A Call to Arms.

[HollyJollyYogi]

Last summer and fall I followed McDougall’s Regular plan + gluten free and lost 40 pounds.

I was then 45 year old female, 5’3.5”, hypothyroid/medicated and autoimmune. 134# with plans to lose 10 more pounds after the holidays.

Cheated my butt off over the holidays and gained 5#.

Started MWL on Jan. 5th. Promptly gained 10# in 2 months.

I haven’t been able to stick to MWL beyond 4-5 hours. Not days HOURS.

By 2:00 I lose all control and before bedtime will have socked back bowl after bowl of starches, ½ cup chocolate, a bottle of wine and a nice on plan supper to boot.

What I know I’ve been doing wrong: chocolate, alcohol, salt, sugar, a restaurant meal/week.

Why I’m confused:
I wake up each day determined to follow the plan, but after lunch I would eat an elephant if it wasn’t a sentient being.

I’m looking for accountability. I won’t get defensive. I know I’m screwing up. I want your help any which way you may be moved to give it. I’ll be posting my food here daily until “we” get this figured out. So please stop by regularly. I need your help.

Yesterday:
8:00 1 cup steel cut oats, 1 cup blueberries, decaf/herbal tea
10:30 1 cup boiled potatoes w. hot sauce
12:00 1.5 cups salad of cucumber, tomato, carrots w. salsa (sugar in the salsa, used 3 Tbs.)
1.5 cups cauliflower, 1 cup boiled potatoes topped with butternut squash cheese (no
nuts: butternut squash, nutritional yeast, onion powder, salt)
1:30 First of several bowls of potatoes and chickpeas w. hot sauce served ½ and ½ w. cooked broccoli
3:30 2 carrots, 6” of cucumber and ½ cup cherry tomatoes served w. half cup pureed chickpeas and hot sauce
4:00 ½ cup chocolate chips (dairy free)
6:00 1 cup brown rice, 1 cup black beans
8:00 ¼ cup chocolate chips
8:30 – 10:00 a bottle of white wine

Could the sugar in the salsa or the salt in the butternut squash “cheese” really stimulate my appetite to this degree? I ate most of these foods last fall and did not have this voracious eating in the afternoons. Thanks in advance.

[judynew]

Hi, HollyJollyYogi

Just off the top of my head, if I had chocolate chips in the house, dairy free or otherwise, I would probably finish the bag in the first evening and have to go buy another one. I find I'm great in the morning and, as you say, all my meals are exemplary McDougall approved foods. However, starting early in the evening, all the "elephants" had better run for cover. My only salvation is keeping nothing 'off plan' in the house so I have to binge on fairly acceptable stuff. Unfortunately, my husband loves bread and peanut butter and doesn't want to give them up, so those tend to be my biggest downfall. I'm not following MWL, although I have been thinking about giving it a try because my weight is s-l-o-w-l-y creeping up.

I watched the new Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead and there is an expert in it whose name I cannot recall at the moment who talked about "licensing" as in giving ourselves permission to eat something. After a day of being really good, my brain tells me that I deserve a reward and so I scarf down something I know I shouldn't eat. I've found that really resonates with me. When I am getting a bit tired at the end of the day, also a bit bored because that's when I tend to sit down to watch TV or surf the net, then I reward myself.

I think I need to be more involved so I have less free time and have been actively signing up for things and attending activities. Of course, some of them offer snacks which is another problem. I also have several sewing projects waiting for me and I know that if I get busy with one of those, it will keep my interest. I find that knitting helps because it keeps my hands occupied while watching TV. Knitting was quite helpful when I was quitting smoking too.

I'm living proof that you can binge on rice cakes Sending positive thoughts.

[PeripateticDanielle]

Hi - I am having the same thing happen to me re: sugar!! I am cutting it out again, and it's difficult and slow at times. If I don't do as well as I would like one day, there's ALWAYS THE NEXT DAY!!

I have one suggestion: save your oatmeal with fruit for the evening. Have a hearty savory breakfast instead. Suggestions from my own menus are:

1. Sweet potato hash (cut onion and baked sweet potatoes into large chunks and dry fry in a non-stick pan, not moving anything until the bottoms are caramelized, then turning over and letting the other side caramelize)
2. Sliced potatoes, onions, lettuce, mustard, etc.
3. Baked beans over sliced white or yellow potatoes, with sliced tomatoes.

