Lost 131 pounds in 13 months

Share your McDougall successes here in order to inspire others.

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Re: Lost 88 pounds in under six months

Postby MixedGrains » Fri Dec 09, 2011 9:37 am

Haven't posted here in a while, mostly because I wasn't making quite the steady progress on weight loss that I had become used to. But after losing so much weight so fast, I was quite happy to let my body adjust and my skin shrink to catch up with the rest of me. (It's still got a lot of shrinking to do.)

Meanwhile I soldiered onwards, making little tweaks, trying to work more veggies into my daily routine, working on shifting the balance away from more calorie-dense foods to less calorie-dense ones, and continuing to enjoy my vastly improved blood pressure and blood sugar numbers. It's very possible -- I kept telling myself -- that my body needed some time to adjust. But for whatever reason, my weight loss slowed dramatically in mid September when I first broke below 395. I went 394, 395, 391, 393, 393, and then 386 (a new low for me) on October 14. Then for the next four weeks it was 392, 393, 389, 390, 392. Then (finally!) I started to see a steadier decline trend again starting November 11: 390, 387, 377, and today's 373.

Below 375 is a big milestone for me -- my exercise buddy from grad school (who has a photographic memory) remembers that as being my weight at the beginning of the semester we set up a workout schedule and I was failing miserably at trying to eat the sort of standard American Heart Association lower-fat-but-not-low-enough diet with the hamster-sized portions. My own memory tells me I was a bit smaller then (closer to 350) but I've never exactly had a reliable body image and I trust his ancient recollection far more than my own. That was, roughly speaking, two decades ago; and after a semester of daily walks or exercise machines plus tuna fish and skinless chicken and infrequent-but-memorable bizarre explosions of late-night binge eating, I was imperceptibly more buff from the exercise but hadn't lost more than single-digit pounds. Surprise surprise.

Of course posting this probably guarantees that next week I'll be at three-eighty-something. But heck, I'm gonna watch the big picture. It's two weeks shy of Christmas, which means that I've lost 138 pounds in 50 weeks, for a very respectable 2.76 pounds a week of weight loss. Measuring since I started eating exclusively plant-based on March 19 it's been 109 pounds of loss in 38 weeks, or 2.87 pounds a week. I'm not gonna kvetch and whine about that!

I figure on Christmas I'll post an updated figure (a year since I got my big-people scales) and update the thread title.

What I've learned in the last couple of months as the steady weight loss I'd been experiencing became less steady:

1) For me, tortillas, even corn tortillas with no added fat, are too calorie dense and too easy to over-eat. I've asked Santa for a tortilla press for Christmas so I can try making my own for special meals, but as a regular take-three-out-of-the-bag habit, they don't work for me.

2) I've learned not to fear white potatoes, but also to recognize my ability to heinously overeat them. I love them too much. I still eat them several times a week, but when I load them into my steamer I'm trying to stick more carrots, sweet potatoes, onions, and bell peppers in there so that the white potatoes are a smaller proportion of the meal. It seems to make a difference, although confounding variables are always lurking out there.

3) Processed whole grains (whole wheat pasta and bread) can be a problem for me. If I use them as treat foods or include them as single servings in meals from time to time, no problem; but if I treat them as staple foods and make big batches that I eat for days, they torpedo my weight loss. Too much calorie density I'm guessing.

4) More legumes = win! I like beans and peas and lentils, and they like me. The more I eat, the more reliable my weight loss. They come in infinite varieties, and they mix well with everything. I'm mindful of the recommendation not to exceed a cup a day, but I ride that pretty hard. My guess (I don't measure portions and most of my legumes are mixed into a slurry of veggies by the time they reach my plate) is that I slightly exceed the cup recommendation on many days but have enough no-legumes days to drop the running average below a cup. I could be fooling myself about that.

5) Oats are good for you. I am not terribly fond of them due to too much "eat your oats or starve" in my childhood. But I was eating them faithfully (mixed with fruit, cooked in water with enough apple juice to sweeten) for several months. Then I got out of the habit, and was eating more savory choices for breakfast (leftover legume glops over my cooked grain mix, generally). Lately, however, I've been experimenting with steel cut oats and trying to find a good combination of overnight soaking and fast microwave cookery for them. Steady diet of morning oats again has coincided with steady weight loss in recent weeks. Correlation don't prove causation, yes we know, but it's enough to earn my watchfulness going forward.

