Ghosts of No-S Past, Present and Future

(New!) Read (or post) about people who have stuck with No-S for 10 or more months, lost 10 or more pounds, or 10 or more percent for their starting weight. Periodic updates strongly encouraged -- you can think of it as "Yearly Check In."

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navin
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Ghosts of No-S Past, Present and Future

Post by navin » Sat Jan 09, 2010 4:29 am

Warning: sort of long-ish. I'm making up for not having posted in a long time. :-)

No-S Past
I've been doing this No-S thing for several years now, even before this board existed. I started a fat slob who ate too many sweets, didn't exercise much, and had low self confidence. I'm about 5'8, and had just topped 200 lbs. And no, it wasn't muscle.

I had been able to lose modest amounts of weight by either exercising more, or eating less sweets, but never really found anything that stuck for very long. After a serendipitous meeting with somebody who knew about No-S in its earliest days, I decided to give it a try.

After about 2.5 years, I had lost well over 20 lbs and made the testimonial page. Other areas of my health were better too - cholesterol and blood pressure were under control, and I was finally able to run a 5K.

No-S Present
I'm still doing No-S. Overall, my compliance has been about 85-90%. The occasional spontaneously-brought-into-the-office homemade treat usually gets me, but otherwise I generally do fine.

The results afterward have been interesting. I have gained some of that weight back - somewhere around 15 lbs, depending on the day. However everything else is still going great, if not better. Blood pressure and cholesterol are the lowest they've ever been. I can still run a 5K, and even ran a 10K last year (though my body may never forgive me for it!)

No-S Future
I'm in-between pant sizes, so I have to make a decision to try and lose some weight again (or just give in and gain some more. But I'm not going to do that, well on purpose at least.)

So my short term goal is to be able to fit back into the smaller size of pants. I should be able to do that in several months or a year. Long term goal is to get out of the "Overweight" chart at the doctor's office, and not have to suck in my gut every time a good-looking woman walks by - but I'll worry about that after I reach the first goal.

Part of the problem, I think, is that I've slacked off on the exercising. I do some 5Ks and play some sports still, but I don't have anything that I do regularly, day in day out. I have many options here, from Shovelglove to just getting to the gym more frequently (it's right next to work, so I have no excuse.)

Part 2 of the problem is that I need to get S days under control. I think I'm going to try the oft-mentioned concept of little s days and big S days. Regular weekends will be "s" days - maybe have a soft limit of 2 S's on an "s" day. Big S days, such as major holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, I won't worry about it at all and just enjoy it.

And finally, even during the week, sometimes I eat too much crap. I've found out about a concept known as community supported agriculture - there is a farm a few miles from me where you sign up to buy a basket of whatever produce is available from that farm once a week during the growing season. This would force me to eat more fruits and vegetables and cook more instead of hitting fast food.

So, this is my "testimonial", if you will - good things, and things I need to improve.

But overall, I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth, and I am still doing No-S, and while there are things I need to improve, overall it's going well and I'll continue to do it indefinitely. I've recommended this to friends too (of course, only after they've explicitly told me they're trying to lose weight. :-) )
Before criticizing someone, you should try walking a mile in their shoes. Then you'll be a mile away and you'll have their shoes.

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reinhard
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Post by reinhard » Wed Jan 13, 2010 2:06 pm

Navin -- great to see you here again and thank you for posting this. There's nothing I like to see more than updates from long-time no-essers. So there have been some lapses -- overall, it sounds like it's been working very well for you. And I'm confident, given what you've accomplished already, and maintained over such a long period of time, that you'll figure out the next steps.

Best of luck with your next "milestones" and looking forward to hearing more,

Reinhard

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gratefuldeb67
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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Wed Jan 13, 2010 11:51 pm

Hi Nathan :)
I too have gained back a lot of my weight when I went away from NoS for a few years and stopped all exercise. I restarted last Spring and I'm down about 11 lbs again.
For me the only thing that works, is to combine them together.
If I do NoS, fairly strictly, but don't exercise at all, I maintain, which is good.. Definitely better than gaining.

The Golden Mean for me is basic NoS + daily exercise + no night time eating.

Keep at it... don't worry about the S days.. just get back to doing some exercise and make good choices during the week :)


8) Debs
There is no Wisdom greater than Kindness

Tombo
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Joined: Tue May 01, 2018 2:18 pm
Location: UK

Post by Tombo » Thu May 10, 2018 12:12 pm

Thanks for sharing what has worked well and what things you are going to work on, I wish you all the best on the rest of your No S journey!

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