Everyday Systems

oolala53

I hope you won't feel too much pressure to lose at the rate some others might. We had a contest once at work. I thought the winner should have had to give the money back if he gained the weight back within a year, but I didn't say it out loud because I knew it would have been perceived that I was be...

oolala53

Inside an opaque container behind a cabinet door. I know families don't always do that, but that's one of his suggestions about ways to be on a diet without knowing you're on a diet. (I'm paraphrasing.) Don't mean to get off on a tangent, but I think many of the proposed supporting habits for someth...

oolala53

I can't believe how hard it is for me to find someone I like and who likes me to go to a movie I'd like to see. I've been to over 30 movies with local meetup groups in an attempt to find that, but they feel like auditioning for friendship all the time. The same people don't always go, so it isn't as...

oolala53

Not that you asked but any chance you might consider eating more generous meals, with more fat, for now on the days you are exposed to sweets at work? Partly so that you can look back at how great the meals were and look forward to them the next day? That has been shown to help counteract fake hunge...

oolala53

Wansink says the only food on a counter associated with a lower weight is fruit. Everything else is risky. Just saying.

oolala53

Mine are going into a little storage space off the garage...

oolala53

It's easy to feel a letdown after holidays, too. I know you don't celebrate Christmas specifically, but I was affected by Moslem holidays when I lived there. My sister and I aren't really close, but I'd be bummed if I thought she was purposely not speaking to me. I often have thoughts of being inade...

oolala53

Feeling cruddy was my major motivation to reduce my overeating seven years ago. But like Gill, I can feel almost as bad with a lot less food. Ironically, I can sometimes eat quite a lot and feel almost as if I've had nothing. Just more evidence that meal routines are probably the best way to counter...

oolala53

Having a good Christmas weekend was PART of being on track...

oolala53

Yesterday I felt like no regrets might be a sinking ship as I ate through quite a bit of discounted Christmas candy. Feeling okay today. Wansink says those who lose or maintain are good at cutting back afterwards. He made it sound like they don't resort to binge-and-restrict, though. I'm allowing my...

oolala53

Just want to say I hope no one is caught in that vise of thinking, well, I have until Jan. 1 to really commit so I'll just keep overeating S's until then... I know most here have already started No S, so this might not be an issue, but just in case: do whatever you have to not to feel you have to ea...

oolala53

Too many. I run a team on Spark and they have a kind of billboard on each team. I started going through the book and posting what I considered strong ideas. I've found one on nearly every page. But post away! I like being reminded without reading the book myself.

oolala53

Just as I 'bout never completely accept any one person's recommendations on anything, I have my reservations about the gal (she is from the "unrestrained eating recommended/don't be on ANY diet crowd), but I do love a lot of her honesty, especially when it comes to being realistic about possible wei...

oolala53

If the Joneses were perma-chocolate-and-crud-food snackers.

oolala53

very cool

oolala53

I've read only some of her work. She does a great job of describing all the reasons people overeat. I think I get what she says about where freedom can lead. But combatting modern foods that are SO easy to overeat is tough,and so is the attitude that it's okay to eat at any time. What keeps me with ...

oolala53

In our defense, I think part of the reason we spend that time is that the new regime can be challenging to our habits and the cultural habits, so we want that bolstering of our new point of view. Obviously, most people can't just go, oh, is that all I need to do? and do it. Though yes, there are tho...

oolala53

When I think about it, I did a lot of complaining before I was willing to do anything. And I probably wouldn't listen to their advice, either.

oolala53

I don't think there's a problem with cookbooks, and even some of the specialty ones, like vegan, vegetarian, paleo. Wanskink says people who explore new foods are more likely to maintain lower weights. I took a macrobiotic cooking class years ago and really appreciate what I learned about cooking gr...

oolala53

There are advantages to hard and fast rules, but sometimes we realize that there is another goal even more important. With more experience, you might have known to a lot yourself more cookies and to spread them out, but I think what you did also represents the spirit of moderation we're aiming for.

oolala53

I'm feeling torn this week, having a "good" week because I'm eating quite "clean" most of the time, but feeling annoyed, too, about why I have such a need to be "good," or to have such narrow parameters for good. But I'm not letting it take over. I lucked out so incredibly yesterday. I had decided r...

oolala53

Yes, it does, and is what some experts consider an obsession. I certainly have it and haven't been able to break the bond. I don't completely condemn myself because it is an area of interest, and a career counseling program I went to years ao said I should pursue an area of strong interest, but I kn...

oolala53

Zounds! Shortbread is one of my favorites.

oolala53

At least there's only one more day of anticipating this weekend, although sometimes people who have been very "good" can have a backlash after the pressure is off. I'm a fan of easing up on something, such as having a wider range of foods at meals, maybe things that aren't ideal, just as long as the...

