Everyday Systems

KCCC, I think your posting here was a fortunate accident! Testimonials don't have to be unqualified "rah, rah!" to be valuable. Your deep, big picture very successful experience, thoughtfully expressed here is helpful and inspiring -- the "caveats" and "lessons learned" included (perhaps especially ...

I'm sorry. I know this is agonizingly slow... we found out recently we're expecting another child, and though we're very happy, it's been a little distracting.

It should work on the iphone, though. What is the error you are getting?

Reinhard

Welcome, Jigsaw! 15 pounds in 6 months is certainly not outrageous BUT I'd caution you against focusing on specific target numbers. Why? Because moderation shouldn't be contingent on results. You shouldn't say to yourself (more or less): "IF I can lose x amount of weight I will eat moderately. If no...

You are very welcome, Fred!

I can't tell you how happy it makes me that people are getting something out of this self-improvement hobby of mine.

Reinhard

...and not participating in the discussions here as much as I usually used to. I do have a good excuse though: we're expecting our third child in early September. Though very welcome, the news was a bit unexpected, and we're scrambling to figure out how we're going to manage to get everything ready....

As wosnes said, maintenance is success. The status quo for most people these days is gaining. That being said, losing would be nice. And I think you're in a great position for that, since there's a really obvious next step: add some moderate, regular exercise. You need it anyway. And if your diet is...

Monday Feb 6: Tasks Failure (forgot my daughter's eyepatch -- still a somewhat new routine)

Thanks for the bug reports!

Sorry for the android glitches and that I haven't been able to make time to dive into this yet. Soon! (I'll make fixing these a habitcal-able habit again starting tomorrow -- that worked well in December for getting the first ios functional version out).

Reinhard

Glad to hear everything's OK now.

I listen while I walk to work, do the dishes, pick up after the kids -- pretty much whenever I'm doing some non-social physical task. I'd say I get in at least an hour of listening every day this way, sometimes much more, without having to compete for time with other activities. Some of my listening...

Hi Rosie, It seems to be working OK for me. Are you talking about the regular version or the iphone/android version? Would you mind sending a screenshot of what you're seing if you get a chance? reinhard.engels@gmail.com Sorry about this issue and hope to have it sorted out for you soon. Reinhard

Since Nov 21 (so less than three months ago), Anonymous 58 year old man writes: I have gone from 164 bs and a 34 3/4" waist to 150 lbs and a 32 3/4" waist. I look like one of those guys on the "P90X" commercials except that I didn't have to shell out $$$ to make it happen or eat eat special foods. A...

I found it on audible (which makes it much more likely that I'll be able to "read" it). http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B006T4APLU&qid=1328214934&sr=1-1 Just as soon as I finish Dune (only 18 hours left!). http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B002V1OF70&qid=1328215067&sr=1-1 Reinhard

I got the following email yesterday and received permission to post an anonymized version here. I'll be sending him this url, so rest assured he'll be reading any comments and congratulations you care to post. I'll start: thank you, Anonymous, for letting me post this impressive and thoughtful "test...

Thanks for this -- I've been hearing a lot about this book and it's probably about time I had a look myself. Lots of no-s/everyday systems overlap.

Reinhard

Two infractions to report:

Glass ceiling failure on Saturday Jan 28: we were at friends and I was offered a third cocktail by our (very mixelogically talented) host.

Tasks failure on Tuesday Jan 31: forgot to make sure my older daughter put her eyepatch on.

Reinhard

Hi Deb, Thanks for popping by -- I did notice (with pleasure!) that you're back on the boards again. Sorry for not being more active myself lately -- very busy with work and family at the moment (and trying to figure out why habitcal is not working on android phones!). I'm so happy 2012 is off to a ...

Hi RacingSlug, In addition to wosnes' very valuable two cents, I'd just like to add a word of caution about scale numbers: While it's nice to be able to see a big drop, I'd be careful about reading too much into a mere pound and a half. I've been weighing myself daily as an experiment over the last ...

I'll revert to 14 minutes of bodyweight exercises in situations like this (mostly pushups and squats, dips if I can find suitable furniture, jumping jacks, and if I completely run through everything else I can think of, the much loathed situps and crunches). It's amazing how completely you can exhau...

