December 2020 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group

[Rosey]

Hi Everyone back if you'll have me. I got really depressed about having issues and losing my friend and gained a lot back. I gained up to 317lbs but am back down to 308lbs. Since doctors finally did blood work and figured out some of the stuff happening with me. Working on getting me healthy and not letting in Vegan junk food. I'm fighting Fibromyalgia, Hemophilia, Non Alcoholic Fatty liver and Hypothyroidism and Anemia at moment. among other stuff that I've been dealing with for years. The Hemophilia has been years too but they never checked to see if it was just from Pregnancy or not after my Pregnancies. When they figured out I had it she assigned me a Doctor just for that and now they are testing me to see what type of Hemophilia I have. That doctor asked me a ton of questions and said that they should of realized by a lot of the health issues I've had over the years. Not much they can really do for that since I'm a mild case but at least it helps know how to deal with some things. This message has ended up longer then I was going to make it.

Anyway hope you'll have me back. HUGS!!!

[wildgoose]

Hi Everyone back if you'll have me. I got really depressed about having issues and losing my friend and gained a lot back. I gained up to 317lbs but am back down to 308lbs. Since doctors finally did blood work and figured out some of the stuff happening with me. Working on getting me healthy and not letting in Vegan junk food. I'm fighting Fibromyalgia, Hemophilia, Non Alcoholic Fatty liver and Hypothyroidism and Anemia at moment. among other stuff that I've been dealing with for years. The Hemophilia has been years too but they never checked to see if it was just from Pregnancy or not after my Pregnancies. When they figured out I had it she assigned me a Doctor just for that and now they are testing me to see what type of Hemophilia I have. That doctor asked me a ton of questions and said that they should of realized by a lot of the health issues I've had over the years. Not much they can really do for that since I'm a mild case but at least it helps know how to deal with some things. This message has ended up longer then I was going to make it.

Anyway hope you'll have me back. HUGS!!!

@Rosey Welcome Back! We're glad to have you. Hope that losing weight and eating well will help ameliorate some of your health issues. I’m sorry to hear about your friend's passing. Grief makes it additionally hard to focus on health and weight.

There have been some procedural changes since you’ve last been here. The group these days focuses on the MWL Ten-Point Checklist to track progress and encourage adherence to the behaviors that give the greatest chance for success. We ask you to look at the Orientation information, which includes a template that makes weekly reporting easier.

Feel free to post any questions you might have. Otherwise, we'll look forward to your first check-in on Friday.

Goose

[Rosey]

@Rosey Welcome Back! We're glad to have you. Hope that losing weight and eating well will help ameliorate some of your health issues. I’m sorry to hear about your friend's passing. Grief makes it additionally hard to focus on health and weight.

There have been some procedural changes since you’ve last been here. The group these days focuses on the MWL Ten-Point Checklist to track progress and encourage adherence to the behaviors that give the greatest chance for success. We ask you to look at the Orientation information, which includes a template that makes weekly reporting easier.

Feel free to post any questions you might have. Otherwise, we'll look forward to your first check-in on Friday.

Goose

Was just looking @ that information. that definitely is different then it was when I was here last. Have a question though. It says to eat a soup salad or fruit before meals what if that is what my meals consist of? I usually don't eat much other then those. Also I have doctors orders at moment to get in seeds that have Omega 3's because of some health issues. Does that count me out? or do I just make note of that when filling out the 10 point checklist.

Think that was all the questions.

[JeffN]

Was just looking @ that information. that definitely is different then it was when I was here last. Have a question though. It says to eat a soup salad or fruit before meals what if that is what my meals consist of? I usually don't eat much other then those. Also I have doctors orders at moment to get in seeds that have Omega 3's because of some health issues. Does that count me out? or do I just make note of that when filling out the 10 point checklist.

Think that was all the questions.

Hi Rosey

Please check your PM.

In Health
Jeff

[wildgoose]

Another week is flying by! This time of year, it seems to happen. So here’s your reminder that Friday is this group's weigh-in day, and participants have until noon pacific time (19:00 UTC) on Saturday to post a report of their result for the week. Reports posted outside that window of time won't be included in the Saturday evening summary. This group is all about changing patterns of behavior, so it seems reasonable to expect those who choose to participate in the weekly weigh-in to honor that time frame for reporting. In addition to reporting your weight change in pounds, more importantly, please be sure to evaluate your behaviors within the context of the MWL 10-Point Checklist. I will respond to everyone's reports in a cumulative post on Friday evening and Saturday evening, and the summary for the week will be posted Saturday night.

For easy reporting, you can use the Template that is posted in the Orientation section. Just copy and paste this into your post, then annotate it with your weight gain or loss, how you did on each checklist item, and additional information (victories, comments, concerns, questions) at the end.

I’m going to be moderating once more this week, but Mark should be back with us some time next week.

