SilverMtns Daily Food Journal

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

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SilverMtns Daily Food Journal

Postby SilverMtns » Mon Jun 20, 2022 2:14 am

Tomorrow is day 1. My doctor at Kaiser recommended I go plant based and get less than 50 grams of fat per day.

Cold turkey (please forgive the expression) would probably mean throwing away a bunch of food that I eat and my husband doesn't, and to be honest, that's a hard sell for me, but as I typed that out I realized that even if it were a few hundred dollars' worth of food (it isn't) that's cheaper than bad health. So heck with it. I'm in. My husband has his own food plan for his diabetes, and we are super-tolerant of each other's food choices, so he won't be a problem. He'll be a little disappointed to not be sharing certain stuff with me but it should be fine, and he's not the sort to cajole or sabotage.

Cooked a couple potatoes just now to start my morning off right without having to cook. Might need to make some replacements for things I have become dependent on. The biggest one is I have one cup of tea every morning with half-and-half in it. I will see how it feels without it for a week. If I still miss it, I'll get some kind of non-dairy milk and try that. Maybe after a week of eating right, I won't even want it. We'll see.

I am having some rebellious feelings about changing what I eat. I have decided to do it first for 12 days and see how it goes, because I feel like I can do 12 days full-on without much trouble. I have read Dr. McDougall's book and that seemed as good an arbitrary time period as any.

Not sure how to do meal planning, like do I decide ahead of time every meal I will eat, or just list a few McDougally (yes, that's a word) foods that I have handy and just choose from those, or what? I should go look through some of your food journals and see what other people are doing. For now I think I will just make a list of meals I could make from what's in the house. This week I will work on getting a shopping list together. We shop on Friday or Saturday every week, and that gives me time to prepare for some cooking on the weekend.

Starches available for tomorrow:
cooked potatoes
raw potatoes
jambalaya rice mix (McDougally)
oats
bread
corn tortillas (does anyone make McDougally flour tortillas?)
semolina & cornmeal for hot cereal
popcorn (but I don't have an air popper, so maybe I'll see if my whirly-pop will do no-oil popcorn)

Beans & legumes available for tomorrow:
baked beans
fat-free refried beans
garbanzo beans
dried lentils

Currently on some medications so I will also check in with my doctor about what to do about those. I am eager to reduce inflammation and pain, strengthen and protect my heart and lungs, clear up my skin, improve circulation, and raise my energy levels.

Pain level today: high
Heart palpitations and fatigue were pretty severe today, as well
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Re: SilverMtns Daily Food Journal

Postby Trinity » Mon Jun 20, 2022 9:20 am

It’s so great you’re doing this! We’re here to support you. When I started doing this I tried a lot of different foods but now I typically stick with a few favorites. Some people don’t mind eating the same thing over and over and some people need more variety. Some people like to make recipes and some people just like microwaving some potatoes and having a can of green beans on the side (I am one of these). It might take some experimentation at first to figure out what is going to work for you but the best thing is to keep it simple. A reasonable amount of fat-free condiments like ketchup, mustard, A1, salsa, or jelly or maple syrup can be used on plain starches (potatoes, rice, beans, oatmeal, etc.) and vegetables to make them tasty. Good luck!
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Day 1, 6/20/22

Postby SilverMtns » Mon Jun 20, 2022 11:15 am

Trinity wrote: Good luck!


Thanks so much!

Today's food
black tea. I used my best black tea so I wouldn't miss the cream and sugar as much
cold boiled potato with dill balsamic reduction -- tastes like potato salad
apple
McDougally rice mix (no oil, but some salt and not brown rice, but I'm okay with white rice)
Big bowl of fruit (bananas, strawberries, pineapple). First urge to eat off plan. The thing I need to do is tell my husband I'm doing this because it will be easier without him offering me stuff.
Garbanzo beans roasted with just a little seasoned salt. I ate quite a lot but as soon as I was full, I had no urge to eat off plan. I think the key is going to be making sure I don't get too hungry.
Sourdough bread -- hubby brought a slice of his fresh bread me with butter and I said "Oh, I'm worried about my heart, so I'm McDougalling. Can I have some without butter?" and he went and got me a slice without butter. No drama. Yay.

