Ok, so I have been doing a partial McDougall for the past several days and I am willing to commit. I tried the program back in the early 1990's with good success- of course after I got thru the withdrawal and started feeling great I quit, as is typical of me. I remember about 12 days of feeling like I had the flu last time- so far nothing but a low grade headache this time, maybe I'll get lucky.
So, a little about me. I am 44 (about to turn 45 in about a month) and weigh 305.8 as of this morning. That is down about 4 pounds from the last time I weighed several weeks ago. I have a long way to go, both in weight loss and in modifying my diet. I lost 143# 6 years ago and got down to an adult record of 184 but gained it all back about 4 years ago. I lost the weight that time by changing how much I ate but making few changes in what I ate. Not only do I eat the typical SAD recently it has become 3 fast food meals plus a snack at starbucks a day. Not only can you tell that on my body but in my wallet also.
Health wise I am doing far better than I deserve with the way I have abused my body. I am overweight and have some mild to moderate arthritis but my BP, cholesterol, and blood sugars are all within normal limits. I mean who deserves a total cholesterol of 135 eating fast food 3 times per day. Oh well, I know that that will not continue if I don't get this under control soon. I do have some GI problems that are most likely IBS but my doctor hasn't sent me to a specialist about that. I do know that that is diet related.
I am a physical therapist who works with the elderly and I went to a course last year on functional testing measures for the elderly. When it became time for someone to practice the tests with me being the guinea pig I found that I rated at "at risk" for a 70 year old with my outcomes. That is terrible for a 44 year old. I did begin exercising at that time (but have taken most of the summer off from exercising) but it has taken a year for me to be willing to work on the food.
So today-
B- 1 1/2 cup brown rice with salsa and 1 cup steamed spinach
L- 1 spring roll, veggie and tofu stir fry with brown rice
S- baked potato with salsa
D- is about to be either steamed asparagus and another baked potato or I am going to make up a SNAP meal we'll see.
So far I am feeling great and having very little side effects. Here's to beginning.
The biggest change I had to make was to always bring my lunch to work and to never, ever eat food in the car. That pretty much broke my fast food habit. Now if I want to get, say, a Taco Bell bean burrito, I have to get out of the car, stand in line and eat it in the restaurant. In short, I have to think about what I'm doing. I look forward to your posts.
. It never even crossed my mind to eat one. I looked at the table and saw the fruit tray they brought and thought "oh, that looks wonderful" and ate fruit. I even passed the chicken biscuit by when someone handed me one. Didn't even feel deprived. The second positive was at the end of the day. I was exhausted and had no desire to come home and cook what I had planned for dinner. So instead of using it as an excuse to get my normal fast food dinner I called ahead and ordered take out from my local Chinese restaurant and got steamed veggies and rice. It was just as quick and much better! Yesterday was a success.
