Everyday Systems

I can't say I've ever noticed "wrong" feeling strain, but flip lever is hard. If you haven't, you might want to wait till you've beefed yourself up with some other movements for a few months before attempting it. Flip level is one of the more isolating movements, many others work those muscles (but ...

Most of us have two problems here: the behavior of gluttony and the condition of being overweight. They are related, but they are not the same. Most diets do not consider gluttony a problem. It's so unflattering and archaic. They focus exclusively on the condition of being overweight. In fact, they ...

Congratulations! Good news doesn't need rationalizations, just enjoy it (and don't expect to lose 5 pounds every week). There seems to be a big range in how fast people lose on this. Some people see a nice initial drop right off the bat, then plateau for a bit, others crawl from day one. It's best t...

Congratulations, Josie, and thanks for letting us know!

The dress size drop is great, but that you can now *do* all these activities without pain is even greater.

Looking forward to you next update,

Reinhard

Thanks for the well-wishes.

Deb, my handles are all 36 inches. This seems to be pretty standard (for sledgehammers

).

Reinhard

Oh, P.S. congratulations! You've clearly slimmed down quite a bit. Looking forward to more "durings" from you and others.

Hi Deb, Here's side by side (the trick is keep the images on the same line). What I haven't figured out how to do is get them both to align at the top. Easiest thing might be to just resize them so they're identical in height. http://static.flickr.com/21/93584102_94e8c0f7a3_o.jpg http://static.flick...

Hi Cynthia, Please don't feel guilty about using a treadmill when it's too cold -- feel guilty when you don't do anything because it's too cold to go out *and* too boring to treadmill. The problem with treadmills isn't that they're inferior in terms of exercise but that they're boring and long term ...

Hi Tricia, I personally would consider it a sweet. Anything with chocolate chips in it is probably not a great idea... and even without, I have yet to come across a granola bar that isn't loaded with sugar. Granted, it's better than a chocolate chip cookie, but still. It's also very snacky, which is...

Sorry it's been a while since I popped in here. Welcome David and schmiddtty and Laff.

Ah, the 4th S. Thanks for this compelling testimonial!

This time around, consider sticking with no-s after you hit your target. If you think it's good for losing, it's fantastic for maintaining.

Reinhard

Just checked again and it's moved to #1!

I'm sure this is a temporary blip, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

No-s still doesn't show up in "diet," but it's made it to "weightloss."

http://del.icio.us/popular/weightloss

Reinhard

Welcome, sporkfancier. I'm glad the trifecta is catching on... while they don't require one another, they do work very well together, and they address issues most of us are going to have to figure out somehow. The good habits you build in one will reenforce the others. Just be careful you're not tak...

I've been kind of sick since last check-in, but no-s was good (except for some riccola lozenges and ginger ale). On top of my virus, I had some really bad nosebleeds last week, so unfortunately shovelglove is on hold for a bit. Getting very antsy...

Welcome, creaky. The shovelglove home page wasn't ever really rewritten as I came up with new stuff, just accreted to over time, so the movements aren't listed in the most obvious place. A single "registry of movements" page (both mine and others', with links to relevant posts) is a great idea... Yo...

Thanks and welcome, Chuck. I particularly love this humbugger naysayer comment: You know, all that effort he spent driving to the hardware store, looking for the right stuff, and then assembling it seems like more work than just driving over to the gym and getting started. I walked a block, bought a...

Beth, Welcome back, and get your tail out from between your legs. It takes most people several tries to succeed at something this big -- very few get it right the firsts time around. And as you can see from the responses above, getting it right means something slightly different for different people...

Yes, Krazycat, you have to preshink. It's a tad irritating, I know, but the server would fall to it's knees if everybody started loading up 8 megapixel panoramas. The img button gives you a bit of "bbcode" that you can edit by inserting a url to display an image. If you hover your mouse over the but...

PirateJenny, Slashing off days of the calendar was actually the original inspiration behind the "daily check-in." The electronic version is nice because you get community and can augment it with all kinds of details, but unfortunately, as KrazyKat points out, it's just not easy to see at a glance ho...

We vicariously (and somewhat belatedly, sorry) lift our cups and enjoy those great big patriotic slabs of meat. My (German) dad learned his English in Australia, so I wouldn't have had to fish to far for an excuse to take it beyond vicarious... good thing I didn't see this post till today.

Reinhard

I stand corrected, David and 3aday!