Good idea... yeah, the habits don't really get deleted. They just get deactivated. And it would be nice to add an interface to show you inactive habits so you don't have to guess the name to restore your data. I should probably also change the terminology from "delete" to "deactivate" to reflect wha...

If you mean what I think you mean by pancakes, yeah, they're probably S-worthy... though if family pressure demands it and you don't use too much sugar (and hold the maple syrup), you might be able to get away with it on an N-day now and then. I love pancakes (with syrup) and enjoy them frequently o...

Glad you think so, Anton, and welcome to the group.

It's a free and open source diet, so feel free to fork.

Reinhard

Thanks for letting me know, millem. This is helpful... I'll let you know when I have it figured out. Do you know what version of android you are running? It seems to work fine in my android emulator, but there are zillion different flavors of android and I'm probably testing a different one. I wonde...

Welcome, Mack! You weigh just about what I did when I started.

Wishing you similar results,

Reinhard

Welcome back! Wow, 4 is impressive. I can barely handle 2.

Reinhard

If you go to this url on your iphone: https://everydaysystems.com/habitcal/m and then "add to home screen" you'll have essentially what the native app is going to be. There are still a few missing features, but calendar view seems to work well (I'm using it -- I actually find it easier than the regu...

I'm afraid I don't... Historically I'm not much of a stretcher. I'm disinclined to do it from both laziness and an inability to imagine how this was part of any ordinary traditional human lifestyle that everyday systems seek to emulate. And then I keep reading articles on how the jury is still out o...

Map of binge drinking in the US: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/americas-drinking-binge/ It's striking (though I guess not surprising) how closely it correlates to cold climate. I'm guessing that would work on a global level as well (not many teetotalers in Russia, from what I hear). I was...

More validation of some basic everyday systems tenets: From: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/sunday-review/new-years-resolutions-stick-when-willpower-is-reinforced.html?_r=1&ref=health Most people are not going to keep their resolutions all year long... Theyâ€™ll fail because theyâ€™ll eventually ...

Looks interesting... But I have two very reliable, completely irresistible living alarm clocks to get me out of bed (ages 7 and 4).

Reinhard

oolala53,

Many, many congratulations and thank you for this thoughtful, inspiring post!

More comments and congratulations here:

http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=8296

Reinhard

oolala53, Congratulations and thank you for posting! I am so happy for you and really enjoyed reading your thoughtful update. One aspect I found particularly interesting particularly interesting was your use of the phrase "disordered eating." We usually hear it in reverse: "eating disorder," which i...

Something gets lost in the google (re)-translation, but still, very flattering to have crossed yet another language barrier!

http://6mesespramudar.blogspot.com/2012 ... mundo.html

Reinhard

14 minutes every N-day. http://www.everydaysystems.com/podcast/episode.php?id=38 Plus routine, purposeful walking (~40-60 minutes every N-day). And (more recently) an occasional, short run (~3 miles once a week). I started this after losing all my weight because a friend invited me to join him and m...

I personally am not such a fan of the gym... I've never been able to make myself go for more than a few months at a time. What's more, I know almost no one who has fared much better. I knew one guy who went avidly for many years and had the biceps to show for it -- but then he had a kid and that was...

It's close, but (societally) overeating may actually be worse: From: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:5344184 If past obesity trends continue unchecked, the negative impact on U.S. population health is forecast to overtake the positive effect from declining smoking rates, which could erode...

Added a couple of fixes:

1. you can now add and remove habits
2. there's a create new account link in the login box (takes you to the regular bulletin board registration site -- a bit clunky, but better than nothing)

In regard to the giant plate issue, I suspect it started as an affectation in high-end restaurants when they'd give you these enormous plates with a dainty little pat of food in the middle, to enhance the sense of its precious deliciosity. This was pretentious and annoying enough, but something got ...

Between Christmas and Hanukkah and interstate travel and being sick I think I took more S-days this season than any year so far, but thanks to the dubious blessing of the last item on that list (still not quite over it), I didn't gain an ounce. That being said, I have to give my no-s habits some cre...

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll mull it over (quickly, lest those be taken too) and let you know.

Welcome, piperjon! I applaud your careful determination to "get off your doofus" -- and interesting contributions to the shovelglove lexicon -- "shug" as transitive verb, etc. I haven't shugged while seriously injured -- I've been pretty lucky about avoiding those. But I imagine that the easiest mov...

