I'm on my way

[frozenveg]

Whole-grain pasta is actually fine, on the "regular" program, and I found that it didn't impede my weight loss too much while I was eating mostly on the MWL program. Pasta has a bit more satiety than other flour products, since it has water incorporated back into it in the cooking process.

So enjoy it on your swimming days! How do you prepare your pasta and beans? I'd love to try that, but never have!

[Fuzzy]

Thank you frozenveg. Ahm if I'm lazy, or if I don't have enough time, I just rinse canned beans and put them in water next to pasta for five minutes, just to make them warm. I imagine not many people like that, but I do .
If I have enough time, I make "pasulj", Serbian bean soup. There are many different versions of it. I keep it simple. I soak white beans overnight. The next day I water saute onions (about 1/2 kg of chopped onions for 1 kg of dry beans), I add beans and just enough water to cover the beans&onions. A few spices, I use salt, red paprika, a bit of garlic and sometimes black pepper or chili powder. Then I just cook it slowly for 2-3 hours or until it gets nice and mushy . It's great with a piece of bread, but I prefer pasta. My boyfriend likes it as well. You can add more water, but we like it nice and thick.

[MINNIE]

Hello, Fuzzy. It sound like you have a very good understanding of how to implement this way of eating. I hope you will have success with it:).

Maybe this will be interesting. I came across this article about pasta as part of a sustainable diet:

http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-B ... iets-Pasta

Interesting that they mention pasta combined with a plant based diet -no mention of needing meat or fish to be a complete diet. Maybe the word is getting out?

About pasta and beans, I love this! It was a basic Mediterranean comfort dish with my family.

I make it in a very simple way: some thick and spicy tomato sauce*, beans (any kind but I prefer red for the color) and pasta of your choice. Mine is bow ties:).

If you have cooked or canned beans on hand, and canned tomatoes or tomato paste it is a meal in minutes. It's also totally cheap.

*My DIY tomato sauce is also very quick: tomato paste or canned tomatoes, herbs and spice of your choice, add water or other liquid if needed to get the consistency you want, pour it on the pasta and beans, and heat in microwave. No need to measure ingredients, you really cannot mess this up.

If you want to get fancy, you can saute garlic, onion, peppers, celery etc. in water or broth. Then add it to the sauce. OR, to simplify, used the powered versions and some celery seeds.

Now I am making myself hungry - I will be making this for dinner!

[frozenveg]

Thanks, both of you, for the pasta and beans options! I will be doing the easy one tomorrow (my kitchen is all torn up for painting and new flooring, so easy is the only option)!

[Fuzzy]

I have one more question. Or is it more an observation? I don't know.
I noticed my concept of hunger and feeling full has changed. For example:
3. If I eat breakfast at about 7.30 (oatmeal and a fist of raisins), I usually don't get hungry even at 2 or 3pm. It is not that I don't need food, because I do get kind of light headed and I lack energy. And usually when I start eating lunch, I realize, I do have an empty stomach. But my stomach never really growls like it used to. And I don't really feel empty. Is that normal?
4. On the other hand when I am having lunch, I never really feel full like I used to. For example yesterday I had a big bowl of soup (potatoes, quinoa, onions, carrots, green beans), a small salad (cabbage and a few of small tomatoes), and bog bowl of main dish (rice and corn). I checked Jeff's recommendations about portion sizes and I'm definitely eating more than enough. I also feel I'm physically full. I mean my stomach is definitely stretched out. But I also feel like I should and could eat more. I think it has something to do with caloric density. Is it possible that my body is still not used to this kind of food. Because before I ate a small bowl of pasta with cheese and maybe a very small can of tuna and I felt full. Satisfied, like I couldn't eat more. Does that make sense?

[MINNIE]

That sounds very normal to me. It does take some time to re-learn to understand your body's hunger signals.

I think that the high fat and animal proteins food you were accustomed to eating take longer to digest than plants do.