This change-up may help you. Then you have your oatmeal with fruit to look forward to in the evenings.

If I am REALLY craving sweet desserts, I'll have oatmeal with a scoop of canned pumpkin, some cinnamon, a few raisins or sultanas or chopped prunes or dates, and some vanilla. This is quite sweet without any added sugar and is very soothing to eat. (I got this idea from katydid's posts)

I also agree with Judynew. If I am having trouble with chocolate I will not have them in the house! It's different to be having a sweets cravings and getting the chocolate chips out of the cupboard vs. having the same sweets craving with the prospect of going out to the grocery store to purchase them!

Good luck!

[roundcoconut]

Holly, you sound adorable. And you can do this! It's not rocket science. You're smart, and there are some ugly foods that you are not meant to do battle against. There are also some powerful tricks and tools to be used to keep the ugly foods on their side of the fence, and keep the healthy foods on your side.

Let's talk:

So, do you know Jeff Novick's Five PIllars of Healthy Eating? They will steer your right every time. Here are your new criteria for every single meal and snack you choose for the next week. Choose to eat foods that are:

1 - Plant-Based. Your food should be really, truly plant-based. Not product-based. The food that nourishes you best is stuff that you bought in the produce aisle, and fixed to your liking. Whole grains and unprocessed starches are plants, and they count too.
2 - Minimally Processed. This means, steam your vegetables. Cook your grains or starches. Leave some fruits and vegetables raw. Chew your food, and don't let the blender do it. Enjoy concoctions such as pureed soups, dips and sauces on occasion, but don't let "on occasion" mean more than one meal a day, ideally.
3 - Calorie Dilute. To me, this means that a big volume of your food is vegetables. They are the magic formula for lowering the calorie density of your intake. They are also the magic formula for being a volume eater and staying very lean. I follow the Dr. Goldhamer rule of "Your salad or your plate of steamed vegetables should be so big that people say, 'Geesh, are you really going to try and eat that?'"
4 - Low (or no) SOS. I am actually an advocate of going no-SOS, as Dr Goldhamer also recommends. After all, if salt, oil and sugar are the things that trigger overeating, then why do we play around with them? The palate adjusts, and we have a better relationship with food when the stuff isn't overstimulating us.
5 - Variety. To me, this means that you're not developing addictive patterns with new plant-based favorites. If you feel like you wanna have sugarbeets daily, then you probably should keep then in rotation for two days a week, not seven. Switch it up and you won't get into trouble with anything, and it's good for your nutritional profile too.

Do what you have to do to get your body off of the addictive and calorie-dense substances that have been sneaking in. It is hard, and if you have to lock yourself in a room with soothing music, you have my blessing! Once you are off the addictive substances, and they are out of the house, you have a better, more solid brain chemistry to work with, and your body can begin to enjoy real food again, and restore itself to excellent health.

I could go on and on, but I won't! You have good guidelines to follow, and you've got a good start. You're eating a ton of the right foods, and can eat even more of those foods and can feel even better about yourself. It snowballs in a good direction, if you let it, and if you want it to.

[frozenveg]

You've gotten good guidance so far. I can totally identify. I have one more thing to add. Wine is, for me, an incredible appetite stimulant. Not just on the day, not just while I'm tipsy, but for DAYS afterwards. I think it is bound up in that "permission" thing that judynew talked about. Wine seems to release something in the brain that says, "Hey, what the heck! You've been so good! Live it up!"

And yep, get those chocolate chips out of the house! Think of them as mouse poop--they are pretty toxic!

[judynew]

Danielle, I'm going to try your suggestion about switching up my breakfast. I really enjoy my big bowl of spicy oatmeal and fruit in the morning. Having that in the evening and a less fruity meal first thing in the morning sounds doable. Thanks.

[HollyJollyYogi]

Thanks for the replies everyone!!!

Judynew – Thanks to you I feel like I have “people”. I know I’m not alone, just an extreme introvert. As for getting rid of chocolate, my three daughters, ages 20, 18 and 15 live at home. I’m not sure I want them convicted of matricide…

PeripateticDanielle – I think you’re right re: changing up breakfast. I used to love hash back in my meat eating days and with plenty of lime juice and chili powder it could be wicked good…damn that Pleasure Trap. Willfully not making food as delectable as possible is such a SIMPLE concept, but so DIFFICULT!!! Oatmeal at night could very well top me off for the evening. I’ll give that a try tonight.

