Hello Plant People!

[MickeysBackyard]

Happy to join you all starting today I got some good advice on the "How to Begin" part of the forum, so I'm going to follow the MWL guidelines. I'm going to stick with a slightly more calorie dense starch (rice) for the center of my meals because I can enjoy that plainer than I can potatoes. I'm thinking plainer foods that I still enjoy will help retune my tastebuds better than potatoes that I'd be tempted to drench in salt.

I think I've got about 40lbs to lose to hit my ideal weight (20lbs to be back in the normal weight category at all). I think I'd be a twig if I get down in the lower half of the healthy BMI range, but I'll let you know when I get there

Today's meal plan: Stir fry! I've got a bunch of different types of rice on hand (black, basmati, brown) and will make a big batch of one in my rice cooker. I also have a lot of green beans at the moment, so my plan is to just eat these today with 2-3 different sauce combinations based on soy sauce/cornstarch/vinegar/ginger or curry/coconut aminos. I will also make a big batch of vegetable soup with beans that I can have as a snack as needed. Going to stay away from fruit for now because it can be a trigger for me, but I have some unsweetened frozen blueberries for when I want to give them a try.

[Caroveggie]

Hello Scar! I love your avatar. Sounds like you are on to a good start. I still need to learn how to experiment with making a soy sauce/cornstarch/vinegar/ginger sauce. Hope it turns out great!

[MickeysBackyard]

Day 2!

Thanks to AnnetteW for her stir fry sauce recommendation response from my post in the recipe section- worked great! Very tasty first day with 3 rice/veggie meals using her basic sauce recipe and a small bowl of rice and beans when I got hungry mid-afternoon. Not really planning on having anything different today. I went to Sam's Club yesterday and bought every variety pack of frozen vegetables they had. I already have a pantry full of basmati/black/brown rice and different whole grain mixes that I get from an Asian market, so I think I'll just settle in and eat my way through it all. My rice maker and instant pot threw a party yesterday while they were making me rice and beans together side-by-side on the counter

The one exception I'm allowing myself to McDougall's recommendations is using sucralose as a sweetener. I have sensitive teeth and sugar really sets them off, not to mention my tendancy to start to want to drench things in sugar if I have even a little bit of it. I cut sugar out of my diet about 6 months ago and I don't want it back. I haven't yet found a stevia drop/packet that I like. I found pure sucralose on Amazon and made my own sweetener drops to avoid the dextrose/maltodextrin in Splenda, and it works great for me with none of the weird aftertaste/headachy feeling I get from Splenda itself. Doesn't make me hungry either. Yay!

[AnnetteW]

Glad to know the stiryfry sauce worked for you. I just popped in to check out your journal and saw my name. Always a bit of a shocker. I will admit to using stevia as I've been working on my plan. I'm slowly working it out. I just use pure stevia powder and you seriously just use the tiniest dash. Just make sure it's pure stevia extract powder, it's kind of expensive for the quantity, but it lasts forever. But if the sucralose works for you and you are barely using any, and trying to get off of it too (I think that's our goal), I wouldn't change anything at this time.

Take care.

[MickeysBackyard]

Day 3- first weekend on plan! The really exciting news is my husband has decided to join me in this WOE, so that will make everything a LOT easier. Still just cruising along with my rice and veggies. I figured out that I don't really need to stir fry anything. I just steam the veggies, make the rice in my rice cooker, mix them 50/50 in a nice big bowl. Add an inch of fresh ginger paste (oil free), a generous splash of coconut aminos, a sprinkle of salt, and a few sucralose drops and I get a delicious meal with hardly any prep work. I've been eating a big bowl of this 3x per day, and then if I get hungry in the afternoon I'll have a little bowl of beans and rice with just a little salt. I'm just going to stick to this and vary the grain/veggie mixes until I get bored. Even better- I won't need to go grocery shopping for a loooong time

I tend to lose weight pretty slowly, so I'm not going to weigh myself for a while. If I can actually lose weight eating this I'm going to be overjoyed even if it goes slow. Heck, even if I have to tweak what I'm eating I'm glad I was inspited to try a simple "no stir fry" stir fry!!

[stillcrazy]

Hi Mickeysbackyard! Nice to see a new journal to follow. I am really taken with your avatar as well — too cute! Your meals sound pretty appealing. I am looking forward to more.

