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 MmmCarbs » Sat Oct 15, 2011 12:13 am

Hi MixedGrains. Wow, I'm so happy for your success so far!

I had one idea about your daily meals. Did you ever try adding frozen veggies to your bean/grain meals? You could add a pile of veggies to those big plates and you'd have a tasty stew. More flavor, more volume, more good nutrition, and it's another way to get the calorie density of your diet down.
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Re: Lost 88 pounds in under six months

Postby MixedGrains » Sat Oct 15, 2011 1:10 am

MmmCarbs, I do some of that, but due to texture problems with most frozen vegetables, mostly what I do is cook the veggies into my beans, one way or another. Cooked frozen vegetables on a plate mostly just disgust me, no matter what I dump on them, because they are mushy. I prefer my veggies mostly raw or lightly steamed, or cooked into stuff.

The dish I summarized as "chili" actually contains two pounds of dried beans, two or three chopped onions, spices, water, tomato paste, and (added near the end of the cooking process) a big bag of frozen stir fry pepper mix (red, green, and orange frozen bell peppers). They go to mush no matter what you do to them once thawed, but as vegetable mush cooked into a bean chili, they are fine and do what you say: drive down the calorie density. I often use frozen green peas, or frozen corn (though these are more calorie-dense) in the same way.

One additional complicating factor is that there are a ton of vegetables that I don't like very much, or only like when they are raw and crunchy. Brocolli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, green beans ... I can enjoy most of these raw or lightly steamed, but heavily cooked (or frozen and then lightly cooked, which has much the same effect on texture as heavy cooking) I just can't choke them down. And you'll notice those are among the most common items in the frozen veg section (along with chopped frozen greens, which I can't abide at all). So it's somewhat limiting. But yeah, whenever I make a savory pot of legumes in sauce, I always try to stir in at least one full bag of frozen veg.
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Re: Lost 88 pounds in under six months

Postby MamaSam79 » Sun Oct 16, 2011 10:41 pm

Inspiring! Excited for you!!
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Re: Lost 88 pounds in under six months

Postby lmggallagher » Tue Oct 18, 2011 3:37 pm

Way to go MixedGrains:

Man, have you ever overcome a lot of hurdles, except for that 70 mile trip to the grocery store thing!

I read everyone of your posts with great interest and pleasure, knowing that you have made and continue to make huge progress! And I have to say I owe going vegan to Esselstyne too. I just got a copy and passed it along to a friend, who has sent a copy to her son and daughter-in-law! So I want to tell you, that you are paying forward your friends good deed by sharing your story HERE! It's helping us that come in behind you in a HUGE way! Thanks!

I also have to say, I SO pictured your recount of the second trip to the Doctor. It's a funny story in a way, because we know you have a handle on what you need to do. It's beyond tragic though, if it's someone that thinks that Doc is the last word though. Mostly, thanks for taking the time to portray the typical frustration of those of us that TRY SO HARD to take responsibility for our own health; and confront, sorry to say, ignorance.

Also appreciate that you like to take a scientific approach, as to what's working or not for you -- but why oh why can't your Doctor get the picture and do the same thing. Good grief a guy comes in, has lost like 80 pounds and tells the Doc he is following another Doc's program and it's got t be obvious how good it's working! Gee, you kind of think he might WANT to read about it himself! And you told him it's about no animal products, oils etc., and not about counting calories. But nope, no curiosity at all and he reduces it to calorie intake period, like it's just duh, simple arithmetic. Is this arrogance? Is that a rhetorical question?

As bad as that was, I have a flip side story that makes me feel like there is hope for doctors too, here it is:

I read Esselstyne, was on a week and decided to go to my new Doc and ask for baseline blood tests. I did this because I know it's going to be a long time for the weight to come off - but I figured the other numbers going down were going to be huge motivation. (Boy was that the truth, in a week TC went down 40 points!)

I actually took the book in my purse, to counter the inevitable blank disinterested stare, with those amazing pictures. I started out with " I would like to have an updated blood panel, as I am completely changing my diet to loose weight, and I will be following the method of Dr. Esselstyne of the Cleveland Clinic".

OK are you seated Mixedgreens??? You won't believe this - my Doctor clapped her hands together, smiled ear-to-ear and said "GREAT, go for it, and yes, you can have all the blood tests you want." Then she said, that Dr. Esselsytne had recently lectured the Docs at my medical facility and those pictures just knocked everyone's socks off. Next she recommended a couple of vegan cookbooks to me. You know what Mixedgreens, I think my Doc is a vegan too and recent because of Esselstyne!

I mean she is not going to tell me she is, essentially this is a huge HMO with medical facilities all over California, it has it's own huge nutrition staff and educational programs that teach SAD with tiny portions = diet. But still because of her reaction, I have to believe that Doctors Esselstyne, McDougal, Ornish, Fuhrman & a few others and nutritionists like Campbell are making progress with some medical folks too!