Roundcoconut – Jeff is the RD I wanted to be when I became an RD. Trust me when I say I know how hard he works and how dedicated he is to do all that he does. I’m so not willing to work that hard! He’s my hero. I’ve read his forum front to back. Twice. As for getting off addictions: I’m pretty sure I’m a taper off person. My notes show consistent progress when I do one change, next week another, and then another. Going MWL may well have been just too much too soon. This forum is, however, where I find the people that have read everything and tried everything and know how to be supportive so here I am…

Frozenveg – I feel like I’ve had a celebrity sighting!! A few weeks ago you posted a link to your journal of your journey. I spent a day reading it straight through. I promise I won’t stalk you though!!
Mouse Poop. You are a brilliant, brilliant woman. Reframing things as “not food” is an extremely useful and effective tool for me. I shall forever and always look at my once beloved chips and have that little shudder of revulsion before reaching for them. I know from experience they will eventually extinguish from my diet based on two little words: Mouse Poop.
- Wine…You’re right, I know you’re right. I don’t want you to be right. I want to live in denial. I want to continue being a functional alcoholic. I won’t. I just want to. I wish it caused me immediate pain (say the excruciating menstrual cramps that I’ve now got firmly linked to SAD potato chips, which makes them easy to avoid now.) Reality is good sleep, relaxed mellow conversation with my hubs and progeny, and an all around feeling of bonhomie. This one we will revisit.

[perky12415]

Were there any specific items you were doing the first time when you lost the original 40 pounds that you may have forgotten about?

[Belties]

One thing that I see that is different, and that's because I'm your sister and know you, is the walking. You were walking several times a day, not just one big walk. There is SOMETHING brain chemistry wise with the walking not just the benefit of calories burned. I know you are up there is subzero temperatures and I don't have a solution for you. And as far as the chocolate goes, you can give it up. Remember the candy corn addiction? You didn't think you could give that up either but you did. I'm sure your girls can find a "buyer" and a place to hide their chocolate. You and I are both deluding ourselves when it comes to alcohol. All or nothing is the only way this is going to work even as I stomp my feet and wail, "It's not fair!!!!!!!! I've worked so hard, I am entitled to this ONE thing!!!!". If chocolate is mouse poop, then white wine is cow urine. I'll send you a video of one of my cows taking a big pee. Remember how it smells?

[HollyJollyYogi]

Belties - OH GROSSS!!!!! There is a reason you're the farmer/rancher and I'm the gardener. Livestock smell, ewwwwww!
You're right on the walking. I'm hoping the 100K challenge will get me going. It's -2 here today by the way. I'm going to be walking in circles... a lot!

As for the person that mentioned what I might have been doing then that I'm not doing now...I looked over my food logs from the month leading up to my lowest weight. Wow. EYE OPENER. I did less starch and more nuts/seeds. Substantially less and more respectively. I know that's sacrilege here, but that's what the logs show. However the nuts/seeds were chia, flax, hemp and almonds whereas after Christmas when I have indulged in nuts it's been almost exclusively peanuts which are botanically quite different.

I'll post yesterday's food and more notes after yoga this a.m.

[Wild4Stars]

I love my mini trampoline. Maybe that would give you a way to exercise when the weather is not cooperative.
There's no doubt I would not be out walking at -2!

I love that chocolate is mouse poop and wine is cow pee! I'm in agreement not to have any foods in the house that are off-plan. You can't eat it if it's not there.

Much success to you.

[HollyJollyYogi]

Friday: 2/27/15 – Current weight: 150#
8:30 1 cup steel cut oats, ½ cup blueberries
12:00 PFChang’s: weekly lunch date with the Hubs - Gluten-free Spicy chicken, dinner portion, ¼ cup brown rice, all the hub’s pea pods and bok choy (3/4 cup veg), tea
2:20 hot herbal tea
4:00 1 cup mixed boiled potatoes and chickpeas w. hot sauce
5:30 4 cups mixed romaine, cukes, tomatoes, carrots, bell pepper, cooked collards plus ½ cup sweet potato, ½ cup chickpeas, balsamic vinegar, sprinkle of salt
6:30 Herbal tea
7:45 1.5 cups steel cut oats, 2.5 Tbs. dairy free chocolate chips (Chocolate oatmeal)
8:30 1 glass white wine

Some thoughts: This was the first “animal food” I’d had in three weeks. Last fall during the Great Weight Loss Success Phase I ate 1 meal containing animal food per week. Sometimes skipping and going every two weeks. Given what happened after lunch yesterday it seems entirely probably I am extremely “carnitine sensitive.”

