Mom and Teen Getting Healthy

[Purplefish]

My BMI is 28
My 13 year old who looks just like me - hers is 27
Neither of these numbers is healthy.

I have surgery on June 16th,
My blood pressure is really high.
I'd like to be healthier before surgery.

I have faith in McDougall's plan - and then life gets in the way.

I'd like to be one of those success stories one year from now.
I'd like my daughter to be healthier for her life ahead of her.

On days when I eat only veggies/fruit/grains - I feel clean and healthy. Then a piece of chicken sneaks in, a yogurt, a piece of caramel - and I feel it later. They say the definition of an idiot is doing the same thing and expecting different results. When I eat SAD, I feel awful. Why do I keep testing that theory?

I've been McDougalling for a week or more now. I eat oatmeal for breakfast, a fruit smoothie with almond milk and then a McDougall cup for lunch with apple or orange and some veggies. I like the food, and it's easy to make and simple to make. I've found packaged potatoes, a rice cooker, and stir "fried" veggies in the fridge make things easier when I get home for dinner. I need to re-think what is "typical" for dinners.

Yet, in this week - my blood pressure has dropped, my tastebuds have changed, my skin is clearer, oh and a pound or so has left my body. I have a good outlook on this all...

welcome to your healthy life
don't stop believing that this can be done

[peasouper]

Hi Purplefish

Have a look at this video from the American vegan society. The pleasure trap by Doug Lisle explains why ocasionally we fall short, once you have watched it I believe it will strengthen your resolve because you will have a better understanding. http://vsh.voip-info.org/lisle.html

Sue

[Purplefish]

Thank you both for your advice.

Today I made 5 McD meals for the fridge and freezer so that we can quickly grab food. (Shepperd's Pie, Thai coleslaw, Mexican rice, Asian noodles, and veggie primavera -- figured I'd see how far those go over the next few days in the fridge with people grabbing meals at all hours - one off to baseball at one time, another off to basketball at another hour). Got lots of fresh veggies and fruit and sparkling water (fancy!).

Also got 2 bags of potatoes and figured out how exactly to microwave them so that is also another quick option to teach my kids.

The grocery store was an interesting experience - salsas, green veges, potatoes -- no cheese, no lunch meats, no chicken, no milk in my cart. No crackers, no packaged fruit, no bread. Funny thing - it was cheaper than what I usually spend on fancy pre-made gourmet SAD food.

Approx Day 12 Mc Dougalling for me:

Ezekial cereal and almond milk for breakfast
4 Potatoes with salsa for lunch
Shepherd's pie for dinner (planned)

Green tea with blueberries was my treat to myself today -- also coming off of the caffiene addiction (and the half-n-half addiction) -- so I'm trying to be really nice to myself the next couple of days.

I like the idea of working through which food places have what for my daughter to eat -- she's going on a field trip in 2 weeks - so she'll be away from my cooking.

The McDougall cups are a great lunch for teens - we open it and put it into a thermos with hot water - and it makes a lovely meal in 3 hours -that's not too weird for the cafeteria crowd. That and an orange or carrots and she's good until she gets home in the pm.

We're also working out together -- walk/jogged 2x this week and tonight I'm going to walk while she's at basketball practice.

This is something I can do - I can do it. I can do this. Remind me again... I can do this.

[Purplefish]

Watched the Pleasure Trap (thanks Peasouper!) -- my husband asked me what I was watching- I tried to explain it to him. He's been eating McD style for the past 12 days - unknowingly for the most part. This morning he says "I slept the best I've slept in weeks last night" I think it's that he's lost some weight or his blood is different perhaps. I know that I've lost another pound - and that's after I was "afraid" to eat some potatoes and salsa before bed - I kept thinking, believe in the plan - you're hungry - eat. Believe in the plan. Microwaved 2 yukon taters and had them with Salsa. And believe in the plan I should -- answer my body's demands for food when it's hungry.

Challenge: My son's birthday - we're having a party Sunday with another family. She wants to bring pizza and chips and wings. I'm going to make bean dip and veggies and splurge on a fancy bowl of cut up tropical fruit from the grocery and see if we can politely avoid the crappy food without making a scene. I may post this in another place here - what do you eat to celebrate? Fancy bowls and expensive fruit is all I can think of today in my early stages of this process.

Reporting back on all the food I made.
The rice was a hit.
The noodle dish was a hit.
The Shepperd's Pie was so-so---- with the noodle dishes around, people didn't head for the purely veggie dish. I can keep offering it and reduce the number of noodle dishes available in the fridge down to 1 and then perhaps none.
The thai coleslaw from Mary's cookbook was SCARFED UP - everyone loved it!

