Dr. McDougall's Online Discussion Board

Suey51 wrote:Hi Moonlight! Just checking in after seeing your posts in the February MWL thread - well done on your progress this month! *applause emoji here!*

Hi Sue, it's good to hear from you! Thanks for the encouragement. I think I may be back on track. Whew!
I've been following your progress on the monthly Maintenance thread. You are doing so well. Seems like that group is really a good support for maintaining your weight range rather than letting little slip ups derail you altogether. I'm hoping to join that group sometime this year!! BTW, so glad to hear you have recovered from getting COVID. I believe being on the McD diet gives us an advantage.

XO

This last week I ate bagels 2-3 times. Not consistent with the MWL plan! I realized that it was when I was tired and didn't have compliant starch foods ready. So, today I have made a large pot of WW pasta and baked potatoes to take care of the starch for a few days. I also steamed a big bag of frozen vegetables. I'm working on a soup for the week. It has butternut squash, turnip greens, apples, tomatoes, and spices including curry, rosemary, marjoram, and thyme. I put in too much of the spices... hoping to get it balanced out without making a whole second batch of soup! I added a can of tomato paste. Hoping for a good soup.

I plan to make a pot of rice to go with some chili I'm thawing out. I also will make some coleslaw. Hopefully this stash will get me through the week!

moonlight wrote:This last week I ate bagels 2-3 times. Not consistent with the MWL plan! I realized that it was when I was tired and didn't have compliant starch foods ready. So, today I have made a large pot of WW pasta and baked potatoes to take care of the starch for a few days. I also steamed a big bag of frozen vegetables. I'm working on a soup for the week. It has butternut squash, turnip greens, apples, tomatoes, and spices including curry, rosemary, marjoram, and thyme. I put in too much of the spices... hoping to get it balanced out without making a whole second batch of soup! I added a can of tomato paste. Hoping for a good soup.

I plan to make a pot of rice to go with some chili I'm thawing out. I also will make some coleslaw. Hopefully this stash will get me through the week!

Ohhhh! Curry! that sounds yummy! Isn't soup season fun?

bunsofaluminum wrote:

moonlight wrote:This last week I ate bagels 2-3 times. Not consistent with the MWL plan! I realized that it was when I was tired and didn't have compliant starch foods ready. So, today I have made a large pot of WW pasta and baked potatoes to take care of the starch for a few days. I also steamed a big bag of frozen vegetables. I'm working on a soup for the week. It has butternut squash, turnip greens, apples, tomatoes, and spices including curry, rosemary, marjoram, and thyme. I put in too much of the spices... hoping to get it balanced out without making a whole second batch of soup! I added a can of tomato paste. Hoping for a good soup.

I plan to make a pot of rice to go with some chili I'm thawing out. I also will make some coleslaw. Hopefully this stash will get me through the week!

Ohhhh! Curry! that sounds yummy! Isn't soup season fun?

Hi Buns! Yes, I have been on a huge soup binge thanks to JeffN and the MWL guidelines. (I don't mean eating massive amounts of soup at a time, just always needing to have soup in the refrigerator. ) I have been cooking a lot with curry, too. This was my first curried soup. I finally got it tasting good. I wasn't in the mood to follow a recipe so I had to keep tweaking until I was satisfied. Today I picked up a new spice blend called muchi curry. It is supposed to be on the hot side. Ingredients include: turmeric, cumin, ginger, black pepper, coriander, fenugreek, garlic, celery seed, cloves, cayenne, caraway, white pepper and mace.

I hope you are having a good week!!

11:16 AM
veggie soup; zucchini, yellow squash, onion, mushroom and turnip sauté with short brown rice
2:00 PM
eggplant and garbanzo bean curry sauté with brown rice
5:45
veggie soup; broccoli and bell peppers steamed, WW pasta, pasta sauce
8:00
salad; seconds on the ww pasta and veggies

kia ora moonlight
good to see you still hanging in there and making progress. I've been off the wagon for 6 months and gained the weight back with interest! I need to hang out here more to compensate for a non supportive social environment and get some motivation and encouragement.

