October 2017 McDougall Weigh In Thread

[sirdle]

Oops. Gain of 0.5 lb this week.

[Qwerty988]

Hi, everyone! I'll weigh in tomorrow morning, pre-breakfast

I wanted to share some sauce ideas for Karen/Boogie! Here are some that I LOVE:

Cheez sauce: which is just boiled potato, carrot & onion, then blended up with nuttirional yeast, lemon juice, mustard and some of the starchy cooking water. I love this over potatoes & broccoli! Here's a full recipe: http://www.brandnewvegan.com/recipes/am ... eese-sauce

For steamed greens, I invented Oat sauce, which I also LOVE. To me, it tastes like it has tahini:

Oat Sauce:
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup water
4 Tbs soy sauce
4 Tbs lemon juice
1-2 cloves garlic

Blend till smooth. Voila!

Sometimes I just use fresh lemon juice on cooked/steamed veggies -- I especially love that on brussell sprouts. Also a favorite snack is cold steamed potatoes with dijon mustard.

If you're craving tuna/egg salad, there's lots of versions of chickpea "tuno" salad, which I usually have on a bed of greens instead of in a sandwich. Here's one recipe -- but instead of using lowfat vegan mayo, I use oil-free hummus instead, it tastes great that way!
http://fatfreevegan.com/blog/2015/06/03 ... una-salad/

Hope this helps!

[galooop]

Gained 0.8 LB
(struggling to get back on track)

gotta keep trying - it's worth it, I know.
Chris

[katie3]

Hi all, had a great week in terms of the scale. Weighed in at 122.2 lbs., down 2.8 from last week.

I've made some adjustments over this past week which I'll share below in case it helps anyone. I realized I hadn't been following the MWL guideline of limiting fruit and started doing that, and then decided to straight out eliminate fruit temporarily. The reason I made this decision was because of a Jeff Novick post in the forums.

In the forum people were asking about overcoming insulin resistance which I've started to realize is likely a player in this journey for me. I've had the vague sense of "blood sugar issues" and other symptoms that make it very likely that I've been experiencing insulin resistance for a while now. My dad has Type 2 diabetes and obesity and heavy meat eating and sugar cravings are super common in my family and personal history. Jeff recommended MWL for overcoming insulin resistance, but also shared that for 25% of people they are sensitive to fruit, as well, and that temporarily eliminating fruit will help resolve IR faster.

https://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=7752&p=264194&#p264820

Jeff's words: "As I did say, in my experience in working with 1000's of these patients over the years, about 25% of them are very sensitive to fruit and processed carbs, even whole grain flour products and their "numbers" look better when they remove these foods or restrict them "until" the IR is reversed or mostly reversed. In these people, we see elevated TGs, insulin and blood sugars during this time and when we remove the fruit or other foods, these numbers go down."

So, that clinched it for me even though at first look I really had trouble with it. I imagine most know how this goes... you start to entertain the idea of 'eliminating' one more food and internally freak out. But, as with all the learnings I've had through this process, I adapted pretty easily and do plan on adding fruit back in on an experimental basis perhaps in a week or two.. or maybe I'll wait until goal weight. We'll see. To ease my mind about vitamins/minerals I've been inputting my food into the cronometer app and have been hitting my nutrient needs, especially when I make sure I'm eating white potatoes and plenty of green veggies (esp spinach or greens).

2.8 lbs seems like a lot to lose in one week, so perhaps a significant amount is water, or perhaps something about fruit / insulin resistance changes is allowing more to be released? Not sure. I also added in more heavy weight lifting in the past two weeks to help increase my strength.

I've been eating oat bran with flax seed (1 tbsp) (cooked in water with unsweetened, low-fat almond milk added) for breakfast, and leaning primarily on potatoes / sweet potatoes / butternut squash with various veggies for lunch and dinner. I have added in quinoa and brown rice on some days when feeling extra hungry. Beans a couple of days this past week. I'm usually at or below 10% fat intake for the day.

For Karen, I put mustard on lunch and dinner usually. I have to use some form of sauce/flavoring currently. I love spicy brown, dijon, honey, all of them. I lean towards the no-sugar ones right now while I'm resolving my insulin levels. I also use lots of fresh parsley. Another idea to moisten up food is to mash up potatoes or sweet potatoes using low sodium veggie broth or a low-fat plant milk (ex. almond or oat). I'm really enjoying how I eat right now and feel my taste buds have shifted significantly, but I've had that sense of fat cravings even just a few weeks ago (shows up as craving tofu, funny enough).