oolala53

Hi, Amy. You're not alone in any of your problems, so if there's any nagging thought in there that you are especially weak, banish it! You just haven't practiced the skills yet. It's a skill to either ignore or talk back to reasons to eat between meals. We can't depend on their not cropping up. I di...

oolala53

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oolala53

Just put food on a plate three times a day and things could be very different by next Christmas! (7 years next week)

oolala53

Jeez! Speaking of sizing, though, I bought a Christmas sweater in '80 or '81. I consdiered it a "prosperity" sweater because I rarely spent much money on clothes but was encouraged by the zeitgeist of the time that it was a good idea to spend more (to let the universe know what I wanted. Anyone reme...

oolala53

Oh, I thought you were starting to think you would miss your Friday S routine enough to change your mind. Gosh, I know how easy it is to be thrown by variation (and that bugs me: I so want to think I can roll with the punches!) I wonder if there are people who don't stress at all about Christmas/hol...

oolala53

Of course not! Be proud that you don'' know old time drug culture. It just means that someone is looking for a fix. I'm not sure, either, but I think it was for heroin. Some equate it with craving. Maybe I'm usiing it wrong because craving to me is much stronger than what I usually feel, but it's an...

oolala53

worth it, I don't mean to jinx anything but easy days come and go and come. Some will seem obvious and others, not so much. Habit theory dictates not getting too caught up in it. Acknowledge yourself when you make it, and note briefly when you don't. (I'm reminding myself. Though I do like Judith Be...

oolala53

My Zen teacher used to say that Zen doesn't necessarily make thoughts go away. In the beginning, they sound like a big Great Dane barking right in your ear. As time goes on, they're more like the barking of a Chihuahua locked in a bathroom on the other side of the house. So desires to eat between me...

oolala53

But for me it's not usually low blood sugar. It's just the jillions of pairings of food with other cues.

oolala53

True. SOME people leave Las Vegas with more money than they arrived with, but Las Vegas wouldn't survive if that were typical. But many still find it entertaining to go and lose. Would that we could gamble with eating and have as much fun!

oolala53

She was a size 12. Size 12 then. Vanity sizing lives!

oolala53

I do have a pic somewhere of the cooked guinea pig on my plate in Peru. It's standard fare in a lot of restaurants. You can guess what it tastes like...

oolala53

What about Christmas Eve? Won't there be sweets you want to take advantage of? Or did you declare it an S so that you could nibble in between meals? Both good reasons.

Could Friday be one of your two NWS days?

oolala53

The STRong Way (a thread here) calls it "jonesing." That really puts it in perspective for me. Oh, I'm just jonesing.

oolala53

I'm probably repeating myself but Laurence Morehouse, previous fitness expert to the space program, said being on your feet in any combination of movement for three hours a day plus short workouts three times a week was enough for basic fitness. Not skinniness. Just fitness.

oolala53

That's what slim cultures have managed to do. Meal-based eating of mostly quality food, Baby! That's where it's at. But I'm biased...

oolala53

Good idea. It can bolster you in odd moments.

oolala53

We all do! I wish she'd find another term than hungry. There should be some term that means our stomachs feel really empty and something else for all the rest of it, IMHO. To me there's a big difference between that hollow feeling and just desire with no hollow feeling. I've watched two of the episo...

oolala53

Oooo, eggnog. I'd forgotten about it. Will take some to at least one event this weekend.

oolala53

We have some strong-lookin' folks here!

oolala53

see 12/22

oolala53

I just thought, well, if the Scottish can eat haggis, the English can eat mice pies.

Just kidding. I knew it was mince.

oolala53

I'm betting no one else thought a thing about it. RE: exercise, I thought I was always seeing references in your posts to going biking and this and that. Honestly, to me, if it's not on the couch, it's exercise. I don't even do housework consistently! Some days all the standing up I do is making my ...

oolala53

Totally reasonable guess but ironically not being hungry has not stopped me from eating and has actually increased the failures. I want to eat much more often than when I was getting legitimately hungry. I think it's because I don't get AS much satisfaction from what I do eat, and I want that pleasu...

oolala53

Do you have an actual health condition that absolutely requires you to lose weight? If you aren't seriously overweight, or don't have a compelling health problem, trying to conquer binge eating while actively trying to lose weight has a very poor success rate. The attempt to force calories down inte...

oolala53

Once again, I'll be trying to "eat down" the contents of the fridge before I go away over the weekend. I have mostly "good" food in my fridge (just my habit), and no big food events this week or next. I see no big obstacles for now.

