Everyday Systems

Deb, I have no problem with people "modifying" the habitcal and tweaking the systems however it seems best to them. They're just tools, not ends in themselves. If my rules don't quite work for you out of the box, by all means change them -- especially since you've experienced that similar mods worke...

1. Don't worry too much. The daily cards are much more important. 2. Come up with a list of potential monthly resolutions in advance, so you're not choosing one at the spur of the moment at the beginning of the month. Keeping a list is also helpful because there are probably a million things you wan...

Welcome, chickfilafan! This has been asked a few times, and we've had at least one good, extended discussion about it which is probably worth taking a look at: http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=244 To sum it up (more or less): It's funny how many women seem to be afraid that the tiniest ...

Welcome, Posh! Honestly, I'd just call it an S-day and not worry... It would take superheroic willpower to resist all those temptations, and I'm not sure it would buy you much in terms of habit. Even if you succeed, the environment is so obviously "special" that you're not going to make habitually u...

doulachic, Welcome back! I love it when people return after going silent -- especially avid, interesting posters like you. And it's a great compliment, actually, if people find the system sufficiently attractive even after going completely off track for a while to give it another try. Please don't f...

James,

Great to see you again here!

There are now at least two exhibitionist shovelglovers on this board:

http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic ... 6470#26470

(I might be willing to post half-naked pictures of myself on the internet, but in person I'm rather self-conscious).

Reinhard

James, It's great to see you again here. I always wonder when a successful old timer goes silent whether they've just gotten too busy to keep posting (very understandable) or have relapsed to bad old habits and are slinking away in frustration and shame. I am very, very happy to hear that you've mai...

I'm sure it's my imagination, but it actually seems faster...

Sounds painful, but I'm very relieved that no one has reported anything more serious than this yet. I think swinging a sledgehammer around is so obviously dangerous that it forces people to be careful. Attention lurkers: if swinging around a sledgehammer doesn't seem obviously dangerous to you, plea...

Thank you! "Leagues" is good (so is the book, as I remember).

The inspirational value of antiquated units of measurement... how nice that these old workhorses can be put to good use again.

Reinhard

I love the idea -- but with two kids, unfortunately, owning a car is non-optional, so I can't speak from experience. There are a ton of "zipcars" as they're called here in Cambridge. People do seem to like them.

Reinhard

Hi Deb,

Sorry about that!

I just removed all anti-spam code EXCEPT the thing about completing the phrase (which all by itself seems to have eliminated 100% of spam and an unknown percentage of human beings).

Try again?

Reinhard

Thanks for these suggestions, Spook. I'm very happy you find it useful as is. I hope to get version 2 out before new years 2008 -- and if I do, some of these will certainly be in there. Brief responses to your points: 1. you're right... at the very least I could make this a user preference. Then may...

Oct 29: Shovelglove failure. I was on the phone about the nosdiet book for over two hours and when I looked up it was one in the morning. Too late for oct 29. Oct 31: NWS day for shovelglove and Nos (Halloween). I probably could have managed shovelglove, but hell it's a holiday and I was beat from d...

This isn't the main thing, probably, but it's the first that comes to mind, because it's so clearly a problem: I'd like to stop constantly diddling with my stocks. I know that I should just (more or less) invest everything in FFNOX and forget about it till I retire, but I can't quite bring myself to...

I've always seen the absurdity of shovelglove as part of the appeal, but I guess if you hang with a really humorless crowd it might not always be appreciated. Two possible solutions: 1. Jettison your family and friends and replace them with cooler ones. 2. Do it in private and don't talk about it --...

Matt, I think what you're describing is tuck the bales . (also known as reverse butter churn). I would probably agree that it's harder (I do 42 reps butter churn, just 21 tuck the bales), but it also seems to emphasize different muscles. When I do butter churn I feel it in my pecs. Tuck the bales is...

Stuffed animal shovelglove would be adorable (and/or disturbing: "Daddy, what did you do to Teddy?"). Do post pictures if you do this. I would put something over it, in any case. Naked shovelglove, like other naked activities, is great until chance and time do their thing. A sweater might not seem l...

