Compliance Project

[moonlight]

That picture makes the soup look good! I’ve made Susan Viosin’s collard and white bean soup 3 times recently, if you want to try it. I love kitchen gadgets. I hope you make some good yummy meals in your new IP. It will for sure get you in the mood for cooking!

[Idgie]

Oh, that soup sounds great! I'll put it on my list. Thanks, moonlight. Lots of the things I've liked of hers in the past have been a little too high in soy or highly processed foods like vital wheat gluten for my current food plan, so I haven't made a lot from the site lately. I should go exploring.

Christmas is over, and so is my week of being off-plan. Not gonna lie -- it was fun, but I noticed almost immediately that some of my more pesky symptoms creeped back, and that's no good. Back on track as of this moment, and I tossed the off-plan foods (except the ones my partner is still working on).

Plan for now is to do McD 100% while eating intuitively*; not gonna worry about MWL right now, but I am gonna note which/how many meals are MWL in a day. Weight is 285, joint pain was back yesterday, as were some of my heart symptoms, and my skin is SO GREASY. Back on track right now (I know I said that already, but I need to hear it again). I have tons and tons of food in the house that is compliant, and I have an Instant Pot to play with, so I have no excuse). For now, I'm allowing myself higher-fat plant foods as long as they're in whole form (i.e., avocados but no avocado oil; olives but no olive oil; soybeans/nuts but no soymilk, nutmilk, tofu, etc). I'll adjust that if I notice it becomes an issue.

Plan for today:
B: taro and radish cakes and an apple
L: sweet potatoes and green beans (MWL)
D: potato/pea curry and sauteed spinach (MWL)
S: fruit and leftovers (MWL)

Actual:
B:
S: a bite of partner's avocado
L: (with a little Red Hot)
D: black rice bowls (2) with sweet potatoes and veggies
S: off-plan snack







(*Intuitive eating: eat when physically hungry until comfortably satisfied; within food plan, eat foods I like and am in the mood for; don't eat food that doesn't taste good just because it's healthy)

[bunsofaluminum]

HI Idgie,

I've been wondering what taro and radish cakes looked like Your food looks terrific. I love the simplicity of your plates.

[Idgie]

Plan for today:
B: taro and radish cakes (McD)
L: black rice bowl (MWL)
D: fat-free refried beans and Mexican rice (MWL if I use brown rice; if I'm out of brown rice, it'll be McD)
S: sweet potatoes (MWL) and/or the last two taro/radish cakes (McD)

Actual:
B:

[Idgie]

Well, I don't do resolutions, but I'm all about fresh starts, so today's as good a day as any to clear the decks of non-compliant foods. I may eat a small amount of off-plan foods today for the holiday, which I'm fine with, but I've already gone through the fridge and dumped off-plan stuff, and I went to the store to buy veggies. I also made a huge batch of garbanzos yesterday to make both hummus and chickpea gravy with. I'll also try to get around to a batch of potato "cheese" today.

I'm switching gears a little on the food planning and just planning out our dinners for a week, then eating intuitively and having whatever compliant food I feel like instead of planning out all my meals and snacks. If that doesn't work, I'll go back to the old, more detailed plan. We have a lot of pasta and beans in the house, so I geared the plan toward using up some of that -- partner doesn't mind eating the same thing a lot, and neither do I.

The week's plan looked like this:
Monday: hors d'oeuvre for dinner (our traditional new year's eve feast; we're in bed by 10)
Tuesday: boiled potatoes and chickpea gravy
Wednesday: pasta with veggie tomato sauce I made this weekend
Thursday: partner's vegan black bean chili
Friday: pasta
Saturday: curry and rice
Sunday: pasta (or I may try Chef AJ's red lentil chili recipe)

Today's actual meals:
1: farina with plant milk and brown sugar
2: corn
3: beets with balsamic vinegar
4: a taro cake and a radish cake
5: off-plan party food

(By the by, I should plan my holidays in advance so I don't suddenly eat junk for International Wicker Day or something. To me, the holidays are as follows: New Year's Day, my kid's birthday (January -- we already celebrated), my anniversary (January), partner's birthday (July), mom's birthday (August), my birthday (September), Thanksgiving, Christmas eve & day. That's 9 in a year. Not bad.

[Idgie]

Back to work after two weeks off. Gonna make myself some fat-free hummus and veggie strips for snacking, and curry and rice for lunch. Have a great day, folks!

