Dr. McDougall's Online Discussion Board

It's nice to hear you are enjoying your 'new' foods.

You said you heard about this type of diet on the CNN Last Heart Attack program and it made sense. I was similar except I heard Dr Fuhrman's Eat to Live presentation on PBS, and he made such sense that from that day I changed what I ate. It soon will be about 3 months for me. I do not see myself going back to the 'old way'. This is already almost second nature to me and I don't feel deprived or hungry at all. Fortunately I love to cook.

I was interested in your mention of 'miraculous walnut dressing' and did a general search and found the following recipe. Is this the same as what you make? Thanks.

1 cup walnut pieces
1 cup water
2 cloves garlic
2-4 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process until VERY smooth. Add more
soy sauce according to your individual taste.
Store in a covered container in the refrigerator.

Utah Jane, I am delighted with your progress and your adaptations! Thanks for posting!!!

Hi Dendra!

That's fun that we started about the same time. I have two good friends who both started with Dr Fuhrman's Eat to Live book.

Yes, you have the right walnut sauce recipe. Let me know if you like it. Better, yet, share your favorite sauce or veggie topping with me!

UtahJane wrote:Wow!! ALL of you are amazing and so very encouraging. I'm so inspired by you and by your wisdom and knowledge. I know I can do this.

I was not enjoying my steamed veggies very well today at lunch, but when I added some low-sodium tamari, it started to taste yummy. I hope that is a step in the right direction. I would love to enjoy them without adding anything to them, but that hasn't happened yet.

If I get to the point where I'd like to take some professional classes or go to a retreat where they teach you how to cook like this, is there anything that is more hands-on?

A squeeze of fresh lemon or a splash of your favourite vinegar adds a nice zip to otherwise bland veggies.

I also recommend Jeffs Fast Food video. Easy meals and they are always in the freezer in case I don't feel like cooking. One good thing about this way of eating...after a few months, go eat your meal that you remember! You will get what's called McDougall's Revenge and sit in the bathroom for most of the day since your body isn't used to the crud they put in restaurant meals! Sorry, TMI I know, but it really happens!

As the original poster of this thread, I’m back to report my results after 3 months on a plant-based whole foods diet.

BEFORE Starting the Diet => AFTER 3 Months on the Diet
Total cholesterol: 199 => 136
LDL: 137 => 89
HDL: 36 => 28
Triglycerides: 130 => 93
Weight: 160 => 144
Waist: 37.5 => 33

According to Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, I'm now "heart-attack proof."

I'm feeling great, sleeping much better, and couldn't be happier about the results.

AND I'm LOVING my food now!! I look forward to every meal. I eat A LOT, and I thoroughly enjoy it. It is mouth-watering good. Something mighty happened to my taste buds!

And here are other benefits I’m experiencing:

I’m learning to cook.
I’m enjoying teaching others about this diet.
I always feel great after a meal (never stuffed or sick feeling).
Washing dishes is SO much easier without the added oils!
The food is less expensive.

Negatives:

There are very few choices for eating out.
I have to feed myself every meal.
I’m still not sure how to deal with going out to eat with others or eating at their homes. I’ve avoided this so far, but my plan is to eat before I go and do the best I can there.
Sometimes people give me food, even food they think I can eat, and sometimes I feel I need to eat it just out of courtesy. I need something I can say to someone if they want to share something with me and expect me to eat it (or just taste it) right then.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! (I'll enjoy it just as much without the turkey just thinking about my great results!)

Awesome!

Not just the results, though awesome they are. But did you go back and read your original post? You were in a lot of distress about the food! So it's really nifty to see you so enthusiastic about it now.

I'm so happy for you Jane! Sounds like you're doing great!

Congratulations, Jane!!! Impressive!

