Everyday Systems

Kathleen

I enjoyed reading through some of your blog. Isn't it nice that the most important thing in your day isn't the number of calories you consumed?
Kathleen

Kathleen

KCCC, As I was running down to pick up my son from swim team, it occurred to me that I really, really like just relaxing. This Saturday, I'm picking him up from a lock in at 5:30 AM and then there isn't anything else planned until dinner. I think I'm going to propose to my husband that we go out for...

Kathleen

Lots of good advice. I'm at the point where I dread S Days because I eat until I feel not too great and sometimes so stuffed that I have to lie down. I'm not going back to dieting. Period. What I'd like to do is get smart about letting my emotional brain calm down. I'm just trying to figure out how ...

Kathleen

Yesterday, I was reading in a book ("The Instinct to Heal") by the author of the "Anitcancer: A New Way of Life" how there are two brains: the cognitive and the emotional brain. The emotional brain will hijack behavior, more or less shutting out input from the cognitive brain, when there is a sense ...

Kathleen

I read through your post looking for the diet that you just got off to see if that was the problem. Weight Watchers. Counting everything that goes into your mouth. How fun is that? I knoe nothing about hypoglycemia and don't even know what it is, but my guess is you are experiencing what the book In...

Kathleen

Blueskighs,
I second that! I have no problem at all with N Days, but I'm impatient with S Days. I appreciate your last post about letting my body figure it's not fun to overeat!
Kathleen

Kathleen

The nice thing about this diet is that it allows your body to choose the weight it wants, which is the weight where it feels best. Blueskighs, I appreciate your saying you had several months of no weight loss. I think that might happen to me as well. What I've decided is to only weigh myself three t...

Kathleen

I just decided to start having three meals on S Days. I could still eat what I want as well.
Kathleen

Kathleen

3aday, How do people figure out that regular diets are "fools gold" and don't last in the long run? Perhaps personal experience of diet failure after diet failure is the most compelling reason to stay on the diet. Your testimony, I bet, will be very encouraging to people, so they don't need any more...

Kathleen

Debs, For me, exercise comes and goes. I didn't exercise at all last week because we were visitng my in-laws, and I had a deliverable at work. This afternoon, I'm procrastinating going back to the gym. The nice thing about the diet is it's so easy to follow. I completely separate it from everything ...

Kathleen

Debs, I focused only on the No S rules. It was so hard that even our house fell apart as far as cleaning -- and the kids were in school and I wasn't working! Are you biting off more than you can chew by trying to do No S plus exercise? I have started back to exercising now, but -- as I was enjoying ...

Kathleen

DAY 85 - 12/1/08: SUCCESS (5) DAY 86 - 12/2/08: SUCCESS (5) DAY 87 - 12/3/08: SUCCESS (5) DAY 88 - 12/4/08: SUCCESS (5) DAY 89 - 12/5/08: SUCCESS (5) DAY 90 - 12/6/08: SATURDAY 204.8 A new low! Day 91 - 12/7/08: SUNDAY DAY 92 - 12/8/08: SUCCESS (5) DAY 93 - 12/9/08: SUCCESS (5) DAY 94 - 12/10/08: SU...

Kathleen

Debs,
It was fun, and I'm stuffed! I had expected to keep to N Day guidelines, but there is soup before the meal, and we had ice cream afterwards. I used up one of my accumulated Special Days. It was worth it!
Kathleen

Kathleen

Reinhard, I kept a journal for over a year of all my weight loss attempts and the disasterous results of failure -- failure -- failure. The harder I tried, the more weight I gained. In fact, I weigh more now than I did the summer before last. It's great to have the chance to be online and get feedba...

Kathleen

howfunisthat,
Thanks for the congratulations! My husband, tongue in cheek, said he'd take the whole family to any restaurant in town if I lost 10 pounds. We're going to Benihaha's tonight because my son has wanted to go there. I figure this milepost is worth a celebration!
Kathleen

Kathleen

Empathize with him. It does seem odd that you would have a cookie when you're supposed to be on a diet. This diet goes against all conventional wisdom about dieting, and it's not even written by someone who is an expert in the field. Why would it work? It doesn't seem to make sense that you would re...

