While the Mini Mary Diet is long gone, I have decided to post up my daily meals and thoughts during the whole Mini Mary Diet. I hope this is helpful information if you are considering going on a Mini Mary Diet from Dr. McDougall.
If you have any questions about doing the Mini Mary Diet, I encourage you to search Dr. McDougall’s website for more information.
Day One (Sept. 8 2014):
Meals:
Today for breakfast I had quick breakfast risotto and a sliced apple. I think I ate until I was full for breakfast, but I am not sure. I was still a little hungry when I finished breakfast, but after some time I felt fuller and more satisfied. I am not used to eating food that is calorically dense yet, so I think eating slowly will be important in order to not overeat calories. I really liked the taste of my breakfast, though. I suppose I will enjoy eating this diet for the first few days because I have not allowed myself to have lots of rice for a long time because it isn’t under the Fuhrman diet program as a food that is encouraged.
For lunch I had sweet carrot risotto. That was good as well. Not as simple as breakfast, but still only 5 ingredients. I enjoyed the risotto for lunch as well. It wasn’t as creamy as the breakfast risotto, but I understand the reason behind that— it wasn’t cooked and it didn’t simmer as long as the breakfast one. Breakfast was pre-cooked and lunch was not.
For supper I had broccoli and then the Rice and Blue Pea Risotto. I seemed to eat less at supper tonight. I only had one bowl of the combined risotto and broccoli. Around 1/2 the bowl was filled with broccoli and the other half was filled with risotto.
Reflection:
I ate more at lunch than I did at breakfast it seems, but lunch seems to be my biggest meal anyways. I will have to see how hungry I am for supper…I am usually not very hungry to make supper, but end up feeling more hungry when I start to eat. I know I tend to overeat. I am not exactly sure why. I think a large influence is Rob. Rob eats a lot and seeing him makes me want to eat more. When I was eating meals by myself, I didn’t any anybody influencing the amount that I was eating (or should/want to eat) but now I do. I think that I something I need to teach myself how to do because we will be together a long time.
I could have eaten more for supper, but I didn’t feel like it. For one, I want to lose weight, which is why I am doing this whole mini-diet in the first place. Secondly, I don’t like the feeling of overeating and being overfull. Surprisingly, even after 20-some years on this earth and a lot of years of being overweight and years of trying to lose said weight, I still haven’t learned that now I will always regret overeating. The weird thing is that I know I will feel bad when I am doing it, but I do it anyway.
I guess I put present personal enjoyment ahead of long-term personal enjoyment or future personal enjoyment. If/when I like the taste of a food, I instinctively want to eat more of it. I sometimes overeat because I get too much enjoyment out of eating. I need to start putting future enjoyment as a larger priority. I let my emotions get in the way of making a rational decision. Eating is not about enjoyment. I know this. Eating with enjoyment is different than eating for enjoyment. But for some reason I have not been fully capable of following my own logic and doing what I actually preach. That is something that I need to work on. If I expect other people to follow my advice, then I need to follow my own advice. Who would take advice from somebody that doesn’t even follow it themselves?
That is one thing that the MMD addresses. I will start to eat for nutrition and because I am hungry. I need to stop looking forward to eating as being a pleasurable task. The first priority when it comes to food is nutrition and energy. That is all. Enjoyment is an unintended benefit of eating, NOT the main priority.
Day Two (Sept. 9 2014):
Meals:
Today for breakfast I had chocolate rice, pineapple and a (rotting…haha) lemonade for breakfast. Not as good of a breakfast as yesterday for multiple reasons. The lemonade was rotting, but still edible, so it wasn’t the best lemonade I have had (out of the 3 I have eaten) and the rice wasn’t an actual risotto, but more like rice with chocolate sauce. It would have been better if I had pre-cooked rice (like yesterday) and then made the risotto (…like yesterday).
For lunch I had leftovers from today’s breakfast and yesterday’s lunch (Chocolate Rice and Quick Breakfast Risotto). The chocolate rice reheated with water ended up more like a risotto, which was good. It also tasted sweeter too. I believe that it tasted sweeter because it didn’t have amla on top. The amla was probably too much bitterness for the one packet of sweetener to handle along with the carob. I am not sure what I want to do with my daily dose of amla if my breakfast isn’t going to taste good with it. I will figure something out…
I had no supper tonight because I was not hungry.