My totally subjective "grade" for today: A+!

Planning for tomorrow
Starches available for tomorrow:
raw potatoes
jambalaya rice mix (McDougally)
oats
bread
corn tortillas (does anyone make McDougally flour tortillas?)
semolina & cornmeal for hot cereal
popcorn (but I don't have an air popper, so maybe I'll see if my whirly-pop will do no-oil popcorn)

Beans & legumes available for tomorrow:
baked beans
fat-free refried beans
garbanzo beans
dried lentils
canned field beans

Symptoms today:
High pain, but not as high as yesterday
Skin issues (pretty normal for me)
Heart palpitations were bad, but no real fatigue even though I stayed up late doing OT for work.
Doctor said to start off halving my heart pill once my current palpitations calm down. How about that!

Signed up for the Forks Over Knives meal planner app today. Might be fun. We'll see.
Last edited by SilverMtns on Mon Jun 20, 2022 10:09 pm, edited 7 times in total.
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Re: SilverMtns Daily Food Journal

Postby Ruff » Mon Jun 20, 2022 12:18 pm

Morning Silver, great to see you here. Ask any questions you like and we will do our best to answer. Which McD book did you read? And are you a recipient person or a chuck it all in the pot and see how things go person?

There is a recipe section here with a lot of 3 and 4 ingredient meals. These are mostly things like baked potatoes with salsa, rice with a can of tomatoes and a bag of frozen veg etc. This plan can be as simple as rice and veg or as complicated as you want to make it with gourmet dinners with herbs and picked by moonlight.... :lol: :lol: For the record, most people find they are more satiated with potatoes as their starch, but try rice, quinoa etc, and see what works for you.

As Trinity says, mostly we settle to a few basic meals with maybe pizza night for holidays. I'm a huge soup fan, as is my husband, he has his with bread and mostly I dont eat the bread (formerly obese, post-menopausal woman at normal weight now). Dont worry too much about it, experiment, keep what you like and ditch the rest.

Tea (drinking a cup of tea now :D ). I used to drink this with cream. Now I use a plant based milk. I am not in America and here there are only one or two brands without added oil, but I have a soy, almond and oat variety available and I use all of them, depending on what I can get.

Good luck, and keep posting, even if things are not going well. Its better to keep in touch than vanish and hide because of mistakes. believe me we all make them, all the time. Its a way of life we are after here, not perfection!
Katie

My testimonial. viewtopic.php?f=13&t=38433
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Re: SilverMtns Daily Food Journal

Postby Ruff » Mon Jun 20, 2022 12:21 pm

PS...forgot the non compliant food.

1. take anything that is unopened to the local food pantry or shelter
2. anything opened, can you give to a neighbour, or feed to the dog? Dogs love eggs and cheese!
3. Bin the rest. Remember your body is NOT a dustbin. You have a perfectly good dustbin in your yard.
Katie

My testimonial. viewtopic.php?f=13&t=38433
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Re: SilverMtns Daily Food Journal

Postby SilverMtns » Mon Jun 20, 2022 3:06 pm

Ruff wrote:Morning Silver, great to see you here. Ask any questions you like and we will do our best to answer. Which McD book did you read?


I think all of them? I tried the plan in the past but my inner toddler doesn't like being told what to eat. Now I'm telling her "Doctor's orders, sorry, I don't make the rules."

