MmmCarb's Good Food Journal

Share your daily McDougall menus and/or keep a journal describing your personal progress.

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Re: MmmCarb's Good Food Journal

Postby MmmCarbs » Fri Oct 28, 2011 3:21 am

I've noticed I'm drifting toward 4-5 meals a day on this plan. I eat a heaping pile of starch and veggies at a sitting but I just can't get enough calories into 3 meals a day. I want to try upping my per-meal intake to see if I can get to fewer meals and snacks.
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Re: MmmCarb's Good Food Journal

Postby Broadbean » Fri Oct 28, 2011 3:54 pm

MmmCarbs wrote:I've noticed I'm drifting toward 4-5 meals a day on this plan. I eat a heaping pile of starch and veggies at a sitting but I just can't get enough calories into 3 meals a day. I want to try upping my per-meal intake to see if I can get to fewer meals and snacks.


I've been doing the same thing. Either two breakfasts, one early one late, or two lunches. I found that if I let myself get too hungry, I veer off-plan (a new wrinkle -- this didn't happen my first few months of McD'ing).
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Re: MmmCarb's Good Food Journal

Postby MmmCarbs » Sun Oct 30, 2011 12:40 am

Broadbean wrote:I've been doing the same thing. Either two breakfasts, one early one late, or two lunches. I found that if I let myself get too hungry, I veer off-plan (a new wrinkle -- this didn't happen my first few months of McD'ing).


My boyfriend teases me and calls me a hobbit when I have a 2nd breakfast. :)

I tried upping lunch to 1/2 plate starch, 1/2 plate veggie/bean mix, half a banana, and a couple large olives. Going to try doubling my breakfast oatmeal. I'm eating a bit over half cup dry, whereas most folks in another thread here reported they were eating a whole cup dry or more.

I also saw Jeff N's simple plan thread where he includes 2 cups starch, 1/2 c beans, 2 c veggies, and 1 fruit per meal and that's still under 1700 calories. viewtopic.php?f=22&t=15014 I really don't think I've been eating that much on-plan food at meals! I might hit the 2 c starch and 2 c veggies, and maybe even the 1/2 c beans at times when I have a stew, but I don't have a whole fruit in addition to that.
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Re: MmmCarb's Good Food Journal

Postby MmmCarbs » Mon Oct 31, 2011 11:43 pm

I'm really hungry lately! Upped my MWL food the last couple days and still feel ravenous by days' end. I just crave heavier food at that point, and having more potatoes or veggies isn't appealing. But eating off-plan stuff doesn't really satisfy either-- it triggers my addictive eating response, which doesn't feel good.

I'm not really sure what to do. I wonder if I should
- white-knuckle it through the nightly cravings
- eat more MWL food even when it's not what I want
- add some regular plan food (bread?)
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Re: MmmCarb's Good Food Journal

Postby blondie » Tue Nov 01, 2011 6:14 am

I've struggled with evening cravings since moving into MWL. One thing that has really helped me is to have a cup of herb tea -- I love peppermint or chamomile. It is tasty and comforting, and by the time I have finished my tea, I no longer have the urge to eat. I also have to get out of the kitchen and away from the food after the dinner things are cleaned up.
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Re: MmmCarb's Good Food Journal

Postby MmmCarbs » Tue Nov 01, 2011 11:14 am

blondie wrote:I've struggled with evening cravings since moving into MWL. One thing that has really helped me is to have a cup of herb tea -- I love peppermint or chamomile. It is tasty and comforting, and by the time I have finished my tea, I no longer have the urge to eat. I also have to get out of the kitchen and away from the food after the dinner things are cleaned up.


Thanks blondie, I'll try that. I do love peppermint and spearmint teas.
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Re: MmmCarb's Good Food Journal

Postby MmmCarbs » Tue Nov 01, 2011 11:30 pm

I'm posting my daily food over in the holiday excursion thread. Pretty discouraged with the past couple days. I went off the rails with sweets and treats.

