Everyday Systems

Day B9: S-DAY Day B10: S-DAY Day B11: SUCCESS Funny stuff: did some fast and loose virtual plating with strawberries and cherries at dinner. You're right Deb, I can see this becoming a bigger issue as she starts eating more stuff that I'm capable of eating, too. Funny you should mention the composte...

Kevin, I'm happy to hear how well your no-s discipline is going. It seems like your habits are really firming up. As for your scale blip in the wrong direction, remember that these things will happen. A single measurement is not that accurate/important. Navin is right: if you're going to measure at ...

I just ordered the audiobook version of "War of Art" from my library (they've got a great web based intralibrary loan request system). I'll look into the ebook thing. I've never actually read an ebook, so I have a little trouble imagining that (or why) anyone does... but maybe I've just been hopeles...

Mike, this stuff is awesome, and I think you've captured the distinction between our sites well: Merlin's granularity is finer. His stuff is like a collection of really cool one liners, mine is like shell scripts (we'll leave the bloatware apps to the charlatans). They should complement each other w...

I did lose 20 pounds on pure no-s, without any exercise. But I lost even more after, once I started shovelglove and urban ranger. And long term, I think there's no question you need both diet and exercise. The problem is too much input, too little output. It's much easier and more sustainable to adj...

This is why I don't have explicit rules regarding this stuff: it gets handled quite nicely as a side effect of "no snacks" and "no sweets." The fewer rules to achieve a given end, the more likely you are to follow them.

7th weekend down: I think I'll stop recording sucesses here at this nice, satisfying number. Only if I mess up will you hear about it on this thread. Sorry for getting so behind on the bb again...

Welcome, Joan. Congratulations on your first successful week. Maintenance is what it's optimized for. Keep us posted.

Day B7: SUCCESS
Day B8: SUCCESS Funny stuff: I ate the other half of my baby daughter's avocado at dinner without strictly speaking having allocated for it on my plate. I'm going to write this off as borderline and just be careful not to do it again.

Congratulations, Betsy. The trick for the weekends is to plan something especially nice in advance instead of eating opportunistically. Tastes better, and you'll eat less.

Beautiful, Jan. Now enjoy that maple syrup!

Congratulations on your perfect first week! My advice for you first weekend is plan your treats in advance, get something you really want instead of just eating randomly because you can. You'll enjoy more, and you won't feel like such a glutton. But do be aware that first weekends tend to be less th...

Welcome, Rumba. And thanks for revealing the final leptin mystery (an $18 value!). Take it very slow with the shovelglove. It's much harder than it seems at the time. You will regret it the next day (or longer) if you start out overenthusiastic. Looking forward to hearing about your success.

6th weekend down. Extra credit territory now. I'm confident I"ve got this down, but as I mentioned, I'll keep updating a bit longer. After that, I'll only post to this thread if I slip up. When you start a habit, both success and failure are information. Once you've firmly established the habit, suc...

Wow, I hadn't noticed that. Not sure how that happened. I think (*nix zealotry notwithstanding) that I like the backslash better.

Shockingly, yes. Will you lose weight if you actually do that every day? Probably not. But I don't think you will unless you are actively determined to sabotage yourself. The idea is to systematize the behaviors (like "mealing") that require systematic intervention, and leave the rest alone. Limited...

Here's the amazon link to The Art of War . It looks pretty excellent, from the reviews, and if you click on the look inside the book blurb at the top it's interesting (for us here) to note that "any diet or health regimen" is number three on his list of enterprises (like art) that "elicit resistance...

Mike, welcome. Sorry I didn't see your post yesterday. This is good stuff. I like the "true hourly wage," if only as a gedankenexperiment. And handling finances only twice a month is a great idea. I'm at 3 right now (everything else is auto deducted from my checking account/credit card, which is ver...

Shalom, Ginjer. I don't worry about meal sizes. Here's why: 1) The most important thing, long term, is to get into the habit of a limited number of discreet meals. You may not eat less at every meal, but if you have this habit, over time, you'll eat a lot less, and it will be sustainable, and that's...

