The Advanced Study Weekend Replays

Sometimes it sucks living on the East Coast instead of the West. Here in my part of NJ we have Dr. Fuhrman about a 90 minute ride away, but you California people have Santa Rosa, with Dr. Goldhamer and, my WFBP hero, Dr. John McDougall.

Because there's no way my ears would ever let me take a plane ride (I get dizzy and have ear pain on elevators!), the only way I will ever see Dr. McDougall or his Advance Study Weekends is on-line. The first few years he aired them we were broke, and there was no way we could afford $150 splurge to watch videos, no matter how informative they were. I missed a lot of really great speakers because of that.

But once we did have enough money and could breathe a little, financially, my husband told me to go ahead and rent them, if I want. Now, I haven't seen all of them since 2011, but most. Luckily, Dr. McD sometimes puts a speaker or 2 on YouTube for free.

I was reluctant to order them this time around. Aside from Dr. and Mary McDougall, and of course, Dr Doug Lisle, I never heard of the other speakers, and one of them is supposed to be a low-carb guy who presented at the obesity conference that rescinded their invitation to Dr. McDougall last year. But my husband talked me into it, and Friday afternoon I signed up. When I handed my husband the receipt so he could file it, he handed it back to me, and said Happy Valentine's Day. I gave him a playful smack (Hey, after 39 years, he deserved it!), and filed it away myself, which I'm sure was his intention in the first place. We haven't exchanged Valentine's Day gifts in a few decades now. :)

Anyway, I usually record them and eventually burn them to DVDs so I always have them, since the streams are only available for 6 months, not forever. Right now our cable has been wonky and the Internet freezes frequently so I haven't been able to do any copying (It's already taken me more than an hour to get through this post!), but yesterday afternoon I did get to watch about half of Mary McDougall's first presentation on meal planning.

I had seen Mary do this presentation before on the old VHS to DVD series Total Health Solution for the 21st. Century, filmed back in the 1990's, if I got that right. She also did a meal planning segment on the McDougall's Medicine: Fighting the Big Fat Lies with Fad-Free Truths DVD set. You can see her spot from that one here on YouTube:



I only got through about 45 minutes before my Internet decided to conk out again, and I'll pick it up later this morning, but the 45 minutes I've already seen has been almost worth the price of the entire ASW viewing already! And anyone can download the meal planning/pantry stocking handouts from the ASW web page, too.

Remember, I've been doing this - eating the McDougall way - since 1992, and I can still use all the help I can get. Sometimes I make things too complicated (E2L, UWL, Esselstyn heart protocols, Engine 2 Seven Day, etc.).

Sometimes all you need is a plate of mashed potatoes and gravy.

We all need Mary McDougall to remind us of that now and then.