FEBRUARY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Share your McDougall successes here in order to inspire others.

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Re: FEBRUARY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby GlennR » Wed Feb 26, 2020 7:08 pm

A while back...
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WIth my personal trainer
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Re: FEBRUARY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby GlennR » Fri Feb 28, 2020 7:45 am

Well, here I am, Friday of my first week striving for maintaining my weight instead of losing weight. I am a pound under my original target weight.

I think I should establish a range to live in. Perhaps it's 145 to 155, five pounds on each side of what I aimed for. Perhaps I should have a narrower band or only an upper limit. I'm not sure yet. One thing is for certain, I'm not going back up again. I've ditched my large clothes, bought a few new ones in smaller sizes so I won't have an easy time of it if I do start to rise in weight

Lindsey, I'm a daily weigher too. I think it provides the least risk of gaining too much before taking some action.

Mark, I read the MWL forum and can see it must keep you busy to moderate it. It was interesting to me to read you have slipped under your original maintenance target. I see that as a possibility for me over time.

Erin, I also had a Beyond Burger when out with my family recently. The restaurant we went to normally offers portabello caps in place of their hamburger offerings but they had run out. The frankenburger called Beyond Meat seemed the best I could do at the time. I should have just eaten the bun and veggie toppings. :)

Sue, I'm curious, what's in your veggie paella?

Goose, I haven't used my air fryer yet. What do you like best prepared with it?
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Re: FEBRUARY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby Lyndzie » Fri Feb 28, 2020 8:03 am

Glenn, have you thought about posting a testimonial/success story? Your pictures are inspiring, if you are up for sharing, your story could really be motivational to others.
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Re: FEBRUARY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby GlennR » Fri Feb 28, 2020 8:26 am

Lyndzie wrote:Glenn, have you thought about posting a testimonial/success story? Your pictures are inspiring, if you are up for sharing, your story could really be motivational to others.

I will consider it but I think I want a few months of maintenance under my belt before I declare victory. I appreciate you asking though!
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Re: FEBRUARY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby Mark Cooper » Fri Feb 28, 2020 4:42 pm

Glenn - Those pictures illustrate a fantastic and impressive transformation! I have found that to effectively manage the pain caused by my CRPS, I have to strictly follow MWL, despite being in maintenance. I do give myself a ~5 lb leeway (which hasn't really come in to play, so far). I weigh myself more as a data point, at this point; although if my rolling average drifted above 160 or below 150, I would probably start to take stock of my choices and reassess.

My weight has stabilized this week; still following the MWL 10-Point Checklist, as usual. I've made the basic Novick burgers many times, but this week was the first time for the Sweet Potato Curry burgers - they are absolutely fabulous! They tasted so good to me, they may even be a little TOO tasty to have regularly. :-P

Best to all for a great weekend, and excellent week ahead!
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Re: FEBRUARY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby Ejeff » Fri Feb 28, 2020 6:37 pm

Had a great week. Stayed busy and kept food pretty simple. My weight bounced up again 2 pounds so I’m going back and forth it seems. I’m sure I overate a couple times, so not surprised about the scale. Made simple burgers with just oats beans and rice, tomato sauce and spices. Very tasty. Mark those curry burgers sound so good, I better make some soon. I need to bake some more cookies as I’m out of stock lol. Hoping everyone has a good week.

Glenn, way to go taking care of your health. Your pictures depict the transformation very well.
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Re: FEBRUARY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby wildgoose » Sat Feb 29, 2020 9:21 pm

GlennR wrote:Well, here I am, Friday of my first week striving for maintaining my weight instead of losing weight. I am a pound under my original target weight.

I think I should establish a range to live in. Perhaps it's 145 to 155, five pounds on each side of what I aimed for. Perhaps I should have a narrower band or only an upper limit. I'm not sure yet. One thing is for certain, I'm not going back up again. I've ditched my large clothes, bought a few new ones in smaller sizes so I won't have an easy time of it if I do start to rise in weight

Glenn, your pictures look great! The weight loss in your face is amazing.

I stay in a 3-pound weight range. It used to be 5, but I seem to be able to maintain 3, so that’s what I’m doing. A 10-pound range would be too much for me. I'd rather catch any gain before I’m faced with having to lose 8 or 10 pounds to get back to where I was. YMMV, of course.

Ditching the large clothes is a great incentive to not gain the weight back!

GlennR wrote:Goose, I haven't used my air fryer yet. What do you like best prepared with it?

I did a post on the MWL list in October that pretty much covers it, here. We were talking about the Mealthy CrispLid, which is what I use for an air fryer. It’s a lid that turns the Instant Pot (or any 6-8 quart pressure cooker with a stainless steel liner) into an air fryer. I don’t have room in my kitchen for one more appliance. But it works the same as an air fryer.

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Re: FEBRUARY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby Lyndzie » Sun Mar 01, 2020 7:45 am

Mark - Thanks for the recommendation to make the curry burgers. They seems to be loved by everyone I guess it’s about time to see what everyone is raving about! If I remember correctly, you avoid bread, so how did you serve them?

Erin - Are you still in Arizona? Unfortunately we’re not going to make it out that way this winter. Simple is the key to success, for sure.

Goose - Hi there!

