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My Body Is Attacking Itself! How to cure Autoimmune Diseases by John McD...

Healther's Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes

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Mondays with the McDougall's - Chef AJ Live

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https://www.drmcdougall.com/shop/mcdougalls-medicine-a-challenging-second-opinion/

Vintage Dr. McDougall Talk

Recorded during the 2001 VegSource Get Healthy Now seminar. This was before they started to professionally record them and sell them to the public.

Great talk by Dr. McDougall, and he's still saying the same things to this day!

WEIGHT LOSS TIPS FROM DR. JOHN AND MARY McDOUGALL

Yes, another webinar about the Mary's Mini diet, and another set of guideline updates.

 

Dr. McDougall on Lifestyle Magazine TV

 I know Dr. McDougall had done many appearances on this TV show, but these are the only ones I could find on YouTube right now.

A Three-Part Series on Autism:

Introducing Dr. Matthew Lederman 

 

Fasting

 

With Dr. Hans Diehl and the CHIP Diet

 

 

McDougall, M.D.

41 Episodes of the old McDougall, M.D. tv show with burned in on-screen captions. 

The YouTube channel that did this, now known as At Bahamas, was set up to help people learn to read English. This playlist is one of many subjects they transcribed. I don't care why it was done, I'm just glad these shows are still out there.

And 28 episodes with normal YouTube captions from a website called Smart LifeStyle TV.

 

PCRM Interviews Esther Loveridge

The beginning of the interview is with Dr. Barnard. This is where the interview with Star McDougaller Esther starts.


Don't forget to join her Facebook community Esther's Nutritional Journey for info on how to simply follow the McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss.

Jeff Novick's Behind the Scenes Pictures

Over on the McDougall forums, Jeff Novick posted this link to a set of photos taken during his talk for the new McDougall's 12 Days to Dynamic Health program. The page says they expire September 30, 2020, so don't hesitate if you want to see Jeff in his tie-died apron with a dozen spice bottles, cans of tomatoes, stainless steel pots, and jugs of dehydrated vegetables.

Here's one with all of them!

 

It Pays to Be Stocked Up

We have a potato problem in our area - so many stores are full of green potatoes, russets that look like they've been hanging around for years, or split or otherwise deformed looking spuds both white and sweet potatoes. Last week we managed to grab what we thought were decent enough looking Russets and planned to have them for last night's dinner.

So, the potatoes were in the Instant Pot, the frozen carrots were in the microwave, and a pot of fat-free Golden Gravy was on the stove. Our simple McDougall meal.

At 5pm hubby and I start making our bowls, and his is ready long before mine because I've been peeling the skin of my spuds because I find I tolerate them a little bit better when I do. Being a good husband he waits until I'm done before he eats. Finally I'm ready and take a bite of the plain, gravy-free potato and tell him to wait before he starts in eating. The potato tastes funky to me, to take a bite of his and see what he thinks. Many times I think something is off and he says it's fine and blames my sinuses for weird tastebuds. As expected, he declared to potato good and forked up a few carrots.

"Wait!" This time it's him saying it to me. "There's a bitter aftertaste. "Don't eat the potatoes!"

No argument from me! Now what to do about dinner?!? My stash to the rescue!

While he sat there picking carrots off his bowl I put on a pot of water for pasta. Luckily we had just gotten a VitaCost delivery of 20 pounds of various Tinkyada pastas last week. By the time I got the carrots picked off of my bowl and we got rid of the potatoes not only from our bowls and still in the Instant Pot but the few uncooked ones from the same bag, the pasta was finished cooking. Hubby grabbed 2 clean bowls while I drained the pasta and tossed everything together.

So, our three ingredient quickie McDougall potato meal turned into a pasta meal with carrots and gravy. Hubby mixed some cranberries in with his (The kind that come in the shape of the can, as Ernest P. Worrel described them in Ernest Saves Christmas). I still shudder thinking about it. LOL





Sorry about the bad audio but this was the only clip I could find.

Anyway, this wasn't the first time we had to chuck out a whole bag of potatoes. Luckily, thanks to my sensitivity to them we don't have them too often around here, and the few soup recipes I use do quite nicely with red potatoes. Amazingly, I've never had a bad bag of those. Otherwise, I still have plenty of dried ones left in my Harmony House stash. 

