Discussion Board

I agree! Deploy CRAP shield! How I wish I actually had one...

Hey! I've gotten creative w/ my grits. One of my favorite things is to mix this very garlicky hummus or red pepper hummus (no oil) in along with broccoli cooked soft and garbanzos or nutritional yeast, garlic and squirt of brags. Veg broth is good too and red pepper flakes and a little smoked paprika or liquid smoke. I'm not a good cook but if I try often or hard enough eventually I'll get something I like.

I'll be in your neck of the woods week after next. I'd love to see you but I'm not sure I can make it happen. I'll have the parents and my mother needs a lot of help w/ my father. Could I call last minute and see if you're free for lunch or such?

Love Broadway Dave's poem.

Yes, definitely call if you get a chance. And I understand if you don't. I'll pm you my phone numbers.

I've been very sick -- incredibly fatigued and depressed -- from prednisone withdrawal. Just as I was coming out of it, I broke my foot (not a bad break, but it put me on crutches for a while).

So I stopped even trying to eat properly. It's amazing how fast the pounds come back on.

Anyway, I'm trying to get back on track. Yesterday I ate pretty well, except for some canned beans that were high in salt and sugar.

Today I brought the rest of those beans for lunch but after realizing that I shouldn't eat them, I tried to figure out something else to eat that I had on hand. Fortunately, my dad stopped by and wanted to take me to lunch at his favorite place... the hospital. They recently revamped their cafeteria and though small, they have an excellent salad bar and daily choices that are cooked with no oil. So I had the blandest lunch ever, but it was filling enough and healthy all the way around (steamed green beans, plain rice, plain corn, and a salad w/no dressing).

Today's Food:

Breakfast:
- "muesli style" oatmeal with blueberries, raspberries, & a peach for breakfast.
- green tea (no sweetener).

Lunch plans:
- Rice (white, plain, no oil/butter etc).
- Steamed green beans & broccoli.
- Cooked corn (plain)
- Small salad w/various veggies & a slice of canned pineapple.
- Iced tea (unsweetened).

Snack:
- Carrots.

Supper:
- black bean & mango salsa (homemade, no salt/oil) over a baked potato
- lg tomato chopped & mixed w/1 tbsp reduced fat nayonaise, over a few slices of dry-fried grits
- small bowl of plain shredded wheat-n-bran & banana, topped w/unsweetened almond milk (I was very hungry tonight!).

No exercise today because of my foot.

Hi! Your menu looks so good today! You seem to be doing well and it is so nice to be able to read about it.

You asked me several weeks ago about how to make my cherry rice--it's pretty simple: 2 cups brown jasmine rice, 1 pinch of saffron threads, 3 cups water, 1 cup frozen cherries. I just put it all in my rice cooker and made it. I sprinkled a teaspoon of sugar on top when I served it. That's it. I hope you aren't dissapointed, but I was trying to make it as McDougall as possible. The recipe I took this from called for sweetened cherry juice, almost a syrup there was so much sugar in it, so I worked on that. Now that I have been eating this way for awhile, I find that the sugar isn't needed as the cherries are enough to sweeten the rice.

Fulenn

That sounds awesome! Thanks so much for sharing the recipe. I like that it's simple and uses only a few ingredients that don't spoil.

Sorry to hear about your foot hope it heals well and soon.

Yesterday I actually had a completely on plan day.

Today I slipped up. I started off confident and feeling really good. While grocery shopping, I walked past all the usual temptations with a firm "no" to myself.

Then near the very end, in the produce section of all places, there was a display of chocolate covered ginger, which I'd never seen before. I thought "wow that looks interesting, I've got to try those!" and before I even had time to think "hey this isn't on plan for me anymore" (until recently I would have considered them to be) I had opened the little bag and eaten them.

After I realized what I'd done, I really had to battle the "you've screwed up today, you might as well binge on everything that's forbidden" mentality. Fortunately I remembered that the more junk i had now, the harder it would be to get back on track, so the rest of the day went on plan.

Food for today:
- usual "muesli" w chickpeas, blueberries, & banana
- decaf iced coffee w soy milk

- chocolate covered ginger

- grilled veggies
- pinto beans (no salt)
- brown basmati
- pomegranate walnut sauce (home made)

Exercise:
- none, other than lots of time on foot with the boot.