Today I picked up a new spice blend called muchi curry. It is supposed to be on the hot side. Ingredients include: turmeric, cumin, ginger, black pepper, coriander, fenugreek, garlic, celery seed, cloves, cayenne, caraway, white pepper and mace.

Oy, that sounds hot! Anything with pepper in it, and there you also have cayenne...ooh, maybe it's lip-tingling hot! but Indian cuisine is fun to make, with all those spices. Makes the house smell like the Indian section of London

I'm keeping a supply of soup in the fridge at all times, myself. For breakfast, since soup IS the meal, I have a large bowlful. For my other meals, front loading, I have a one-cup measure of soup before my entrée. Never going back. In the summer, I'll see if there's a good gazpacho or cucumber soup...or maybe just keep making and eating hot soup. It seemed really strange to me at the beginning...soup BEFORE the meal? but yeah. A cup of soup as a first course? Why not... and it's working!

bunsofaluminum wrote:Oy, that sounds hot! Anything with pepper in it, and there you also have cayenne...ooh, maybe it's lip-tingling hot! but Indian cuisine is fun to make, with all those spices. Makes the house smell like the Indian section of London

I'm keeping a supply of soup in the fridge at all times, myself. For breakfast, since soup IS the meal, I have a large bowlful. For my other meals, front loading, I have a one-cup measure of soup before my entrée. Never going back. In the summer, I'll see if there's a good gazpacho or cucumber soup...or maybe just keep making and eating hot soup. It seemed really strange to me at the beginning...soup BEFORE the meal? but yeah. A cup of soup as a first course? Why not... and it's working!

Hi Buns! I've enjoyed reading your posts about soup. Learning to pre-load with soup was super helpful. It stops the craving for munchies. I eat less. I stay full longer. I've gotten pretty good at throwing a few items in a pot and calling it soup. I just go with whatever I'm in the mood for. Today I plan to make a sweet-and-sour type soup. Mushrooms, lemon grass, greens.

I'm going to renew my goal of journaling here about my food intake and my struggles. I have not been giving this eating plan the attention it needs.

B: veggie sauté and microwaved potato
L: garbanzo beans mashed, cold baked potato cubed, bell pepper, scallions, sweet pickle, mustard
Afternoon: 2 margaritas and chips
D: salad, potatoes and garbanzo beans
S: blueberries and nonfat yogurt, Matza cracker and honey..

B: half of bagel with peanut butter
L: Mexican style soup, veggie sauté, buckwheat noodles
D: ww pasta, veggies, pasta sauce
S: blueberries and non-fat yogurt
S: matza w/ cheese
S: half bagel w/ peanut butter
Midnight: cereal w/ soymilk

Just way too much snacking in the evening.... everyday I think this day will be better......

B: oatmeal w/ orange
L: veggie soup and baked potato

I thought I would check in. I'm doing much better these days. No binge eating!! Rarely eating during the night. Not much in the way of craving stuff I don't want to eat. I have stopped the MWL plan for now. I found it too restrictive. I think trying so hard to stay within the guidelines caused me to binge. Now I'm eating a little bread, tortilla wraps, and nuts. In the Fall I was binge eating cookies and chips and gained 10 lbs. I'm still up the 10 lbs. but my weight has stopped going up. I exercise a few days a week. I feel more in control. I'm not sure how I will continue to lose the extra weight. Hopefully I will just choose lower calorie foods and make smarter choices as I continue to get more balanced with eating a healthy diet. I have kept with many of the habits I learned while following the MWL template. My plate is usually 50% veggies and I usually preload with soup of salad.

Hi Moonlight

Good to see your post! I'm glad you've been able to steer away from the late night eating, and the bingeing...well done!

Hello McD community! I've decided to start participating in this forum again. I appreciate this forum and the people who come here to chat about their lives and how it relates to eating habits and diet.

