Getting Ready to Start

[Chris_Alice]

As per Dr. McD's advice to start on a Monday, today I am preparing. This means:

1. I cleaned out my fridge, freezer, and cupboards of all forbidden foods. Gave it to my neighour.

2. Went shopping and stocked up on all the healthy food. Following Jeff Novick's advice and tips, I only spent $27.32 for the week! This is what I got:

Frozen vegetables, canned tomatoes, a bag of dried beans (cheaper than canned and will last me longer than one week), whole wheat pasta (will last more than a week), brown rice (will last more than a week) , frozen berries. I also got some fresh fruit and veg: a bag of apples, bananas, potatoes, baby field greens for salad, carrots. That's a lot of food for under $30 !

I already had onions, garlic, spices, lemons, vinegars and rolled oats.

3. I have a HUGE pot of minestrone (with beans and whole wheat pasta) simmering on the stove. I will put 1/2 in the fridge for the week and freeze 1/2.

4. I have a pot of vegetable stock simmering too - made from scraps of fresh veggies I had in the fridge/freezer. I will freeze this in one-cup servings and use it to cook rice, give more flavour to steamed veggies, use as a soup base, etc.

5. My goals for the next 12 days:

a) give up coffee (this will be a challenge)
b) stick to the diet without cheating (giving up olive oil and salt won't be easy)

6. My daily exercise (for now) will be a long walk every day, aiming for first thing in the morning, but this might tempt me to get a coffee along the way, so we'll see.

If I can follow Dr. McD's advice for the first 12 days, I think that will set a good foundation on which to improve.

Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I need all the help I can get.

[Dissolution]

It sounds like you have a good plan and have given this a lot of thought, I especially liked your B-12 question in the main forum. I think that you will be delighted and surprised at how easy this way of eating is and how good you will feel.

I think that giving up coffee is more difficult than giving up meat and dairy, cause I haven't found giving up meat and dairy to be hard at all.
I've even given up diet soda, but not coffee.

Giving up oil is more of just a pain in the butt (although a very necessary one), because once you start reading labels and stuff you will be amazing at how much of this stuff they put into processed foods.

Anyways welcome!

Good luck!

[Chris_Alice]

Dissolution,

Thank you.

While coffee is going to be difficult for me for sure, I have a feeling giving up my extra virgin olive oil is going to be even moreso. I can't imagine some foods without a drizzle of that liquid yum-in-my-tum!

[bunsofaluminum]

Hey, good to see you here. I don't know about the oils, I gave them up immediately and haven't missed them. But I am with you on the coffee. I didn't know how I was going to do it. But about two months into full compliance with McDougalling, my body literally rejected coffee one morning.

One day, I just didn't have my usual cup after work. Then a couple days later, my stomach pretty much turned over when I had the first morning sip. That was about two years ago, this month, and I've never looked back. Coffee now just gives me the jitters and makes me feel nauseous.

In fact, just this weekend I realized I don't need caffeine at all, not even green tea or black tea. I might still drink a mug of green, though.

but anyway. Good to have you here! keep on going, and keep busy on these forums. Lots of good support here!

[f1jim]

Chris_Alice you have started out on the right foot. You will find a good deal of support here and a ready suppy of answers to most anything that may come up. Don't hesitate to ask about anything along the way. We'll be pulling for you.
f1jim