I can do this. I'm on my way.
It's getting easier. It's becoming who I am (slowly, but surely I'm making decisions based on this lifeslye rather than making habitual decisions based on my old lifestyle)

[Purplefish]

Well - it works - and I don't know why that surprises me - but she's down 4 pounds in a week. I'm down as well. Her skin is clearing up, her mood is calmer almost, and my husband wants me to buy more of those oatmeal cups -- he loves them!

We've been able to find 'fun' foods in all of this -- trying out papaya for the first time (yuck!) and making puffed rice/peanut butter balls for fun. Today is her brother's birthday and we're not going to say no to cake but perhaps have other foods there that seem better for her (fancy fruit bowl, bean dip).

The original foods I cooked on Thursday are all gone, and so I'm going to cook others today -- a veggie soup, baked beans, veggie noodle casserole, and the famous Coleslaw that was such a big hit. That should last us another few days. Tonight we're having veg/bean tacos.

Yesterday, getting home late from basketball, we were making salad, and she said, showing me a potato, "want me to cook one of these for you? I'm having one"

Getting into the groove of allowing starches to satisfy our hunger.

[lydia]

It's really wonderful that you have such a neat relationship with your 13 year old daughter. It sounds like you are working together to come up with a plan for you both. Keep up the good work.

[Purplefish]

Thanks Lydia, yes I am grateful that we're civil to each other when I see how other parents interact with their 'tweens....

the plan was for the previously posted meals...
then I looked in my cupboard and changed:

Veggie noodle casserole (like tuna noodle but with no-egg noodles, frozen veggies, white sauce made with almond milk, and spices)
Shepperd's Pie (Z asked for me to make this... today I mixed in onion soup mix)
Oatmeal/Pumpkin bread (no fat, small amount of sugar)
Hashbrown stacks (to heat up in the microwave - I cooked them on the Foreman grill until browned, then into individual sandwhich bags in the fridge - my 10 year old love these!)

These are all made so that people have food to reach for when they are hungry - and we don't have to feel like "there's nothing to eat" because there are no more crackers, no more chips, no more cheese and salami... but there are snacks that are made with real food.

Dinner - tacos
Tomorrow dinner - veg pizza

I'll use this journal to remind myself of what pre-made, ready-to-eat meals I make that my family likes as we continue on this journey...

[Purplefish]

Ventured into making my own recipes -- an Italian blend frozen veg mix with 1 can of tomatoes (with basil) and some pre-cooked rice - into the oven.

I find that when I cook it's easy to make 1 potato dish, 1 grain dish and then 1 quick bread. Today I also popped some food into the slow cooker for later (a barley soup).

When we have 2-3 foods in the fridge already prepared, people aren't missing the snacks. When family gets hungry - it's fruit or prepared foods (home prepared!)

Today -

Italian rice bake
Baked Tofu
Potato coins with Mrs. Dash
Oatmeal banana bread (no sugar added)

[Purplefish]

Well - challenges and rewards over the past week

Challenges:
eating like this when in a gathering of people who want to eat traditional American food - burgers, chips, etc.
I brought Portobella mushroom caps and grilled those -- then other people were like "wow, mushrooms, those look good!" and they took some too - so when I got home I ate some leftover rice because I only had a mushroom cap and salad at the gathering

Rewards:
Someone said -- "Wow, you've really lost weight - lots of it - you look good!" Really, I've only lost 6 pounds, but that is 3% of my bodyweight - so it is fairly substantial since I saw her last. The other thing is that my belly is getting smaller - doesn't stick out as far.

This week's meals - dos and don'ts
Curry potatoes and Cauliflower from jeff's video -- yuck - noone likes that one.

Pasta primavera from the same video - YUM - can't get enough!
Fiesta rice & beans from video - YUM love it.

New oatmeal banana bread - with peanuts and carob chips -- decadent - but better than when challenged with cheesecake.

This week has been very informative. I didn't lose any weight after the two days of challenged eating - I'm sure I ate more salt than I'm used to and so yesterday it was "back on track" and lots of water and this morning I'm back to losing.

My daughter had similar challenges - sleep over field trip required that she eat good on her own. Gummy worms and donuts were her two indulgences - but she told me she really didn't feel good after eating them -- We talked about how no food is "bad" per se, and that this past week was full of information that we can use for the future challenges. We're not here to berate ourselves when we're not perfect - but to make sure we give ourselves the best running chance.

In all - a hectic - but satisfying - and happy-body week.
Thanks McDougall for showing me the way.

[Purplefish]

First Pre-op doctor's appointment -- I was down 6 pounds from the last visit 2 weeks ago - and the blood pressure was *NORMAL* yeah!