Thanks for all the good tips!
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Day 2, 6/21/22

Postby SilverMtns » Tue Jun 21, 2022 9:30 am

My husband is totally on board for me McDougalling. The heart thing scared him, too. It isn't what he wants to do for himself, but he adapts well. He's gonna make us bean burritos for lunch (we don't have fat-free tortillas yet, but I'm working on it) and leave the cheese off mine. We do well fending for ourselves, but we also do well with adaptable meals. His blood sugar has been a little high lately, so he's back to exercising and watching what he eats, as well.

I set my alarm this morning (I usually just sleep until I wake up naturally, since I start work kind of late in the morning) and we went for a walk. There's a bit of a hill nearby that leads to a coffeeshop. We call it the Java Walk. I got a pot of tea and a rainbow bagel (with nothing on it) and it was really nice to start the day by moving around.

Today's food:
plain bagel
tea with a little sugar
large shredded wheat biscuit (I used to get the fat-free "woven wheats" triscuit-like things from whole foods, but they're hard for me to get where I am and one day I realized they're basically shredded wheat, so now I snack on those big shredded wheat biscuits sometimes. Weird but good.)
salad: spring mix, mushrooms, balsamic reduction, salt/pepper
bean burrito (NOT fat-free tortillas) with refried beans (we buy the fat-free kind anyway) and salsa
sourdough toast with jam
popcorn (microwave, not fat-free; won't buy more after this box is gone)
sugar-free flavored sparkling water
slice of sourdough (not much easy/handy McDougally food in the house right now. I will boil some potatoes tomorrow)


Body stuff:
Palpitations are less but not gone. Lower back is achy. A bit constipated (potatoes will do that to me -- anyone else?). And I got my bloodwork back. Thyroid is fine, but A1C is 5.8 and it's never been above 5.6 before. All the more reason to take this seriously. Everything is connected, and if my diet gets better, my numbers will get better.
Last edited by SilverMtns on Tue Jun 21, 2022 10:09 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: SilverMtns Daily Food Journal

Postby Ruff » Tue Jun 21, 2022 11:56 am

I'm so glad the palpitations are lessening already, thats great news.

Constipation. I suspect this will settle as you move across to more and more fibre as you setting into this way of eating. If not, I find half a pound of grapes will normally do the trick! Drink water of course, I find potatoes dehydrating, that could be contributing?
Katie

My testimonial. viewtopic.php?f=13&t=38433
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Re: SilverMtns Daily Food Journal

Postby SilverMtns » Tue Jun 21, 2022 1:57 pm

Ruff wrote:I find potatoes dehydrating, that could be contributing?


Could be! We live in a very dry area, too, so I guess I need to fill this water bottle up even more often. :-)
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Day 3

Postby SilverMtns » Wed Jun 22, 2022 9:36 am

Did the java walk again this morning. Google says it's about .75 miles round trip, and it's hilly, so I think it's a good start. I need to have more easy/quick/available food around, because when I get too hungry, it's bad, and it's happening at least once a day.

Today's food
    bagel and tea with sugar on the java walk
    o'brien potatoes (no fat) and ketchup
    mashed potatoes and carrots with mushroom gravy (all homemade, McDougally)
    no-sugar sweet iced tea (I know I should probably cut out sugar and sugar substitutes, but I'm doing the big stuff first and when I'm good with that, I'll worry about salt and sugar and refined flour/rice)
    microwave popcorn

I almost ate something off-plan because it was fat-free, but I tossed it instead. I would give myself a B today because I had a fair bit of sugar and the popcorn, but still, not bad.
Last edited by SilverMtns on Wed Jun 22, 2022 9:27 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: SilverMtns Daily Food Journal

Postby Ruff » Wed Jun 22, 2022 2:58 pm

I LOVE mash and gravy. I use Mary McD's gravel recipes, and like the mushroom one. We have mash and gravy (and veg in season) at least once a week. I do lots of mash and the next day we have shepherds pie with the leftover mash on top.
Katie

My testimonial. viewtopic.php?f=13&t=38433
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Re: SilverMtns Daily Food Journal

Postby SilverMtns » Wed Jun 22, 2022 3:50 pm

Ruff wrote:I LOVE mash and gravy. I use Mary McD's gravel recipes, and like the mushroom one. We have mash and gravy (and veg in season) at least once a week. I do lots of mash and the next day we have shepherds pie with the leftover mash on top.


