August 2020 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group

[Cathy Ann]

-2
Current Weight 225
August Start weight 233
July Start weight 245
August loss -8
July loss -12

10-point plan
1. Start each meal.... Mostly
2. 50/50 Plate...& fruit for dessert. Yes
3. Reduce added sugar and salt. Yes
4. Eliminate all animal foods. Yes
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant food. Yes
6. Eliminate any added oil. Yes
7. Eliminate all high calorie-dense food including Flour. Yes
8. Don't drink your calories. Yes
9. Follow principles, Eat when hungry.... Yes
10. Avoid being sedentary. a work in progress.

wow, where has the time gone? we say goodbye to August soon and hello to September (Spring) as the weather warms up here, I will have no excuse for avoiding the pool. This is the main step of the plan that I need to work on and I don't understand why I find it so challenging?
I'm feeling very proud that I did not binge eat this month, and hopefully this is the start of a binge free life.
I was out at my daughter house for dinner and everyone had a lamb curry but she made me a pearl couscous salad. I'm not sure if pearl couscous is compliant? I hope it is because I like it. I purchased a box of couscous to try.
My sleep healthy patterns still need to be worked on, but there has been some improvement. I need to be a bit stricter with myself to get into a regular routine bedtime. My ten-point plan attention has been fantastic this month, but I do have to be more compliant with step number 1. and of course, step number 10.
So happy with my weight loss thus far, and excited for September! Wow! Have a fantastic week everyone.

[josietheschnauzer]

Weight: 101.4--no change from last week.

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

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. CHECK

2) Choose fruit for desert. CHECK

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. CHECK

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

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). ANOTHER "MISHAP" IN A NEW CHINESE RESTAURANT-- MY CUCUMBER SUSHI WAS CUCUMBER/AVOCADO. I COULDN'T BEAR SENDING IT BACK BECAUSE I KNEW IT WOULD BE "TRASHED"-- SO INTERESTING. I DON'T MISS AVOCADO AND MY EATING IT DIDN'T START A PLEASURE TRAP REACTION!

6) Eliminate any added oil. CHECK

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. CHECK

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

9) Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. I STUFFED MYSELF ONE NIGHT....OR MAYBE I WAS REALLY HUNGRY! IN ANY CASE I LOVE POTATOES!!!!

10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking. DAILY EXERCISE. STILL DOING 7 MILES A DAY UNTIL I FINISH MY VIRTUAL SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA WALK/RUN. I WILL FINISH IT IN 2 WEEKS AND WILL STEP DOWN TO 5 MILES A DAY.

Thank you again, Jeff, Mark, Wild Goose, and all of you for helping me on this journey.

[josietheschnauzer]

Weight: 101.4--no change from last week.

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

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. CHECK

2) Choose fruit for desert. CHECK

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. CHECK

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

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). ANOTHER "MISHAP" IN A NEW CHINESE RESTAURANT-- MY CUCUMBER SUSHI WAS CUCUMBER/AVOCADO. I COULDN'T BEAR SENDING IT BACK BECAUSE I KNEW IT WOULD BE "TRASHED"-- SO INTERESTING. I DON'T MISS AVOCADO AND MY EATING IT DIDN'T START A PLEASURE TRAP REACTION!

6) Eliminate any added oil. CHECK

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. CHECK

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

9) Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. I STUFFED MYSELF ONE NIGHT....OR MAYBE I WAS REALLY HUNGRY! IN ANY CASE I LOVE POTATOES!!!!

10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking. DAILY EXERCISE. STILL DOING 7 MILES A DAY UNTIL I FINISH MY VIRTUAL SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA WALK/RUN. I WILL FINISH IT IN 2 WEEKS AND WILL STEP DOWN TO 5 MILES A DAY.

Thank you again, Jeff, Mark, Wild Goose, and all of you for helping me on this journey.

[Abe]

Weight Change: 0 lbs.