And all this happened just 2 days after I had to toss out a bag of organic sweet potatoes I bought just 2 weeks ago that liquified on me. No wonder they were on sale!

I think last night's dinner was the final straw and we won't be buying fresh potatoes any more, white, yellow, or sweet. I'll use the dehydrated or frozen hash brown cut ones, and that'll be that. I'm tired of spending good money on bad food.

Who's Minding the Store?

A few days ago, this post appeared on the official McDougall message boards:

Post by JeffN » Fri Aug 14, 2020 1:38 pm
This was written in response to a few questions on the Mary’s Mini program and some comments that were made in a Mary’s Mini social media group.

“Allow me to clarify a few things.

The Mary Mini Facebook Group is an independent group and has nothing to do with Dr. McDougall Health & Medical Center. No staff oversee this group and we do not approve of everything they say and do not endorse it.

Mary’s Mini is not about weight loss. Mary’s Mini is a simplified way of eating to reset your taste buds and get back to eating the McDougall diet. This is great for people who have “fallen off the wagon” and want to come back to the McDougall diet. Mary’s Mini helps with weight loss because it is a simple diet that promotes eating monotonously.

If weight loss is something someone is seeking, they should follow the McDougall Maximum Weight Loss program. We have a forum on our website to help people achieve their goals and is moderated by McDougall staff and people who have been approved by us to lead as moderators.

In regards to fruit, Dr. McDougall stated long ago that if you want to lose weight you may want to limit your fruit consumption to two servings per day because some people have an tendency to overindulge in fruit. That being said, fruit is very low in calorie density, and we believe that eating fruit is a great way to still achieve your weight loss goals; however, if you find yourself eating copious amounts of fruit every day and are not seeing the results you want, that is an indicator that you may want to slow down on your fruit consumption.

This is an excerpt from one of our newsletters written by Dr. McDougall:

"While root vegetables like potatoes and sweet potatoes provide well-rounded nutrition—grains and beans lack sufficient vitamins A and C to be eaten alone; therefore add some fruit and/or green and yellow vegetables to make your grain and bean meals complete."

The goal of the McDougall Program is simple: to achieve optimal health through eating a starch-based diet with fruits and vegetables with no added oils or animal products. Weight loss is a side-effect of eating this way.

I hope this answers your question.

Best of Health,
Tiffany Hobson
Operations Manager

Hmm, the writing in this message that supposedly comes from Tiffany reads exactly in the type of language Jeff Novick uses in his program proclamations. And lately Jeff has really been pushing the fruit and said a few times fruit is encouraged because of its low caloric density. I had written out along reply to this, saved it as a draft, but when I went back to finish and post it, it was gone. Many people have complained over the years of things mysteriously vanishing from the draft folder, but stupid me didn't think to save it elsewhere. Now I have to start all over again but I'll post it here, instead, because for sure anything I post will be removed by a certain moderator, and I don't mean Jim.

Mary’s Mini is not about weight loss.

Um, yes it is. Doctor McDougall said so in the Mary's Mini webinar:


Listen at the 7:26 point: "...if you want to lose weight quickly..."

In regards to fruit, Dr. McDougall stated long ago that if you want to lose weight you may want to limit your fruit consumption to two servings per day because some people have an tendency to overindulge in fruit. That being said, fruit is very low in calorie density, and we believe that eating fruit is a great way to still achieve your weight loss goals. . .

Well, while fruit is allowed on the Maximum Weight Loss version of the McDougall Starch Solution program, he explicitly states that NO fruit is allowed on the Mary's Mini:



And in a more recent interview, Dr. McDougall again stressed to limit fruit because it's so tasty people tend to overeat it. Unfortunately, he's done so many interviews in recent weeks I can't find the exact one he said this right now. If I do wind up rewatching the one he said it I'll add the clip here.

So who is changing the guidelines? Is it Tiffany? Jeff? Certainly not Dr. McDougall!


Another instance - just yesterday an email and Facebook post appeared of a newsletter article from 2004: How to Prevent and Treat Degenerative (Osteo) Arthritis that recommended things like glucosamine. I commented that this was an old article, that he had written another one in 2010 saying glucosamine was useless, that he changed his mind about it. Less than 5 minutes after I wrote that another post/email appeared: Important Update on Glucosamine and Arthritis, linking to the 2010 newsletter article I referred to.

