Discussion Board

Thanks for stopping by, y'all, and the good wishes! Debbie, it was so easy to change my journal's name! It should be in the FAQs for sure, though, because it's not obvious. And yes, my weigh loss WAS recorded last week--I was psyched 'cause it was for 3 weeks, and I had not gained on a vacation, which was a real first!

Mrs. D, I replied on your journal, but I KWYM about loose outfits. I found a pair of pants that I had bought at Lane Bryant when I took my DD to college a few years back and they had been "goal" pants--so tight I had never worn them. But I found them almost too late for the weight that I was losing--I got to wear them to work for about 6 weeks, and then they were awful--so baggy that my coworkers did an intervention and told me to get new pants!!!

And Kirk, my biggest challenge with DH is going to be getting the flavors right for him without adding a lot of sodium, so any tips you have on flavor--please send them back my way, too!

OK--New Day, day minus one to liftoff. In other words, DH is going to Take His Lunch to Work tomorrow, and it will be McDougall lunch. This is the big test, and I am nervous as a cat. He gets so hungry, he hates eating at his desk, we are trying new lunch containers, and I'm trying not to have my self-esteem hinge on his reaction.

I am going to go downstairs in a few minutes and start making the dishes: International Confetti Rice, Creamy Bean Soup, Harvest Moon Soup, and something using the cut-up squash I got from Costco last week, plus cleaning all the romaine from the food box, and making our salad dressing. Better get to it, so I can relax at the end of the day so tomorrow morning is not too hectic, putting all his pieces together for him, as well as mine.

Does your hubby like spicy hot? I never used to but lately have been using a lot of Chipotle Tabasco. It has a nice smoky flavor and isn't too hot for me but still hot enough for my husband.

Wow, I just typed for about 20 minutes, then I hit return twice and it all disappeared!

So one more try: Deb, thanks for the Butt Dance!
Mrs. D., we LOVE Chipotle Tabasco!

DH was just talking tonight that for him (since he knows all the food is exactly the same), it's gonna be all about sauces, to make it on McDougall. He is an excellent cook, so he will put his mind to making this delicious--if he will be willing to stick with it for a while.

Nervous about sending DH with his lunch, so here's my mental prep:

Heat International Confetti Rice, add PIckapeppa, heat Stanley, put food in and close
Get baby tomatoes, baby carrots, and sugar snap peas for DH
Put the same in my salad made of the rest of the bag
Wash apple for DH
Cut up apple for me
My dish is rice and bean soup, already made

OK, Day 1 for DH lunch, success! For dinner today we had nuked potato with Inglehofer mustard, and I cooked up the zucchini, mushrooms, red pepper, onion, garlic, in a balsamic reduction with lots more garlic and oregano. Not bad--better than I've had in a while.

That'll be my lunch tomorrow with rice, along with carrots, snap peas, and tomatoes, plus an apple cut-up.

Ted's lunch--rice, moistened with Harvest Moon Soup, plus the veggies and an apple--not cut up.

Tomorrow's dinner: LED Soup, using the broccoli and cauliflower from the bag.

Wow, looks like your doing great and inspiring others. I couldn't do this and feed my hubby too, I admire that

Oh Debbie, how funny! We have tried to send him with lunch for years, but he has no kitchen area or lunch place in his office. The microwave is in the file closet, on a table only big enough for the microwave! The closest sink (for water to drink, cleaning a plate, etc.) is the bathroom, outside of the office and about 30 feet down the hall, and the water in that sink is the auto-on, so it's really hard to get water. So we had the problem of a microwave with no table space, no way of cleaning a dish, and not being able to give him anything that could flop around and get stuff on his dress shirt. So apparently our McDougall "glop" (his affectionate term) is ideal. We got a Stanley Stainless Steel thermos and he takes little fresh veggies, and apple, and so far he is happy. He is prone to needing variety, so we'll see if we make it past this week!

Oh well, gotta get going! I think I have to take my oatmeal to work since I wasted (!!!) time posting in my journal!