I am so envious -- enjoy!

(and feel free to post/send me pictures to post if you're interested)

Please join me in congratulation r.jean, a mom of three who has lost 45 pounds in her first year on no-s:

http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=8269

r.jean is no longer obese and provides many helpful details as to how she pulled off this impressive and inspiring feat.

Reinhard

Got him -- sorry about that.

Not anymore

According to google translate it was Norwegian. I'm sort of impressed that tiny little Norway is a big enough market for spammers to target on English language bulletin boards. Although I guess a more likely explanation is that this is just a really dumb spambot. Or that spam is so cheap that you mi...

Dear r.jean, Congratulations on your substantial, sustained success and for letting us know (and in such detail!) The details really are enormously helpful -- both in terms of what techniques you found useful (the habitcal and how you used it, checking the website) and in terms of where you are comi...

Hi Pantheon, Welcome to shovelglove and the board -- sorry for my delayed response, I've been using most of my everyday systems time puttering around with the habitcal mobile app. I'm glad you're enjoying shovelglove so much and thanks for the charming movement names ("Shovelglove, Larry Flint Editi...

Thanks, Kbits! I'm using it pretty much exclusively myself (vs. the regular web version) -- the best insurance that I'll keep working on it. Still need to figure out that name issue before I push it to the app store... HabitLight, maybe? Or "Habit Calendar?" (a bit long, might work better for search...

Hi Anna, Thank you for sharing this and sorry it took me a few days to digest it -- looks like a very elegant and useful system indeed! I'd have some trouble applying it personally because pretty much everything I spend goes through a single credit card. I do this both to make tracking easier (they ...

This is kinda sorta working now: https://everydaysystems.com/habitcal/m Three (temporary) caveats: 1. add/create new habit don't work, so you'll have to do those in the regular website interface for now. 2. it only works in "portrait" orientation. I have some ideas as to what it should do in landsca...

Pushed out another minor fix. You can now logout by clicking your user name.

Next step: add the ability to create/remove/rename habits. I think then I can officially release it. Thanks all who puttered around with it so far and let me know -- please keep your feedback coming.

Reinhard

Just pushed out another update. You can now go back beyond the initial 6 month data load. (first load is now current month, last two, and next, if you move beyond that additional months will load as requested with a bit of cache). I've also fixed some of the header/footer issues (I think). I turned ...

For sheer beauty I've always loved Matthew 6:28-29 Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%206&version=KJV I...

This MÃ¼ller guy keeps cropping up on the boards here -- I'm going to have to check him out in earnest. http://www.slate.com/articles/life/fitness/2011/01/kafkas_calisthenics.single.html His meal count rule certainly makes a certain amount of sense. I think the danger is difficulty of compliance. So...

Thanks for testing, Hastuwoodo! I'm relieved that it works on android. My older daughter insists in using it for her piano practice every morning, so I'm highly motivated to make it less annoying (the login drives me crazy -- have to make it remember you longer, turn off the initial letter capitaliz...

I drink (large quanties) of Trader Joe's "Wake up blend." http://breweddaily.com/2009/03/trader-joes-wake-up-blend-coffee-reviewed/ Economical, fair trade etc., and pretty darn good. We grind it fresh, and use a French press, which sounds fancy but is actually quite easy (I find it a lot less hassle...

Actually, what the hell, if you're feeling brave, here's the link: https://everydaysystems.com/habitcal/m Not that "add habit" and "remove habit" don't work yet and it only loads the last 6 months of your data. If you navigate into the future or too far into the past the data doesn't load. There's n...

Just wanted to let you all know that this is getting really close... My daughters are already beta testing (for piano practice). I'll have something (at least a webapp) ready for you by new years. A couple of caveats: it doesn't work offline and I haven't tested it yet on android. It's actually usef...

I don't like the dynamic where your husband benefits and you are punished if you fail to lose a certain amount As a general rule, you have a very good point. But I think mrsj's obvious sense of humor about the whole business obviates it. "Comic pragmatism," after all, is one of the founding princip...

Nice idea!

Make the cutoff 14 minutes and it becomes schedulistically insignficant.