• Follow 50/50 plate volume.
  I took Mark's advice and made a yes or no task check-off box for each time I ate this last week to indicate if it was 50/50, snacks included. This was very helpful. I only had three times that I ate when it was not a 50/50 composition. I would not have remembered this had I not had the record. I think that I will do it again this week because either I was exaggerating and forgetting how often I was not compliant, or having to check it off in my task list made me more likely to be compliant.
  
• Avoid being sedentary.
  I found a relic in my basement of an impulse buy from 2015, called the Bowflex Max Trainer (they had a persuasive commercial). I forgot that it was down there, not because my basement is so vast, but because I just got used to ignoring it. Anyway, I am going to add this into my rotation for some exercise variety. It has only been used 15 times, and I plan to remedy that.

[jan_npr]

Weight change DOWN 1.2 pounds

Thank-You so much Mark for your helpful comments. I printed them and reread through the week for added inspiration. Your work here is so much appreciated. Must take a lot of time.

This week I finally tracked a full week of compliance to the MWL rules. I know I did better than last week, hence the loss, but still was only compliant 67% of the time for meals, and 43% of the time for snacks. This is such useful information and I see that snacking is a big issue. Can't wait to see how I do this week. Knee pain still an issue but physio and massage scheduled for this week and should know more. I have so much stiffness in my body as well when I get up from sitting (mostly in back - not a new thing but getting worse). Wondering if anyone has any experience eliminating nighshades for relief here. Potatoes are such a basis for my diet that I really have trouble getting my head around such an experiment.

A 10-POINT CHECKLIST FOR MAXIMUM WEIGHT LOSS (MWL)

1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.  YES
2) Follow the 50/50 plate method 2) Choose fruit for desert. MOSTLY
3) Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts.  YES
4) Eliminate all animal foods ALWAYS
5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). YES
6) Eliminate any added oil. SLIP UPS HERE
7) Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products, puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit. SLIP UPS HERE
8 ) Don’t drink your calories 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 MUCH BETTER THIS WEEK

[goal140]

Good morning!

I actually had 2 days, this week that were compliant ( which is a feat in itself). This is the first time in a month, that I have had compliant days! I’ve been eating salty, crunchy, non-compliant foods. I can’t quite figure out the difference in my mind-set which allowed me to be compliant. I know part of it is psychological. Ten pounds ago, going from the 170’s to the 160’s, I hit a bit of a plateau and my weight fluctuated a bit. Now going from the 160’s to the 150’s, the same thing is happening, just being in that plateau for a longer period of time. Maybe, unconsciously, I am afraid to loose the weight due to fear of the unknown!

Last week I weighed 161.6 and today I weigh 160.4, a loss of 1.2 pounds.
-1.2

My main issue is compliance.

[CindyD]

Female, age 51, 5'8"
Starting weight July 6, 2020: 211.7

August 21, 2020: 185.6
August 28, 2020: 183.6
Result: -2.0
Since July 6: -28.0

Doing well with most guidelines. Hoping to get in more exercise if these 95+ degree Midwest days would calm down a little.

7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products
Well, I really wanted one slice of whole wheat bread with a thin layer of cashew spread (purchased before I decided to do MWL) one day. It tasted pretty good but did not lead to additional food crimes. Yay!

I hate to see people struggling and would like to say, if you are here you are still doing better than most of the U.S. population (and some other places with high obesity rates). So congratulations for being here! But I do think for many the plan would get easier if people could white-knuckle through full compliance for a couple weeks so they could see their tastes change and the program become easier. As Doug Lisle says, do an experiment! Try it for two weeks. Heck, try it for one week. Good luck to all!

[CindyD]

I have so much stiffness in my body as well when I get up from sitting (mostly in back - not a new thing but getting worse). Wondering if anyone has any experience eliminating nighshades for relief here.

I am curious about nightshades also! I saw something about eliminating nightshades to help skin conditions and I have some minor issues and wonder if these are contributing but I haven't looked into it yet. A few videos here: https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/nightshades/ but they don't seem to address stiffness or skin conditions specifically. It would be a bit of a bummer to quit potatoes and tomatoes, though.

