Chef AJ's SPecial Guest, Dr. Alan Goldhamer

Now THIS is what a Q and A SHOULD be like!

Chef AJ holds a 4-week program in LA now and then, a live version of her Ultimate Weight Loss program. This time around she had Alan Goldhamer, DC (and Doug Lisle, PhD, too) as a special guest, and a highlight of his appearance was this one hour question and answer period, where people at the program submitted questions in writing and (Gasp!) AJ actually asked them and (Double gasp!) the doctor actually gave answers to them!

How I wish all doctors who did Q and A's followed the same format.

And how I wish I lived on the West coast and could go to True North! It's on my bucket list, right behind attendance at a McDougall 10 Day program. I can't fly, thanks to my lousy ears, so it would be a really long train or car ride to get there and back.

Shayda Speaks in New Movie

Another movie about WFPB eating is making the rounds called "Big Change." Along with a slew of our plant based doctors and other health and cooking professionals they also interview success stories.

Here is an excerpt from the movie where they interview Chef AJ's early follower and friend, Shayda Soleymani. From the YouTube description:

Shayda Soleymani is from California and previously weighed 240lbs. Shayda talks about how she had previously been on a ton of diets and at one point in time a doctor actually told her that, “it would take herculean efforts for you to ever lose weight and to maintain that weight loss”

Since then she has lost the weight, kept it off, and is even now been able to get off her diabetes and cholesterol medicine (which was much to her doctors surprise. 
In talking about her life now she said, “I’m happy, i’m back to wearing light and bright colors, i’m back to being myself again. It’s just emotionally, mentally, physically, everything has changed. It’s just nice to be out of the dumps."

Here is my conversation with Shayda and I hope that you enjoy it.

Connect with Shayda at https://www.facebook.com/shayda.soleymani 

  

Weight Loss Wednesdays with Chef AJ

I know, I'm a day late, but I rarely catch these videos live and have to wait for replays, especially now that I'm in bed at 7:30pm and up at 3 every morning.

Every Wednesday (usually - last week it was Tuesday because of the Jewish holiday on Wednesday) Chef AJ does a FaceBook Live video titled Weightloss Wednesdays on her personal Facebook page, Chef AJ. You can send her an email (address is on the Contact page of her website) at any time or use the chat box during the talks to make a comment or ask a question.

She appreciates it if you "Like" her site, and you can sign up to get her emails which will tell you about upcoming videos and offers, too.



BTW, the Pecan Pie she talks about in this video (NOT UWL!!) is in her "Sweet Tooth" cooking webinar. You can register for it here to see the replay, cost $24.

Upcoming McDougall Webinars

Thursday, August 25, 2016 at 11 a.m. PST

Title: Healthy School Lunches for Kids.

Description: In this live webinar, Dr. McDougall, MD, invites his wife Mary McDougall and his daughter, Heather McDougall together with several plant-based moms to share their ideas to prepare healthy school lunches for kids.

Presenter: Dr. John A. McDougall, MD

Host: Gustavo Tolosa, DMA

Register Now

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Thursday, September 1, 2016 at 11 a.m. PST

Title: Live Webinar with Dr. McDougall: Q&A session.

Description: Dr. McDougall answers questions submitted by YOU during the last several months. There will be a variety of topics discussed.

Presenter: Dr. John A. McDougall, MD

Host: Gustavo Tolosa, DMA

Register Now

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Thursday, September 8, 2016 at 11 a.m. PST

Title: Live Webinar with Dr. Doug Lisle: Anxiety and Panic Attacks.

Description: Dr. Lisle talks about anxiety and panic attacks and how to deal with these conditions without taking medications.

Presenter: Douglas J. Lisle, Ph.D.

Host: Gustavo Tolosa, DMA

Register Now

Chef AJ Interviews Dr Doug Lisle

I can't believe I never posted this interview from early May. So sorry!




He also wrote a post about the subject on his forum on the McDougall board: 