Good for you! That's a great example of metacognition, or thinking about your thoughts. Then you changed your behavior because of it. So wonderful! That, in my opinion, is how you will make this a permanent change. That particular thought that you had to deal with today is one I have had to learn to conquer, too. It's hard, but doable.

Yea for you!
Fulenn

Wow I am reading a book called The Power of Habit and it sounds like you are changing your habits in a good way every time you use that metathinking to override your old urges.

Anyway, just want to say congrats. I am also recommitting.

I also like cherries in my oatmeal in the morning. I add garlic salt called Herbemare which makes it really yummy together.

Hope your foot heals fast.

[edited to add weigh-in info: Today was weigh-in day.  223.0, so I'm down 6.8 lbs from last week.]

That's good, though I must admit to being a little disappointed that it's not more, given my improved adherence  Perhaps it was the higher sodium in last night's meal?

Cherries and garlic salt...now that's original!

Fulenn &'Caroveg, Sounds like You both are reading the same kinds of things...meta cognition and habits, eh? Tell me more!

Today was a good day. I got very thirsty at an outdoor event and had that "Ive GOT to have a coke" feeling. After much back and foth mental conversation ("you shouldn't have a coke"..."but i NEED a coke"), i got as far as having the money in my hand and reaching to put it into the machine, when I decided no, I'd rather stay on plan.

Have spent the evening preparing food for the week. Plus a yummy supper of grill-baked potatoes and mushroom gravy.

Food for today:
Breakfast:
- usual "muesli" with banana, blueberries, & chickpeas.
- green tea

Lunch:
- pasta salad (really more of a veggie salad w pasta and some beans added) w hot-n-spicy 3-2-1 dressing

Snack:
- fresh cherries
- a few baby carrots

Supper:
- more pasta salad
- 1/4 baked potato w mushroom gravy
- chocolate "ice cream" (frozen banana, mango, red grapes, squash, wonderslim cocoa, vanilla, & a little almond milk)
- 1 tsp peanut butter

Exercise for today:
- none other than walking around at the outdoor event

Hi, I noticed that your signature says "cured severe acid reflux" and I wanted to know how long that took. Because if you are cured of acid reflux even though you go off plan from time to time....I am interested in that.

I have had several rounds of this.....I have gotten my food down to what I know works and been strict for about a week and I am still taking 2-3 tums a day. This is what I ate today and is an example of the last week:

oatmeal, cooked fruit and a little sugar

brown rice and steamed broccoli, mushrooms and carrots and salt

sweet potato and garganzo beans, jeff novick's steak fries with salt and some onions, mushrooms sauteed in nothing.
Bowl of oatmeal around 8pm with some sugar

It is now 11:30pm and I will be going to bed so I feel good about not eating for 3.5 hours before bed!

I have eliminated whole grain breads, tofu, mustard, vinegar, tomato products, rawvegetables, juices. I really think that diet above is not only healthy but also purified of "healthy" things that bother me anyway!

I have been telling myself every day that I need TIME and ADHERANCE...but ....I am worried.

Riva

I "discovered" that I was no longer living on the Tums bottle about a year after I started eating this way. Darn if I can remember when the issues completely went away because I wasn't astute enough to notice till they were gone. I was focused more on angina and less on heartburn and acid. But if I were calculating a rough idea of how long it took I would say several months. Even now if I have a meal outside the home and it has oil in it I feel the beginnings of heartburn. It's kind of my built in oil detection system. It's only a personal observation but I'd say 30-60 days of clean eating should yield observable differences. It really is a pleasure not having to down 4 or 5 tums to get to sleep. Not that I wouldn't wake up later on fire but at least I could start to fall asleep.
f1jim

It seems that in most grocery stores finding McDougal friendly foods is like searching for rubies in a manure pile. It's isle after isle of processed sugary, salty, oily junk unless you're standing in the produce department. It's hard to keep up a positive defense against all those super-tasty-looking treats all the time. Live and learn and keep on McDougaling

Just hang in there. After a while they just look like the piles of rubbish they are. I look at them as mountains of sickness promoters. I really try to stay out of the aisles in the middle of the market as it can be very depressing. At least the produce section has some life to it.
f1jim