Beyond the 12-Day Program: Beth's Time & Adherence

[squealcat]

OK, I just caught up on Beth's journal ! I have a long way to go so on to the next one !

-squealcat

[kirstykay]

FYI - Trader Joe's has a salt free salsa that's really good. Don't know if you have a TJs, but in case you do, that's an option.

[Lizzy_F]

Hi Squealcat! Thank you for stopping by!

Hi KirstyKay! I wish there was a TJ's closer to me. I will probalby be in an area near a TJ's sometime early fall, so I'm going to make a list of what to pick up there - I will definitely give the salt free salsa a try!

I'm on jury duty this week which has thus far felt like a "hurry up and wait" situation. I haven't actually had to go to the court house yet. But I have to check in every day at 4:30pm to see if I have to go in the morning, and then again at noon every day to see if I have to go in the afternoon. The noon check in is the most inconvenient one - makes it impossible to plan anything in the afternoons. So this whole situation just messes with my intense need for structure and planning to my days! How dare they! This too shall pass - thank goodness. I would rather actually be called into court so at least I would know what I was going to be doing, and feel useful about this whole thing. Anyway..

I'm still eating starch and veg and fruit and making best effort to follow the MWL guidelines. I made potato salad and pasta salad for lunches this week thinking those would travel well to the court house if needed. I haven't had to take lunch on the road yet, but both of the salads are delicious! Dinners this week have been spicy veg soup (love that Mrs. Dash taco seasoning mix! And this time I also included a can of NSA Rotel!), steamed cabbage, and baked potatoes. Oats & fruit for breakfast if I have it. Fruit for desserts. Simple food that I love!

Weight loss is definitely slowing down. I am trying not to freak out about it. I know this is just part of the process. I need to resist the temptation to change anything until I even see evidence that weight loss has stalled. One week of -.6 after 4 weeks of -1.8 (on average) and 4 weeks before that of -2.X (on average) does NOT mean my weight loss has "stalled." I think I am particularly anxious about the scale right now because I am getting SO CLOSE to 169.0, which will mean a "healthy" BMI for the first time in a lot of years. So the advice I'm giving myself right now is "chill out, relax, and eat a potato." If anyone has other words of wisdom, I am listening!! Mark shared Jeff N's wisdom in the MWL thread, which was helpful. I am remaining mindful of the principles of calorie density. I recognize that my body is getting smaller and therefore, needs less energy to operate. I am also trying to stay mindful that a lot of things affect the scale - water, salt, etc. I pulled a muscle in my back pretty bad yesterday - so I'm sure there is some inflammation happening today around that. So...no need to panic! STEP BACK FROM THE LEDGE!!!

I took a THREE mile walk yesterday! But I'm not going to walk today with my back the way it is. Last week I averaged almost 13,000 steps per day, so my daily movement overall is inching up!

I just found out I don't have to go to court this afternoon, so I'm going to finish the food prep I'm working on for today, and then spend a little time with my heating pad and a good book!

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Beth!

Boy, your jury duty sounds like a pain!!! Here in Cook County... we are 1 day or 1 trial -- so not on call like that... But, can get the short end of the stick if you are selected for a long trial...

Awesome that you have salads prepped in case you need to BYOF.... They sound good!!!

I want to talk you OFF the LEDGE.... Come on back to a safe spot... the water's fine!!! No race... right??? Just keep going --- you're doing great!!

Hope you are having a good week!

Cheers,
Stephanie

[Lizzy_F]

Hi Stephanie and thank you for your words of support and encouragement! Yes - this "on call" thing for a full week is BOGUS !!!!! With my luck, after doing this call in thing but not having to actually report to court so far, I will have to report on Friday afternoon, and then get picked for a long trial! I'm hoping there isn't much action at the courthouse on Fridays during the summer, so maybe I will get off the hook (which really doesn't feel like off the hook after being on call all week!)

Anyway...