Food for today:
1: farina and tea, both with raw sugar and plant milk (McD)
2: veggie rice (MWL)
3: curried "mock duck" (seitan) over rice (McD)
4: pasta with tomato sauce (McD)

Weighed myself this morning: 292.2

[moonlight]

Happy New Year, Idgie! I love your plan to switch to regular McD program. Less stress! I'm considering it, too. Good luck with your "new" plan!

[moonlight]

Hi Idgie,

Have you started a new different journal thread? I miss seeing your posts. I hope you are well and enjoying the new year.

Moonlight

[bunsofaluminum]

Idgie,

where you at? We miss you!

[Idgie]

Thanks, folks! Missed you, too. Being moderate was working okay for me, but not great, and then I watched this video and I decided moderation isn't the best path for me right now. So I'm back on track, and I'm going to make a basic meal plan today and cook up some starches tonight and/or tomorrow.

Good news is that partner is HUGELY into the Instant Pot, and has been making us fresh vegetable soup or other compliant food almost every night, so this should be a fairly easy switch. Partner also vetoed my idea to buy some off-plan food or other today at Costco, so I laughed at myself and realized I no longer have even the tiniest excuse to eat junk.

Anyway, back on track. Thanks for still being here.

[moonlight]

Idgie! Welcome back! It’s good to hear from you. I’ve seen Penn’s video. Inspiring! It’s funny what you said about your partner keeping you on track. My Significant Other has started doing the same. He has started following a diet for diabetes. Now he thinks we both need to follow our diets. I guess we should be careful what we wish for!

Good going getting back on track. I think I’ve finally starting feeling like it is just a part of my life. I can focus on the process rather than the outcome. Sure, I love the weight loss but just being as compliant as I can be, is the real goal. You’ve got this!

[Idgie]

Moonlight, your post is exactly what I needed to read right now.



Today's food:
B: off-plan
L: off-plan
D: partner's Instant Pot veggie soup -- my back-on-track meal

Plan for tomorrow:
veggie soup
potatoes
may make mochi with the kid

[Mark Cooper]

Welcome back, Idgie! Wishing you all the best! A supportive partner / SO can make this WOE so much easier. Be well and take care

[Idgie]

Thank you, Mark!

Plan for today is to stick with vegetable soup (might also include a pot of split pea soup if I feel like it) and potatoes. I have some oil-free mashed potatoes in the fridge and some russets in the potato drawer, along with some compliant hash browns in the freezer if I want to waffle them.

Weight today is 285.4 (about 65 down from my high of 350, about 10 up from my low on December 1st -- not too bad for a couple of lax months). Yesterday, my chronic pain was pretty bad, but that makes sense since I've been eating so-so (not terribly, just so-so) since around Christmas.

We're on a project to try to use up the excess food in our place instead of buying as many groceries. Partner is going every few days to the store to get fresh veggies, and I'm cooking up the grains, beans, etc. before we buy more. Today, probably split pea soup and a pot of some kind of whole grain -- I have so many! When I buy too many whole grains, inevitably some of them go rancid before I have the chance to use them, so from now on, I will use up what I have and then buy ONE more and use it until it's gone, and so on, unless I need something for a specific recipe.

Today's our anniversary, which we don't really celebrate (we're more into just being sweet to each other every day), but I'm gonna use it as an excuse not to go into work on a Sunday to catch up with paperwork, which I was considering doing. My kid is probably coming over later and we're gonna watch Killing Eve and probably make some homemade mochi. She will fill hers with green-tea ice cream, and I will fill mine with bean paste if we get around to doing it at all. Mochi isn't MWL, but it's McDougall-friendly, so I'll play it by ear.

Also, I'm no longer on SparkPeople, so I'm going to figure out some other way to post photos. May set up an Instagram account. SparkPeople was encouraging me to be in a diet mentality, count grams of stuff, etc., and that's just not healthy for me personally.

Today's food:
1: veggie soup
2: salad (tomatoes, bell peppers, green beans, balsamic reduction)
3: split pea soup
4: decaf cashew-milk latte, cherries
5: cold split pea soup (surprisingly good)
6: broccoli (roasted -- got tired of taking pics)
7: off-plan comfort food (rough day)

There's no easy way to share Instagram photos here, so I've started a twitter feed for my pics instead, and I'll see how that goes.

[moonlight]

Hi Idgie, how's your week going? I'm sending you wishes for success in meeting your goals! Hang in there even if you keep having rough days. You'll figure it out - you have before, you will again.