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

[amandamechele]

Thank you Nancy. I'm glad to know it's not just me...lol. I'm sure your grandson was none the worse for it.

Monday's food:


Pictured here:
1) Kid's leftover oatmeal with white sugar (too sweet!)
2) Salad greens, Apple, banana
3) Ancient grains bowl from Teriyaki Experience, 1 tsp low-sodium teriyaki sauce
4) raw green beans, frozen corn, mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy (from Prevent and Reverse HD Cookbook), 4 clementines
5) More mashed potatoes, corn and gravy (the gravy was yummy!)
Not pictured:
2 pots of green tea
1/2 L sparking water
Notes:
It was my Mom's birthday today and I took her and Dad out for lunch. I didn't take my own advice from Sunday, and took them to the mall food court because I knew I could get a compliant meal and I had a couple of more presents to buy. I know, I went all out by taking them to the food court...lol! They didn't seem to mind and it was great to see them. Mom ate what I did, and that made me very happy. I hope it continues!

Tuesday's food:

Pictured here:
1) A huge lunch that I ended up eating over the course of the afternoon: Baked baby potatoes and mushroom gravy, Moroccan Red Lentil soup (McDougall recipe), bowl of salad greens, banana, clementine
2) A huge tub of watermelon.
3) More baked potatoes, the rest of the mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, raw green beans, red pepper, and snap peas
Not pictured:
2 pots of green tea
1/4 L sparking water
Notes: I'm out of potatoes and frozen entrees from the freezer. I am not prepared for the rest of the week. Eeek! Tomorrow my oldest boys get home from school and have a few friends coming too. I'd better shop and chop after we get back from the airport. I haven't even decided what to make for the variety of Christmas meals we are hosting/attending on the 24th/25th/26th. Double Eeek! Shame on me for spending so much time in the Lounge today.

[sirdle]

Your pictures are great!

If I ever publish a cookbook, I'm hiring you as my photographer!

Cheers,

[amandamechele]

Sirdle - How sweet of you to say, thank you! I often lament on how slap-dash my picture journal is. A friend of mine suggested that I use Instagram to edit and filter my very plain photos. I figure, as long as people can tell what I'm eating and approximately how much of it, then all is good. But it's nice to have someone say they look nice.

Today I managed to find the time to do some food prep, potatoes have been baked, 3 bean chilli has been made and veggies chopped. It should get me through the next 2-3 days.


Today's food:


Pictured here:
1) 2 Wendy's baked potatoes (I call these "Hot Dog" potatoes because of the ketchup, mustard and relish), plain side salad
2) green grapes
3) Watermelon
4) Baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, frozen broccoli, 3 bean Chili
5) More Watermelon
6) Uneaten leftover mashed potatoes
Not pictured:
1.5 pots of green tea
1/4 L sparkling water

[amandamechele]

Baking:


This week I started my Christmas baking. I made Mary McDougall's pumpkin muffin recipe into a loaf and added vegan chocolate chips for the kids. I also made a recipe from the Remedy Food conference called No Bake Granola bars, but a more appropriate name would be nut and seed bars because there are more nuts and seeds than oats, by far. They were too delicious to avoid, I ended up eating the edge trimmings after cutting them into squares.

Thursday's food:



Pictured here:
1) Oatmeal, cinnamon and brown sugar
2) Brown rice, 3 bean Chili and a pomelo
3) Celery, red peppers and sparkling water
4) A date
5) A taste of the granola bar batter
6) Baked russet fries, raw spinach and broccoli, mustard
7) No bake (nut) granola bar trimmings
Not pictured:
2 pots green tea

Friday's food:
Today I ate out for all 3 meals...only had one snack at home. I think I did quite well. But, it's weird, I was totally craving my 3 bean Chili by the time dinner came around... Lol!


1) Cora's Restaurant: plain oatmeal, brown sugar, fruit bowl and green tea
2) Terriyaki Experience: Super veg bowl - mixed veggies and quinoa and brown rice water sautéed, low sodium teriyaki sauce and siracha on the side
3) Oyshi Sushi: Steamed edamame, Kappa maki, veggie Futo maki, hold the avocado, watered down sweet soy sauce with green onions.
4) Baked russet fries, honey mustard, banana

Tomorrow will be a busy day cooking and baking for all of those holiday meals coming up. I've planned some decadent oil-free plant based meals, including chickpea frittata's, kale Waldorf salad, linguini Alfredo (white bean and cashew based sauce), and more baked goods, like McDougall brownies and fruit crumble, maybe some cookies.I'm going to try to snack on chopped veggies to limit my day time snacking and limit my high-fat eating to the feast meals.
Enjoy your next few days everyone! Look for the tiny joys throughout the day and slough off any negative stress.