So, again I ask: Who's minding the store? Who is sending out all these emails and guidelines?

Flying Zucchini Slabs

Back in 2018, Ann & Jane Esselstyn did a video called Frying Zucchini Slabs that I commented on here.

Well, I finally got around to making some yesterday on the last day of our vacation. All week the daytime temps were in the 90's and night time not much cooler so I really didn't want to spend much time in the kitchen, but the heat broke yesterday so I had a chance to play.

Unlike Ann & Jane, I peeled my zucchini before slicing it, and like Ann, regret not slicing it even thinner than I did. I used the video's recipe that called for balsamic vinegar instead of the book's recipe's Bragg's Aminos. I also used the air fryer instead of a skillet. I placed my parchment paper circle down, laid out the slabs of zukes, coated them with balsamic, then air fried for 8 minutes @ 370º.

Well, it was barely warmed. I flipped them over, put on a coat of vinegar to the other side, then cranked the heat up to 400º and set it for 10 minutes.

 

Ah, looks a lot better now!

First I tried to just pick one up to eat, but it was a bit tough to bite into. I tried breaking it with a fork, but again no go. Out came one of the 42 year old steak knives. Some were cutting easily, but the tough parts were still tough. But to be honest, as tough as it was to cut, it really wasn't "chewy" tough. Maybe I'm just a weakling. 

And they tasted delicious.  

I have 5 more zucchini in the refrigerator, and will make up another one or 2 for today's lunch, but this time will do it as written, with Bragg's Aminos instead of balsamic vinegar. It'll be a bit neater because I'll use the spray bottle instead of pouring and using my finger to coat them. I'll also use the onion and garlic powder and maybe the black pepper that the original recipe also calls for. Once again they'll go into the air fryer, but I'll start off at 400º for 10 minutes. I'm sure it'll be just as tasty, if not more so, as this one.

AJ Interviews Mary McDougall

And Doctor McDougall sticks around and tosses his own 2 cents into the conversation frequently. :)

New On Dr. McDougall's Web Site!

It's a new section called the Online Center. It's not on the main page's link bar, but I was in the Store looking for something and noticed it on the bar on that page.

There's information on follow-up check-ins with Dr. Lim for people who had been to the in-person program in the past.

There's new patient sign ups for on-line consultations.

And whole new McDougall program, all on-line, called: 12-Days to Dynamic Health, the same as the title of one of his best selling books. Here's what they say about it:

Designed with daily life in mind, much of our 12-day program may be taken to fit each individual’s schedule. Plan on a total of 3 to 4 hours daily of live interaction. Each day will start with a morning check-in, followed by a discussion regarding what is on the menu of that day and to answer any questions to make cooking at home an easy transition. Live lectures during the morning and early evening will teach on a variety of health topics and allow time for questions at the end. Pre-recorded cooking demonstrations may be viewed any time during the day. The day will conclude with small group check-ins with support specialists to ensure you understand the material presented throughout the day, along with making sure the program is working for you in your home setting. Checkpoints and assessments throughout the course are taken at your own pace to reinforce the information presented and to ensure comprehension of the materials. You will have to finish the requirements of each day before moving onto the next.

Of course, it's not cheap.

Immersion Fees:
$2495.00 per person. Fees include medical care, education, support specialists, group chats and cooking classes through an online platform.
+$995 per additional family member to cover personalized medical care
For presentations/lectures, we welcome all members of the family to watch at no additional charge.

It looks like they're still working on the web pages for this, as some links still aren't working, but all the info you need is there. The programs are going to be run monthly. Time to start saving up, I guess.

Texas Armadillo Tater Tots and "Special Sauce" Ranch Dressing

My husband has been in a potato mood lately, and frankly, I'm getting a bit sick of plain old IPot steamed spuds with Golden Gravy and veggies on the side and wanted to make something different but still easy enough to make.

Enter the Esselstyn family instead of the McDougall one.

