Much better but not all the way there yet......

Share your McDougall successes here in order to inspire others.

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Much better but not all the way there yet......

Postby dlhanson » Sun Feb 26, 2012 1:51 pm

It has taken a total of 26 years to go from 310 pounds in 1985 to 178 pounds today. This is the least that I have weighed since 1969.

There were plenty of up's to go with the downs of weight loss but since I started following Dr. McDougall's plan in 1996 -- the up's have been much lower.

My current blood pressure is about 110/55 (I couldn't even get into the Army when I was 21 because my blood pressure was too high). Total cholesterol is 125 and fasting glucose is 72. I am on NO meds of any kind.

Since I retired 3 years ago, I have been more active especially with gardening and biking so that has helped. My DW has kept me out of weight trouble since we are almost always with each other since I retired.

There are not many pictures of me but here is one taken in Malaysia when I weighed around 300 pounds (the snake was defanged and in a temple in Penang) in 1985:

Image

This is a picture taken yesterday:

Image
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Re: Much better but not all the way there yet......

Postby Adrienne » Sun Feb 26, 2012 4:47 pm

Congratulations on all of your success! You look great. Thanks for sharing.
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Re: Much better but not all the way there yet......

Postby Broadbean » Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:08 am

Wow, excellent numbers, and you look fantastic!
Image
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Re: Much better but not all the way there yet......

Postby Starchyme » Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:26 am

Good to hear your news. You look healthy and fit!
Happy McDougalling!
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Re: Much better but not all the way there yet......

Postby MommaLuna » Mon Feb 27, 2012 8:44 am

Amazing transformation. What a great role model you are!! Thanks for the pictures.

Linda
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Re: Much better but not all the way there yet......

Postby Gramma Jackie » Mon Feb 27, 2012 1:39 pm

That's a great story. Congratulations on your success. You are an inspiration for those of us who are still struggling to lose weight to not give up no matter how long it takes! It's great to be healthy when you retire. That is what my husband and I are looking forward to in a couple of years also by following the McDougall plan.
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Re: Much better but not all the way there yet......

Postby LauraW » Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:16 pm

You look wonderful! Congratulations. :-D

I have about 35 pounds to lose. I'm very excited thinking about how different I will feel when I've lost all the weight. How do you feel, day to day? I mean, have you noticed a difference in how you are able to move? I used to be able to sit with my knees pulled up to my chest. Now there is way too much fat in between to do that, lol. I just wonder what else I have forgotten about being thin.

Congratulations to you again!
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Re: Much better but not all the way there yet......

Postby dlhanson » Mon Feb 27, 2012 3:26 pm

LauraW wrote:You look wonderful! Congratulations. :-D

I have about 35 pounds to lose. I'm very excited thinking about how different I will feel when I've lost all the weight. How do you feel, day to day? I mean, have you noticed a difference in how you are able to move? I used to be able to sit with my knees pulled up to my chest.


Thank you (and the others) for the kind comments. I don't hardly recall when I weighed over 300 pounds but I am sure I am more flexible than at that time. I haven't weight more than 205 pounds for the last 5 years. It took some additional changes to lose the next 27 pounds DW stopped eating beans and split peas due to kidney problems so I stopped eating these also a year ago. We also stopped eating our evening pop corn. And then as I mentioned I became more active outdoors (we also moved to Florida).

Now there are things that I do know is different than before (other than my blood pressure and fasting glucose). When I ate the SAD diet, I often had abdominal pain --- I always ate a large quantity of food but at that time, I would sit down with a big bag of chips and a container of cream cheese chip dip and eat it all in one sitting. Plus I rarely ate any veggies except for fried potatoes ;(. Now I don't have abdominal pain and I don't have the joint pain that I used to have, particularly in my knees.

I still eat a large amount of food --- except now it is plain vegetables (I limit my fruit to two servings per day) like onions, tomatoes, zucchini, butternut squash, brussel sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, etc. I start with a big breakfast of whole grain cereal (it has oats, oatbran, ground flaxseed, wheat bran) which is minimally processed with nothing added. For lunch 5 or 6 servings of veggies -- raw or lightly cooked -- and two servings of fruit (for the last several months -- oranges from a u-pick orange grove but other times of the year, we will eat papaya, mangoes, or apples). For supper, a tomato based dish that is lightly and quickly cooked. Most of the time fresh local tomatoes are available here either in our own garden, in a u-pick farm, or a farm's market. If they are not available, I use Pomi in a box. I add a yellow or red onion, zucchini or okra or eggplant, green beans, and curry powder (I have learned to love lots of curry powder). I try to be done eating by 6 PM each night.