[amandamechele]

We celebrate Christmas in my family. Tonight my parents came for dinner and we enjoyed some family board games and cards. I lost every single game by a far margin, as in I was last place in every game...lol... what happened? I have no qualms about beating my children at board games, they just outplayed me tonight. Oh well... we are now nestled on our sofa, watching It's a Wonderful Life, as we have every Christmas for the past 15 years. We are keeping track of Santa's location via the NORAD tracker website. He's currently in North Carolina, heading for Winston-Salem. Keep your ears perked for reindeer hooves and sleigh bells if you live in that area.

Here's what I ate today. I saved most of my appetite for dinner because I knew I was going to feast! It was delicious.




Pictured here:
1) Raw celery and red pepper
2) Raw kale and green grapes
3) Linguini Alfredo, Kale Waldorf salad, garlic hummus bread, steamed broccoli, raw snap peas and cucumber, 1/2 glass champagne
4) More salad and garlic bread
5) Kiwi, grapes, pumpkin bread, berry crumble, nut granola bar
6) More berry crumble and nut granola bar
7) More kiwi
Not pictured:
2 pots of green tea
A variety of taster bites while cooking, 7-8 tsps of sauce, or fillings or mashed veggies
Notes:
For reference, though the plates look the same size, the dinner was on dinner sized plates and the dessert was on dessert sized plates.

Where did the above recipes come from?
The Berry Crumble - based on Mary McDougall's pear crumble recipe, Healthiest Diet on the Planet
No Bake Granola (Nut) Bars - Remedy Live Food Conference Toronto
Pumpkin Chocolate chip loaf - based on Mary McDougall's Pumpkin muffin recipe from this website
Linguini Alfredo - from Cathy Fisher's website, Straight Up Food
Kale Salad - The China Study All Star Cookbook
Garlic Hummus - Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook (I just spread it on Ezekiel bread and toasted it)
Vegan Parmesan - Brand New Vegan website recipe, from Chuck Underwood

[Yomom]

Amy, that all looks delicious. Congrats on sticking to compliant foods over the holidays.

[Waterfit]

Thank you for posting pictures! It really helps me get some ideas! You are doing great!!

[amandamechele]

Hi Kathy and Waterfit. Thank you for the encouragement. We should all give ourselves a pat on the back for thinking about healthful eating over the holidays... and two pats if we manage to do it most of the time.

It would be remiss to merely call my eating in the past two days "feast day" eating, in the spirit of the McDougall guidelines. I greatly surpassed that label in quantity and decadence, I'm sure. That being said, I kept my eye open for traps (as in the pleasure trap), and have managed not to get snagged. Today is back to my regular relatively repetitive starch-based diet; Any guesses as to what I am going to have for dinner? It starts with C and ends in "ili"...

Christmas Day (Sunday):




Pictured here:
1) pumpkin instant-pot steel cut oats, raw fruit (cherries, grapes and honey dew melon)
2) Ezekiel bread French toast, a clementine, mango sauce, potato/zucchini hash, potato kale frittata
3) More French toast and mango sauce
4) Last night's kale salad (walnuts, cranberries, kale, dressing of lemon juice and maple syrup)
5) Raw veggies
6) Baked russet fries, BBQ sauce and raw carrots
7) 2 dried Apple rings (Martin's Crispy Apple chips...only ingredient is apples, but dangerously easy to overeat)
3 bean Chili, potato sauerkraut casserole, carrot/rutabaga mash, cranberry sauce, kale salad
9) 3 bean Chili, potato sauerkraut casserole, sweet potato mash
10) Berry crumble and pumpkin chocolate chip loaf
Not pictured:
2 pots of green tea
Sparkling water
An additional slice of the pumpkin loaf

Boxing Day (Sunday):


Pictured here:
1) Leftover sweet potato mash, roasted potatoes and 3 bean Chili
2) mashed potatoes, gravy, potato sauerkraut casserole, carrot/rutabaga mash, butternut squash with maple pecans and cranberries, some other type of squash, BBQ curried cauliflower, kale frittata, lentil sheppard's pie
3) instant pot mushroom leek soup
4) more mashed potato, rutabaga mash, a sweet potato stew, more butternut squash and BBQ curried cauliflower.
5) brownies, rice ice cream, Nut granola bar, berry crumble
6) more brownie and rice cream.
Not pictured:
1 pot of tea
Sparkling water
Another Nut granola bar and 2 more brownies...
3 skittles (things were looking grim in the healthy eating department, but I managed to stop here)

My whole family made and brought these different recipes. Recipes came from the McDougall's, Katie Mae, Jill Nussinow, Remedy Live, Helyn's Kitchen and my mom's creativity.