Reflections:
I wasn’t sure when I was supposed to stop eating again. I was hungry this morning, and when I ate my fruit I was hungry, and when I started to eat the rice I was hungry, but I never got the feeling that I was really super full. I only got the feeling that I was satisfied and could stop eating if it wanted to, but I never got the feeling that I wanted to stop eating. I wanted to make sure that I didn’t overeat though, so I made the decisions to stop eating, before I had even finished the bowl contents of my bowl. I believe that is a good decision. It is better to stop eating and eat when I really need to than overeat. As I discussed yesterday, I really don’t like the feeling of having overeaten, yet I have a hard time stopping myself. This is a good diet. It will not only encourage me to eat less with monotony, but it will also encourage me to think more about why I am eating, pay attention to what I am feeling when I am eating and not overeat. Stop eating for pleasure. Start eating solely for nutrition, but with enjoyment.
My eating is influenced by Rob. He started to make lunch, so I said to myself, “Eh, okay, I’ll heat up some lunch too”. I was starting to think I was hungry, but I wasn’t super motivated yet to start making lunch. I only got motivated because Rob started to make his lunch. However, I don’t feel like I overate. I was worried that I might, but my stomach doesn’t feel like it did, so I think I should be okay. I will see how hungry I am tonight. Rob will be eating something different tonight too. It may happen that I actually HAVE to eat later than him because he will be using the pressure cooker; the pressure cooker is my preferred method of rice preparation. It is his overall preferred method of cooking as well. He will be cooking cowpeas tonight. Maybe I will not have more Rice and Blue Pea Risotto as planned and just have some plain rice, although that doesn’t really sound extremely appetizing. Part of the reason for that could be that I am full after lunch and it is hard to think about whether something will be appetizing or not when I am full.
I do not want to gain weight on this diet program. I still need to be conscious about what I eat and when I eat and WHY I eat. I can see that I eat because Rob eats. But that will naturally happen in a relationship. If we want to continue to eat together, then we actually need to eat at the same time. I doubt our systems will become fully synchronized and we will become hungry and full at the exact same times all the time. We need to do the best with what we have.
Right now though, I don’t have much excuse. We are eating different things. It is acceptable to eat at different times at this stage because we are eating different meals.
Day Three:
Meals (Sept. 10 2014):
For breakfast today I basically had the quick breakfast risotto again but I made it from fresh, uncooked rice in the pressure cooker and not from pre-cooked rice like on Monday. It was yummy but not as creamy. I also had 183 grams of pineapple and 1/2 of a lemonade. I was worried that I ate too much; however I do not feel like I did so. I measured out 2 cups of uncooked rice, but it seemed to have expanded in the pressure cooker. I could have stopped eating sooner I suppose, but I didn’t want to have a small amount of leftovers, so I just finished the bowl (what I cooked).
For lunch I had the small jar of plainly cooked rice and a salad with lettuce, carrot, beet, red capsicum, white wine vinegar, lemon juice, parsley and black pepper. It was flavorful and filling. I was satisfied after I had consumed a portion of my rice but not all of it but decided to keep eating anyways.
Reflections:
I am thinking that because I wasn’t hungry for lunch yesterday, it may be better to eat just two times a day— at breakfast and then have a late lunch. Perhaps if I am hungry for supper I can have just a small portion of broccoli or another vegetable.
I was surprised that I didn’t need something before lunch and dinner. Between 4 and 5, when Rob and I went on our walk, I started to feel tired. I am not sure what is the cause of that— simply lack of sleep, lack of nutrients, lack of calories or something else entirely. I don’t feel hungry, but since I haven’t had a lot to eat today, I feel like I should have something for supper. I suppose if I don’t feel hungry tomorrow morning, I can always miss it. I do think I need to eat supper to get my energy up. I am sure my body isn’t used to all this starch and lack of nutrients. Normally I get a lot more nutrients from fresh fruits, vegetables and legumes. I am not used to low nutrient foods like rice.
