Dr. McDougall's Online Discussion Board

Greetings from Rome, Italy!
I discovered McDougall plan while googling "lose 70 libs", the weight that I though I have to have to lose at that time. I found a video on Youtube of High Carb Hannah and, through her I, landed on McDougall videos and website.
Almost 1 year religiously following McDougall plan + some very gentle weightlifting with dumbbells and free body exercises in the spare time at home, and long walkings. Only a couple of days off, due to celebrations when I was invited by some very old relatives (but I ate potatoes before, as suggested by Chef Aj, so I didn't ate too much non compliant food).
30 kgs lost (in the before pics I was already 10 kgs down).
Never felt hungry, never enjoyed the food more, never more feels of guilt and regret while eating.
Lots of money saved on food (here organic brown pasta and rice are dirty cheap, and seasonal fruits and vegetables are only € 1 per kilogram or even less). Basically, I feed myself for less than € 2 a day, without even trying to save money. Pasta e fagioli, oats, steamed brown rice are my staples.
Btw, only one downside: all the money saved on food I had to invest on new dresses and suits for work (I had to gave to the poors all my old handmade suits ).
Thank you Dr. McDougall and Dr. Jeff Novick. You are my heroes! Through your site and your videos I acquired a knowledge on health and nutrition of inestimable value. I plan to stick to this plan for life and I am already trying to spread the Word.

Here the pics:

Congratulations SilvioR!

You are a hero for saving your own life and being a great example of the transformative powers of the McDougall plant based lifestyle. You can look forward to a long life of health, happiness and community with the plant based world. Welcome to the club!!

Viv

Bravo! I'm happy for you.

My only regret is to not have taken pictures of myself at my starting weight to show to the world the difference between the standard way of eating and this plan.
And I have to mention another downside of this WOE: the anger. After discovering and experimenting the truth, now I am furious towards politicians, public education, public healthcare, etc for not having made this knowledge available to people, while I had to discover it from some random search on Google, only possibile because I had some knowledge of English language. I am 30 y.o., so this knowledge was already available and proven right during my school and university years. Instead, I am now seeing many friends of about my age starting to develop problems: type 2 diabetes, obesity, erectile dysfunction, and so on. I am just back from the hospital, where I visited a good friend of mine that has undergone an aortic stent procedure. He is just 15 years older than me.
Meanwhile, our government and national health authorities still advertises - on tv and billboards exposed even into the hospitals - poisonous "not foods" like olive oil, prosciutto, mozzarella and parmigiano as health promoting stuff, just because are locally made and supposed to improve the economy (meanwhile, health costs here are socialized and supported by every taxpayer).

SilvioR wrote:My only regret is to not have taken pictures of myself at my starting weight to show to the world the difference between the standard way of eating and this plan.
And I have to mention another downside of this WOE: the anger. After discovering and experimenting the truth, now I am furious towards politicians, public education, public healthcare, etc for not having made this knowledge available to people, while I had to discover it from some random search on Google, only possibile because I had some knowledge of English language. I am 30 y.o., so this knowledge was already available and proven right during my school and university years. Instead, I am now seeing many friends of about my age starting to develop problems: type 2 diabetes, obesity, erectile dysfunction, and so on. I am just back from the hospital, where I visited a good friend of mine that has undergone an aortic stent procedure. He is just 15 years older than me.
Meanwhile, our government and national health authorities still advertises - on tv and billboards exposed even into the hospitals - poisonous "not foods" like olive oil, prosciutto, mozzarella and parmigiano as health promoting stuff, just because are locally made and supposed to improve the economy (meanwhile, health costs here are socialized and supported by every taxpayer).

Silvio,
Your story and photos are very impressive. And I agree with what you say about the anger of knowing that our government, and the medical establishment, are lying to us. It is so sad to see people all around me suffering from the effects of a bad diet. Even sadder when one has to watch that happening to one's own family. But take joy in what you have done for yourself, and for the example you are setting. Sooner or later you will influence someone else to find the truth about diet and health.

