July 2020 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group

[VivianS]

VivianS July 31, 2020
No change in my weight.
I succeeded 100% on points 1,2 5,9,10
These points need more attention:3,4,6,7,8
3 I added salt on cooked potatoes to keep my hand off Pringles. That was two uses of salt in 7 days. That is good compliance.
4 I added mayonaise to one meal. Eggs and oil are in mayonnaise. Double duh!! That was one slip up in a week.
6 Hummus has oil in it. I finally realized it and stopped using it.
7 Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday is when I am tired from bathing a two year old and three year old. Salt and fat and RIGHT NOW is what I have staring me in the face. I make it OK on Sunday and Monday nights. My weight went from 161.4 to 164.6 on Snack Attack Tuesday. Yes, I had eaten starches, veggies, soups, fruit and I have added plain, undressed salad. I have been co
8 I drank sweet tea on Thursday night to stay awake. I had work to do. I had an unexpected time of being alone with the kids for an extra hour. I must be alert when I am with them. I drank 80 to 100 ounces of water every day this week. That is not 100% compliance, but I am not going to fret.
Regarding giving attention to the MWL guidelines and not worrying about Cronometer, I am grateful for both. The "suggest a food" function made me realize that while I had been using prunes (dried plums) daily for years, I can use FRESH PLUMS and avoid constipation problems. I can record salt. I have only been using CRONOMETER for a while. It has helped me find the little changes that have helped me with that little bit of wiggle room I have as far as calories and nutrition go. I am reading the guidelines daily and have prepared soups. The 1 cup jars of soup fit nicely in the space in my refrigerator where the Almond milk used to be. I have stopped using Bluebonnet Brewer's yeast .
I think I will see a difference next week. I have found frozen cubed butternut squash. It gives me another starch but with less calories, and the same vitamin A perk as sweet potatoes. Shaking frozen veggies from a bag is easier and safer than trying to peel and prepare that hard skinned squash.
Thank you,Mark Cooper, for your comments and the remarks regarding supplements from Jeff Novick. I am under the care of several specialists (internist, and others). I have regular blood tests. Cronometer helps me track my water consumption and biomarkers. It helps me find vegan foods that comply with MWL GUIDELINES. I'm still learning and adjusting. Cronometer does the remembering of foods and recipes. I don't have to drag a notebook with me. It is all on my phone. I do get my pencil and paper evaluation done each day. I have reminder notes on 3x5 index cards. It is a learning process. I'm grateful for the opportunity to improve. Sincerely, VivianS

[goal140]

Sorry, I got busy last week and forgot to post my weight. I did gain a couple of pounds last week, according to the scales. My last posted weigh in I weighed 160.8 and last week weighed 162.8, today I weighed 160.8. So, I guess for this week, I lost 2 pounds.

I’m still struggling with eating higher fat, non compliant foods in the evening. Bread has been one of my no-no’s. It is a trigger food for me. I can’t stop at one slice!. I have been better at filling my plate 50/50. But it is still much easier for me to make a soup than for me to make a meal. I still rely heavily on soups.
Thank you, Mark, for leading this group, for the time and energy you expend to help us on our road to living a healthy lifestyle!

[Kelly140]

This was week one for me. -2 pounds. First couple days were a little rough, but am in a better mindset now. Snack food like nuts and popcorn are very hard for me to eliminate, but I did!

Happy with all my food choices, but I need to make sure I get my 30 minutes of walking in every day. I only did 4 days this week and will aim for 7 next week.

[texaslil]

Overall a good week. I'm feeling like I'm getting in the groove with the diet and exercise. I'm 2 months in at this point.

Lost 1.2 lbs, down to 183.8.

In brief:

1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. starting breakfast with fruit and lunch and dinner with greees, sometime I combine them with the meal if I have prepared something and don't want to eat a lot
2) Follow the 50/50 plate method; Choose fruit for desert. YES
3) Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. YES
4) Eliminate all animal foods YES
5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods. same as last week, had a small nibble of avocado
6) Eliminate any added oil. YES, I'm so surprised that this is one of the easiest for me
7) Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products, puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit.Again... had homemade pizza, with applesause not oil, hate to give this up as I enjoy it with my kiddos!
8 ) Don’t drink your calories. no smoothie this week, I made all fruit popsicles, probably not compliant?? but so good on a hot day
9) Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. feeling better about this one, not going back too much for seconds, just a couple of times
10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily. 6 out of 7, gave myself the day off on Sunday but I didn't feel guilty about it, which is a good thing!