Wow, isn't that a lot of blatheration for a "Woot! Below 375 first time since FOREVAR!" post?
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Re: Lost 88 pounds in under six months

Postby afreespirit » Sat Dec 10, 2011 1:42 am

You are doing great Mixedgrains! Keep it up! :-)
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Re: Lost 88 pounds in under six months

Postby RobinInAL » Sat Dec 10, 2011 5:09 pm

Wow! That's amazing MixedGrains. Congrats!

Robin
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Re: Lost 88 pounds in under six months

Postby frozenveg » Sun Dec 11, 2011 11:51 am

Mixedgrains, you have done fantastic so far, and you will continue, I am sure of it!

I really hear you on the bread-and-pasta weight loss slowdown. Absolutely too tempting to eat a lot, and it slows, stops or reverses the weight loss if I have more than 1 piece of whole-grain bread a week. I also found the pasta (in and of itself) just not as satisfying, cup for cup, as potatoes or rice, so I basically avoided all that during my year and a half of losing. Even now, I will put a pound on is I have pasta twice in a week.

So congratulations on getting down to where you were in college! And don't be discouraged if the scale takes you for a ride for a few weeks. You will start down the slope again, and you will succeed!
5'3", 74 YO. Started Jan. 11, 2010
Starting weight: 222.6
Current weight: 148.2.0


Success Story:
https://www.drmcdougall.com/articles/st ... -rockwell/
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Re: Lost 107 pounds in 9 months

Postby MixedGrains » Fri Dec 30, 2011 12:15 am

OK, seeing as how Christmas is just past us and I got back from the doctors today with a new set of blood numbers, time for an update I think.

Holiday season was reasonably kind to me -- I didn't lose any weight to speak of during the last couple of weeks, but I didn't pig out on holiday food, either. I've been fighting sinus infections and winter colds, dealing with a lot of holiday and medical and caregiver stress among the extended family, running more than my share of other peoples' errands, getting worn out and run down, and making more food compromises than I like. (Food compromises for me means stuff like, vegetables in restaurants that I suspect of being lightly oiled, snacks like wasabi soy "nuts" that are more energy-dense than is ideal, a few oil-rich nuts, a memorable slice of fresh hot SAD white bread with jam, that kind of thing. ) But, a few minor bobbles aside, I managed to keep at it.

Christmas Day 2011 was the 1-year anniversary of me getting a scales. That was 3 months before I started eating plant-based, but I'd been "eating more fruits and vegetables", I'd gotten off Avandia some months previous, and on Christmas 2010 I weighed 511 down from some unknown peak north of 550.

This year on Christmas: 375. Weight loss in a year: 136.


Christmas 2011 was also 9 months plus a week from the day I stopped eating meat, dairy, and added oils. Weight on March 19, 2011: 482. On Christmas: 375. Plant-based weight loss over nine months: 107.

But the fun part was today's visit to the doctor to go over the latest blood numbers. (I already wrote about some of this here and will be repeating myself a bit if you saw that post.)

Long story short -- my doc is enormously impressed with the amount of weight loss and improvements in my bloodwork numbers. He even told me that he "feared for my life" when I first started seeing him, and no longer does. He says he wishes all his diabetic patients would do what I'm doing -- ironic because he never suggested it to me. But as we were discussing in the linked thread, what we are doing is rare enough that some docs probably never see it happen. And they are only human -- they like seeing patients who are getting better instead of steadily worse, as most patients do who suffer from "chronic" diseases like diabetes and hypertension. I actually dare to hope that we may sometimes inspire our doctors, and encourage them to try harder at selling the "nobody will ever do it, it's way too radical" dietary approaches to better health.

The fun part of today's doctor visit -- and this was probably the first doctor visit in my life I'd call "fun" -- was that my doctor seemed engaged and interested in my progress on a more personal level. He was genuinely marveling at my progress, wanted to know more about how I was accomplishing it, grabbing people on his staff to tell them about how much weight I'd lost -- it seemed that I finally broke through his reserve of skepticism and (too strong a word, probably) despair with respect to his diabetic, hypertensive, obese, soon-to-be-dead patients (or at least, me).

Oddly enough when I went in, I expected to see worse blood numbers (especially blood sugar). My "upon waking" blood sugars have been up a solid and steady ten points for the last six weeks or so; previously stable in a 95-100 range, they've been stable recently in a 105-110 range.

So you can imagine my delight when my A1C came back as 5.3, down from 5.4 two months ago. I'm actually not sure how that happens -- I guess even though the lows are higher, my spikes must be shorter or fewer in duration? In other words, blood sugar more stable generally.