Kathleen

howfunisthat,
Thanks for asking! I update my daily log in a post that is for the month, so it is dated 10/31. I also just posted on the testimonial thread because I reached a 10 pound weight loss!
Kathleen

Kathleen

Thanks for being an inspiration to me! I learned NOT to weight myself on Monday, either!

Kathleen

My daughter has Friday and Saturday S Days.

Listen to "S Days Gone Wild." A good approach to start is to make sure you have three meals and aren't just eating sweets all day.

Kathleen

Kathleen

Next posting here will be 193.5 pounds, or a loss of 10% of my body weight from my 215 pound start! Another 10% is 174.15, then 156.735, then 141.0615, and finally 126.95535. My guess is that I'll be on maintenance somewhere between 126.95535 and 141.0615. My goal is to follow the diet and let my bo...

Kathleen

DAY 1 - 9/8/08: FAILURE Starting Weight of 215.0 pounds DAY 76 - 11/22/08: SATURDAY 205.0 From all my research on weight loss, I have to pull up the scariest quote I found. This is from page 10 of The Obesity Epidemic : â€œEven the most motivated patients have difficulty losing a significant amount ...

Kathleen

Here is something I wrote on September 18: I had breakfast at 6:30 AM this morning, and now it is nearing 10. I leave in about 1/2 hour to go volunteer at the school. I was just in the kitchen, and those nectarines and grapes are calling my name. I have trained myself to eat at the first sign of hun...

Kathleen

I'm feeling better. I think I need to stay off the scale for Sunday and Monday and just let this diet take its course. My daughter had her first failure. I told her that my first four days were failures It's clear she has fewer eating problems than I do. I worked hard to find a diet that worked and ...

Kathleen

206.6 today. My weight is back down the four pounds I gained over the weekend with two more N Days to go. I listened to the "S Days Gone Wild" podcast and will follow two ideas -- plan something special every S Day, and have three regular meals on S Days.
Kathleen

Kathleen

What I particularly like about this post is that it not only tells you that you need to count also that you need to figure out the timing for snacks, adding into the equation the fat content of the snack! GEEZ is right! As part of my attempt to figure out how to lose weight, I listened to the book o...

Kathleen

Reinhard does not count drinking liquids as eating. I found this a useful distinction in a social setting where I could get by with drinking and not eating. I believe that drinking orange juice was one way you thought of to keep you safe, and I believe that keeps N Days green.
Kathleen

Kathleen

KCCC, The being-able-to-decide-in-the-moment is very reassuring to me. I am not "one bite" away from failure. It works for me, but I really like buffers. I like to have money in the bank to cover unexpected bills. I like to work part-time so I'm not in a panic if a kid needs to go to the doctor. I j...

Kathleen

I'm back on track! Slow weight loss but only green days since September 11th.

Kathleen

Here's today's tip from the Duke Diet Program: "Healthy Preworkout Snacks Do you often have a snack before your workouts? While eating before you exercise may seem a little counterintuitive â€” after all, isn't one of the aims of exercise to burn calories? â€” it can actually be a good move. If it's...

Kathleen

208.6 this morning. Oh, this brings back memories of diets that ended when I stepped on the scale and my weight went up even though I was starving on a 1,000 calorie per day diet.

I need to make sure I don't step on that scale except Tuesday through Saturday.

Kathleen

Kathleen

Thanks for the feedback. I've got a couple of changes I'll make as a result... Noelfigart, I didn't eat real meals over the weekend. I let go of meals and perhaps having more normal food as well as treats would be better than just indulging in everything I denied myself all week. I really have rever...

Kathleen

I went into this diet thinking S Days could follow the Intuitive Eating approach of "unconditional permisison to eat." I thought that a lowered amount of food on N Days would keep me from really overeating on S Days. That did work for a time. It reminds me of the woman who had gastric bypass surgery...

Kathleen

Brian, I have to tell you that I've spent a lot of time blogging about this diet, and I've felt unsettled about something but haven't been able to figure out what. This thread helped me to figure out that I've been planning for the day when I could stop no s-ing. Now I realize that I need to think a...

