Hi Journal!
Happy November! Here’s a few photos from the week.
Still loving oatmeal for breakfast – this one is with a banana and frozen blueberries and mango. Delicious!
Was inspired by Starflower’s recent post in Jeff’s forum on winter squash to give them a try. They are really festive looking and I just cut them in half, scooped out the seeds, and roasted them cut-side down in the oven. Then, a bit of spice and they are good to eat!
Made a just dump ingredients into the crockpot soup and it turned out great! 2 cups dried Great Northern beans, a couple of boxes of NSA tomatoes, onion, carrots, brown rice. Thumbs up.
Below is behavioral assessment that I will post for week of 11/3.
Hi Team Time & Adherence,
We had our first snow of the season in Chicagoland on Halloween. It snowed a few times during the day --- even had to brush my car after pickleball. Felt bad for the trick or treaters as the temperature dropped to about 30 degrees and had been in the 70’s a couple of times the prior week. So, we had zero come to our house --- and now have many individual bags of pretzels that I will bring into work on Monday.
1 Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Mostly – still roughly 2/3 of the time. 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.
Yes. In addition to my standard oats, brown rice, beans corn potatoes --- I made a great “dump ingredients in the crockpot soup” – Great Northern beans, tomatoes, carrots, onion, rice --- was delicious. Also, have discovered squash – and love how it looks so festive! Have just baked them in the oven and added a bit of salt and pepper. 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.
Yes. Reduced not eliminated. 4 Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
Yes. 5 Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
Yes. 6 Eliminate any added oil.
Yes. 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).
Yes. 8 Don’t drink your calories especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
Yes. 9 Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.
Yes. No starving or stuffing. 10 Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
Mostly. Took a couple of rest days this week that my body was telling me were needed. I have 2 tournaments coming up next week for pickleball – should be a lot of fun! Have completed 4 weeks (in a row) of strength training and intending to keep this habit. Feeling stronger already as evidenced by being able to progress to heavier weights and plank for longer. Victories, comments, concerns, questions:
Mark – love how you started out with making this an awesome November! Yes!!! Let’s all do that!!
Bambi – awesome how you continue decluttering! I bet your home is looking fabulous. Going to use your positive energy here to get myself in gear over the holidays.
Rebecka – I find that same thing that once you open the Pandora’s box, it is easy to double down on the crap. Yay, that you are back on track.
Holly – Great to see you back here!!!
Gimmelean – We missed you! I love what you said --- “Halloween is not gonna get me this year… it has ended.” Think this is a great thought for all of us as we get into the holidays.
Artista – I am 100% with you on needing to be very conscious of my hunger when in different environments and to be ready with MWL foods. Love that we all of this forum to learn and share and thinking that learning how we respond in different scenarios is so valuable.
Wstokes – Hi! Good to see a new face!
Was excited to celebrate 2.5 years on this program this week. I had soup (split pea), salad (with rice, beans, corn, veggies, fruit), fruit (mango!), and potatoes --- lots of good food! Am feeling very committed to keeping on with this pattern of eating. I still feel fantastic!
Thanks Mark, Wildgoose, Jeff, and fellow participants for this group --- it is quite helpful!
Hope everyone has a great week!
Cheers,
Stephanie