Everyday Systems

Sat Sept 12: weekend luddite failure. Desperately trying to find a number for a play date to escape being cooped up in the house in the rain with two whiny children :-) This has been a really tough 3-4 weeks -- work stress has been through the roof. I've had to adjust the number of tasks (particular...

Glad it all worked out, Noel! I usually find these things wind up being easier to handle than expected. I may not know exactly when and how the next meal is coming, but I've been surprised by how often, with a little bit of attention, they fall into place. And of course, if the day is really unusual...

I haven't heard (or seen) anything.

So feel free to pester them if you haven't already

Or just keep succeeding on No-s and spreading the word and it's bound to come to their attention eventually, right?

Reinhard

Great idea -- and thanks for the pictures, Noel.

Bento boxes + no-s seem like a great combination.

I had no idea that they correspond so precisely to a single plate -- and with such satiating visual impact.

Reinhard

Welcome, Dandelion!

Don't sweat that initial slip up -- it takes most people a few false starts to get the habit to stick.

Reinhard

It's beautiful thing when pretend useful movements lead genuinely useful ones!

Reinhard

Welcome Shirley!

Glad you liked the book -- hope No-s winds up working for you.

Best,

Reinhard

Congratulations!

I'm sure many of you have heard about this already (if only via late night comedy) and yes, the evidence isn't overwhelming decisive, but I thought the conclusion of this particular article (in stark contrast to most of the others I've seen about the same research) was inspiring. From: http://www.ny...

I looked stupid, I sweated, but by God, it felt amazing. This is perhaps the leitmotif of all everyday systems exercises :-) A sure sign you're on to something! Honestly, it sounds great to me. And I wouldn't be surprised if you compute better while walking. Best of luck and keep us posted, Reinhard

Great to see another increment in the ever growing progress thread, phayze -- and congratulations on your wife's pregnancy! Maybe put a sweater around the cinderblock and call it shovelblock? :-) (only partially joking -- sounds like a great "useful movements" prop, and the sweater would go a long w...

Welcome! It sounds like you've got a great attitude. It's great that you've had such success with IE. Sticking with the meal based eating of no-s should train your intuitions to be even better. Yes, the "no snacking" bit is hard, but it becomes very natural (even intuitive!) once you build the habit...

I'm sorry to hear this, Noel...

It does sound like it might be a fluke, though, from what you describe.

I've had much bigger meaningless fluctuations than 2.5 pounds myself.

Reinhard

Thanks, James! I just did.

http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=5556

No need to post often -- only if you enjoy it or find it helpful.

But we're very grateful you decided to post this!

Reinhard

James Grimes recently posted a 75 pound loss in a year "without fretting."

http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=5556

Reinhard

This was recently posted to the "general discussion" forum but is absolutely "testimonials worthy" and I wanted to make sure it was easy to find so I'm reposting (with permission) it here: From: http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=5537 Hello! About a year ago, I started the No-S diet on ad...

Kathleen just posted a very thoughtful (and successful!) one year update to her "testimonial" here:

http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic ... 8160#68160

Reinhard

Kathleen, Thank you for posting your update and congratulations on your continued success! The best things about your experience so far might be qualitative, but your numbers are not at all bad! I'm so glad you didn't let being just a few pounds shy of some arbitrary quantitative goal diminish your ...

Welcome, Robin! And congratulations on your success so far!

Congratulations! That's wonderful news.

I find that the fact that I've just eaten a nice big first is usually enough for a "no thanks, I'm full" to be convincing. Having a drink of some kind is a great smoke screen when others are having snacks. Both for them (they see you with something in your hand) and for you (you've got this great ph...

James, Though it was "needless to say," I'm very glad you did say it here! That's quite an achievement -- 75 pounds in a year "without fretting." Congratulations and thank you for letting us know! Reinhard P.S. I hope you don't mind if I re-post this in the "testimonials" forum? It certainly meets t...

That's great. But would you have been speeding to begin with if you hadn't been so eager to get home and eat your ice cream?