Meanwhile, I guess my main point is you should be so proud of yourself for knowing more than your Doc! :D And one day your numbers will be so good (and mine too ;-) that our only medical intervention will be flu shots or something!

So high five Mixgreens, way to go :)

BTW - I think it's the tortillas and fruit, I believe on MWL you only get 2 corn/no oil tortillas daily and two fruits. I figured that out going on MWL because those really are the only things I had to cut down on and I wasn't eating potatoes previously. I am now scarfing down the Yukon Golds, even Russets seem a treat. I haven't had a potato in like 10 years is why! Although, I give you that we are all different, just my hunch -- as a control study on same subject, hehehe!
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Re: Lost 88 pounds in under six months

Postby lmggallagher » Tue Oct 18, 2011 3:38 pm

OOOPPPPS - That would be MixedGREENS - sorry!
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Re: Lost 88 pounds in under six months

Postby lmggallagher » Tue Oct 18, 2011 3:40 pm

Hahaha - oh no, well MixedGRAINS, I was right some of the time!
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Re: Lost 88 pounds in under six months

Postby MixedGrains » Tue Oct 18, 2011 5:35 pm

MixedGrains, MixedGreens, if I could stand to eat greens I wouldn't care which you used. :-D

As for my cardiologist, I have to give him big props for being anti-intervention -- he appears to fully understand that stents and bypasses and invasive imaging are dire-emergency measures that don't do a lot of long-term good. If his views on diet are a bit inflexible, it's probably that standard doctor big-ego thing -- he understands what he knows, and it's easier to shove new info into the existing mental boxes than to revise his set of mental boxes.
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Re: Lost 88 pounds in under six months

Postby lmggallagher » Tue Oct 18, 2011 7:12 pm

MixedGrains:

Oh, that is great about your Doctor! Among my friends and family, that have had heart issues, it's been a struggle to get doctors to talk about alternatives other then stents and such. You're lucky to have found one that see's that as last resort.

I have to love the greens: I'm Irish by heritage! MMmm, like colcannon, which is Yukon Golds and kale - well, in truth also butter and milk or cream. Doesn't sound like a good fit these days :lol:

Best wishes on your continued success!
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Re: Lost 88 pounds in under six months

Postby annhett » Wed Oct 19, 2011 5:10 pm

WOW! Great story. I wish shows like "heavy" and "biggest loser" would get on board. Hell, I wish bob from BL would promote veganism, since he is. He recently posted a recipe on facebook and it was a fish dish.
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Re: Lost 88 pounds in under six months

Postby MixedGrains » Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:44 am

If this post had a title it would be:

"Dropped Januvia, Blood Sugar Control IMPROVED"

If you remember from my initial post in this thread, back in early August, after 4.5 months of healthy eating, I unilaterally stopped taking Januvia -- the expensive patented diabetes medication. (I was, and am still, also taking Metformin.)

When I stopped taking it, it was partly because I was dead broke and didn't have the 200 bucks for another month of pills, and partly because my blood sugar numbers were looking so good, I honestly didn't think I needed it any more.

I saw my doctor a month later, in late August. He liked my blood sugar numbers -- my A1C was 5.5 and my mean plasma glocose was 119 -- but he was clearly very skeptical that this would persist without the Januvia. However, he cheerfully "allowed" me to continue not taking the Januvia "if you'll come back and see me in six weeks to get another A1C taken."

Well, I did, though due to rescheduling it stretched to almost two months. But I saw him yesterday regarding blood labs taken on October 20.

Results:

A1C 5.4 (down .1)
Mean Plasma Glucose: 115 (down 4)

In other words, my blood sugar numbers continued to improve!

Well, that's no surprise to us. But my doctor was clearly not expecting that result. It also caused him to look back and my charts and notice the extent of my recent weight loss. He made a good show of encouragement and urged me to keep it up, too. But still it was funny when he said "I guess we'll take the Januvia off your chart, then..." His tone of voice said "I can't believe I'm hearing myself saying this, I've never done this before..." Being fair, I go to an extremely rural/poor clinic, where the expected course of diabetes progression is something like:

Step 1: prescribe metformin
Step 2: prescribe more expensive diabetes drugs
Step 3: shit, now the patient needs insulin too
Step 4: double shit, the patient has ulcers
Step 5: woeful day, time for patient's first amputation!
Step 6: patient is going blind

... and all downhill from there.

He was also complimentary about my blood pressure, but I didn't make a lot of progress convincing him to cut back on those three meds. I did lay some groundwork though for next time.

It turns out that he'd also ordered a lipids panel on me, which I was not expecting. In the fifty days between tests:

1) My total cholesterol went up ten points from 142 to 152
2) My HDL went from 25 to "less than 15"
3) My LDL went from 75 to "N/A"
4) My triglycerides went from 211 to 200

As I mentioned here, my doctor couldn't explain why we didn't get an LDL number back, but he clearly thought the lack of a number likely indicated a low result. He said the total number "is still real good" even though it went up a bit, he said "when your other numbers are good I don't worry too much about the low HDL, though you should exercise more", and then he said "with these other numbers going down, you're doing just fine."