Huh.... I'd love to see this in action, because I'm having a hard time imagining it.

Do be careful!

Reinhard

Here are previous Halloweens' discussions of this issue (my position, neatly summarized by Deb, hasn't changed): 2004 (reposted from yahoo group): http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=533 2005: http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=475 2006: http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.p...

Yes, there is significant overlap between snacks and sweets. But in a way that makes it easier -- follow one rule and there's not much left to do for the other. There is even overlap between seconds and sweets, if you consider dessert a second. Taken together, "no snacks" and "no seconds" almost imp...

Yes! Mandatory.

It's a holiday specifically devoted to S. It would be a shame not to take it.

Reinhard

I tried the one handed version Friday and remembered why I don't do it regularly: with a heavier sledge, it puts a lot of strain on the elbow. With two hands, the other hand doesn't just "cheat," it stabilizes (not a bad tradeoff, I think). So unless you're very comfortable with the weight your usin...

Yes, this is a good one.

I think there was an older discussion about this somewhere....

Found it. Here:

http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=27941

Reinhard

OK, two little clarifications: 1. it's very difficult to monitor one's own caloric consumption. Monitoring your friend's is close to impossible. What you see -- small meals -- might be only the tip of the iceberg. In fact, small meals might be part of the problem -- because they lead to more snackin...

I'm very sorry to hear you're so frustrated. Losing 15-16 pounds really isn't bad. I don't think that's cause for concern. It works out to about half a point a week, which is actually what I tell people to expect. But you're right that if you haven't lost this weight in a healthy way then there is a...

Of course, Deb! It's the least I can do for our champion bulletin board (and yahoo group!) poster.

Email or private message me your address.

Reinhard

Yeah, not much new under the sun (and we keep ignoring it). There are some doozies in that book though, like: For society as a whole, a thoroughgoing eugenic program must include: (1) The prevention of reproduction by the markedly unfit, such as the feeble-minded, by sterilization of the most unfit ...

And here's big nicks:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/big-nicks-burge ... ig%20nicks

A little late, but here's the yelp page on sal and carmine's:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/Qab4GBAxxjacF4K ... 20carmines

Reinhard

Welcome (to no-s) Larissa!

Sorry about your injuries... I guess vertical urban ranger is out of the question for now?

Reinhard

The disadvantage of not using separate colored cards for the monthly and yearly is that when you file all your cards you can't identify them from above (a very satisfying sight after you've been doing this a few months -- I'll post a picture soon). I guess a paper clip or something attached to the m...

I am deeply grateful that you took the plunge and went first -- this forum was beginning to look a little silly :-) A lot of people have reported doing butter churn one handed. I'm not sure why I persist in using two hands. It's certainly a lot harder with one, and you can't "cheat" by having your d...

Flora, I'm sorry to hear you're having such a hard time of it lately... I wouldn't take that new york times article about your body "wanting to be fat" too seriously. I think it's far more likely that it's old, deeply entrenched behaviors that want to be indulged coming back. Most dieters never alte...

Sinnie,

I'm happy you seem to be reenergized after that rough spell mid-month.

What exactly is EFT? (I got a rough sense from some of the quotes).

Reinhard

just rebuilt indices

Oct 8: Columbus Day: NWS day for nosdiet and shovelglove
Oct 21: weekend luddite failure. I though I'd lost my credit card and checked online whether anyone had bought anything with it (I found the card later). Got right off after this check.

"Freetotalling" sounds great -- clever, cute, and clear. And I think it would solve the economic component of the problem nicely. Unfortunately that's not really the part I'm most worried about... if I were freetotalling, every once in a while you'd find me drunk off my rocker babbling in the back o...

Twice one's weight might be brutally hard, but what incentive to trim down :-) Age sounds good too (for now -- I'd be curious whether there are any 80 year olds who can bang out 160 pushups a day). Does the tai chi (aka "torture") pushup count as just one? Watch out or you're going to wind up with p...

Well, that's a pretty big upside. Congratulations!

Hope you like the habitcal. Let me know what you think. I've got a ton of notes for version 2 and hope to have it out before Christmas.

