August 2020 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group

[Lachoffman]

I've weighed at 187 for a week loss of 1 lb, (down a total of 29 lbs since July 2020). I'm 5'9" and am working towards 175 so I'm very thankful to have come this far. I ate outside the program three times this week but stayed true to MWL the rest of the time. The challenge came when on vacation for four days I didn't have access to a kitchen and was eating most meals out. I did have a small refrigerator and microwave allowing me to heat up oatmeal I had prepared in advance and a few other things such as rice and beans; however, I did the best I could with restaurant dining.

10-Point Checklist:
1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. YES
2a. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals. YES
2b. Choose fruit for dessert. 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. YES
6. Eliminate any added oil. YES
7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products. YES, FOR THE MOST PART.
8. Don't drink your calories. YES
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry. YES
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes of exercise. YES

[Noella]

Dear Mark, Wildgoose, Jeff and everyone following MWL for August,

Weight change since last week: -0 lbs. I couldn’t actually weigh myself this week as we are travelling...
Weight change since starting McDougall Starch Solution Jan. 2020: -67.5 lbs.
Weight change since starting McDougall MWL Apr. 2020: -25.5 lbs.

Behaviours: I didn't strictly follow MWL behaviors this week because we ate at restaurants over the past four days. I was travelling with my husband, daughter, her husband and their new baby. The focus of the trip was to support and encourage my daughter, so I did not want to complicate the trip by imposing my dietary restrictions on others. I took bottled water, roasted potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, fresh cherries and strawberries for snacks and lunch, which helped a lot. Even with the pre planning I did to prepare and bring along some healthy foods and carefully reserve restaurants with lots of healthy items on their menus, I found myself succumbing to temptation and just eating whatever ... the result was feeling sick. The rich sweet salty, and oily foods don’t agree with me and I can’t wait to get home tomorrow evening and eat 100% MWL way.

Observations:
1.) I was able to get fresh fruit and oatmeal for breakfast, we didn’t go out for lunch, and dinners were trickier to order and had so much salt added...it was shocking to discover how salty food is in restaurants.
2. ) My knees have flared up so much over these four days of travelling...the standard American diet seems increase the inflammation in my joints. It’s like the difference between night and day. It’s so obvious to me the MWL way of eating helps my joints and my digestion.
3.) Maybe it’s okay to learn “the hard way“ that non MWL foods are health limiting and MWL adherent foods are health giving.

I plan to continue MWL for September.

Best regards,

Noella [/quote]

[laura_delao]

Weight change: - 1.0
Current weight: 135.6

My non compliant meal is the breakfast at the restaurant once a week. I keep going to the gym but I have not been able to walk every day. I only walked once and I over did it and my feet were sore. I got carried away listening to Chef AJ interview of Dr. McDougall and Mary. I stopped using the checklist and I am slipping away from the 50/50 plate. Even though I went back to the same weight of two weeks my clothes feel loose, which is great. I have kept up the water consumption but I am not seeing much change with my constipation. I did order Dr. McDougall's book on the digestive system and I should get it this week. Love to read everyone's report every week and Mark's responses. It has been a great experience being in this group. Have a great week everone!

[chef16]

8/21/20 256#
8/28/20 254#
lost 2# this week that is 10# for August
This week was really hard because of my job. It is very regulated now in what my choices of food are. We are not to bring any thing, in to eat or drink. Personal water bottles are not even allowed.( the students even have to leave their water bottles in the cloak room) I have been making choices as best as I can guess .Its to hard to explain there are so many rules . I work in a college cafeteria and making sure no one gets infected or spreads covid is all that is important . So here goes.
1. Not always but as much as I could.
2. yes
3. yes
4. yes This is the easiest one for me. I do not miss meat at all.
5. more yes than no
6. yes
7. more yes than no.
8. yes
9. mostly yes, I went hungry a lot this week due to the fact I had so few choices for lunch and break.
10. I didn't go out of my to exercise but I get plenty of walking in now . Also a lot of lifting and activity. So I would say this is a yes.

[Reni]

Hi Everyone!