I also don't want to regret spending too much time on this...

oolala53

Anne sorry for your tough times. Sustainable moderation is still your best hope for supporting you in times of stress. When you really get it, the more stress, the MORE likely you'll stick to your plan. (And I still think that "must eat moderately" is a better mantra than "must lose weight.") hugs

oolala53

I'm a little late to this party but caution you to think not that you are modifying but that you are weaning yourself off S's as you go. It's way too early to be modifying. But it's the right time to be phasing the structure in. And if things go well for six months or a year without any other change...

oolala53

Hate to burst the bubble, but Marilyn Monroe was quite slim for most of her career and privately took some flack for her temporary weight gains. "So what size was Marilyn Monroe actually? Luckily, many of her dresses, carefully preserved, are still around to measure off of. Further, one of her dress...

oolala53

Didn't take the time to watch the episode (I wish there was a script to read- much faster!) but I went to the original site to peruse and like this: " focusing on your environment and your habits is more effective than focusing ONLY ON WEIGHT LOSS OR GAIN." caps mine

oolala53

Just want to say that technically, in case there are any newbies, eating one plate of Christmas buffet (without sweets on an N day) or having some chocolates at work on Sunday would not have been fails, though of course everyone is free to determine what they find more satisfying. This will sound du...

oolala53

Not sure what you mean by evening out, though it might be true. Can you say a little more?

oolala53

Just wanted to report that with our talk of kettlebells, even though I haven't gone to the link mentioned, an ad for two kettlebell DVDs has appeared at the bottom of my thread. Oh, the marketing, the marketing! At least it's not food.

oolala53

I'm going to suggest that you stop thinking that there is anything really purposely destructive in your urges to overeat. Given the way our brains work, overeating is actually a quite rational process, IMHO. I don't buy the theory (even though it was briefly espoused in the No S book) that we punish...

oolala53

I guess it's the pickled stuff and sauce that make them Korean? No matter what, sounds good.Corn tortillas can take on just about anything.

oolala53

I made all kinds of promises to myself about this month and have pretty much broken all of them. Those dang old thoughts and habits just keep circling around. Tired of trying to figure it out but not ready to throw in the towel, either. And my weight is actually relatively steady. Here's to a great ...

oolala53

I dunno what happened to all that.,as I think I've been mostly failing. However, the good news, I guess, is that it takes only one good meal gap to feel I'm back on track and that I haven't ruined things! I guess also knowing I still have two weeks to "prove" myself keeps me on an even keel about it...

oolala53

Update below Man, I have a hard time with updating daily when no alert comes from others checking in. I guess I'm not very committed if I rely on others to get me to check in. It doesn't help that I'm failing so often and have never been able to find the balance between wanting to avoid failure enou...

oolala53

Floundering here, too. Boy, that opportunistic tendency is powerful! But it's not insurmountable, I have to believe.

oolala53

You probably saw this on my thread but another issue that affects my pleasure with food is that I just don't get hungry like I used to but I still want to eat, in some ways, even more. The desire seems to come up between meals even more often, not less. It's a paradox I've been grappling with off an...

oolala53

What are Korean tacos, please?

oolala53

Well, went into joyless snacking after the school luncheon on Thursday, though it took until Friday, last day of work, with tons of flour-based stuff in the office I worked in more hours (I had end-of-semester work to do that is just easier to do there. Got a copy machine right there, et al.) to rea...

oolala53

I like a few hard workouts after I've been consistent with milder ones for awhile, but I remind myself that Blue Zoners don't do anything comparable to training for or running marathons, so I don't have to do it all the time. Unless I really want to, and that hasn't been happening for a long time. W...

oolala53

Does open house pretty much mean all-day eating affair? (for the others) I can forgo a lot of pumpkin but I did have an order of pumpkin pancakes with pumpkin creme at Denny's this year. Me and pancakes still got a good thing goin'.

oolala53

The home routine is absolutely the long-term plan. I just haven't been able to make it happen.

oolala53

Went to a small gathering last night and elected to bring Pepperidge Farm mint milanos (the Xmas version, with a little red icing in the middle.) I still love them. Just ate a bowl of hot cereal with some protein powder, walnuts and a bit of a thickener, which was awesome. Yet I feel I didn't eat a ...

oolala53

I go through periods of being "on it," but being on it these days means as little as 4 minutes (more often more) of alternating 30-sec. intense moves with 5 seconds of rest and varying numbers of steps walking later in the day. I can't claim any big muscles, but hadn't been to dance class in months ...

oolala53

If you have been a binger/compulsive overeater, please please please use No S to treat that, NOT your "overweight." If you have no present health conditions, your weight loss expectations are likely to get in the way of your adjusting your appetite. Only people who are diagnosed with a weight-relate...

