Everyday Systems

I wish there was an orange colour option for days when I have one minor slipup but the day is otherwise fine

Hmmm... another vote for "orange"...

I'll factor this into my considerations...

Reinhard

I doubt there's something particularly nefarious about bread. For one thing, it is very hard to measure the impact of a particular kind of food.... so my first piece of advice might be to double and triple check whether there really is a correlation. If there is, I suspect it has less to do with bre...

My only more or less universally applicable suggestion is to plan to eat something nice (and don't stress). Planning something nice will: 1) be nice in itself, and that's something 2) placate your appetite so it doesn't just run wild and eat whatever is in sight because it can. There is a wide range...

Yeah, despite what I wrote, I don't actually worry about this anymore. For me, a glass is a glass (like a plate is a place on No-s). The shame factor of obvious excess keeps me reasonable in line ("that's a big glass of wine you got there, buddy"). Though I do imagine this could be a problem for oth...

An amusing New York Times article on the political/philosophical implications of the new French president's choice of exercise: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/world/europe/22france.html?_r=1&oref=slogin President Nicolas Sarkozy jogs... which some French see as undignified and â€” mon dieu! â€” v...

Very cool! I posted a comment describing habitcal, but it has yet to be approved.

Excellent! Congratulations. Another benefit I find (in my weekend luddite version) is that not only do I spend less time online, but the time I do spend online is more productive -- it has to be. It's another example of how if you want to do something better, start by giving yourself less time to do...

I think it's a great idea. Not necessarily for everyone, but if you have this problem when you fail of feeling like since you've blown it already you might as well pig out, an additional disincentive like this might be just what you need. Best of luck with your new supplemental habit and keep us pos...

Another way you can squeeze some urban ranger in is stairs. Just vow that whenever you have the option to take the stairs instead of an escalator or elevator you will. It doesn't seem like much, but it adds up. And I've found it actually tends to get me where I'm going faster than I would otherwise....

Hi Deb,

Congratulations on your success so far -- and on your impressively firm but serene habitcal-ing.

Reinhard

Thanks for citing these "natural" nos-like structures.

There used to be plenty of them -- most of society. Now they're rare. Which is why an explicit formula like no-s is so helpful. It's like a mini auto boot camp.

Reinhard

I'd love to! And if the No S book sells, chances are good I'll be given the chance. If not... well, self-publishing keeps getting cheaper.

Reinhard

Welcome, Allison! I seriously doubt that not eating between meals will put your body into a "starvation state." Almost no one in human history did any snacking worth speaking of until we here in the states started to about 30 years ago -- and promptly got obese. More (anti-)snacking stats here: http...

Hmm. Baffling. I'll keep on this and post when I can reproduce/fix.

Reinhard

As long as the baby isn't screaming at the top of her lungs, the neighbors are happy.

Reinhard

It looks like the Health Hacks podcast I've been contributing to is going to be knocked out of commission for a bit. I'll try to keep releasing my everyday systems segments as a separate podcast, but I might need some additional prodding now and then :-). If you're an itunes health hacks subscriber,...

We share an (excellent) editor. Besides that, I don't know a whole lot... http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=2140 My uninformed suspicion is it's mostly placebo effect, but I don't want to knock the guy without having done any homework (nor do I want to do the homework, so I'll just shut ...

Another relevant passage I love (actually, part of the same speech in Matthew's version):

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

No associated move yet, though

Reinhard

I think it may have been a directory permissions issue from when I moved the site to a new server. I think I fixed it. Try uploading the image again?

Congratulations, HG! Numerically and non-numerically, this is quite an achievement.

Thank you for the update!

As far as deadly sins go, isn't vanity a vast improvement?

Reinhard

Yes, that's an official success. Congratulations! Overeating is an enormously complex problem if you want to think about it forever. But you have to start somewhere if you want to fix it. And you need to secure parts of it before moving on to other parts. Single plates, no matter how big, are a star...

Hi Betty, I've found there is a two pronged solution to excessive weekends: 1) actively reward yourself. S-day treats should be opportunistic, they should be planned, something really good. You're going to treat your appetite better than it would have been treated by just grabbing whatever garbage i...

The 21 day thing works great for some people, but I'm afraid it can be very discouraging to others if they find they have trouble making it. That's why I prefer the habitcal. It gives you a more flexible but also more accurate way of monitoring your progress. A failure shows up just as clearly, but ...