Reinhard

No-s wasn't really intended for athletes... but I think it should be easy to modify to make it work for you. Probably simply by adding another meal. If you do add another meal, I think I'd advise making it an every day thing rather than depending on how you feel, so your eating is still always based...

(silver, no worries about the duplicate posts, I went ahead and deleted them) Metabolism issues are way overrated, mostly because they seem to provide: 1) a good excuse to not do anything 2) a magic bullet solution that does not involve will power if your metabolism can somehow be tricked. Self-dece...

I actually quote that line in the No S Book (he also used it in a recent New York Times magazine article).

I think I'll add this book to the No S Diet amazon store (I'm sure it'll be worth reading, based on his previous stuff).

Reinhard

Charis, I'm very happy to see all that green habit compliance, but sorry that you're not seeing more progress with results. Still, I do think you're in a much better position than when you started. 1) You clearly are capable of effective self discipline and habit building 2) your existing no-s habit...

Congratulations, Rose! I'm very happy to hear you're making such good progress (and reading such good books).

Reinhard

KCCC, Thank you for posting these insights. Like most of what I've written on the nos home page, they may seem obvious in retrospect. But you have to earn that retrospect first, which it sounds like you have. It's interesting that most of your insights have to do with managing failure. It really doe...

In my junior year in college I put myself on the "save money for booze" diet. It was remarkably effective -- I lost over 30 pounds in a few months (and almost failed out).

Reinhard

Excellent start!

Cold cereal is remarkably quick.

But even better is setting the alarm clock a little earlier and making time to eat. A reasonably leisurely breakfast is such a pleasure -- it's worth it.

Reinhard

Good start, Spook. The good thing about marking days where you would have done fine except for social pressure as red on the habitcal is that you really don't want to blow any more in the absence of such pressure. And in time, you'll get good about mastering the art of positive excuses. Best of luck...

Welcome back!

Sorry about your good excuse -- sounds painful.

When I go longer than a weekend without shugging I start to miss it, too. There's someting very, very satisfying, cathartic almost, about swinging a sledgehammer around.

Reinhard

Very funny... yeah, the fact that you have "limited reserves of willpower" is at the core of No-s. Use whatever remains to fend off amorous cartoonists, ladies

.

Reinhard

More on the Monday, dug up by my original correspondent: From: http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/monday_hammer Monday hammer n. jocularly, a (heavy) sledge or hammer (said to be appropriate for use on a Monday). Subjects: English Citations: [1938-39 Lexicon of Trade Jargon â€œThe Mac...

OK, I just replaced the visual confirmation and some of the cruder patterm matching with a fill in the missing word textual confirmation. Hope it works and that I didn't break anything else in the process.

Reinhard

I'm glad you're intrigued, Carolejo. It's continued to be a great system for me. In fact I've got a great add on that I hope to do a podcast on shortly...

Reinhard

I've got nothing against games, unfortunately spambots seem to be inordinately fond of the term.

I'm going to try introducing this textual confirmation thing instead of mysterious and error prone filters.

http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?&t=472940

Reinhard

Hi Carolejo, Sorry about that... but I think I fixed it. Try again? (the word "games" in your interests flagged you as a spambot according to my primitive system). If you still get the same message, let me know. It's possible there might be some other term in your profile that the detector doesn't l...

Post any questions/comments/concerns you have about this move here.

Official movement description at:

http://shovelglove.com/movements/chop_tree/

Post any questions/comments/concerns you have about this move here.

Official movement description at:

http://shovelglove.com/movements/fireman/

Post any questions/comments/concerns you have about this move here.

Official movement description at:

http://shovelglove.com/movements/stoke_oven/

Post any questions/comments/concerns you have about this move here.

Official movement description at:

http://shovelglove.com/movements/tuck_bales/

Post any questions/comments/concerns you have about this move here.

Official movement description at:

http://shovelglove.com/movements/hoist_sack/

Post any questions/comments/concerns you have about this move here.

Official movement description at:

http://shovelglove.com/movements/drive_fence_posts/

Post any questions/comments/concerns you have about this move here.

