Starflower’s Journey to Health

[Starflower]

Test post to see if I can post again

[Starflower]

Second try for this post. It just happened again. I’m getting that blocked blacklisted IP error, so I’ve missed two MWL weekly posts. Hopefully I can do this week’s. I need the support and accountability!

It’s been a challenging ten days. My adherence hasn’t been great. With family drama and impossible schedules, I focused on everyone except me. Again.

Picking myself up and moving forward.

[Starflower]

MWL post for 3/2

Happy March MWL team!


1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. NO

2) 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 desert. YES

3) 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. YES

4) Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). YES

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). NO

6) Eliminate any added oil. NO

7) 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. YES

8 ) Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). YES

9) Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. YES

10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). YES

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

It’s wonderful to be able to post again! I fell back into my usual pitfall in the weeks since my last post, taking care of everyone except me. It could have been much worse, and would have been even six months ago. The last few days have been on plan with food and adequate sleep. Being tired almost always leads me to poor choices. I did a large shopping of fresh fruit and vegetables tonight, and plenty of potatoes. That will give me lots of quick to grab compliant choices over the weekend.

Wishing everyone a wonderful and healthy week!

[Starflower]

MWL post for 3/9

Hi MWL team!


1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. YES

2) 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 desert. YES

3) 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. YES

4) Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). YES

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). NO

6) Eliminate any added oil. YES

7) 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. YES

8 ) Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). YES

9) Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. YES

10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). YES

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

This week was not bad, considering the pace of life didn’t slow at all. I’m starting to be able to keep that from derailing my compliance. Onward!

Welcome Kirsty and Sarabee!
Wishing everyone a wonderful and healthy week!

[Starflower]

Wow, it’s quiet in here! With the posting problems gone, I’m going to try to get back to daily posting. So far this week has gone well, with the only deviation being a bit of oil. We ordered Thai food over the weekend. I was able to get steamed vegetables, no sauce and no salt, and plain rice. The order slip read ‘steamed vegetables - no flavor’!

[Starflower]

MWL post for 3/16

Hi MWL team!

1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. YES

2) 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 desert. YES

3) 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. YES

4) Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). YES

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). YES

6) Eliminate any added oil. NO

7) 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. YES

8 ) Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). YES

9) Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. YES

10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). YES

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

It was a bit better than last week. There was some oil in one food. In response to the questions in last week’s reply, I think the thing that finally clicked was truly believing that the best thing for my family was for me to ‘put on my own oxygen mask first’. I’m learning to take time to rest and to plan and prepare nourishing food for myself. It doesn’t come naturally. Onward!

Thank you for the quotes you posted, Mark! They helped a lot.

Wishing everyone a wonderful and healthy week!

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Starflower,

It sounds like you had an awesome week!

I ❤️ your story of how your order was marked “no flavor”. Seems like it is sometimes an occurrence when ordering out that folks don’t believe that you really want what you have requested. Glad they didn’t “try to help” and you got what you asked for--- nice plain steamed veggies and rice!!

I’m also glad that the posting problem is resolved. I do still get logged off sometimes and lose my post so I do copy from my own PC (where it is easy to re-copy something instead of reconstructing a lost post).

Hope that you have a terrific week!!!

Cheers,
Stephanie

[Starflower]

Hey Stephanie!

True, they got it right, lol! And it definitely had flavor!

I’m still having some problems, too, but they were happening before. I hope activity on the forum increases again.

Wishing you a wonderful week!

[Starflower]

Happy St. Patrick’s day!

Today was good. I had more fruit than is best for me, but still within the guidelines. We all had MWL compliant colcannon, mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes and cabbage. For the non-vegans I made a potato-heavy corned beef hash to minimize the meat. Dessert was honeydew melon, watermelon, pineapple and banana. I had fruit for my pre-load, too.

[Starflower]

It was a good day. Really busy, but I stayed on plan. There were leftovers from yesterday, and I made corn on the cob, carrots and some brown rice noodles. Delicious!

[Starflower]

Today was a struggle. I really wanted to de-stress by eating, but I stayed on plan. I made lentil rice soup, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob and roasted asparagus. Onward!

[Starflower]

MWL post for 3/23

Hi MWL team!


1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. YES

2) 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 desert. YES

3) 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. YES

4) Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). YES

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). YES

6) Eliminate any added oil. YES

7) 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. YES

8 ) Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). YES

9) Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. YES

10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). YES

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

It was a good week. No major problems staying on plan. The simpler my food gets, the better I do. Onward!

Happy Birthday, Mark!

Jeff, I have no experience with either of those. Forums such as this are my only ‘social media’ these days.

Thank you for filling in, Wildgoose!

Wishing everyone a wonderful and healthy week!

[Starflower]

MWL post for 3/30

Hi MWL team!


1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. YES

2) 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 desert. YES

3) 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. YES

4) Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). YES

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). NO

6) Eliminate any added oil. YES

7) 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. YES

8 ) Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). YES

9) Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. YES

10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). YES

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

It was a decent week. I got into some macadamias. At least I gave the rest away. Onward!

Have a lovely time, Mark!

Wishing everyone a wonderful and healthy week!

[Starflower]

MWL post for 4/5

Hi MWL team!


1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. YES

2) 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 desert. YES

3) 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. YES

4) Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). YES

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). NO

6) Eliminate any added oil. YES

7) 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. YES

8 ) Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). YES

9) Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. YES

10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). YES

Victories, comments, concerns, questions:

This week was not too bad. I’m having trouble with the higher fat foods. Right now I’m taking it one meal at a time. On a positive note, SAD foods don’t appeal at all anymore.

Wishing everyone a wonderful and healthy week!

[Starflower]

After some soul searching, I think the best thing for me to do at the moment is to go back to the McDougall Program original guidelines. Maybe I’m one of those people who just needs, as Dr. Lisle said, some avocado to stay on track. If I’m ‘allowed’ to have some higher fat foods, I actually eat LESS of them. I saw that clearly while traveling and settling back in recently. I’m grateful to all the MWL team for their support and help. Looking back over my posts, it seems that, like Erin, giving up the higher fat foods completely is not for me. Onward!