It struck me this WOE is just difficult. It seemed easier than the last couple things I tried. It seemed easier than what I see others doing. I still believe limiting selection works better for me than limiting portions. But ultimately, it's hard to limit eating at all, no matter how you do it.

So I just want to accept that it's not easy period, and also that it's not as easy as it was at first.
==============
I read my old journals from last year. My weight was only a couple pounds above where it is now, and then I gained steadily from Halloween on (starting with candy & baked goods). So, same thing was happening! Here it is again, I'm a few pounds lower than where I was a year ago, and I have a better structure for my food to try to adhere to. So it's a spiral, going round, slight improvement. At my age I guess any improvement is a blessing and a cause for celebration. It's not all downward slide to the grave.
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I did try the mint tea. Unfortunately I had it *after* eating off plan and not *instead* of it. But I thought it would be good to try to start the habit anyway. I had some very old Celestial Seasonings Sleepy Time and amazingly it was still minty & tasty.
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Re: MmmCarb's Good Food Journal

Postby blondie » Wed Nov 02, 2011 6:14 am

Sorry you're struggling with cravings -- I have good days and bad days. Since I began eating MWL (from regular plan) I have been feeling deprived, and that feeling of deprivation makes me crave I think. Hope you have a good day today!
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Re: MmmCarb's Good Food Journal

Postby MmmCarbs » Wed Nov 02, 2011 11:22 am

blondie wrote:Sorry you're struggling with cravings -- I have good days and bad days. Since I began eating MWL (from regular plan) I have been feeling deprived, and that feeling of deprivation makes me crave I think. Hope you have a good day today!


I think you hit the nail on the head. I'm losing the battle against deprivation feelings lately.

I'm going to look at adding more indulgences and treats from the regular plan. Mike T posted about how much the microwave potato chips and banana "ice cream" help him avoid other junk. I hadn't even paid much attention to all the recipes and treat ideas in the plan because the simplicity of the MWL sounded so ideal. I think I need to take another look.
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Re: MmmCarb's Good Food Journal

Postby MmmCarbs » Thu Nov 03, 2011 1:56 am

Better day today. The quantity of off-plan junk consumed was greatly reduced. I truly enjoyed my bit of exercise.

I tried another "legal treat" idea. Made a banana shake with a large banana, spoon of cocoa and water only. I don't have the right cocoa yet-- this kind has sugar added. It tasted waaaay too sweet combined with a very ripe banana, so I look forward to buying unsweetened cocoa and trying again.

I also upped the ketchup on my hash browns. I'd been trying to be all stingy with it. I ended up with too much! I didn't even know there was such a thing as too much ketchup :) So I can back off and still not go all the way back to stingy.

It's like a lightbulb went off for me on this. I was trying to make myself accept no treats, and that doesn't work for me. I didn't realize it, but that's what I was doing. The things I was trying to tell myself were treats (fruit, plain rice cakes, bubbly water, air pop with nutritional yeast) just really don't register as treats.

I feel so much relief to think there might actually be legal treats that really feel like treats, but don't create the problems of off-plan junk treats. And thus, trying to get myself to do without day after day after day, and failing, may just be a fight I don't have to fight at all!
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Re: MmmCarb's Good Food Journal

Postby blondie » Thu Nov 03, 2011 6:24 am

That sounds wonderful! If having a little more "indulgent" McDougall treat will help you to get totally off junk food, it is much more valuable than trying to do MWL while still succumbing to the temptations of white flour/sugar/ junk, IMHO.

This summer when my family was enjoying ice cream and I was feeling "poor me" I put some banana chunks in the freezer and whizzed them up in the food processor for "ice cream" -- it was so wonderfully creamy and sweet.
I saw a recipe for a pumpkin pie smoothie the other day -- it was frozen banana, canned pumpkin, and some almond milk ( you could use water) with pumpkin pie spice.
Another legal treat that Vanessa mentioned recently was mashing baked sweet potato with crushed pineapple and cinnamon, and baking in a casserole dish just until it starts to brown. I plan to make that for myself one day this week.