This is straight from the Culter article I'm constantly citing.

http://home.uchicago.edu/~jmshapir/obesity.pdf

Great to see that word about this research is spreading! For a while I seemed to be the only non-academic referencing it.

Reinhard

Sounds great!

Yeah, urban ranger travels a lot better than shovelglove

(Though the 14 minutes of exercise every N-day part is quite portable)

Reinhard

This is great, bookman -- I would have cited this in the book if I'd known about it (was going on mere common sense). A particularly choice bit: The new research suggests that the stomach tells the brain when to eat and that establishing a regular schedule of meals will regulate the stomachâ€™s rele...

I was forwarded an interesting article earlier this week: From: http://outside.away.com/outside/bodywork/200908/power-building-strength.html Michol Dalcourt, a longtime professional hockey trainer in Canada, witnessed this dynamic firsthand when he compared the performance of seasoned pros, placed o...

Hi Colleen, It's very reasonable -- do what works best for you. The "N day" schedule is mostly for excuse proofing your routine, it's not for any profound physiological reason (though I don't think, if you pace yourself, there's any profound physiological reason not to do it). Best of luck and keep ...

I make all kinds of rules and never actually follow any of them. That was me pre-everyday systems :-) I've tried the "forming a new habit takes a month" approach. I can do a month. But the next month I try to focus on another habit and promptly forget the first one. Yeah, one a month sounds modest,...

Congratulations and welcome, kwonset and buttercreampillow!

I like your modified glass ceiling, kwonset. I keep thinking I ought to do something similar...

That is fantastic! Congratulations!

And my favorite number to boot

Reinhard

I am happy that it's taken 7 years for it to become necessary for me to post something like this -- but unfortunately, some uncharacteristically heated posts over these last two weeks have made it so. Please let's be careful not to insult one another. There's no reason we can't be civil when we disa...

So please commence being nice immediately. I'm sorry I did not intervene more forcefully sooner -- the last three weeks have been incredibly stressful at work and I kept thinking, based on the great track record we've had here since 2002, that people would just comply with my repeated requests to be...

Good luck, guys! I'll join you with a "glass ceiling" september challenge. August was a bad month.

Guys, I'm on the verge of deleting this thread (and some accounts). This discussion has gotten way out of hand. I'm astonished and really a little depressed at the lack of civility that's been shown by some of the posters here. It's totally unprecedented in the the 8 years this site has been up. Ple...

Friday August 28th: worst day in a long time. Insane work stress let to 3 drinks over the limit glass ceiling violation (de-compressing with co-workers), missed shovelglove, and missed tasks.

Welcome, sporkfancier, frugaltexan, laniebelle, and DaveMc! And sorry it's been forever since I popped in. Love the "cookie dough out of the tube" and "pork rinds"

My S-days are rule free. I've had some doozies, and still do occasionally, but mostly they're not too awful. I attribute this to good weekday habits of meal based eating carrying over + intentional rewards -- I don't just wait and hope I don't get too hungry. The "S-event" concept isn't a bad one --...

Welcome Shelly! Sorry you saw an initial uptick, but that's not necessarily such a bad/unusual thing. a) The weight may just be an artifact of the scale -- it's not that much. Have you seen/heard this podcast episode? http://www.everydaysystems.com/podcast/episode.php?id=24 b) people tend to start o...

Excellent! Thanks for the update! Hope it was a happy (if not extra-) birthday.

I would LOVE for all of us to write (maybe here, instead of on the blog) what WE think normal eating is.

I'd love it too, especially if you mention no-s!

Reinhard

Smarter Snacks Keep the Weight Off Hmmm... maybe this explains why they won't review my book :-) Nicole, I wouldn't call what you're doing "snacking." It's too structured and sensible! More what R would call "mini-meals," which are quite No-S. Absolutely. I don't have a problem with "a meal called ...

Thalia has just posted a wonderful testimonial describing her No S experience so far (-19 pounds, or 10% of her starting bodyweight, in almost 8 months) :

http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=5493

Congratulations, Thalia! That's wonderful news -- you are very welcome!