I have learned from experience how much food to eat at intervals during the day, and it is different from the way I ate in the past.

In a few weeks you probably won't have to think about this at all:).

[Fuzzy]

I really need to vent. I'm having serious problems with social aspect of this lifestyle. Today I skipped office party, partly because I knew, I would get attention with my food choice. And I hate being the center of attention in any case.

Basically now I'm at a point where everyone in my family and most of my friends, acquaintances that know about my new lifestyle, are waiting for me to get sick. I feel this terrible pressure. I still have no idea why people get so bothered by me not eating certain foods. I mean I was a "normal eater of animal products" before and I had problems with my thyrod, iron levels, ear infections, allergies, bowel movement, cold sores all the time ... Of course I will eventually get sick and die of something. Or I will get hit by a car, drown, die in a fire, or die of a fallen bookshelf .. I mean there are all sort of dangers and risks in our lives. Even if I'm not right (I'm playing devil's advocate atm), is that risk greater than any other risk we take, just by living our lives?

I really have less desire to socialize with some people, because they can't drop this subject. I tried going all Doug Lisle on their asses, but it bothers me, when people are telling me that my teeth will rot any moment now. (Right after my muscles will be devoured by my own body and my eyes will pop out .) Not that I believe that they will, but just because they keep putting all sorts of scenarios in my head . And of course teeth don't really get better after 30 years, so yes they will eventually rot away anyway. Do you know what I mean?

In a way I guess as a noob I still lack confidence. Or I don't yet trust this McDougall lifestyle completely. I know I shouldn't take people's remarks so seriously. I know I should find humor in all of this, but as a generally kind&happy person, I can't seem to get over this.

[sjsilver]

Fuzzy, people are watching you to see what happens. And yes, they are concerned about you. Just ignore it and carry on. In time, they will see that nothing bad happened to you. Others may then be convinced to try it for themselves. Don't avoid people. Just plan ahead. Maybe bring a baked potato to munch on or just bring a dish to share with everyone. They will get over it. I have been doing this for over 2 years now and no one bothers me anymore.

[Fuzzy]

Hi again, I seem to get more and more lost in all of the information this page provides . I think I figured out which foods are completely out of line and which you have to eat in moderation. But I still don't know if I'm eating enough of right foods and that makes me a bit anxious. I decided to write down my meals from the previous week. Perhaps you could point out, what (if anything) I'm doing wrong.

Breakfast is always the same: oatmeal (2 cups), raisins (1/2 cup) except on Sundays: two pieces of bread, 2 tsp of peanut butter with no additives, 2 tsp of marmalade. Plus a cup or two of green tea every day.
Snack: 1 or two pieces of fresh fruit (banana, apple, kiwi most of the time)
Dinner: a couple of dates or a fist of nuts or a 1/2 bag of microwaved popcorn if it is a movie night (not the best choice I know).
Lunch + Supper (I usually make enough for two meals and then reheat if necessary

Day 1: White basmati rice (1 cup uncooked), corn (1 cup), beans (2 cups), 1 carrot, 1 red bell pepper, 1 green bell pepper, cabbage green raw (1 cup).
Day 2: Soup (1 large leek, 4 potatoes), 4 small corn tortillas + filling (1 can corn, 1 can beans, 1 can tomatoes, 1 onion), salad (1 cup lettuce, 1 cup radicchio), brown rice (3/4 cup uncooked).
Day 3: salad (1 cup lettuce, white pepper, 1 cup radicchio), whole wheat pasta (2 cups uncooked) + sauce (1 cup of cherry tomatoes and 1 cup of canned beans).
Day 4: salad (5 cherry tomatoes, 1 cup of lettuce, 3/4 cup whole wheat pasta), White basmati rice (1 cup uncooked), 2 large zucchini squashes sauteed on water.
Day 5: 2 cups of mixed frozen veggies (carrots, beans, cauliflower, peas), 2 cups of brown rice.
Day 6: 3 medium sized tomatoes, 1 large leek, canned beans (1 cup), 1 cup of whole wheat pasta.
Day 7: Spinach cooked (1 cup meshed), 5 medium sized carrots, 3 medium sized potatoes, 1 can of corn.