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Re: MmmCarb's Good Food Journal

Postby MmmCarbs » Mon Nov 07, 2011 12:36 am

The boyfriend and I do a backyard camping night every year this time, so I needed some fairly easy food, and didn't want to use real dishes. So I just made my normal starch veggie/bean mix and put it in a big plastic lidded blow. The big bowl was unbreakable, finally big enough (my food is always just about overflowing my bowls) and the lid made it easy to save it for later after I get full. I called it my "chow bowl" and I'm going to just keep using it. I just kept adding new food to the leftovers in it all weekend long.

I'm also branching out on condiments and got some BBQ sauce. It has sweetener of course, but that or ketchup is really helping me enjoy my food right now.

I didn't do so well with a cake experiment. I found the recipe in the newsletter, it's just commercial cake mix with pumpkin instead of oil and eggs. Tasted good, so it works as an "improved" cake. But it didn't work as a manageable treat for me. I ended up doing that "get up and get more" thing with it, and ended up eating way more than I intended. It's gone now, so lesson learned.

I was pretty worried about camping night, which typically involves a lot of sweet treats and some alcohol as well. I did well with limiting those items and ate a big quantity of good food and drank a lot of water that night. It was actually worse the next day, with the leftover cake sitting around.

Well despite the cake and the lingering Halloween candy, I managed to keep my holiday excursion weight goal. Didn't quite hit my exercise goal (something every day) but it was close. Back at it this week!
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Re: MmmCarb's Good Food Journal

Postby MmmCarbs » Mon Nov 07, 2011 10:54 pm

Finally, a day without any off-plan sweets! I took extra food to work for lunch, stopped after work for groceries, figured out a dinner new enough that it seemed special (baked corn tortillas, bean/veggie mix, salsa) and had one medjool date for that ultra-sweet indulgence. I'm wondering if eating more dates was helping me avoid other sweets back when I was eating them more. I'd stopped after discovering they're really very calorie dense. I definitely feel better about eating dates than cakes & candy though.

Also read something on a site about sugar addiction that seemed to help. It referred to the comfort of eating sweet treats as a false comfort. I think when cravings hit, it may help to remember that.
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Re: MmmCarb's Good Food Journal

Postby MmmCarbs » Wed Nov 09, 2011 1:10 pm

I've read most of Women Food and God by Geneen Roth now. Some good perspective there I think. The main points that stuck out for me were that it's not a good idea to use food to soothe your feelings because food isn't really what you want, and using it takes you further away from awareness of what you are really feeling/wanting. That does seem true for me, as it's so difficult to just not have the treat and tolerate that feeling underneath the drive to eat it. It's just such a ball of discomfort and I feel like a tantrummy 3 year old.

The other point that 'poked' at me was that food obsession is a distraction from more real struggles in life. That seems true as well. I sure put a disproportionate amount of energy and attention on my food struggle right now. Last night (before I'd finished much of the book) I had a whole mini-war with myself over candy. I ended up eating other food (baked corn tortillas with salsa, an olive, a few swigs of diet cream soda, a medjool date) trying to bargain with myself to not eat more candy. Ultimately I ended up over full and with a bit of an upset tummy from those foods, and finally my candy craving abated. It may well have passed on its own without even having the other foods!

Anyway I'm going to try to have just a bit more awareness of what I might really be missing when the junk food junkie is driving me.
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Re: MmmCarb's Good Food Journal

Postby Broadbean » Wed Nov 09, 2011 6:36 pm

I'm beginning to wonder how much of the craving thing is psychological, and how much is physiological. I know that sometimes in the afternoon I have a restless, snacky feeling that isn't quite hunger (if it was hunger, I'd eat some oatmeal or salad). But I don't think it's entirely psychological, either. It just feels like it comes from a deeper place -- like my lizard brain, you know? It just wants me to Eat The Food. ALL THE FOOD!

I think I'll check out the Geneen Roth books, too. But sometimes I think that there's an ancient part of myself that's resistant to logic...
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