Kathleen

KCCC, During a year when I could not work and my kids were in school, I spent a lot of time doing research on diets and reaching back in my own life to memories of situations whic would have to be addressed by any diet that would work for me. One memory I have is of a woman who turned down cake at h...

Kathleen

NoelFigart, OK, what I like about this diet is what I can do and actually enjoy! I have taken the kids out for treats without having anything myself so I did keep the day green for me. My youngest has had a medical problem which, without going into it, has required a lot of effort on her part, and s...

Kathleen

KCCC, It's not that I wouldn't have been able to face failure so much as I would not have told myself it is a failure. As a mother, I have all sorts of reasons to turn an N Day into an S Day. That's why the title of your thread was so intriguing to me. When is there a clearcut difference? I've only ...

Kathleen

I'm taking a different approach because I can't handle failure. I've had way too much of failure on diets. I have an accumulation of two Special Days to be used each month. Right now, it is 4 1/2 hours until midnight. I can eat what I want if I use of one of my four precious Special Days. No thanks....

Kathleen

Blueskighs, Yesterday, Tom got home from a business trip and brought five chocolates from the hotel. As the kids were going to bed, Anne proudly showed me hers -- she hadn't eaten it! She got through a first week of all greens, and she's happy. It may be that the diet is much easier for her than it ...

Kathleen

Debs,
I'm now on the hook to continue!
Kathleen

Kathleen

Blueskighs, It is very sweet. She would come home from school, head straight for the kitchen, and wolf down whatever was available. Now she is picky about what she eats. I told her that one of the side benefits of this diet is you start to think about what you really like. She asked for me to get he...

Kathleen

Brian, Thanks for the word of warning about not slacking off once you lose the weight. I think that the general focus with dieting is on losing the weight and then you're set! I've tried so many diets that I'm a walking encyclopedia of information. I'm also obese and have a 14 year old daughter who ...

Kathleen

blueskighs, I keep on thinking that the real measure of this diet's success is that it goes on autopilot, like brushing my teeth. I keep on resolving that it is time for it to go on autopilot. Well, it's not. When it is, I've come to believe, it will happen naturally, with fewer and fewer posts. I a...

Kathleen

resting52, Yes, it is hard to face the reality of how much my life has been negatively impacted by my weight problem. I've noticed that this board tends to attract people who have had weight problems for years and years and years. We who have been at this for so long know the reality that the real p...

Kathleen

resting52, I was 130 - 135 throughout most of high school. In spring of my senior year, I started dieting. I started college at 117, was 124 at Thanksgiving break, 132 at spring break and 148 at the end of freshman year. By the end of college, I weighed 165. I managed to get my weight back down to m...

Kathleen

Turtledove, I'm creating details in a future that isn't yet here! What is exciting about today is that my daughter got through her first NWS day yesterday with a SUCCESS ! We've been discussing the diet in private, and I just ordered a copy of the book for her. She was debating about whether or not ...

Kathleen

Janie, I ate so much I felt sick and slept much of yesterday afternoon. I am hypothesizing that my overeating is a reaction to long-term dieting, and it will take time for me to get over it. Tonight, I feel grumpy because I cut back on what I ate today. I need to allow myself to eat meals that are a...

Kathleen

Reinhard,
You should have seen my 7 year old's excitement when she realized it was an S Day and she could have ice cream!
Kathleen

Kathleen

blueskighs, I'm missed the controversy, but I wanted to thank you for your early encouragement of me and for your philosophy of both "perfect compliance" and keeping the N Days green without worrying about the S Days. It seems to me that there is a high failure rate for people but only because they ...

Kathleen

I have started to eat less, but I'm on Day 61. With some of my initial meals, my 12 year old literally stared at my plate in amazement. My 7 year old pointed to one plate and told me that I wasn't following the diet because she saw two snacks and seconds (a second burrito) on it. Last night, I had o...

Kathleen

resting52, Me, too. I was set on the path of restrictive eating when I was a teenager who weighed 132 and was 5'6" tall. My parents meant well. They were concerned about my weight, and their response made matters much worse. My life turned out in such a way that I spent an entire academic year unabl...