As for me, I was just pleased to see the trigs continuing to drop. I find the LDL business puzzling, but my diet's been good so I don't really care. The slight increase in total cholesterol is a surprise, but then again, I don't know what the daily range of variability or the lab margin of error for this test is, so I'm not proposing to worry about it unless it becomes a trend. (I'm scheduled for another checkup, meds review, and blood labs after Christmas.) And as for HDL vanishing off the bottom of the chart, I still find Dr. McDougall to be very persuasive on that subject.

Edited to add: Isn't it funny how persuasive we find people who are telling us what we want to hear? :D
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Re: Lost 88 pounds in under six months

Postby carollynne » Fri Oct 28, 2011 4:52 pm

congrats to that last blood lipid panel. You are really doing great, and the doctors should be quizzing you on what you are doing so that they can tell the other patients and so on. but they won't!!
Still it is no small wonder that you are doing so good!
You will no doubt become a McDougaller Star so that others will be able to learn from your experience. OU will, you will, never give up and enjoy the taste of your food now with out all the fat in it!!
BTW, I have never heard of anyone having no reading for the LDL, that is something else!
I have lost about 60 lbs and never thought I'd be in the 150s ever again. cured my NAFLD!! Feel great!! Wt loss is so good for the knees and back, ankle, that I know I will never start back to the SAD way of eating again.
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Re: Lost 88 pounds in under six months

Postby MixedGrains » Fri Oct 28, 2011 6:15 pm

SactoBob gave me the critical piece of info in that other thread I linked, to explain the lack of an LDL number. It turns out that LDL is usually calculated from a formula using HDL, total, and triglycerides ... and my HDL "number" actually came back as "less than" 15 -- i.e., too small for their test to measure. Which meant that there was no specific integer to plug into the formula... so nothing came out.
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Re: Lost 88 pounds in under six months

Postby blondie » Fri Oct 28, 2011 6:21 pm

You are doing wonderful! I have been reading your posts and just wanted to cheer you on!! Congrats on the wonderful lab results! Keep up the good work!
[url=http://www.TickerFactory.com/weight-loss/wjVo52w/]
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[url=http://www.tickerfactory.com/weight-loss/wjVo52w]My Weight Chart:
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311 all-time highest weight. Began McDougall plan at 300 lb. on 2/9/2011.
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Re: Lost 88 pounds in under six months

Postby annhett » Sat Oct 29, 2011 6:13 am

[quote= Being fair, I go to an extremely rural/poor clinic, where the expected course of diabetes progression is something like:
[/quote]

Do you think it would be useful for the clinic to have a lending library of books like the China Study and the Forks over Knives dvd? or do you think the clients have dvd players? I'm also thinking a sheet of how much food you can buy with this WOE. and a sheet of daily meal ideas? Heck, you could even do a sheet about yourself, with your before and after numbers and how you're saving money.
I would be willing to donate a FOK dvd if you think people would be interested. You could set up an amazon wish list with those items. I think that way you wouldn't have to give out your address or the clinic could set up a wish list on amazon. we could suggest book and dvd titles. and if the clinic is interested, FOK is sold in bulk quantities. I've been thinking about getting the 4 pack and I could send 1 directly to the clinic.
We could also include the new book from the 2 doctors featured in FOK - 'Keep It Simple, Keep It Whole: Your Guide To Optimum Health '
and of course mcd books.
Do you have a printer? If you set up a chip in account or something like that, I would contribute to the cost of making these fact sheets. I'm sure we could all help come up with ideas.
I'll stop babbling now and attempt to eat my oatmeal - waiting for it to cool.
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Re: Lost 88 pounds in under six months

Postby MixedGrains » Sat Oct 29, 2011 7:23 pm

Annhett, I am impressed by your charitable urges in this regard, but I don't think I could summon the energy to dive into such a project, because I lack faith that the root problem is lack of info. Or, more precisely, lack of info is huge, but most people don't want to be educated -- new information that doesn't match their prejudices is actively rejected and despised and disbelieved. That's made worse by local redneck/hillbilly attitudes in this region, which are actively anti-intellectual -- new information offered in the spirit of "this will make your life better" tends to be rejected outright with a "we're proud of what we are and what we got, who the hell are you to tell us there's a better way?"

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. And around here, most people aren't thirsty.

I hope this doesn't sound too defeatist or misanthropic, but that's really how it seems to me. I'm also reasonably sure it's why some of the local doctors don't even bother to discuss nutrition with their diabetes patients. They've been there and done that and all they got for their trouble was a sore head from beating it against the brick wall.
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