Everyday Systems

That's a big jump, Feakwitch! Bigger than my biggest jump, from 12 to 16. I know you know this, but it can't hurt to hear it again and again and again: be very careful. Nothing exciting to report on my own upgrade: I've worked my way up almost to my full old 16 pounder routine with the 20 pounder. I...

Very nice.. sounds a little like "churning butter." I wonder how many of these you'd have to do to burn off an order of medium fries?

Judith, If you think it's going to be a problem, don't take the unnecessary risk of having cake in the fridge Monday. Many of us here can deal with that kind of temptation without a problem, but we're advanced in habit. I'd say either 1) wait a week or two or three until your habits are stronger bef...

Merrykat, I'm sorry to hear this -- it sounds very frustrating. I think what it boils down to is: are you eating less than you were before? No s should at least make it easier to answer that question, there are far fewer inputs to consider. If you are eating less, and keep moving (as it sounds like ...

Thanks for your kind words, Shameless Hussey!

Sorry about the age thing, Judith. I'm working on it!

Glad no-s is clicking for you both.

Congratulations, Vicky. Every day you get under your belt the easier it gets. If you do slip up, just shake it right off and get back with it.

Miss Louann, glad it's sticking despite the slip-ups. Keep at it. It gets easier and easier and more and more pleasant.

Emma, cake was just an enemy before, now it's an ally. The prospect of legitimate, deserved cake helps you make it to the weekend.

Wow, what a picture! But hey, better be a corpse shambling around a mall than festering in bed :-) Frankly, even in the most inhospitable climates I think "nowhere to walk to" is a bigger problem than the temperature. Remember the "segway," and how they were going "design cities around this inventio...

A kilogram is not bad at all considering all that travel. Stasis would have been progress.

I'm thinking of getting the little powerbook or ibook when my current 3 year old 14 inch ibook dies (I'm determined to run it into the ground first).

Judith, I think the trick is, when you're online make sure you know why. Aimless web surfing is only marginally better than tv channel surfing, and since there are an infinite number of websites to surf so it sucks up much more time. Keeping myself away from the computer on weekends forces me to be ...

Nice choice of "glove," Zaren. We should put up a shovelglove fashion show page. SurfingBuddha: you're right that it continues to get more enjoyable as you get used to it. But you still need to keep your guard up. Focus on doing the minimum, not on reaching new maximums. Do it every morning without ...

This is fascinating. Of course, I'd recommend not having the candies around at all, but that's just an extension of the same pyschology. Gotta love statistics involving hershey's kisses...

Thanks for posting this, Karl. My solution has been "let my wife worry about it" (she drives to work, I walk) but I understand that won't work for everyone. I do find that having days of the week/month for certain cyclical/repetitive tasks beats the pants off of trying to keep track of them individu...

Deb, This is why I'm a little nervous about your decision. To extend the analogy I use on the home page, good habit is like a domesticated animal. You've more or less tamed it with carrot and stick. It's harnessed to your wagon and pulling you along. This shouldn't be tiring. If it is, if the animal...

The thing that's shocking is how fast this happened. 1985 was not that long ago. Even 1991 (the year I graduated high school) was not that bad. But keep scrolling and they start having to come up with new colors to represent higher and higher obesity rates. The highest rates from the early years bec...

There are three problems with scales: 1) they are not particularly accurate. Even medical scales can fluctuate wildly -- we had to see a medical specialist a few months ago because our daughter's pediatrician's scale was off by over 10% of her body weight. 2) your short term weight naturally fluctua...

Thank you, Freakwitch, this is great stuff. "Hibernate" -- so ominous! A couple of things occur to me: 1) reward is critical. Not just to rewire habits, but to sustain them. 2) rules are helpful even when you're not bumping up against them all the time anymore. I've been doing this for over 3 years ...

Congratulations, Galemarie! Not only on the loss, but also on shaking off "total and utter disaster" and resisting my personal greatest weakness, social pressure.

Be careful, Deb. If your habits are good, then you won't notice the No-s rules much. If they're not, then you need them. It's not a choice between pure conscious vigilance or pure unconscious habit, but using both in tandem. When one gets tired, the other picks up the slack. With that note of cautio...

Judy, I think there is value in routine, both for diet and many other things. For example, I think, knowing almost nothing about the subject, that it might help with your insomnia. Among other things, routine relieves you of having to make lots of trifling decisions. And because you can plan out how...