Deb, good ideas! It's funny about the variety. My dad, who died when he was 91, lived on his own for 18 years after my mom died, would make one dish and eat it all week--it's a family joke, how he's gross out all the kids showing them his beef stew on Saturday that he'd made the previous Sunday! So DH claims that the love of tedious food runs in My family!

And guess what? He hit the wall yesterday. He said when he opened his thermos, he had a gag reflex and had to force every bite down. And he had to force himself to NOT give up and go get a ham and cheese sandwich! I'm seriously going to have to get him involved in the food prep, so we can have things he can stand, and bring, every day. He still loves the raw carrots and tomatoes and apple, so we just need to get him through into having food HE likes, not what I like. He's such a good cook! But we have no time to cook when we get home. For instance, because of an after-work meeting, we got home last night at 8:15. We go to bed at 9. Hardly time to do anything!

Oh well, he has lost 5 pounds since Sunday! And I lost 1.2 pounds, which is really good considering I made a lot more higher-sodium things to try to satisfy his newbie palate. I haven't had much chance or desire to exercise this week, tho I did the exercise bike once, but I sure do miss my Wii Fit! I don't know how long it will be...

Also DD is coming home for Thanksgiving!!! We are so excited! She will help me make a turkey (she is very excited to do this), and we are having company--2 very dear friends. All the rest of the dishes will be McDougall-friendly. I have the rep in my family that I make the best turkey in the entire world, and I think I can still pull that off--it's all in the technique. I MIGHT have, a la Dr. McDougall, a small slice, but I haven't decided yet.

I'm just happy DD is coming home!

Yep, livin' on that body fat!

Naw, I'm not worried about his losses--he always does that. He is disappointed at that small of a loss! When we did South Beach together, he lost 45 pounds in 3 months, and I lost 18...he never did lose any more, though. I took me 5 months to lose 32 and then I just stopped cold, even though we both stayed totally faithful to the diet for the next year and a half.

He has not eaten totally on plan this weekend, because our remodel guys has been here both days, making it really hard to relax, or cook, or anything. But he is not telling me he's done with it, which is a good thing. He does want more taste in his food, and more texture variety, so we have to work together on that.

This afternoon I made butternut squash soup and will ask him to tell me what other seasonings it needs, and I made Low-Energy-Density Soup, which we love, both of those for dinners this week. I am going to walk him through a modified SNAP for his lunches. I have already sauteed onions, garlic and bell peppers for the base to add to--sauteed in veggie broth and vegan Worcestershire sauce.

I also made Yam-Pineapple Dessert to practice for Thanksgiving.

OMG! The Yam-Pineapple Dessert is WONDERFUL!! It's also something I will be adding to my oatmeal, later in the week. It's good hot, room temp, or cold--and as good as any pumpkin pie or whatever. MMM!

The Butternut Squash Soup got us into an argy-bargy. He tasted it and said it had no flavor, and then we went off on that old riff. He went away and I put in the spices that he had mentioned, and then we had a great discussion of what we would have with it as a starter soup.

I hope he likes this week's SNAP, because I made it without input from him. We are switching from Stanley to some plastic thing (by Aladdin?) that one is supposed to microwave when you put the food in, to keep it warm until lunch. I will put near-boiling water in to warm it up, but DH would freak if he thought I microwaved plastic--not gonna happen!

I can't remember what I ate today....Let's see, Oatmeal and Frozen Mango for bfast, then woke DH, and he wanted to "have oatmeal for breakfast with me," so I had another bowl. Had an apple after we went to the store. Had 1/2 cup of LED soup about 5. Had the Yam-Pineapple thing just now. Wow--I missed lunch!

OK, here's the recipe as I did it--it was someone in the MWL board last week who posted it, and although she gave someone's name as the recipe originator, it was vague enough that I don't think it's copyrighted! What I did is in parentheses, and I have to say, although he only wanted a little taste, Buster (DH) ate the whole bowl I gave him and loved it!
Pineapple-Yam Dessert
Ingredients:

a few yams (I used 2 large)
slightly drained crushed pineapple (I used a whole can)
a dash or two of salt (Several screws of the grinder)
brown sugar (Didn’t have any—used ~ 1 t. white and 1 t. blackstrap molasses mixed in)
cinnamon (used ~ 1 t. mixed in)

Directions:
Zap a few yams till soft. Scoop out the flesh and mash. Mix with slightly drained crushed pineapple, a dash or two of salt, brown sugar and cinnamon to taste. Put into a baking dish and zap or bake till set.