In general, I notice that it is processed food that drives the addictive process.
People should keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with THEM. It is THE FOOD that is the problem.
Animals have zero problems regulating food intake. Except when confronted with processed food. Then they have problems.
The best move, if a person struggles with excess weight, is to minimize processed foods. That means bread, pasta, little healthy crackers. Etc.
I never worry about people going crazy on WNF. Except nuts. The rest, even if you eat a huge amount, it all doesn't actually add up to much. And you will just eat less the next day. Rarely is any sort of portion control needed with unsalted whole starches like potatoes or rice.
Truth is...people don't grasp that it is very rare to consistently overeat on whole natural foods. Even if you stuff yourself, you will eat less tomorrow.
I have to say, I hear this a lot. But when people come to true north health center they magically do not eat enough food to gain weight. Eating as much as they want, if they are overweight, they lose weight. We keep Jeff Novick's warnings about nuts in mind, and no worries.
People think that if they stuff themselves it means they over ate. That they eat more than they "needed" to. But you NEVER eat the RIGHT amount of food, as such a quantity does not exist. Right amount for what? The next hour? Four hours? Six? Two and a half?
There is no RIGHT amount of food to eat. When you have eaten not enough or too much. Impossible.
The nervous system evolved to continually course correct. It is a dynamic process. You eat a ton at 4pm, you won't be eating a ton at 5pm. That simple. Eat a lot today and don't exercise, you will eat less tomorrow. You won't even notice it, but this will happen.
Eat away. Just make sure it is WNF. (Whole natural food).
You don't eat for "other reasons". You may think you do, but you don't. If so, why do you not spontaneously breathe more? Just go up 20% or so for an hour on breathing. Or sleeping. Or fluid intake. Why is it never any of these other homeostatically controlled drives that gets excessive for "other" reasons no? Why is it ALWAYS eating that people think they are doing for "other" reasons? If you are munching away on WNF there is a perfectly good reason why. You are still a bit hungry. It is worth storing a bit of glycogen in your liver and muscles for tomorrow. If you get good and stuffed and don't need it, your hunger will be less tomorrow.
If a personally is systematically overeating, day after day, it is because the food is adulterated. Salt. Sugar. Oil. Processed to be softer than normal. Easy to digest as it has been pulverized and reconstituted. Like bread and crackers.
Binge eating to excess, consistently, on WNF? I don't think so. Rare. I'll be straight. I've met less than 10 of those people in my whole career.
I'm open to feedback on this, but be clear. Is anyone saying that they eat a diet devoid of any processed foods, no sugar, salt, fat, or processing, and consistently eats so much on that diet to maintain excess weight? Let's hear. Because if this is you, you are an unusual, quite unusual, animal. If so, you might need to eat salad and vegetables religiously before you eat the cooked starches. But hitting all three in order -- salad, vegetables, starches--is close to fool proof. That has been my observation.
DrDoug

Oldie But Goodie Jeff Novick Quote

Helpful for those still struggling to lose weight, even when following UWL or MWLP.
Taken from this post from the Jeff Novick forum on the McDougall Message board:

Of course, calories still count, but it becomes almost impossible to over consume calories from the foods you choose if you follow these recommendations.
The numbers Tom gave are very close, so let me adjust them slightly
These are averages that I use for each category that I think covers the range of the category fairly well and if anything, errs on the side of caution.
Fresh Veggies are around 100 cal/lbFresh Fruits around 250-300 cal/lbStarchy Veggies/Intact Whole Grains around 450-500 cal/lbLegumes around 550-600 cal/lbProcessed Grains (even if their Whole grain) around 1200-1500 cal/lbNuts/Seeds around 2800 cal/lbOils around 4000 cal/lb
What I have found is if the calorie density of the food is below ~400 calories per pound, not matter how much they eat, they will lost weight.
Between ~400-~800 calories per pound, with some moderate exercise, they all lost weight.
Between ~800-~1200 calories per pound, people gained weight, except for those with very high activity levels
Over ~1200 calories per pound, everyone seems to gain weight.
Remember, the physical sensation of "fullness" is influenced in a large part by the filling of the stomach and the triggering of the stretch receptors. This would happen regardless of the calorie density of the food, as long as enough food was consumed.
However, between 400-800 calories per pound is the range where people either maintained, gained or lost a little. It was the area that I call the "cut-off" zone and the results depending on the person and their activity level. The mid point of the range is around 600 cal/lb
I would not worry to much about the exact numbers when you are trying to apply this to yourself but would be more concerned about the principles as I would not want anyone to weigh and measure their food. The calorie density numbers I give for food groups are "averages" and dont apply exactly to each food in the group.
If you follow the MWL program, you will be applying the principles of calorie density. If it is not working as well as you would like then you can adjust the calorie density of your intake by making slight adjustments in your food choices.
These numbers are also inline with other recommendations.

Dr Lisle Q&A Webinar

After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight

Actually, it's after ANY large amount of weight lost due to calorie restricted diets, even WFPB no S-O-S ones. Some of the Star McDougallers frequently mention how they have to eat less and less starch, less calories, first to lose those last few pounds, then to maintain their lower weight. Some Stars lost over 100 pounds, regained, and lost them again. 

Doctors, especially obesity experts, have known about this happening for DECADES, which is why they now push for weight loss surgery and weight loss meds. 

After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their BodiesFought to Regain Weight
Contestants lost hundreds of pounds during Season 8, but
gained them back. A study of their struggles helps explain
why so many people fail to keep off the weight they lose.
By GINA KOLATAMAY 2, 2016

And this is the Obesity Journal article  about the study referred to in the above article.