Day Four (Sept. 11 2014):
Meals:
For breakfast I had a sliced apple and quick breakfast risotto. It was pretty good. I only made 2.5 cups of rice. I want to make sure I don’t overeat, so it might be better to eat more small meals than few large meals.
I had another bowl of rice around 10:15 AM. It consisted of 2.5 cups of rice, black pepper, cumin and parsley. It was okay, but not great.
Supper was delicious tonight. I had around 2-2.5 cups of cooked broccoli and some Mushroom Rice. I ate the broccoli quickly, but did my best to eat the rice as slow as I could. I was able to appreciate and enjoy the rice more when I ate it slowly and quickly. I don’t think eating slowly actually makes food taste better, but it does make the consumer more conscious about the flavors and textures they are experiencing.
Reflections:
Overall, I believe today was a good day. I don’t think that I ate too much and I definitely don’t feel like I ate more than I needed to. Eating slowly is very important on a weight loss regime. I think that if I had eaten quickly and without conscientiousness, I wouldn’t have felt full when I did and then would have overeaten. It also helps that I only make a certain amount of food. 2.5 cups of precooked rice seems like a good amount for a meal. I will remember this for the rest of my Mini Mary Diet.
I am also more conscious about how I feel when I see other people eating. Seeing Rob eat makes me want to eat. However, I could tell that I was full. I was also more attentive to this feeling as well, so I didn’t search for something else to eat. I finished off my pre-cooked rice for the day, so I really didn’t have any thing that I was supposed to eat available anyways, but it is always good that I am noticing. I need to be attentive to these feelings and recognize them so when I am tempted at a future time when there is more food available I do not eat it. This may not be so important to do when I am looking to maintain weight, as along my journey (since curing my thyroid problems) I haven’t gained weight, but at certain points I haven’t lost weight on a healthy diet either. A short-term weight loss diet regime is different from a weight maintenance regime. I do think that I would lose the weight eventually on a healthy diet. I haven’t been able to weigh myself and I am not sure if I will be able to. However, I think that this will work. It seems effective.
Day Five (Sept. 12 2014):
Meals:
Breakfast was a lemonade, apple and Quick Breakfast Risotto. It was tasted like it always does, but I am not getting tired of eating it every morning.
Lunch was a TON of rice and sautéed carrots, onion, black pepper and paprika. The flavors were there but it needed more sauce and the carrots weren’t fully cooked. I cooked on an outdoor BBQ today, so I can’t expect a gourmet meal…
I didn’t eat supper.
Reflections:
Breakfast was yummy. No complaints.
Lunch was promising, but it didn’t reach to its full potential because I didn’t have the proper equipment. I intend in recreating that dish in a real kitchen.
I am disappointed in myself for not stopping eating my rice. I knew that I should have, but I was still able to eat. I just ate until it was gone. Because I know I overate. I was not hungry for supper, I didn’t have it. I don’t know why I didn’t stop. Perhaps I was enjoying eating my food too much. I need to stop doing this. It is just so much easier to stop eating where there is none left. Then it seems as if I don’t have to make a decision to stop eating. I need to follow the rules. Eat until you are satisfied, girl. Do it.
Day Six (Sept. 13 2014):
Meals:
For breakfast I had the same Quick Breakfast Risotto and an apple. It tasted delicious as always. I got hungry again at approximately 10 AM. I wanted to wait for later to have lunch so I ate lunch around 12:40. I wasn’t all that hungry in between, just a little bothered.
For lunch I had Spinach Risotto. It was pretty good. I have discovered that paprika is really an awesome spice. It goes well with savory dishes but also adds a kick. I also had a salad with lettuce, carrot, beetroot, capsicum, lemon juice, white wine vinegar, parsley and black pepper. It wasn’t as tasty as my other salad for some reason, but it was still pretty tasty.
For supper I had carrot sushi along with some extra steamed green beans and raw cucumber. It was a very filling supper and quite delicious but I felt like I ate too much sushi. I believed I was still hungry so I ended up eating 2 of Rob’s pieces (I had 2 rolls, he had 5 minus my pieces). In addition, I ate some extra chopped carrot, green beans and cucumber. We made a spicy ginger sauce to dip the sushi in that was yummy as well.