[MickeysBackyard]

Thanks stillcrazy!

Good weekend here, not much to report diet wise (which is great). Still sticking to the rice + veggies for all 3 meals. I am eating quite a big bowl at each meal, but I'm not going to worry about that now. I just keep it at the 50/50 rice/veggie ratio and eat when I'm hungry. I did make some black bean soup this weekend which we love. I have a small bowl of that in the afternoon between lunch and dinner if I'm hungry.

Exercise is going well too. Although I've had to cancel the start of my running program since my foot pain started coming back, I'm still doing great walking and biking with my dog Jessie. I have a basket she can ride in on my handlebars, and I've made it part of our routine after each walk. This weekend we tried biking alongside my husband while he did his marathon training, but Jessie was practically trying to jump out of her basket (she's harnessed in for safety). She was too jealous not being able to run with him! He doesn't like running with dogs so that's not an option. Even making a stop in our neighborhood dog park for her to zoom around a bit didn't damper her enthusiasm to join him when we rejoined his run. I wish I loved running that much! I found a bike leash on Amazon that supposedly worked for dogs down to 10lbs (Jessie is 11), so we bought it and gave it a try. Sadly, it'll be doing back. Just feels too dangerous and big for Jessie. Either she'll get used to biking alongside in the basket while he's runnning, or she'll have to stay at home for that part of the day.

Off to my rice + veggie breakfast! Good McDougall day to you all!

[MickeysBackyard]

Aw, I forgot to refrigerate my leftover rice and veggies from dinner last night! So sad. Still planning on rice + veggies for my 3 meals today, but might sub in some quick cooking steel cut oats for breakfast if my new batch of rice isn't done before I get hungry.

The people we're traveling with next week are already lamenting the fact that I'm not going to join them in their pig out session. I'll leave the emotional response to them and just enjoy my rice and veggies

I'm also suspecting my husband might have a hard time with this eating plan. When he's eating poorly he eats a ton of food, but when he switches to plant based he limits how much he eats. I'm not sure if that's because he's trying to be on a "diet" or if the fiber just fills him up faster. Anyway, I have a feeling he'll be adding in some higher fat plant foods because he won't last long on the small amount he's eating now. Not going to nag him, though- he's an adult and needs to make his own choices. He's aware of the McDougall guidelines and is tasking himself with loweing his cholesterol though diet.

[MickeysBackyard]

I'm shocked- I've lost 5 lbs since I started MWL 6 days ago!! I wasn't going to weigh myself for a while because I don't want this all to be about weight. It can be very unmotivating to me because I lose weight slowly. Problem is, we have a new miniature poodle and I need to track her weight to make sure I'm feeding her enough. She doesn't weigh enough on her own to be within the scale accuracy range, and she's too heavy to put in a box and weigh on my kitchen scale (which I definitely considered- ha). So happy discovery this morning. I can't believe I can eat this much food and actually lose weight at all. Nice jumpstart in the right direction, although I'm sure it'll slow down considerably. I dumped what I'm eating into Cronometer to make sure I'm getting enough food- sure enough I eat 1800-2000 calories per day. Most of the calories come from rice, then I eat about a pound and a half of steamed mixed veggies and at least a cup of beans. So, yay! Good success so far and I have room to decrease my calories in the future if I need to and still stay at a reasonable amount of food.

I had my share of first world problems yesterday- my grocery store ran out of the ginger paste and coconut aminos in addition to a bunch of things my husband wanted- unsweetened almond breeze, Dave's Killer Bread, whole wheat bagels. It's funny to put into perspective how pampered we are that a temporary interruption of optional food items can be so annoying.

Nothing out of the usual schedule for today, just more rice/veggies/beans and the normal exercise of walking my dog and biking with her.

[MickeysBackyard]

Today is pet anxiety day! I took our dog to the vet to get spayed which is nerve wracking enough, but when they weighed her she was a pound lighter than what I measured at home. I'm hoping their scale is just off and asked them to recheck before they do anything using a different scale. I've been tracking her weight for the last 5 weeks at home and haven't seen a fluctuation of more than 0.2lbs. So it's likey nothing, but I'm worried nonetheless. She's my first dog and I want to make sure I'm feeding her enough- she's not very food motivated and I could see her just not letting me know if she was still hungry. I'm used to having cats that I just let graze on their kibble. On top of that, we have to board her at the vet for the next 9 days due to an upcoming trip, so while it's good she'll have professional post op care, I'm sure she won't eat well.

