Getting Started after reading many McDougall books

[Scooter1411]

I received Dr. McDougall's original book and the cookbook in the mail two weeks ago and I have read through and understand the theory. Two days ago I received The Starch Solution book and today I received the Maximum Weight Loss book. My head is spinning and I am itching to get started! Should I get started with the MWL recipes first? How many servings do the recipes serve? I have a family of four (two young children and husband) whom I would like to try the recipes out on (even if I end up being the only one eating them) and I want to make sure that I make enough. And I can really eat as much as I want until I am satisfied?! Even the breakfast foods? Where does everyone suggest buying the food products, especially the breakfast foods?

P.S. Will I negate my potential positive results if I use Crisco canola oil non-stick spray on pans? (please don't hate me for asking, lol)

[vgpedlr]

I received Dr. McDougall's original book and the cookbook in the mail two weeks ago and I have read through and understand the theory. Two days ago I received The Starch Solution book and today I received the Maximum Weight Loss book. My head is spinning and I am itching to get started! Should I get started with the MWL recipes first?

Start with The Starch Solution (regular program) and use whatever recipes you like. MWL is just a tweaking of the regular program to further lower calorie density for faster weight loss. There's no need to make your head spin right away! Just get started and you can tweak it later if you want or need to. I also highly recommend Jeff's DVD on calorie density. It really explains how and why this program works.

How many servings do the recipes serve? I have a family of four (two young children and husband) whom I would like to try the recipes out on (even if I end up being the only one eating them) and I want to make sure that I make enough. And I can really eat as much as I want until I am satisfied?! Even the breakfast foods? Where does everyone suggest buying the food products, especially the breakfast foods?

Serving size depends on the individual and what other dishes might be served at the same time. You'll just have to experiment. I find that most recipes are for 4 servings, but for me are 3, maybe even 2, as I like one dish meals. YMMV. You let appetite be your guide. Eat until satisfied, but not stuffed.

P.S. Will I negate my potential positive results if I use Crisco canola oil non-stick spray on pans? (please don't hate me for asking, lol)

NO OILS on this program, whether you pour, drizzle, or spray. I wa surprised when I finally stopped oil at how much better my food tasted without that layer of grease.

[frozenveg]

I'd like to reiterate that cutting out the cooking oil (all of it) is a very important Step One.

Look at this from Jeff Novick:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcjE9hfE57c

It might be super-helpful to watch ( or read) some Jeff Novick on label reading, too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd9XnyNGXGs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtxvIHRkoAg

BTW, as far as servings go--you need to experiment. How committed is your family to trying the food? If they don't like what you made, will they eat it anyway, or will they want other food? YOU may not even like some of the recipes (just like in any other cookbook in the world!), so proceed with caution, and be ready to have some other stuff to eat for each person you're dealing with.

And I can really eat as much as I want until I am satisfied?! Even the breakfast foods? Where does everyone suggest buying the food products, especially the breakfast foods?

What breakfast foods are you speaking of? Oatmeal? Fruit? Whole wheat flour? Potatoes, veggies and rice? (I was looking at the Starch Solution breakfast recipes to get an idea, since I've never looked.) Almost ALL of the food I eat daily on this way of eating I buy at the regular grocery store. Most of the exceptions consist of the canned beans with no salt added, and no-salt-added fire-roasted tomatoes. If you have questions about specific brands of packaged foods, then folks can help you find them--availability of different packaged foods differ so much state to state and country to country.

You ask about eating as much as you want. Are you trying to lose weight? A lot or a little? The answer, in great part, is determined by your goals. You can eat as much food as you need to become satisfied. You might want to explore in your own mind how you notice when you are satisfied. Many people here report their disappointment that they cannot eat everything they want and still lose weight. But as I have noticed in myself, eating everything you want may not be the same as eating until you're full. Often I have found myself eating beyond fullness, trying to get to some other point--I will be stuffed but not satisfied, as if I have several more spoonfuls to go before my eating time is up! I have to watch that, and I still must pay attention to actually stopping when I'm full, rather than going beyond that for the sake of the fact that there is still warm food on my plate! But for the most part, the food we are eating is so low in calorie density, that we get to our ideal weight if we eat nothing but that food.

Here's another Jeff Novick--he actually has a "sticky" near the top of his forum called "Can You Really Eat As Much As You Want?"
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=27333

So--welcome, Scooter 1411, and have a wonderful time with this! Keep engaged--ask questions here, and there will be lots of help for you!

[Scooter1411]

@frozenveg--I just read your inspiration story last week and bookmarked it to refer back to! Such an exciting journey! I gained 50 pounds in the past 1 1/2 years, on top of the 15 pounds of pregnancy weight that I never lost after my second child--on a 4'11" frame--yikes! Have you posted somewhere on the board what your daily/weekly/monthly menu looks like/consists of?

I live in a rural area, but I'm hoping to make it into the "big city" sometime soon to find oil-free salad dressing and some of the other items. I think our local Kroger store might have some satisfactory breakfast cereals. I'm guessing that to lose weight, I could eat more of potatoes and veggies for breakfast, but need to limit the cereals that are permitted.

My husband is a hunter and major carnivore, but my kids are iffy about meat--but also iffy about weird veggie dishes that I may fix in this new lifestyle. I've been a vegetarian since middle school, but a junk food junkie at the same time, but with saying that, I usually make different options at mealtime to satisfy everyone at the table to some extent.