Kathleen

Resting, My daughter is a size 14 as a 14 year old. I am trying to impose more order in her life and the lives of her siblings by making slow changes away from the "eat when you're hungry" philosophy that I've followed for a few years. I want them to eat breakfast. I don't want snacks after dinner. ...

Kathleen

My daughter decided every day should be an S Day. Right. I tried that. That was The Peanut Cluster Diet. I said last night that the kitchen is closed after dinner. I'm going to move the entire family towards more of an eating style that is like the No S Diet. I've let the kids eat what they want, an...

Kathleen

What's wrong with celebrating an event for which you waited 8 years? A definite S Day!

Kathleen

I tried that approach, and oh did it backfire! If you end up having N Day failures, consider alowing yourself two S Days in the week. My weight is fluctuating a lot because of my S Days, but the overall trend is DOWN. The leftover Holloween candy does not tempt me AT ALL.
Kathleen

Kathleen

janie,
Holloween wasn't an S Day for me, but the next day was Saturday and I had my share of Holloween candy then!
Kathleen

Kathleen

LA_Loser, I concluded long ago that the best way I could help my daughter with her weight problem was to manage my own. She just decided to follow the diet, but she may not follow through. I need to be respectful of her, since she is now a teenager who can make decisions about her eating. My own par...

Kathleen

Debs and janie, It is wonderful that my daughter Anne has decided to follow this diet. I told her it was the easiest diet I'd ever been on, and she said it wasn't. She said that the Peanut Cluster Diet was the easiest diet I'd ever been on. I agreed with her. The Peanut Cluster Diet was easier. The ...

Kathleen

DAY 55 - 11/1/08: SATURDAY (4) DAY 56 - 11/2/08: SUNDAY (4) (207.2) DAY 57 - 11/3/08: SUCCESS (4) (Goal is 211.0) 209.4 DAY 58 - 11/4/08: SUCCESS (4) 208.0 DAY 59 - 11/5/08: SUCCESS (4) 207.6 DAY 60 - 11/6/08: SUCCESS (4) 206.8 Day 61 - 11/7/08: SUCCESS (4) 206.4 DAY 62 - 11/8/08: SATURDAY (4) 206.6...

Kathleen

My 14 year old daughter just told me that she decided to go on the No S Diet or, as she calls it, the Peanut Cluster Diet with Restrictions! She's going to have Fridays and Saturdays as S Days with two Special Days per month. She, more than anyone else or anything else, has been my motivation to lo...

Kathleen

ryan1974, Guess what my 14 year old daughter called the Intuitive Eating approach? The Peanut Cluster Diet. Guess what she calls this diet? The Peanut Cluster Diet with Restrictions. The Intuitive Eating appraoch does get you over the panicked feeling of not enough to eat because you're dieting; how...

Kathleen

It's sad the terrible impact of excess weight. I don't want to be overweight one more minute, but I accept that this diet means slow but permanent weight loss. I need to live in the meantime, even if I am obese. Last night, I went to a store and bought a size 18 pair of pants. They were tight, but a...

Kathleen

Blueskighs, I weighed 207.2 today. It is difficult to be patient when you have so much weight to lose. I'm 5 ' 6" tall and have very small bones. I'm not sure how much I should weigh now that I'm in my 50s, but I would guess that I would be most comfortable at around 140 pounds. I look in the mirror...

Kathleen

pickle,

Here's the incentive: weight management will go on autopilot, and you can focus on more enjoyable things, like enjoying your family.

Kathleen

Kathleen

Janie, It's too soon to tell how the job will work out, but the set-up is ideal for me, and the hiring manager apparently went to some lengths to get approved a position that allows for a part time contractor. We have four children ages 7 - 14. I needed a position that would allow flexibility so tha...

Kathleen

Believe it or not, perhaps my greatest motivation for this diet was to be able to take my kids to TCBY and have frozen yogurt cones with them without feeling guilty. The greatest motivation for me in following this diet is being able to enjoy whatever I want on S Days.