Thanks for the link! A little snippet: In conclusion, humans evolved to walk upright over the past million years. Over the past 200,000 years, people populated the earth by walking across it. Our bodies evolved to walk. As recent as 150 years ago, 90% of the worldâ€™s population lived in agricultura...

Hi Clickbeetle, I installed IE 7 on my "parallels" version of windows xp at work and see something annoying, but I was able to get past it and use the habitcal. The annoying thing is when I click the "add" link, this little bar appears at the top that says "click here to temporarily enable scripted ...

want2bhealthy, Best wishes for a great vacation! If boardwalk food is a temptation -- plan to have some. It's much better to have a greasy boardwalk lunch that you love than to walk by it miserably and then break down and guiltily wolf down twice as much later. And if your vacation is longer than a ...

What a great idea. A perfect fit for No-s. I've actually eaten out of one of these bento trays at a local Japanese restaurant, but I didn't know what they were called or that they were portable (or such a phenomenon!). Please post links if there's a particularly good bento blog or purchase link to a...

We had a houseguest last night and I didn't have anywhere to do my shovelglove routine except our (rather small) bathroom. I was strongly tempted to skip my workout... but then I thought of the red mark I'd have to make on my habitcal (note to old timers: even for us the habitcal can be motivational...

That does look like a good move.... I haven't done it before or seen it posted here. Maybe I'll give it a try tonight (I've had to move to a night schedule since baby #2). Any ideas for a name? good to see some guys out there "expanding" the shovelglove knowledge. The second guy needed a little enco...

ClickBeetle, I should be able to get access to IE7 and take a look at this tomorrow. Don't be sorry about bugging me about this -- it's a favor, to others who are probably just silently being frustrated, and to me, because I really want this to be a useful tool. I'll post to this thread with updates...

want2bhealthy, I am so sorry you were feeling frustrated and down, but it seems like you've made great progress. Even if you hadn't lost any weight at this point I would have seen that as progress -- but you have. You might want to do as Deb suggests and give the habitcal a try. I think thinking "pi...

Brandon,

Thank you for de-lurking to post this. I'm too am really impressed and even a little moved at how people have jumped in to help and encourage others while I was offline ludditing these last few days.

Thank you all!

Reinhard

Wow, that was quick! Congratulations!

Looking forward to the photos,

Reinhard

Overly Beige, I also vote to keep the focus on no cheating. You'll get the most bang for your buck by keeping your efforts there. It'll probably be slow, but sure, and without undesirable side effects. As for rich foods, I think it's dangerous to target them systematically. Besides being more compli...

Well, it does look like your new tag was successfully added: http://everydaysystems.com/habitcal/view/?o=85&t=NoS&t=Sleep_Habit So hopefully you should be able to add entries for this new habit (looks like you've been able to add NoS entries ok). I'll see if I can get my hands on a windows vista/IE ...

Welcome, Hectarin! If your current system is working for you and you're happy with it, fantastic. It sounds pleasant enough, and if you can stick with it that's great. I do not for a moment want to knock something that is working for you, but (since you asked) this is reason why No-essers don't prac...

I have to admit, I don't think a lot about this. Unlike hunger for food, I think thirst actually is a good mechanism to regulate water intake (unless you're hiking in the desert or running a marathon). The one reason I might advise being more systematic about it is if it helps distract you from the ...

Congratulations on your Bronze, Julie.

Think of July as a "half marathon."

Reinhard

Hi ClickBeetle, I'm testing on IE version 6 on windows XP (where it works ok). What version of IE are you using? You must have had this working at some point to create your NoS tag. Did you use a different web browser or computer to do this? Also, there are a couple things that you're doing that don...

KCCC, You're absolutely right -- all these things do make a difference (I'm not a science basher, my day job is writing bioinformatics software). I just thought it was an amusingly oblivious way to start an article. Plus, of course, however limited, I like to emphasize the role of willpower because ...

Congratulations, Deb! I'm so glad the habitcal is working for you. I know what a hard time you've been having with night time fridge raiding, and what a big deal this is. I feel like the habitcal was the one thing missing from no-s. Without it, the clarity of nos can descend into harshness. If anyth...