How it all comes together: a 14 word diet plan, a 14 minute exercise plan (x2, now), a 14 glass per week ceiling...

Reinhard

So far I've been green every N-day... Why didn't I think of this habitcal for habitcal idea sooner? :-) On a semi-related note, my 7 year old daughter has been using the habitcal for piano practice. It's been stunningly effective. She loves ticking in those green boxes. It's been a great "usability ...

Nov 23-24: glass ceiling failures. Just one drink over the limit each day and completely drowned in Thanksgiving calories, but still, red. Nov 24-25: no-s and shovelglove s-days (Thanksgiving and vacation/travel/relatives shoving food at us) I started a new habit for December: habitcal. Every N-day ...

Congratulations!

Great to see such an across the board improvement!

Reinhard

Congratulations! Slow and steady (and satisfied!) wins the diet.

Reinhard

Hmm...isn't Aristotle the guy who said, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit"?

Almost! That's actually Will Durant paraphrasing Aristotle (but it's a great paraphrase).

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 123AAcY2Ry

Reinhard

Yeah, I'm really sorry this is taking so long. It's just so hard to find time to diddle with it. I think I made a resolution in 2011 to have the app ready this year... so 33 days left! (would be nice to have it for the fresh crop of 2012 new year's newbies) Maybe I'll make a new habitcal habit for j...

Yes, and thank you all for making it this way! I'm astonished that on the internet, without any policing to speak of, we've had maybe a handful of unpleasant exchanges over the last ~10 years (first post to the yahoo group predecessor was Jun 11, 2002, first post to the current bulletin board was Ap...

Welcome back, Kathi! And thanks for the "Willpower" suggestion -- I remember reading about it and feeling intrigued. I'll pick up a copy at the library and (among other things) see if there are any juicy quotes I can use for the site. Speaking of relevant books, I'm reading Aristotles Ethics (very s...

I prefer "nerd," but whatever.

Funny you should mention Marion Ravenwood... back in my pre-glass ceiling days a hard-drinking friend of mine and I attempted to reenact that scene. Let's just say that neither of us was in much condition to fight Nazis afterwards.

Reinahrd

Thank you and welcome, Ella! I hope you continue to find no-s appealing (even more so!) once you have some experience with it.

Sat Nov 5 and Sun Nov 6: Weekend Luddite failure. Too much work piling up. Decided to break weekend luddite to catch up.

Reinhard

Good luck! One additional refinement I've found helpful with glass ceiling is to resolve to record (and post to my check in thread on this bulletin board) the number of drinks I go over the limit if/when I do. This is sort of like an extra layer of protection, and "air bag" that kicks in if you cras...

Anonymous 5'5 Woman is now down 80 pounds after six months of no-s.

Please join me in congratulation her here:

http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=8186

I was just emailed this and given permission to post anonymously here: I'd just like to thank you for the NO S Diet. It truly has changed my life. Less than a year ago I weighed in at 230lbs, for a 5'5 woman, that was too much weight. I felt constantly sick, too lazy to tie my shoes, and suffered fr...

That was a long "shortly," but here it is:

http://everydaysystems.com/podcast/episode.php?id=40

It's been a year and change, but the everyday systems podcast is back with a new episode!

Podcast #40: No Solitary Snacking -- even on S-days

Hate your S-days because they make you feel out of control? Here's a mod to help you enjoy them again.

http://everydaysystems.com/podcast/episode.php?id=40

Welcome back, Lorelei! I don't know if people can maintain big weight losses on No S. I certainly hope so! Maintenance the main selling point of no-s. And the fact that it doesn't require so much tracking as to "suck the joy out of your life" is precisely the reason it's so good for maintenance. I'm...

From what I can see, most bars are just rebranded cookies. I prefer to enjoy actual cookies on S-days. From the home page: What about diet bars? Any diet that sells a bar or a snack food is a total scam. I'd rather eat a snickers bar than a zone bar, because at least then I'd be psychologically budg...

Sorry you're not noticing any differences and feeling discouraged... A few things I'd consider: 1) You might actually want to weigh yourself to confirm that it is in fact the case that you haven't lost weight. It could be that you have made a little progress, that with another few months might even ...

