My McDougalling Results :)

[Caroveggie]

At my work I had my annual health assessment. We get a credit for each paycheck if we get it done, so there's a big incentive to get tested. I've been moving toward strict McDougalling from being a good McDougaller back in the day to a vegetarian. Now I want back into the fold!

So I've been moving toward stricter eating, and doing much better lately, but I wanted to share my results. This is by memory because I left the paper at home.

Even though I'm still overweight, I've lost 17 pounds from my high. Yay! I am still losing weight and strict McDougalling is really helping. I plan to continue strict McDougalling afterwards for maintenance. For exercise I've been biking to work, walking at lunch, and occasional jogging/running each week.

My total cholesterol is 136, although I think I can get it better as I continue with "time and adherence". It was an embarrassing 164 last year, when I was eating more vegetarian (i.e. lazy) so great improvement there.

As I recall, my triglycerides were still a little high, so my goal is to keep with McDougalling so next year I can revisit this post and put up better results. Some reason I didn't memorize that triglycerides level. This means no more butter on toast or God-forbit, cheese on toast, Carolyn!

And lastly, the test results said my good cholesterol might be a little low/concerning, however I know that with my low-ish total cholesterol, and now that I'm strict McDougalling, not to worry.

So I wanted to post encouragement for others - every little bit of healthy habit change helps!

Also, I'll update this post in the future when I have more good results to report. Especially when my size 6 jeans fit again.

[Jeepsterhound]

Congratulations! You are doing great.

[Caroveggie]

Thank you Jeepsterhound!

I am doing the reddit winter challenge so I have weigh ins on Friday (not weighing any other time). We just finished week 1 and I have lost 2 more pounds!

Here's what I'm doing:

~ eating McDougall
~ biking to work
~ walking at lunch
~ occasional jogging/running when I have time

I also noticed my work pants are a little loose this week. That would be considered a "non-scale victory" over at reddit, which I'll take!

[DWu]

Caroveggie,

Congrats on the weight loss, and getting your cholesterol under 150! Keep it up.

Just curious, are you doing the Maximum Weight Loss Program, or the regular program?

[Caroveggie]

I am doing the regular program in that I allow myself bread or fat free tortillas and whole grain cereals. However I notice most of what I eat are whole foods. I just do allow myself the bread if there's good bread around.

Here is what I eat usually (I am a creature of habit, at least for my breakfasts and lunches):

breakfast: 4 cereals mix with quinoa milk (which is 0 fat and can be found at some Whole Foods) with sliced banana and cinnamon. The 4 cereals are: dry oats, kamut puffs (which are whole wheat puffs), bran cereal from Trader Joe's, and Kashi cinnamon shredded wheat squares from Costco. Even though there is a lot of cereal I only eat a little of each - it ends up being very filling and yummy. I like this breakfast a lot more than cooked oats, which I used to have.

lunch: typically I have no oil aloo gobi (cauliflower and potato curry) with basmati brown rice, all homemade. I make this for the week and take it to work so it's always available. It's yummy and filling and at this point, kind of a lazy go-to meal. I cook it for the week. I also keep some McDougall soup cups at work because sometimes I feel like having soup. Another thing I sometimes make is veg. chili with nuked potato chunks. The veg. chili is from a can and I just add another can of black beans to it and heat. I'm a pretty simple eater.

dinners: these vary but I like corn on the cob with garlic salt, brussels sprouts steamed with gravy or balsamic vinegar, potato wedges with ketchup or gravy, sweet potato with homemade hummus, salads with baked mushrooms, pasta with fat free marinara (Whole Foods has one) and mushrooms...the list goes on. The gravy is vegan and comes in a packet - you just add water. I would like to start making some of Jeff's SNAP meals or the veggie burgers but haven't gotten to that yet. Potato Strong website is also a good influence on me.

I'm still having difficulties when I go out to eat but just do the best I can.

I am making myself hungry.

[Caroveggie]

I forgot to say I recently upped my steps goal with my fitbit to 100,000 steps per week.

Also, I lost another 2 pounds this week, yay!

[hickory]

Congratulations on your success! I love Aloo Gobi, too, and am wondering if you use a particular recipe?

[Caroveggie]

Here is my current recipe for aloo gobi, as I make it:

veggie broth* (kind without oil) - fill bottom of big pot about 3/4 inch
turn heat to high
add in frozen peas and carrots
add in 1/2 a chopped cauliflower
cover
nuke a small-medium potato in microwave
meanwhile, reduce heat of big pot
add in 1 can rinsed and drained chickpeas to big pot
remove skin of potato, chop, add to pot
add in some chopped collard greens
stir, cover

By now the food is almost done - cauliflower should be cooked but not too soft, collard greens should be cooked

Turn off heat, remove pot from heat

Add a spoonful of minced garlic (to taste) - I get the minced garlic from Costco so it's all ready to go
Add liberal sprinklings of Madras curry powder (comes in tin can) - to taste

If you over spice it you can add extra potato/cauliflower or just eat with rice

*I used to make this with 1 can diced tomatoes, so that is an option.

It is very yummy and also good with roti - whole wheat naan (I ask a restaurant to make it for me without the oil)

EDIT: I sometime make this with white sweet potato - still yummy.

[RobinD]

Congratulations on your progress and your re-commitment to the program. Your aloo gobi looks easy and tasty - I look forward to trying it!

[Caroveggie]

Thank you! It is very yummy. Lately I've been having "noquesadillas" which are hummus quesadillas with nutritional yeast (and lettuce and mushrooms and salsa) - so yummy when you use really good ingredients. I will post that recipe sometime since it's so yummy.

I started tracking my weight, exercise, and estimate of calories (not restricting, just tracking) and so far I'm down another 5-6 pounds since I started tracking daily on Sunday March 6.

I've also been jogging in the mornings for 1/2 an hour and biking to work. I try to make 100,000 total steps per week too.

[Caroveggie]

Here is one of my favorite meals, the noquesadillas.

Noquesadillas

Tools & Ingredients

- corn "street taco" tortillas - the kind with simple, organic McDougall-safe ingredients (no oil, etc.)
- homemade or no oil/low fat hummus (I like red bell pepper or lemon/garlic salt flavor)*
- nutritional yeast
- green leaf lettuce
- mushrooms (white or crimini, chopped)
- no-oil salsa (I like Whole Foods brand mild salsa)
- it helps to have a flat no-oil skillet/non-stick pan but you can also heat tortillas in your toaster in a pinch

How to Make Them:

Nuke chopped mushrooms in the microwave for about 2-3 minutes. While the mushrooms are cooking, heat 3-4 tortillas on your non-stick pan on both sides over medium heat for a few minutes. Take the tortillas off and spread hummus on them, and then sprinkle nutritional yeast on top of the hummus. Reheat the tortillas on the pan, hummus side up of course.

Now just dress the noquesadilla with a leaf of lettuce, cooked mushrooms, and a dollop of salsa.

These are so yummy when you pick high-quality tasty ingredients, so it's worth it to find the salsa, etc. that you really like. You can also bake the mushrooms which makes them tastier, but that takes longer.

*You can make your own hummus by blending a can of chickpeas, a chopped up red bell pepper, some water, a squeeze or two of lemon, and garlic salt to taste. Whole Foods has a low-fat (no oil) lemon flavored hummus also. Both taste really good with this recipe.

Update

I'm still losing weight after a bit of a plateau. I'm knuckling down again to be stricter with this program so I can see better results.