Thanks for any feedback!

[chef16]

July24 265#
July 31 264#
Lost another pound.
That makes 11 # for the month.
The easiest points of the program are3, 4,6,and 9
The hardest ones are 5,7and8
5. I always end up with something from here, avocado, tofu, peanut butter or some kind of fake meat .
7. a slice of bread here and there.( crave this a lot.)
8. since my coffee has a bit of creamer and my tea has a bit of sugar I guess this could be considered drinking my calories. I never have more than one serving a day but?
That leaves 1 and 2 which I thought I was following but maybe not as good as I thought. Have been reading a lot of information on the site. may have to re think this.
10. still not comfortable with this one yet. I walk some days but not on a regular basis. It is sometimes just to painful.
Over all it has not been really hard to eat like this . I just feel like I should be loosing more. I know what I use to eat and I am eating so much less . Even with the occasional slip I still am consuming far less.
Where do we go from here? Can we just continue on in August or do we have to sign up ?
Thank You!

[francnm]

Date Weight
7/23/2019 169.0
7/01/2020 127.8
7/03/2020 (1st weigh-in) 126.4 – 1.4bs.
7/10/2020 (2nd weigh-in)123.4 – 3.0 lbs.
7/17/2020 (3rd weigh-in) 122.2 – 1.2 lbs.
7/24/2020 (4th weigh-in) 120.4 - 1.8 lbs.
7/31/2020 (5th weigh-in) 119.8 - 0.6 lbs.
Total weight loss for July = 8.0 lbs Goal weight? 115lbs?

10-Point Checklist for MWL (successes and need more attention)
1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. YES
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals. Choose fruit for dessert. YES
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. YES (no added sugars, but do use chili paste and tabasco sauce (with salt) as a condiment
4. Eliminate all animal foods. YES
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods. YES (I continue to really miss having seeds on my salads!)
6. Eliminate any added oil. YES
7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products, puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit. NO I bought some dried fruit for my pantry and ate a couple handfuls of dates on the way home from Costco; fortunately, they did not trigger a repeat, dried fruit frenzy. I have not been tempted to eat anymore and they are safely stored for sweetening future recipes. Frozen berries have been a better choice during these hot summer days.
8. Don't drink your calories. YES
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. YES
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). NO I have been more active this week, but still spent two days glued to my computer. I am getting close to my goal weight and need to up the exercise part (especially need more weight resistance).

[kirstykay]

Weight change: +1.8

I struggled to stay on plan this week. I did well at the beginning of the week, but struggled with points 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, and 9. I feel like I just really went off the rails this week. Lots of emotional eating and just a general "what's the point" attitude. It's hard for me to admit it, but that's the honest truth.

I feel like I know where I need to make improvements and the scale didn't lie this week, so weighing in has helped me. With a new month starting, I am hoping to refocus and get back on track.

[philmwl]

Weight change Down 1.0 lb this week; down 6 lbs during July.
Points from the MWL Checklist where I succeeded this week:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,
Points from the MWL Checklist that need greater attention:
10, did not meet walking goal on most days (there is a pandemic here!).

[Joannasophia]

I'm sorry I missed last week's weigh-in. Since then, I have lost 1.5lbs. That is almost 6.5lbs for the month. Just 5 lbs to go to reach my goal !

[BarbaraLynn]

Good morning fellow MWLers!

I only lost .8 lbs this week, though I had a very compliant week. I did work especially long hours behind a desk, had a couple of nights with little sleep and can feel that I’m retaining water in my feet and ankles. While it’s frustrating, I’m not going to give it much worry and will carry on. Overall in July I lost 8.4 lbs and that’s not too shabby! I know as my weight decreases I will not retain water so easily, so I am looking forward to that! Have a great week everyone!

[smcmomofDLC]

I'm new to this board and am impressed by the progress I see!
Is there an August group I can join?!

[Mark Cooper]

I'm new to this board and am impressed by the progress I see!
Is there an August group I can join?!

We will be convening a group for August, which you are welcome to join! An Orientation Information post for the group will go up tomorrow (Sunday, August 2), with resources to review and instructions to follow for new participants, so be sure to check that out. The August MWL Weigh-In thread will be live on Monday, August 3.