SilvioR wrote:My only regret is to not have taken pictures of myself at my starting weight to show to the world the difference between the standard way of eating and this plan.
And I have to mention another downside of this WOE: the anger. After discovering and experimenting the truth, now I am furious towards politicians, public education, public healthcare, etc for not having made this knowledge available to people, while I had to discover it from some random search on Google, only possibile because I had some knowledge of English language. I am 30 y.o., so this knowledge was already available and proven right during my school and university years. Instead, I am now seeing many friends of about my age starting to develop problems: type 2 diabetes, obesity, erectile dysfunction, and so on. I am just back from the hospital, where I visited a good friend of mine that has undergone an aortic stent procedure. He is just 15 years older than me.
Meanwhile, our government and national health authorities still advertises - on tv and billboards exposed even into the hospitals - poisonous "not foods" like olive oil, prosciutto, mozzarella and parmigiano as health promoting stuff, just because are locally made and supposed to improve the economy (meanwhile, health costs here are socialized and supported by every taxpayer).

Ah yes, the anger is real. I remember yelling at my doctor, "Nobody told me, doctors didn't tell me, YOU didn't tell me, I had to find out myself from the internet how to save my own life." I am one of three sisters, we've all had cancer, one sister died, my parents both died at a young age from heart attacks, my brother has had a quadruple bypass. Thank God you found Dr. McDougall at a young age, now you can spend your life in good health being a shining example to others.

Viv

Hi Silvio,

Your story is inspirational! I'm with you on the anger over the public messages about what is healthy. I continue to struggle sticking to this way of eating when I travel. My husband and I are visiting Rome and the Amalfi Coast area this September. We will be staying in AirBnBs and plan to make some of our own meals but my husband really likes to eat local food when we travel. We went to Florence and the Cinque Terre a couple years ago and I did a terrible job sticking to my food plan. We don't speak any Italian so I know I should learn some important words and phrases for ordering food. Also, do you have any advice for travelers eating in restaurants? It seemed like oil was in everything.

Any guidance you can give would be much appreciated! You have given me hope this can be done anywhere!!

Thank you for sharing your story!

Kelly

kkrichar wrote:Any guidance you can give would be much appreciated! You have given me hope this can be done anywhere!!

Thank you for sharing your story!

Kelly

There's no way you can stick to the plan eating local food at local restaurants. Oil is always present - not in the massive amounts used, for example, in Chinese cuisine - but it's impossible to avoid.
When I must eat out, I try to minimize the damage by ordering pizza marinara without oil (but a tiny bit of oil will always be in the crust). When you order, you can say "pizza marinara senza olio sopra" (without oil on top). By the way, basic English is widely understood, so you will not have any problems ordering and trying to communicate in the restaurants.
There are places where you can eat 100% compliant, like some Ohsawa Macrobiotic restaurants in Rome and Florence. But I don't think is worth it (if you are going to Italy to eat overpriced brown rice in a restaurant, is better to steam it yourself at your Airbnb).
Like I always say to my american friends, don't fall in this "traditional Italian food" meme. Besides few exceptions (like really good bread, pizza, etc.) all this "authentic" Italian cuisine featured on the media is a post WW-2 invention. Before the economic boom, 99% of the really traditional meals eaten daily in every household where bread eaten with soups of vegetables, potatoes, grains and beans, porridges of cornmeal (polenta), maybe homemade pasta (because dried pasta was expensive). In fact, when I come to USA, I don't have any problems eating like I do in Italy (even before going starch-based) buying the foodstuff available in places like Whole Foods and even Walmart. The only things that are not readily available in America and that I really miss are radicchio and chicory.

Fantastic success story! Thank you so much for sharing (and for the tips about eating in your home country - I'd love to go there someday!)

More than two years now.

I have a big desire: take a plane and go to a McDougall program. Just to meet him and his equipe, for give to him and to Dr. Jeff Novick all my thanks and greetings, for all the education that they gave me for free, through the information they made available on the Internet, on this site and Youtube. Unfortunately, due to present conditions, this is not possible anytime soon. But I look forward, and I hope that this would be possible in the near future!

Greetings from Italy! I attach some pics of McDougall nutrition + some light weight training in the spare time. I was almost obese before starting this WOE, and now I feel like the happiest person on earth.

Thanks for the update! You’re doing great!!

Hi Silvio,

Great to see your amazing transformation !