Reflections:
I am concerned that dinner wasn’t a very MMD-friendly dinner. I think it would have been with just the sushi, but I question the “legality” of the sauce. I don’t think that dinner would make me gain weight in any way, but this MMD is supposed to make me lose weight by simplifying my diet and therefore making me want to eat less. More sauces and more delicious food makes me want to eat more. When eating tastier food, it is even more imperative that I watch my portions.
I have noticed that with this it is easiest if I simply measure out the food (rice) I am to eat. When I make more than I intend to eat, then I eat more than I intend to. That happened yesterday with the rice. That may have also happened at supper because there was extra food available and I wasn’t sure if I was full yet. At least eating extra carbohydrates won’t cause weight gain. However, like I said before, I am doing this to LOSE weight. I need to remember that. I am bad at exercising control when it comes to food. I like to eat. It is pleasurable. I don’t know how to not make it so pleasurable.
Day Seven (Sept. 14 2014):
Meals:
Breakfast was an apple, some strawberries and the usual Quick Breakfast Risotto. For lunch I ate the rest of my lettuce as a salad that had carrot, beetroot, capsicum, black pepper, lemon juice, parsley and white wine vinegar on it. I also made a risotto with capsicum, green peas, parsley and black pepper. It was good. Supper was sushi (carrot) with leftover steamed carrot and broccoli.
Reflections:
I need to be careful of getting too creative with my dishes. Today’s lunch probably was too complex to be considered part of the MMD. I want to be creative, but I need to make sure to keep my meals simple as well. Veggies are important, and I am not going to get fat off veggies, but simpler flavors means I will eat less, which is that part that hits home in this whole diet.
Day Eight (Sept 15 2014):
Meals:
For breakfast I had an apple bake. It contained the same ingredients as quick breakfast risotto with rice. For lunch I had green rice. This green rice contained onion, broccoli, green peas, black pepper and parsley. It was bland somehow yet flavorful enough to be satisfying. I think I used a little too much onion.
Reflections:
I am missing the spirit of this diet, to eat healthily and simply; nonetheless I still think I am losing weight. I have noticed that my pants are fitting looser now than before— both my green shorts and my jeans.
I didn’t feel very full right after breakfast. After some time, I did start to feel fuller. One of the reasons that I believe that I didn’t feel as full after eating my apple-rice bake is because I ate it quicker than I normally eat my Quick Breakfast Risotto and apple. Normally I eat the apple slices slowly and try to eat the risotto slowly as well. It was not as easy to eat slowly because it was all together and the apple was already pre-baked. Another reason that could have led me to not be as full as quickly is because the majority of what I tasted today for breakfast was apple— the rice didn’t have much flavor. The main flavor for breakfast was the apple, which is also unlike most mornings. I normally have two separate components to my breakfast with the quick breakfast risotto— the apple and the rice. Today I combined them. Yet another reason could be that the apple, which normally contains lots of uncooked fiber and extra water and volume, was condensed because it was cooked. The apple has been raw every day before today.
I started to get hungry between 9 and 10 am, but I ignored it. I want to make sure I don’t overeat. It always seems like I get hungry really soon after breakfast, but it takes me a long time to work up an appetite for supper. I realize that I get hungry 1-2 hours after a meal, but if I ignore the hunger for long enough, it goes away. Hmm.
Day Nine (Sept 16 2014):
Meals:
Breakfast was pineapple, strawberries and quick breakfast risotto. I was pretty hungry when I got up this morning. I got full in the middle of eating my risotto, but I kept on eating. I plan on only eating lunch when I am hungry. Lunch was super simple; I just heated up some rice and peas and ate them, but it ended up being really satisfying and tasty. For supper I had Spinach Risotto. I thought that this dish would have turned out tastier, but it was lacking flavor unfortunately.
Reflections:
Surprisingly enough, I remember my favorite dish being lunch today. This surprises me because it was so simple. There is something so delicious about eating simple. I need to remember that. Not everything needs to be extravagant. Sometimes the best things in life are the simple things. I know that a banana smoothie made with just bananas and water can be an extremely delicious meal.
Sometimes I get caught up in making things extravagant and adding spices and herbs that I am not able to appreciate how great things taste when they are by themselves.
