I've lost count of how many times I have restarted....

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

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Re: I've lost count of how many times I have restarted....

Postby Suey51 » Sat Oct 07, 2017 1:56 am

Exciting news about your sister and the baby! Hope all is going well.

Well done on sticking to the program on your outing :)

Hope you have a great thanksgiving weekend x
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Re: I've lost count of how many times I have restarted....

Postby amandamechele » Sat Oct 07, 2017 11:57 pm

Sue - Thanks!

Day 7 Amy's October MWL Challenge:

What I ate:
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What I couldn't eat:
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I had a lovely time at our dear friend's wedding tonight. They are a couple who have been together for 9 years and decided that they felt like celebrating that with a wedding. As you can see from the pictures above I managed to find some fruit at the before dinner buffet, which I plated and put at my seat to eat when everyone else was eating dinner. I also brought 1.5 lbs of baby potatoes and some raw carrots and kept them in the car as a back-up. As the night progressed and the food was brought out I was also able to eat the salad. The bride came over to us as the entrees were being served because she had given the kitchen my specifications and she was curious to see what they had created. It was a delicious looking tofu, roasted veggies and some sort of pilaf. I could see right away that there was oil on the veggies and therefore probably in the grains as well. I knew that I couldn't eat this but my friend was waiting for me to taste it and tell her what I thought. So I did; it was so sweet of her to go to all of that trouble for me, how could I not? I had a small bite of each item and raved about how delicious it was (which was true). She looked relieved and happy that I was happy so she went back to her table. My husband ate much of my food and no one was the wiser that I hadn't eaten the dinner (except my table mate to my right, but that's another story). I snuck out to the car a few times when the dance floor got too steamy and munched on potatoes and carrots. I also stuck to sparkling water for the evening. All in all I think I got through that pretty well.

The other exciting event of the day was the birth of my nephew! He finally decided to come out and play. :)
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Last edited by amandamechele on Sun Oct 08, 2017 7:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: I've lost count of how many times I have restarted....

Postby Yomom » Sun Oct 08, 2017 6:32 am

Congratulations to your sister on the birth of her son!

Congratulations to you for the successful strategies used to eat healthily while attending the wedding of your friends. Finding salad, bringing potatoes and sticking to water while resisting the well-meant oily offerings - yay Amy.
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Re: I've lost count of how many times I have restarted....

Postby Lyndzie » Sun Oct 08, 2017 5:24 pm

It's so lovely that your sister's baby has arrived! What a beautiful pink baby.

Are you on the verge of a move? You asked me on the MWL thread a while back, and I forgot to answer: we move a lot. Five times in the past five years, and two of those in the past six months. It's so stressful! Good luck!!
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Re: I've lost count of how many times I have restarted....

Postby amandamechele » Sun Oct 08, 2017 11:13 pm

Thank you Kathy and Lyndzie. (I'll chat more later, its quite late where I live) :)

Day 8 Amy's MWL Challenge:

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My eyes were bigger than my stomach at dinner time, so I didn't actually finish that huge plate of food:
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Today we had Thanksgiving Celebration 1. I was able to stay away from all of the off-plan food because I'm not in the Pleasure Trap at the moment, and I've already been through a number of holiday meals McDougall style, so eating this way has become my default even at large family meals surrounded by junk food and the regular Thanksgiving feast foods. I'm still not getting the fruit portion of this challenge quite right. I'm able to limit the fruit to 2 times per day (not quite easily yet), but the amount of fruit is definitely not 1 serving size. I'll continue to refine this, but I'm hoping to soon not feel so limited by this. I know it will get easier with time.

Have a lovely night!
Amy

PS. My precision today is thanks to my wonderful family. I was about to pop those two grapes in my mouth and 2 people stopped me asking aren't you supposed to be photographing everything that you eat? Yes, yes I am! :roll:
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Re: I've lost count of how many times I have restarted....

Postby amandamechele » Mon Oct 09, 2017 11:03 pm

Kathy - I think its the extra accountability due to this challenge that helped me through that wedding. It was very tempting to indulge in a celebratory drink. I knew this was going to be a tough month filled with many social engagements and stress, so it seemed like the perfect time for a little something extra to get me through.

Lyndzie - Wow, you do move a lot. Is it work related? We move tomorrow (well, technically later today at this point in time). It is definitely chaotic in my home right now.

Day 9 Amy's October MWL Challenge:
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Thanksgiving Celebration #2 was today. I admittedly didn't prepare for today, relying on my mom for food (all of our kitchen is now packed up). There weren't any raw veggie options so I just had to make due. My mom prepared a couple of different Sheppard's Pie recipes from the Forks over Knives Cookbook. They were really yummy.

Here's a tiny bit of baby spam too:
[img]11https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4446/37603164941_591b21f7bb_z_d.jpg[/img]

XO
Amy
Last edited by amandamechele on Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: I've lost count of how many times I have restarted....

Postby amandamechele » Tue Oct 10, 2017 8:05 pm

Day 10 Amy's October MWL Challenge:

I will update with photos tomorrow. I don't have my regular computer with me at the moment and I cannot (quickly) figure out how to post photos from my phone.