I'm from Europe too (France), have been following the Starch Solution for 5 years now, and I think that the Dr McDougall's work need to be share here !
I didn't find any post where you describe your meals, so what is a typical day for you ?

Cube wrote:Hi Silvio,

Great to see your amazing transformation !

I'm from Europe too (France), have been following the Starch Solution for 5 years now, and I think that the Dr McDougall's work need to be share here !
I didn't find any post where you describe your meals, so what is a typical day for you ?

Sorry for my late answer.

I am not a breakfast person, so I don't eat breakfast. I have two meals a day, launch and dinner. Usually, launch is a combination of a starch and a pulse. Like pasta and beans or chickpeas, or rice and split fava beans or lentils. Split fava beans are my favourite. For dinner, 99% of times, I have steamed brown rice with dandelion or spinach leaves (I buy frozen dandelion leaves and I cook it in the microwave with some garlic powder and soy sauce, then I mix the steamed rice with the dandelion to make a risotto).
I eat a fruit after every meal as a dessert. Usually, is an orange or an apple.

I attach a Chronometer pic of today meals, and some examples of my meals.

Since here gyms here are closed due to Covid restrictions, I am very depressed. I lost all the pump on my muscles.
I live in the center of Rome, in a very small studio apartment. So I can just walk as exercise, besides doing some push-ups.

SilvioR wrote:
Sorry for my late answer.

I am not a breakfast person, so I don't eat breakfast. I have two meals a day, launch and dinner. Usually, launch is a combination of a starch and a pulse. Like pasta and beans or chickpeas, or rice and split fava beans or lentils. Split fava beans are my favourite. For dinner, 99% of times, I have steamed brown rice with dandelion or spinach leaves (I buy frozen dandelion leaves and I cook it in the microwave with some garlic powder and soy sauce, then I mix the steamed rice with the dandelion to make a risotto).
I eat a fruit after every meal as a dessert. Usually, is an orange or an apple.

I attach a Chronometer pic of today meals, and some examples of my meals.

Since here gyms here are closed due to Covid restrictions, I am very depressed. I lost all the pump on my muscles.
I live in the center of Rome, in a very small studio apartment. So I can just walk as exercise, besides doing some push-ups.

Ok, thanks for your answer !
Yeah, I think that the key is to keep meals simple.

In France too, gyms are closed due to Covid, so I can totally understand your fellings ! I am lucky enough to have a pull up station at home, so I can do some kind of workouts, but it's not the same that going to the gym...

What do your friends/family think about your way of eating ? How do you deal with it when you go out or something like that ?
Personnally, I don't have a lot of friends, so it's very rare for me to eat out.

Take care,

Cube wrote:
Ok, thanks for your answer !
Yeah, I think that the key is to keep meals simple.

In France too, gyms are closed due to Covid, so I can totally understand your fellings ! I am lucky enough to have a pull up station at home, so I can do some kind of workouts, but it's not the same that going to the gym...

What do your friends/family think about your way of eating ? How do you deal with it when you go out or something like that ?
Personnally, I don't have a lot of friends, so it's very rare for me to eat out.

Take care,

Since both my parents passed away, I don't have to deal with anybody besides my girlfriend that lives with me. Since I am in the "tech" field, I work from home and I provide for my girlfriend, so I prepare both lunches and dinners for both. I know that she eats non-compliant food (I look at our groceries and in the fridge), but I think that one should be tolerant and give other people the freedom to do whatever they want. I just draw the footsteps, she will follow is she wants. Since she doesn't understand English, I bought her the Italian translation of Starch Solution book (not a good translation in my opinion, especially in the recipes chapters). At home. when I am done with my starch meals, I go in my room to take a nap, so I give her freedom to eat whatever she wants (ice creams, chicken tendies, and so on).
I am quite tolerant about that, because she is slightly above the normal weight and I don't like skinny girls. I know that those foods are not good for the health, but relationships are a complicated stuff. It's quite good to have found a nice girl, and I can't turn into a dictator.
Restaurants are not a problem at all. You can have wonderful pizza marinara in every restaurant here, and oil free bread without looking as a weird person. All the Chinese places are fine too (just stick to steamed rice and veggies).
Best regards my Gauloise friend!