One of my cats isn't feeling well. We tried a new ointment to treat her skin allergies, and it upset her stomach after she licked it off. Yesterday she was really unhappy and just slept all day, but today she is more interactive. She's drinking fine, and I've been able to tempt her with a little bit of tuna juice and gravy from wet cat food, but she hasn't had a solid meal. Going to keep my eye on her all day today and tomorrow morning- if she doesn't eat by then it's off to the vet for her too.

And then my mom is also having health issues, which unfortunately isn't new to her, but it's always worrying when they flare up. The current issue is really low BP to the point where she can easily pass out when she stands up. She's had a few falls, but luckily only bruises, and is working closely with her doctors to try to sort things out.

So, stressful day for me here. But I'm happy to report I've had no issues sticking to MWL and I took my stress out on my house this morning and now it's sparkling clean from top to bottom. This afternoon I'll turn my attention to our yard and whip things in to shape out there too.

[deweyswakms]

Hi Mickey,

I too am very fond of rice/veggie bowls. So good! I put lots of stuff with my brown rice including potatoes, steamed carrots which I love, veggies and beans. Are you also eating beans or lentils? Yay on the weight loss! My 72 year old body takes its own sweet time to drop a few ounces to .5 a lb. Marsha

[AnnetteW]

How are the critters all doing today? I hate when my babies aren't well, it's so concerning as they can't really talk and just look at you so sadly. One of my dogs does that anyway.

Glad to hear you are doing so well on MWL, keep up the great work.

[MickeysBackyard]

Are you also eating beans or lentils?

Hi deweyswakms- Yes, I do typically have my cup of beans in addition to the veggies/rice. I made some nice black bean soup over the weekend that I enjoyed, or I just open a can of pinto beans and eat a cup of them with some rice. Tasty!

How are the critters all doing today?

Hi Annette- Our miniature poodle made it through her spay surgery and is doing well. She's boarded at the vet and I'm happy to know she's in good hands for her post op care. My cat on the other hand still isn't eating, so it was off to the vet for her this morning. She's not one to turn her nose up at food, so something is wrong for sure. She's the one I'm really worried about today. They're going to squeeze her in for some tests between their surgery schedule sometime this morning. Hopefully it's something they can identify and we can come up with a treatment plan. And to top it off, we're supposed to leave on vacation tomorrow afternoon. Our younger cat has never been alone, so if the hospital needs to board the older cat, she would be all by herself. We have pet sitters come over daily, but that's only for 30-45 minutes. On the other hand, if the older cat would need medicine, I'm not sure how comfortable I am having pet sitters administer it, even though I really like the company we work with. There's no way I'm enjoying vacation at the thought of 3 miserable pets left behind

I'm probably making a mountain out of a mole hill, but we've been traumatized in the past by similar pet situations. We've come home from work travel to a dead cat, and when we contacted the pet sitter to find out what happened, they basically said "Yeah, it was weird, I couldn't find him..." That was a different company in a different state, but still it leaves an impression. We don't know what he died from, but it's likely he stopped eating and died from sudden onset fatty liver disease. We've also had a cat who had stomach issues for years and was finally diagnosed with lymphoma during a last ditch exploratory surgery, so I'm sensitive to having a cat with eating issues. You know when you get a pet that something bad will happen at some point, but choosing that heartbreak doesn't make it easier to take in my experience.

If it was a vacation with just us, I'd cancel immediately and just lose the money and take care of our pets. I'm going to spend the trip with my parents, and with my mom's current health, I'm worried I won't have much time left with her either. Feels like a choiceless choice.

[sirdle]

We've come home from work travel to a dead cat, and when we contacted the pet sitter to find out what happened, they basically said "Yeah, it was weird, I couldn't find him..."

I am NOT letting my wife read this post. That is her worst travel-nightmare.

Hope everybody is feeling better today!

Cheers,

[MickeysBackyard]

Yeah- sorry for the downer of a post, but I had to vent somewhere!!

More Rice+Veggies planned for today, I'm just going to keep on keepin on as they say until I get tired of this. I've been very satisfied eating this way. I did have a banana yesterday since my dinner was going to be late, but otherwise I haven't felt the need for fruit.