oolala53

great virtual plate idea

oolala53

Steal it! You gave me another reason to pontificate on it! I'm humbled to be of service to anyone.

oolala53

Not giving in to WTH is a valuable skill in itself.

oolala53

I think I know what the "secrets" are of those cultures. This is from a lot of obsessing. There's not just one secret. There's an attitude and habits that intertwine. They love food before, during, and after their meals. They eat mostly discrete meals with little snacking/random/casual eating. Their...

oolala53

Wansink is definitely in favor of keeping the foods we "should" eat in the easiest place to see them and the others- out of sight. He even thinks we should keep freggies on the shelves of the fridge and the dense stuff in the drawers.

oolala53

They absolutely are and I feel I have no control over this at all. I have attempted so much but it has changed only briefly at times. The whole thing remains an area of consuming interest. For awhile when I was "successful" I felt happy with that, but now even it sometimes feels like an unproductive...

oolala53

I eat grains most days and they don't make me hungry.

oolala53

Got it. What more do we really need to ask of ourselves, most of the time?

oolala53

How was your week? Feel free to stay a Luddite until the weekend is over...

oolala53

oops, didn't see previous post

oolala53

By my bed would likely end up in my bed... but i like the idea of a special storage box. Maybe up in a closet that takes getting up on a chair...

oolala53

I gently suggest being very careful about equating difficulty making eating changes with any failure in self-care. Roy Baumeister, researcher extraordinaire on self-regulation (discipline and willpower) said we should never assume we or anyone else doesn't have willpower or that it means anything re...

oolala53

The urban French think (or used to) "pleasure" when someone says "chocolate cake," and Americans think "guilt." But urban French women don't eat slice after slice, nor do they eat it every day along with other sweets. They don't eat more of foods just because they are pleasurable. It's just not done...

oolala53

My years of Zen practice actually never brought me the peace or whatever I pursued it for. But I do think it was very influential in helping me see I could withstand the temporary discomfort of wanting to eat between meals, sweets or otherwise. I wish I could transfer that to other areas but it turn...

oolala53

I'm glad you see the issue with the holidays. It sounds like you can still have a fair number of compliant days this month even with the likely extra days of social eating. Even if you fall short of 20, the compliant experiences have had value.

Enjoy your holidays!

oolala53

Are you saying that you believe in the month of December, you are going to have 20 days on which you won't have multiple social reasons to eat outside a 5-hour window? How many compliant days have you had so far? What will you do when you are non-compliant enough that there will be no way to get to ...

oolala53

Hey, thanks for the suggestions. I'm not sure why it's so hard, except that it bugs me that the promoters of Blue Zone don't make it more clear, or don't recognize that there is very likely a pattern the people have for meals. I want to know EVERYTHNG they typically have at lunch, not a recipe for o...

oolala53

Yay for the pup. but 25% is "pretty" good? It's astounding. Don't let the diet hype and internet wonder programs fool you. It is unusual for people to lose even 5% of their weight and keep it off for any length of time. Keep your success in perspective, not what you might think of as your failure. I...

oolala53

You probably weren't doing anything that differently. You were on the honeymoon. Also the principle of the hedonic treadmill will kick in when the novelty wears off. And the habit will not usually go down without a fight. It will create thoughts and sensations that convince us to go off the path. Th...

oolala53

Understand that food habits are usually driven by brain patterns that don't go down without a fight. They can even produce thoughts that perserve them. That is likely what considering calorie counting is right now: a diversionary tactic cooked up by the neural pattern that is likely to fail but keep...

oolala53

This is what I mean. You set these situations up and then find reasons they can't work, especially social situations. Why couldn't the lunch fit in the 5 hour window? Our lives are filled with reasons to eat for more hours in the day than five. What reasons ARE there to stick to a diet and not eat j...

oolala53

Big hug!

oolala53

On a thread devoted to decluttering, I think you would never have to be embarrassed by how old the papers are. People who would be shocked or judgmental about that don't use these threads. Their houses are tidy!

oolala53

You think you could be faithful to Fast-5 on weekdays for the rest of your life? I really can't understand why you think you will be able to negotiate real life with all its offerings of food, many of which have derailed you countless times, eating a meal basically once a day. Because THAT is really...

oolala53

A program that millions of people live with that keeps them slim is silly? Yeah, I guess you're right. A program that only a percentage of sick people have used successfully is a much better idea. Not silly at all. Whatever you do, don't quit it just because you feel like eating or forget to turn a ...

oolala53

Great! If it stays that way, fine. It MAY change. Best if these things can happen without your noticing...

oolala53

RE: permasnacking- so much more colorful and somehow piercing yet humorous than grazing.

oolala53

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