[Golightly]

Good morning!
Wt. change: 0 lbs. (no loss this week) toggled with 1lb. all week.
Checklist: did very well with salad, soup, fruit first — having all These prepped before made it easy. 50/50 is second nature now. I even leaned slightly toward more non- starch a couple of times. Fruit for dessert is easy as I had a container of watermelon and one of peaches. Yum. I love summer. Watching more closely on added salt as I use canned beans. I think I’ll try batch cooking beans next. No animal products is easy - been doing that 4 yrs. I do struggle with wanting nuts and my morning flaxseed or chia on oatmeal. That had become a habit in recent years and not having them feels wrong. No oil is easy. However How Do You Roast a Big Tray of Veg w/o oil and they not go limp? I’m unhappy with the outcome. Can I use balsamic? Some other technique? No worries with hi-cal flour products. I subbed a veg when I had such a craving. I only drink water. I did much better this week on stopping at full and not over eating. And I exercised five out of seven days this week!
What I’m discovering:
Energy, energy, energy
Better fitting clothes
No more greasy pots and pans —easy cleanup
New recipes and cooking techniques
And, I can poop like a champion!

[Drew*]

Summary for July:
Yesterday: 179.5 lb Gain of +3.2 lb
7/25: 176.3 lb
7/18: 180.1 lb
7/11: 177.8 lb
7/3: 178 lb.
6/26: 181.3 lb.
Overall loss from end of June to end of July: -1.8 lb

Success & Challenges

The above does not seem a success at least for this week! I know what I did. The snacking at a gathering of a couple friends outside on the lawn did not help. If I had to summarize the failings in diet adherence I would say too much snacking of chips. My strategy going forward is to reach for fruit or a SNAP meal.

However, in some respects I was compliant. I would say 75% of my meals were 100% compliant. So it is the exceptions that did it to me.

I would say on an ending positive note that exercise was a high point with 4 runs of 40 minutes each, one yoga session, and a hike planned for today.

Observations

Can I get it up to an acceptable percentage? I know JeffN, Mark and others have mentioned the journals, but the implication is that it is for those who are not successful here and opt out. I want to have some better reporting in August and hope you will let me stay on. The group as a whole did very well and I do not want to bring it down with another weekly report like this if possible.

Final comments

I got pretty hungry on Thursday night about 10:30 PM. I had a big bowl of my SNAP menu dish. I also had a moderate size bowl of fruit. It was satisfying and quenched my hunger. I drank lots of water and ran 2 X on Thursday (once in the morning and once in the evening). I also did some yard work. I ran again Friday morning. Friday evening I did Yoga that was so easy… It feels good to be able to exercise and the hike later today will likely go well. Overall my health is improving and there could be many explanations for the weight gain. But it pays to adhere to MWL and if allowed to continue despite topping the weight gain on another week’s reporting, and hanging my head low, I would love to do so and to be more determined in the weeks ahead.

[K-Squared]

Weight Loss: -.2
Starting Weight: 163.7
Current Weight: 158.4

Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Consistent at Lunch and Dinner. At Breakfast I have been making my oatmeal a 50/50 bowl with fruit.
Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals, filling half your plate (by visual volume) with non-starchy vegetables and 50% (by visual volume) with minimally processed starches. Choose fruit for dessert. Yes, but I am stuffed from eating soo many veggies!
Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts, too. If either is troublesome for you, you can eliminate them. I use 1 Tsp of Brown Sugar on my Oatmeal. We marinated portobello mushrooms in Liquid Aminos this week.
Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). Nearly 5 years strong on this one!
Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). 100% on this one!
Eliminate any added oil. 100% Easy
Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (i.e., bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit. 100%
Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). 100%
Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. Yes, but my version of comfortably full is likely wrong.


Well, since my chosen primary gauge of success is the scale, I have no idea how I'm doing. This week my scale provided me with weights that toggled between 153 - 163.7 lbs. For non-scale successes my clothes (the ones that aren't stretchy) feel as though they fit better and I am getting in a daily run as I complete C25K. I am planning to continue with the MWL program for another month, though I'm not sure I will participate in the August group as focusing on the scale is off-putting at the moment. Good luck to everyone in making positive lifestyle changes for the upcoming month!