Everyday Systems

Thalia

Yeah, I haven't used SparkPeople, but I have found that most online weight/calorie/nutrition trackers are exhausting to use unless you mostly eat branded prepackaged or chain-restaurant food. I was using Fitday -- maybe SparkPeople is better?

Thalia

Happy anniversary! What a lovely story. Enjoy your feast!

Thalia

With one more day to go for July, I'm down another pound and a half -- even though the first 10 days of the month I was on vacation and celebrating three family birthdays. I've been doing this for seven months (No S, not vacationing, alas) and at this point it really is so brainlessly easy. I never ...

Thalia

I do think there will be a backlash. Eventually.

Thalia

Awww, I'm sorry. Because it's hard to resist homemade chocolate cake, and then you beat yourself up over eating and felt like you didn't deserve to succeed? What's the saying someone came up with here -- Pick yourself up, dust off the crumbs, and keep going! One cake layer, in the context of the who...

Thalia

Or

Hmmm, who looks healthier?

Thalia

I totally agree -- I mean, there are some people who can look good when very, very thin, it works with their face and body type. Nicole Kidman looked really good at a very low weight (until she went insane with the plastic surgery, but that's a different problem) because it looks elegant on her and ...

Thalia

Sometimes I eat light meals, and sometimes I eat really hearty ones -- I'm still slowly but surely losing weight.

No S is really easier to stick with if you do not starve yourself at mealtimes, and sticking with it is the key.

Thalia

Wonderful!

Thalia

I agree that brown basmati is the best of the brown rices. I guess that makes sense, since I also think white basmati is the best of the white rices!

Thalia

I just spent a week heroically trying to finish off a huge batch of rice and cucumber salad with yogurt-herb dressing, so now I feel retroactively well-nourished.

Thalia

That is extremely interesting! You know, I wonder if the same is true for white pasta -- since we always eat it with oil and veggie-based sauces, it's functionally not that different from eating whole wheat? I do make the whole wheat sometimes, and I like the flavor but the texture really isn't as g...

Thalia

Some things that supposedly help include having a consistent sleep schedule, getting regular exercise early in the day (late exercise actually makes it harder to sleep), keeping the room super-dark, and keeping your bedroom nice and cool, almost on the chilly side (with blankets to cover up with). I...

Thalia

I am so getting an "I Love Reinhard" tattoo in Japanese.

Thalia

Welcome back!

Thalia

I think it's really sad that eating has become so fraught that people feel guilty, apologetic, or resentful about what they eat (and I have certainly been one of those people!). It's one more sign of how distorted our relationship with food has gotten.

Thalia

No S calls success (in whatever vague way it does that)

Huh, I don't find it vague at all. I find it extremely clear-cut, which is one of the things I like about it!

Thalia

I am a bad No S-er in this department, and I eat a lot of "stuff in a bowl." I use the smallest bowls in the house if I'm having something else on the side -- we have two sets of cereal bowls, and one set is literally twice the size of the other -- and I put the "something else' on a salad plate ins...

Thalia

after making it into the 21 day club, what specifically there is to shoot for besides good compliance for the rest of one's life. I mean, the rest of one's life?! Well, I think it helps to enjoy and appreciate the benefits of the process -- have really nice S Days, and really tasty N Day meals. Enj...

Thalia

Personally, I'd try to satisfy it by including fruit in my meals. But someone else here did have a lot of success by starting slow and cutting down, so it might work for you!

Maybe one sweet, of a predetermined kind, included in dinner or lunch? And then phase it out?

Thalia

His Fish and Leafy Greens books are also excellent -- I've never made anything out of Fish that wasn't DELICIOUS.

Thalia

Well, they're bacteria. They aren't even in the same taxonomical kingdom as humans and animals. But I've wondered that too, if there are vegans who object to yeast on those grounds.

Thalia

I just (finally) read In Defense of Food this weekend. One thing that I thought was interesting, and encouraging, he says is that if you wanted to opt out of the corporate "food" chain 15 years ago, you really had no alternatives. Now, it has become fairly easy because of the proliferation of farmer...

Thalia

There is some awful stuff in More Fast Food My Way. He wants you to feed fake crab as an appetizer to your guests, and make a tart crust out of that processed fake cookie dough in a tube.

But the crispy chicken thighs in that book are SPECTACULAR. The kale and spicy sausage looks pretty good, too.

Thalia

I think it is partly that -- No S is EMBARRASSING, because if I can lose weight just by doing this, then how badlly was I eating before? But also, if you want to lose very fast and get very, very thin (and a lot of women do), No S is not going to deliver that. I have to guess that you are not going ...

Thalia

And ha! I'm reading through the Summer Menus, and tonight's dinner is on there as #18.

Thalia

I just go ahead and eat salads, but I do leave the chips/bread alone until my plate comes and then add them to the plate if I want them. Fortunately, I almost never eat out during the week, so it's usually an S Day anyway and I can do whatever I please!

Thalia

Thank you!

Thalia

I'm sorry. PCOS can make it very difficult to lose weight -- I think that's the culprit right there.

Thalia

I sent mine in too. I figure we're not all using the same wording and we have our own e-mail addresses -- we're clearly "real people," not Reinhard's dopplegangers.

Thalia

Yeah, I'd bet money that it's the caffeine.