Here are the potatoes I'm making:

Texas Armadillo Tater Tots
makes 18 tots

18 red baby potatoes (or any color)
1 cup (8 ounces) hummus
1/2 to 3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning

Preheat oven to 425ºF and line a baking pan with parchment paper.

Slice most of the way through each potato at 1/4 inch intervals (Hasselback).

In a food processor, combine the hummus, water, and 1 tablespoon of the seasoning and blend well. Place this into a bowl.

Put all the potatoes into the bowl and stir to coat each potato and get the seasoning mix to sneak down into the wedges of the potatoes.

Place the potatoes on the lined pan and pour the remaining mix over them.

Bake until the potatoes are thoroughly cooked, about 45 minutes or longer, depending on the size of the potato. They should be tender in the middle and crispy outside.

Serve with ketchup or Rip's Ranch Dressing.


Engine 2 Cookbook
page 108

Of course, I used the Esselstyn's Our Hummus.

Our Hummus
From the book by Ann Crile Esselstyn and Jane Esselstyn. "The Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook."

1  (15 oz) can no salt added chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 large cloves garlic
2 T. fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 T spicy brown mustard
freshly ground black pepper to taste.
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)

  In food processor, combine the chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice, mustard, and pepper to taste. Add salt if desired and 2 T water and process until smooth. Serve immediately.

Variations.: Top with Caramelized onions, blend in cooked sweet potato, or add green onion.

But when it came to the ranch dressing, I didn't want Rip's because it contains cashews. Instead, I went for a ranch dressing from the McDougall forums:

Special sauce
post by Alvah » Tue Oct 06, 2015 5:14 pm

I'd like to share my version of a ranch dressing I use all the time, in salads, on baked potatoes, over vegetables, in panini. I modified the recipe by omitting the dill and jalapeño and adding a few other things.

Process in food processor:

2 green onions
1 package low fat silken tofu
1 t seasoned rice vinegar
1 t onion powder
1 t garlic powder
1 t salt
1 t sugar
2 t mild curry powder
1/3 c nutritional yeast
1/2 c low calorie plant milk

Yummy!

Yes, I had tofu! Last week I noticed our grocery store changed the endcap in the "healthy" section from chips and cookies to assorted other foods, from organic pickle relish to organic Kosher jelly, assorted fizzy waters (organic, of course), and there, behind some organic chocolate bars, I noticed the familiar lilac of the MoriNu Lite silken tofu box peeking out! There were 2 of these beauties hiding back there! Just when I had given up hope that this tofu would ever reappear in the United States again (It's been sold out everywhere since March), I was blessed with these! Just in time (OK, maybe a little late) for summer salad season! I had no idea exactly what I was going to do with them, but I grabbed them. The expiration date is next month, but I'm sure I can use the other one next week in one of Mary McDougall's recipes, like a potato salad. 

As for Alvah's recipe, since I haven't had ranch dressing in a long, long time, I can't really say how close this came to it, but I do know I'll be making this sauce again. Next time, though, I'll either reduce or skip the salt entirely and use half the curry powder. It is a great tasting sauce, though.

The execution . . .

Well, some mistakes were made.

I made the hummus a bit too thick. By the time I was ready to use it, it was as thick as clay and just as difficult to use. Because of that, I wound up using too much water in the armadillo sauce. Since I had a bag of 40 of those tiny potatoes, I planned on making double the sauce. Two cups of the hummus went into the food processor. I reached for the Cajun seasoning and saw I needed to open a new jar. There were 2 jars in my spice box, 2 different brands, neither the one I just finished. I opened the first and tasted it. It had a weird chemical taste. Opened the other, and it was different, but not at all like the older one.  Oh, well, it’s going to have to do. In that goes into the food processor. My husband walks into the room and offers to help. I hand him the 2 cup measuring cup, tell him to double the amount of water on the paper and pour it into the machine. He does that and the water starts pouring out around the spindle! Instead of at most 1 1/2 cups of water he used 2 cups. He misunderstood what I told him to do.  You would think an 11 cup food processor could hold more than 4 cups, but you’d be wrong. I learned that last year when I tried to make that corn soup.

So, after I blended up the “batter” he cleaned the mess. It looked like hummus soup.