Watching Dr. Lisle's cram circuit webinar helped as well as upping the starches when needed. It's amazing how I still hold back sometimes because of so much carb-phobia passed down from family/culture. But, as long as I'm keeping my starches up I'm satisfied. And if I'm really craving fat (usually on heavy workout days, happened once this past week), I eat 1 walnut half. Seriously. Just one walnut half did it for me which kind of blew my mind.

I usually steam all of my veggies so they're moist and I also found that boiling potatoes makes a HUGE difference in taste for me. Baking makes them too dry for me. I've also 'steamed' potatoes in a covered dish in the microwave and that is still better than baking in a pinch.

Oops, sorry for the novel of a post, all! Hope you have a great next week.

Oops oops, one more thing. I measured my blood pressure at the pharmacy in my grocery store this week and it is so low! A few months ago (while McDougalling with small amount nuts / avocado regularly) my BP was 108/70 and pulse = 70. All good.

Yesterday (after MWL for 2-3 weeks and eliminating fruit this last week) my BP was 87/57 and pulse was 58. Seems like the BP and pulse of a marathoner. It'll be interesting to see if this changes in the future with adding fruit back in, or going back to standard McDougall.

Katie

[Sedrexel]

I'm down 1 lb this week. YEAH!!

Those boiled sweet potatoes came in handy when the junk food was passed around at work. Walking outside during my lunch hour helped as well.

[talita8]

Hi All,
Amy am I on time? I get confused about your hours because I am ahead in time in NZ. I am down half a pound. Which is still at my first goal weight. I really thought I was going to see different results. But that is still maintenance. Which is good.
Sue. Thanks for your private reply. Am carrying on.
Katie. Your post was interesting, wondered if I should do a Mary's Mini or less fruit? It is a minor issue really with only 4 pounds to go to my final goal weight.
Is anyone else about to try Marys Mini for a week. I will join you?
Thanks Talita.

[BeHealthy]

I lost one pound.

I had hoped for two pounds since I gained one last week, but I blew it mid-week. I succumbed to the temptation of free, fresh bagels that were provided at meetings. Two days in a row. Mistake x 2. I turned things around from there and re-committed.

I was inspired to be more healthy this week by listening to Rich Roll's podcast with Chef Rocco DiSpirito.
Here's a link if you want to check it out too: http://www.richroll.com/podcast/rocco-dispirito/

I'm fired up to make good progress this week and I'm ready to go! I hope to have a better report next week.

Good luck out there!

[Bougainvillea]

Down 1 pound - wahoo!

Was really hoping to get down from 193 to 192 this week. No doubt I need a new scale, but it was pretty funny this morning. I fluctuate a LOT - so to the posters above who mention losing or gaining a lot - I weigh every day and I'm glad I do now, because I fluctuate so much - at least on my terrible scale - that I don't freak out now if I'm up by several pounds from one day to the next, or down by a few. I'm just focusing on the lowest fluctuation, to see a downward trend.

So, I got up really early and had to go to the bathroom, because I went crazy with the hummus and Wasa crackers last night LOL. Weighed myself and scale said 195. I thought, the heck with you then went back to bed.

Got up a few hours later, and scale said 192! I was so excited. So, I stepped off the scale, got back on it to be sure and.....it said 195. LOL. Then, off and back on....194.....193.....194....LOL. But, I'm going with the 192, because it's a new low and I was not trying to manipulate the scale ha ha.

Thank you so much everyone for all of the sauce ideas. I really appreciate it.

And to Amy, I think it was, who suggested Dr. Lisle and the Cram Circuit and not giving in to my craving - you are so right! I did watch the webinar live yesterday and it hit home. Sometimes Dr. Lisle seems too complicated for my pea brain - psychiatry is kind of that way - seems like every little thing is over-analyzed to death. But, it did sink in to not give in to cravings, in order to establish a new habit.

I am a sort of binge eater - not super bad - but one of the things I really like to do when I want to do comfort behaviors, is watch videos and eat. When Dr. Lisle suggested just walking away from the dinner table and resisting eating - no, that won't work for someone like me. I will obsess over the fact that I want to eat to the point of no return.

But, what does work for me, is just not having anything around that is my favorite snack food. And, I give myself permission to eat as many boiled chopped potatoes as I want - LOL. I like the snacking motion of hand to mouth. But, I will only eat about 1/2 a big bowl of potatoes and ketchup and I'm over it. Or only so many Wasa crackers and hummus, and I'm over it.