YUM. I like making patties out of leftover mashed potatoes, but I usually do them pretty non-McDougally. I'm gonna play with it tomorrow and if it works, that'll be great.

I'm getting low on compliant groceries, so I may have to get creative on how to use up all these mashed potatoes/carrots. :-)
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Day 3

Postby SilverMtns » Thu Jun 23, 2022 8:51 am

Feeling a little sick today in the wake of a blood sugar crash last night (still not managing to eat quite enough -- not exactly a terrible problem to have, since the solution is to eat more) so I skipped the java walk and I'm sipping some tea at my desk.

Tomorrow is our first grocery day since I started this. My husband is going to make his chili for us this week (it's one of the only McDougally things we both like) and I'm starting the Forks Meal Planner this week, so we'll see how that goes. I'm doing just 4 recipes for the week because mostly I just make simple stuff, but I love to cook and this will give me some new and interesting stuff to have on hand. Also gonna try making sure there are cooked starches in the house at all times for those hungry/hangry/low-blood-sugar moments. We only shop once a week, and not normally for quite this much stuff, so it'll be interesting finding room for everything. I helped myself out today by throwing away a bunch of non-compliant stuff from the fridge that only I eat. (We have very different tastes in some things, but similar ones in others, so some stuff I know he won't want and I can safely pitch.)

Was thinking that I'd also like to make a list of all the foods I love that are compliant, so I can start gravitating to all of those instead of having those "but what should I cook/eat now???" moments. Might do that today, maybe in a separate post, or maybe just someplace on my computer.

Today's food
  • cup of tea with sugar (I miss my half-and-half, but not enough to go back to using it. Gonna donate the unopened stuff to the shelter, and I already poured the open one down the sink)
  • sourdough toast with vegemite
  • baked oatmeal (made with water, raisins, a little brown sugar, a little bit of walnuts, and a pinch of salt)
  • slice of dill pickle
  • McDougally rice-and-vegetable mix--shared with husband and added a little olive oil to his at his request
  • kimchi
  • potato/carrot mash & sauerkraut
  • 1 Skittle
  • 3 walnuts
  • piece of seitan
  • bowl of leftover rice because it was bedtime and my bg was 78

Body stuff:
Last night, I awoke with a sharp pain in my head, which is a common warning for low blood sugar, so I got up and checked it and it was 80 -- not dangerous, but something I don't want to just ignore. I ate some leftover potatoes and gravy from yesterday (McDougally) and went back to bed. Woke up with FBG of 95. Last time I did this diet, I had a 9pm alarm to remind me to eat something healthy before bed (apple, small salad, etc.) and I think I need to reinstitute that.

No heart palpitations today.
Last edited by SilverMtns on Thu Jun 23, 2022 10:40 pm, edited 11 times in total.
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Re: SilverMtns Daily Food Journal

Postby Ruff » Thu Jun 23, 2022 2:53 pm

Do you have diabetes? If you start McDougalling with type 2 diabetes you need to have your medications checked because it reverses type 2 so fast the meds can make you go too low.

I dont know anything about this from personal experience, its just what I have read ( and heard...listening to 'Whole"..Dr Campbell, on audio book right now and he just mentioned it.)
Katie

My testimonial. viewtopic.php?f=13&t=38433
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Re: SilverMtns Daily Food Journal

Postby SilverMtns » Thu Jun 23, 2022 3:25 pm

Ruff wrote:Do you have diabetes?


No. I have non-diabetic hypoglycemia, and am not on any blood sugar medications. My doc knows about it and says to just eat something healthy when it goes too low. I have had it all my life. I super appreciate you looking out for me, though! That was very kind. <3
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