UPDATED:
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(I just posted the same chili photo twice..I tried to get fancy and edit the other one with filters and such, but now it doesn't format outside of Flickr...oh well)

I ate 2 bowls of oatmeal, honey dew and grapes, a baked potato, a salad, steamed green beans and carrots and 2 small bowls of bean Chili.

Today my thoughts are with everyone in Santa Rosa. :(

Amy

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Re: I've lost count of how many times I have restarted....

Postby amandamechele » Wed Oct 11, 2017 6:59 pm

Day 11 Amy's October MWL Challenge:

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I ate oats and teechino for breakfast and snacked on raw veggies and potatoes in the car. For dinner I had a sweet potato, a regular baked potato and steamed broccoli, followed by watermelon.

Today was the most difficult day of the challenge so far, even moreso than both Thanksgiving celebrations. I spent the day driving and was surprised by the amount of roadside billboards with pictures of fast food meals on them (I can't say for sure, but I don't recall any of this type of billboard where I live - I could be wrong though). I stopped counting after I had seen 40 pictures of a variety of hamburgers and fried chicken. I'm amazed....more than 40! That's a lot of advertising and temptation for anyone's drive to and from work everyday.
In the evening I ate simply, though the restaurant meal had more salt than I'm accustomed to. That combo of more salt and many photo triggers has got me feeling unsatisfied. That's why I decided to find a discount grocer and buy some fresh fruit and chopped veggies to have on hand in case of an evening meltdown. So far so good. :)

XO
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Re: I've lost count of how many times I have restarted....

Postby amandamechele » Thu Oct 12, 2017 7:08 pm

Day 12 Amy's October MWL Challenge:

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Another day of driving is done. I'm currently in North Dakota and have finally caught up with the sun. :)
I'm still stumbling on the fruit front, as my photos attest. I ate every single grape in the cooler today. Hmmmm.
Secondly, I haven't been making any time to walk. This is also an important component of the MWL success plan. I have a list of reasons/excuses, but I'm sure I could figure out how to get some sort of exercise in if I really tried. I'm going to admit, its not ranking high on my list of things to figure out in the next few days.
The kids wanted rice and yam rolls for dinner, so we went to a sushi place. I was only able to eat the kappa maki because the zen-zen rolls had some oil in them...that's why we ended up at Wendy's for some baked potatoes afterwards. Thank you to my sister for the thoughtful Wendy's gift cards.
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Re: I've lost count of how many times I have restarted....

Postby Yomom » Thu Oct 12, 2017 8:51 pm

I see that sriracha sauce is helping you get through this...
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Re: I've lost count of how many times I have restarted....

Postby amandamechele » Fri Oct 13, 2017 10:33 pm

Kathy - I had no idea that it had it's own flavour until recently. All that I used to taste was hot! Now, I can actually taste it and it's delicious. I look forward to branching out into other types of pepper sauces. My husband's family loves one called Sambal Olek...I'm not sure if its oil free, but if it is I'm going to give it a try. I hope you and George are doing well, and getting a few more hikes in before the cooler weather comes.

Day 13 Amy's October MWL Challenge:

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I came across a thread today from Jeff Novick's forum that I enjoyed due to the fact that I'm eating at Wendy's so often lately. I remember reading it years ago, Wendy's Mini Diet.
I also treated myself with one of the 2 jars of homemade food that I brought with me on my road trip. I don't know why I didn't bring more! I ate 3 bean chili for dinner...yumo!
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Re: I've lost count of how many times I have restarted....

Postby f1jim » Sat Oct 14, 2017 6:34 am

I am so impressed with your stermination AND photography!
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Re: I've lost count of how many times I have restarted....

Postby JeffN » Sat Oct 14, 2017 7:59 am

amandamechele wrote:Image


My favorite meal while on the road! ;)

I just explained this in one of the McDougall FB groups about how easy this is, how filling, how readily available in so many places and inexpensive. I even wrote a whole post on it back in 2008...

Wendy's Mini Diet
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=9321

In Health
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Re: I've lost count of how many times I have restarted....

Postby amandamechele » Sat Oct 14, 2017 8:32 pm

Thank you Jim and Jeff! It is my favourite place to eat out too; its so much less expensive than most other restaurants that serve edible food.

Day 14 Amy's October MWL Challenge:

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Today's pictures are a bit deceiving. The potato shown with my dinner chana, was leftover from lunch, so that 's two potatoes total. I also didn't end up eating the red apple, but I did go a little bit bananas with the fruit today. :oops: The final difference between what I ate and the photos is due to the hotel fridge freezing my veggies so I didn't even eat many of those carrots shown because...blech!...thawed accidentally frozen carrots are just yucky. I'm going to need to stop at a grocer tomorrow for supplies to get through the day.
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Re: I've lost count of how many times I have restarted....

Postby ANNAUK » Sun Oct 15, 2017 12:58 pm

Amy just checked this out for the first time. It's really useful to see your meals and how you make them work. Thank you xxx
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