I find it hilarious that I get this edgy feeling whenever my baked potato stash is running low. Despite having plenty pasta salad and potato salad already made, and a huge bag of little potatoes that can be nuked in minutes, and oats already cooked, and frozen cooked brown rice, etc. etc. etc., I ate my last baked potato out of the fridge last night and felt PANICKED this morning! So I baked 8 potatoes and now I feel much better. Who knew this was the secret to the "mental" side of dieting all this time? Why didn't somebody tell me??? Oh wait! Dr. McDougall, Dr. Lisle, Jeff, all kinds of Star McDougallers DID try to tell me ITS THE FOOD but I just didn't implement the strategies. Well, now I know better so I can do better.

I got that chopper recommended by Goose, so will be giving that a try in the next day or two.

My back is feeling better, so I'm going to go out for a walk.

Mr. Evil Scale said 171.4 this morning. So I do think that little uptick yesterday was probably related to inflammation and my sore back. Or whatever. Who knows. I know I will continue to be wired about the scale until I get to that "healthy" BMI range which seems like such an important goal. It's not the end goal though - so at that point I have promised myself that I will quit stressing and just eat the food and enjoy the ride until I get wherever it is me and that scale are going. (Goose - if you happen to read this post, I enjoyed your musings about your journey to your current weight!)

OK. Out the door I go - it's gorgeous outside! 81 and sunny - so nice for July!

[Lizzy_F]

Re-posting my T&A report for this week:

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.

Breakfasts no – either none or oats & fruit. Lunches no – had cold lunches this week consisting of pasta salad or potato salad (tried to make these 50/50) with fruit for dessert. Dinners were yes - soup, veg, then starch. I will be back to my normal routine next week, so will be better able to start lunch with soup, salad or fruit. Salad / raw veg is very problematic for me right now due to the braces. I just have to work around that with way more cooked veg until the braces come off, which is still over 1.5 years out.

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.

I think I did pretty well here for lunches and dinners.

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.

No added sugars other than ketchup, and minimal added salt – a few condiments, and none during cooking and only from the shaker at the table.

4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).

No problem!

5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).

1 TBS of tahini in the dressing for the potato salad – that TBS was divided across 5 or 6 servings.

6. Eliminate any added oil.

No added oils or fats!

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.

No higher calorie density foods this week!

8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).

Did not drink my calories this week!

9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.

I tried to be more mindful about the issue of over eating my hunger signals this week. I’m truly a volume eater so this is really a struggle. There was one dinner where I intentionally took a smaller portion of my main plate with the idea of going back for more later if I was still hungry. Interestingly enough, the portion I took ended up being enough. So that tells me I am probably over eating my hunger at least some of the time. This is emerging as one of the more important areas of focus for me, I think. But I definitely want to be cautious about moving to far in the opposite direction – going hungry would end in a bad way, I think. So, I will proceed with caution keeping my food simple and trying to increase mindfulness around this topic. I will be really glad to be back to normal next week with hot cooked veg, soup and starches for lunch and dinner every day.

10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).

I feel like I did better this week! I went for intentional walks at least 5 days, and my average steps per day continues to climb – my last fitbit report showed an average over 13,000 steps per day.

Victories: Got through this week of being “on call” for jury duty, and the uncertainty of that (I love my structure and knowing my schedule!) without diverting off of my food plan!!! Potatoes / starch really is the miracle food! Weighed in at a new low weight this morning of 170.8. Getting SO CLOSE to 169 which is the top end of “healthy” BMI for my height. I’m not sure yet what my “goal” weight is – I think I’m going to just keep following these principles to the best of my ability and allow my body to tell me when we get there. I’m hopeful it will be well below 169 and closer to a 22 or 20 BMI or something along those lines. We’ll see. I’m coping with a lot of fear of failure, which comes from years upon years of “dieting.”

Comments: I feel like this week was a success even though it was not “perfect.” That in and of itself is a victory!

Concerns: No major ones.


Questions: All feedback is welcome and appreciated as always! (and this includes from people not following all or part of MWL - any relevant experience you can share is valuable to me!!!)

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Beth!!!!

Wanted to just say... Together we are dangerous...

You are doing so great!!! You are close to a weight goal.. just don't let it take up too much space in your mind as you envision just following McD forever (whichever plan)... Enjoy!! So many improvements in health that happen in between / as you go... (see your post earlier this month!!!)...

