Vacation

Share your McDougall successes here in order to inspire others.

Moderators: JeffN, f1jim, carolve, Heather McDougall

Vacation

Postby howardt » Tue Aug 20, 2013 11:31 pm

Just came back from our annual Maine vacation. The food has always been spectacular - lobsters, steak, pizza, fried clams, onion rings, blueberry pancakes, clam chowder. I've enjoyed it all, year after year.

But now I'm on the plan, can't eat it and don't want it. I've eaten at restaurants since starting the diet, but eating out now and then is different from eating out every meal.

Just some observations:

None of the restaurants we visited treated salad as a main course. The salads were uninspired, with 3 or 4 ingredients (iceberg being the main one), and the portion size was less than 1/4 the size I normally eat.

The best salad I had was at a cafe at the LL Bean store in Freeport, called Nuts and Berries - several kinds of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, walnuts, sunflower seeds, raisins and dried cranberries. Still not big enough, but compared to some of the other restaurants, really not too bad.

Italian - I tried ordering plain pasta topped with steamed vegetables. Whole wheat pasta was not available. I ordered it anyway, but the pasta was cooked in oily water.

Mexican food - the waiter claimed they were unable to steam any vegetables, and every item other than pico de gallo, including the beans, was made with oil.

At Jonathan's in Ogunquit, the waitress checked with the chef, and they made a terrific dish of rice, beans and vegetables. No oil at all. The vegetables were delicious, and were not wet, so I don't know how they were cooked. I was touched that they took my requests seriously.

Other than Jonathan's I wound up eating whatever tiny salad was available and a baked potato. From a local supermarket I bought salad in a plastic bag, fruit, some cans of beans, corn and chickpeas, and ate in the hotel after meals.

On the way home we stopped at a brewery that had quite a few vegetarian choices. My family had meat burgers and I had a veggie burger. The veggie burger barely held together and was about half the thickness of their meat burgers.

I assume a place serving vegetarian dishes has some familiarity with vegetarians, and therefore should know that we eat food for sustenance. We aren't all dieters, trying to shed pounds.

They ought to know that vegetables are less calorie-dense than meat. So what sense does it make to serve a 1/8 lb veggie burger, but a 1/4 lb meat burger? Assuming the beans and tofu in the veggie burger are half the calories of meat by weight, they should be serving a 1/2 lb veggie burger to provide customers with the same calories as a 1/4 lb of meat.

Put another way, if I ate all my meals there I would slowly starve.

I had a wonderful time with my family on vacation. But I am really sick of explaining my needs to restaurants, and was so happy to come home to my beans, my soup and my salads.

My plan for next time is to make better use of the hotel fridge and bring plenty of prepared meals, so I will have something better than canned beans and bags of lettuce to eat at the hotel.
Let's go invent tomorrow, rather than worrying about what happened yesterday.
-- Steve Jobs
howardt
 
Posts: 227
Joined: Fri Jul 12, 2013 2:41 pm
Location: Hudson Valley, NY

Re: Vacation

Postby John McDougall » Wed Aug 21, 2013 10:44 am

This is the main reason we have been running McDougall Adventures for the past twenty years with vacations twice a year to exotic places like Costa Rica and Hawaii.

The food is all low-fat McDougall-style and the opportunity to make friendships with fellow health-seekers can be found no where else.

See: http://www.drmcdougall.com/adventure.html

John McDougall, MD
User avatar
John McDougall
Site Admin
 
Posts: 575
Joined: Sun Jul 30, 2006 10:08 pm

Re: Vacation

Postby kkrichar » Wed Aug 21, 2013 11:32 am

When I quit drinking I didn't want to go on any vacation that included the price of alcohol in the package. It seemed like such a rip off. Now that I'm McDougall I don't want to do any vacation that includes food as part of the price. A friend of mine wants me to go on a cruise with her. I just can't do it. I'm saving my pennies for a Costa Rica trip!!!! Hawaii would be awesome too. I just want to take a wonderful vacation to a beautiful place and not worry I'm going to starve or go off plan. I LOVE Dr. McDougall and can't wait until I can afford one of his adventure trips!!!

howardt, thanks for describing how you handled your vacation. I'm worried about the 12 hours of travel I have to survive on my way home from the Advanced Study Weekend next month. That's nothing compared to the amount of time you made it through. I know it can be done. You're an inspiration.
Image

HW: 220 lbs BMI=36.3
CW: 162 lbs BMI=26.5
GW: 135 lbs BMI=22.3
User avatar
kkrichar
 
Posts: 1223
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2008 9:05 am
Location: Iowa City

Re: Vacation

Postby wildgoose » Wed Aug 21, 2013 5:55 pm

We just returned from a California vacation.

Before I left, I cooked 5 pounds of sweet potatoes in the crockpot. Each potato went in its own plastic bag, then they all went in a freezer bag, then in a plastic grocery bag to go in the suitcase. I had a bag of apples and a bag of chopped broccoli in my carryon.