Thank you for everyone sharing their journey to better health! It is inspirational and I feel so supported. Also, thank you so much, Mark, for the helpful insights, words of encouragement and program clarifications.

I'm down to 166.2 this week from 167.8, so a loss of 1.6 lbs. If I had adhered to the checklist, I would have lost more. However, I am satisfied with the weight I lost this week.

The checklist:
1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. 90% I'm wondering about snacks/small meals - do these need be proceeded by salad/soup/fruit?
2) Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals. 90%
2) Choose fruit for desert. 80%
3) Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. 70%
5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods. 70%
6) Eliminate any added oil. 70%
7) Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products . 70%
8 ) Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). 100%
9) Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. 60%
10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). 100%

Thoughts on this past week: First, not an excuse, but a hurdle for me - I struggle with a basket full of mental illnesses and disordered eating. I was not in a good headspace this past week. I had mini-binges 4 days out of the week. I've learned that from 2-5pm is a very precarious time of day for me. So I need to make sure to have something on hand that I can munch on. May have to eat the regular McDougall program during this time slot as I had MWL foods available but choose not to eat them. Three of the seven days I was able to power through these hours. I also did not implement my intention to add weight lifting and circuit training this week. Yoga fell by the wayside as well, even though it is something I really enjoy. Yesterday (Friday) and so far today have been a lot better, so I am hoping it will be easier to be more compliant this week.

Thanks again everyone!
-Reni

[Zoey]

Well, I've hit the wall, another week of no change. I had four ounces of wine this week, so I'm going all in this upcoming week. Not a drop.
If that doesn't jumpstart my loss, I know I'm going to be really depressed, because all the other points are easy for me. I eat so plainly and we hardly ever eat out, so nothing is sneaking in. I always get my four miles minimum walk/jog.
Off to lick my wounds now. Fat free, of course.

[Lucas]

4/27/20: 203.2
5/1/20: 201.8
5/8/20: 200.0
5/15/20: 198.6
5/22/20: 197.8
5/29/20: 196.0
6/5/20 : 193.8
6/12/20: 192.8
6/19/20: 192.6
6/26/20: 191.8
7/3/20: 190.8
7/10/20: 188.8
7/17/20: 189.0
7/24/20: 187.4
7/31/20: 187.8
8/7/20: 186.6
8/14/20: 187.8
8/21/20: 184.6
8/28/20: 182.0


Change: -2.6

Hi, so this past week I found it especially hard to stick to some of the points on the checklist. I've noticed my blood pressure has been creeping up this week. Wife and I went back to flavoring our rice and vermicelli with chicken bullion this week which contains not just chicken but high amounts of salt. Not much but I guess enough to affect my BP. I know people give up eating animals for different reasons. My reason is strictly for health related reasons. Like I tell my animal eating friends...you can't argue with the data. Gosh, I really love the way it flavors rice and other dishes, but I know I must give it up again. No way do I want to go back on BP meds. I've already told her none for me when she cooks for me. I have tried different seasonings in the rice but have yet to find something as good and comparable if at all possible. If anyone have any suggestions on a good bullion alternative, please let me know. Thank you and have a great week! I am looking forward to September!



A 10-POINT CHECKLIST FOR MAXIMUM WEIGHT LOSS (MWL) 

1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Yes.

2) 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, for most days.

3) 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. Yes, except for the bullion this week, which I have now stopped.

4) Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). Yes, except chicken bullion but no more.

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). Yes

6) Eliminate any added oil. Yes.

7) 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. Yes for most days. I did have vermicelli on a couple of days.

8 ) Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). Yes

9) Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full.   Yes

10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). Not everyday but every other day.