My major concern is our weekly family eat out meal--it is a treat at the end of the week for us to take the kids out, so I'm trying to figure out how to deal with that--shall we find another activity to do instead of eating out or grin and bear it and grab something to eat beforehand for myself and just spend time chatting while the rest of them eat (lots of temptation there, though!). However, I am excited to give it a shot!

[Scooter1411]

Thank you, vgpedlr, as well!

[Jeepsterhound]

Hi Scooter! I also live in a rural area and first tried eating this way 20 years ago. I got everything I needed at the regular grocery store. Oatmeal or other whole grain hot cereals are a good breakfast and that's what I usually have. To start, make meals that your family will recognize, spaghetti with veggies that they like in the sauce, meatless chili, veggie soup or stews, and other things like that.

[frozenveg]

Scooter, since you asked, here is a link to my journal. I started it about 6 months into my journey, and I'm sure it includes a lot of the food I was eating:
viewtopic.php?t=17651

Here is what I eat nearly every day:
Breakfast is almost always oats and berries or cherries. Usually a half-cup dry of rolled oats (used to love steel-cut, and now I'm tired of them), cinnamon, a cup of water, nuked for 2.5 minutes, add the frozen blueberries or cherries, wait for them to thaw. (BTW, most of the allowed cold cereals are not at all to my taste, and I don't like 'em with plant milk besides--so cooked cereal is my go-to, every day. And so much cheaper!!)

Lunch is one of the SNAP-type* meals usually, somewhere between 1 and 3 cups. I usually do a bit more than Jeff in that I dry- or water-saute a whole onion, a sweet pepper, and garlic, then add canned tomatoes, mixed or other frozen vegetables, maybe a can of beans, with chili powder and cumin. Served over short-grain brown rice, sweet potatoes, or regular potatoes.

Before or after that lunch, I have a 1-pint container that I've filled with baby carrots and cherry tomatoes, plus one whole cut-up apple. Some days I'll have a salad instead of the veggies--iceberg or romaine with mushrooms, green onions, tomatoes and sweet peppers, with my fave no-fat salad dressing**.

Dinner--pretty much the same as lunch. Sometimes I dry-pop popcorn, or eat a few rice cakes, for an after-dinner snack. Shouldn't do it--it's mindless eating. But I'm human.

*Here's Jeff Novick's Simple, Nutritious, Affordable Plan (SNAP meals!):
viewtopic.php?t=10519

**I have tried several store-bought fat-free dressings. Some of them actually DO contain fat, and most just taste nasty, and have a lot of additives. I make my own. It takes 10 minutes including washing the blender afterwards, and lasts for weeks. Here is my favorite dressing--it's at the bottom of this page:
https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2009nl/dec/recipes.htm

And I cannot recommend highly enough that you check out all the newsletter recipes! They are really great!

[frozenveg]

My major concern is our weekly family eat out meal--it is a treat at the end of the week for us to take the kids out, so I'm trying to figure out how to deal with that--shall we find another activity to do instead of eating out or grin and bear it and grab something to eat beforehand for myself and just spend time chatting while the rest of them eat (lots of temptation there, though!). However, I am excited to give it a shot!

I don't know what restaurants you have to choose from. I try to ALWAYS eat before I go out with people to a restaurant. And I mean serious food...2 to 4 small potatoes, or 2 cups of brown rice, at the very least. If you're going to go to the same one every week, you can try to work with them, and they may become very supportive. I have one like that for me in Anchorage, and although I do get tired of white rice and steamed veggies, they love me and serve me well! (Bringing my salad dressing in my purse helps many a bland steamed meal!) Outside of that one restaurant, my best luck is at the steak houses, believe it or not. They always have a baked potato side - and I ask if they oil the skin, and if they do, I leave it there (sigh!). And most of the time, they offer 4 or 5 side veggies that are steamed, and if you ask them not to add butter or oil to them, most of the time it works.

I hope this helps! I hate to think of you not having your weekly family treat!

[Scooter1411]

@frozenveg -- I just posted this in another thread and would love your input! I saw that you eat a lot of onion, garlic and peppers. Thanks!

Garlic alternatives
Postby Scooter1411 » Sat Jun 13, 2015 9:36 am

I've noticed over the past few months of research that so many plant-based recipes require/call for GARLIC. The problem is that whenever I consume garlic, the result is NOT good! Horrible breath that my husband can smell at least 4 feet away, my body leeches it out of my pores and it makes me feel kind of icky inside as well. What is a good alternative for garlic? Would my body eventually get used to consuming garlic if I kept eating it?

On another note, I've always been a bland food person, not requiring much spice in life (other than salt or sugar, of course). I'm apprehensive to try all of the onions and peppers that are suggested in the recipes (in my old way of eating, I would never cook with such foods, let alone eat them raw!). Did anyone else have this fear? How did you overcome it?

[frozenveg]

Scooter--there is absolutely NO reason that you need to force yourself to like those foods, if you truly don't! The reason so many of the recipes include them is to add flavor. So if you don't like the flavor, there is no point in adding them, right?

On the other hand, most recipes for main dishes--both in our world and in the SAD-eating world--start with the basics of sauteing an onion and some garlic, before adding in the rest of the ingredients, whether they be carrots or beef, chicken or potatoes, pork or kidney beans. So maybe if you have never tried cooking with onions or peppers, you might find that you like the flavors they add.

Again, if not--don't force it! Find what you like in the huge selection of starches and lovely vegetables of all kinds, and make dishes that YOU like!