Several pieces of advice: 1) try to save the three course meals for S days, that way you don't have to wrack your brains about it. 2) here's ideal behavior at a chinese restaurant: fill up a plate with rice and portions from the dishes, take home the rest in a doggy bag. Chinese food makes great lef...

I hadn't noticed it... but here's a positive way to spin it: you get a thinner, happier self as a Christmas present and you have less to resolve on New Years. Besides, I imagine most of us are going eat so much on those double S days that "deprivation" is going to be the furthest thing from our mind...

Welcome, Judy. Thanks for your kind words. 56 years of diets! Wow. You've kindled my competitive spirit. I will be very happy if no-s finally does it for you. I'm happy to set up a seniors section. I'm just a little nervous that we don't have quite enough members yet to keep it going. Would anyone e...

You've got an interesting check-in, Freakwitch. Besides all the brilliant observations, you combine variety in what you do with regularity in doing something (and posting about it). That's a great combination (especially for us), if you can keep it up. Good luck moving up to the heavier sledge. Reme...

Welcome, Igby. I've never heard of thintuition. I looked at thintuition.com but couldn't figure out what you're actually supposed to do. Extrapolating (perhaps erroneously) from this experience, I'd say the good thing about no-s is that it's specific (and there are no membership dues). Most other "n...

Navin, Sorry it's been so long... Congratulations on being the lowest weight in your adult life. That's not a bad place to plateau for a bit... Being off by one, from your running goal and your weight loss goal means you've probably set very good goals! So are you going to ride the bumper car when y...

Azathoth, you've been doing great. Now show that you can take a punch and hit back. Looking forward to your next entries. On a more practical note: the coffee machine is my best friend at work parties. Moping around with your hands in your pockets won't do, but a having mug in your hand is apparentl...

Belated welcome, Azathoth.

And we'll be holding that reservation for you -- see you again in three weeks.

3 Special S days since last check-in.

2 for rosh hashana
1 for yom kippur (a fasting S day!)

We celebrate both Jewish and Christian holidays, so let no one complain that they have too many holidays to lose weight!

Reinhard

Arena walking = walking in a special indoor temperature controlled "arena" designed for walking. It doesn't look like there are a whole lot of these yet, and my personal preference is just to tough it out outside. But something to look out for if you're in a less temperate climate: http://www.trftim...

Just wanted to let you guys know everything's been going well since that little tweak last week. It's been really difficult to restrain myself in my enthusiasm, but I have -- and haven't felt the slightest hint of "tweakiness." I force myself to alternate between the 16 and 20 pounders, warming up w...

This is shocking. I know BMI isn't a perfect metric, but a proliferation of Arnold Schwarzeneggers this ain't. http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/trend/maps/ Scroll through the powerpoint slides for full effect. It shows state by state obesity rates from 1985-2004. I took the (probably illegal)...

Annolope, A week is not a long time. I wouldn't worry too much about it. I didn't weigh myself at all until I was a couple months into it. You probably don't even want to lose more than a pound or two a week, for sustainability. Such a loss could easily not show up on an inaccurate consumer scale. I...

Happy birthday, fellow Libra! I'm happy to see you've overcoming your 15 year seasonal snacking habit with barely a bump! Like me, it sounds like the only thing that can ever get you now is social pressure (the ladies from Church buying you the ice cream). It's wonderful to be down to that level of ...

Blue Daisy,

Sorry it's been so long since I popped in here, but it sounds like you're doing great. Lots of green "success," lots of steps, and precious little pain and suffering. Your "S" vacation was well deserved, and from what it sounds like, well-handled, too.

Reinhard

CarrieAnn,

I'm happy you've broken the self-revenge cycle. And it may not be perfectly smooth progress, but it definitely sounds like you're jerking forward.

Looking forward to seeing you in the "my pants fell down forum."

Reinhard

Thanks for posting this, planner lady.

I've seen some academic articles on this, but this is the first popular reference. Wonderful. It's about time.

I'll see if I can find it online and post a link in the "but I'm a grazer!" section of the home page.

Welcome, SurfingBuddha.

I'm not sure why I've never personally felt the need for a warmup, but these look good. My one tiny nit: they should give the movements better names to describe the function they're exercising.

Looking forward to hearing more from you,

Reinhard

And no mention of shovelglove. Shocking!

Actually I'm happy more people think this is a good idea.

45 pounds. Sheesh. But you know, looking at the video, the movement doesn't look as real or as demanding as shovelglove shoveling.

Thanks for the link, Chris.