[Dot]

Aug 1/20 - 145 lbs
Aug 7/20 -143 Loss 2 lbs
Aug 14/20 - 143 - 0 lbs loss
Aug 21 /20 - 142 - 1 lb loss
Aug 29 /20 - 142 - 0 lb loss
This seems to be my pattern, only to show weight loss every other week. It may partly be my wonky scale which seemed to register lower than last week but not enough to justify a 1 lb. loss.
2. I’m continuing to concentrate on 50/50 rule for both meals and snacks. I’m relying on grilled potato slices with cherry tomatoes and cucumbers as my go-to portable snack and I’m not craving fruit as much as I did the first month of MWL. 1/4 of a peach after a meal seems to satisfy that life long habit of ending a meal with sweets.
7. My husband making toast in the morning makes me all too aware that I am still vulnerable. Most of his bad eating habits are not appealing to me. I had whole grain pasta for the first time since May. It’s my favorite meal and in the past I could easily eat a whole package at one sitting but I measured out a serving size and although I enjoyed it, I was too lazy to spend another 20 minutes preparing more. So maybe it’s not as much of a trigger food anymore?
9. I still notice that when I get stressed over some minor conflict, I want to sooth myself with grabbing something to eat. There is less hyper-palatable food easily available and the lure of mindless eating does pass. These habits die hard! But my cravings are less frequent and I’m just not eating as much at one time, learning to avoid that stuffed feeling. I eat when I feel hungry but some of the compulsion is gone.
I now have at least 3-4 compliant dishes that I look forward to eating.
10. I was very busy and active this week and that is keeping my mind off food. I’m going to add more yoga this week and dust off my bike.

It’s been 8 weeks and this is still a diet, lifestyle still to come.
I'm looking forward to reading everyone's comments and suggestions. They are so inspirational!
D.

[MonkeysMom]

8/29 167.0 (-2. 8 ). Total loss -5.4
8/22 169.8 (+0.2). Total loss -2.6
8/14 169.6 (-2.0). Total loss -2.8
8/07 171.6 (-0.8 ). Total loss -0.8
8/01 172.4 (Starting weight)

10-point plan review:
1. Start each meal w soup/salad/fruit...
2a. 50/50 Plate (non-starch veg/starch)...
2b. Fruit for dessert... still eating too many cookies. But fewer cookies
3. Reduce added sugar and salt... :thumbs down: Still too much sugar (in the cookies).
4. Eliminate all animal foods... Did not do enough prep last weekend, so lat night when I wasn’t mentally able to cook, I resorted to the last frozen dinner in my freezer, which contained chicken. Also there’s a bit of dairy & egg in the cookies I'm struggling to completely do without.
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant food... .
6. Eliminate any added oil... Other than those darned cookies And probably that one frozen dinner, I'm succeeding.
7. Eliminate all high calorie-dense food including Succcess except for the cookies.
8. Don't drink your calories...
9. Follow principles, Eat when hungry....
10. Avoid being sedentary... . Due to having to drive to work, rain, and a few days of feeling sick, I hardly got any real exercise this week.

This was a tough week. I had to go into the office (a 1hr drive each way) which I haven’t had to do for months. Due to that disruption in my routine, I forgot to take some medicine that makes you very sick if you stop it suddenly, and takes a few days to feel better when you start back. So I’ve barely been functional since Wednesday. It’s raining all day today which doesn’t help with motivation lol. Overall I’m lucky To have a job at all and grateful to have my health, so I’m remembering to “count my blessings” too.

[Growing a Pear]

Happy Saturday, all. Net rolling average this week: -0.1#
SW this week: 144.1# <---made a mistake in rolling average calculation last week. Actually lost 1.0 which puts me at this starting weight
CW: 144.0#
GW: ~135#

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals. Choose fruit for dessert.
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts.
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
6. Eliminate any added oil.
7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products.
8. Don't drink your calories.
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).

Am running an experiment to see how well I can manage without dipping into the dry cereal. On day 8 currently, which is awesome, but have been allowing myself to eat larger volumes of MWL foods to avoid feeling deprived/hungry. Overate a time or two. From experience with quitting my Clif Bar addiction and bread, this will settle down in short order. (I tell myself its my microbiome adjusting and I've gotta give the little guys a chance to catch up.)
Was active on 6/7 days, so an improvement but it's not as ritualized as I'd like.

Had to weigh myself earlier all week than normal, which is likely responsible for at least some of my weight's stability. Also, have been overwhelmed with tree apples and increased my fruit consumption. Not a perfect week, but pretty darn close, so I'll just hold the course for now. Will reevaluate if/when I see no improvement in coming days.