I have to thank you 100,000 times for making me laugh!!! And being a super supportive person!!!

YOU ARE ROCKING IT!!! Keep going!!!

Cheers,
Stephanie

[Lizzy_F]

Hi Stephanie! What joy is there in life if we can't LAUGH!

I'm linking a couple articles here that were passed to me - newsletter articles re: MWL and weight set point. I want them here for easy reference!

https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2005nl ... ingold.htm

https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2004nl ... pulose.htm

I need to revisit these over and over and over.

On another note...

I used to garden quite a bit, but haven't done so in a number of years as it is time consuming, and too hard on my back. But I might consider some raised beds in the future - we shall see. Mean time, we have some fruit trees. We don't tend them vigorously for Big Production. "It is what it is" is more our motto. I'm SAD because the mulberries are about done. I will probably grab the last of the ones on the low branches today and that will be it. (Since we can talk about poop in the McDougall Program, I will just say that mulberries make for some interesting poop LOL - for critters and people alike!) This wonderful old tree feeds a lot of wild life, and you can always tell when the critters have been visiting the mulberry tree! We also have a peach tree. It's just a small tree. My understanding from my Dad (RIP Dad) who was NUTS for gardening and fruit trees, is that the early spring weather pretty much decides what kind of crop you will get. He also raised apricots which are even more finicky weather wise in our climate zone. Anyway, there were very few peaches this year. I managed to snag two small ones yesterday and they were delicious on my oats. Next up are the grapes! They are almost ready. We also have some plum trees and apple trees. The worms get the apples, and my husband usually gets all the plums!

The main purpose for all these fruit trees is for the ecosystem going on with our rooftop bees. They really are so threatened by our toxic farming environment - it's really hard to keep hives going across multiple years. My husband has gotten connected over the years with a few different local people and organizations where he will get calls when there is a swarm of honey bees setting up in an unfortunate location. He always keeps a hive at the ready The hives started from swarms that came from Lincoln National Cemetary, which is right down the road from us, have done the best. We do not do this for the purpose of harvesting honey. We do it for the purpose of putting bees back out into the environment. We never know where they end up when a hive throws off a swarm, but we wish them the best! We do process and store the honey if we lose a hive - we have to clean out the old hive for the next swarm. People sometimes freak out when we tell them we have bees on our roof!!! The bees from hives we have purchased from "farms" are usually MEAN. Interestingly, the hives we start from wild swarms are usually very easy to be around - they don't bother me if I don't bother them. I sit on the roof to get sun and they are right around the corner.

Well, that was random!

I watched Eat You Alive (or something close to that) last night. I got so teary eyed during the part where they are showing animal abuse as part of the factory farming process. OMG. I'm glad I no longer eat animals. It's always nice to see Dr. McDougall as part of these films. "The fat you eat is the fat you wear!" PREACH IT DR. M!!!!!! I love that line! I'm glad I'm not wearing as much olive oil and whatever other dietary fat I don't want to think about any more.

Made oats this morning. My routine involves a batch that I divide into six servings. I am not always hungry for breakfast, so that will last me at least a week. It freezes pretty well too - if I skip breakfast more than one day I just put a couple servings in the freezer. I love batch cooking and storing stuff in individual serving containers. Makes life so simple!

I have one more serving of potato salad which I will have for lunch today. Then I am back to super simple meals. Oats for breakfast, baked or mashed potatoes for lunch and dinner along with veg soup and cooked veg. I'm thawing out some 15 bean soup that I made a while ago so I will have an alternative to ketchup if I want one! Whenever I get around to make mashed potatoes - maybe tomorrow afternoon - I will make some of Mark's lentils to go on top.

I got a covid booster yesterday. While I was there, I asked the woman about a shingles vaccine, which Dr. Lim recommended for me. She convinced me to get both vaccines at once. I do not recoommend this! Now I have TWO sore arms, and I'm achy all over today. Maybe I would have felt the same darn way after only one, so might as well get both. But I'm not convinced of that. I'm using this as my excuse to be LAZY today!