Thanks for the link, Thalia! these people are using the "urban ranger" name (I wonder if you can sue ) I'm not really the suing type :-) Plus I'm thrilled to have more fellow rangers on board -- whether by independent discovery or not. And I'm sure it'll result in at least a few more people stumblin...

1. Amen to no-s being about taking responsibility for your situation and exercising willpower. 2. I don't see why that should require "ribbing." If you want to suggest an new or modified "technique," or urge better compliance with the vanilla rules, there's no reason why you can't do that respectful...

Thank you for delurking, janie47! I'm so happy to hear you're enjoying no-s. And absolutely do as BrightAngel suggests and modify the rules to suit your situation (meal number modification doesn't even officially count as a "mod"). And thanks for the update on your continuing success, StrawberryRoan...

We missed you too!

Happy to hear you're doing well -- and that you're successfully combining low carb and no-s.

Reinhard

Winnie, I agree with you about the change of tone and it makes me as sad as anyone. I hope you'll bear with the board a little longer, because I have some ideas on how to address this problem and take us back to the good old days when nary an unkind word was said. 1) I'm going to post a "sticky thre...

Marc, now many "pleases" is this going to take?

Stop being insulting. It's rude and if you actually care about people taking your advice COMPLETELY counterproductive.

This is enough already.

Reinhard

Marc, you're awesome, but please, please try to be a little gentler with your advice. OK? It's important that people can post their problems here without fear of being reprimanded. You have a lot of good advice to offer, but no one's going to listen if they feel attacked. Deb, Best of luck and hope ...

Welcome, Bunny! I second using the habitcal. Keeps the focus on what's important -- your behavior, rather than obsessing over short term fluctuations on the scale. Besides that, I'd say, be strict about the literal rules -- but don't worry if your plates are on the large side, your first few weekend...

You guys are great. Thank you!

Thanks also to "Cathytg" for the amazon review (not sure it was in response to my plea here or coincidental, but either way I really appreciate it!)

Reinhard

Hi Bushranger,

Hope there are no hard feelings about that last somewhat heated discussion?

Hey, it happens. Diet can be a sensitive issue

Hope you're doing well and looking forward to seeing more of your helpful and informative posts here,

Reinhard

Thank you all so much! I really appreciate it and apologize for being such a nudge about publicity related stuff recently. Speaking of which, if anyone who hasn't already posted an amazon.com review AND doesn't feel tapped out from these other publicity nudges, the most recent review was rather lous...

Hi Sara, I'm planning to do a podcast soon to review/bring together all the productivity systems in a more unified way. In the meantime, I can say that 1) I've been practicing "audiodidact output" regularly since I described it in the podcast, more or less unaltered 2) I continue to find it fantasti...

Hi Sara, I've found that the columns are vastly less important than keeping the daily card to at all. On weekends and S-days, I just keep a single undifferentiated list. And if there weren't a compelling reason to subdivide during the week, I wouldn't bother. It's hugely motivating and calming to ha...

I was finally able to read through the whole article (maybe I should do that next time before posting anything! :-)). What struck me is how well no-s and the other "everyday systems" address the problems the author identifies. 1) compensation: you get three meals. There's a limit as to how much you ...

Welcome back!

Nothing qualitatively new -- though there are quantitatively rather more of us here (just passed the 4000 member mark!).

Reinhard

You're right that compared to the permasnacking that is the status quo these days No-s is a kind of "fasting" -- though I think it's a little sad that things have come to that point. No one in previous generations would have looked at eating three meals a day as "fasting."

Reinhard

Hi guys, Sorry I didn't catch this sooner -- darn vacation and subsequent email/bulletin board backlog. Please, please let's be careful not to insult one another. There's no reason we can't be civil when we disagree. This board has a pretty great track record in this regard and honestly I'd rather j...

I am so sorry to hear this.

I will certainly remember Peter with a brownie (and a prayer).

