For the program details visit the MWL Guidelines thread in this forum. Please check out as many of the links as you have time for, there is so much here to discover!
A couple of other great resources, for those just starting out, are from Jeff Novick the staff dietician for the program: The Ultimate Guide to Free Calorie Density (MWL) Resources and his 1 hour video explanation on Calorie Density: How to Eat More, Weigh Less and Live Longer.
While I was reading the paper on Monday I came across an interview with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandburg discussing her new book and how she has been faring since the sudden death of her husband in 2015, while on vacation. The book is entitled Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy, and the way she uses the term Option B had me sit up and pay attention.
The title of your book is based on something a friend said to you in the wake of Dave's death about filling in for him on a father-child activity. You also included it in a Facebook post you wrote about a month after Dave's death. What is it about that phrase that resonates with you?
What he said to me was "Okay Dave can't be there. Option A is not available, we're going to [make the most] of Option B." Everyone is living some form of Option B. For some people it is the really big tragic stuff: For some people it's losing a job, losing a love. For some people it's a very big illness. For some people it's a knee they can't run on any more. Who knows what it is, but no one's life is perfect. And we are all living some form of Option B. That feels pretty universal.
Some of you may disagree with me, but there are days when I feel like eating this way is Option B for some of us (or maybe just me). I am pretty darn sure I wouldn't have ever heard of Dr. McDougall or this program if I hadn't been obese for most of my life, searching for a way to sustainably take the weight off. To be honest, if there was any other way to re-gain my health while losing weight that was easier I would probably take it.
However, now that I know, and have lived, the benefits of proper nutrition, McDougall Style, on my health and physique I understand that there truly is NO OTHER WAY for me and the best course of action is to accept what I need to do and just get doing it. (That's a mouthful of a run-on sentence if I ever saw one)
In the first month that I was facilitating this thread I used to include a gratitude section, where each week I would tell you all something I was grateful for. I stopped including it for no reason at all. Let's make JUNE our month of gratitude. I am going to take Sheryl's suggestion from her new book, discussed below, and remember to end my day thinking of the good things that occurred, and any of the things that I did RIGHT.
When you posted on Facebook in the month after Dave's death you wrote, 'I know that I will never feel pure joy again.' But finding joy is a major theme in your book. How did you do it?
Probably the best suggestion anyone ever made to me, which is probably the best suggestion in the book, is write down three moments of joy every night. What it makes us do is focus on them. I didn't realize until I did that, that I went to bed every night worried about what I did wrong. But I did. And now that I'm writing down three moments of joy, I notice those moments of joy along the way. It makes a really big difference and is something I really strongly recommend.
COO Sheryl Sandberg on how she found resilience and joy after loss
This week I am grateful to have all of you to talk to on the good days and the not so good days about my very favourite topic: eating potatoes!
Amy XO
Here are the standard monthly instructions for participating in this thread:
Our weigh in's are on Fridays and you have until 12 PM PST on Saturday to report.
Anyone is welcome to join the weekly weigh in group as long as they follow the McDougall principles. We recommend following the Maximum Weight Loss (MWL) plan or the Mary's Mini's Plan.
There is a sticky at the top of this forum on the guidelines for the MWL program.
In order to tally the results please submit your results by posting the total pounds you have lost or gained that week. You don't have to share your total weight if you'd rather keep that to yourself. This is an honor system so we take the gain, loss or maintain you give us in order to tally. (Please make a new post each week)
If you are a new member and would like to join but don't have a weight to be counted for the week then you will be counted either as a body with a zero starting weight, or when you check in for the weekly weigh in the following week. Large amounts of weight lost over a period of months or weeks, prior to joining the weekly weigh in group, will not be counted towards the weekly total.
If you measure your weight in something other than pounds please convert the measurement to pounds.
All gains will be counted towards the total to encourage weekly participation. Posting is encouraged whether it's a gain, a loss, or a maintain.
You are welcome to share as little or as much as you want on your weight loss journey here in this thread. We encourage members of the group to talk to each other, cheer each other on and set goals together.
This thread is for the mutual support of all who wish to participate.
See you all this Friday and Saturday!
Chris