While he cleaned, I started in on cutting all those tiny slits in those 40 tiny potatoes.  My hands were so sore afterwards. The batter got poured into the bowl with the potatoes and I let them soak in it while the oven preheated and I got the parchment paper on the pans.

Using a slotted spoon, 20 potatoes went on each tray, and a bit of the liquified hummus got poured over each. The pans went into the oven, a timer was set for 20 minutes so I could rotate them, hubby helped clean everything up, and away we went into the air conditioned bedroom to watch TV for a few minutes. When the timer dinged I moved the trays around, reset the timer for 25 more minutes.

45 minutes came and went and the potatoes were still hard. How? These were those tiny things! Checked again in 5, then 10, and just took them out after an hour in the oven. Here’s how they looked:

Good enough. If they’re still too hard to eat I’ll nuke them, but as it turned out, most were okay enough. The few we have leftover will be eaten during tomorrow’s lunch and they'll soften up as they get nuked. The 2 pounds of cauliflower were devoured, though, as well as over half the ranch dip/dressing. The saltiness seemed to have died down a bit since I made it in the morning.

The verdict:

My husband loved every morsel of it, including some of the baked on batter that he peeled off the parchment paper. It tasted a bit like cheese crackers our son ate when younger. He liked the tiny slices that made these baby potatoes disguise themselves as Hasselback potatoes. The ranch dip, now as firm as I wish my hummus was, he declared “good” but not “great”. Even so, he already asked when I plan on making this meal again.

As for *my* opinion, if I had my druthers I wouldn’t bother with the slits and I wouldn’t bother with making these in an oven. I wouldn’t even be opposed to skipping the “batter” part, either, but the next time I will make the batter, but all by myself, so I can keep track of how much liquid it needs. Hopefully it comes out right, and the batter adds a lot of flavor, and roasting it in the oven transforms them into something magical. To me, that ranch dressing/dip made the whole meal.

Almost Forgot to Plug Esther's Interview! (Edited version)

I've mentioned Star McDougaller Esther Lebeck Loveridge a number of times here, and also pointed out her fabulous FaceBook community, Esther's Nutritional Journey about her story on how she lost 155 pounds in 3 years while in her 70's.

I don't remember if I mentioned her book, released during this current Covid crisis, called From Donuts to Potatoes: My 366 Day Journey on a Plant Based Diet.

Or the 6 page Beginners Manual to MWLP that she wrote and encourages everyone to share wherever they can.

The other day she was interview by Chef AJ, and during her talk she demonstrated how she makes her morning oats, AJ's Cauliflower Bisque, and the Esselstyn's Easy Bean and Corn Salad, as well as her own version of the Jane Esselstyn 3-2-1 Dressing (She uses lemon or orange juice instead of maple syrup).

Her husband Ben even makes a surprise guest appearance. :)






Edited to add:

RECIPES FROM COOKING DEMO WITH CHEF AJ:

1. OATMEAL: Use your choice of oatmeal: groats, steel cut or rolled oats and make 8 servings, pour into container and cut into 8 squares when cool. Scoop out a serving, add water and reheat in microwave or add almond milk after reheating. Add fruit and cinnamon, if desired.
2. SIMPLE BLACK BEAN SALAD: Put the following ingredients in a large bowl and stir: 2 cans black beans and 1 can water chestnuts - rinsed and drained, 1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes, 16 oz frozen corn (thawed, if necessary), 1/2 diced purple onion, a bunch of cilantro chopped, juice and zest of 1 lime and 3 T balsamic vinegar. (Garlic powder optional). Tip: If you want the crunchiness of the water chestnuts spread throughout the salad, slice them even smaller so you have more chunks.
3. 3:2:1 SALAD DRESSING: 3 parts balsamic vinegar, 2 parts mustard (I like Dijon) and 1 part lemon or orange juice. It's good on salad and squirted on broccoli, and Brussels sprouts. I use 3 fourths cup balsamic vinegar, 2 fourths mustard and 1 fourth lemon or orange juice.
4. CAULIFLOWER BISQUE: Put the following in your Instant Pot: 2 Pounds (large head) of cauliflower, 2 Pounds of sweet potatoes, 1 large yellow onion, 8 cloves garlic, 2 T dried dill, 2 T no salt seasoning (I use Costco) and 6 cups of water or broth. ( I use water - cheaper and handy). Set timer on high for 10 minutes, release pressure and add 4 T Dijon mustard, 4 T nutritional yeast and 3 C Almond Milk. Use emulsifier to blend up the soup (can use a Vitamix but it is a large quantity). Freeze extra. Good in a bowl, over rice, or over potatoes too.