Kathleen

Kathleen

KCCC, Thanks for the idea about focusing on losing 10% of your weight. I like that idea! Two years ago, I worked closely with a woman who had lost 40 pounds on Weight Watchers -- twice. She was working on her third try at losing the same 40 pounds. I really admired her iron will. Who says overweight...

Kathleen

Satisfied Girl,
Great! Your days of unending, gnawing hunger ARE OVER!
Kathleen

Kathleen

Debs, The day went fine. I didn't think about food at all. I did think about the puppy stuck in her kennel from 8 AM until 2 PM! This diet has already gotten fairly automatic. The hardest part seems to be dealing with S Days, since I still eat so much that I am uncomfortably full. My body is giving ...

Kathleen

I'm off to work in just an hour, so now begins the real test of this diet. It's going on autopilot! I won't have much time to pay attention to it. Either it works with minimal effort, or I try something else. I will follow this diet until the summer (when I won't be working because the kids will be ...

Kathleen

blueskighs, It was a lovely night. All four of us who went to dinner (my brother in law, his wife, my husband, and myself) have weight problems. We chatted a little about this diet, and I told them I was quite happy to settle for approximately a two pound per month weight loss in exchange for a mini...

Kathleen

Change your name! You likely will be hungry on N Days, but you will be able to eat as much as you want without guilt on S Days. You will not be hungry on those days, and you'll still lose weight! Kathleen PS My heaviest weight ever was 216 on 9/4/08, I started No S on 9/8/08 at 215, and I weighed 20...

Kathleen

My proudest moment was driving back from an activity yesterday morning and driving right by the grocery store with the Haagen Dazs bars. I've lost count of how many I've had, but I had four on one S Day, including one right at midnight. Yesterday, I asked myself: do I want one? The answer was No! I'...

Kathleen

Resting,

Thank you. I thoroughly enjoyed two pieces of cake tonight at a belated party with my family. This diet is wonderful!

Kathleen

Kathleen

Reinhard, Thank you for the compliment and your desire to put my mod in a podcast! I don't know if you saw it, but here is what I wrote in my daily check in thread on 9/26/08: "I put my kids on the No Sweets portion of the diet. My 9 year old and 7 year old were being taken home from school, and the...

Kathleen

Thank you, Janie!

Kathleen

Blueskighs, Thanks for the birthday wishes! I expect to be about 20 pounds lighter this time next year! Kathleen Debs, I am enjoying my birthday. I went to Trader Joe's and got a chocolate chocolate cake. My husband is out of town until tonight, so I thought I'd wait until the weekend for a cake. I ...

Kathleen

katie1980,
The book is excellent, but I also have found a lot of additional valuable tips in the podcasts which are available on this web site. Good luck!
Kathleen

Kathleen

Debs,

OK, I'll start with hot Ghiardelli chocolate!

It is now 8 AM, and I decided to really celebrate. After taking the two older kids to school, I took the two younger kids for a treat at Starbucks and had a frappachino.

It's wonderful to enjoy food, which is what this diet allows!

Kathleen

Kathleen

Debs, Thank you for your thoughts. I have tweaked this diet to try to make it work better for me and so that my weight would drop faster, and I've continued the diet obsession which I began last August when I decided that, as long as I couldn't work, I would focus on weight loss. Now, with a new job...

Kathleen

blueskighs,

If desparation is the key, well, then I'm going to succeed!

Kathleen

Kathleen

I just posted this yesterday in my daily check in: "I have overeaten without really enjoying food. My 9 year old once said that the people who eat at McDonald's are overweight, but the people who eat McDonald's in their car are really overweigbt. It's true. I have observed this in myself and it seem...

Kathleen

Blueskighs, Thanks for your comment. I hesitated about dropping one of the weekend S Days because I do think that there would be more pressure on me to make sure the one remaining S Day was worth it! In other words, lots and lots of food - "Last Supper Eating." The reason why I did had more to do wi...

Kathleen

mel1974c, Blueskighs observed that people tend to drop out because of disappointment at slow weight loss, and so I decided to go down to one S Day on the weekend (Sunday) when I didn't make this week's goal of one pound loss on average since the start of the diet. My birthday is this week, and I'm h...

