Ben's Excellent Journey Towards Good Health

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Re: Ben's Excellent Journey Towards Good Health

Postby Mrs. Doodlepunk » Sat Oct 16, 2010 2:07 pm

Ben, you are doing great. I'm so glad you made something that you liked!

Now, post a pic of it. Upload your photo to Tinypic.com, grab the second code down and paste it into the text box here, then click on "preview" to see if you have to downsize the image on Tinypic.

At least, that's how I do it. 8)
It IS the food! :unibrow:
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Re: Ben's Excellent Journey Towards Good Health

Postby Ben » Sun Oct 17, 2010 4:58 am

Thanks Mrs Doodlepunk. I will work on the pictures soon. And thanks Debbie.

Yes, I just watched that video and it is great Bob. Thanks.

Well today I made the Indian Dahl from the Esseltyn book, and although I don't mind it, it is nothing something that I love and would want to eat over and over again. I still have enough for tomorrow's lunch so will finish it then. I will keep trying recipes until I find something else I love.

I am going to begin the Regular plan tomorrow. Off the fat and the dairy (meat too, but meat is not going to be a huge drama. I am not attached to meat like I am to dairy). I am going to eat as much food as I want, and I am going to go to the shop tomorrow after work and buy canned peaches and cereal which I know I really love. I will eat some whole food at each meal...and a lot of it.

Here I go.

Ben
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Re: Ben's Excellent Journey Towards Good Health

Postby Ben » Sun Oct 17, 2010 5:04 am

Oh, I forgot to say....

My wish and strong preference for the rest of my life is to eat some sort of combination of MWL and totally unprocessed food.

I would be too scared to try and do that tomorrow though :eek:

My current thought is that I might do the regular program for a couple of weeks or so, and then reassess how ready I am feeling to go the whole way.

Ben
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Re: Ben's Excellent Journey Towards Good Health

Postby nomikins » Sun Oct 17, 2010 8:06 am

Ben, I'm also a fan of yours! You are off to a GREAT start, and I'm looking forward to sharing your journey and your progress. Please do keep sharing the names of the recipes you make; I'm already planning to make the dish you mentioned from the MWL book, so thanks for that!

One day at a time, one hour at a time, maybe even a minute or second at a time. We are all on this journey together. All the best. :D
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Re: Ben's Excellent Journey Towards Good Health

Postby SactoBob » Sun Oct 17, 2010 9:24 am

Ben,
Good for you for trying new recipes. You will find some you like better than others. But don't give up if you can spice the recipe differently, or combine it with other foods. The other thing to remember is that your tastes will change.

I don't think it is a big deal that you are not starting with MWL - but you eventually want to get there. That is the diet that is the healthiest, and the one that will get you where you want to go. It is easy on the regular plan to wind up eating a lot of processed food and not getting much thinner. And as for unprocessed plant food - any of it (except nuts, avocado, olive) is on MWL. Any time you are eating unprocessed plant food, you are doing great.

Check out my wife's recipe journal. viewtopic.php?f=21&t=6673

I think these are all winners, especially the dal.
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Re: Ben's Excellent Journey Towards Good Health

Postby CJJ » Sun Oct 17, 2010 9:43 am

You're doing GREAT, Ben! I am doing MWL this time around and on week 3 now. Years ago we implented the regular plan and I found I just made too many allowances for other foods AND I overdid it on allowed breads and such. If you have the book with the 12 day program that is a very good jump start. I like the fact that meals are given for each day/meal (just for ideas though) so if you wanted to follow that you could very easily.

Hubby notices right away a big improvement when he eliminates dairy, which for him is really only cheese. He uses Almond milk on cereal and if he eats any ice cream it is soy. This being when we were NOT on program.
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Re: Ben's Excellent Journey Towards Good Health

Postby Ben » Mon Oct 18, 2010 6:30 am

Thanks nomikins, debbie and CJJ....and Bob of course!

Today was weird. I feel strange....like something is missing and if I eat a packet of chocolate biscuits I will find it :oops:

B - Oatmeal with mixed berries
L - Leftover brown rice and Indian Dahl (I think I preferred it today when I ate it cold)
D - Cereal with canned peaches. Toast and apricot jam (no butter)

Today was a low fat, no animal products day. Yay.

About the cereal and toast. I have eaten these VERY infrequently over the last decade, and I enjoyed them tonight very much. It felt like I was being very naughty and I enjoyed the 'naughtiness' of it. :P

For a long time I have felt so guilty for not eating 100% unprocessed MWL food, so since I have not been doing that I have basically given up and eaten chocolate, icecream, milk and meat instead!!!! I have not really eaten many foods that I would consider middle-of-the-road sort-of healthy food (like bread and cereal), because I have been in all or nothing (mostly nothing) thinking.