[calharv]

Happy Friday All,

Scale showed no change this week, 171.
Started the week strong! Was noticing my rings rattling around on my finger a bit but, as is my pattern (historically), when I have evidence that I am making progress I tend to ease up (why?) and so...

This week I once again fell short on these points:
#5 - avocado and nut butters
#9 - ate more often than needed (when not hungry, but just because)

I feel that having these guidelines and this weekly accountability will help eventually to keep me on track more consistently.

Cal

[Kathie]

222 lbs.

Had visitors last week and ate some veggies that obviously had oil in them when we went out to eat. I don't go out to eat much so not sure which places serve MWL foods. I think if I can stick to the MWL guidelines 100% I would lose weight faster. We'll see.....


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

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. OK

2) Choose fruit for desert. OK

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. OK

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

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

6) Eliminate any added oil. Ate some takeout veggies, supposedly steamed, and they seemed to have oil on them.

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. OK

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

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

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

[Creaky]

08/15/20 267
08/21/20 264.7 -2.3
08/28/20 262 -2.7

1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. No Fruit at end of the meal.
2) Follow the 50/50 plate method 2) Choose fruit for desert. Yes
3) Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. Yes - only salt I add to meals is my lemon pepper sprinkled on top of the meal. It's 200 mg Na/quarter teaspoon. I don't think I use a quarter tsp per meal.
4) Eliminate all animal foods Yes
5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). Yes - Substituted beans for the tofu.
6) Eliminate any added oil. Yes
7) Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products, puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit. Yes
8 ) Don’t drink your calories 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. I eat 5 meals each day - four of the meals consist of two cups of a steamed vegetable mix (starchy vegetables and green beans), 1/2 cup rice or potatoes and about 1/3 cup of beans. Breakfast is oats and spinach
10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily. 5 out of 7 days, I think. It's still hot here and not getting below 90F until 730 pm.

So far so good. It's been a bit stressful this week with family stuff. As long as I don't have the non MWL foods in the house I can't eat them.

Creaks.

[GreenFroG]

Hi everyone,

Weight change: -0.0
Weight: 149.4
Checklist:
1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. I really like the SNAP soup.
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.
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. I am also finding that I like plain balsamic vinegar on my salads now.
4) Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
6) Eliminate any added oil.
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.
8 ) Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
9) Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.
10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).

Observations: No change this week, but I lost 2 pounds last week (which is a lot for me) so I wasn't surprised. I followed the plan pretty much the same as last week, so no new observations to report. My husband commented that I will have to buy new clothes soon as they are looking baggy, so I could not be more happy! I am waiting for a few more pounds to drop before I go shopping, but the program is working. Thank you!

[connielovesdogs]

Last Week: 189.3
Current weight: 184.5
Loss: -4.8 lbs

Very compliant on all items this week! The larger loss is in part a correction on last week's big gain. Feels good to be back on track.

Favorite meal this week: salad with cucumber, zucchini, black beans (made with onions and spices in our new Instapot), and that salad dressing Mark suggested.

Still enjoying watermelon...I fear the season is almost over.

Thank you, Mark, for your thoughtful responses each week. This discussion board has really been helpful to me the past couple of months, and I look forward to continuing.

[Trish]

Last week: 123lbs
This week: 121lbs

Hello, MWL friends... I missed reporting in on weight last week as I did not get to do it until Saturday. LAST week was a week with significant error with nut butter, about 4 tablespoons in the week and it FEELS like I am still recovering from that slip as my weight went up 3.5 pounds and still is not back where it was.

Unfortunately, I can get angry about that, which does not help anything... I get this silly refrain in my mind that says... "this is not fair that 400 calories in a week could put on 4.5 lbs! that is not "water weight ". Very child-like. Not something I like much about myself. Inner temper tantrum

However, it is what it is. I am very active daily, however nut butter could not BE any more calorie dense and off-plan.
.. so this week, down 2 pounds from last week, which is more halfway back to where I was 3 weeks ago.