CarrieAnn, What you're doing sounds very sensible. Just be careful that the late afternoon snack-meal stays small and that you keep it in mind when filling your dinner plate. If this works. great. Don't give it another thought. But if you catch yourself turning this into a full-blown second dinner, ...

Rumba, congratulations and thanks for letting us know. That's a great loss and a great rate of loss -- neither dangerously fast nor discouragingly slow. Looking forward to your next success mark.

Food journaling can be useful a short term exercise, but it gets to be a real pain. I don't think it's something you want to rely on long term. If you want to keep track of something, I'd recommend simple "days on habit" until you hit 21. If you follow them, the no-s rules are a good enough approxim...

This sounds a bit like Big Phil's "crack the whip."

Just thinking about it with the 20 pounder has me "screaming in seconds!"

But I'm a little confused as to when the arm is extended.... so maybe I'm not imagining this right. Video would be great.

Reinhard

I'm still pretty brain dead from work-overload this week, but I just want to squeeze in a quick congratulations, Deb. You are the patron-postress of everyone for who has persisted through stubborn troubles with No-s, and it's wonderful to read about your continued successes.

Sorry to hear it, Vanilla. I've got no relevant experience to draw on to advise you... but I think Deb's note of caution is worth heeding.

I would have taken it (I get the day off and it's a legitimate national holiday), but I've had a lot of "special" S days recently and so I didn't (log entry pending). No guilt to those who did -- hope you enjoyed it.

Jenny, You should not be starving and miserable on No-s. If your work schedule is such that the stretch between lunch and dinner is intolerably long, by all means give yourself and official "snack" meal in between. Others have done this successfully (see Kevin's check-in for an exemplary example). J...

Thanks for that post, Peetie. I don't think there's any better form of advertisement. So if no-s is working for you, folks, and you frequent other boards, post away!

Wow. I like the part about how if you shoot at someone he'll shoot back at you, but if you come at him with a shovel he'll panic (because you're obviously nuts?). Tony Soprano better hope that Russian never comes back. Funny, I seem to recall a shovel was involved in the "escape" scene. This reminds...

Well, despite all my wise, sober, promises, I overdid it a little. I was surprised at how relatively easy it seemed. I was able to do a full 21-14-7 routine (5b, plus 14 firemans and chop trees), with all my usual movements. It was hard, but good-hard. Until a couple hours later. Then I felt a littl...

Hi Flopsy, It probably depends on what you do at the gym, and for how long. Walking is certainly cheaper, safer, more useful, and more pleasant. I'm sure you can burn more calories in an hour doing something more strenuous, but a) you won't actually do it and b) walking is enough. Why do more than e...

Welcome, flopsy. My biggest problem was seconds. Snacks and sweets are so clear. You'd think seconds would be clear, but "what about soup?" "what about bread?" "what about 'tasting' while you're cooking?" Now my biggest problem by far is social pressure (though frankly, it's not much of a problem). ...

Congratulations, Dave. I wouldn't wrack my brains too much about why more comes off one week than another. Big picture, with these behaviors, you'll do fine. I've got much more muscle now than I ever had and I'm also 40 pounds lighter. It's a little sickening to think how many pounds of fat I must h...

Glad to hear it's going well, Louan. I think no-s should work great for someone who's had trouble swinging to both extremes. It gives a healthy minimum as well as a maximum. Don't worry about aborting the daily check-in. It should be a help, not a stress. "Daily" is a bit of a misnomer for many of u...

Yes, the 20 pounder. It doesn't feel that bad. Nothing like the percentage-wise much bigger jump from 12 to 16 I made 2 about years ago. Still, I'm planning on making this a very gradual upgrade. I'll post details here, of course.

Just a quick, preemptive reminder to keep things civil. This is an interesting thread, and it's been reasonably civil so far, just want to make sure it stays that way. Jan, thanks for posting this disturbing stat. I was about to post it myself. I'm slammed with work right now, but I'll comment later...

Gman wrote:reinhard What do you call a big plate?
Size wise?

I never gave this a thought, but I just measured:

My "big" dinner plates are 11 inches in diameter.

My smaller breakfast and lunch plates are 9 and a half inches.

Catbert,

Congratulations! That's great news. Thanks for letting us know -- and thank your husband for encouraging you to. Drop in every few months to let us know if it's still working for you.