Worth the Investment

Remember this post from April when I made Mary McDougall's Oriental Dressing? At the time, my only complaint about it was that even with a lot of the Instant ClearJel it was still watery and I vowed to purchase a bag of guar gum, the product Mary recommended all along.

Well, I did. And you know what? It worked! Just that tiny 1/4 teaspoon of this stuff and letting it sit for about a half hour in the refrigerator made a nicely thickened solution. It was thick enough that those little bits of minced garlic stayed suspended for hours instead of sitting on the bottom of the jar!

Since the package arrived I've made the dressing to serve over rice and veggies twice already and will be making another batch tomorrow morning. My husband said it beats out even Bone Sucking Sauce and Jane Esselstyn's 3-2-1 dressing. I'm now thinking of using it over linguini noodles and broccoli, and if I can ever find it in stores again, tofu.

Mary McDougall had something when she repeatedly said this is the best dressing she ever made!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

P.S. Our city just had its third day in a row of no Covid-19 deaths and only 10 currently hospitalized with it! Of course, now that non-essential stores are open for curbside pick-up and churches are re-opening (for private prayers with social distancing and masks, no masses or other ceremonies), and some places like gyms and daycare centers are illegally opening for business, we all expect this victory to be short-lived, but for now, we'll take any good news we can!

Beginners Guide to MWLP, by Esther Lebeck Loveridge

Star McDougaller Esther Lebeck Loveridge originally posted this to her FaceBook community, then to her personal Facebook page. For those who don't do Facebook:

~~

I have been asked to make this writing from "Esther's Nutritional Journey" "shareable". You should be able to copy and paste it to your own page from here.

BEGINNERS MANUAL For my friend.

In the beginning, we are told, there was a garden and so it is that when we think about beginning a whole food plant-based way of eating, we need to revisit the garden.

When I first started following The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss, I knew I needed to lose weight quickly enough to keep the momentum going so I wouldn’t get discouraged. It wasn’t that I chose the MWL book over any of Dr. John McDougall’s other books, but it was the book that was given to me knowing I needed a fast plan and that is what worked for me.

When we listen to a choir of voices, it is easy to “play” one “authority” against another until we find the plan which will give us the excuses we want to continue eating toxic food.

Perhaps that is why I decided to put Dr. McDougall’s MWL Program to the test and follow only that plan to the best of my ability so that I could determine if it worked. If I played around with it, the results would not be any more accurate than a sloppy scientific experiment.

I was desperate in July of 2016. It is true that I was already down 25 pounds from my all time high of 282 in 2011, but that didn’t matter when the doctor told me I had to lose 70 pounds before he could even refer me to an orthopedic surgeon to see if I qualified for knee replacements. I weighed in at 257 and was going to give it my best shot. I wanted quick results so my painful knees would not interfere with my desire to continue traveling the world.

Eating a plant based diet is very simple. These are my guidelines:

First of all, I learned the joys of batch cooking. Why would I want to start from scratch for every meal when I could reheat a plateful of food in the microwave for one minute (or maybe a bit longer) and have a meal?

Here’s what I try to have on hand at all times:

1. Steel cut oatmeal: I follow the directions on the package of oats but make 8 servings at a time. After cooking the batch, I pour the oatmeal into an oblong container (which has a lid) and after it cools, I cut it into 8 sections much like you would a baked product. (Notice I do not name the sweets because it just might trigger us wanting it, ha). This lasts for 8 days unless you are sharing it with others.

2. Potatoes: Potatoes are another staple that can be cooked in batches in the Instant Pot (or any other way) for 15 minutes with a cup of water. I don’t use a trivet nor do I poke holes in them. They can “rest” in the pot for hours after cooking and be warm when you return from any excursion or used after releasing the pressure.

3. Sweet Potatoes are my new favorite food. I started out cooking them in the Instant Pot but really find roasted ones orgasmic. I put them on a tray (can use parchment paper to eliminate any crusty juices) and roast them in the oven at 400 degrees for an hour.