So, I don't binge to the point of getting ill. I actually probably spend the same amount of time munching, or a little less - but I'm munching on low calorie foods.

I'd lose more weight faster if I didn't do it, but I'm still losing an average of 1 pound or a little more per week. So, that's okay.

But, you're right - if I give in to that fat craving, it will screw up my weight loss.

However, if I just can't stop obsessing about it, I may just give myself permission to eat just one avocado and be done with it. I am actually capable of doing that. Hopefully, though, the craving will subside.

Regarding the golden gravy recipe - my recollection was that it called for ingredients I never have on hand, but can't remember what it is. I honestly find the recipes to be really frustrating in the Starch Solution book. I think, Oh, that sounds good - but the ingredients will say to use something like vegan mayo - with a reference to the recipe to make vegan mayo. Then, another ingredient will be something else - with a reference to a different recipe to make that ingredient. I just find them overwhelming.

For me to want to just make the original recipe - only to find out I need to go make 2 other recipes first - just gives me high blood pressure. When it gets that complicated, I just want to give up.

Hence, I just go back to my stand-bys beans, rice, soup.

I do like the idea of just using some soup on potatoes, etc. I'm just not a huge fan of vinegars and mustards and lemon juice - they're just all so sour. I can handle a little of it in hummus, but I am on a mission to find something low fat that is sweeter and creamier like mayo. Maybe I can figure something out with my unsweetened almond milk.

I also tried making fake eggs using tofu and I honestly don't see the point of tofu LOL. It's just a weird calorie source that has basically no flavor, that you try to make taste like something else. I guess I'd rather eat something less fattening - or eat something that actually has great flavor, like an avocado - if I'm going to waste some calories on weird stuff with no flavor and a weird texture LOL. I fed most of it to the dog, as she'll eat anything. Then, just tossed the rest. I tried making a tofu scramble with some hashbrowns that just stuck to the pan - a total fail on that breakfast all around ha ha.

[peach1]

My weight loss stalled this week, but I know which tweaks I need to make. Thanks for all the great ideas!

[Purposive]

4 pound weight loss. (228 -4 = 224 pounds)

I have managed to eat pretty simply and still feel satisfied. I have always been a big potato eater so have relished fat free hash browns and catsup. My big achievement has been to bypass all the sweets that a great nursing staff likes to bring to work and share. I feel so much better, my complexion has become clearer and I'm sleeping better. I did eat a few corn tortillas which was a great treat, but I felt like perhaps it caused a little stall in my weight reduction.
I really have enjoyed the encouragement, recipes and practical ideas so many of you bring to this group. Looking forward to many more successful dropped pounds because of it.
Have a great week everyone!

[amandamechele]

Talita - Oh ok. I, too, am in the low normal range - for a couple of years. Ranging from 9-11.

Susan - Ooooh I'll have to try it straight on my potatoes. That sounds interesting. I saved a za'atar recipe a few months ago and never got around to making it, that also sounds interesting. Thanks!

Karen - From an earlier post, your food picture looks delicious! I'm always interested in seeing what others are eating...the family that I'm currently staying with thinks I'm a bit eccentric taking photos of everything that I eat. I've explained that it just temporary but I'm not sure that they believe me. So please post your pictures whenever you like then I won't feel so alone...ha!

Cathmc - Definitely only weigh yourself as often as you are comfortable. Some people are happiest weighing themselves often and others will stress over that number.
As for making this your way of life, you will get there. Just keeping coming back to it when you get off track for awhile. No worries or stress, its just the way things happen and eventually you will find yourself on plan[i] more days than [i]off plan. I sometimes think of this like kayaking; the water around your boat well determine how hard and often you have to stroke in order to stay on course. We can't control the water, but we can keep our boat in good repair, learn all six basic strokes and therefore be ready for almost all types of weather or currents.

Sue - Thanks Sue. I'm glad you had a good week overall. What a lovely quote, thank you for sharing it. Regarding the future weigh-ins, sure thing.

Susan - Happy Friday to you too! Thanks for checking in.

Sirdle - Thank you too for checking in. No worries, that could just be a piece of broccoli stuck in your teeth, or a baby potato or two that you forgot to take out of your pocket.

Qwerty988 - Thank you for the recipes. I want to try them both. Your lemon squeeze of fresh veggies reminded me of something that my mom suggested that we all found delicious. Squeezing lime on our corn on the cob made it taste so sweet.