We were on planes and in airports all day, both coming and going. The DFW airport Subway (gate B16 if you're ever in the neighborhood :-D ) makes a fabulous veggie delight chopped salad. I also packed some rice cakes for a little crunch with the salad.

Once in California, we stayed in a hotel with a fridge and a microwave. I had sweet potato and apple for breakfast every morning. On the days we ate in, I had sweet potato and broccoli for lunch or dinner.

But the lifesaver was Sweet Tomatoes salad buffet. All the veggies you could ever want. Baked potatoes. Vegan minestrone soup that didn't seem to have even a trace of oil. Fresh fruit for dessert. We ate there 8 times, at 3 different locations!

I was totally stuffed with food all the time, and I needed it, keeping up with 2 active young grandsons. More good news -- unlike previous SAD-eating vacations, this trip put absolutely no extra weight on either of us!

Goose
My story: MWL works!
How I determined my "goal weight"
User avatar
wildgoose
 
Posts: 409
Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2012 11:01 pm
Location: central Illinois

Re: Vacation

Postby eXtremE » Thu Aug 22, 2013 7:54 pm

SudsyMaggie wrote:Yup, a McDougall Costa Rica trip is on my list!
Would be nice! I am hardworking but poor and likely to remain that way...:-(
On 7/8/2013, I decided to change my diet to a "mostly" WFPB diet. I have always been somewhat lean and muscular due to being a lifelong exerciser. Change in diet due to feeling crummy all the time despite a healthy outward appearance. Image
User avatar
eXtremE
 
Posts: 3525
Joined: Fri Aug 02, 2013 5:05 am

Re: Vacation

Postby JulieS » Thu Aug 22, 2013 8:38 pm

wildgoose wrote:But the lifesaver was Sweet Tomatoes salad buffet. All the veggies you could ever want. Baked potatoes. Vegan minestrone soup that didn't seem to have even a trace of oil. Fresh fruit for dessert. We ate there 8 times, at 3 different locations!Goose

I have a Sweet Tomatoes near our house and I love the baked potatoes there where I take some of the veggie soup and pour it on the potato.
LOST 55 POUNDS! From pant size 14 to size 4, BMI:21
User avatar
JulieS
 
Posts: 1345
Joined: Sat Mar 23, 2013 8:23 pm
Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA

Re: Vacation

Postby howardt » Fri Aug 23, 2013 2:53 am

John McDougall wrote:This is the main reason we have been running McDougall Adventures for the past twenty years with vacations twice a year to exotic places like Costa Rica and Hawaii.


Dr. McDougall, the rest of my family have not changed their diet (yet?), and going on vacation as a family means more to me than any restaurant hassle.

But personally, I would love it.
Let's go invent tomorrow, rather than worrying about what happened yesterday.
-- Steve Jobs
howardt
 
Posts: 227
Joined: Fri Jul 12, 2013 2:41 pm
Location: Hudson Valley, NY

Re: Vacation

Postby howardt » Fri Aug 23, 2013 3:14 am

kkrichar wrote:howardt, thanks for describing how you handled your vacation. I'm worried about the 12 hours of travel I have to survive on my way home from the Advanced Study Weekend next month. That's nothing compared to the amount of time you made it through. I know it can be done. You're an inspiration.


Wow, thanks K. :)
Let's go invent tomorrow, rather than worrying about what happened yesterday.
-- Steve Jobs
howardt
 
Posts: 227
Joined: Fri Jul 12, 2013 2:41 pm
Location: Hudson Valley, NY

Re: Vacation

Postby MamaSistina » Fri Aug 23, 2013 9:55 pm

John McDougall wrote:This is the main reason we have been running McDougall Adventures for the past twenty years with vacations twice a year to exotic places like Costa Rica and Hawaii.

The food is all low-fat McDougall-style and the opportunity to make friendships with fellow health-seekers can be found no where else.

See: http://www.drmcdougall.com/adventure.html

John McDougall, MD



I know a lady and her husband who had been (mostly) raw vegan for several years and wanted to transition back to a healthier cooked vegan diet. They went on one of McDougall vacations and really enjoyed it and have done really well reincorporating starch back into their eating plan. But one of the things they said was that it was a very nice and mature group of people. They compared it to the raw food scene where so many people have to be terminally unique. This is true! I was out in the raw food scene for a long time. I've also been enjoying the maturity of this internet community here.
MamaSistina
 
Posts: 246
Joined: Mon Jun 17, 2013 6:57 pm

Re: Vacation

Postby castelluzzo99 » Sun Sep 08, 2013 3:47 pm

Ah, yes, Sweet Tomatoes. It's pretty much the only restaurant that I can see eating out at. Maybe Cafe Yumm, but that's pretty obscure and I think only in the Portland area. I might be able to do a Mongolian Grill sometime, if it's the kind with an extensive buffet, and just use savory but oil-free sauces, but we don't have a good one here that I know of. Boise does, on State Street, I think, but that's a bit far of a drive for us unless we're visiting my mom...
castelluzzo99
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2013 10:46 am


Return to Testimonials and Success Stories

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests


cron

Welcome!

Sign up to receive our regular articles, recipes, and news about upcoming events.