My condolences to you and all Peter's family and friends,

Reinhard

Great to see you again here, Le Mercenaire!

Love the hammer names!

Not sure why that never occurred to me to do that myself...

Uh-oh... I feel myself about to spend a disturbing amount of time trying to come up with a naming scheme

Good luck becoming a full time shugger again,

Reinhard

Welcome, Mariposa! Thank you for boldly sharing your story with us here! I'm very happy to hear about your successful start, and I hope No S continues to work well for you. It's always made a lot of sense to me that No-s could work "both ways:" to ensure a healthy maximum and a healthy minimum of fo...

Welcome, Gia! I would forget about the pounds altogether. Just relax and focus on building good eating/moving habits. The pounds will come off. But "a watched pot never boils," right? Have you seen the habitcal ? It's a great way to get your mind off short term results and focused on long term habit...

For the last year or so, my wife and I have been doing our N-daily 14 minutes while watching the news. It's an extra motivation to exercise, plus it saves me time I would have spent reading "news" (and who knows what else) on the web. I can't believe I used to think the internet was a more efficient...

If anyone could spare a few minutes to post a rating here, I'd love to graduate beyond "not enough reviews."

http://www.dietsinreview.com/diets/the-no-s-diet/

Thanks in advance!

Reinhard

Welcome, Josh!

I stumbled across the "No S Diet" a few years ago but couldn't get my head around how something so simple could be effective

Yeah, I sometimes think I need a more complex introductory version to lure in newbies

Reinhard

Just got back from vacation. Played it "textbook perfect" as described above: took 2/4 NWS days.

Glad to see no (obvious, still plowing through the new posts) catastrophes have happened here on the boards during my absence and the discussions have been humming along nicely without me.

Reinhard

I couldn't help but notice that *sometimes* didn't make it into this article either! Yeah, everything has to be reduceable to a soundbyte these days -- fortunately No-s is just one word shy of that to begin with. :-) I noticed that No-S isn't find-able in their sidebar list of diets. Perhaps if the...

Nothing you guys haven't seen already here (and no audio), but nice nonetheless:

http://diet.lovetoknow.com/wiki/No_S_Diet

Reinhard

Generally speaking, I like a fatty patty with some grated onion and lots of salt and pepper.

The burgers we get from our farm share are very lean, though, and so I mix in some oil as well.

We Germans like Frikadellen, so "meatloaf" is no insult.

Reinhard

Nice!

Looks way more interesting than my usual urban ranger routes, I must admit

Thanks for the post -- and sorry I didn't see it till now. Crazy month at the day job.

Reinhard

Thanks all for your responses! It's interesting that there's a successful contingent of "just take them all as S days" vacationers. I've done this myself for shorter vacations, and I think if you're moving a lot it's a psychologically very healthy strategy. But I think less physically active/less ps...

Hi Dave, Welcome! And congratulations on your successful start. I even bought the book, so enjoy your nickel (or whatever you get from the publisher for each copy)! Thanks! It's a whopping 60 cents, actually! (and an additional 60+ cents if you buy through my amazon link -- yes, an amazon associate ...

Welcome, cl2009! Nothing new to add -- just echoing what howfunisthat and Blthe Morning have already said. 1. Eat bigger meals. Don't worry if they seem too big at first. Building the habit of eating only at meals is worth a few extra calories up front. You'll gradually get a sense of how much it ta...

Yeah, I would consider sugar soda a pretty clear "S." It's got an obscene amount of sugar (over 9 teaspoons in a 12 oz can). Drink diet during the week if you must -- or better yet, wait till the weekend and enjoy the real thing with a clear conscience. It'll be hard at first, but with a little prac...

Congratulations! BMI is nobody's favorite metric, but hey, you've clearly made progress and it's nice to have some quantitative confirmation of that.

He does seem to stick to three "meals."

I also very much doubt this was how he always ate.

Still, interesting (and impressive, on a number of levels).

Reinhard

Moderation in all things -- including exercise! Yes! And I'm all for preferring useful "exertion" over "exercise," but sometimes the way our society is structured can make it difficult to get enough. Which is why I supplement my actually useful urban rangering with a moderate dose of pretend-useful...

