Imperfect? You can still get results

(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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sheepish
Posts: 118
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:06 pm

Imperfect? You can still get results

Post by sheepish » Tue Jul 12, 2011 1:25 pm

I was weighed this morning at the Drs and it made me realise that I qualify to do a testimonial now as I’ve lost over 10 pounds. Around 15 pounds, to be exact.

The Numbers Bit

I’ve never been one for regular weighing so I’m not sure if 15 pounds is exactly correct but I have been regularly measuring and I’ve definitely gone from a 34 inch waist to a 30 inch waist. I was a UK size 16-18 and I’m now a UK 14-16. It also takes me from “obese†according to BMI to “overweight†– just!

This has taken me about 6 months on No S.

Background

I’ve tried No S before, I think three or four times, the first time in 2006, but I’ve always stopped within 2-3 months. I think the difference for me this time was that I properly internalised that it’s better to try and sometimes fail than give up in disgust because I’m not perfect.

I do still have plenty of failures. If I take out the anomalous 10 failure month, I fail on average 3 times a month, which is almost once every week! But I’m still losing weight. I find this quite motivational in a way – despite being a short (5’3) woman, with PCOS (a condition that makes it difficult to lose weight), I didn’t have to be perfect to lose weight on No S.

My interpretation/practice of No S

I basically do vanilla No S (which I think predominates on the testimonials board, though not on the general board, which I think is interesting!) but I do a couple of minor things differently:

I eat two meals a day rather than three – lunch and dinner. This is within the rules of No S but slightly unusual. It works for me because I am rarely hungry for breakfast and, if I do eat breakfast, I’m usually hungrier for the rest of the day. It also means that I can have slightly bigger lunches/dinners.

I don’t do the one plate thing. This is largely because it just doesn’t work well for the types of meals that I usually eat (Indian food, mezze/tapas style food). Instead, what I try to do is only eat what I intend to eat. So, with Indian food, I might think to myself “I’ll have two rotis, two spoons of curry, a handful of rice and a ladle of dhal†and I’ll count it a “fail†if I have more than that. It’s similar to virtual plating but the difference is that I’m not fussed if it wouldn’t fit on one plate, the issue is more about whether or not I intended to eat it.

Some observations and general thoughts on my experience so far

What I absolutely love about No S is that it’s sustainable and fits into my life.

That said, it is definitely not a habit for me yet. Six months in, I still have to put in some mental effort into it and (as I said above), I still have quite frequent failures. I also track my success/fail/special numbers and ratio quite carefully via a spreadsheet. (It’s v. similar to habitcal but I like to be able to run off my own numbers so I prefer it. Yes, I am a geek.)

S days. I don’t restrict these at all. I’m not sure whether I just don’t have as much of a problem with binging as some people on the forum do or whether I just worry about it less but I just haven’t messed with these at all. Every now and then – maybe once a month – I have an S day when I just perma snack but that’s quite often on fruit (as I love fruit) so I don’t think it’s such an awful thing. Overall, I think S days help me to stay on track during the week.

Exercise. I used not to really do any because I couldn’t find something that I’d do five times a week and what’s the point of doing any if I can’t do it five times a week? Obviously, that was ridiculous. I’m getting over that now and figure that the best exercise is the exercise that I will do. That’s walking to or from work (4.5 miles) 3-4 times a week and a martial arts class once a week. Since I live in London and don’t have a car, I usually walk a couple of miles a day just in the course of my day-to-day living. That’s not as much exercise as I could or should do but it’s a lot better than nothing!

Before I started No S this time, I genuinely did not think that I snacked that much. I come from an Indian background and my family has always been big on traditional mealtimes, cooking from scratch, etc. I tracked for a while “things I didn’t eat because I was doing No S†for motivational/interest value and the results were really surprising to me. Turns out, that I did a lot more “office snacking†than I thought I did – biscuits in meetings/birthday cake, that kind of thing. I also ate a LOT of fruit. Yes, fruit is healthy but the quantities that I used to eat as snacks made it pretty unhealthy. I still eat a lot of fruit on S days but I’ve cut down on it on N days significantly.