Social pressure is funny... it seems like such a convincing excuse. Until you realize two hours later how easy it would have been to get out of it without giving any offense whatsoever. But I can't speak from the heights on this issue: had the same problem myself recently.

Congratulations! Again, I don't even think you'd want to be losing faster than this. It's not so much the scales that are the problem as people's relation to them. If the scale doesn't tell them what they want/expect/think they deserve, they tend to freak out and let everything go to pot. They don't...

Elinor, as Betsy put it in her check in, "don't fret." "OK" is better than disaster. Muddling forward is still going forward. But muddling isn't inspiring, so you're right to want to restart in earnest. You had a strong first run, learn from it, and try to go farther this time, if not all the way. B...

Excellent! 2 more SUCCESSes and then you get to add a free +2 exempt weekend days to your tally. After Friday, you're effectively 1/3 of the way to habituation. So if the culinary reward on the weekend weren't enough, let the math inspire you!

Betsy, it sounds like you're doing fantastic with your enhanced version of No-s. Your extra 8 points are very sensible, and though I'm not systematic about them, they're pretty much all factors that go into my decision making process generally. I don't bake much myself, so point three doesn't apply,...

Jan, this is a great run! Hang in there one more day and you've got the bulk of this no-s week behind you. I know you want to cut out S-days for the remainder of the habit building period, but I'd recommend considering at least some kind of S-day reward to give yourself to look forward to. But you k...

2 perfect days in a row, nice job. 3 is a biggy... then you've got most of the weekdaily week down. Congrats on your ex-XXL status!

Sorry to hear about the Zuel alarm, but it sounds like you're coming to grips with your chinese problem.

I'm seeing more smileys than frownies here (and fortunately only one satanic grimace). Keep slugging it out, I think you're getting there. Looking forward to a triple smiley day...

Hi JackieO, Two reasons to take heart, despite the weingummi incident: 1. Remember that you're never more than 3 weeks away (or so) from building a new habit. 2. You're learning from this. You now know which esses at which times of day are the most difficult for you and will be especially on guard a...

Samurai, sorry I haven't commented sooner, but I love the title of your check-in thread. We're not keeping track of carbs, calories, or pounds here (except maybe occasionally the last) but of our decisions. Nice bold, status entries, too, -- bound to impress the hell out of your animal nature. As fo...

Day B6: SUCCESS

Refrigerator magnets cafepress does have:

(Thanks again, Diane Sheats, for this design)

I guess I shouldn't have made that crack about non-native English speakers... No mere blog here, my rabbi father in law tells me this is a leading Israeli newspaper: http://www.nrg.co.il/online/HP_12.html He says it basically translates just the rules and says "this sounds better in English." My nor...

Welcome, crasch, and congratulations on your first successful day. Do be careful about skipping meals. Long term, 2 isn't sustainable.

I've found that it's astonishingly easy to pass on work party treats. Grab a cup of coffee, talk and smile, and people just don't notice. Just giving it a shot. Social pressure does exist, naturally, but it's also easy and convenient to imagine. Unless you receive a direct ultimatum, I'd recommend d...

Day B5: SUCCESS. Yeah, I'm playing newbie. You're right not to sweat the cucumber, Kevin. One has to taste a little when cooking (and cucumbers have like negative four calories anyway).

Unfortunately, cafepress doesn't seem to sell anything except bumper stickers (maybe tack it on the good humor ice cream truck?

).

But Diane Sheets created a word doc of nosdiet stickers a while ago that you're welcome to download for free and print out if you can figure out how.

I guess any exercise is supposed to get the endorphins flowing or whatever, but I imagine (as well as experence) that shoveglove must be particularly good in that regard. Useful movements make your body thinks it's actually accomplished something. Biochemical reward feedback is very much in order.

Jeff, the five days a week part is intended for people who don't do anything else (except walk). Kickboxing sounds pretty intense. You can shug less with a clear conscience.

I don't think the handles are counted in the weights, just the heads. If you look at this 12 pounder on sale at amazon , you'll see that the shipping weight is 14 pounds (and I'm assuming that's not all cardboard box). I imagine that weight on the handle doesn't have nearly the same impact as weight...