I’m personally dealing with a bout of the pleasure trap. I’m going to rewatch the video(s) (so many on youtube!). Also, I made arepas this past week and they were universally enjoyed, so they will be going on this week’s menu as well, along with butternut squash soup, taco night, sushi and ramen.
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Re: FEBRUARY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby Suey51 » Mon Mar 02, 2020 2:23 am

Hi everyone!
Sorry for the late check-in! We had one of my step-daughters with us for a few days and were out and about with her this weekend.

As of Friday my weight was down 0.2 which is 1 pound above my goal weight. I'm still a little in The Pleasure Trap after succumbing to some off-program foods that were brought in the house and eating out in restaurants. We have a few days of eating at home this week and then my other step-daughter will be with us this weekend. After that we have 3 weeks of 'just us' so it's a great opportunity to work on closer adherence.

Glenn - many congratulations on your weight loss, your pictures are great! The advice I was given about maintenance was to keep doing what you'd done to lose the weight. I decided to change from the MWL to the regular McDougall program and still aim to follow that, although I'm not always 100% compliant. Like you I ditched my larger clothes as way of letting myself know there wasn't an easy way back!

Yesterday marked 2 years' maintenance :-) I still weigh every day and my weight has stayed within an 8 pound range (3 below and 5 above), although the upper end of the range includes some weigh-ins on different scales or guesstimates while travelling abroad. For most of the time the weight has stayed within a 5 pound range. The 2 years includes some lengthy periods of travel abroad (which involves eating out in restaurants way more often than at home) when my weight tends to nudge upwards and when I'm at home it tends to drift back down.

My goal weight was set fairly arbitrarily. After setting and achieving three weight loss goals, there was definitely a feeling of 'diet-fatigue' after 9 months of MWL so I decided not to set another weight loss target. Oh, and I wanted wholemeal bread back in my life! The goal weight of 125 is roughly what I was in my late 20's and 30's, giving me a BMI of 21.3 at 5 foot 4. I think I was about 10 pounds lighter in my early 20's, but was definitely less muscly then! I may set another weight loss target at some point just for fun!

Recently, I've been setting myself monthly challenges as 'experiments'. The exercise challenge has been to achieve a set number of steps and calories burned each day and to try new activities so to help me find out which exercise I like best. I've also been scoring my daily food intake using the McD regular program checklist which is proving helpful in noticing my problem areas.

Mark - thanks for mentioning the curry burgers, I've not tried them either!

Best wishes to all x
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Re: FEBRUARY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby Suey51 » Mon Mar 02, 2020 3:35 am

PS Glenn, regarding tips on maintenance.... my top tip would be to 'keep doing what you've done to lose the weight'. Other than that, like Goose, I would suggest setting a slightly narrower range (mine is 5 pounds) and keep weighing yourself daily or weekly or whatever you usually do, so you spot any upwards trends quickly. At first I found maintenance harder than weight loss as I felt I was trying to balance on top of a large wave. (And I never mastered the art of surfing in water :lol:) Over time, however, it has got easier. Partly, because I have the confidence (from experience of doing it many times!) of how to correct a slight upwards trend and I know what can cause my weight to fluctuate day-to-day or week-to-week. I'm also more confident about asking for compliant meals in restaurants, although this is still a tricky area for me.

You've been following the regular program for 5 years, so you'll have learned a huge amount already, and will likely know which aspects of the program are more difficult for you. For example, I have to be careful with some of the richer plant foods because they can nudge me into the Pleasure Trap. Also, I don't have the 'Perfect Personality' for eating this way when I'm in environments full of off-program items! As with weight loss mode, I try to get back on track at the next meal or the next day when I do stray. Lastly, checking in weekly with this lovely group of fellow maintainers definitely helps me stay on track and I still read McDougall information, watch webinars etc. whenever I feel the need to top up on some motivation!

What tips do you have from your weight loss experience and which areas (if any) of the regular program do you find more difficult?

Well done again on your fantastic achievement and look forward to sharing the maintenance journey with you :-D
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Re: FEBRUARY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby Suey51 » Mon Mar 02, 2020 7:37 am

PPS
Re: veggie paella.

My husband makes it without a recipe and this is what he's told me:
Fry some onion, celery, carrot and red bell pepper in a paella pan/large frying pan/wok with a little water and some ready made paella spice (the one in our cupboard has paprika, pepper, garlic, saffron, corn flour, colour and a little salt).
Once that's cooked for a few minutes, add other veggies (e.g. leeks, mushrooms, courgette/zucchini) and a tin of tomatoes and more water if needed.
Then add the rice and low salt veggie stock.
Stir every so often and add more water if needed.
When everything is nearly cooked he adds frozen peas and sweetcorn.
Once they are cooked he switches off the hear, covers in foil and lets it sit for 10-15 minutes.

The precise mix of veggies varies a bit each time, based on what we have on hand. Once he included swede and parsnip, but that didn't work as well IMHO so hasn't been repeated!

Hope that helps :-D There is a McDougall paella recipe here but I haven't tried it yet.
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Re: FEBRUARY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby Ejeff » Mon Mar 02, 2020 9:41 am

Sue, thanks for the paella recipe. Lindsey, we have now moved to Indio Springs where we will stay for the next 2 months.
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Re: FEBRUARY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby Lyndzie » Mon Mar 02, 2020 10:02 am

The March thread is up!
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