I LOVE MY FOOD! I have never loved any "diet" food so much in my life. I've been low carb, calorie counting, weight watchers, you name it in the past. Now I realize I was just "enduring" whatever the meal plan was and secretly waiting to EAT SOMETHING ELSE! Not any more. I REALLY look forward to my meals! I am beginning to recognize that if I don't absolutely love something I try, there is NO REASON to ever make it again. I guess I never really understood that it IS truly possible to LOVE my food AND lose weight! But here we are!

Well this is quite a long and winding ramble. Anyone still reading, you deserve a prize! Hope you packed a PIMP (potato in my purse) and a big glass of water!

[Ruff]

Hi Beth, just catching up on your journal. It made me smile, and I need a smile today, so thank you.

[bunsofaluminum]

Bees! We have four hives (three colonies, as one colony absconded or swarmed or something and there's no one inside the one hive) and we do harvest the honey yearly. They are at the back of our yard and pretty much mind their own business. They do NOT appreciate having their honey harvested, but we know how to keep them away from the operations, and we always leave enough in storage to supply them over the winter.

We don't sell the honey, just give it as gifts. Keep the family supplied, eh? and we haven't done anything with the wax, which i think would be fun but Wylie isn't interested.

Your journal is fun!

[squealcat]

I got the shingles vaccine a few years ago. Oh my ! I was stiff, sore, and little feverish too ! Glad I got it but it really was not pleasant for about 3 days. I never had any side effects from the covid vaccine. I will get a booster again this fall when the new one comes out.

Loved reading about your fruit trees and those bees ! My husband thought about raising bees but decided not to. There are lots of hives around here though and a man that sells honey near by. My daughter had a swarm of bees near her but when a bee keeper came to get them, they were gone. I was sad because I wanted to watch him collect them.

I have no real comment except for what I have written. No words of wisdom. Have a nice evening !

-Marilyn

[Lizzy_F]

Hi Buns! Wow - so awesome to meet a fellow bee lover! My hubby is a high tech guy, so we have cameras at the hive doors so we can watch the bees over the internet. (we used to keep the cameras going on a link that we would make available to outsiders, but hubby got sick of fending off hackers who would try to back door into our network that way, so I can't give the link to other people any more... ) They are so fun to watch. I get really attached to them and feel really sad when we lose a hive.

Squealcat - That shingles vaccine is an a$$ kicker, and that's all I'll say about that!! I'm glad I got it though. Another family member got shingles before and OMG it seemed like such a horrifying experience! I definitely don't want to ever go through that if I can help it!

OK. So I'm going to try to post a picture (a selfie!! ) in my next post. I can't believe I'm doing this, but I'm going to if I can figure it out from Rick's handy guide.

[Lizzy_F]

Please promise you won't laugh.

Here I am at about 218 pounds in size 16 or 18 jeans


Here I am today at 170.4 pounds in the dressing room at Maurice's in a pair of size 10 jeans!! I didn't know what size to try so I grabbed a 12 and a 14. I had to go back for a TEN! There is a bit of a muffin top with the 10, but the 12s definitely would have been too big after any stretch out at all, and/or any more weight loss as all. So I think these will be just fine in a couple more weeks! I'm really, really excited about the changes on the outside, which I hope are also happening on the inside! Excuse the non-matching earrings LOL! That new floral top also came home with me and it is a size L. The "before" pic top is a 1X. **I do think this brand/style of jeans runs big so I don't think I'm a total size 10 person yet. But I'm getting there!!! )



Thank you to Rick for the picture posting tutorial!

I promise going forward to post MWL food porn!

[VegSeekingFit]

OMG... Beth... You are beautiful!!!

Great pics and maybe I can be as brave as you and post a few....

Stunning is all I would say... LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!!

Amazing!!!

Best,
Stephanie

[Trinity]

Beth, you look incredible! Keep it up!

I posted this in Rick’s journal, but—that is such a great idea you mentioned about doing grocery pickup to avoid impulse buying! I will feel less guilty about doing grocery pickup from now on!