Kevin, honestly, if I weren't keeping this "exemplary" log I'd just have swapped for an S day (or taken a "Surgery" S day). But given that I am keeping this log, it's a rather convenient failure. I do think the first 3 weeks are best without any funny stuff, and since that's where I'm pretending to ...

14 words in the nosdiet, 14 minutes of schedualistically insignificant time, and now a 14 pound sledge. Beautiful!

Mine is 16, I started with a 12. It took a long time to get used to the heavier weight. I switched back and forth between them for several months before going all 16. Don't rush it. Your back is worth more than your ego.

Welcome, Betsy. I'm even less now than I report on the home page, between 165 and 168. I haven't seen anything 170 or over in a long time. So I guess, to thoroughly answer your question, that puts me at: age: 31 sex: M time on diet: over 3 years loss: almost 45 pounds (almost everything lost in firs...

I think just tacking a "&tag=everydaysyste-20" on the end will do it.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/searc ... aysyste-20

Thanks for posting this, Ariel. It sounds pretty no-s-like, including an exempt day. I'm always encouraged when I read about independent discoveries like this. The charity part is a nice touch. There can be something so self absorbed about self improvement. Giving it a generous, outward component he...

Day B4: SUCCESS

Deb, you have my special dispensation to do just three days a week (along with the general dispensation not to require my special dispensation). What you're doing now sounds like plenty, and it's clearly working great for you.

I guess we all work best at different granulaties of time. I need bigger chunks to get anything done. Start up costs are high, and therefore distractions are expensive. I'm like a monster c program run via cgi: slow to start, but then I get a lot done.

Day B1 (Friday): SUCCESS . First day on second attempt (hence the B). FYI: to color code your success/failures just highlight the word and choose the appropriate color from the "font colour" menu right above. Silly? Human beings are silly creatures. And it does make it easier to see when quickly sca...

Elinor, this was a tough week for a bunch of us, you're not the only one resetting your count. Don't "go on," start over. It's clearer and more inspiring to have a clean slate. 15 days on habit is an excellent first attempt. It takes most people more than one. And now you have an even more attainabl...

Welcome back, Navin. That sounds great. Sticking to the letter of the law like you did in trying times is like digging impassable trenches and building impenetrable fortifications. You can't always be on the offense, and status quo is a victory for the defense. As for the fortunate timing of the cho...

I know Friday wasn't much fun, but barring that, it sounds like you're doing fantastic. As for the still tough afternoons, maybe you should schedule one of your medicinable sugarings then? Is this something you feel confident/safe toughing out or would it be better to think of some kind of systemati...

Hi Cvmom, There's a big gap between knowing the right thing and the pesky business of doing it, but it's a necessary start. Enjoy the rest of the weekend, don't make yourself crazy or punish yourself. Just start fresh on Monday. Do what I did in my check-in and reset your count to day one. A long ti...

Deb, it sounds like you've really been on a roll lately. Congratulations! I'm in awe of your persistence through all the tough spots you've been through.

Welcome to the group, JackieO (and to the diet, too, I hope!). Your English is wonderful, much better than my German (I confess this to my shame: my parents are German and I studied a year in Freiburg). Trying and failing is expensive. It's depressing and wastes time. You're right to be cautious. Bu...

I can "link to any page" with my amazon id. If you post the normal amazon search url required by sogudi, I would be delighted churn it through the associates program processor and post the everyday systems version. Thanks!

Jan, I'm sorry you ran into a spell of trouble and also that I was too involved with personal stuff to give any support... I'm happy for your beautiful and wonderful day, though! And though I haven't tallied up the precise count of smileys vs. frownies, the trouble does seem pretty limited. I know y...

Welcome, Murphysraven. A once a month weigh-in sounds reasonable. I posted an analogy from the stock market a few weeks ago on how checking more frequently is bound to get you some bad results which (unless you are an emotionless vulcan) is bound to mess with your morale. If you think you need somet...

Sorry no checkin for a few days, my daughter had her surgery tuesday and though completely successful, it was a little distracting :wink: Day 16: SUCCESS . Funny stuff: more hospital traying issues. Day 17: SUCCESS . Too tired to remember if there was any funny stuff but I don't think so. Day 18: FA...

