Hi Team Time & Adherence,
Hope everyone had a great week!
1 Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Frequently – about the same as last week – a few misses. I am looking to increase the percentage of preloads here. 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 dessert.
Yes. Same meals – still love them. 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. Reduced, not eliminated. 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. No stress eating dry and salties this week. 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 - 7 / 7. I am super excited to compete in my first ever non-club pickleball tournament this Saturday. It is a round robin format and I am assigned to court 7 --- so feeling lucky! Ha! I leave really early in the morning – so am packing banana, grapes, and potatoes as I’ll be gone for at least 6 hours and don’t want to be hungry – they provide some snack bag that I will give to a hungry buddy. Victories, comments, concerns, questions:
Thanks,
Mark for great comments last week – a lot of “food for thought”! Very cool that you continue to eat the same lunch that you love most days. I agree 100% that as long as it tastes great, why mess with a good thing! Also, I absolutely do have a tendency to make non-optimal choices when under stress (especially when it is on-going, sooner or later a poor choice may happen). I am trying to continue to build skills around positive self-talk and just moving on while trying to learn something from each experience. Additionally, I continue to work on mindfulness and reducing stress. I think that I have made progress in this space, but that there is always room to learn and improve.
Gimmelean, I loved your comment last week about smugly enjoying being on the fringe. YES!!!
Here are my comments to Mark’s bonus questions.
I go with simplicity and repetition for the most part with my meals (oatmeal, rice / corn / bean salad, potatoes, various crock pot soups). I love these meals which are quick to prepare, and I don’t feel like I need to venture much outside of them. Given that, if someone wants to cook me some different delicious MWL compliant food, I would be happy to sample it!
I do not feel the need to try new recipes (although occasionally, I do make the attempt). I do try different varieties of fruit and veggies (sometimes beans and whole grains).
I like a mix of familiar enjoyable activities and trying new things. For instance, I have only been playing pickleball since this March and I am hooked for life. I have done some semi-adventurous things in my life (i.e., parachuting, hot-air ballooning, a few trail running events) --- but also do like the comfort of familiar activities.
I value spending time with family and friends the most. Love to play various yard games in nice weather like badminton, bags, ladder ball. During COVID, we really started playing board games of all kinds and cards. We continue with this and it’s lots of fun! I am also happy curled up on the couch or on the deck if the weather is nice with a book. Foodwise, enjoying honeydew melon, pluots (mottled and black), corn on the cob, heirloom tomatoes, Yukon gold potatoes --- among other things.
Mark, enjoyed what you shared around your newfound fun family activity! We have a Six Flags nearby that has Hurricane Harbor water park inside the amusement park. When my son was younger, we had season passes for a few years. What an awesome way to spend time together.
Wishing everyone an excellent week soaking up the last days of amazing weather!
Best,
Stephanie