[amandamechele]

Today's Food (Tuesday):


Pictured here:
1) oatmeal, brown sugar, banana, green grapes, raw spinach
2) 3 bean Chili, brown rice, carrot/rutabaga mash, raw red pepper, romaine and cucumber salad, clemintines
3) baked russet fries with garlic and onion powder, ketchup and chipotle hot sauce
4) 1 mug of extra strength neocitron



Ahhh...the next few days are that sweet quiet space between Christmas and New Year's Eve; I enjoy these just as much as the holiday ruckus that precedes and comes after them.

[Franchesca_S.]

amandamechele,

As others have said, this is really nice photography and your meals look delicious. Reading your posts and re-reading a few days, my feeling is that the photo-food-journal seems more "real" to me than the mere text-based list of foods. I use lose-it as my food journal and I wish that photos would pop up.

Thanks.

Franchesca

[amandamechele]

Hi Franchesca - thank you. I sometimes use the Cronometer app, I wonder if it is similar to Lose-It? I got the idea for the photo journal from the writings of Jeff Novick. I can't remember where I read it (here or on his website), or even the exact context of his message. I agree with you, it does seem more real; it leaves nothing to the imagination. The other benefit, which I think any type of journaling would provide, is it makes me stop and think before I graze. Do I really want to go and grab my phone and photograph that? Am I really hungry? It has also been helpful to forestall eating off plan (not perfectly - as my pictures and not pictured section attests to). I find the thought of having to look at the evidence of an indiscretion (a photo) a bigger deterrent than the thought of reading about one. Maybe this is because the photo leaves nothing to the imagination and no way to underplay the lapse in judgement.

Wednesday's Food:


Pictured here:
1) Oatmeal, cinnamon, 1 tsp brown sugar, raw cherries
2) Broccoli sprouts
3) 3 bean Chili, brown rice, carrot/rutabaga mash; all stirred together
4) 3 clemintines and some golden kiwis
5) Oatmeal, cinnamon and 1 tsp of brown sugar
6) Sugar snap peas, raw
Not pictured:
2 pots of green tea
1 mug of extra strength neocitron

Thursday's Food:



Pictured here:
1) Cora's Restaurant: Plain oatmeal, 2 tsps brown sugar, bowl of mixed fruit, green tea
2) IKEA - 1/2 hot water 1/2 coffee, 1 tsp sugar
3) Same as above
4) Raw cauliflower, broccoli, celery, carrots, cantaloupe and honey dew melon
5) 3 bean Chili, brown rice, romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers
6) brown rice, Mary McDougall's Tunisian stew, Mary's whipped mashed potatoes, Mustard gravy from Klunker's Kitchen
7) Banana, apples, strawberries, clemintine
Not pictured:
Sparkling water
More fruit - 1/4 Apple, 3-4 strawberries and 2 more clemintines (snacking at the table)
Notes: Woah... 4 tsps of added sugar today...plus a tiny amount in the gravy...equals a lot of sugar. This was why I gave up coffee in the first place....that and it makes me anxious, and I have enough of that naturally.
Friday's Food:


Pictured here:
1) Oatmeal, 1 tsp brown sugar, cinnamon, banana
2) Raw broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and an apple
3) Wendy's Restaurant: baked potato, ketchup, mustard, relish, salad (hold the nuts, dressing and I picked out the cranberries)
4) Brown rice, raw tomato, green onions and curry powder
5) Brown rice, Tunisian Stew, mashed potatoes, mustard gravy
6) pretzel sticks and homemade hummus (the pretzels are oil free .... I know, I know)
Not pictured:
2 pots of green tea

The Mustard Gravy recipe can be found here:
(I didn't strain mine, which is why it looks much thicker than the real stuff - I loved it anyway,like, really loved it. )
http://www.klunkerskitchen.com/2016/12/moms-mustard-gravy.html

[amandamechele]

Two long posts have managed to become ghosts in the machine tonight. I'm not going to try again, those thoughts are lost.