Day 15: S-Day (memorial day)

5th weekend down. Monthly resolution officially performed. So what have I been reading about on these luddite weekends (or more accurately, for the couple free hours each weekend my baby daughter graciously allowed me)? 2 things, mostly: Plato's Meno and biblical/philosophical/scientific takes on th...

A lot. Among many other things: ice cream, "tea biscuits," cookies. But I don't worry at all about S-days.

Day 14: S-Day.

Day 13: S-DAY (and how).

Congratulations, Jan. This is the second best kind of milestone in weight loss. The worst is mere pounds, the best is someone commenting "wow, have you lost weight?"

Funny that you should mention it... I "shadowbox" for a few minutes to cool down after each shovelglove routine. I know next to nothing about boxing except that you're not supposed to bite people's ears off, but it's fun, I feel it, and it kills time while I'm waiting for the shower to get hot. The ...

That's fantastic, Kevin. It's been a long time, but I remember (to use Kai's phrase) how "humbling" the pullup bar can be. I wish they still had monkeybars around here... no wonder kids today are such weenies.

Welcome to the new board, Kai. I think you'll find it's easier to stay on top of than the yahoo group digests. Six months of 5x a week shows serious discipline, but obviously the end goal is not a show of discipline, but a lifelong habit. I'm happy to hear you're giving it another shot. These things...

Day 12: SUCCESS. Nothing funny to report, not even soup.

Welcome, surely! I like your optimistic username. Try doing this daily check-in here until you get the habit down. You don't have to write much, just "SUCCESS" or "FAILURE." Or just note the esses you did or didn't manage to avoid (see Jan's daily checkin for a fun example of using emoticons to do t...

Sorry you're having trouble, cvmom. But don't be discouraged. It can take a few false starts to get it right. Resetting your count to day one is a good idea. Better clear, limited progress than a reckless, murky advance. Again, don't worry so much about the S days. The week is hard enough. Get that ...

Justin's my neighbor, so I can vouch for the beer can chicken. Excellent stuff. My recipes tend to be more like points of inspiration than precise instructions, but I'll post something soon.

Think of something really specific and make a monthly resolution. It's hard to act on "you know, I should really move a bit more." Every half hour sounds a bit much to be sustainable... maybe you could set a timer for a bit longer? Or say, "once a day, in addition to lunch, I'm going to get out of t...

Thank you, Jan!

Day 11: SUCCESS. More soup and bread. I don't think I've ever eaten this much soup and bread in my life as I have since I started this daily check in.

Tethered spinal cord. Easy stuff, for neurosurgery, but it's still neurosurgery. Should be no long term effects. Thanks, Jan!

Burns calories, too, apparently:

http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=582#582

Not a whole lot, obviously, but it's hilarious that they measured this, and hey, take what you can get.

Thanks, Ruth, Jan, Deb. I'm flattered you think so. I wish I had the foggiest idea how to go about getting a publisher, but I promise I'll give it another go soon. Might be a good monthly resolution for June or July...

Day 10: SUCCESS. Nothing remotely funny to report about wednesday. Thanks for your prayers, Deb. I'm confident she'll be fine -- it's all routine stuff (for the doctors, for us it's terrifying!).

Don't worry about being an apostate, I'm not excommunicating people (yet). I think you'd have to steal the shovelglove idea and start charging money for it for me to resort to that (very effectively, I'm sure). And anyway these new moves may not be perfect simulations of hard labor, but neither are ...

We have a recipe thread, just no recipes there yet! Add to the thread justin started in general discussion. He's being coy with his beets, but don't you be shy too!

So where's the beets?

Jan, I agree with Deb, your smiley rating system is great. I should see if I can get green smileys and red frownies on the list. Snacking seems to be the toughest S for most people, congratulations on your perfect day yesterday! (but what happened to the smileys?)

I heard something about this before, but the data are stunning: non-exercise activities can lose people 30-40 pounds in a year. Forget the gym, start moving. Anything helps. Fidget, stand, shuffle. Walking is hard core by these standards. From the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/24/he...

