And Jeff Defends It

In a new post on the official McDougall forums, Jeff Novick, the McDougall program's own dietitian, wrote the following in a post defending the McDougall Maximum Weight Loss Program. He offers many quotes by Dr. McDougall, even links to the newsletters explaining the MWLP as-written.

Jeff said at one point:

The recommendations of Dr McDougall and myself come from not only a thorough review and understanding of the scientific literature on these issues, but also from decades of clinical experience working with clients in a closed residential setting.
However, in the last few years, people have come up with their own personal ways to improve the MWL program, usually based on their own short term experience. Most often, they do not have the understanding of the literature or the longterm clinical experience we do. In addition, we are not interested in promoting modifications to the MWL to produce short term results that will be unsustainable for most people. As Dr McDougall always says at the program, we are not here for instant results, we are here to get you to like the food and teach you a sustainable program. We could easily serve you an all (or mostly) vegetable diet and you would have better initial short-term results but it will be unsustainable. 
It is important to realize that any modifications to the MWL that are not in the above newsletters, or that do not come directly from Dr McDougall or myself, are not part of the MWL program, nor do we recommend them.

and later in the post he added:

People will often say, I was doing the MWL program but it wasn't working till I also did "X," to which they are often unaware that "X" Is already a part of the MWL program. On the other hand, people will often say they are following the MWL program and doing "Y" but they are unaware that "Y" is not part of the MWL program nor recommended. 

Before making adjustments to the MWL program, we recommend you give the MWL program with the refinements a fair and honest chance. 

Here are a few of the adjustments people make that are not recommended. None of these are new. All have been around for a long time and seem to get recycled every few years

- A predominately raw food diet
- Eating only raw foods till 4 PM
- Intermittent fasting
- Restricted feeding window
- Extended fasts to lose weight
- Smoothies 
- Juicing
- Basing their diet on non-starchy vegetables.
- Not including starch at each meal.
- Delaying the starch component of a meal.
- Eating only fruit for breakfast
- Eating only non-starchy vegetables for breakfast
- Excessive or extreme exercise
- Food Combining
- Meal Replacements
- Supplements 

In regard to added salt and added sugar, we recommend buying and preparing food without either and if any are to be used, to add them at the table on the surface of the food. If either one is troublesome and create uncontrollable cravings for you, then leave them out.

Clear enough? And to think, it doesn't cost anything to follow that food plan, and there's oodles of free on-line support on the official McDougall discussion boards!

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.

Dr. Goldhamer Talk

Since she got a Smartphone last summer, Chef AJ loves broadcasting live videos, and lucky for us, she did a few of Dr. Goldhamer from the 10 days she recently spent at True North.

In this video, he talks at one point of the importance of sleep for weight loss. It's as important as proper diet and exercise. I have found out first-hand how essential it is. For decades I've had insomnia, waking during the night, not able to get back to sleep. It got worse after menopause. I've always had trouble losing weight, and it got worse after menopause.

Then last year, for some reason I started sleeping better. It only lasted about 4 months, but with no other lifestyle changes - that is, the same foods, the same exercise - I lost some weight. OK, maybe only 6 pounds total of the 100 or so I still need to lose, but it was something and I was deliriously happy with it. 

Then my son got a job, a job that required him to leave the house by 5am, meaning he had to wake up at least an hour before that to get ready. We live in a 5-room apartment and noise made in one room is heard in ever corner, so as soon as I heard him get up, I was awake. It got worse 2 weeks later when he caught this cold that we're still passing around and I would hear him coughing in his sleep all night long (then my husband coughing, then me coughing, then the kid again, then - - - you get the picture). So I wasn't getting decent sleep again. On a good night I would get 5 interrupted hours. Not only did I regain the few pounds I lost last year but added a few more on. I started this year 2 pounds higher than I started last year. So depressing! Last night again I was awake every hour, reaching for tissues or coughing. Since my husband has to get up for work this morning, I gave up and got out of bed around 3am so he could get some uninterrupted sleep. 

Hopefully we'll get this cold/flu/Martian flu out of the house by Spring, and hopefully I can sleep for longer stretches again. And hopefully I can finally start shedding pounds - Heck, I'll take OUNCES at this point! - again.



AJ recorded another talk yesterday before she left True North, but I haven't had the opportunity to watch it yet. But whatever the subject, I'm sure Dr. Goldhamer makes it interesting.

Dr. Lisle is a Busy Man - Talk with Chef AJ

Jeff Novick's Caloric Density Talk

Jeff Novick has just made the talk from his Caloric Density: How to Eat More, Weigh Less, and Live Longer DVD available for free on YouTube for a limited time, he wrote. It's a wonderful introduction to eating the whole foods, no SOS way, and has been around long before a certain someone's "eating to the left of the line" was even put to paper. In fact, she consulted with him a number of times regarding this.

Jeff has discussed this subject many times for free on the McDougall forums, and is readily available to answer all questions there.