop when I first feel satisfied, I actually feel more lighter, if you know what I mean.

These past months I have been experimenting with making different things in the instant pot - potatoes, rice, pasta, instead of just beans. It is a good appliance to have.

I am reviewing the recipes in The Starch Solution -- WOW! there are a lot of tofu recipes in there. I guess I am noticing this because family members are allergic to soy. I have not counted but if my memory serves me correctly, I'd have to eliminate the majority of the sauce recipes. -- Can another bean be substituted?

Been kind of busy - not even sure if I remember what I have been eating. I did have oat/barley with banana and we went out to eat and I had a veggie hashbrowns. I was pleasantly surprised that the cook did not overuse the oil when he made the hashbrowns. In fact, it was almost as if he steamed or water sauteed the vegetables. I was glad it was not drenched in oil.

Reminds me of my favorite dish at an Asian Cuisine, Broccoli in garlic sauce - once it was like it was in a cup of flavored oil. So, next time I asked for it with minimal oil and barely got any sauce - so most of that sauce must have been the oil. It tasted much better without all that oil.
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