Starting over + intermittent Mary's Mini

[spudnik]

I was doing really well and then the shiitake hit the fan in my life on a number of levels. I tried to find my way back but got lost for a while in the Raw Food Kingdom where I lost a few pounds but rebounded harder, and now after months of yo-yo-ing I'm here about 19 pounds up from my lowest back in March. It's no mystery--I ultimately went totally crazy into vegan junk food land. (The gateway drug was some greasy tacos...it's all kind of a blur after that.) I've been back on the SS McDougall for about four days and am feeling back on the right side of the law, and I'm just going to keep on keeping on. I know what to do and what to eat, but am wondering if any of you have done effectively a Mary's Mini a few days a week to help things along? My typical day switches up the starches--oatmeal for breakfast, rice and veggies for lunch, salad and sweet potato soup for dinner. But I'm thinking to limit variation and increase monotony by doing just a potato-based day a few times a week. Nothing satisfies like potatoes!

[Lesliec1]

Everyone's different. For me, when that happens, I get so mad at myself that I want to force myself to do something more extreme. It never works. It only makes me feel deprived. You could try it that way but maybe the answer is to go back to the regular plan or MWL, whichever you were doing when you were happily eating this way.

[spudnik]

Thanks Leslie--yeah, I was pretty mad at myself at first but I'm over it and back in the groove now, just looking to do the optimal thing to reprogram myself.

[amandamechele]

Hi Spudnik,

I'm glad you are feeling back in the groove. I hate that out of control feeling. I am all too familiar with jumping back and forth, in and out of the pleasure trap, it can be exhausting and demoralizing. If you just keep at it you will figure out what works best for you.

Best wishes,

Amy

[roundcoconut]

For what it's worth, it's been my experience that making something your new normal, requires a few months of very focused effort. I go on the assumption that it takes about three months of continually adjusting, continually reinforcing, & continually resetting your mindset.

Our old mindsets come back too reliably and too predictably, for us to think that three weeks of effort will do the trick. I don't think that gives the human brain a fair shot at this.

And of course I don't mean this as discouraging anyone, but actually the opposite -- I mean to encourage anyone who wants to do so, to set themselves up for success, by allocating much time and effort, over the course of three months or so.

For someone who has been acting from a place of using food in ways that you no longer wish to use food; and thinking about food in ways that you no longer wish to think about food; and being limited by beliefs that you no longer wish to be limited by -- please understand that you've been practicing the dysfunctional uses, thoughts and behaviors for 15 years or more. So it really doesn't seem excessive to give your new patterns an hour (or more) of attention each day, until your new patterns are firmly, firmly rooted. Watch videos. Come to the boards. Go to the gym. Prep your carrots and potatoes. Do stuff that deepens the patterns you want to entrench.

I am reminded of how alcoholics achieve sobriety, which is that they often do the 30-meetings-in-30-days approach. They attend a whole frigging AA meeting, every single day for a month, to give themselves the best possible chance of washing their brain clean of rationalizations, self-pity and thinking alcohol is their friend.

And I think it is true as well, that alcoholics are often told by their sponsor, "Your ONLY JOB for today, is to think in sober ways, believe in sober ways, and behave in sober ways. You don't have to take a shower. You don't have to do the dishes. You just have to DO sobriety."

And many people succeed at attaining years of sobriety, by ATTENDING to their sobriety. Attending heavily to at at first, and then attending moderately to it much later. But understanding that they must attend to their sobriety in order to GET it and to KEEP it.

This is how it plays out in my personal experience as well. I am happy to elaborate, but you probably get my point. Hopefully this can be of help -- if not now, then later -- if not you, then someone else.

Hope you attain your personal food sobriety, and are as happy with your way of eating, as I and others here are already! We WANT this for you, and will help in any ways we can.

[spudnik]

Thank you Coconut and Amy! Yes, Coconut, that's my experience with reprogramming myself as well. And it pretty much is my full time job right now--research, reading, attending to my potatoes. I am all too aware of the specter of relapse--as someone who struggles with a variety of addictions and actually has done a 40 in 40 for substance abuse before and has been sober for several years. My food addiction in fact really kicked up in sobriety. It was always there in the background but vegan junk food wasn't my drug of choice until it was all that was left, and so in a sense to escape the culinary pleasure trap means finally FOR REALS getting totally sober, not just transferring my addiction to something else. I know calling the pleasure trap "food addiction" raises some hackles around here, but I do think there's validity to it. There are some foods that hijack my brain really no differently than a glass of wine would, and I seek them out not just because they are artificially richer but because I am distressed and seeking to alter my state chemically and I know I can count on them to do that. And the process gets away from me and I wind up (as I did this time) face down in salt and oil and regret after a several-week bender. I really have to accept for the first time that there are foods that are truly "off limits" for me. They don't just take me off plan for a day, but for weeks or months. Not every single time, but often enough.