Wonderful Jane! And how inspiring for anyone that is starting this way of eating. When I went to an E2 Immersion in Austin in September, I sat beside a lady on the last night who said she found the meal totally unpalatable. I was finding it very delicious, even though it had fake meat crumbles in it (E2 is more lenient than Dr. M., although I don't eat meat crumbles at home). I think of her sometimes, and hope that she has been able to stick with it, and change her tastes. Anyway, you must feel great!

Great results!! What were the dressings you found that you liked on your salads?

The salad dressing that first helped was "Creamy Poppy Seed Dressing" on pg. 204 of Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes. It did not taste wonderful at first, but it was not obnoxious, and I started to enjoy my salads. The more I used it, the more I liked it.

Then I went back to the first salad dressing that I had tried but didn't really like and found that I liked it now:

Jane Esselstyn's 3, 2, 1 Salad Dressing
Makes about 1/3 cup--enough for 5 or 6 salads
Every time we eat our daughter Jane's salads we ask, "What is this delicious dressing?" It is easy to make and to adjust to personal taste. (says Ann Esselstyn)

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons mustard of choice
1 tablespoon maple syrup

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until smooth.

Thanks -- I will try that!

Thank you for your initial and ongoing thread UtahJane. I was on the McDougall diet for 4 weeks, I lost about 4 lbs. in the first week and a half, then... nothing. I was pretty miserable, hating the food, not feeling satiated and I really felt starving all the time. I went off the wagon big time over this holiday weekend so I'm starting over and your story helps with that decision. I was extremely frustrated being hungry and dissatisfied with my food AND not loosing any weight... why am I bothering. However, I do believe in this lifestyle on many levels so I am willing to keep plugging away, believing that it will get easier eventually. Ugh.

ps. gained back the 4 lb. weight loss over the weekend.

Thanks alwaysevolving. Like your name says, it is a process. Fortunately, we can change, but like evolution, it can go pretty slowly!

I'll tell you a secret: I'm now very grateful that my first 2 months were a struggle for me. The reason I’m grateful is that now I can empathize with the experience of others. I'm sharing this diet with many others; some are actually trying it. It is hard for them, and I can honestly say I know how they feel. And I can testify that things can change dramatically. I wanted it to be easy for me, but now I'm glad it was not. If it had been easy for me, I wouldn't understand how they feel or be able to help them as effectively.

This is a difficult process for most people, even for the great Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn. I transcribed the following from a recording where he was telling his story:
“Speaking with Ann, I said, ‘Look, before I can ever do this with patients we have to do this together ourselves.’ And so in April of 1984 was the last time that I had a...I grew up on an Aberdeen-Angus beef farm…so that was the end of that. And the first three months were very, very difficult. I didn’t know what was going on but now, on retrospect, what was happening was I was down-regulating my fat receptor, and that is the challenge, that is why you have to help patients in the first three months because if you are taken completely off the typical American diet, and you have them now eating a plant-based diet, that is the time when the fat receptors are down-regulating, that is when you still have some of that craving, but the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia has clearly shown us that you lose the craving after 8-12 weeks, and that is the critical time to help these people...Ann and I did this for a year and my cholesterol just sort of began to plummet. It started at about 185. I got down to about 155 in a couple of months, and I said, ‘This isn’t good,’ so I (nobody was telling me how to do this) and I just said, ‘I’m going to stop all this oil,’ and then suddenly I was down to 119, without any of these cholesterol-lowering drugs because we didn’t have them then.”

BTW, I did stick with the program on Thanksgiving Day this year. I was so busy helping to prepare the food for everyone that I didn’t take any time to make special food for myself. Off and on I started to panic that I would feel miserable when we sat down to eat and I had a very sad looking plate. But my mother set aside a yam, my brother made me a separate salad, my sister-in-law roasted me veggies without the oil, and there were a couple of items I could eat as is. Finally, when we sat down, I had a very large nice-looking plate of food. And guess what? I thoroughly enjoyed it! After the meal, when some were groaning about eating too much and not feeling well, I felt terrific!