MWL Checklist this week:
A 10-Point Checklist for Maximum Weight Loss - Switching from fruit to potatoes and stopping when satisfied with eating, 90% of the time for carbohydrates, getting starch instead of sugar. 50/50 plates, sometimes more veggies than starch as I am rarely truly HUNgry, no added sugars, vegan, lots of raw veggies in salads, included more beans, no high fat foods or oil, 1 slice of home made bread, no sweet beverages and running or walking daily for 30-90 minutes. Had McDougall Mushroom Soup one evening for dinner, has plant milk along with mushrooms and potatoes to thicken it, it but it was the best I have ever had! Discovered white, Japanese sweet potatoes a friend gave me from his garden, yum!

Need to do for this week - avoid nut butters and get over myself if that turns out to be a permanent change, that's what it is. Limit fruits, keep cooked potatoes available, increase starch proportion. Veggies are no problem, love 'em. Stick with it, and shoot for all 10 points and believe that I can do it.

Thanks for listening, and Mark thanks for your input 2 weeks ago, I did stop with Fitness Pal for a week, may do it again.. it is odd for me to not keep track in that way. A little gun-shy after the weight gain two weeks ago, too. Maybe they are not related.

Promise - I'll be in a much better mood by this time next week.
Thanks for being here together and for all of your sharing, it really matters!
Trish

[rlechols]

Weight last week: 145 lbs
Weight this week: 144 lbs
Loss of 1.0 lb

1. Start with soup/salad/fruit - 7/7
2. 50/50 plate and fruit for dessert - 7/7
3. Reduce or eliminate sugar/salt - 7/7
4. Eliminate animal foods - 7/7
5. Eliminate higher fat plant foods - 6/7; Had a green salad at a restaurant that had olives. I should have picked them out but I didn't want to!
6. Eliminate added oil - 7/7
7. Eliminate high calorically dense foods - 6/7; Had some bread at a restaurant as well.
8. Don't drink your calories - 7/7
9. Eat when hungry and stop when full - 7/7
10. Don't be sedentary - 7/7; I got 115,500 steps for last week (walking 3-5 miles/day) and continued with strength training 5 days a week. I started a new upper body workout and my arms are really sore, so I know it is doing something!

I had another good week. Staying very close to 100% compliance is pretty easy for me. My few off plan moments always seem to happen at restaurants. I would rather eat at home, but I compromise for my spouse, since he loves eating out. I do appreciate how he is willing to repeatedly visit the same restaurants so I can get a close to compliant meal. This is not likely to change soon, so I am ok with it. I don't expect he will ever change his diet...he has no interest whatsoever. But we are making things work.

I do wonder if I was absolutely 100% compliant if I would be losing more weight. I have only lost 2 pounds this month. I feel like I am here checking in every week and not really going anywhere, but I'm not sure where I want to go from here. Although my BMI is normal now (sitting at about 23) and this week my waist to height ratio finally reached the recommended 0.5, I wonder if I stopped checking in each week if I would lose my motivation. I don't think I would, as eating this way is so easy and just seems normal for me now. But I am not ready to say I want to stay on MWL forever either. I would like to eat tofu, tortillas, nuts, and bread sparingly. And I wouldn't mind enjoying a little higher ratio of starch because it is so yummy! However, as we are all aware, certain foods can be a slippery slope. One thing I have noticed is that eating this way seems to have eliminated all my food addictions. Obviously they would return if I went back to my old ways, but I have noticed I can have a little brown sugar on my oatmeal or sweet potatoes and it doesn't bother me or trigger overeating or cravings. I used to be addicted to sugar. I don't crave tofu or nuts or anything, but sometimes I think it would be a nice addition to whatever I'm having. However, I would like to get down to where my scale says 140. Even if I only lose 2 lbs per month, that would only be another 2 months. So I think for now, I will stay here and reevaluate at the end of October. I really enjoy reading everyone's posts and being immersed in this lifestyle. But on the other hand, I sometimes think perhaps it is almost time to stop focusing on the scale so much. I don't feel obsessed with it, but after spending the past 20 months focused on getting down to a healthy weight, it is kind of hard to let go.

I hope everyone has a wonderful, compliant week ahead!