10 Day Mary's Mini

[janluvs2heel]

I am starting a 10 day Mary's Mini today. I have been doing well on MWL but I like to do Mary's Mini every few months. The last time I did it was end of August I think, for 10 days. It really helps show me that I have control & blasts away my appetitie.

I am off for the next 3 days with nothing on my plate (figure of speech) so thought it would be a good time to get started.

My choice of starch will be of course my favorite, potatoes.

Anyone want to join me?

[kimba]

How much did you lose when you did this before?

I dont want to join in at this time. Just curious.

[gypwytch]

I'd like to join up with you. It might be a little hit and miss for me, I live with my parents, dad is against the "fu-fu-fairy food" and mom is well meaning but tends to sabotage things. Actually mom would like to McDougall too, but dad always makes problems for her.

Anyways, yes, I would like to give the mini a try. I'll have to modify a tiny bit because of my living situation and have 2 starches. Quinoa at breakfast and lunch, potatoes at supper. Breakfast and lunch are the easy meals for me to do, supper is the one meal we eat together.

[Letha..]

Well, I plan to be doing Mary’s mini for at least the next 10 days so count me in. Rice is my starch of choice. I’m eating the exact same thing every day. Here is my menu plan.

7am: Lundberg’s Organic Brown Jasmine Rice topped with ½ Tablespoon Soy sauce and a couple drops of Tabasco, organic romaine lettuce topped with ½ Tablespoon 321 dressing.

10am: 5.5 oz V-8 juice

Noon: Lundberg’s Organic Brown Jasmine Rice topped with ½ Tablespoon Soy sauce and a couple drops of Tabasco, organic romaine lettuce topped with ½ Tablespoon 321 dressing.

2pm: 3 tiny dill pickles

4pm: Lundberg’s Organic Brown Jasmine Rice topped with ½ Tablespoon Soy sauce and a couple drops of Tabasco, organic romaine lettuce topped with ½ Tablespoon 321 dressing.

6pm: Sliced organic apple

8pm: Lundberg’s Organic Brown Jasmine Rice topped with ½ Tablespoon Soy sauce and a couple drops of Tabasco, organic romaine lettuce topped with ½ Tablespoon 321 dressing.

Beverages: Filtered water, carbonated water, and various unsweetened yogi herb teas.

I'm eating about 1 cup of rice and 2 cups of romaine lettuce at each meal.

According to the Cron-o-meter
Calories: 1141
Protein: 30 g
Carbohydrates: 239 g
Fiber: 26.1 g
Fat: 8.5 g
Vitamin A: 1469%
Vitamin C: 195%
Sodium: 2878 mg

My salt intake is a little high. I’ll probably cut the pickles & V-8 after I finish what I have in the fridge and that should bring my daily sodium down to 2224, which is below the maximum daily recommended level of 2400 mg/day.
Letha

[vegan1mimi]

Count me in too!!! I find that it helps me to commit to challenges like this. Keeps me focused on the goal!! I did the 21day vegan challenge that PCRM had and it REALLY helped me. Anywho count me in!! I'm gonna alternate my startches rice and potatoes. One day one starch and the next the other.... Thanks for starting this Janluvs2heel

[janluvs2heel]

Vegan1mimi-I did the kickstart as well, but it was easy since I was already McDougalling & I was already started Mary's Mini. Got some great recipes from it though.

Letha-I choose to do potatoes because I dont think I would be as good with the rice. I like rice & I dont measure it out when I do eat it. So far today I have had hash browns around 8 am & then I just heated up a potato that I cooked on Wed. Served it with some ketchup. I am going to go to the grocery store as I want to get somemore veggies. I usually eat frozen veggies, since I am just one person. I am going to concentrate on spinach & broccoli. I will have one apple a day. I have never been a big fan of fruit.

Debbie-I know you have been struggling lately with not getting the weight loss so I hope this will help. For those of you who dont know, Debbie is my daughter. It is fun doing this together. We share the good, the bad & the ugly.

Gypwytch-I know how you feel. I dont have the parents thing but I have problems at work. When we go for our staff meetings, it is hard to steer them towards restaurants where I can at least get a potato. The other day we got take out, I brought my lunch. It was delicious, I coudn't help but notice that everyone else had pretty much gotten the same thing, chicken salad. It looked horrible, the pale iceberg lettuce, actually that is about all I saw. I heated my lunch in the microwave, it smelled so good.

Kimba-The first time I did it, last spring, I lost about 8 lbs I think, this last time I probably lost 6. It really is fairly easy, even the 1st day I dont have much hunger.

This will be fun. It will take us right thru Halloween & into November.

[vegan1mimi]

Hey Letha what is your address to your blog I can't remember it. I know I enjoyed all of your meal ideas. For lunch today I made Paul's two cup soup and had long grain brown rice with it. VERY GOOD!!! I just really need to increase my water intake. I don't do to well in that department.

[Letha..]

Hey Letha what is your address to your blog I can't remember it. I know I enjoyed all of your meal ideas.

Hi Vegan1mimi,
Here is my blog address.

http://mwlfood.wordpress.com/

Letha

[Letha..]