Reinhard

Welcome, Jenny. You've found the right system. No-s is all about permanent, sustainable, pleasurable change. But this upside is also its downside: it's slow, it takes patience, starting up can be tough. Regarding drinks, to quote from the nos home page: http://nosdiet.com/#drinks I don't count alcoh...

Great idea. Post a picture if you get a chance.

This is awesome. Will beat the hell out of any RSI (or at least burn a lot of calories developing a different kind of RSI).

Thank you all. I'm touched. Sorry I didn't see this yesterday because of weekend luddite. I know it sounds cheesy, but it's a wonderful thing to know you've helped people (or at least hear them insist on it!). I feel very lucky.

Hi iMarzz,

I'm happy no-s is working so well for you.

20 years ago I was in 7th grade...

But just four years ago I was 40 pounds heavier than I am now.

Reinhard

Happy Birthday, Lisa Marie! Mine's Sunday. James, it's really your call about the 9 PM. I'd keep it because unless you're a vampire, it's not going to be a meal you're eating after 9. It's not really a modification, it's basically just a an added reminder to stick with the basic no-s rules. I don't ...

Thanks, Deb. Obtuse and I haven't faced off in a while. I think we're afraid of the damage we could do to each other at this point. In other news: I had my first surprise S-day yesterday (early birthday party). Being a few days early, it achieved genuine surprise, and finagled an extra S day for me ...

Sweet avatar, prodigal. Long time no post. Hope everything's going well (sounds like it from all the exercise you're doing!) Kevin: sorry for the massively delayed reaction on this, but I was confused about what you did 500 of, kept looking, forgot what I was looking for, got distracted by something...

(For those of you completely confused about the numbering system: in base 21 the units column goes from 0 to K (20). 1021 equals 21 days. 2021 equals 42 days or 2 lots of 21. Make any more sense? Ha Ha!) Dave, this is truly awesome. You could give a very compact representation of several habits. sa...

"Wall of pain" is sitting with your back against the wall -- the pain part happens because there is no chair under you. You're sitting on "air" -- or more precisely, your quivering thigh muscles. I'd post a link to a picture but I can't find anything. I wonder if this was a term invented by my high ...

Sprial, this is amazing. By next check-in you may overtake me (about 40 pounds)! I love your "wide net theory." I think no-s in general is "wide net." It delegates many smaller decisions about what to eat to your daily self. I've been too distracted by the proposal recently to futz much with the web...

LALA, you shouldn't be starving. Give yourself big firsts. It's OK if they're too big at first. The important part is to get the habit down.

Congratulations on bouncing right back and your latest string of successes. Remember that even if you bounce around between success and failure for a few weeks, if that's what it takes to get the habit down it's effort well spent. The hard part is up front with No-s. That's so much better than the t...

Dru,

Sounds like the "sweat" S is going very well.

It's such a wonderful, surprising thing to catch yourself in new, good behaviors: no more cookie monster -- even in desire, being picky about not eating crap.

Congratulations!

Reinhard

Carolejo, I'm sorry it's been ages since I've posted here. I do take a look every few days but I've been too pressed for time to post much recently (that darn day job again!). I'm glad to read you've been recovering from little setbacks so well, and successfully sticking with it (and losing weight) ...

Welcome to the check-in, Gman. Congratulations on your good start. A glass of wine (as far as no-s is concerned) is fine. And I've eaten plenty of fish and chips as I lost 40 pounds on this.

Welcome, Galemarie. I tend to use rather large plates for dinner, so salad usually fits, even if it's a little cramped. This is probably the safest option. I have also done "virtual plating," leaving a token corner on my dinner plate for a bulky salad in a separate bowl. Could the salad have fit in ...

Congratulations and welcome, Blue Daisy. A pound a week, no pain and suffering, is very respectable rate. Looking forward to round 2.

Congratulations again, Jan. You're our rock.

She loves those power cords.

Testing again, unfortunately. Something is messed up with our database.

Dru, thanks for starting this thread. This is very interesting to me. It's tricky to get good inbound links because dietspace is so commercialized and no one wants to link to a competitor. Regarding the proposal, it's done and slowly being sent around. I'm cautiously optimistic, but not holding my b...

Congratulations, LALA. Hang in there. Each day gets easier. Good habits will take care of your "dependencies" (just a fancy name for bad habits).

another database crash (my fault this time I think)

I think what makes no S pretty short attention span friendly is that it gets easier and takes less attention as you have less to give. I spend far less time thinking about food and diet now, over 3 years into No-S, than I did when I started. If it weren't for this website, I would hardly think about...