4. Rice: I prefer brown rice but white rice is not a deal breaker. Asians have led healthy lives eating white rice. I cook my rice in the Instant Pot while singing a 3:2:22:10 jingle. 3 cups of water, 2 cups of rice, cook 22 minutes and release pressure after 10 minutes.

5. Beans: Do you know how many different beans there are? I sure don’t but I do know that I like Mayocoba, Pinto and Garbanzo beans. I like lentils too but forget to make them so these three are my staples. See my Instant Pot Quick Cooking Chart for details.

Once you have these 5 groups taken care of, you can add fresh or frozen vegetables and fruit to your plate and you have a complete meal in a very short period of time. These foods can be presented on a plate, in a bowl, added to salads or eaten with your hands.

Spudfit Taylor has proven that we can live on potatoes alone (he did that for a whole year) and very successfully, I might add, so any other food you add to your plate besides a potato will be a bonus.

Is that simple yet? Have your plate be ½ starches (potatoes, rice, beans or corn) and the other half green and/or yellow vegetables and you’ve got a good place to start.

You might want to know what to drink? Well, there is warm water, cold water, water with a squeeze of lemon, water with herbal tea or filtered water if you want to get fancy.

There is no need to drink calories when we can use those calories by eating fresh food which we get to masticate. That means, we get to spend time chewing the whole food which is a lot better than having a machine chew it for us.

Eating from the four food groups: Fruit, Vegetables, Grains and Legumes makes it simple. Eating food in its whole form is important.

By choosing foods from these four categories, we realize we have all we need. Questions always arise about exceptions but if you ask yourself “Is it a vegetable, a fruit, a grain or a bean” you will know the answer. Get over it. It is that simple. You are on a journey to clean up your palate, your view about food and create a new healthy body. Weight loss is an added bonus.

We think our lives will collapse if we can’t put something on our salad. I keep that simple too: 3 parts Balsamic vinegar, 2 parts Dijon mustard and 1 part lemon or orange juice. I use ¼ cup as the measuring tool and that makes enough to fit into my 12 oz squirt bottle.

This dressing is also good over Brussels sprouts, green beans, broccoli etc. Condiments are allowed as well but by now you know how to read labels and watch for sugar, salt and oil content.

I prefer to focus on what we CAN eat and not list the no’s.

Suffice it to say that if it is not a fruit, vegetable, grain or legume, consider it toxic to you. When I pass the bakery section in a store, I cross my arms in front of myself and say “poison”. When I go past the dairy and meat cases, I add up all of the money I am saving by not even having to think about any of that. I do not look for vegan substitutes. I am simple. Substitutes often have excessive fat in them and that is what I want to eliminate from my body.

If you just don’t know how to enjoy a potato by itself, in a salad or in a soup, they are great buried under salsa, beans, dipped in mustard and/or a “safe” BBQ sauce.

EDUCATION

Reinforcements are necessary as is support. Be sure to join a positive oriented group – not one where the people seem to be looking for loop holes to following a radical plan.

What really helped me in the beginning was watching documentaries. If we don’t get scientific information about what are the real needs of our diet, we fall prey to gimmicks. Of course we have all wanted to find the magic bullet – the one that will not cause us to give up any of our favorites…but that is a myth. Instead of looking for a quick cure, decide what you want and pay the price of being honest with you and learn from others who have been successful – not just successful but sustained over time. (I don’t qualify for the 5 year suggested period of time, but I am worth listening to.)

DOCUMENTARIES I LIKE:

Forks Over Knives, What the Health and The Game Changers

I was initially told to read success stories but I figured they were all fake. They are not. My story is posted on Dr. McDougall’s website (drmcdougall.com) as “Esther’s New Life” with a follow up story as well.

RESOURCES:

For beginners I suggest getting well acquainted with Dr. McDougall’s website. ALL of his information is free. He has a good search bar where you can type in any health issue and get solid information that you can trust.

Dr. McDougall has a team of experts supporting his program. Dr. Doug Lisle is a psychologist who has helped us a great deal in learning that we are not weak people with no will power. We learned that it is normal to be drawn to the most calorie dense food in our environment. So, you say, what is the answer?