ETA: Thank you so much for this thread, Mark and crew! My progress might be slow but I feel it's helping me get the process right. See you in the September thread.

[Violet3135]

8-28 weight 174.0
Net weight loss this week 0.0
Just hanging in there this week. Posting to keep accountable. Be well everyone and thanks to the moderators for their support.

[BarbaraLynn]

I almost forgot to post! Super busy week. I did really well with food, but not exercise. I only exercised 2 or 3 days. I am down .4 this week, which is pretty average for me after two good weeks on the scale. I’m really enjoying my food and how good my body feels! I appreciate this group and our check ins.

Have a good week everyone!

[Gimmelean]

Last week 128.6
This week 129.4. +.8
Starting weight on MWL 6/29/20 139.3. -9.9 lbs
1. Soup salad fruit meal starter. Good
2.50/50 plate. End with fruit. Good
3. Eliminate sugar/salt. I’ve been working on reducing sugary snacks. This week best yet. Salt is not a problem. I don’t cook with it or add it at the table. Will always need to keep this top of mind.
4. No animal foods. Good.
5. No high fat plant foods. Still eating some nuts and seeds. No where near as much as before.
6. No oil. Good.
7. No flour - dried fruit. Good. Maybe one small piece of whole wheat pita the whole week. Getting closer to zero.
8.Dont drink calories. Good
9. Eat to comfortable satiety. It has taken a lifetime to learn and feel what this really means. What a positive difference.
10. Exercise-good
Hope you are doing well!
I LOVE having the 10 point checklist as a baseline. There are so many positive behaviors to focus on for health and weight management that result in information overload. This method of accountability and consistently focusing on the same list results in positive results. No squeezing or bending the rules. Did that for too long. I may just try a mini- potatoes please.
Thank you Jeff. A good week to everyone.

[Drew*]

Weekly weight on Friday…

171.5 lb -.3 lb
BMI: 25.15

Points of success...

I was mostly following MWL…

Challenges...

…But there is room for improvement. I count 75% compliance this week. Now I do not mean that 25% of each meal contained non-MWL foods. I mean that there might have been a meal on a given day that was not 100%, etc. So I need to keep this in perspective, but be mindful each day. And the prep is important as noted below…

What needs greater attention?

Also it helps to plan ahead when I transition from point A to point B…thanks Mark for last week’s comments about the need for prep. It also helps to plan ahead before I hop in the car!

General impressions

I figured out that couscous is nice by itself and rice is better in the SNAP menu. "Discovered" S&B Oriental Curry Powder and it is great in canned tomatoes with a little crushed dried chili, veggies and rice medley...plan to pick some up on Monday...

Drew*

[Pattyj115]

This Week loss: 0.6
Total Change as of July 3 2020 : - 9.6

1 Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit: NO, so hard to have soup when it is so hot. Been avoiding salads for a while, digestion issues, and I like my fruits as treats.
2 Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals: YES
3 Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and salts: YES
4 Eliminate all animal foods: YES
5 Eliminate all higher fat plant foods: YES
6 Eliminate any added oil: NO, had Italian dressing on cuke & tomato salad (very sm amt)
7 Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods: NO, snacked on pretzels & corn chips
8 Don’t drink your calories: Never
9 Follow these principles, eating when hungry - stop when comfortably full: YES
10 Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily: I was definitely more physically active this week. And now that fitness centers are open again in AZ, I can increase my activity going on the elliptical and recumbent bike, besides using the walking pool!

Comment: I reviewed the article on eggs you shared with me and I have not been tempted to have any egg this week! Not by itself nor as an ingredient. In fact, my temptations were much less this week with other non-compliant foods, however, I did indulge in snack type foods that clearly reflect in my not losing even a full pound this week. I am guessing because of the type of foods I ate. I need to make more compliant foods available to reduce the temptations since I obviously have weak will-power in the face of snacks I still like to eat. No problem turning down cheese this week, SUCCESS! Next week starts a new week and a new month! I am in all the way! Looking for better results and expecting myself to be compliant to MWL!!!!