Wow....this is amazing

[christianvegan]

Just wanted to share, I have tried mcdougalling a few times over the last 17 years (for real) but never could do the no oil, low fat thing for long. Vegan was no problem. I have finally gotten over my fear of no oil and low fat. But it took emotional maturity to do it, but at least I've done it. My body is adjusting very quickly.

One thing that is really surprising me is how my mouth can now taste the "fat" in things before I thought were like cardboard. Like I can actually taste the creaminess in a plain baked potato or sweet potato, beans, a date, and tofu is almost too much fat! This is really amazing. Its a reward, I think, for being willing to face that first couple of weeks of transition. As long as I don't go back to eating that stuff, I can't see having an issue with this ever again. (I know, I won't say "never" about anything). But this is great.

If my current self could say anything to my former self, it would be, "just press through the first week or two and trust. You really will get through it and won't crave fats anymore." Wow.

[Cupcake]

I don't know if I don't crave the fats, but I know that I now find them really overwhelming on my stomach. (And I've only been doing the McD thing for about a month, although I've been mainly vegetarian for about 8 months.) At Thanksgiving, where the food was mainly off-plan, I ate one full, big, plate of really high-fat side dishes and a bit of white-meat turkey, and after that, I was totally stuffed. I tried to eat some dessert (hey, I'm off-plan anyway at this point LOL), but I could literally not eat one piece of pumpkin pie + one brownie. I ate about half of each and then gave up.

[christianvegan]

Yes thats for sure. High fat things, or even what I would've called "moderate fat" before, are way too much fat for me.

[christianvegan]

I think I'm at 13 days now and finding this gets easier and easier. My body only seems to want breakfast (late morning or noon) and then an early dinner (around 4). I'm just not hungry other times. Pretty cool. The weight keeps coming off slowly. I'm not exercising really yet, but plan on getting that going too. Right now my body seems to be healing, my energy for working out not very high, but my mental energy very high.

[maggieleaps8]

I totally agree with what you would say to your former self! I also experience being able to taste the real flavors/fat in natural foods and things cooked with oil taste muted and icky. Sometimes I am tempted to eat something fatty 'off plan' but don't because I have come to realize that the way it will make me feel afterwards is so not worth it. I love my new energy and know that when I eat a SAD diet I don't have any.
I think if people are starting out they need to tell themselves 'I can do this for 12 days, I can do anything for 12 days!'. And then, after the 12 days they will realize that the SAD foods don't actually taste that great (well some of them do!) and they don't make you feel great after the initial high of eating all that sugar/fat.
For some people I know it takes longer than 12 days, other people it actually takes less time. But 12 days is a great start and I find that as I do this longer and longer I have found acceptable healthy alternatives that satisfy any 'cravings I may have'. Also the longer I do this the less I have cravings for SAD food in general.

[christianvegan]

Right on. I'm with you on the feeling that its not worth it to go off plan because I feel so good. I'm going to be 50 in about 7 weeks and have been trying like CRAZY to lose the extra 30 pounds I put on over the last 4 years. This is the ONLY thing thats working, but wow, is it working! I've gone from a size 10 (tight) to an 8 in two weeks. There aint no way I'm going to go back to feeling like crap and staying fat for 5 min of eating fat!

[Risto]

I also experience being able to taste the real flavors/fat in natural foods and things cooked with oil taste muted and icky. Sometimes I am tempted to eat something fatty 'off plan' but don't because I have come to realize that the way it will make me feel afterwards is so not worth it. I love my new energy and know that when I eat a SAD diet I don't have any.

I think I've just in the past couple of weeks lost my taste for dark chocolate. I've been eating plant-based food for about eight months, and dark chocolate has been a fairly frequent treat. Not enough to make me gain weight (I lost 45 pounds by limiting calories before going plant-based), but there's definitely been an unhealthy amount chocolate, cookies and candy at times. I'm a lifelong chocoholic, and I never though this would happen, but lately I really haven't wanted the dark chocolate any more. The dairy-free one I've been eating is 50 % cocoa, and now just tastes like it's way too much of everything - cocoa, fat, sugar.