Discussion Board

Hi I'm Jen and today is day 34 on MWL. I'm currently dealing with traumatic arthritis in my low back and hips (sports injury) and am having a fairly easy time sticking to this way of eating. Also I have arthritis in my neck, hands, and one leg (after two previous fractures). I like to be able to move with less pain and have seen a vast improvement in my overall condition. Not only that, after only 21 days, I dropped a whole jeans size! I've been eating different ways over the past few years, raw, vegan and vegetarian of all types, paleo, and this is the longest time I've been able to stick to Dr. McDougall's plan. I also do yoga daily which helps me keep in touch with how my body is feeling. My diet is simple, brown rice, vegetables, fruit, beans on occasion, peppermint tea, and my homemade lentil soup, that's pretty much it. I've had to eliminate many foods due to sensitivities and I had my gall bladder removed thirty years ago at age 24. Why so young you might ask? My dad was a butcher, we ate red meat almost every day. I'm highly motivated to get off this yoyo dieting and am sure that this is it, finally.

Best of luck veganjen! Glad you are here with us and introducing yourself I have been doing this for just a few months and have really seen big changes, even in the osteoartritis I have in m ankles (due also to injuries).

The actual artritis just vanished in weeks - that was in my hand joints and shoulder. If I eat gluten I find the shoulder will bother me slightly, but nowhere near as much as before. Many people here swear that gluten and dairy elimination is the key to reducing and even completely ridding oneself of various types of pain. I have to say that I agree when it comes to the arthritis - but much of my fibromyalgia is hanging on despite the changes.

I just had my gall bladder out last week! I held on to it a long time - but our family had a lot of ranchers and farmers and the eating like yours was pretty meat oriented. Well at least during my childhood for sure.

I hope you have as much success as possible here and I wish you the very best in your efforts. Changing the way we eat for the results we get is not a sacrifice at all in my book ! Michelle

Welcome aboard, Jen! I am glad you found us.

Please use the great resources here and keep us posted on your progress!

Hi Jen,

I think you'll like it here -- lots of really nice folks to offer support and advice! And since most of us have families and friends who are not McDougallers, it is a breath of fresh air to be able to come here where others don't think the way we eat is weird!

Glad you're here! I am a newb too. Hope to see you around.

Welcome welcome..... I'm a newbie of 7 months started with the regular WOE but now on the MWL. Feeling great ! I had arthritis also but gone after one week. A great support group here with all kinds of great ideas.

Hey there, I'm new, too...really looking forward to the help and support of all of you.

btw, how do you get the tickers?

Hi Michelle...sorry to hear you had your gallbladder out, not fun. Hope you heal quickly!

Thank you for the welcome Michelle, pinkrose, Quinoamania, carrotkilla, giddyupgin, and 25752b.

It's encouraging to hear others have had success with arthritis through nutritional adjustments. My doctor has told me way too long that diet had nothing to do with it. I know better now, my results have been amazing.

I have a long way to go and will base my progress on my clothing sizes. While in my early twenties, I battled with anorexia and because of that I never weigh myself. The numbers make me slightly nuts and even at my age my knee jerk reaction is to starve, so I don't typically go there. Although I have to admit I did weigh myself last week out of curiosity and really didn't like what I saw, so I guess I'll start the ticker thing at that weight. Don't even want to guess what my real starting weight was! When I think I'm close to my goal weight, I'll weigh again, I'm sure I'll like that number better!

Click on the link above someone's ticker.

[quote="lmggallagher"]
The actual artritis just vanished in weeks - that was in my hand joints and shoulder. If I eat gluten I find the shoulder will bother me slightly, but nowhere near as much as before. Many people here swear that gluten and dairy elimination is the key to reducing and even completely ridding oneself of various types of pain. I have to say that I agree when it comes to the arthritis - but much of my fibromyalgia is hanging on despite the changes.

I suspect wheat problems with me too. Another thing that does me in is sugar. One of the reasons I'm doing yoga is for fibromyalgia, it really helps a lot to ease that pain. I have a 30 minute DVD workout that I do every morning, without it I'm too stiff, I skipped one day and paid dearly for it, never again. Full body very gentle massage helps too.

Welcome Jen, and all the other newbies on this thread. I am another relative newbie as I am only at this a few months. I consider myself to be following the regular plan, but most of the time I eat MWL so this board is full of great information to incorporate into my plan.

Hi Rachelle and thank you for the welcome. Congratulations to you, you're almost at your goal...that has got to feel good!

Welcome, veganjen! I have a feeling you are going to do this--to totally commit and take on this way of eating! I, too, had my gall bladder out, after 2 years of McDougalling but 60 years of meat-eating, on Jan. 3rd of this year. I seem to be doing OK without it...

I also had a lot of pain in my hips and legs, and most of it simply disappeared within 3 weeks of starting eating this way. I do get recurrences--I think I hurt myself at a yoga class at the gym (I'd never been to a class before, and I pushed too hard, I think)--but overall, I feel incredibly better than I did before.

Here's to you getting off the yo-yo cycle, and getting down to eating well forever!

Veganjen, welcome. Another Bay Area member!

Sounds like your journey has been quite an exciting food adventure! Brown rice and lentils soups are among my favorites (any Indian cuisine). Just vegetables and fruits encompasses a huge range, as I'm finding out. And good for the yoga too; excellent exercise.

Thanks for the welcome Cloudy. I just read your story and I like your concept of "not food" when something isn't on program...I'm going to steal that one.

I like to have foods ready to eat too. I've been big into crockpot cooking since the seventies and I love soup and stews. Also, I keep a couple of quarts of soup in my freezer so there's always food for me. Buying brown rice and lentils in bulk helps too, I buy 25 lb. bags of each.

There's still some pain in my hips, but I think it will get better as I lose more weight. My digestion has improved too. Eating regular foods without a gallbladder was challenging, so many foods made me sick. I feel so much better on MWL.