For more information on why participants are recommended to weigh themselves once a week while in the weight loss phase, check out this excellent and thorough article from Jeff - To Weigh or Not to Weigh

Looking forward to hearing from everyone.

Goose

[Expat in NZ]

Happy NZ Friday!

Dec 4 - 180.4
Dec 11 - 180.2 (-0.2)

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. 95%
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals. 100%
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. 100%
4. Eliminate all animal foods. 100%
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods. 100%
6. Eliminate any added oil. 95%
7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods. 95%
8. Don't drink your calories. 100%
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. 100%
10. Avoid being sedentary. Always!


Okay so - a loss is a loss and I am happy, but I wasn't expecting much because I started a new weightlifting program this week that is pretty intense, and I have been sore which means I am holding on to lactic acid and water. It will probably be gone by next week when my body starts adapting but genuinely feeling much better now that I am back in compliance and finally got rid of that Pleasure Trap bloat!

I did well with compliance except for one evening when my son requested some kettle corn, and he was very insistent on sharing it with me. I did not want to hurt his feelings (he is 3) so I ate probably a handful of it. I think it wasn't enough to derail anything but it wasn't ideal either.

Someone also mentioned before that potatoes > rice when it comes to weight loss and I think I am inclined to agree with this. Ate a lot of brown rice this week and am now wondering if that has also contributed to the minimal loss. As an experiment - this coming week, only potatoes or sweet potatoes as main starch and let's see what happens.

Have a great weekend everyone!

[carwex]

Hi Everyone,

'Tis the season and I have not been here for over 3 months. I originally joined the MWL group in April 2020 and was very pleased with all of it, especially the help we get on this website. I had been doing regular McDougall for 10 years before that, but gradually the variety and richness of some of those foods (avocados, nuts, fruit, soy products) became problematic and I felt that the extra weight had to go. I reached my goal weight very fast on the MWL and stayed on to internalize the 10 principles. However, I have gone back to some of those foods and consequently gained weight. 5 1/2 pounds to be exact. Long story short- I need the monitoring of this group-especially because the holiday season is upon us. I'm a new resident of Australia and Xmas season with its many parties lasts a month here. It's all too much without the MWL. So back to week one for me. Happy and relieved to be here with you all. Carol

[wildgoose]

Hi Everyone,

'Tis the season and I have not been here for over 3 months. I originally joined the MWL group in April 2020 and was very pleased with all of it, especially the help we get on this website. I had been doing regular McDougall for 10 years before that, but gradually the variety and richness of some of those foods (avocados, nuts, fruit, soy products) became problematic and I felt that the extra weight had to go. I reached my goal weight very fast on the MWL and stayed on to internalize the 10 principles. However, I have gone back to some of those foods and consequently gained weight. 5 1/2 pounds to be exact. Long story short- I need the monitoring of this group-especially because the holiday season is upon us. I'm a new resident of Australia and Xmas season with its many parties lasts a month here. It's all too much without the MWL. So back to week one for me. Happy and relieved to be here with you all. Carol

@carwex — Carol, it’s great that you’re coming back before things get too out of hand. Five and a half pounds is a lot easier to take back off than 50 (which I’ve had to do, more than once). The Pleasure Trap is hard to stay out of, but you know how to do MWL successfully, and there’s no reason you can’t put those pounds behind you.

This is a good time to review the Orientation material, which includes the 10-Point Checklist. In addition, Mark frequently posts his very helpful Resource list, which can give you all kinds of encouragement and motivation, especially in the face of those nonstop holiday food-fests.

Have a good Week One! Your first official checkin will be Dec. 18.

Goose

[PonysPlants]

Lost 1.2 lbs this week. Not too bad. Normally I would be happy with this loss but it’s just the weight that I put on over the last couple of weeks gone so I don’t feel like I’m making a massive amount of progress this month. Ah well I suppose at least it’s gone again!

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. YES. It’s just automatic for me now to decide on a starch and base my meal around that.
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts, too. YES.
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). YES Easy. Vegan for life
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados,) 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. NO. Had a pack of nori snacks (only 2g) which I assume counts. I didn’t think!
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. NO. Been a bit tricky to get it in every day but I tried my best!

Right! Onwards and forwards into next week. Need to plan my compliant Christmas menu now. Any one out there got ideas for Christmas mains that don’t involve a squash of some sort? My husband hates them!

Oh and expat in NZ, I’d be interested in how the potato experiment goes! I definitely eat a lot of rice. Very curious to see if switching to mainly potatoes makes a difference!