I weighed myself after supper. I now weigh 63.3 kg. The last time I weighed myself I weighed 61. But I feel like I have lost weight. I also think I look like I have lost weight. The scale says otherwise.
Day Ten (Sept 17 2014):
Meals:
I ate brunch around 11 am because I wasn’t hungry for breakfast. It was Quick Breakfast Risotto with pineapple. Rob and I ate an early dinner (we have a raw event at around 6:30) around 5 or so. Dinner is sweet carrot risotto and some broccoli. After supper was the raw food gathering.
Reflections:
For some reason I wasn’t very hungry today. I am not sure why.
I weighed myself today. Before I defecated I weighed 62 kg. After, I weighed 61.4. It doesn’t seem like I am losing weight, but I believe I look like I am losing weight. Because it is difficult to weigh myself every day (at the same time), I am going to focus on gauging success through measurements. I measured myself this morning and I plan on measuring myself every Wednesday. Hopefully I remember and hopefully it works out.
At the raw food gathering I basically ate everything. Most things were delicious; everything but the dish we brought was high fat. I am positive that I went over 10% of my daily calories with treat foods, however I am not going to let that bother me. For the last 10 days (or even more), I have had close to 100% of my food be good, whole foods. That is just a one-off thing that won’t happen very often.
Day Eleven (Sept 18 2014):
Meals:
At breakfast I ate pineapple slices with Quick Breakfast Risotto, which was yummy and filling. I wasn’t as hungry as yesterday, but I feel like I did need something in the morning. Lunch was a salad (lettuce, beetroot, capsicum, carrot, lemon, white wine vinegar, parsley, black pepper, seed cheese and mung bean sprouts) and plain rice. Supper was the same salad as lunch and plain rice topped with spicy carrot topping.
Day Twelve (Sept 19 2014):
Meals:
Breakfast was a sliced apple with chocolate breakfast risotto. It wasn’t as yummy as I remember the Quick Breakfast Risotto being, so I don’t think I will try to add carob to my rice again. It was enjoyable, but I like the other rice better.
Lunch was another salad like yesterday without the mung beans. It was really great this afternoon. Maybe the salad last night just needed some more vinegar…I do love my white wine vinegar. Along with the salad for lunch I had plain rice again. Not all that interesting, but it was filling, flavorful and satisfying. I didn’t eat supper tonight because I wasn’t hungry.
Reflections:
I like eating rice now. I think this MMD has been good for me because before this, I was afraid of starches. Now I am not so afraid of starches like rice and potatoes. I still think that legumes are a better staple, but I realize now that starches can be a filling, flavorful, cheap and healthy staple when you want them or need them to be. I think I have touched on this before, but I have also realized that simplicity is a good thing. It is good to be able to eat simple foods and enjoy them as well. It is beneficial to not need to always rely on spices and herbs to enjoy dishes but instead rely mostly on the natural flavors of the foods themselves.
Day Thirteen (Sept 20 2014):
Meals:
For breakfast I had my Quick Breakfast Risotto, as always. I enjoy my quick breakfast risotto very much. I am a little surprised I haven’t tired of it after all this time. For lunch I had a green salad, some Beetroot Salad and plain rice. Lunch was enjoyable, too. I don’t mind eating plain rice for meals. However, I am sure it helps that I get a lot of flavor from the salad that I eat along with the rice. For supper I had plain rice topped with Hungarian mushrooms. The ingredients for Hungarian Mushrooms are: mushrooms, onion, paprika, black pepper, a little water and white wine vinegar. I simply heated everything in a fry pan until the mushrooms were cooked through. Everything today was pretty tasty.
Day Fourteen (Sept 21 2014):
Meals:
Today I changed from eating Quick Breakfast Risotto for breakfast to eat rye cereal with apple pieces sprinkled with cinnamon. For lunch, Rob and I went on a picnic for climate change at Burleigh Heads. I had an apple and then rye sprinkled with cinnamon. I brought Splenda to sprinkle it with too, but it wasn’t needed. I had a snack around 4. It was rye (leftover from the picnic in the container) sprinkled with cinnamon and a Splenda packet. That was intensely sweet and sugary. WOW. But yummy… For supper I ate rye-bake topped with capsicum, pepper and parsley with a side of green peas. Supper was okay, but it wasn’t quite how I expected it to work out.