Hi LALA,

Welcome. Junk food is allowed. But if you only get 3 meals will you really want to blow them *all* on junk food? I hope not! And I think you'll find you don't want to. It's surprising what the spotlight of limited opportunity will do.

Reinhard

Hi Phil, Here's my full newish movement update: Either you are terrifically strong, or I'm doing something wrong with "crack the whip" (I tried it again this morning). Hmmm. Reading your description over again, maybe "extreme end of the handle" refers to the extreme under the head? That could work.....

Hi Snazzy, Thanks for posting this. I haven't read the book, and I'm sure it contains a lot of excellent and encouraging advice, but I have a problem with "eat what you want, not what you should" as a system for weight loss. I have 2 cats. The concept of "should" is utterly alien to them. But if I g...

Jürgen, a decent stand-in for shovelglove when you're travelling is setting the clock for 14 minutes and just seeing how many pushcups, situps, squats, jumping jacks, seconds of "wall of pain," and whatever else you can think of that doesn't require any equipment you can bang out. Not as fun as shov...

Welcome, Miss Louann. Glad to have you back. It takes most people a few tries for this to click.

You're right: 5-10 pounds may not be much, but enjoying eating again is. The stakes are qualitatively very high!

or "Samurai Shopper" This isn't exactly a working system, and I didn't invent it, but it's thought provoking, has the necessary eds earmarks in spades, and speaks to a virtue I'm sorely lacking: decisiveness (I'm very persistent once I've finally arrived at a decision, but man does it take a while)...

Welcome, Merrykat. Freakwitch, you are awesome. No progress trap for you.

Welcome, Lynee. I don't think there is a spell check, sadly. When I'm not feeling to lazy, I use my email and then copy and paste. Thanks Deb for your great answers (and kind words!). Some standard newbie advice: 1) be strict about the rules before you screw up 2) forgive yourself when you do. Learn...

Slow down, Gman. Excessive enthusiasm is laziness's sneakiest trick. It's more hard core not to puke or smash holes in the floor, but to keep going, slow and steady, even keel, N day after N day. If you really want to stick it to laziness, take it easy. Forming the habit is more important than burni...

Welcome, Keith, Kindall. I'd keep the sweater even if you're not worried about floors or cats... it's not going to make a difference if you're swinging full force, but you'd be surprised at how much even a gentle tap to the noggin from an "ungloved" sledge can hurt. Something to keep in mind during ...

Nothing funny to report since last check-in.

You are very welcome, MerryKat. It makes me so happy to hear stuff like this. Amazing what a rush willpower can be. Better than indulgence, even. Sometimes I think the stoics were just a superior kind of epicurean.

I'm so happy to hear it BB. All this theory is great, but what you actually wind up doing is the important part.

Welcome and happy birthday, CarrieAnn! Looking forward to seeing you in the 21 club (ditto what Deb said). Don't be discouraged if it takes you a few tries to get there. The knowledge that no matter how often you screw up, you're never more than three weeks away from forming a life altering habit sh...

Tracy, congratulations. The writing stuff down is working, so be cautious giving it up. Obviously you want to phase it out eventually, but you also don't want to risk a relapse. One idea: only write down "funny stuff." In other words, if you are not completely happy with a meal, write it down, other...

Congratulations, Deb. I don't understand women's sizes, but that sounds like a huge jump. Maybe I should get a jeans company to sponsor no-s, we must be great for business with all the sizes we've been dropping (though I guess long term, they do much better with the yo-yoers).

Welcome, Gman. I eat fruit with my meals. It keeps the rest of the meals smaller, and keeps the habit of only eating at meal times. A trick I've occasionally resorted to and others here have used profitably is "virtual plating" fruits. In other words, if you're going to have fruit before or after a ...

(seriously, running might be unhealthy in some ways, but it beats sitting on the couch... Let's not pick on those poor, no-cartildge, gaunt-looking, overly-smug, egotistical, obsessive runners too much.) You're right, scuffedboots. I don't mean to rag on runners, just to inspire the sitters (for mo...

I see where you're coming from, Freakwitch. "Shovelglove" doesn't have the appealing obviousness of "no s" or "urban ranger" or "weekend luddite," and that, in itself, is a weakness, I guess. A very close friend of mine, whose opinions I value highly (and whom I quote on the no-s home page) has also...

Everyday Systems

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Bad weather? Try "Arena Walking"

CDC Obesity Map

Guess what I got for my birthday?

"Seven Breath Decision Making"