I'll leave you with a photo of one of my teenage idols that will be confusing due to lack of context, as well as a link to my Flickr account where all of my photos of what I have eaten for the past two days are, in case you are curious.

I have had better days on all fronts.



https://www.flickr.com/photos/95182338@N07/with/31201848854/

[amandamechele]

"You need to work harder on your environment than you do on yourself". Dr. Doug Lisle

Most of us here are familiar with these words. For some of us, our kitchen pantries can be the difference between success and failure in staying out of the pleasure trap. For me, personally, this strategy is a difficult one. I share my home with my family and we all eat slightly differently and have differing caloric needs, differing food preferences, and differing ideas on what is important to include in a healthy diet. So, like many of you, I do my best given the circumstances, and most of the time I do just fine.
I had been managing to get by, even with some higher calorie dense items laying about this past 2 weeks. Peanuts, nut butters, pretzels, pitas, certain dry cereals, even Ezekial bread products. All things that can be a part of a healthy diet...all things I want my children to choose over other highly refined packaged items (which I don't tend to keep in my home). My photo journal reminds me that they have been making their way into my food choices more often.

To add insult to injury, due to a fundraiser, there are also boxes and boxes of high quality milk and dark chocolate here.

The combination of constantly choosing not to eat the chocolate, the addition of the saltier more processed items, and a bit of alcohol on New Years Eve has pushed me back into an uncomfortable place.
To try and mitigate potentially poor choices I have thrown away some of the highly processed items that had made it through the original post-Christmas purge (the ones most appealing to me). The peanuts, unfortunately, didn't make it to the garbage. Thankfully, there are now none left.

I used to believe that there would come a time when everything I have learned would just "click". I would do it all "right", the weight would come off and I could close the door to this part of my life. Leave that frustrating, unhappy, struggle behind me and not have to ever look back at it.
I was quite naive.
Thank goodness I kept searching for better answers. Thank goodness they were out there to be found!
I live more comfortably in my own skin now that I have a better understanding of how things really work. Even when my environment, and my own lack of good judgment occasionally work against me. I can pick myself up, dust myself off, and get back to where I need to be.

Monday's Food:


Pictured here:
1) oatmeal, 1 tsp brown sugar, cinnamon, 1 banana
2) 1 raw red pepper, bowl of lettuce, 1 gigantic apple, mashed potatoes and mustard gravy
3) Plain roasted chestnuts
4) Boiled peanuts
5) Boiled peanuts
6) Pomelo
Not pictured:
2 pots of green tea
1/2 L of sparkling water

[donaldpetemc]

Me too, AmandaMechele. I first heard of Dr. McDougall 30 years ago. I've read every book and been to the 10-day, several Advanced Study Weekends, and one trip to Costa Rica. But I cannot stick with it, although I believe in it 100%. So I'm starting over again. I see you've been doing this for a while. How has the weight loss been going?

[amandamechele]

Hi donaldpetemc,
The longer I'm here, the more of us that I "meet"... and I'm happy for it. By us I mean those that struggle but just keep coming back. It sounds like you have been working very hard at this too. I bet Costa Rica was wonderful!
As of last week I have lost 99 pounds. I'm about 8 to 9 pounds away from a normal BMI. That's what's gotten me posting more. I'm trying really hard to get there and it's taking a lot of effort to stay focused on that goal.
Best wishes for you on your new start! Just keep at it, I'm rooting for you!

Tuesday's food:


Pictured here:
1) Baked russet fries and mustard gravy
2) Banana
3) Baked russet fries and hummus
4) More fries
5) Oyshi Sushi Restaurant: Bean tea, edamame, miso soup
6) Oyshi Sushi Restaurant: Veggie Futo maki, pickled radish rolls
7) pomelo
Not pictured here:
2 pots green tea

Wednesday's Food:



Pictured here:
1) Valley Charbroil Restaurant: Bowl of fruit and microwaved potatoes and ketchup
2) Strawberries
3) Mango
4) Rice noodle soup and veg and tofu
5) More noodle soup
6) Sliced apples
7) Dates
8 ) Raisins
9) Oatmeal, brown sugar, cinnamon and a banana
Not pictured:
2 pots of green tea
2 medium to large carrots
A few more apple slices