The Behavioral Path to MWL Success - August 2023 Group

[Rebecka22]

I just want to say thank you so much for your thoughtful response. I have saved it on my phone so I can re-read it as I navigate this time trying to teach my kids healthy habits. I really appreciate it!

[louie3084]

Hi Wildgoose and Mark,

I would like to rejoin this forum please!

I need the accountability of this group to stick to the ten point plan which I will print out tomorrow.

Thanks and looking forward to losing a few kgs.

[Mark Cooper]

Hi Wildgoose and Mark,

I would like to rejoin this forum please!

I need the accountability of this group to stick to the ten point plan which I will print out tomorrow.

Thanks and looking forward to losing a few kgs.

Sure! Welcome back. You may want to review the orientation, in preparation for Friday's check-in.

[BambiS]

8-18


1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Most days


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 desert
Yes


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

4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
Yes, not an issue here

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

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. 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).some days

Victories, comments, concerns, questions good week, nothing eventful.

It’s been super hot in Ohio, couldn’t get out to walk as much. I did get movement and lifting by clearing out stuff this week. This is going to take a while to clear years of unused stuff. I never had much time to do it.

[Rebecka22]

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
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
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). YES
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
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. 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). YES

This week was pretty good. Definitely had some cravings especially for stress eating. Teenagers are a lot! But the advice for my 5 year old has been very helpful. And most importantly I ignored the temptations and stuck to the behaviors. I know that it becomes easier with each successful choice so that helps too. It’s back to work and school next week. Hope everyone has a great week and hope you had a wonderful vacation Mark!

[Starflower]

August 25th

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 desert. YES

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. NO - Too much salt this week.

4) Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). YES

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). NO - some coconut and avocado.

6) Eliminate any added oil. NO - There was some oil in teo foods.

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

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. 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). YES

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

It was a challenging week. I didn’t navigate it perfectly, but it was better than in the past. An event I thought I was prepared for lasted seven hours instead of the scheduled three, and food choices were very limited. I managed to have mostly raw vegetables and fruit, but one food with oil was the only other vegan option. With a two hour drive home ahead, I did the best I could. I’m giving myself some grace and back on track. It’s amazing how much better I feel when on plan!

Wishing everyone a wonderful and successful week!

[Gimmelean]

Post for week ending 8/25/23

Hello Everyone.

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

2). Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals.
Yes.

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.

4) Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish,)
Yes

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.
No- some bread and some chips. Not very much which is a huge improvement for me. Plus no junk food at work.

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.   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).
Yes!

Victories,Comments,Concerns, Questions: WG thank you for moderating for us. I appreciate the link you posted last week to the discussion about long term MWL adherence and acknowledging how difficult it is. My path of least resistance is to do nothing and give in. It’s hard to live that way with the inevitable health consequences my prior way of eating propelled me towards. MWL is hard. I’ve picked my “hard” and will continue to work it as long as I can with the best support (here) I’ve ever had!

I’ll be making batches of mashed pintos and hummus to have on hand with the huge container of raw veggies I already prepare.

Despite not being perfect, I’ve dropped 6 pounds that I put on this year without a particular focus on the scale but with a focus the right food and fun exercise.

Mark I hope you and your family had a wonderful end of summer trip.

This is absolutely the best time of year to love the food we eat. Because of the heat and rain this year there is an incredible abundance of local Pennsylvania watermelon, corn, tomatoes, and produce. My kids put fresh squeezed lemon on their corn and it was really good.

See you next week!

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Team Time & Adherence,

Hope everyone is doing great! Seems like we are moving on to fall, but the temperatures aren’t really following! Oh, mercury shooting through every degree…

1 Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Still about 2/3 of the time. Going to focus on increasing percentage of preloads for the upcoming week.

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. Continuing to eat and enjoy the same foods. Made a couple of pots of starchy soup this week – tastes good cold too!

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. Reduced, not eliminated.

4 Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
Yes.

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.

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. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.
Yes. I am not stuffing or starving.

10 Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
YES - 7 / 7 after a few mostly’s in a row! Loving that there are indoor venues for pickleball when the “wind chill” is 117…

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:
Hope that you had an awesome vacation, Mark! We missed you, but Wildgoose took great care of us!!

Wishing the group a spectacular week and hello to September!

Cheers,
Stephanie

[CUgorji22]

Happy Saturday, everyone!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

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

1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. No
Behavior: I went to an event on Thurs and did not consider my starter; I was not prepared.

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 desert. No
Behavior: I went to an event on Thurs and was not prepared.

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

4) Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). Yes

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). No
Behavior: I ate vegan food that was served at an event on Thurs. I was not prepared.

6) Eliminate any added oil. No
Behavior: I used oil a couple of times while making food for my family.

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

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. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. No

10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). No

Overall, I ate based on my level of stress. It was NOT a great week for me.

-Chesca

[Mark Cooper]

The window for reporting this week's behavioral results has officially closed.

My replies and the weekly summary will follow.