Naomi

[josietheschnauzer]

Loss this week: .2 pound. Loss since March 21 when started MWL: 26 pounds.
Weight change +/- in lbs: -.2 pound
1. Start each meal soup/salad/fruit: Yes except for 2 meals.
2. Follow 50/50 plate method for your meals: Yes.
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts: Yes (condiment: soy sauce. See 5)
4. No animal foods: Yes.
5. No higher fat plant foods (nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy): Yes (condiment: slight amount of soy sauce on Chinese food or vegetable sushi),
6. No added oil: Yes.
7. No higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit: Yes.
8. Don't drink your calories: Yes.
9. Follow these principles, eat when hungry until comfortably full. Don't starve and don't stuff: Better this week!!!
10. Avoid being sedentary. Exercise at least 30 minutes daily: Yes. Continuing my virtual trip around the world and another one on route 66 across USA.
Victories, comments, concerns, questions: Following the rules. Still concerned about holidays. Thank you.

[Wfpb2020]

Weight change - .8 lbs.

1) Start each meal with soup/salad/fruit. Yes
2) Follow the 50/50 plate. Yes
3) Reduce or eliminate sugars/salts. 5/7 had 2 non-compliant desserts
4) Eliminate animal foods 6/7 1 slip up eating husband's food
5) Eliminate higher fat plant foods. Yes
6) Eliminate oil. Yes
7) Eliminate higher calorie-dense foods. 5/7 desserts mentioned above
8 ) Don’t drink your calories. Yes
9) Eating when hungry and stop when full. Yes
10) 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily. 6/7 had one rain day.

Victories, comments, concerns, questions: I need to find an indoor activity for days it rains, which is rare. My exercise is always walking. Bought some hand held weights to do that. I am still a work in progress. Thank you to CindyD for all the tips and suggestions.

[squealcat]

Weight change +/- in lbs: +1 pound

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. did much better with this one but still missed this in 4 meals
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. also better than before but missed in 5 meals
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. went way overboard on this 5 different times
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). once I had food from this list
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). once again, didn't follow this 6 times
6. Eliminate any added oil.oily food three days
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. all breakfasts were fine, two lunches were not fine as well as four dinners
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).never
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. had trouble with this on four days this week
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). my usual 3 mile walks on 5 days and resistance exercised on those days as well. I am happy with this

Victories, comments, concerns, questions: I fell into the trap this week. We ordered take out from a place we often go to and I ordered a meal I usually get thinking it would be off plan but ok. Well, it was NOT ok. They added meat and cheese to what should have just been beans. I was starving ! and i ate most of it. and I continued to have trouble a lot of the week. I will chalk it up to a bad experiment. I was able to climb out if the trap and had 3 perfect days. I posted in my journal here and it really helped me a lot. Looking at Marla's journal helped me too . It is nice to see what others are doing and then I feel like I am joining in ! I continue to use my habit tracker and will continue to post what I am eating for this week in my journal. That is my plan. I also need to make some veggie soup again as I am all out ! That has been helpful too!
I look forward to this next week. Will be fun to see what it brings !

-squealcat (Marilyn)

[NancyNancyR]

December 11 down 2.6

Total December lost 8.2

Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
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.
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.
Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
Eliminate any added oil.
Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products, etc.
Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.
Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).

I feel like I had fairly good week. I did wrangle with a bit of avocado oil this week and the oil won, but I reprimanded it for being feisty and banished it from the kitchen.
I have had a week of just feeling tired and headachy, it could be the weather. I didn’t get more than a couple days of exercise in but I am going back to the Y this week, though we still can’t do group classes, I can get some gym time while masked and social distancing. We’ll see how that works out.
Goose, I am inspired by your story and your comments are encouraging. Thanks for taking on the thread.

[CindyD]

Dec 4, 2020 158.4
Dec 11, 2020 155.9
RESULT -2.5

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. YES
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals. YES
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. Still using lots of garlic salt, but no salt while cooking and that seems to be working fine.
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). DEFINITELY
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. Yes- despite treats and treat-pushers at the office. One thing that has helped is Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice herbal tea - a most fragrant and delicious tea (cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves).
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. YES
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). YES

POTATOES, as mentioned above, I agree! I have moved back toward potatoes (mainly russets) for most of my starch (still eating some beans, lentils and rice, but smaller portions and for fewer meals), and for me it definitely improves weight loss results. Makes sense since they are 300-ish calories a pound rather than 400-600. Current fave treatment is to slice pre-baked potatoes into fries, bake them again and eat with a compliant barbeque sauce and/or some garlic and nutritional yeast and a big pile of steamed broccoli and/or cauliflower.

wildgoose, thank you so much for taking over these duties so brilliantly! You are appreciated. Glad to hear Mark is ok and will be returning, but not because our feedback was any less excellent.

[Rebecka22]

185.4 Weight change +/- in lbs:  -0.8

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 dessert. 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. MOSTLY, trying to reduce salt in dinners I cook for the family.
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, except one meal with cashews
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, except the crust on the pot pie.
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: I thought I did better than I did, but I guess when I look at the exceptions to my yeses I see why my loss was under a pound. I did feel better about not being so tempted by holiday sweets this week and more confident that I can make it through the holidays without too much difficulty. Thanks for everyone running and participating in the group, this has been great for my accountability.