Kathleen

Merry,

I agree with you that the "portion control" approach to weight management is almost diabolical in its ability to get you to eat more, not less!

What is special about this diet is the S Days!

Kathleen

Kathleen

Thank you!

Kathleen

If 8 is followed by an end parentheses, it ends up as an 8 followed by a smiley face. I want to put number of available Special Days in parentheses and keep getting the smiley face. Is there a way I can record an 8 in parenthesis? T What I have written below is an 8 in parentheses and it ends up wit...

Kathleen

Looking for you...
Kathleen

Kathleen

It is close to midnight now. I can eat right now and turn my Green N Day into a Yellow S Day, or I can wait to eat. I am not one bite away from failure. I have a choice, and that is why this is working for me! There are fewer and fewer hours in a week when this diet is difficult for me, which is why...

Kathleen

blueskigh,
I love your unabashed enjoyment of treats on S Days! My kids complain about no sweets during the week, but we are buying foods we never have eaten before. Today, we got chocolate covered pretzels.
Kathleen

Kathleen

john, Allow yourself to eat as much as you want on S Days. You can't have gnawing hunger if you are so stufed you have to lie down. The fullness you experience on an S Day will carry over at least into the first N Day after an S Day. The beauty of this diet is that you can look forward to S Days, wh...

Kathleen

Becca, Two weeks isn't very long on this diet. How about waiting another two or three weeks to see if your dinner size decreases? I literally had multi-stacked plates at dinner for a few weeks, and my son would just stare and tease me. No longer... I eventually got used to no snacks, and now I love ...

Kathleen

KCCC, Yes, I agree that perfectionism is a bad thing. If I didn't have perfectionism when it came to food, would I even have a weight problem? I tried the Intuitive Eating approach of not using perfectionism when it comes to food and allowing myself "unconditional permission to eat." My husband trie...

Kathleen

becca, The second week was really tough for me, too, but the corner was turned after that. If you try a quick weight loss program followed by The No S Diet, you won't be accustomed to this diet, and the quick weight loss diet may end in "diet backlash". I've gained 60 pounds between January, 2002 an...

Kathleen

Becca, I evaluated the tasting while cooking just like you are, and I concluded that it isn't a failure. Instead, it is a convenient way to determine if the food is done and tasty. As for tic tacs, however, I would have given myself a failure on them. I've considered getting a travel toothbrush and ...

Kathleen

KCCC, I've spent some time thinking about this, and generally I think perfectionism is a bad thing. I have a very bright, very motivated and very hardworking child who was on the Math Team when she was in fifth grade. She had a midquarter grade of D+ in math because she hadn't handed in four homewor...

Kathleen

Moxie,
My first four days on this diet were failures (before I came up with the allocation of Special Days as an idea). The first two weeks were hard. I'm now at about 5 weeks, and the diet has actually gotten easier! Stick with it!
Kathleen

Kathleen

Reinhard, I think there might be people (like me) for whom one failure might mean a disaster -- a higher likelihood of failures in the following days, discouragement, and quitting the diet. Some people can drink alcohol and have no problems. Others have one drink and cannot stop. When it comes to di...

Kathleen

OK, I've changed my mind about this. I think that the answer to this question is different for different people. Reinhard clearly is someone who can recover from a failure, learn from it, and move on. I am like that with exercising. I try to exercise on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. If it doesn'...

Kathleen

Moxie28,
That's exactly what it is like for me! One failure would be the end of this diet. Let's encourage each other!
Kathleen

Kathleen

Moxie, Remember that I'm just starting out. Here is a link to Reinhard's thoughts on the subject: http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=4216 For me, having a stash of Special Days to be used however I want just has a very calming influence on me. I don't feel as though I am "one bite" away f...

Everyday Systems

Search found 1688 matches

I'd love feedback on my theory about why S Days go wild.

The Peanut Cluster Diet with Restrictions

Healthy Snacks

Seeking Advice on S Day Behavior

8 followed by an end parentheses