[Mark Cooper]

BambiS - Despite the inhospitable temperatures, it seems like your week went pretty well, right? I can imagine organizing and clearing your space could be a very active and energetic experience. Best wishes as you continue to work your way through the reorganization now that you have the time and opportunity. Carry on and keep cool!

Rebecka22 - Great efforts, especially in managing stress and resisting temptations! I feel for you in shepherding teenagers; my daughter is only 10 and she can already be a lot.

I know that it becomes easier with each successful choice so that helps too.

That is so true, and also a really useful way to frame your experience. Wishing you a happy, easy, and successful return to work and school!

Starflower - Kudos to you for your ongoing efforts, your thoughtful assessment, and (especially) your self-compassion! Doing better than we've done in the past means we are making progress, right? I can imagine being prepared for a three hour event that turned out to be SEVEN hours could disrupt one's best laid plans pretty thoroughly. I think being mindful of the different physical states and feelings we experience in response to our behaviors and food choices and taking note of what makes us feel better is an extremely helpful practice. Great work getting right back on track - carry on!

Gimmelean - Congratulations on your achievements this year and your ongoing progress! Imperfection is ever-present for all of us, but continuing to work and improve in spite of that is how we achieve results, right? I completely agree with your observations about this pattern of behavior being HARD, especially as compared to the "path of least resistance." I think that doesn't get acknowledged as often as it probably should be. As usual, I'm sure your attention to solid and consistent food prep will serve your efforts well. I've really been enjoying local, seasonal produce lately, too; both here in New Jersey and while we were in Oregon and Washington. We had some delicious corn this past week. Onward!

VegSeekingFit - Great work, Stephanie! I agree with you about the climate not feeling very autumnal so far. Glad you've been able to find an indoor outlet for your pickleball habit; a heat index of 117 is ROUGH! Have an amazing week!

CUgorji22 - Even though this felt like it was "NOT a great week," I doesn't seem like you went off the rails completely, Chesca; you were still able to answer yes to 4 of the recommendations! And it seems like the majority of the NO answers stemmed from the Thursday night event, right? Those kinds of occasions away from home can be difficult to navigate, especially as we are settling back into the recommended behaviors and not fully in an established routine. What seems most important is knowing what you might do differently in a similar situation in the future; how might you prepare? Likewise, what sorts of tools do you use to manage stress? Are there any particular coping mechanisms or comforting activities that you've appreciated and enjoyed in the past? Nobody has it all together the first time out of the gate (or the 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th time, for that matter). As best you can, try to offer yourself compassion and understanding, learn what you can from the week's challenges, and focus on the "next right choice." You will get there!

[Mark Cooper]

My applause to everyone for your focus and dedication as we bring August to a close!

Sincere thanks, too, to wildgoose for serving as such a fabulous steward for the group in my absence. I always learn SO MUCH from her insights!

I had a wonderful vacation with my family, a nice visit with Beth's relatives, and a relaxing time at the beach during my extended holiday. We flew into Seattle to visit Beth's father, then drove him down to Portland to attend a two day family reunion. After that, we drove back to Washington for about a week at the beach in Seabrook, WA. Finally, it was back to Seattle for a night and then an early flight back to the east coast. Beautiful weather seemed to follow us the whole time!

Because we were staying overnight in so many different locations, our accommodations changed several times - 3 different hotel rooms (with just microwave and mini-fridge) vs. a beach house with a fully-equipped kitchen (which was awesome). During the hotel stays I tended to keep things as simple and basic as possible, oatmeal with fruit, sweet potatoes with broccoli, celery and carrots, apples, &c. Things that can be satisfying and satiating with a minimum of fuss. I would typically go to a nearby grocery each day and just get enough for that day and the morning to follow (and repeat). While in Seabrook, I was able to enjoy my beloved Cosmic Crisp apples, black watermelon (which was new to me and quite delicious) and some fabulous Hannah yams (which we call Jersey white sweet potatoes around here.) All in all a successful travel experience, while sticking closely to the recommended pattern of behavior (with opportunities for preloads being the one variable). Anyway, thought you all might find that to be of mild interest.

The new thread for September will be posted on Monday. I know that is a bit early, but that way everything will be up and ready for a great start to the new month with our next check-in on September 1st!

Hope to see you there.

Have a happy and beneficial week! Take care & be well!

[BambiS]

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Most days


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 desert
Some data


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

4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
Yes, not an issue here

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

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. 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).some days

Victories, comments, concerns, questions good week, nothing eventful.

It’s been more clearing out this week, lifting and moving. When I get busy like that, I tend to not eat and keep working. I need to have an instant pot made so I’m prepared.

On the good side, it’s my 65th birthday Saturday!

[Starflower]

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Most days


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 desert
Some data


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

4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
Yes, not an issue here

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

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. 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).some days

Victories, comments, concerns, questions good week, nothing eventful.

It’s been more clearing out this week, lifting and moving. When I get busy like that, I tend to not eat and keep working. I need to have an instant pot made so I’m prepared.

On the good side, it’s my 65th birthday Saturday!

Hi Bambi,

I noticed your post because I posted here earlier, too, then moved my post. The September thread is open.