My lipid numbers were all notably improved, too:

1) My total cholesterol came down 19 points, from 152 to 133 -- a record low # for me.
2) My HDL came up from "less than 15" to 27 -- another record!
3) My LDL came down 6 points from 75 on August 30 (could not be calculated in Oct. due to immeasurable HDL) to 69. Lowest ever for me...
4) My triglycerides dropped 15 points, from 200 to 185. Doc says not to worry about that level; his target is 150, but he expects it to keep dropping as I keep losing weight.

Possibly the funniest moment came when he was asking me about the specifics of my diet, which he had not really done before. He looked a little concerned when he heard "no meat, no dairy" and said something cautionary about me needing at least a little protein. Of course, armed with my knowledge about protein in plant foods, I was ready to answer him back, but I spent several seconds marshaling my thoughts, because I wanted to be able to answer him without having a "you idiot" tone in my voice. I like this guy and he's not an idiot, he's just fairly mainstream, conservative, and has a rural practice of very poor and very unhealthy people. So I wanted to say something informed and polite about the sufficiency of protein in plant foods.

Luckily, however, he used my pause to think over what he'd said, and before I could speak, he asked me "No, wait... are you eating at least a few beans?" I said "Oh yeah, I'm eating a ton of beans" and he smiled with relief, and said "Oh, good, you're fine on protein then." So I didn't have to try and persuade him...

Next visit and blood labs in three months. My doc says he wants to take a hard look at my blood pressure meds next visit with an eye toward reducing or eliminating some of them -- which is a sharp turnabout from his discouragingly conservative words on that point two months ago.
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Re: Lost 107 pounds in 9 months

Postby stephani » Fri Dec 30, 2011 3:26 am

MixedGrains -

I just wanted to say congratulations and thank you for sharing your successes with us.

I love your writing and even though I'm primarily a lurker, I do read the forums an awful lot, and I've enjoyed all of your posts. I subscribed to this thread so I will know when you've left updates :)

You've been a real inspiration to me. I hope you and yours have a Happy New Year.
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Re: Lost 107 pounds in 9 months

Postby frozenveg » Fri Dec 30, 2011 12:15 pm

What a great post! That visit to the doctor must have been a triumph! It's true, doctors really in their heart of hearts want their patients to get better--but how many ever get that satisfaction? Besides Dr. McDougall and his cohorts?
5'3", 74 YO. Started Jan. 11, 2010
Starting weight: 222.6
Current weight: 148.2.0


Success Story:
https://www.drmcdougall.com/articles/st ... -rockwell/
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Re: Lost 107 pounds in 9 months

Postby jld » Sun Jan 01, 2012 9:37 am

Great job! And thanks so much for sharing this with us. I look forward to hearing about the continued success you're sure to have in 2012. Happy New Year!:)
A clean life is its own reward.
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Re: Lost 107 pounds in 9 months

Postby Melinda » Tue Jan 03, 2012 10:52 am

Congratulations MixedGrains! What a triumphant year! You must feel so much better. Sounds like you have a good rapport with your Doc. I'm sure they get discouraged with a lot of their patients, to the point where they give up saying anything. You've given him hope and possibly helped future patients.
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Re: Lost 107 pounds in 9 months

Postby StarchBeet » Tue Jan 03, 2012 8:00 pm

Mixedgrains you must feel wonderful. I hope to see you here for a long time so we can see your success.

Keep up feeling great, eating great and looking greater every day! :nod:
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Re: Lost 107 pounds in 9 months

Postby Nettie » Thu Jan 05, 2012 10:57 am

Please continue to post. I am so inspired and in awe of what you've accomplished.

Congratulations on your progress. More good news to come, I'm sure.

Nettie
If you always do what you've always done, you'll always be what you've always been.

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Re: Lost 107 pounds in 9 months

Postby MixedGrains » Thu Jan 05, 2012 12:24 pm

I sure do appreciate the kind words, everybody!
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Re: Lost 107 pounds in 9 months

Postby marmoset » Thu Jan 05, 2012 4:27 pm

I'm mostly a lurker, but wanted to chime in and say CONGRATULATIONS on your progress! It must feel so good!

Keep us posted -- I love your writing and your story is very inspirational.

-marmoset
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Re: Lost 107 pounds in 9 months

Postby Daffodil » Tue Jan 10, 2012 8:00 pm

This is a very inspirational thread. And it just goes to show you that we can do this, without surgeries, just with changing our food and being consistent. And there is no deprivation at all.