Going forward

I’d like to lose a little more weight – not necessarily a lot more but another couple of inches to get my waist firmly under 30 inches. I think it’ll probably be harder than the first six months were when I had more weight to lose so I’m going to be working on:

Reducing my number of failures to try to get this to be a proper habit
Reducing my portion size for dinner a little (not a lot, just by 10% or so)
Reducing my alcohol intake (I have an alcoholic drink almost every day, usually just the one but it’s adding extra calories that I don’t need)
Potentially adding in another exercise class once a week – probably yoga or pilates

Thank you Reinhard!

jellybeans01
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Post by jellybeans01 » Tue Jul 12, 2011 2:20 pm

10-15 lbs in 6 months is wonderful! Good job, your such an inspiration. I love that you can take the no s diet and make it fit your lifestyle. I also am not hungry in the morning and sometimes just don't do breakfast.

Clarica
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Post by Clarica » Tue Jul 12, 2011 3:46 pm

congratulations!

milliem
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Post by milliem » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:03 am

Wow you've done brilliantly! I'm really inspired, I'm very similar in starting weight etc. to you and I also struggle with relatively regular failures. But I'm still slowly losing weight (most of the time...) so it's good to know that even making some changes and not being perfect about it has results :)

Congratulations on your success and hope you have another fab 6 months!

osoniye
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Post by osoniye » Wed Jul 13, 2011 12:56 pm

Congratulations, sheepish! I love the NoS lifestyle, but haven't been consistent enough. It's so great to hear about how things can go if you follow the plan a bit better. Wishing you continued success!
That's a great idea to track what you don't eat b/c of NoS. I might try that- seems like it would be reinforcing to note the behavioral changes.
-Sonya
No Sweets, No Snacks and No Seconds, Except (Sometimes) on days that start with "S".

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DaveMc
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Post by DaveMc » Wed Jul 13, 2011 2:34 pm

Congratulations, that's great!

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sophiasapientia
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Post by sophiasapientia » Thu Jul 14, 2011 10:56 am

Thanks so much for sharing your story! It is definitely inspiring and you are doing great! :D
Restarted No S (3rd times a charm!) January 2010 at 145 lbs

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reinhard
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Post by reinhard » Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:57 pm

Sheepish,

Congratulations!

(And great title, by the way)

Those are some very impressive numbers. And though I know you're planning on upping the compliance a bit for further progress, it's very encouraging to hear that you can achieve those kinds of results without "perfection." (I put "perfection" in quotes because no one here is no-s-perfect, your humble founder included).
I basically do vanilla No S (which I think predominates on the testimonials board, though not on the general board, which I think is interesting!)
That is interesting! Perhaps I'll do an analysis and see if I can quantify this a bit...

Best of luck on the next leg of your journey and looking forward to future updates,

Reinhard

Too solid flesh
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Post by Too solid flesh » Wed Jul 20, 2011 6:22 pm

Congratulations, sheepish! Wonderful news, and a great testimonial.
Be kind, for everybody you meet is fighting a hard battle.

rose
Posts: 332
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2007 6:06 pm

Post by rose » Thu Jul 21, 2011 6:48 pm

Congratulations and thanks for posting this testimonial.
Keep going!

sheepish
Posts: 118
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:06 pm

Post by sheepish » Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:12 am

Thanks all for your nice comments! All very much appreciated.

This week, I've been trying on things in my wardrobe that were a bit too tight to wear but I kept around in the hope that I'd fit into them again. I don't fit into all of them but there are several that I do fit into again now which feels really good!

Weirdly, this week I've noticed that I'm not as hungry for my meals, I suspect I can reduce portion size a lot more painlessly than I'd thought!

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NoSRocks
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Post by NoSRocks » Mon Jul 25, 2011 7:30 pm

GREAT job, sheepish! Many Congratulations and thanks for an amazing post!!
No S-er since December 2009
Streamlined S Days: 6/25/12
SW: 170 /CW: 127
Weight loss to date: 43 lbs

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