Val's journal

[vegyluvver]

Thank you Valerie!

Going in to work early today so I packed a mason jar with my blueberry oatmeal. Will probably be done at work pretty early but if not there's canned split pea soup in my desk drawer and I'll also take a box of McD lentil soup.

Breakfast: blueberry oatmeal
Work snacks: carrots, tomato juice
Lunch: leftover pasta with oil-free dressing, diet sparkling water
Dinner: cherries, air-fried potatoes, sugar-free ketchup
Snack: McD cup of ramen and some grape tomatoes

Plan for tomorrow's starch is beans and rice.

Part of me really wants to quit MWL and go to regular McDougall but I made a commitment to do it for six months and I keep my commitments. This month I'll be better about compliance, too.

SW: 319
End of July: 318.4

[vegyluvver]

Breakfast: blueberry oatmeal
Snack: tomato soup and grape tomatoes, diet sparkling water
Lunch:

[bunsofaluminum]

Keep it up! Your menus look really good. I hear you on the 50% thing. I’m always putting my starch/entree on my plate to heat in the microwave and end up with more than half of my plate covered. But I figure if I’m leaving all fats, animal products, dried fruits, and liquid calories out, it’s doing me good.

[vegyluvver]

Some day, it will really sink in that if I don't have starches already ready to grab in the fridge, I will reach for easy junk when I'm stressed. Yesterday was stressy, and I grabbed a couple easy sandwiches instead of making good food. I knew exactly what I was doing, and did it anyway. Not the end of the world, and I'm back on track, but I'm going to work hard to make this not happen. (Getting the junk 100% out of my house isn't an option; my husband eats differently.)

Breakfast: blueberry oatmeal

I made a big pot of beans to have for the rest of the day. I will cook up a pot of brown rice next.

[Drew*]

Some day, it will really sink in that if I don't have starches already ready to grab in the fridge, I will reach for easy junk when I'm stressed. Yesterday was stressy, and I grabbed a couple easy sandwiches instead of making good food. I knew exactly what I was doing, and did it anyway. Not the end of the world, and I'm back on track, but I'm going to work hard to make this not happen. (Getting the junk 100% out of my house isn't an option; my husband eats differently.)

Breakfast: blueberry oatmeal

I made a big pot of beans to have for the rest of the day. I will cook up a pot of brown rice next.

Hi Val, I am with you on the starch thing. If there is not enough mixed in with my veggies (50/50) I am tempted to eat the other stuff!

The rice and beans sound good with veggies!

Drew*

[vegyluvver]

The less said the better about how I ate yesterday. Bah. Anyway, onward. Did much better today.

Breakfast: blueberry oatmeal
Lunch: watermelon (wasn't very hungry)
Dinner: Southern goodness: rice, beans, greens, pickled okra, peppadew
Snack: tomato juice, rice salad

I made the decision to not put any salt on my dinner. It was dull but satisfying and I will work on doing that more often. I also have some flavored balsamic vinegar on its way.

[vegyluvver]

SW: 319
Last week: 318.4
CW: 317

I feel like I'm finally getting in the groove. Took me a while.

Breakfast: blueberry oatmeal
Lunch: rice salad
Snack: sweet potato with mango salsa

Yeah, bleah. The rest of the day didn't go as well. Oh, well. Moving on.

Dinner: tuna sandwich
Snack: grilled cheese, cream of tomato soup, popcorn popped in oil (no butter)

[vegyluvver]

Breakfast: blueberry oatmeal

I got my California Balsamic shipment yesterday. Made a salad with the garlic balsamic, and both my husband and I loved it. I also added some of the pineapple balsamic to my mango salsa and it was great. I haven't bought this brand before but I love it so far.

Lunch: salad, then beans and rice
Snack: salad
Dinner: leftover salad, beans, and rice with mango salsa, diet sparkling water

Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals, filling half your plate (by visual volume) with non-starchy vegetables and 50% (by visual volume) with minimally processed starches. Choose fruit for dessert.
Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts too. If either is troublesome for you, you can eliminate them. I'm still using salt, but not sugar
Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
Eliminate any added oil.
Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (i.e. bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit.
Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don’t starve yourself and don’t stuff yourself.
Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). Not exercising yet.

[vegyluvver]

Breakfast: blueberry oatmeal
Lunch: bean stew
Snack: diet sparkling water, unsweetened tea
Dinner: rice and leftover bean stew

Great food day! I didn't sweeten my tea because I didn't want to have to miss that checklist item. I'm on my tablet so I'm not putting the whole checklist here, but I dis well. Just no exercise and I'm still using salt.

[vegyluvver]

Most of the day went great today but then I caved at night and had some food I had already decided not to eat. Not the end of the world but disappointed in myself.

Breakfast: blueberry oatmeal
Lunch: leftover bean stew and rice
Snack: tomato salad with balsamic vinegar, steamed vegetables, pickles, diet sparkling water
Dinner: bean stew and rice and veggies
Snack: tomato sandwich with mayo, slice of bread with butter

[vegyluvver]

Stressful day. I need to figure out how to not respond to stress with comfort food.

Breakfast: blueberry oatmeal
Lunch: bean stew, rice, veggies
Snack: tomato sandwich with mayo, pickles, v8
Dinner: roasted pepper sandwich with olive oil
Snack: popcorn with butter

[vegyluvver]

I have an idea about how to lower my stress and impulse eating. I was thinking this morning that I have an MWL breakfast I eat every single day and I'm never even tempted to eat something else, because I know what's for breakfast: oatmeal and blueberries (or like today, mixed berries because we were out of blueberries). So I think I'm going to work on doing the same for lunch and dinner: have a standard meal that's always available and just is what I have for that meal. I will probably choose vegetable soup for lunch because I tend not to get tired of that. I'll have to think about dinner. Suggestions are welcome.

Breakfast: mixed berry oatmeal

[vegyluvver]

Another thing I keep doing is losing sign of why I'm doing this. Then I have a heart symptom and I remember.

Kind of stuck on the dinner question but I'm decided on breakfast and lunch. Breakfast will be my beloved berry oatmeal. Lunch will be veggie soup. Maybe for dinner I could do a grain bowl. That way I can change up the grains and veggies for variety. Or maybe just like the other meals I need one simple thing that I like enough to eat every day.

[vegyluvver]

I know I'm kind of over thinking this, but I'm tired of six weeks of evening struggles. I think for dinner I need one cold and one hot thing that I can have ready in a flash. For the cold thing, I never get tired of potato salads or pasta/grain salads. For the hot thing, some kind of casserole? Maybe I'll try some recipes out of the MWL book and see if I come up with one. Or I make an MWL friendly mac and cheese, maybe that will work. But in addition, I think keeping cooked potatoes and sweet potatoes on hand will be key, because even when I am at my most tired and lazy, I will eat those and enjoy them. When I have them at hand, I do great.

[vegyluvver]

I am pretty sure I won't love tomorrow's weight but even though my food has been kind of yucky this week, I feel like I have a plan that will work better than winging it every day, so I feel that in the long run, this has been a very useful week.

Plan for tomorrow and going forward:

Breakfast: blueberry oatmeal (or other berries)
Lunch: veggie soup (I usually make it with potatoes, onions, tomatoes, carrots, celery, and veggie stock, but I also add whatever needs to be used up)
Dinner: Start with soup, then a plate of half starch and half veggies. I will get more specific when I find something that works well and is repeatable