Official movement description at:

http://shovelglove.com/movements/flip_lever/

Post any questions/comments/concerns you have about this move here.

Official movement description at:

http://shovelglove.com/movements/chop_wood/

Post any questions/comments/concerns you have about this move here.

Official movement description at:

http://shovelglove.com/movements/churn_butter/

Post any questions/comments/concerns you have about this move here.

See also: http://shovelglove.com/movements/shovel/

Something about a corrupted index. I hope I don't see this again...

Welcome, Mr. Jack. I'm glad you're enjoying shovelglove. The good news is that it stays fun, even 5 years and counting into it. Of course, fun alone isn't sufficient... you also need the discipline of 14 minutes every N-day (or something equivalent). I think what makes shovelglove work so well is th...

Panic over - I found the videos

I'm glad! I panicked for a moment too before I scrolled down.

Glad you think the new forums are a good idea. I think I'll take the plunge tommorrow.

Reinahrd

Hi Deb,

I hope the interview went well. Sorry to hear about all this stress...

Try to get just one green day in there to break this string of red. I think it will help with the stess.

I know you'll bounce back, but I'm sorry things are so tough in the meantime.

Reinhard

Thanks for the advice, Deb.

I'm going to procrastinate on this a little more because I'm not quite satisfied yet by what I have in mind... it would be awfully nice to have the qualification directly on the habitcal page, and I think I've thought of a way to do this unobtrusively.

Reinhard

nice idea... I've found that recording "Financial Confessions" has reduced both clutter and spending over the last few months. Though with two small children, to some extent, the task is hopeless :-) The principle of introducing a limit to crowd junk out is useful even (maybe even especially) with n...

Congratulations on making it to six months! Don't be ashamed of your "yellow" -- I've wracked up decent amount this summer, too. The fact that you're tracking it will make a huge positive difference long term. You know that you have enough real, legitimate yellow that you don't want to waste limited...

Thanks for the Orwell link, fungus. Wow, that guy can write. Just a few choice quotes here (the whole thing -- it's not very long -- is well worth reading): Our civilization, pace Chesterton, is founded on coal, more completely than one realizes until one stops to think about it. The machines that k...

Welcome back! So good to see you again here.

Reinhard

Congratulations, Bonnie! And welcome to the club. I'm very happy to hear that you feel you're really building habit. Keep up the strictness and I think you'll soon find it gets very easy. Of all the everyday systems I practice, No-s gets the easiest and most automatic once you get that habit down. I...

I'm very happy to hear it! Thank you for checking in.

I too enjoy walking in "bad" weather. It's more rangersome. Anyone can walk in fair weather, after all.

Reinhard

Shovelglove was (loosely) inspired by history, so I was very excited to get the following email last week: The reason Iâ€™m writing, is a story my father told me about a sledgehammer the young blacksmiths used at the coal mine where he worked as a coal miner in South Wales, Britain. On a Monday afte...

Welcome! Aikido, huh? The martial art that really appeals to me is kendo. One of these days maybe when the kids grow up and go to college I'll take it up. In the meantime, shovelglove will have to do. Easier to squeeze in between diaper changes (and it will be great prep for eventually whacking peop...

Awesome! I'm so happy to hear (and see!) you're still with it.

Great picture, you look very lean and strong.

Reinhard

Oct 1: NWS Day shovelglove (sick)
Oct 2: NWS Day Nosdiet (my birthday)

September 2007 (this was a rough month!) Sept 1: weekend luddite failure. Excuse: had to wrap up nosdiet book copyedits. Sept 3: shovelglove/nosdiet NWS day (Labor Day) Sept 6: shovelglove failure (I'm going to start reporting these as they happen because I simply can't remember now) Sept 8: weekend...

Congratulations! That's a significant jump. I'm surprised it didn't seem harder -- though it may take a few more hours for your muscles to properly appreciate this morning's accomplishment :-). Don't hesitate to take it easy (or off) tomorrow if you're feeling very sore. My experience upgrading has ...

