Hello fellow Time & Adherence travelers! Happy Holidays to one and all, whatever you may celebrate during this season!
Not gonna lie - the last couple of weeks have been rocky and have been inconsistent in terms of compliance. I missed the deadline to report last week, but that was due to an unexpected situation (I need to stop waiting until the last minute to check in!) and not due to me running and hiding, which is a victory right there. This past week was similar to the previous week, so multiplying this report X 2 is pretty close to accurate for me.
1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
5 of 7 days yes2. 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.
5 of 7 days yes3. 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.
5 of 7 days yes (reduced, not eliminated)4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
Yes5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
5 of 7 days yes6. Eliminate any added oil.
5 of 7 days yes7. 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.
5 of 7 days yes
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
Yes9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.
5 of 7 days yes10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
No – I have completely fallen off of intentional exercise. I am going to get my green dot calendar back in action – it fell by the wayside as holiday madness ramped up. The good news is that my average steps per day last week just “living life” was 9,142.Victories: Despite 2 days this week, and also 2 days last week of WAY off MWL plan eating (and dancing around in the Pleasure Trap) I feel like I am back on firm ground. I’m so glad I was able to talk this through with my McDougall Support Specialist (12-Day Program) and also connect with other McDougalling friends through this bumpy spot in the road. As suggested by my Support Specialist, I am choosing to reflect on how these food choices made me feel physically and emotionally, see what the scale impact was of these choices, and decide for future reference if it was worth it. My biggest fear is that I will struggle to get firmly back on track. If that proves to be overly challenging, then NOTHING will be “worth it.” So far, this feels radically different than any other experience I have had deviating from the “rules” of whatever plan I was trying to follow. It seems to make a HUGE difference that I just love this simple starchy food SO MUCH! It’s not like it’s some huge mental sacrifice to eat potatoes with ketchup! So, I’m treating this as a valuable learning experience. I certainly don’t want to make any sort of regular habit of eating off plan food. I DO want to experience
confidence that if I make one or two choices that aren’t the best, I’m not going to fall off the cliff – I can get right back to business. I think this is an extremely important shift in my belief system that will benefit me if it takes place. I’m reminded of the saying “whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you are right.” My goal is to get through the next few weeks in a very clean eating MWL kind of way, and then re-evaluate all this for future reference. Good news – I am still in my goal weight range of 144-149. My weight went up over the top end of my goal range, but it came right back down and I weighed 147 this morning. For reference, this is a BMI range of 21.3 – 22.0. For now, this seems like a good place and a good range to stay accountable to. If time & adherence takes me a little lower, I’m OK with that too (within reason, of course). I would love to start 2023, and end 2023 in my goal weight range (having stayed there throughout the year, of course!). That would be a significant accomplishment for me!
Comments: I think my comments merged with my victories! I always need to keep in mind too, that this isn’t only about weight. Weight is just one of many health indicators. BMI is just one of many. Eating the wrong food even if my weight seems right is NOT the path to good health.
Concerns: The Pleasure Trap is sure ever present in our lives, and even more so at this time of year… not news to me or anyone else, but just sayin’ it! The struggle is real. Decision fatigue is real. And like Holly said, I'll be really glad when the food fest aspect of the holidays is over!
Questions: What are your favorite tips for getting back on track after a departure? What are your favorite mental strategies for making good choices under Pleasure Trap heavy circumstances? The mental part seems harder to me than the physical part right now. (i.e. “physical” strategies such as taking “my” food with me, not going places hungry, bring a dish that is compliant for me, meal planning and prep, etc.) What do you say when you talk to yourself in these situations? I want to get better at how I think it through.
One more week to go and we will be in the new year - hard to believe how fast 2022 went by. But wow - what huge changes! I started the year weight about 218 or somewhere close to that, and ending the year about 70 pounds lighter along with the myriad of other health improvements. Off all medication. Far less pain. Etc. etc.! Amazing! Thank you Team McDougall, and everyone here who provides the necessary support, information, and occassional necessary (for me) whip cracking
to achieve this! I'm looking forward to an amazing 2023.