What I love is how that back in the benighted days of "willpower" and other such nonsense when the author was growing up, people were thin, whereas now, with our superior scientific mindset, we are fat.

Reinhard

Glad you like it!

Red is useful. Better than not seeing it, if the underlying behavior is there. It's actually the most important thing to mark.

By dutifully ticking off those reds, you'll be gently pushed, again and again, to green.

Reinhard

Thanks for the detailed update! Your 2 on/1 off pattern makes a lot of sense, too. It's almost as clear as N-day vs S-day, but probably better for muscle recovery (I'm still worried enough to value the extra clarity more, but everyone's got different issues). Stopping when you're feeling "bad sore" ...

Paul, Plateau's are frustrating, but inevitable. It's important not to panic and forfeit the advances you've already made. I guess there are two questions to focus on: 1. are your results really backsliding? The numbers you give are kind of small... You might want to keep more meticulous track like ...

Absolutely. This is why I'm so glad I finally pushed the habitcal out. Racking up consecutive days on habit is a great feat, but as a metric it's not very tolerant of the inevitable imperfection. HabitCal gives you a useful and motivating and precise picture of how you're doing even if you haven't b...

Good luck, Simon! I think the habitcal might be a real help. Resolve to fill it out for a solid month no matter how ugly it gets and I think you'll be hooked. It'll put a gentle but effective pressure on you to stick with it. Brother John, it's pseudostatistically inevitable that you'll make it this...

Rose, Congratulations and thank you for posting this! It's one thing for me to say, "don't worry, your weight will fluctuate short term but it will trend downwards over time on no-s" and quite another to have hard data (and striking graphics) like these. I wonder if I should add some kind of weight ...

Deb, I'm so happy to hear this. Congratulations on your last string of successes! I think what's neat about the HabitCal is that it appeals to both "left brain" and "right brain." It's quantitative, but it's pretty. It's precise, but tolerant. I'm very, very happy you're finding it useful. Best to y...

Thanks, Deb! I'm glad you liked it!

The little ones are doing well -- the big ones could use a bit more sleep, however

.

Reinhard

I know you guys on the bulletin board are probably sick to death of this already, but I wanted to make sure podosphere found out about it too...

http://everydaysystems.com/podcast/episode.php?id=30

Reinhard

Welcome, Claire! 1. regift the chocolates or invite a few friends to polish them off for/with you this weekend. You don't want stuff like this around when you're building new habits. 2. No questions, N-days work much better when you're also at work. Being at home alone with the fridge does make this...

Sorry for sitting on this for so long, it was released on the health hacks podcast almost a month ago. Pushing out episode 30 now, too...

http://everydaysystems.com/podcast/episode.php?id=29

That's wonderful, mimi!

Here are my standings for June:

Nosdiet: gold (0 failures, 2 NWS days)
Glass ceiling: gold (0 failures)
Weekend Luddite: silver (1 failure)
Shovelglove: silver (3 NWS days)

Reinhard

Wow, I'm going to have to update your entry on the testimonials page -- you've nearly tripled your weight loss since then.

Congratulations! And thank you for keeping us posted.

Reinhard

Congratulations (again), Charis! I find the habitcal helpful (or at least satisfying) even though I'm pretty much on full automatic for no-s and nearly so for my other habits.

Hi Judy, I guess my question comes down to, "Can one decide on an individual basis which days are 'Special' to him, omitting those that aren't and adding those that are?" My answer is "yes." In fact, you have to decide. There is no universal default applicable to everyone on the planet. Every single...

If today is a "national holiday" for you, then I'd say that makes it a pretty clear S-day. As for extra celebrations on Sunday, well that was an S-day to begin with. So happy Canada (s-) day (observed)!

Reinhard

Welcome, Brother John! You sound almost exactly my dimensions when I started.

Best of luck and looking forward to hearing more from you,

Reinhard

Boy I hope you aren't in charge of marketing!!!! Me too! You're sweet, Deb :-) Does it count if I put it on my Wish List from your link, and get it when it comes out? Well, it's nice, but it doesn't count in terms of "sales rank." And they'll only bill you when it ships, so it's not like you're pay...

Deb,

I'm am very psyched the habitcal has your approval! I hope it winds up being useful for you. It's easy to stick in yoga and all that other stuff, too.