[roundcoconut]

Oh spudnik, I am so proud of you for "getting it". It is just so frigging smart of you to understand how this thing works. Good for you!

I take that exact same approach to any long-lasting change -- it is my full-time job, for MANY weeks, and then I taper a little bit, but still devote a LOT of time to it.

I actually took up running a few months ago, and I just lived and breathed running mileage, and what kinds of leggings and tank tops would be fun to run in, and I listened to running podcasts, and watched Michael Arnstien videos on YouTube, and, "LAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!" (choir of angels singing their praise): I got the running to take hold.

Well, as these things go, I developed soreness in my Achilles Tendons, and somehow I broke my momentum -- it took me two weeks until I could run on my legs, and by then, I was back in my old (non-running) morning routines. So, like any good bird does, I lit my own fire to do a restart, and to go get my run on again. So I am right there with you, getting the right grooves back for myself.

Anyways, believe me, I totally GET the importance of doing re-starts. People re-start all the time! And we just obsessively get into those good grooves again!

All my kindness is with you, and if there is anything you need, we are here for you and we are rooting for you!

[Sagefemme]

This is a hilarious but so-apt line: "I wind up face down in salt and oil and regret." What a visual! But so true.

[spudnik]

After another detour to the *ahem* high-density end of the pool last week, I have decided that I am going to go ahead and do a mini for a while, with potatoes of course, as I am Spudnik. Not sure what "a while" is for me yet, but I really think I need to limit variety and temptation right now. Just going for a big grocery shop and feeling like there is too much possibility can derail me and I wind up coming home with chips and salsa or hummus or vegan pizza or whatever it is. So for now, I'm potato-ing. I've done the last few days on potatoes, some veggies, and a couple of pieces of fruit and it has been totally satisfying and cheap and easy and feels very doable and not restrictive at all (I love potatoes, obviously, because who doesn't????) Mostly I'm having a version of potato salad with a little mustard, lemon, and celery, or just plain mashers with a little seasoning, or mashed baked balls rolled in a little nooch (that sounds dirty and....maybe a little violent) or baked hash browns or roasted new taters etc etc. Plenty of variety without the bad kind of variety. I need to push through on a work project for the next couple of months that has been long neglected and I am hopeful that this will also free up some of the decision fatigue I have around planning food to redirect toward that. (given the above discussion on making healthy living one's full-time job, this seems like a good strategy when one cannot necessarily do that!) More updates here as taters warrant!

[vgpedlr]

Best of luck, and "may the odds ever be in your favor."

If you read the newsletter articles on MM, this is exactly how to use it. Get back on track. As Henry D famously said, Simplify! If you find a breakfast that works, and a couple of meals that work for lunch/dinner, you're golden.

Her are a few I like:

Broiled potato wedges w/ dipping sauce (like bbq)
Broiled potato "fries" w/ malt vinegar and salt
Potato soup w/ leek, fennel, broccoli, and a handful of split peas
Potato salad w/ green onion and parsley, lemon, s&p
Potato chunks tossed with steamed/sauteed kale, mushrooms and kidney beans
No oil hashnrown patties topped with sliced tomato and spinach (Ore-Ida brand works)
Tattoos and Neeps: potato and turnip mashed w/ nooch, garlic, and a wee bit of horseradish
Colcannon: potatoes mashed with cooked cabbage and/or kale
Potatoes topped with a bean soup, my fave, lentils and greens
Potatoes topped with any of million kind of salsa
Potatoes topped with blended beans and salsa "chili fries"
Potatoes topped or dipped with hummus, or any bean spread

It's easy to batch cook potatoes by "baking" them in a crockpot. Just fill 'er up with spuds and turn it on. No liquid needed.

Also, check out Spudfit's little book on Amazon, some cool recipes. His interview on the Rich Roll podcast was good too.

If you want a buddy for a short one (3-5 days) PM me. I love potato hacks at the holidays.

[spudnik]

Thanks VP! Bonus points for the creepy hunger games reference I would love a buddy so will PM you for sure. Your recipes sound great. Using the crockpot sounds genius. I have so far resisted the InstaPot revolution but that sounds just as easy.

Still going strong on potato island...I am having a bit more fruit than MM strictly dictates (citrus season!!) but I am not going to worry about that too much unless it really seems like I am not making progress.

[vgpedlr]

The crockpot is awesome. They don't bake crispy, but they cook easily. You can't really overcook them either. Throw 'em in turn on low and check a few hours later. Especially good in summer so as to avoid heating up the house with the oven.

New thread coming soon . . .