Dr. McDougall's Online Discussion Board

I would like to thank Dr. McDougall from the bottom of my heart for his ground-breaking work and for this **free** website.

I have been a lurker here for a long, long time. I McDougalled on and off since about 2004. I was a terrible cheater, though, and never lost much weight.

I'm a 52-year-old woman, 5'8.5" and at the beginning of the summer, I weighed 200 lbs. I'd been carrying this weight around since I had my kids -- I have 18 and 15 year old daughters.

I'd tried Weight Watchers but couldn't stay with it, and lost no more than about 16 pounds (from 216 to 200). This was in the beginning of 2011.

I decided this summer to re-commit to McDougalling and NOT CHEAT.

I have not exercised regularly, just the occasional walk/hike. Nothing structured. (I'm now starting to try to change that.)

I got on the scale this morning expecting bad news -- yesterday was a major feast day for me, but I would say that I've been 95-98% compliant from the beginning of the summer till now.

So, to my amazement -- 179.6 pounds ! And a BMI of 26.9 -- still overweight but I left the obese category awhile back.

Here are the detailed stats:
7/13 . . . . 200 lbs
8/8 . . . . 194.4
8/15 . . . . 195.4
8/22 . . . . 194.2
8/29 . . . . 191.0
9/9 . . . . 188.6
9/16 . . . . 188.2
9/22 . . . . 185.4
10/7 . . . . 185.8
10/14 . . . . 182.2
10/21 . . . . 183.2
10/27 . . . . 181.2
11/10 . . . . 180.8
11/23 . . . . 179.6

I still have a ways to go, but I am tremendously encouraged.

I've been trying to do MWL. For breakfast, I always have oatmeal, with some chopped apple and sweet potato and 2 T flax; I eat a lot of homemade lentil soup with various greens added or other homemade bean soups; black beans and brown rice in various forms incl. as burritos (I know the burrito is not MWL but have them maybe once a week); lots of baked sweet potatoes, salads.

If I get caught out doing errands etc and am hungry, I have occasionally grabbed one of the 50cent bag of peanuts (about 250 cal, I think) and a coke zero, but that has not happened that often. That is my emergency 'snack' though if I can't get to MWL food.

I have been limiting my fruit to two pieces a day per MWL, and only occasionally go over that.

One great thing about doing this, is that I think I have finally tamed my terrible sweet tooth. I never met a carbohydrate I didn't like -- but limiting myself to MWL-type carbs, complete & unprocessed, seems to have changed something in me, and I no longer binge on refined sweets, like I used to. Not totally sure what caused the change, I just know that I am grateful for it.

Anyway, thank you to the folks who post and share your journeys, especially the star mcdougallers. You are such an inspiration. I love Etselle's tag line about one day, you will wake up and it won't feel strict, it just feels good ! (radically paraphrasing) I have found this to be true.

My parents died young (63 and70) of preventable chronic diseases and I am excited that this WOE can give me a healthy middle and old age.

Thank you, Dr. McDougall. You are providing an incredible public service to make all this information available for free, on this website. It must be so gratifying to know that you are changing lives. Thank you for providing the information to help me change mine.

I am excited about the months to come, and finally reaching a healthy weight.

best regards,
Trihiker

Congrats! Keep up the good work!

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!! Is this WOE the best? and we lose weight too!....wow, what a life we live..

Thank you for the encouraging comments ! Yes, this is a great WOE.

It does work and truly is easy to follow if you just keep it simple.
Congrats on your 20 lb loss! Nice job.

That's very inspiring. Thank you for posting!

Good for you! Even though you may not hear from some of the other lurkers, just like you they are being helped by your encouraging results.

Keep it up.

Nettie

Thank you, Nettie, and everyone else who posted an encouraging reply! I appreciate it

CONGRATS!! Keep up the great work and keep posting!

My sweet tooth was so happy yesterday when I sliced and baked some asian sweet potatoes. They taste like candy. They were dark purple outside.

The rest of the days meals included asian soup I made with 5 types of greens, some daikon and a few types of mushrooms. Food is such a lovely thing and so welcome when it brings health.

Congrats! That's awesome. I've been an absent lurker - I participate from time to time. I'm coming back this week and catching up on everyone's progress and it's great to see everyone's successes. You are kicking some butt!