Thanks for the update, Ruth. I'm happy that No-S just clicks for you as it did for me. The surprise of the too obvious actually working is a wonderful thing!

Keep it up Anne! Make it stick this time. We did a walkathon recently, too (march of dimes). Our daughter was a preemie, so we walked with the hospital's NICU contingent. I used to think it was absurd that people had to go through all these stunts to get donations, shouldn't a "begathon" be enough? ...

I'm for it. Obviously the noSdiet doesn't require any special recipes, but it's not an entirely irrelevent subject. I'll make the thread sticky once we get a few posts (and I figure out how). So give us the beets to get started. Extra credit for coming up with recipes (like this) involving ingredien...

Kevin, I think the toughing it out will pay off. Sounds like you're doing great. Hope those readings aren't a total fluke! They sound a little too good to be true, but let's hope it's just a little. Treating the sugar you need as medicine is an excellent idea, especially if you keep it in medicinabl...

These were forwarded to me over the weekend by a friend who used to sing them in youth group: 1. When I'm Walking - by Jonathan Richman Now when I get off the train and start walking, again, That's when I feel like the world is my best friend. When I get out of the car and start walking - oh oh That...

Deb it sounds like you're doing great, funny stuff notwithstanding. Try this to resist nocturnal fridge raids. Remember that scene in ghostbusters when Sigourney Weaver opens the fridge and there's theres this extra-dimensional orange glowing babylonian temple with a dragon-dog guardian growling "ZU...

Day 9: SUCCESS. Yet more bread and soup (my wife is sick, OK?). Some funny stuff at the hospital cafeteria where we were on account of my daughter's upcoming surgery. Because of the way they served stuff, veg was on a separate little plate from the spaghetti and meatballs.

Chris -- now you're twice as famous. Since I put up a weekend luddite page and they're similar systems, I added a link to your original post:

http://everydaysystems.com/weekendluddite

http://everydaysystems.com/group/12.html

I love the ads...

4th weekend down, as you can tell from the lull in my posts, quite successfully. Just one more weekend left this month. Assuming that goes as well, I'll feel comfortable moving on to my next monthly resolution. I might keep posting my status here for a few weekends longer, just because a weekend hab...

That's funny, cvmom. But I think the sad thing is, many adults would react the same way internally, they just wouldn't show it. Kids may be lazy, but at least they're honest about their laziness. Adults think of more impressive excuses, but the laziness is the same. The cure is also the same: just d...

It's so convenient to have all these physiological experts in this group! Thanks again Deb for jumping in here. I myself am shockingly ignorant on such matters. The way I navigate the risks of new moves is just to do them very, very slowly, with few reps, paying careful attention to how I feel and s...

What a sad, true observation. What a striking (literally!) image of what's wrong with our fat, rich, wonderful country. On the bright side, it's so obvious what to do about it (at least for your own kids). I need to figure out how to link to individual articles so I can link to some of these bb post...

Day 8: SUCCESS. More soup and bread.

Elinor, don't worry about the weekends. Concentrate on getting the weekdays down. Worrying about the weekends is a dangerous distraction (and it's no fun). If you feel the need to do something, don't swear about avoiding disasters, but take the opposite tack and plan something especially nice for th...

Jan, this is great. Sorry I've been off the bb for a few days. We were traveling and my wife got sick, and between that and weekend luddite there wasn't a minute to spare.

Sorry for the delayed posts... was traveling. Day 5: SUCCESS. Funny stuff: we stopped at our favorite roadside diner (we're fond of the name, too) for lunch and I actually ordered something with the word "platter" in the title.I thought of samurai's recent post on the subject of platters, and how ap...

Day 4: SUCCESS. Funny stuff: paper plate pizza dinner involved some vertical stacking (funny how relevant recent topics in general discussion have been).

Welcome, Casey! Kevin gives good advice about the shovelglove: start light and keep it fun. Even if fun weren't a good in itself, you won't continue to do the exercise unless it's fun. That's why so few of us can stick with the gym. Your husband's makes a valid observation about the construction wor...

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