Reinhard

Hi Deb,

Here's the link to my personal HabitCal:

http://everydaysystems.com/habitcal/vie ... endluddite

No naps? Wow. I don't know how we'd manage without that blessed time of day.

Reinhard

The ideal S day is three meals plus a special treat. But you're allowed to do whatever you want (except feel guilty). Make the special treat really special and I don't think you'll have too many problems with the rest.

Reihard

I think for beginners that routine makes sense to do every day (as a default, you could always do something else if the spirit moves you). You might also want to throw in some of the other standard moves that have been added since then, like the fireman and chop the tree. Possible also degraded beas...

I think I'm going to call this subsystem "BYOS" (bring your own sugar).

Maybe I'll add it to the Intelligent Dietary Defaults page if I ever get around to compiling that...

Reinhard

Paul, belated congratulations on making it to 21! Glad diet is still going well. As for exercise, I think the single most helpful thing is to commit to a regular (ideally week-daily) block of TIME, rather than any routine in particular. This gives you a routine for habit to work with even if as you ...

Wow! Congratulations! I hope you get in some well deserved S-days in that holiday!

Hi KCCC, Sorry you're having trouble feeling good about your S-days... Here's what I'd advise, more or less in order: 1) redouble your focus on N-days. Your habitcal looks decent, but I don't like to worry at all about S-days if my N-day compliance isn't perfect or close to it, and you're not quite ...

Sweet! I wish I remembered enough high school Latin to make some smart ass comment (I'm determined to come back to Latin some day, still bogged down in Hebrew at the moment, might take a few more years before I can move on). So is "Rome" worth netflixing? Now if only we could translate the song into...

Welcome, castevets! The "mental" part of No-s is almost the best part (no obsessing). And I think you'll be much less tempted to binge both because you know you have that safety valve of S-days to look forward to and because there isn't really any "deprivation" during the week -- three full meals a ...

Hi Judy, I'm glad you like it! At the moment, you can browse people's HabitCals by tag here: http://everydaysystems.com/habitcal/tags/ I have a few ideas for how to improve this (like some indication of who is actually keeping their calendars up to date, maybe even how they are doing, with perhaps g...

People's mileage will vary, but I think for a lot of people there's a tough spot that comes maybe a week or two in, right between when the excitement of the novelty wears off and habit really starts to take hold. There can be a window of a few days or even weeks when you're running largely on willpo...

Thank you all!

Yeah, the cover design will not be too surprising

Judy, please feel free to order it from wherever is most convenient for you. It makes about 60 cents difference to me if you order it through my links, it's silly for you to pay dollars more for that.

Reinhard

I just happened to notice yesterday that searching for "No S Diet" on amazon yields a rather interesting result... http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399534040/everydaysyste-20 No picture yet, and it's going to be a while before it ships... just thought I'd let you guys know before you heard it...

I'm glad you like it (and it seems to be catching on).

I got a bunch of good ideas for improvements from other users which I'll be pushing out soon, so don't be shy about making suggestions.

Reinhard

There are two big borderline foods that seem to come up a lot: yogurt and "grown up" (but still very sugary) cereal (like granola). And there's a very easy way to keep them well on the virtuous side of the border. 1) buy plain yogurt and add your own sugar/honey. However much sugar you put in, it wo...

Welcome, Jessica! You can no-s with 4 meals. There is a downside which is that it might take longer to see results, and 3 meals no-s can be slow to begin with. But if it's working for you, great, you can hold your head up high as a proud orthodox no-esser. As for sugar-free gum, it's not technically...

Tiffani, I'm sorry the last month has been rough. I can sympathize as our second has just arrive. A big help for me in keeping on top of things is knowing I'll have to report my behavior here. I find the HabitCal a particularly helpful medium in this regard. It's both aesthetically satisfying, and o...

Welcome, my3sons! There is something surprisingly obvious about it, in retrospect...

Best of luck,

Reinhard

Judy, 21 consecutive days on habit is a worthy goal, but I would suggest that you also/instead keep a habit calendar, marking off success/exempt/failure days in red, yellow, and green (or use the online habitCal ). That way you can recover from setbacks quickly, without feeling like you've lost ever...

She's doing great. As is her sister. Mommy and daddy could use a little more sleep, but otherwise everything's wonderful. I've been using the HabitCal for the last month and change and am pretty happy with it. Instead of redundantly posting my stats here too, I'll just stick with that going forward....