Since I've been away, I have been gardening. I have an awesome garden this year. We have had pretty good rainfall. A little too heat at the beginning of the summer but now all veggies are rockin'. We had our first watermelon from the garden tonight. So exciting!

I also learned to use a SUP board. So much fun! It got way too hot to hike (my favorite pastime!). So, I 've been spending a lot of time on the lakes this summer.

I joined a women's group this week that's centered around making positive changes in life. A couple of discussions really spoke to me. One was about thinking negative thoughts about oneself. I have been so discouraged about my diet because I would like to adhere to the McD way of eating but sometimes I go off the rails and eat dairy, meat, and too many sweets, nuts, and fatty foods. I get really down on myself. After a while if I don't turn it around, I get the defeatist attitude. So, I'm rejoining this group to see if I can get past those negative thoughts about myself. This topic fits in with another topic from the women's group. That is, the saying of Be impeccable with your words, thoughts, life in general. It sounds good and can provide quite a bit of energy to strive to be impeccable, but there's some down sides to thinking one can be impeccable. We are not perfect. Why should we expect to be? Food for thought. Better than ice cream!

Looking at the 10 pt checklist... wondering if I can be impeccable with my diet... I will strive for that! My attitude will be to Show up. Do my best. And don't be attached to the outcome.

moonlight wrote:Hello McD community! I've decided to start participating in this forum again. I appreciate this forum and the people who come here to chat about their lives and how it relates to eating habits and diet.

Since I've been away, I have been gardening. I have an awesome garden this year. We have had pretty good rainfall. A little too heat at the beginning of the summer but now all veggies are rockin'. We had our first watermelon from the garden tonight. So exciting!

I also learned to use a SUP board. So much fun! It got way too hot to hike (my favorite pastime!). So, I 've been spending a lot of time on the lakes this summer.

I joined a women's group this week that's centered around making positive changes in life. A couple of discussions really spoke to me. One was about thinking negative thoughts about oneself. I have been so discouraged about my diet because I would like to adhere to the McD way of eating but sometimes I go off the rails and eat dairy, meat, and too many sweets, nuts, and fatty foods. I get really down on myself. After a while if I don't turn it around, I get the defeatist attitude. So, I'm rejoining this group to see if I can get past those negative thoughts about myself. This topic fits in with another topic from the women's group. That is, the saying of Be impeccable with your words, thoughts, life in general. It sounds good and can provide quite a bit of energy to strive to be impeccable, but there's some down sides to thinking one can be impeccable. We are not perfect. Why should we expect to be? Food for thought. Better than ice cream!

Looking at the 10 pt checklist... wondering if I can be impeccable with my diet... I will strive for that! My attitude will be to Show up. Do my best. And don't be attached to the outcome.

Hi Moonlight!!!

So happy to see you journaling and joining Time & Adherence!!!

Love that you harvested a watermelon!!! I had high hopes for garden... doing in stages... (but I went with native plants..., not food)...

I love what you said about your group that you joined!!! So positive!!! Still looking for "heart" emoji... Anyway, sounds awesome!!!

Please try not to be discouraged!!! Just try to incrementally make positive changes.... (and don't beat yourself up... per Mark C... ) .... That was best advice I ever was (finally) able to implement...

Cheers,
Stephanie

VegSeekingFit wrote:

moonlight wrote:Please try not to be discouraged!!! Just try to incrementally make positive changes.... (and don't beat yourself up... per Mark C... ) .... That was best advice I ever was (finally) able to implement...

Cheers,
Stephanie

Hi Stephanie,

Thanks for the welcome back! Your advice from MarkC is going to be my mantra!! Also, I'm looking forward to the companionship and encouragement I get from this group.

Native plants in landscaping are awesome. What plants do you have? Every year I am torn between focusing more on flowers and shrubs and less on vegetable garden, but the veggies always just suck me in. The last couple of years I have been growing and expanding a native flower/herb area in front of the vegetable garden to encourage pollinators and natural predators. It has turned out to be a lovely flowerbed.

Take care,
Moonlight