Discussion Board

Well, I'm back down to 204.4 so I'm ready for some new low weights this next week. Our exciting New Years Eve dinner is going to be Mexi Soup, perhaps my favorite Mary McDougall recipe. I'm going to have to become more careful in finding low salt canned foods, but I don't think it will be that bad, and I'm not really all that worried about sodium.

We did get some faux hot dogs to cut up tomorrow in some sauerkraut. Sauerkraut is one of my favorite dishes from the past. I only wish I was any good with making dumplings like my mom did. When I've tried them in the past I've had trouble getting them to rise. My mom could make them as big as a baseball and very fluffy. Perhaps the problem I had was not fresh enough baking powder?

I did get to use my skills in eating out yesterday as we got a sudden invite to lunch. They had lots of non-McD items but I managed to find a veggie wrap which worked fine. I suppose a whole wheat wrap might have improved things, but it was a small family cafe so I didn't try pressing my luck.

Yes! Down to 203.6 this morning. A good way to start the new year. I'd like to get down to 200 by the middle of the month when I'm scheduled to get blood tests done again. And I was just at 30.01 for my BMI on the WIIfit. So I'm about to leave the obese category!

Didn't know how well I'd do yesterday as we got a late invite to play some board games and we didn't have time to prepare. Had some chips and salsa, a square inch of some chocolaty candy and one (yes, just one!) white chedder puff. But we just snacked (veggies and left-over mexi-soup) when we got home so I was actually down to 203.4 this morning.

Since Jeff wants us to say something about how 2010 went, Here's a summary with some repetition of earlier stuff. I started the year at 225.8, having come down from about 280 a year and a half to two years earlier. By mid September I'd come down to 217 on a mostly vegan diet with some chicken and a little cheese and an occasional binge on steak or seafood, etc.

Then I got my first blood work done for a couple of years and the doc said I was diabetic. I said "I'm changing my diet to lose weight." She was doubtful but said go ahead. I got another reprieve in mid November though my numbers were only marginally better. On Dec 30 I weighed 205 so for the first 8.5 months of the year I'd lost almost 9 lbs and for the last 3.5 months on a fairly strict McDougall (but not MWL) diet I lost 12 lbs. Since I was at 203.4 this morning it's been almost 14 lbs in a just over 3.5 months. As a short-term goal I want to be 200 when I get my blood work done again in a couple of weeks. I'm intending to even do a day or two of fasting if necessary. I used to be able to do 24 hr fasts very easily.

BTW, I take no pills whatsoever, and I intend to keep it that way if at all possible. AFAIC medicine is for acute illness, not chronic conditions.

I decided to go ahead and get a ticker. I may change it later to display weights instead of weight to lose. What do people think is the best way to go?

Still at 203.4 today. But I weighed in on our WIIfit before I ate anything and my BMI is down to 29.94 so I'm now officially merely overweight rather than obese. Hurrah!!

Congrats on the new BMI status. Most excellent

Oh, Dave, I can't let your passage from OBESE to OVERWEIGHT go past without a huge

woo hoo!

When it happened for me, I ran around hollering for a few minutes. I am very happy for you--excellent progress!

Thank you both. Didn't lose any weight today, but we went out last night with a Vietnamese lady in our neighborhood to a Vietnamese restaurant and while she ordered vegetarian food for us, I expect it had some oil in it. It was pretty tasty, though I found I'd forgotten how to use chopsticks (not that I was ever very good at using them.)

Afterward we re-watched Dr. McDougall's session on MWL from the Dr. McDougall's Money-Saving Medical Advice DVD and I got a better grid on why it's important to cut back on sugar when trying to lose weight. It had not clicked with me that since insulin both lets sugars enter cells as fuel and fat to enter fat cells for storage, that letting insulin rise would keep fat from being released from fat cells to be burned in muscles, etc. Now I need to put what I learned into practice.

You're doing really well Dave, keep it up, you'll reach your goal of 200 before you know it...

Now that I'm getting back into the swing of things I'm going to start making goals of my own....
Starting with, tomorrow I will start using the treadmill that's sat behind me...lol and the static bike that's sat next to it sulking...

So each day I will get on the treadmill at least 3 times for 10 minutes a time.. (I haven't exercised for a long time and have arthritis in the lower spine)... Once I find it easy to do 10 minutes I'll up it by 5 minutes each session until I'm walking at least 1 hour a day.

Thanks Dave, you've inspired me to set goals...

*hug*

Aran

Well, I tried two new foods today which are often mentioned here but I hadn't done before. Well, actually the first, golden potatoes, I did bake some not long ago, but this time I nuked then in the microwave and then had them with BBQ sauce. Quite tasty. I have a big bag so I'll probably have them a lot the next few days.

The second item was baking a spaghetti squash. I was sort of suprised just how easy it was once I actually started. And it did fine with some low-fat bottled spaghetti sauce. But I think I want to use it as part of some sort of casserole in the future. If someone has a particular favorite I'd be interested.

I guess the potatoes and spaghetti squash work. Despite eating tons and feeling stuffed, I'm down to a new low, 203.2! On to 200...

Actually it's even better. I hadn't had a "sitting session" before weighing. Now it's 202.6!

It always helps if you can have a 'sitting session' before you weigh in....lol

great work.. I love spaghetti squash.... Specially in the summer time they're so easy to prepare and to eat...

Aran

Down to 201.8 this morning! Now the question is if I can lose the last 1.8 pounds in the next week without having to do a fast day? Sometime next week I'm supposed to get blood tests to see how I'm doing.

Last night we hosted our church home group and I fixed Stir-fry. I basically took orders on what people wanted. I had pre-prepared Chicken for the meat eaters and added whatever veggies others wanted and whatever stir-fry sauce people wanted. Ended up with two batches with chicken and one vegan (McDougallish) one. Everyone liked the idea and they said it's the best main dish I've done.

201.6 Happy to have two record lows in two days. We had a "Mary's salad" for supper, which was named for my wife, not Mary McDougall. Years ago when the charity Mary works for, Food for the Hungry, was in northern Scottsdale, there was a small restaurant across the street a lot of the people went to and they had a Chicken pasta salad. But Mary liked to get it McDougallish with no Chicken, no Cheese and also no Celery. And with a a fat-free salad dressing. The people there took to calling it the Mary Salad. FH moved downtown Phoenix, partly not to have a trendy address like Scottsdale. FH works almost entirely in the poorest of poor nations, and only occasionally in the US in times of emergency.

Anyway, I still make the Mary's Salad for us, though I normally cut up a number of veggies and let us choose which ones we want individually. Mary likes avocado and I don't for instance and I like raw onion more than she does.

Just finished reading your journal...you're doing GREAT!!! Very inspiring to see your progress. My guess is you'll meet your goal this week! Keep up the good work, it's working!!!