I'll keep cocoa an S for myself just for clarity, and that's how I'll continue to advise the wavering, but I won't wag my finger at those who've decided otherwise.

Reinhard

Very cool. Thanks for the comment there, by the way.

Welcome, Traveller Bob. I have ranged briefly in San Francisco, and 1.5 miles is no mean feat (not to speak of five). We could barely drive those hills. But hills are fun (wish there were a few more on my route) and what a beautiful town.

Looking forward to hearing more from you,

Reinhard

Steve, Welcome and thanks for the links. I think I'm too old and married for much of this stuff, but it's cool to read about. I grew up in new york city before the crime rate plunge and even though the places we were supposed to go were dangerous enough, we'd do a little "infiltration" of the (then)...

From a New York Times article here: adult obesity is rising about 6 percent annually [in France], among children the national rate of growth is 17 percent. At that rate, the French could be - quelle horreur - as fat as Americans by 2020. Why? Because they're no longer eating like Frenchwomen: There ...

Welcome, Maria! 3 pieces of advice on binging on S days: 1) the best way to avoid it is to plan a special reward in advance, what you most desire. If your appetite feels properly taken care of, it's less likely to revolt. Binging is mostly about revenge -- don't give your appetite the pretext. 2) ke...

Thanks, Deb. I think this is a great idea. If we do get a bunch of photos, I'll use them (only with express permission of course) to create a more formal "before and during gallery" like I suggested a while back. http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=308 Don't be put off by all the rules I m...

Welcome kcin49 and traveler. The best part about this diet is that you can enjoy that most amazing black forsest cake come the weekend. In fact, planning a special reward in advance is a good (and very pleasurable) way to keep yourself from binging on weekends. Looking forward to hearing more from y...

Congratulations, carolojo, and thank you for reviving this worthy but long neglected thread! Welcome KrazyKat. Posting volume is actually growing and growing... There are a lot of old posts hanging around, but that's because I don't ever delete them. As you see from this thread (which started many m...

Hey, the choir is there to be preached to. Thanks for the link, guy.

Phil, thanks for that that Vern Gambetta quote, "Train movements, not muscles." It's a more concise (and authoritative) formulation of what I was trying to get at here.

Moving it to the top of my long list of pending homepage updates...

Reinhard

Welcome, mshuler61. I don't have any (diet) rule about drinks except avoid sugar soda completely on N-days. Drinks that aren't primarily added sugar or corn syrup are ok by me whenever. Yes, OJ does have some serious calories, but I have yet to see someone sucking down a 64 ounce big gulp of OJ. Fru...

Ugh, sorry about the club situation, Deb, that's awful. At least the home office front (and maternal support, and no-s) is going well...

Sounds like you're handling the situation with remarkable composure. Hope things turn up and you'll need less of it going forward.

Best,

Reinhard

Welcome back, Merrykat. And don't worry about the "again." It takes most people a few false starts.

Welcome, kellenheler. Hope it was mostly good "ow..." Do take it slow. The trick for maintenance is how to go as slow as possible without actually stopping. Worry more about building habit than building muscle. Thanks for telling us about your no-s sibling. I keep hearing about similar approaches, a...

Hi Gina, Well, that's a pretty clear slip up. But don't beat yourself up. Bounce right back. It takes most people (even those with some willpower) a few false starts to get this right. Think about it this way: even now, at a low, right after a slip up, you're only a few weeks a way from building a l...

Becky, Sorry tonight is being tough... hope you manage to pull through without too much pain and suffering. These are major habits you're changing, it's bound to be difficult. For someone who "hasn't eaten a piece of fruit or vegetable in ten years" this is gigantic. Your behavior over the last few ...

Non weekend S days since last checkin: Martin Luther King day.

No funny stuff.

Chinese blessing: may your checkins be as boring as mine.

Deb, I don't know if you know but Aparajito is part of a trilogy. They're all wonderful, but the third one "The World of Apu" is my favorite.

Reinhard

Novelty can carry you through a week... especially if you see some immediate results to boot. Hang in there. On or about week three is usually the big corner. It does get easier. This is a very natural way to eat. It takes a bit of willpower and patience up front, but when it comes the habit will fa...

Hi Liza,

I guess I don't really count, but I'm still down over 40 pounds as I mention on the home page. It's been almost 4 years now, no yoyoing. There's no longer much willpower involved. It's 95% habit.