Chris - I'm glad your including us in your struggle. We're rooting for you!

Katie - I love a good novel...lol...and this was a good one. Thanks for sharing Jeff's link. I empathize with the internal freak-out you describe when having to make changes or eliminate certain food...and you're doing it completely correctly. If the thought of giving something up forever makes someone uncomfortable, just reframe it as a temporary experiment. If you're worried about not getting all of the nutrients that you need then quantify it using a journal...just like you're doing with cronometer.com (I'm only repeating what you've said so others reading will understand). I hope you have a great next week as well.

Sedrexel - Yeah!! Three cheers for sweet potatoes and your great diligence.

Talita - Yep, you are on time, by a large margin. Its only Friday evening here (when you posted). I will always include someone who takes the time to weigh-in, no matter the time. You may be at a point where your weight loss slows down because you are so close to where your body weight should be. Calorie density adjustments and patient perseverance will get you to your goal. I will cheer you on if you end up doing a Mini. I did one and last October and posted all ten days in my online journal last year. It really did help kickstart a bit of a loss for me. (But I am much further from my goal, so there is more give there).

BeHealthy - I'm so happy that you were able to get yourself back on track so quickly. Wonderful! Thanks for the link... If I remember correctly didn't Rocco have a cooking show at one point? I look forward to hearing about his life since that time.

Karen - Your old stand-bys are perfect! Simple to prepare and affordable to purchase. No need to get much fancier if you enjoy them. I hope you find something out of the suggestions that will pique your interest and help you enjoy the food more.

peach1 - Best wishes this week with your tweaks. There were so many great suggestions this week. I can't wait to try some of them out.

Purposive - Excellent loss and effort this week. Avoiding those communal food-share areas at work can be tricky. I'm so happy to hear about your complexion and sleep...there are so many great benefits that come about from a healthy diet in addition to the weight loss!

[amandamechele]

Day 20 Amy's MWL Challenge

[Qwerty988]

Hi again everyone!

I'm up +0.8 pounds this week.

No worries, I've got company staying and there's been a bit of cheating, although more exercise as well. I'll do my best to stay mostly on plan, but will go back to weighing in weekly just to keep myself in check.

[Svenja]

Good morning!!!

I have no gain or loss!
And I am very happy with it ... I was 3 !!! pounds up during the week, for no apparent reason ...
I knew it was water retention as my feet were swollen and my diet didn't change, but still didn't like it.

This morning my old scale truly died ... but I was prepared, as I had ordered a new one a few weeks back when the old one started showing funny things.
With the first step onto it I almost freaked out ... it showed like 5 pounds more. But then I saw that it wasn't standing straight and I moved it a little further along and it was much kinder to me.

Other than this ... I've been studying a lot! I have a great group to practice the oral exam with ... we use Skype and it is a great help to do this with a group.
Unfortunately my colleague is sick, so I couldn't be off work like planned. Hope he will be well soon ... I had planned to be off work from Wednesday onwards for most of the next three weeks to prepare for my exam.

@ Amanda ... I am looking forward to hear that you have truly settled in at your new place. Hope it will be a fantastic home, blessing you and your family!

Have a great week everyone!
Svenja.

[Bougainvillea]

Good morning!!!

I have no gain or loss!
And I am very happy with it ... I was 3 !!! pounds up during the week, for no apparent reason ...
I knew it was water retention as my feet were swollen and my diet didn't change, but still didn't like it.

This morning my old scale truly died ... but I was prepared, as I had ordered a new one a few weeks back when the old one started showing funny things.
With the first step onto it I almost freaked out ... it showed like 5 pounds more. But then I saw that it wasn't standing straight and I moved it a little further along and it was much kinder to me.

Other than this ... I've been studying a lot! I have a great group to practice the oral exam with ... we use Skype and it is a great help to do this with a group.
Unfortunately my colleague is sick, so I couldn't be off work like planned. Hope he will be well soon ... I had planned to be off work from Wednesday onwards for most of the next three weeks to prepare for my exam.

@ Amanda ... I am looking forward to hear that you have truly settled in at your new place. Hope it will be a fantastic home, blessing you and your family!

Have a great week everyone!
Svenja.

Svenja,

I'm new around here. What exams are you studying for? Sounds intense! Congrats on staying on track. When I used to work and go to school, I lived on pizza - so good for you!