(I put it in the 8” square Pyrex and sprinkled the top with with a tiny but of sugar, drizzled molasses in a zigzag pattern, and sprinkled cinnamon all over it. Baked at 350 for 15 minutes.)
(We never got to it till it was room temperature.)

Getting Buster's lunch ready--I have the boiling water in the Aladdin, getting it warm I hope. I still need to cut up carrots, which I hate. Buster said he'd do it, but with the remodeling guy taking up both days of our weekend, he was upstairs and remote a lot. I'm truly glad we didn't start McD-ing together earlier--my own lunch prep is on auto-pilot, and I'm unlikely to stray out of lack of time, disappointment in his not 100% compliance, etc. I'm good--so far.

I can hardly wait until the downstairs is done and I can get my Wii Fit back! I am not looking forward to all the work of moving stuff back in and trying to figure out what to do with what we don't want to put back! Work, work, work--I could really do with some leisure time...

OK, quick post to the journal before I start my day. DH is no loner McDougalling, and actually it's quite a (temporary) relief. He will eat my food when he wants, and have food with texture and flavor most of the time. I think really the biggest problem is that he has so much tension at work that he needs comfort food to relieve his stress. He was only McDougalling to "make things easier," i.e., to eat what I was making, but not out a huge commitment to his health. He just wanted to lose some weight, but he's not committed to the way of eating, and he was relying solely on me for his food and his info--he wouldn't read word on the cookbook or the website to help get his head into the game.

It's a relief because he can get his own food. I don't like that feeling I get when he just sits there and waits for me to make the food, plate it up, flavor it--it is so unlike him to be so dependent. And I always lose more slowly when I am "dieting" with him--I try to flavor and cater to his tastes, which always tend to be more salty than mine.

I have not lost a pound--may have actually gained a pound--this week, and I've been eating larger portions and more. Now, that could not have anything to do with DH's foray into my WOE, but I can feel my feet swell and I am more ravenous. So, I'm hoping I can get back on my track soon.

We leave next Wednesday for a 4-day weekend in Boulder with my oldest son, his wife & my grandson. I just realized last night that I haven't said a word to him about the way I have to eat--they eat pretty healthy, but I will need my oatmeal, etc. And I haven't mentioned lately my weight loss--which at 62 pounds will be pretty shocking--so I think I'll email him this morning. The last trip, to Corvallis, was 10 days, so I already (at this point before) had a shopping list. But this is much shorter time, and I don't have the same relationship with this DIL (it's practically nonexistent), so I am just now wondering what I'm going to do about food. Oh well, I will get it done in the next few days.

It made me laugh a little because to me Mcdougall food is comfort food. I mean come on mashed potatoes, any kind of potatoes and so many things can be made into comfort food. But your right, he has to decide on his own. It sounds like your getting everything prepared for your trip, sounds fun. Keep on keepin on

Mr. Doodlepunk did the same thing, he went along with me just to make it easier for me to cook for the family. He says now that he saw me reading the books and heard what I was saying in the beginning but he said to himself "No way in $%#@ am I doing that." Then I got the McDougall videos and we watched them, it turned him totally around. He understood the principles then and seeing it in front of your eyes makes a big difference. He is now pretty well on the wagon with me but eats anything his mother puts on the table - which is only once a month or less.

Thanks, everybody! I love DH so much, which makes it so hard to (1) watch him eat all that fat and (2) badger him about it! Oh well, all I can do is watch and wait, and give him whatever vegetables and grains I can.

Back to me (as my DD, the "center of the universe," always said)! I didn't lose this week, but I have not been able to pay much attention, as I said in the MWL thread. It's not that I ate off-plan at all, but I ate huge portions, like a refugee! Oh well, now I have to look to the next two weeks!

With the remodeler gone, I have tons of work to do, but it's on my own agenda and I will be able to think ahead more.