Since it's that time of year again (and I'm going on vacation myself next week) I thought it might be nice to start an official thread to collect people's No-s vacation strategies and experiences. I've used two strategies over the years, one pre-habitcal and one post-. My pre-habitcal strategy was j...

"N" also means Normal food

I like it! I could see it possibly getting fuzzy or feeling excessively restrictive, but if it works for you, that's great. Keep us posted.

Reinhard

I almost forgot: Wed August 5th: no s diet S day (my older daughter's fifth birthday).

My wife's reading it now for her book club. I haven't had a chance to look at it much yet, but I hope to soon.

Friday Aug 7: Glass ceiling failure. One drink over the limit. Rough couple days at work. Had a couple drinks with coworkers after work to recuperate and didn't object when my wife poured me a glass of wine at dinner. No disaster, but red.

congratulations, sporkfancier! And thanks for letting us know.

Yes, the "nursery rhyme" (I love that! so much better than "mantra") aspect of No-s is both a pro and a con.

I'm happy to hear the No S Book is generally available in Canada! I had no idea.

Reinhard

Yesterday, for the first time since this bulletin board was set up in 2005 (and even since the yahoo email group in 2002) we had a "troll," someone who posts antagonistic stuff merely to bait people into responding. On one hand, I would have preferred no trolls ever, but on the other hand, one troll...

Welcome back! And happy birthday to your daughter!

Coincidentally, my old daughter's birthday is also today (she's five).

Reinhard

That's great (and very amusing), Kathleen.

Forcing a kid to go on a diet is one thing, but if the kid enthusiastically volunteers to eat in a way that previous generations wouldn't have even recognized as a "diet" (three square meals a day) I think that's quite another.

Reinhard

Very cool -- but please, please, be very careful.

I don't know what your medical insurance is like, but for me an extra sledge is a hell of a lot cheaper than a trip to the ER -- or worse.

Reinhard

I always enjoy reading Michael Pollen and this article was no exception, but he did leave out what to me was the most salient point of David Cutler's research: the fact that the vast majority of these convenience food calories are being delivered in the form of snacks (90% for men, over 100% for wom...

BigE, I don't know if I have anything to add to what others have already written here, except to echo: 1) congratulations on your good attitude and good habits -- vacation is tough in terms of diet and that you lost anything at all is actually great progress. 2) moderation is slow going. There are e...

I think what you're feeling now might be all the disincentive you need. Limiting yourself to three single plate meals makes you notice your food more. Excess -- in this case, French fries -- jumps out at you. So I'm not sure you need any more systematic intervention. Just remember this unpleasant fe...

Yeah, me neither...

Oh well, the ground has been prepared.

I'll see if the publisher can give them a nudge...

Thanks all! I really do appreciate your efforts.

Reinhard

Thanks all! I'm glad you liked it.

This last batch of podcast episodes has been helpful for me too in thinking through these bigger picture issues.

Reinhard

It's great to see you here again, Jan. Welcome back to the club!

Best wishes on making it to 100 days and beyond!

Reinhard

http://us.penguingroup.com/static/html/ ... rian-lizzi

At way too long last, part 3 of the mods and tweaks trilogy, "When a mere mod isn't enough: how to roll your own everyday system from scratch."

http://everydaysystems.com/podcast/episode.php?id=37

Sorry this took so long (again):

http://everydaysystems.com/podcast/episode.php?id=37

Wednesday July 29: tasks failure. Fell asleep and neglected to do my Hebrew study. Oh well. It's been a while.

Everyday Systems

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Public effects of "private" virtue (NYTimes)

James: -75 pounds in a year

"Farm Boy Strength" scientifically validated

Bulletin Board Etiquette (please read!)

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Diets in Review.com

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Vacation Strategies

First troll!

Nice sign of confidence from my publisher

Podcast 37: Mods & Tweaks Trilogy 3: When a mere mod isn