Original ArticlePersistent metabolic adaptation 6 years after “The Biggest Loser” competition

In conclusion, we found that “The Biggest Loser” participants regained a substantial amount of their lost weight in the 6 years since the competition but overall were quite successful at long-term weight loss compared with other lifestyle interventions. Despite substantial weight regain, a large persistent metabolic adaptation was detected. Contrary to expectations, the degree of metabolic adaptation at the end of the competition was not associated with weight regain, but those with greater long-term weight loss also had greater ongoing metabolic slowing. Therefore, long-term weight loss requires vigilant combat against persistent metabolic adaptation that acts to proportionally counter ongoing efforts to reduce body weight.

National Walking Day

The National Heart Association has declared April 6 as National Walking Day!

Pop on your walking shoes or sneakers, and if the weather is good, head outside for a while. If it's not where you live, pop a Leslie Sansone video on! You cal always find some of her walks on YouTube if you don't own any.

It doesn't matter how fast or how far - just go!

Jeff Nelson Talks Weight Loss Using MWLP

Veggies for Breakfast Community

For those following the food program of a certain person who advises a pound or 2 of non-starchy vegetables before any other meal first thing in the morning, a.k.a. VFB - Veggies for Breakfast - a new closed Facebook community was started the other day called Veggies for Breakfast (VFBs) Rock! Unlike the super secret community for the program itself, anyone can request to join this one, according to this blog post introducing it.

The community promotes photographs of everyone's VFB meals, and for those who don't know what VFBs are, community leader Wendy explains in the description. For details on the food plan itself and links to some videos describing it, Wendy's blog can give you what you need.

Even if you don't follow that particular food plan, seeing these veggie combinations can give you a good idea of what side dishes to serve with you starchy McDougall meals. And since some of these photos show potatoes or grains with the veggies, just add a bit more starch so it fills at least half the plate and you've got a nice recipe-less one dish MWLP meal.

More McDougall Webinars - Register Now

Details of the next 3 webinars have been posted on Dr. McDougall's webinar page.

Scheduled Webinars

October 15th at 11:00 AM Pacific Time

Register Now

Title: Ask Dr. McDougall, MD: Live Q&A Webinar, Session 2

Description: Spend 30 minutes in a live webinar with Dr. John McDougall, MD, as he answers those burning questions you have been wanting to ask!

Questions: Send questions ahead of time to webinar@drmcdougall.com. Please keep questions to one per person and please keep it as concise as possible!

October 22nd at 11:00 AM Pacific Time

Register Now

Title: Dr. McDougall, MD: Treating Obesity with a Low Fat, Starch Based Diet

Description: Dr. John McDougall discusses how to treat obesity with a low-fat, starch-based diet and then takes questions from the audience.

Questions: Send questions ahead of time to webinar@drmcdougall.com. Please keep questions related to the topic of the webinar and please keep questions as concise as possible!

October 29th at 11:00 AM Pacific Time

Register Now

Title: Dr. McDougall: Breast Cancer and The Secret that the Health Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know.

Description: What Dr. McDougall has been teaching for 40 years has been the topic of the cover of the new Time magazine (October 2015) : Overtreatment of cancer and what more and more physicians are shockingly prescribing.

Questions: Send questions ahead of time to webinar@drmcdougall.com. Please keep questions related to the topic of the webinar and please keep questions as concise as possible!

Dr. McDougall's Webinar Sept 4, 2015 - Obesity: Part 1

And someone else just shared this link, but you have to had registered for the original broadcast and log in see it.

Penn Jillette Looks Great

He recently lost 100 pounds, between December 2014 and March 5, 2015, using the Fuhrman program. He claims he didn't count calories, yet he knows he ate only 800 to 1000 calories a day.

But three pounds of greens each and every day? That takes determination! I guess winding up in the hospital in hypertensive crisis kind of kicked him in the tush (one of those Scrabble words, BTW) to get healthy.

Now THIS I Can Get Behind!

If the image doesn't come through for any reason, it's the Thin Lines comic for April 6, 2015.

I'm Going to Shut Up Now

I'm also going to (try) stay off the scale. Not only did those pounds gained while eating Faves go away, but I went down another pound to be at my lowest weight since I first injured my neck and had degenerative disc disease diagnosed which greatly reduced the amount and kinds of exercise I could do and caused a 50 pound weight gain back in 1999. My husband also relost those added pounds, regained one, added one back on - all depending on what kinds of snacks he had the night before he weighed in. I keep warning him to watch the sodium in things like sriracha sauce and ketchup!

I guess I better just stick with posting about recipes and not the minutia of what/how we're eating over here.