That gave me energy to avoid all the crap that was being served this weekend at parties we went to. I ate fruit and put sparkling water in my wine glass. One guy even noted when I went to refill my wine glass - "you were only drinking water all this time?" Ate my beans and rice when I got home from the parties. It really wasn't all that bad missing out on anything - the burgers looked gross like hockey pucks with cheese all over them and the greasy salads just looked weird. Someone brought maple cupcakes with bacon in the frosting - gross.

Oddly enough, many people noticed that my husband was thinner than the last time they saw him.

My daughter has fluctuated back up a couple and then down one or so pounds. I think there is more eating at school than I can control. I can offer her healthier items here. And I can offer her my own healthy behaviors as a model.

So summer meals are definitely different on this lifestyle -- I didn't mind the one pot goulash type meals during the winter months - but this weekend, I wanted more lightness - less heavy and all one flavor meals.

I tested out some fluffy rice dishes --
Rice pilaf with peas (saffron made the rice a nice color and the peas in contrast) and I learned what a Pimento is...
Rice with artichoke and lemon -- very light and beautifully flavored.
Also, I've got the rice crispie treats down. I may try popcorn balls today. I know that I have to provide one treat for my kids or this will feel harsh - this change in our kitchen cabinets - and I can control the treat with brown rice syrup and good ingredients (no animal fat).

My son's behavior is actually shifting - he's less fidgety and more open to interaction. This is without keeping him from eating anything I have in the house -- I just now only bring in what's good for them.

Hubby did make on his own chicken thighs on the grill last night - but he also ate one of my portobello mushroom caps and said that was really great. When I asked him if that meant he would go vegan with me - NO was the answer.

The other recipe I'm going to try and find/make today is for oatmeal cereal bars. I know Jeff has one somewhere -- My kids are getting up and going outside before school - would like to have them be able to take breakfast with them.

Today my daughter and I walked 2 miles before school. Let's see if we can keep that up!

In all - if I can get to 180 # by the time I have surgery in a couple of weeks, I will feed accomplished. I have an ultimate goal of #160 or #150 ideally, but that can come one pound at a time...
The best part is that my blood pressure is normal for surgery.

[Rosey]

We plan on doing Eggless milkless butterless cake for the special occasions.

[Purplefish]

Still going strong - down about 9-10 pounds and my blood pressure at the pre-op visit was a bit high (142/86) but not as high as it was in May.

The struggles the past week have been with traveling and trying to eat low fat. The starch based was ok - but the low fat (and anything that resembled a vegetable) was hard to find.

My daughter is also doing really well and is down another 2 pounds.

The minute I got home, I made my 3 starch based dishes for the fridge:

Israli cous-couse with leeks and shitake mushrooms
Potato salad
Quinoa salad

and some veges:
Cucumber Salad
Grilled peppers and zucchini

All those are in the fridge for snacking and making meals out of.
This has proven to be an easy way to keep on track - keep good foods around that are already prepared.

Not looking forward to the surgery next week - but if I reach 10 pounds lost before then, I'll have met my mini-goal.

[Purplefish]

We plan on doing Eggless milkless butterless cake for the special occasions.

Hi Rosey -- do you have a recipe that you can share for that type of cake? It sounds like my kids would like it.
Thanks!

[Rosey]

Eggless, milkless, Butterless Cake (revised)

2 cups raisins
1/4 tsp. ginger
1 1/2 cup honey
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 cups water
1 tsp. cloves
1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
Boil these for 5 min.
Let cool,
then add 2 tsp. soda in 1/3 cup water and 1 tsp. baking powder in 4 cups whole wheat flour (for lighter version use whole wheat pastry flour) Mix well and bake in moderate oven 45 min. (batter should be quite thick

[Purplefish]

Had a good surgery - I attribute that to having a healthy body going in. The day before I was soothing my fears with food - mostly processed - and so today I don't feel so well - but I'm going to get back on track today - with potato dishes and making my three meals to have available for snacking.

The tumor was smaller upon removal than it was in the sonogram -- so I attribute that to the eating - reduction of the size of the tumor was done between the sonogram and the removal.

My daughter has a physical tomorrow and we'll learn how eating this way has changed her previous physical. While the weight isn't coming off of her as quickly as she'd like, there are other advantages that we can see -- her clothes are fitting better, her skin has cleared up - her moods are better.

Getting the hubby to understand how to help me when I can't get food myself (like after surgery) is more difficult. A veggie pizza was his idea - good except for all the cheese. Then he bought a chicken and mashed potatoes from the store -- and lots of chips and other processed food. It's so easy for Americans to think they are eating healthy - and he just needs guidance. So next time, a pizza without cheese (I'm sure they'd do this for us), potatoes and a salad (no chicken) or frozen entree like AMY's might work. He's willing to help but doesn't know how.

All in all after surgery, I feel rejuvinated to continue on with McDougaling - low fat vegetarian (vegan) foods to continue to improve throughout the year.