Hi Judy, The maximum should be the minimum. If you start compensating for messing up today with extra restrictions tomorrow, you'll REALLY start binging. Binging isn't just eating too much -- it's followed (and prompted by) a deprivation or purge. It's a cycle. Stop the deprivation and the binging w...

Welcome, Betty!

I'm happy to hear it's such a (surprisingly) natural fit for you.

Reinhard

"Stadia," wow, the only other place I've seen that word is in Xenophon's March of the 10,000 (very urban ranger -- they walked from Greece to Persia and back, kicking serious ass along the way). Archaic units of measurement could be just the inspiration we need... I like your categories, too. Now ju...

Welcome, Ian! Don't worry about not being able to handle more than 5-7 minutes -- that means you've got a lot of progress to enjoy ahead of you. Don't rush the progress, stretch it out as long as possible. It's a great motivator. Squats (aka "fertilize the fields") are another good travel move. Rein...

I'm going back and forth on this... "Walk 14 minutes" is specific and useful, but I don't know if it's sufficiently inspiring. It doesn't tap into the urban ranger metaphor enough. And I think walking, because it's so humble and unimpressive, needs to be made inspiring. Haven't got any better ideas ...

You are awesome!

With all the time I spend waiting for builds, I'd be Hercules.

Alas, I'm not quite hard core enough (yet?) to shug in the office...

Reinhard

I hate to say this, but we've all been posting to a thread started by a really nasty spambot. It reposts previous bulletin board material and then sticks a link to some "free games" site at the end. Looks like a normal post because it is a normal post -- auto plagiarised, and with a little spammy tw...

Technically it would not be difficult to add levels of failure or success... but I think for most people it is helpful to focus on a binary "minimum level of compliance." Not only because it is clearer and simpler, but because otherwise you start thinking in terms of debits and credits, that extra g...

I've had dreams like that -- probably more than realities like that, thankfully.

Good luck making it to triple digits!

Reinhard

P.S. I finally finished that Habit Calendar I've been talking about. It might be particularly appealing to you, with your consistent but spartan entries.

"The Grandma Diet" and "The Grandma Total Fitness Program" These could be alternate names for No-s and urban ranger, respectively. Want to know one more reason why people didn't snack in grandma's day? Because there wasn't all that much food to go around, and if you were snacking, you were sneaking ...

That's not a bad idea. That's the mindset and habit you want to develop. You're tracking what's actually important. I think the problem is a lot of people are just going to say "there were no opportunities to walk today" pretty much every day. A 14 minute daily minimum would encourage them to look a...

Congratulations!

Sweet! Thanks for digging this up.

Congratulations! I'm a little too distracted with our newest daughter to be bored yet, but I'll certainly give it a look when things ease up.

Reinahrd

Urban Ranger is the one everyday systems that currently doesn't have clear criteria for success and failure. While I personally find it useful even without such criteria, I think it could be helpful for many others. That way they could use the HabitCal (or at least the thinking behind it) to build a...

Deb,

Please don't apologize. You've been through a lot. It's amazing you have any cycles at all to spare for this.

All the best,

Reinhard

newb_E, Here's some advice on how to deal with between meal hunger: 1) keep resisting it and it will diminish. Habit is powerful. It's working against you now because it expects snacks, but as you continue to resist you will start to change its expectations. Really. 2) you don't have to limit yourse...

Congratulations Jan and Charis! It is funny how comforting firm but generous boundaries can be. When people hear the word "boundaries" they get claustrophobic, but boundaries can be quite cozy if you give yourself enough room to move around a bit.

Yeah, don't worry. Once you get past the initial break in period you'll almost never have soreness that lasts more than a few hours, if that. And it'll be an invigorating soreness, not an unpleasant one. Do respect your current, perhaps not so pleasant soreness, though. Don't push through it and inj...

Everyday Systems

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The (French) Politics of Walking vs. Jogging

Health Hacks Podcast taking a (permanent?) vacation

Shovelglove in cramped spaces

Podcast #30: Introducing the HabitCal

Podcast #29: Top 5 health and fitness books (sort of)

No S Diet book available for pre-order on Amazon

Toning down borderline foods: yogurt and granola

Quantifying Urban Ranger for HabitCal