Hi everyone,
I (re)started the McDougall Plan just over 2 weeks ago. I'm doing MWL. I first started McDougalling on Tax Day 1991, when I was 25. My (now-ex) husband and I had decided to become vegetarian on the first of that month, and spent 2 weeks reading everything we could about it, starting with Diet for a Small Planet, then Diet for a New America, and then finally the original "McDougall Plan". (There weren't a lot of books available at that time on vegetarianism, lol.)
Both of us were in our twenties, and within a few months we were both down to goal weight. I lost 40 pounds and my husband lost about 70. I got pregnant about a year later and decided to add a bit of non-oil fat back into my diet. At the end of my pregnancy (still pregnant), I weighed about the same as I had before I lost the weight. It took me only one month to return to goal weight after my son was born.
I stayed vegan for 13 years. During that time, I had a second child, and I breastfed both of them until they were 3. It was easy to keep the weight off, even though there was more fat in my diet. When my husband and I split up several years later, I dated other people who were vegan but ate junk food, or who ate fairly healthfully but ate fish, or whatever. My dietary habits started to slide. But I stayed mostly vegan, and was active. I stayed within about 15 pounds of goal.
When I married my current husband 12 years ago, I was in a healthy period, eating lower-fat vegan (though I did include a bit of olive oil), and no junk food or alcohol. He has always been super thin and could eat whatever he wanted. Dairy started creeping in, fish, eggs, occasional chicken. Meanwhile, my kids' dad started barbecuing and going high-meat. So family gatherings became a meat fest (I limited myself to fish for a while, but ate other high-fat foods like potato salad (made with olive oil instead of mayo) and corn-on-the-cob with "avocado butter" (avocados mixed with olive oil, salt, and garlic powder). I congratulated myself on healthy, plant-based options. But my weight creeped up, only kept at bay by my active lifestyle.
Things really started to go downhill about 5 years ago, when I went back to work full time and suddenly became sedentary. I put on 30 pounds in the first 2 years, and then managed to "maintain" that for the past 3 by eliminating junk food and trying various dieting schemes that were hard to stick to. My weight has been between 180-185 for the past year or so; it was a little higher before that. But I've developed some health issues that are impacting my enjoyment of life: high blood pressure for the first time; asthma; aches and pains; inflexibility.
My goal is to see where I'm at when I reach 130. From past experience, that's a good weight for me when I am active and maintaining strength. I am 5'8".
This new phase of the journey also coincides with my quitting my full-time job (Friday June 29 was my last day!). I'm going to continue working very part time (about 10 hours/week) for the summer, and then decrease it more in the Fall so I can go back to school to get a long-desired counseling degree.
My goals are simple: maintain the MWL diet until I reach goal, and to exercise daily. With the exercise, I am mostly walking the hilly area where I live, and being more active in general (less time at the computer). I have a lot of vacation and retreat time this summer, so I'm keeping everything simple. Simple food and simple exercise.
When school starts, I plan to join the rec center and start lifting weights again. It will be great to have an indoor place to do cardio as well, since smoke and dust in the dry valley where I live can sometimes keep me inside. By that time, I hope to be down to a weight where exercise is more comfortable.
My goal with this thread is to make a weekly progress report. I'll start that with the next post.