Have you ever wondered about those people who claim to have been a wildly successful vegan for 2 or 3 years or longer when their health suddenly tanked, but a chance experiment with eating animal foods again made them feel alive, vibrant and like their old happy selves? So, they immediately renounce their plant living ways and resume eating meat regularly telling everyone who will listen about their “foolish vegan experiment.”

In rebuttal Dr. Klaper touts a theory of carnitine withdrawal. It’s not sudden renewed health these reclaimed carnists are experiencing, but the joy of a high after withdrawals. (See Get Healthy Now-The Black Discs for his excellent informative talk.) Had I not heard it before I ate today I might very well have fallen pray to such delusional thinking as, “I feel AWESOME, so I must therefore need more meat in my diet.” Thanks to Dr. Klaper I’m thinking, “Wow, High-As-A-Kite is an AWESOME feeling…therefore the last 2-3 weeks of misery are simply an indicator that I’m moving too fast (for ME) towards zero animal products consumption.”

Have patience with me, friends, as I grew up on a hog farm in the NC the descendant of some truly great omnivore cooks and until Diamond Dallas Page and DDPYoga got me to even CONSIDER giving up dairy, which led me down the path to McDougall, I had NO intention of limiting my animal products consumption ever in my life. I’ve gone from 70-80 meals a month containing animal products to just 2-3 meals a month with them and that is a MAJOR change. One that I can easily sustain.

However, immediately prior to this 3 week period of all plants I had done a 4 week period of abstention. 7 weeks with only 4 oz. or so of animal protein seems to be a bit of a stretch. (For ME) I say this because I’ve felt awful for a couple of weeks now and after “that” meal I felt like I scored the good stuff. My mood and energy levels are still substantially better today. For right now this all means I’m going back to one meal a week with animal products for a while then I’ll taper to every other week and then every third a little more slowly.

Also of note, I reviewed my dietary journal from the month leading up to my lowest weight. It was eye opening. More on that in the future. Let the carnage begin…

[HollyJollyYogi]

For anyone interested in where things went:

Current weight 146.6 down 3.4# since the last post.

So what worked to FINALLY stop the gain:

Resumed walking 4 miles a day. (As I live in Wisconsin this has meant 4 sessions of day of walking the inside circuit of my house 70 times. My kids think I'm bonkers.)

Relegating chocolate back to a Sunday only thing, and very little at that.

Relegating alcohol to a holidays and birthdays thing. I'm sure for some that's too much, but I'm an introvert hermit so that's less than a drink a month for me.

And last but not least: calorie counting.

I know it's sacrilege here, but them's the facts. I'm 5'3.5" tall, 45 years old and have a post-radiation thyroid. I keep it to 1600 a day with a SLIGHT loosening on Sundays. I don't go crazy eating everything I want on Sunday, just for one meal I don't keep it as tight. Probably end up with about 2000 for the day.

To make this simply a matter of what I do instead of a constant willpower struggle, I've been eating 2 qts of veg a day. This works out to 2 cups salad and 2 cups cooked veg at lunch and dinner. Pretty typical for the program, but without the rule of EAT THE TWO QUARTS I'd live on beans and rice and salsa. And gain.

Thanks to all who chimed in with their support and suggestions, it was a great kick start.

[PeripateticDanielle]

Good job!!!

I think measuring your vegetables for a while, to understand what volume of what kind of food your body likes, is a good way to do it.

Way to go on your walks, as well!! Let's see... that would be 4x70=280

[roundcoconut]

Oh, we are *happy* for you!

There are no wrong ways to do better! Any way in which you move forward is a good thing, and is something you can feel good about.

And I hope you *do* feel good about what you are doing. It is important to reward yourself with good feelings, every time you make a good choice, any time you think in ways that are positive for you.

I have no idea why we are taught to compare ourselves to what other people are doing, but I do believe that you are the expert on what changes and approaches would feel good to you. So, your vegetable approach -- go for it! Calorie counting -- good for you! Indoor house circuits -- good job!

PS: As a fellow introvert hermit, I am especially rooting for you.