I usually add salt to my rice, potatoes and pasta. I need to work on that. I also know brown rice is better than white rice and pasta. Potatoes are probably the best but they cook longer and are more difficult to reheat. That's my excuse .

Is there something else I should know? I used to use cron-o meter and kept seeing that I lack iron. I don't know ...

[Fuzzy]

Hi guys, I'll just post this here and hope that someone sees it. I'm a bit worried, I just had my usual lunch: pasta+ store bought frozen vegetables. Problem is, that I didn't cook vegetables as long as I should have. I checked the package and the number was smushed/scratched. So instead of having it on a pan for 14 minutes, I had it for 4 -6 minutes. Covered and non covered. I saw, that I made a mistake as I was throwing away the bag and saw instructions in the other language. It was a mixture of string beans, onions, paprika, peas, corn and red beans. And the red beans were a bit on a chewy side, but since it's a new brand I figured they just were a bit hard on the teeth. I know I'm stupid, but what is done is done. Can I get sick from that?

I tried to figure out if veggies war preecooked but it doesn't say that on the label. Altough the beans should be right?

[frozenveg]

Fuzzy, I really don't think you have anything to worry about! Most veggies can be eaten raw in any case, except for those red beans. If you mean legumes, then they were certainly pre-cooked--they're hard as rocks before they're cooked!

Frozen vegetables are usually blanched, which means they're put in boiling water for at least a minute or so, before they are fast-frozen.

So you may have a tummy ache from having some underdone vegetables, but I doubt any harm will come to you!

[Fuzzy]

Thank you frozenveg (lovely name btw )!! No tummy ache so far. I was starting to read about listeria but then decided to stop reading

[Crystal_Pegasus]

Hi Fuzzy.

I'm not sure exactly what your poo is like, but you may like to read what ?Dr McDougall has to say about it...

"The stool is large, unformed (more like a cow-plop than a tube)"

So, soft and not solid is actually how it should be. Of course, if it's more like actual diarrhea, then you may need to do some trial and error with foods... but it could also just be your digestive system adjusting to the change and extra fibre.

Here's a link to the article I took the quote from above https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2002nl ... vement.htm

[Fuzzy]

Yeah I would say my poop is still not ideal and I've been doing this for quite some time. So I doubt it's just the adjustment. I don't care about consistency, I care about the amount of toilet paper (like in Parks&Recreation I wipe and I wipe and I wipe ... still poop). And also when I have to go, I really have to go, so I'm a bit nervous if I'm away from home. Never had that problem as an omnivore. And I wasn't constipated at that time either. So I'm not sure what's going on.
I'm thinking of eliminating oatmeal in the morning. And pasta. Maybe that would make a difference.

[Willijan]

Yeah I would say my poop is still not ideal and I've been doing this for quite some time. So I doubt it's just the adjustment. I don't care about consistency, I care about the amount of toilet paper (like in Parks&Recreation I wipe and I wipe and I wipe ... still poop). And also when I have to go, I really have to go, so I'm a bit nervous if I'm away from home. Never had that problem as an omnivore. And I wasn't constipated at that time either. So I'm not sure what's going on.
I'm thinking of eliminating oatmeal in the morning. And pasta. Maybe that would make a difference.

I had something like this for quite a while. And mine also happened after I had been on the diet for several years. Then the problem just went away. It never occurred to me that it was because of this diet, so I didn't try to deal with it by changing my food. I saw a specialist, and he thought it was incontinence and sent me to a physical therapist, which did not help. Now all is well. Also, the specialist did not indicate that he thought it was my diet. If anything, he approved of what I ate.