Hi Jim, I think this is the post in question: http://nosdiet.com/group/24.html (really ancient stuff, but still pretty representative) I don't know if I'd call this "really healthy." There is plenty of fat in there, plenty of sugar on weekends, and even a fair amount of processed junk. Oatmeal and b...

I have to admit, I'm still perfectly capably of enjoying milk chocolate (and twix bars). Though I don't pine for them during the week, and have expanded my appreciation for sweets to the less intense stuff, I still relish my full-on S-day sugar esses pretty thoroughly. But I'm definitely much less i...

Yeah, another thing I should do is move the daily checkin from the nosdiet section to the more general everyday systems section. People (inluding myself) have been using it to track multiple habits for a while, so the placement should reflect that. I should also nix the "daily" part.

Reinhard

It crashed again this moring, but I figured out why: out of disk space. Easy enough to fix.

Reinhard

Wow, contratulations! That's platinum -- not even a single NWS day (non- weekend S-day)

Sorry I've neglected to post my standings here for the last few months. I'll get them up this week.

Reinhard

That is very inspiring! I only wish she'd gotten the idea from nosdiet.com, that would have made a great testimonial! In some ways what she does is more hard core than no-s, but in other ways not really (from what you've described). There may not be S-days, but I didn't hear anything about limiting ...

My preference is not to fragment these forums too much, but I think it would make sense to add a new forum specifically dedicated to moves and possibly another for routines (combinations of moves, workout times and days, etc.). These are two subjects that come up a lot, and it would be nice to conso...

so far so good.

I started with a 12 pounder, but I'm a bigger than average dude, and it was probably a little on the heavy side for the first few months. So I'd probably advise starting lighter than that. Too heavy can be a problem: it can be unpleasant, your form can suffer, you're more likely to injure yourself. ...

It seems like eating less (and therefore presumably buying less) would obviously save you money, but apparently not on most diets: http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/forbes/P114424.asp So No-s, with its primitive emphasis on simply eating less, is probably the only diet around that will do t...

Deb, I know you well enough now not to worry about your giving up, but it's always nice when you stop by again. :-) Sorry about the computer situation! But glad to hear a replacement is in the works. Don't worry about filling in past months in the habitcal (unless you really want to). If you're worr...

Hi KCCC, If I understand you correctly, you're still having three "eating events" a day? So maybe just promote your "virtual plate" of afternoon fruit to meal status. Or do as bonnie suggests and go with four official "meals" on days like these, the last two being small (a half sized plate might ser...

Welcome, bonnieUK! No apologies necessary, we like long. Especially when it involves stories about prancing around the woods like a Lothlorien Elf. :-) No kidding -- a big element of shovelglove and urban ranger is role playing, too. If you can't do useful exercise, you have to role play a bit if yo...

I've been very happy with the habitcal over the last few months, but there's one feature it doesn't have that has really been bugging me: the ability to "qualify" failures and non-weekend S-days (NWS days), to describe how bad they were and why they happened ("negative tracking"). Successes, like To...

TerJan58, Don't worry if you can post here every day. Once a week is fine too. Or only post when you have something suboptimal to "confess." It might take you a while to figure out how to best use this checkin. I'm still experimenting myself: I started out with daily check-ins, then went to weekly, ...

Welcome (belatedly) back! Sorry I've been too distracted these last few weeks to properly tend the checkins, but things are easing up and I hope to be more regular here. I wonder: How do you set a good goal weight? I don't actually think it's so important. Set a goal behavior instead. The weight wil...

Congratulations on another impressive run! I should switch to habitcal, but the forum habit is too strong... This forum has been working great for you. Why mess with SUCCESS? Glad your teeth are on the mend. I remember how nasty that procedure was (the anaesthesia was fantastic though, I kept on try...

Everyday Systems

Search found 5900 matches

Testing after memory upgrade

Chop Tree

The Fireman

Stoke the Oven

Tuck Bales

Hoist the Sack

Drive Fence Posts

Flip Lever

Chop Wood

Churn Butter

Shoveling

Testing after really nasty error

"The Monday" (28 pound sledge used in British Mine

Proposal for two new shovelglove forums

TEsting after crash this morning

Combining check-ins with the habitcal