The beginning can be tough, though. Brace yourself for a few false starts.

Reinhard

Hi Ert, The first rule of paperwork is have less of it. I do my banking online and only get paper statements when absolutely necessary. For bills and such I try to set everything I can up to autodeduct from my bank account or credit card. After that, I only have 2 bills left a month to pay: mortgage...

Deb, thank you for this (and for outposting me 3 to 1!), and again sorry for the delayed acknowledgement. I think at this point you keep this board going more than I do. Don't think that just because I don't have the time to properly show my appreciation that I don't feel it! I'm touched by your kin...

Good idea, Pete. Keep em coming. Also, if you just want to add this to your nosdiet checkin instead of keeping two, that's totally ok (and what a lot of other people have been doing). I probably should have put the "daily check in" forum under everyday systems rather than nosdiet, since it makes sen...

Hi Prague, Hope you're still reading (and walking). Sorry for the very delayed welcome. Too many posts are slipping under my radar these days.... darn day job. I get around to them all eventually. And hope you do make it to prague. I spent a few days there during my junior year abroad in college bac...

"Country strong," I love it. That will have to make it to the home page... Thanks for introducing yourself. David. It's great to hear from people with some experience. I'm interested to hear that the 14 minutes is useful for other stuff besides shovelglove, too. I've always suspected that structure ...

Be ye comforted, guilt stricken moderate drinkers. Booze is supposedly actually very good for you in "glass ceiling" amounts.

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/press/relea ... 01999.html

Also, those proverbially skinny "french women" do it.

Reinhard

Wow. I'm scary!

But I think it would be even more compelling with a "thou shalt."

Thanks Deb and Carolejo.

Reinhard

Welcome, Pete. Those prices (USD?) are crazy... you'd think with China being right next door practically things would be cheaper :wink: Shovelglove has been great for my back, but I've always had a good back. Just start slow and abide by the red all caps warnings on the home page. Keep us posted, Re...

This I really don't understand.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060106/od_nm/pets_obese_dc

Kinda makes you despair that they could lose weight for themselves, doesn't it?

Reinhard

The rematch is going to have to wait till my brother gets health insurance

Congratulations on making it to the magic 21 days, Gina. My advice on the exercise front is: don't be overambitious. Commit to a small amount of time every N-day, but really, really do it. If shovelglove is not for you, set a timer for 14 minutes and do something else. You'd be amazed at the workout...

For a person who has no willpower, it sounds like you might actually have some! Enjoy the weekend. Think of something especially nice to reward yourself. Every day you stick with it you build more willpower and better habits so even a little willpower goes farther.

Hi Judy, Either way is fine by me. Starting a new thread means you're less likely to be burdened by a sense of past failure, but continuing with the same thread might be a good way of facing down the yoyo-failure mentality, saying "yeah I ran into some trouble but look I'm still here. I'm not going ...

It took a couple of months, but I can now do routine "6" M-W-F and "5b" (plus some freestyle) T-Th with the 20 pounder. This is about where I was before with the 16 pounder (except that with the 16 pounder I could actually do 5 consecutive days of "6," though I didn't usually). So I guess I got 25% ...

Try audiobooks, too. I can walk forever once I get into something.

Looking forward to your joining the club, sister Michele. We need some new members here, it's been a while!

Welcome, Brian. You're right, change adds up. I forget how many billions of dollars of change are supposedly lying around people's houses in America, but it's shocking. Just looked it up: $10.5 billion. http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1540,1859339,00.asp As mentioned in this article, the coinst...

Hi Annette, What Freakwitch says is right on. 3 meals is very normal. It's frightening only because your eating habits have gotten so out of whack. It's hard to correct those habits, but as you do, they'll transform into a positive help. If you absolutely can't handle 3, start with 4. Much better th...

I think the biggest danger for most people of overdoing it on S days is psychological: not the raw calories, but that you'll feel so disgusted with yourself that you just flop out and let it all go to pot, even during the week. That being said, psychology is real, and merely recognizing this fact is...

Hi Cynthia, All this has been said already (I love this group) above but it bears repeating: 3 meals (give or take a meal) is what most people did through most of history. They were skinny. Food used to be very, very inconvenient to prepare. You couldn't just whip out a powerbar when you needed an e...