Checking in. Still doing the rice and lettuce thing. I use a Zojirushi rice cooker. What’s great about the Zojirushi is that it has a timer and a warming feature. I can fill up the cooker with rice and water before I go to bed and set the timer to have my brown jasmine rice done at 6am. It will keep the rice warm and moist all day long so I can have rice at 7am, noon, 4pm, and 8pm just by going to the rice cooker and filling up a bowl. I’m also using pre-washed packaged lettuce so each meal has a prep time of under 2 minutes. Before bed, I clean the rice cooker, fill it up and set the timer again. Easy breezy.
Letha

[janluvs2heel]

I am on plan as well. Had the same for breakfast, hash browns. Sometimes they cook better than other times, I dont know why but today they were xtra crispy.
I am going to work for about 3 hours, I will be there by myself so that will be good. No interruptions. Then I am going to buy a new bra. No, not that much change, but the other day I was putting it on & my finger went thru the back so I need a new one before this one falls apart. After that, I will go to the grocery store & stock up on taters & vegies. Mainly spinach, broccoli & I think I will buy some baby carrots. My dogs love them as well so when I have some, they get their serving as well.

Letha, that rice cooker sounds really easy. Me, I have a couple little dishes I got off QVC, once my rice is cooked, I just put my serving in the dish & nuke it for a few minutes. My thing is I have to cook the rice so that is why potatoes are easier for me. I did have a rice cooker a few years ago, by Wolfgang Puck but it broke after about 4 months & I had hardly used it. So haven't replaced it yet.

Debbie-Excellent job. Who cares why your weight went down or it is not Thursday. It is a confidence booster that's for sure.

For me, I will not weigh until at least Friday & if I can hold off, until Sunday, the 1st. I am really hoping to be below 218 by then. It is only 3 lbs. I am also going to try to do some exercise today, even though my knee is still not good, but I can at least do some work on my upper body.

[Letha..]

Morning all,
Day three and I’m still doing the rice & lettuce thing. Another interesting thing about the Zojirushi rice cooker is that it has a program for making GABA brown rice. This is not a new variety of brown rice, but a newly discovered way of cooking brown rice to “activate” it and increase natural occurring gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), an amino acid in brown rice believed to have health giving properties such as lowering blood pressure, improving kidney function and relieving stress. The brown rice is “activated” by soaking the rice at 104 degrees F for 2 hours before the actual cooking begins.

I use the GABA program option but it doesn’t really taste any different to me and there is actually some controversy about whether the 2 hour soak time is sufficient to start the germination process. Soaking for 12-16 hours before cooking was the recommendation for GBR (germinated brown rice) prior to the newest rice cookers making it part of their program. I will be interested to see any future studies that measure the GABA in rice made with a Zojirushi or studies that measure the benefits of eating rice with higher levels of GABA.
Letha

[janluvs2heel]

I am still in as well. Yesterday all I had to eat was hash browns for breakfast, then I had to go to work for a few hours, I thought I would eat when I got home but after the grocery store, it was after 5. I never got starving but I bought a bag of baby carrots & ate about 6 of them. Then around 7 I had 1 1/2 New Potatoes & some spinach. It was pretty tasty. It was weird, though, I was not hungry most of the day & after my baby carrot snack, well, I could have gone to bed wihtout eating anything.

So far I have eaten hash browns for breakfast. I may eat a banana around noon.

Debbie, that is cool. I mean that has been your problem, not controlling your hunger so if this gets you going down the right path, that is great.

Letha, I had never heard of GABA with the brown rice. I guess my rice will have to be plain brown rice since I have no way of doing that. Oh, well. For now I am eating potatoes so I am okay. How long do you plan on doing rice/lettuce for? Or is is just up in the air?

[kirstykay]

Hi, I just joined the forum, and I'm new to mwl, and just found out what Mary's mini is. I think it would be a great way to kickstart my weightloss. I know you've been doing this for a few days already, but I would like to join you if I could. I have 115 pounds to lose total, and I tend to lose the same 5-8 pounds over and over again. I'm hoping I can break that cycle with McD. My only concern about Mary's Mini is that I cook for my family every night. I'm not sure what to feed them while I'm doing this. My husband is extremely supportive, though, so I know I can do this. I'm looking forward to getting started, and I appreciate any support/suggestions you all can give.

[desertwind56]

I'm new to the forum as well. I'm starting Mary's mini today. My goal is to stick to it for 3 days. I'm going to go whip me up some hash-browns in a few minutes.

I made a crock pot full of veggie soup yesterday, so that will be lunch and snacks for quite a few days.

I think I will roast some potatoes, onions and carrots for dinner. While the oven is on, I'll bake some extra potatoes.

Going to hit the grocery store today to pick up some fresh and frozen veggies.

I'm lucky my husband is with on this 95% (I don't think he will give up the morning oats, lol, but he's the one that cooks them anyway).

Connie M.

[Silvafox]

I just found this thread too...I seem to always miss the beginning of these challenges but I'd like to join in for the next seven days.

That being said, would someone explain to me the interpretation of Mary's Minis? When I first read about it I was under the impression that it was eating just one starch every meal with some high-water-content veggies. The starch is the same for every meal (I get it that some people do two starches). Are there other guidelines? Do I need a piece of fruit? What things would I put on the potato? Would most any of the MWL potato recipes qualify?

Do most of you check the boards daily? Do you check just specific topics?

Man, that's a LOT of questions...I guess that's why I lurk most of the time...I always have questions...

Debra