Reflections:
Today I changed my starch from rice to rye. I did enjoy breakfast, but I think rye will be more difficult to get creative with. Rice is more diverse than rye; I have worked more with rice in the past as well. Only until recently have I started to eat rye, so I am not sure of the the different ways it can be prepared and what flavors go well with it. Rye doesn’t seem to be as diverse or as neutral as rice is. I believe that the rye will force me to be less creative and more monotonous with my dishes.
Day Fifteen (Sept 22 2014):
Meals:
I ate rye cereal with 1/2 a punnet of strawberries and cinnamon for breakfast this morning. I thought about adding a sweetener, but I want to avoid added sweeteners now as much as possible. The sweetener in the Quick Breakfast Risotto may have not been all that necessary if I had just eaten it with the apple. Oh well. You live and you learn. Lunch was an apple with baked rye. I attempted to make rye crackers by baking them, but it was a fail. They gluten didn’t release and therefore they didn’t stick together. Supper was baked carrot and rye. It wasn’t super flavorful, but it was okay. In addition to the baked carrot and rye, I also had 1-2 cups of leftover lentil hummus and some green peas.
Reflections:
I got pretty hungry for lunch and I was hungry before my usual time for supper. I also ate more for supper. I am not sure why I seem to eat more now. Perhaps I perceive that I am eating more because my body is adjusting to the rye. I believe that rye is less calorically dense than rice.
Day Sixteen (Sept 23 2014):
Meals:
For breakfast I ate rye cereal, apple chunks and a passionfruit. I didn’t feel satisfied for a long time after eating the rye. This is confusing, but I think I know how much I want to be eating every meal (1 cup); I will try to stick to that or maybe a little bit more. I pressure-cooked rye for lunch and also had a salad of lettuce, zucchini, green bell pepper, beetroot, parsley, black pepper, lemon juice and white wine vinegar in addition to an apple. For my last meal of the day I had rye sprinkled with cinnamon.
Reflections:
I think I need to make slightly more rye for meals. I was thinking that I could aim for around 500 calories/meal, but I believe I need more food to feel full. I think another 1/4-1/2 cup of rye added to meals will help to keep me satisfied for a longer period of time.
Day Seventeen (Sept 24 2014):
Meals:
I ate a chopped apple, rye, strawberries and cinnamon for breakfast this morning. I think I had more food today than I have other days because I made more (Rob ate rye too and I made 2 cups for him). I felt fuller sooner. 1 1/2 cups of rye is around 600 calories. Foods outside the selected starch only supposed to make up around 100-200 calories of each meal. 800 calories for a meal isn’t bad. I will lose weight faster if I eat less and drink more water. I ate an early supper (lupper) of rye sprinkled with Splenda and cinnamon and an apple.
Reflections:
I want to return to eating the way I did before (before the Mini Mary Diet), but I want to make it at least a week on rye before I call it quits. We also have a bunch of rye in the house because I planned on eating it for 7-10 days, so I might as well eat it up. I eat a lot more simple now than I did on rice because I am not sure what to do with it. I am not sure if I want more fruit because I am tired of the general monotony of the MMD or if it is a result of the increased simplicity of the MMD.
Day Eighteen (Sept 25 2014):
Meals:
For breakfast I ate leftovers from Robs breakfast, which consisted of rye (obviously) and fruit sprinkled with amla and cinnamon.
Lunch was a combination of rye and red lentils eaten with an apple, all sprinkled with cinnamon. Supper consisted of a salad (lettuce, green pepper, onion, parsley, black pepper, beetroot, lemon juice, zucchini) and the rye/red lentil mixture from lunch with cinnamon and Splenda on top.
Reflections:
I didn’t make it 7 days on the rye, but I have decided that I am going to return to eating a “normal” diet. I am no longer enjoying the Mini Mary Diet anymore. I did do it for longer than the minimum time, 10 days, so I have a lot to be proud of. I am glad I did it and I believe I learned many helpful lessons.
Learn more about the Mini Mary Diet;
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