Hi Lady Lena,

Here are some ideas:

1) have a drink
2) start cooking
3) as Navin says, make sure really bad snacky stuff is out of the house.
4) if all else fails, have a piece of fruit. Much better than a sweet.

Let us know if anything helps or if you need more ideas,

Reinhard

The D&D workout. Beautiful. I love the idea, and I still have my 20 sided dice (and a shocking amount of related paraphernalia), but I'm set enough in my routine that I'm probably not going to budge. Do let me know if you wind up doing this. As for tasks vs. time, I think once you really get a routi...

Wow, I'm out of all the usual resolutions. Over the last 4 years or so, I've lost all my excess weight, started exercising regularly, reduced smoking to negligable levels, eliminated binge drinking, and stopped frittering all my spare time away on the computer. Last year the best I could come up wit...

Non weekend S days since last checkin: Christmas day and new years day "observed." No other funny stuff besides the occassional inspirational bite of baby food (pear gerbers is good! wish baby thought so too...).

Itf, It takes a long time to get used to the heavier weight, don't rush it. I still can't do my full 16 pound routine with the 20 pounder. I gave my original 12 pounder away to a "convert" (but then got my brother's old 12 pounder again when he upgraded so I now have 3 again). I occassionally use th...

Thanks for the update, Jurgen. I know these plateaus can be frustrating but as you point out, it's a plateau after considerable progress, and now is the time of year when people tend to fall off plateaus altogether. I'm a terrible swimmer (I don't breath right). I should take some lessons myself. Ha...

Just in the nick of time... http://nosdiet.com/beforeafter.html No raw beefcake this year, sorry ladies, I'm a father now. Notice the interesting (and persuasive?) mouseover effects. I forgot to include the mug... and my head is blocking the "perl cookbook," which would have been funny wedged betwee...

Welcome, 3aday. Very inspiring name!

All in all, sounds like a great first day.

Looking forward to hearing more from you,

Reinhard

According to one survey of 12,000 people, about 30 percent of those making resolutions say they don't even keep them into February. And only about 1 in 5 actually stay on track for six months or more

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/diet.fit ... solutions/

Somehow image ads snuck in. I turned that off. Less obnoxious?

Familiar stuff, but more authorititive from the American Institute for Cancer Research than from me: Most people who skip a meal and its 300 to 600 calories usually increase how much they eat at other meals in the day by at least the same amount of calories. These people, like others who come to a m...

An article about the article:

http://www.upi.com/ConsumerHealthDaily/ ... 3117-5838r

The article itself (not sure if this is generally visible):

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v4 ... 1060b.html

Reinhard

An amusing (and impressive) waste of time (with footnotes!):

http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Demos/BMLwalker.html

HI Annette, Besides sugar soda and the two alcoholic drink a day limit (not technically part of the no s diet), I don't have any hard rules about when or what I drink because it isn't an issue for me. I normally drink only black coffee, plain water, and unsweetened tea between meals. I usually have ...

Welcome back, Murphysraven. I'm looking forward to those pictures too. :wink: But do be careful. Losing over a third of you bodyweight in a year is quite an ambitious goal, maybe even dangerously so. Better to keep your resolve at the behavior level ("days on habit"). Be firm and consistent, but mod...

I'll look into this. Do you know what web browser you are using? Internet explorer? AOL? It prints out ok for me, but there are gazillions of slightly different browsers that all do it slightly differently...

Big Phil, Thanks for the pushmower update and sorry for the delayed response. A cast iron pan that might make a good short club stand-in (though I'm pretty content with my shovelglove forearms). Fits with the shovelglove principle of repurposing existing tools, and what tools they are. If you haven'...

Thanks, Jan.

Belated Christmas and Hanukkah wishes from me too...

Sorry I've been out of it the last few days. Been doing some serious ludditing.

Reinhard

Don't worry deb -- eating more has never been a problem. And I can think of plenty things more appetising than a chalk-shake, if extra calories are really necessary. Wow, great to have graduated (maybe, I'm still not quite convinced) to the opposite problem I started with!

The ad sizes actually haven't changed, they must just seem bigger due to increased obnoxiousness (not something I have a whole lot of control over). But I'll see if there's something I can tweak to make them less so. Maybe I can turn them off completely once people log in.

Welcome "on my way." The nosdiet does take willpower, but it also builds willpower. Be patient, it's going to take a while, and it may take a few false starts, but it does get easier, and there is no real sacrifice: eating becomes more pleasurable with this little bit of discipline. Keep us posted. ...