I am not going to live on bread and cereal. But I must say I enjoyed eating them today and knowing that I could eat them for a little while longer. I don't want to eat them long term in any major way, as I want to eat unprocessed food primarily.....but for now I am going to enjoy them :-D

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Re: Ben's Excellent Journey Towards Good Health

Postby nomikins » Mon Oct 18, 2010 6:33 am

Great work today, Ben. You know the answer was not in the biscuits. They would have lied to you, anyway. :unibrow:
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Re: Ben's Excellent Journey Towards Good Health

Postby Mrs. Doodlepunk » Mon Oct 18, 2010 6:50 am

I have NEVER met a cookie/biscuit that wasn't a liar. :unibrow: You are doing great, Ben. I agree with doing the 12 day guidelines first to get you on the program. It will be way easier that way and later on you can switch to MWL if you need to.
It IS the food! :unibrow:
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Re: Ben's Excellent Journey Towards Good Health

Postby SactoBob » Mon Oct 18, 2010 8:05 am

Ben wrote:Today was weird. I feel strange....like something is missing and if I eat a packet of chocolate biscuits I will find it :oops: Ben


Ben, you have perfectly described the feeling that I had during transition. You can't call it hunger, because you can eat all you want of healthy food. And it is not intense enough to be called a craving. It is a vague feeling that something is missing. I always though that an alcoholic must feel something like that during withdrawal.

That feeling will disappear over the coming month or two. Until it does, just defend yourself by having lots of healthy food available and eating it at every opportunity. Keep developing recipes, and try to stay away from places that you know will tempt you. It won't take too long this way before you are on autopilot.
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Re: Ben's Excellent Journey Towards Good Health

Postby Pacificfords » Mon Oct 18, 2010 8:26 am

Ben wrote:Today was weird. I feel strange....like something is missing and if I eat a packet of chocolate biscuits I will find it :oops:

Today was a low fat, no animal products day. Yay.




I feel about OIL the way you feel about the BISCUITS. :nod:

Great start! Keep it up... cravings come, but they also go... and then you feel so much better for having ignored them and eaten something healthy! :)
Debi

Blogging my journey at:
http://healthyandknowit2012.blogspot.com/
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Re: Ben's Excellent Journey Towards Good Health

Postby janluvs2heel » Mon Oct 18, 2010 10:35 am

Ben wrote:For a long time I have felt so guilty for not eating 100% unprocessed MWL food, so since I have not been doing that I have basically given up and eaten chocolate, icecream, milk and meat instead!!!! I have not really eaten many foods that I would consider middle-of-the-road sort-of healthy food (like bread and cereal), because I have been in all or nothing (mostly nothing) thinking
Ben


I hadn't even realized you have been here since 2006. That is when I joined as well. Not to worry, I figure everything McDougall that I put into my mouth over the last 4 years is good, whether I am losing weight or not. Now I am & am doing really well but I think this time was part of my journey. And I dont begrudge myself that time. So stop feeling guilty. The body is quite forgiving, you are young, every step that you take towards that goal your body will be better for in the long run. Yeah, it would be nice if I we all could just do it, as Nike says, but it just doesn't always work that way. I have stopped obsessing over the scale & what size I am wearing & am concentrating on being the best & healthiest I can. Whatever weight I end up, I want to be able to maintain it without struggling. :nod: :nod:

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Re: Ben's Excellent Journey Towards Good Health

Postby Ben » Fri Oct 22, 2010 6:54 am

Hi everyone

I have not posted for several days now. I was on an eating binge and it was not pretty......Bakeries, KFC, McDonalds, Indian restaurants, chocolate and icecream. Not good.

I weighed this morning and I have put on weight this last week. At the time of writing this post I honestly cannot remember how much, but I updated my ticker and graph so it is on there. I have set another weight record for me. I am at my heaviest weight ever.

I have a new plan that I will be implementing from tomorrow morning (it is night here now).

I am going back to the unprocessed food challenge, and I am going to do it for 60 days...to really get myself free from the pleasure trap and to really give my taste buds a proper chance to readjust.

I will be eating unmeasured and limitless quantities of brown rice, oatmeal, fruit, vegetables and legumes. Nothing else will pass my lips. No dressings, sauces or anything. And I will only eat canned things if the only ingredients are the vegetable/legume and water. I am going to have the above strict boundaries, but within them it will be basically a free-for-all.

And I am going to release my expectation that mealtime must be a party. I know these meals are not going to thrill me. And I am expecting to not even enjoy some of them at all. At this point I no longer care how they are going to taste.

I need to stop gaining weight and get to a healthy size before I drop dead of a heart attack or have a stroke. Two nights ago I had dinner with my uncle. Three months ago he went into hospital to have open heart surgery. Within 24 hours of the operation he had a stroke. He then got pneumonia a couple of days later. He is still eating meat, dairy, and everything else. I am aiming to learn my lesson easier and faster than he does.

And I loathe all of my clothes. For ten years now I have hated every piece of clothing I have worn and have only ever bought clothes very reluctantly at the last minute because a) I hate being faced with so few options in the shop, and b) because I keep thinking there is no point because I am going on a diet 'tomorrow' and I should wait till I can buy a smaller size.

Ben
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Re: Ben's Excellent Journey Towards Good Health

Postby Pacificfords » Fri Oct 22, 2010 11:42 am

Never give up... :) Sounds like you have a plan. I was thinking just the other day about how difficult it is sometimes to stay on track. I have dieted for years... literally and still have 100 pounds to lose, but I have lost 100 also and it does feel great once you get going, but honestly I can't say it ever really gets easy - at least from my perspective. 40 + years (in my case) of eating poorly doesn't go away easily... the breaking of habits takes time and lots of dedication, but it is worth it. Just start each day and do the best you can. Cheering you on!!! :D
Debi

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http://healthyandknowit2012.blogspot.com/
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Re: Ben's Excellent Journey Towards Good Health

Postby Mrs. Doodlepunk » Fri Oct 22, 2010 11:44 am

Hey Ben, I'm so glad you came back. We would love to have you join the challenge.
It IS the food! :unibrow:
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