Get rid of all processed food or anything which has been a “go to” when you are under pressure or stress. (As you get some of this under your belt, you may look for podcasts on YouTube or you can buy “The Pleasure Trap”.)

Jeff Novick is an expert on nutrition so when you are not overwhelmed with so much new, exciting information, check him out on YouTube too. Learn the tools of his calorie dense chart and you will understand why sticking with the four food groups is the answer to ingesting foods too high in calorie content for a successful journey.

Dr. Anthony Lim is on Dr. McDougall’s team too and he has podcasts too which are informative and helpful. He helped me realize after hearing my story that I did not need to put myself back on levothyroxin for my thyroid for which I had been medicated for over 30 years.

Chef A.J. is a great source too even if all you learn is that “If it is in your house, it will be in your mouth”. A clean environment is the best antidote to “slipping” off the wagon. She is a real chef and provides great support for “food addicts”.

There are many additional doctors that I love too but this is all about helping the beginner and not getting overloaded with too much information.

MENTAL HEALTH:

Perhaps as important as anything is our mental health. What we think about, we bring about. If we don’t have a positive, energetic attitude, how would we expect healthy patterns to develop?

When we realize we are the creators of our own life, we are the ones who put food onto the end of our fork and we can be the ones who pat ourselves on the back and forgive ourselves when we screw up, we find that there is no one else to blame. Blame and shame never lead to success. We must be kind with ourselves and know that we are all babes in learning a totally new way to live and eat. There will be times when we make less than best choices and when that happens, I have found that having a potato be my next bite goes a long way to getting back on track. One error can be immediately changed. Binges are not productive. We still have to face what set us off looking for comfort in the first place. The problem will be patiently waiting for us anyway.

I say, “No guilt, only learning”.

I have found that it is not why I eat, when I eat, or how much I eat that is the issue. The only thing I have to consider is WHAT I eat. As long as I stick with the four food groups, I will be fine. I may overeat one day but that doesn’t matter. It all averages out.

Seek first your health. It is not what I did but what I have learned. If we eat the right food, the weight loss will be a positive side effect.

Keeping it simple,

Esther Lebeck Loveridge – “Esther’s Nutritional Journal" Author of "From Donuts...To Potatoes".

Spuds! Veggies!! Finally!

Saturday my husband and son hit C-Town again, this time bringing the car with them so they can get more than one or 2 bags each. Well, they couldn't get a lot that was on my list and wound up with a grand total of 5 bags of groceries, and the store had absolutely no frozen vegetables this time around, but they DID have Yukon Gold potatoes and bags of carrots.

Today's lunch

OK, so the carrots were small 1-pound bags of 6" long carrots, but they had them! What's in that 3-cup container in the photo is an entire pound.

And the Yukon Golds were small, the largest around 3 - 4 inches in length, but they HAD them!!

This simple lunch tasted oh, so good!!

Wait until later this week when I extol the virtues of the head of cauliflower and bag of broccoli crowns they also managed to get! Then again, I think I'll save them for 2 different dinners for my husband and myself, as much as I'd love to gobble them all up alone. 

Simple meals - rice and veggies, that's all we need to keep us happy. Tonight is rice with 2 of the last bags of mixed vegetables I have in the freezer along with some lima beans I cooked up.

I guess I *won't* be posting anything else about those other veggies, unless I make a new-to-us sauce or dressing to pour over them. I'm thinking of finally making Mary McDougall's Oriental Dressing, but I have to tear this one cabinet apart to see if I ever bought the guar gum it requires when I first read about it. I thought I did, but it must be well hid because I've been looking for a few weeks but haven't found it yet. It's hard to do a deep search when someone is sleeping in the room on the other side of the kitchen wall (Did I mention my son is back on the night shift?).

Some day I'll be brave enough to leave the house and head to Shop Rite to see if they ever got frozen vegetables in, but first I have to get used to wearing a face mask. The ones I made from quilting weight cottons I can't breathe through and I get claustrophobic. Just wearing one in the safety of my bedroom for less than 5 minutes and I break out in a sweat and start hyperventilating. There's no way I can walk through a large supermarket with one of these on, so I remain indoors.