This is quite change from my midwestern childhood diet which included sugar, fat, and white flour in just about everything. My Asian born wife can't understand how my family could have eaten the way we did with lots of sugar (in kool aid, in white rice, in tomatoes, added to strawberries, in cakes and sticky buns or donuts, etc -- everything had to be super sweet), lots of fat (pancakes cooked in bacon fat, fried potatoes loaded with grease just about every day), and loads of white flour bread with probably a tablespoon of butter on each slice.

I am sure glad that my Mom (84 years old) and my Dad (95) don't ingest as much sugar and fat any more. But they have dealt with heart problems and diabetes for many, many years.

Thank the Lord for Dr. McDougall.
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Re: Much better but not all the way there yet......

Postby LauraW » Mon Feb 27, 2012 3:49 pm

dlhanson wrote:My Asian born wife can't understand how my family could have eaten the way we did with lots of sugar (in kool aid, in white rice, in tomatoes, added to strawberries, in cakes and sticky buns or donuts, etc -- everything had to be super sweet), lots of fat (pancakes cooked in bacon fat, fried potatoes loaded with grease just about every day), and loads of white flour bread with probably a tablespoon of butter on each slice.


Shocking, isn't it...what we once thought of as acceptable food? Eating this way is a total paradigm shift and there's no going back. :)

Thanks so much for sharing your story. It's very motivating!
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Re: Much better but not all the way there yet......

Postby dlhanson » Mon Feb 27, 2012 5:01 pm

LauraW wrote:[

Shocking, isn't it...what we once thought of as acceptable food? Eating this way is a total paradigm shift and there's no going back. :)



I just came back from planting okra and Asian eggplant in our garden. While there I was listening to some health podcasts. An older doctor that was part of the Framingham study for many years (I think that he was the director) was interviewed on one of the podcasts.

Two statements he made I think are very important:

1. The American diet is the worst possible when considering heart disease (I would guess that some of the South Pacific islanders have a worse diet due to the terrible food we brought to them after WWII).

2. The way to eliminate heart disease for everyone is for people to eat a low fat vegetarian diet ;)
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Re: Much better but not all the way there yet......

Postby LauraW » Mon Feb 27, 2012 6:04 pm

dlhanson wrote:While there I was listening to some health podcasts.


You wouldn't happen to have a link for that, would you? I sometimes have trouble falling asleep and like to listen to podcasts.

TIA. :-)
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Re: Much better but not all the way there yet......

Postby dlhanson » Mon Feb 27, 2012 6:28 pm

LauraW wrote:
dlhanson wrote:While there I was listening to some health podcasts.


You wouldn't happen to have a link for that, would you? I sometimes have trouble falling asleep and like to listen to podcasts.

TIA. :-)


http://www.prescription2000.com/Interview-Transcripts/2011-02-18-william-castelli-heart-disease-lipids-transcript.html

This website features many very good interviews including one with Dr. McDougall and one or more with Dr. Furhman.
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Re: Much better but not all the way there yet......

Postby LauraW » Tue Feb 28, 2012 6:31 am

Thank you. :)
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Re: Much better but not all the way there yet......

Postby djunamod » Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:05 am

Just the motivation I needed today :D. All I can say is... WOW. Not just the weight loss but the health improvements also. I wish I could get my dad to go the route that you did, as his BP has always been unstable and we have had episodes of having to take him to the ER because he passed out on low BP episodes.

Maybe I should show him your pictures and your post ;).

Djuna
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Starting Weight: 187.4
Current Weight: 182.2
Goal Weight: 120-125
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Re: Much better but not all the way there yet......

Postby ETeSelle » Tue Feb 28, 2012 11:08 am

CONGRATS!!! Way to keep on plugging no matter what, and look at you now! :)
Elizabeth
Weight now: 124 (20.0 BMI)
Weight in 2010: 207 (33.4 BMI)
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Trust me on this: One day you'll wake up and realize that it no longer feels like "being strict." It just feels GOOD. :)
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