I really do not understand many of the sheeple(SAD people) in general that feel they would rather die than give up their meat, dairy and oils. When in fact if they keep eating that way, they WILL die. (sooner rather than later)
-Amy in NV
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Re: Lost 107 pounds in 9 months

Postby MixedGrains » Wed Jan 11, 2012 1:45 am

Daffodil wrote:I really do not understand many of the sheeple(SAD people) in general that feel they would rather die than give up their meat, dairy and oils. When in fact if they keep eating that way, they WILL die. (sooner rather than later)


Daffodil, I honestly don't think that's quite a fair statement of where most people are coming from.

It's really easy for us (for anybody) to get enthusiastic about something and lose our perspective -- by which I mean, to forget how we used to think.

It would be pretty remarkable if people deliberately chose death over a change in diet. But that assumes more knowledge than anybody has. Everybody here on this board knows (or thinks we know) some stuff about the benefits of eating "just plants". But we "know" because we tried it and we experienced the benefits.

I think back to when I weighed something north of 550 pounds. Here's what I knew:

1) I was fat;
2) I didn't like too many vegetables or whole grains.

Now, at various times I had been exposed to various ideas about diet and health. Some I tried (lower-fat eating, low-carb eating, eating whatever I felt like, eating nothing but salads) and some I didn't (paleo, raw, vegetarian, juicing, macrobiotic, cabbage soup, Pritikin, fasting, cleansing, detox, magic HGH droplets....)

Eventually I built up an experience base of decades. I learned:

1) I just kept getting fatter and sicker no matter what I tried; and
2) No matter how persuasive or sensible a particular idea about diet sounded on the surface, it was a waste of my time; nothing was gonna help.

And that's where most people (I suspect) are today. It's not that they "know" they are choosing between death on one hand and our way of eating on the other; they don't really believe that their SAD is killing them on the one hand, and they don't really believe that our way of eating could prevent their death or cure what ails them on the other. And they are not insane for not knowing/believing these things.

It's hard to believe that the foods "everybody" is eating are so toxic. It's hard to believe in the imminence of your own death from such a seemingly-benign source. It's REALLY HARD to believe that yet another cockamamy eating plan is going to turn out to be the wonder drug and the miracle cure we've been looking for all our lives.

Even when somebody sees one of us succeed by eating this way, even when they know us and love us and live with us sometimes, that still doesn't automatically translate to knowing (at the gut level where real change happens) that it would work for them. A lot of folks are plumb tuckered out with trying stuff, and that narrative always includes somebody who tried it and swears by it. Fool me once, fool me twice, fool me half a dozen times, eventually I'm just gonna be skeptical of everything and stop opening my mind to new ideas.

Me, I was fat and sick and (if not nearly dead) pretty darned worried about some quirky new sensations in my upper chest. And even then, I wouldn't have remotely considered a crazed eating plan like this one ("What? You want me to eat some nutzo diet that's like ultra-strict veganism minus oil and flour and sugar?) were it not for one very specific prediction in Dr. Esselstyn's book. He predicted measurable (at home with tools I already had) improvements in my blood sugar and blood pressure in three days or less. I was ready for change but I didn't see anything useful to try, I didn't see anything I could bear to believe in. And I didn't believe in this way of eating, either -- in fact I expected it to spike my blood sugar through the roof. But I do believe in the scientific method. "Three days and check your numbers" is easy, it's not the usual "try it for a few months and then try not to fool yourself about whether it did you any good" woo.

For me, three days was enough to see improving numbers. Now I didn't need to search my weary soul for enough faith and optimism to commit to some bizarre scheme. Now I had an interesting experiment in progress. Ten months later, I'm still interested, fascinated, and delighted by what I'm learning.

There are numerous people in my life who could benefit from this eating plan. Some of them have noticed and marveled at my success. Few are curious what I'm doing, and the few who are, stop being curious as soon as they find out. Would they rather die than eat like me? Of course not, they don't want to die! But they don't expect to die from what they are eating, and they don't believe that eating like me would prevent it. So that's not the choice they are making.

I'll even go a step further. Some of us have actually heard people say "I'd rather die than give up my..." [meat/cheese/whiskey/pot/cocaine/fornication/knitting/cats/whatever]. Do any of these people actually mean it? If so, it's rare. Even when those exact words come out of someone's mouth, it's a form of bravado. If they actually saw the choice in those stark terms, and were certain of the starkness, they'd be likely to reconsider. Or so I think, anyway.
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