Welcome, Rick. I used to say "it's all about timing" on the no-s diet home page until I saw that 3-hour diet book had the same phrase on the cover. Didn't want to get into a long "but I came up with it first!" or by my silence seem like a copycat, so I just removed it. But the truth of it remains, a...

I find it helpful to divide up holiday temptations into two categories: 1) mere temptations of the appetite. Anonymous. Food is lying around. Most of the time it isn't even that good. 2) social pressure. Someone is sticking something in your face and might be dissappointed/offended if you refuse. #1...

Thanks all who bookmarked: http://del.icio.us/popular/exercise Alas, no-s didn't make it to diet.... http://del.icio.us/popular/diet For those who don't know, del.icio.us is a "social bookmarking" site, a site that lets people share bookmarks instead of keeping them locked up in their browsers. Rein...

Welcome, jbcombs.

This is one of those borderline issues I wouldn't worry to much about.

I drink my coffee black, but others here take it with cream (and sugar). You'd have to pour in a sickening amount over several cups to get to the caloric level of a single can of sugar soda.

Reinhard

1 non-weekend s day since last checkin (and not a particularly impressive one): for my daughter's holiday party at day care. They were building gingerbread houses, etc., you'd have had to have been a saint. Otherwise, no funny stuff. I think the cold must be burning off extra calories (or maybe it's...

Congratulations, Shameless.

No-s can be pretty generous, if need be. Excellent buffet-handling. It's a potentially tricky situation.

Reinhard

Hi Kimmi, Sorry to hear you've run into a bit of trouble lately... Ask yourself, "what is the sanest, most moderate thing I could do that could possibly work?" Cold turkey on sweets sounds like it might be going to far... beware the self-revenge mentality. Sugar soda is one thing, people did fine fo...

Welcome, Tyler.

Good luck on leaving it at "good enough" this time, and may you be a lean pork chop by february.

Reinhard

Congratulations, Josie, and thanks for posting your success.

Reinhard

Welcome, piratejenny (and sorry for the long delay). I'm not surprised that you've independently come up with something similar. One of the selling points of no-s is it's obviousness. Social pressure is my big weakness too.... Step one I think is distinguishing social pressure from mere appetite. I'...

Thanks for the update, Storm. And it's always nice to see what's going on in the realm of shovelglove's cousin, kettlebell. "Kettlebell" is such a sweet, almost girly name for such a macho device, don't you think? It makes me think of swiss maidens in dirndls frolicking in the alps, not russian spec...

Great suggestion, Kevin. The funny thing about snacks is (though I think they're most people's biggest weakness) is that they're not even that pleasurable in themselves. As reward, they don't hold a candle to sweets. I haven't given myself any hard rules in this regard, but I tend to follow the thre...

Welcome, Bitter. I definitely feel "butter churning" in the chest, and it seems like "the fireman" should also hit it pretty directly. But both these movements also clobber plenty of other muscles that may be less used to being clobbered and so get more noticeably sore. There's nothing like stubbing...

I do it 2 handed for 2 sets, switching hand positions each set.

I use the bottom arm more. Honestly, I don't even think about it. It just seems to naturally work out that way. Probably as my bottom arm gets tired out towards the end of a set the top arm picks up some of the slack.

Reinhard

Freakwitch, You're doing pretty great with your 80%. Trending downwards through thanksgivings is pretty amazing, even more so given the sanity and moderaton of what you're doing. You seem to be handling the numbers well, even upticks. What kind of scale did you buy? I've been complaining about my sc...

Peetie, Sometimes talking helps doing, other times people talk instead of doing. I guess it feels boring and uninspiring once they've already said it, like it's kind of been done already (even if only hypothetically). A lot of times we do only in order to talk about it afterwards, so by talking abou...

Congratulations on hitting month 7, Jan. I continue to be amazed.

Happy holidays, Karl. Looking forward to hearing more from you. Very impressive so far.

Hi Deb, Not to be a downer, but don't be surprised if those juice fasted poinds make a sudden return.... Next time you want to try such an experiment, read Kafka's "The Hunger Artist." Great stuff, even better, I'm sure, on a very empty stomach. Sounds like the no midnight fridge raiding is going pr...

Everyday Systems

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French women do get fat

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Nature journal slams CSIRO diet

BioMotionLab

Shovelglove 4rth most del.icio.us exercise