My usual chain grocery store doesn't seem to have those Stokes purple sweet potatoes any more, but I guess for the holidays they did have a load of the best looking regular sweet potatoes I've seen in years so I bought 2 dozen of them. Now to eat them all up before they go bad. I've had Sweet Potato Beginnings for breakfast and a snack a few times, sweet potatoes with Chef AJ's Yummy Sauce for lunch, will have 2 sweet potatoes mashed into the tofu ricotta cheese for tonight's lasagna dinner (Inspired by Jeff Novick's recipe ), and later this week will either make Chef AJ's Sweet Potato Chili or Jeff's Tzimmes from his Fast Food 4: Beyond the Basics DVD. So far the tzimmes are calling the loudest, but we'll see on Tuesday what I wind up with. I really don't want another quart of OJ in the house so will probably go with Jeff's. Besides, I still haven't made all the recipes from that DVD yet. This recipe seems like a good one to get that ball rolling again.

Chicken Adenovirus as Cause for Human Obesity?

Just think of how many of us fat people were told (or our parents were told, when we were fat kids) not to eat red meat, to eat skinless, usually broiled, chicken instead.

It's amazing how many studies in recent years are coming out which explain how people get obese, even if they eat and exercise exactly the same as the rest of their families. Heck, many of us eat even much less and exercise much more, yet we remain fat while their weight either remains stable or they lose while eating more and moving less.

The human body is an amazing thing! It doesn't follow the laws of physics, only those of biology.

Lentils Fight Back!

I found this graphic on the Facebook page of WLS doc Garth Davis. I recently found out that he, too, eats and recommends a WFPB no S-O-S diet.

Dr. Davis had a television show on TLC with his father called My Weight Is Killing Me and their previous show was called Big Medicine. Both shows are about super-obese people who opted for various bariatric surgeries, the first series concentrated on the lapband, the recent one on more invasive procedures. TLC must be embarrassed by these shows, because aside from these clips, there's really no trace of the shows even existing on The Learning Channel Web site, even though an episode just aired 2 weeks ago. They can't even put out a decent DVD set for the show. The TV Guide Channel has more about My Weight Is Killing Me than TLC does, even though the episode titles aren't what actually aired.

At least there's still the British TV series called Fat Doctor, and the first 4 seasons are available for free on YouTube. 

One of these days I'll get around to watching them, and as long as I stick to the McDougall food plan I hope to never need the services of any of those surgeons!

Marvelous Marla

Long-time McDougaller Marla, owner of the Marla's Marvelous Meals recipe web site, has been experimenting lately. On the McDougall forums, Marla has been photographing and entering into the CRON-O-Meter 30 days of her meals (Only 2 meals per day - she skips breakfast) in a thread called Marla's CRON-O-Meter Chronicles. At the same time she's been wearing a Fit-Bit pedometer night and day to measure her energy expenditure.

Want to know what I found out?

She has to eat between 1000 and 1200 calories a day to lose any weight, and it's only been about 2 pounds per week. 

Of the 2 meals a day that she does eat, one of those meals is usually a big salad (2 quarts) with a nut based dressing, and a tiny sweet potato.

Her dinner plates appear to average 75% green/yellow non-starchy vegetables and only 25% starchy foods. 

Oh, plus a bowl of fruit on the side, at least 2 servings each to equal about 100 calories, at both meals.

She estimates the daily caloric density of her food is about 300-350 calories per pound, and she eats around 3-4 pounds of food each day.

The only potatoes she eats regularly are Japanese yellow sweet potatoes. I think I saw russets only twice. The volume seems to be no more than a cup each time. When she does have rice instead, it looks like a half cup scoop, 2 ounces in weight (The CRON-O-Meter printout says they weigh apx. 70 grams).

She also must walk/run 5 miles every morning plus another 20 minute walk every evening. She calculated at the beginning how much exercise/calories she needed to lose 8 pounds in 4 weeks. She estimated she needs to do 2,200 calories worth of exercise per day to see any weight loss.

Here is her conclusion at the end of her 30 day experiment.

It's an eye opener thread, that's for sure! I found out that even eating at least 75% non-starchy veggies with fruit and only 25% starch at most, that's still a very small amount of food, volume-wise, unless one eats mostly salads. What she's been eating doesn't really resemble the McDougall *Starch Based* food program at all.

New Chef AJ Video

Chef AJ, of the book Unprocessed and the Chef and the Dietician video series on YouTube, as a great new video out. Filmed in her own kitchen, she tells of how she finally lost those last few pounds that were dogging her and shows some of her favorite fast meals, some requiring no recipe at all.



After hearing her say she now substitutes beans in many of the recipes in her book Unprocessed, I'm now going to dig out that book again and take a new look at them. Looks like I found some new recipes to try while waiting for Jeff's new video to be released.