The Thespian Exception:

No Snacks, No Sweets, No Seconds
Except on
[stage and] days that start with S

Reinhard

Thanks all, for the kind words/purchases! I'm not sure if it's the price drop or the increasing popularity of ebooks, but the kindle version has been selling a lot better than the print of late. The kindle version cracked the top 100 of diet/weight loss at amazon a few times last week. I think that ...

Great progress, Slothlike! I like the pushups and pullups as metrics. Pullups are really hard -- my pushups to pullups maximum ratio is about 4. So it makes sense that going up one is going to take a lot more work (doubling of your current number). Do be careful about upgrading sledges too fast. The...

That's great! Thanks for letting us know.

I'll grab a copy today.

And use it as an excuse to thank him/remind him of my existence.

Reinahrd

Linda is now down 65-70 pounds and has just crossed into "Onederland," as she puts it (<200 pounds).

Please join me in congratulating her and reading more details here:

http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=8165

Reinhard

Congratulations, Linda! That is onederful news! (took me disturbingly long to get that).

I'm going to post a link from the testimonials thread since this quantitatively qualifies by a long shot.

Reinhard

Joel, Congratulations on the "PU!" As someone who bangs out an occasional few, I'm, if nothing else, in a position to be deeply impressed! My wife's uncle has been doing a similar number of pushups every day for many years, and the results speak for themselves. http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopi...

Dear Deb, Best of luck in your new effort and congratulations on a promising start! I am so grateful for your helpful and supportive presence on this site over the years and I'm hopeful and confident that this round will be successful for you. My 7 year old daughter has just started using the habitc...

Nice work, Deb!

Indeed it is (at least on our street). Time to revive the annual Halloween thread-of-threads: Halloween 2010: http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=6890 Halloween 2004-2008: http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=4284 (2009 seems to be missing) For the first time, we've got a family t...

sorry for the delay, the audio quality was dreadful, even by my low standards. I'll rerecord and post shortly.

Really sorry this is taking so long -- it's about 80% done but I'm having a really hard time making the time to wrap it up. It'll work on both ios and android (and should work on other platforms as well via the mobile browser as a webapp).

Reinhard

Thanks, Pangelsue! Some more "inspiring" stuff to mark and move on: :-) Thursday Oct 20: No and shovelglove S day (Simchat Torah -- wasn't going to take this but we had guests bearing sweets) Tuesday Oct 25: glass ceiling failure, 1 drink over the limit. Work social event with ridiculously strong be...

Nice work, Mattman. I salute your boldness. You are on the front lines of the urban ranger war against sloth. Cambridge MA is pretty much already conquered territory, so I do my rangering in relative safety from funny looks.

Reinhard

Welcome, Captain! I totally underestimated just how hard the exercises would be. You and pretty much everyone else who starts shovelglove. :-) I think there's something about these relatively low-sounding weights that make us think, "10 pounds? C'mon that's nothing! What are all these people moaning...

It's now only $4.99

Not sure when/why this happened or how long it will last, so get em while they're cheap.

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

It used to be more expensive than the print, which was a little ridiculous.

Reinhard

Is "vanilla" in this sense an Americanism? I hadn't realized!

Reinhard

Glad you think so! Unfortunately there were some other (not just IE) bugs so I rolled it back for now. I think I'll exercise a modicum of software engineering discipline and put up a separate dev url next time... In any case, thanks everyone who took a look and I'll have something that actually work...

Congratulations! If it gets too bad you can try a caloric drink. Milk packs a wallop (and apparently helps you sleep). Even (100% fruit) fruit juice is permitted -- certainly sweet enough (perhaps even too sweet -- I tend to stick with fresh squeezed to make sure it's inconvenient to drink in quanti...

Friday Oct 14: shovelglove failure. Got back late from a rare night out and collapsed.

Monday Oct 17: tasks failure. Somehow just forgot to do a relatively small work task.

Everyday Systems

Search found 5900 matches

Sorry for being so distracted lately...

Anonymous: I look like one of those "P90X" guys

Wisconsin needs glass ceiling...

NY Times: Willpower as depletable resource

No S -- Brazilian Style

What's worse: smoking or overeating?

Anonymous 5'5 Woman (-80 pounds!)

Podcast #40: No Solitary Snacking -- even on S-days

Big price drop on Kindle No S Diet Ebook