Thalia

Oh, I have lost weight on Weight Watchers many times. But let's look at that statement -- if Weight Watchers was really a successful approach, I would only have needed to lose weight ONCE! I really think the test of a way of eating is not how fast you lose weight -- it's whether it stays off. And We...

Thalia

Wow, those comments got nasty! And yeah, that is the perfect illustration of the phenomenon.

Thalia

Moxie, putting it on the plate at the outset seems like a very mindful way to handle it!

Thalia

I think for a lot of people, worrying so much about food quality and "real" food is seen as a form of snobbery, and vaguely un-American. What, you're too good for Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup and instant pudding mix?

Thalia

I love the way the Pioneer Woman writes and I think her photos are gorgeous, but most of her recipes seem kind of nasty to me. Like if X tastes good, x squared MUST taste ever so much better, so let's throw in a ton of x! Where X is brown sugar or cheese or bacon or whatever.

Thalia

they look like pigs and are lacking self-control

That's a little harsh!

Thalia

I make pretty healthy meals, but then I was making pretty healthy meals before, really. I like vegetables and whole grains and seafood and unprocessed things generally. It was all the OTHER stuff I was eating that was a problem!

Thalia

Not at all! I have lost 17 pounds, and I expect a drop in the next couple of days because of monthly water retention at the moment. I would still like to lose around 30 more -- I'm not one of the people who is already close to an ideal weight! It has definitely not been fast, but I'm not getting as ...

Thalia

Welcome, maggie!

I thought it was too good to be true too, but I've been doing this for six months and it really does work!

Thalia

My Grandma stayed active well into her 90s, and lived to 100. She was still driving and living alone in a second-story apartment on her 90th birthday, and I think for a few years afterward -- I'm not sure how long she kept the car. I don't know that much about her eating habits, but I do know she wa...

Thalia

Eating because you're hungry before your lunch or dinner? As your mom knew, you WANT to be hungry before dinner so you'll enjoy it! I do think a long period walking/hiking/biking is a legitimate time when a snack might be useful. But snacking in the car on long trips? Yeah, because you need such an ...

Thalia

This is my second try too -- and it has lasted more than six months! So a prior attempt doesn't mean you're doomed to fail.

Doesn't Reinhard say it takes most people more than one try for it to stick?

Thalia

And as an example of how flexible No S really is, here's my yesterday, which involved a lot of restaurant time: B: shredded wheat, skim milk, OJ L: Work team lunch outing -- Tuna melt with bacon on rye, orange and pineapple slices, an onion ring and five or six curly fries from a shared appetizer pl...

Thalia

I do have a No S plate in my office! I mean, it's not a branded special No S plate, but I bought a pretty china-and-platinum dinner plate at a thrift store and that's my special plate to plate my lunch on. Cost to me: $1. Profit to Reinhard: $0. Sorry! I think Reinhard may have shot himself in the f...

Thalia

Happy No S-vversary! What a wonderful and inspiring accomplishment!

Thalia

Gaah! He looks like some kind of demented action figure.

Thalia

Hahahaha! I don't think I'd ever change that battery, I would enjoy seeing that my weight is LO so much.

Thalia

I vary a lot, but here's a recent day: B: Shredded wheat, skim milk (I don't like whole, although it's fine to have on No S), and fresh blueberries L: Leftover whole-wheat macaroni with Christmas lima beans and artichoke hearts -- meant to pack fruit too, but was too discombobulated in the morning. ...

Thalia

I just returned from a 10-day vacation, and I decided to treat the whole thing as a series of S Days, but not go crazy. We were celebrating three family birthdays plus the fourth of July in there, and I figured that trying to restrict was setting myself up for failure! What I found was that during t...

Thalia

Can you imagine what No S-branded diet foods would be like? I'm picturing, like, an apple with a No S sticker on it. Or a cheeseburger with a No S sticker on it ...

Thalia

I think it's also worth remembering that it's fine to be hungry shortly before your next meal is due -- if you're really peckish by 5:30 for your 6:00 or 6:30 dinner, you'll enjoy it more!

As Reinhard has quoted here before, "Appetite is the best sauce."

Thalia

I'm in! I was on vacation last week, at the Oregon coast. It was gorgeous and I decided to count vacation time as non-crazy S Days. It was great! Lots of walking on the beach, we celebrated three family birthdays and the Fourth of July, and I helped my daughter make her own lemon birthday cake from ...

Thalia

Hi, Fatsby! Love your user name. Hmmm, tips to keep your hand out of the metaphorical cookie jar ... might be something useful for you in one of them: Freeze the cookies! Or basically, don't stock sweets or whatever foods you're snacking on in the house. For at least a few weeks, get your treats ind...

Thalia

Any diet guru or organization that sells its own branded food-replacement products immediately loses any shred of credibility in my mind -- that knocks out Weight Watchers, Atkins, and the Zone immediately. I think Ornish sells soups or something, too, doesn't he? I'm not sure about that one, though...

Thalia

Wow, a month in India sounds spectacular!

Thalia

I had bought the French Women Don't Get Fat book, and really liked some of what Mireille had to say but her tone was extremely grating. I Googled "French women diet" or something like that to see what others had said about it, and No S popped up. I read the front page and it clicked that THIS was th...

Thalia

Success on No S for me, too! And down either a pound or a pound and a half -- I can't remember what I weighed at the end of May. :oops: July, however, is going to have to be all about the exercise. I will be on vacation from the first through the ninth, so it will be easy then! I hope to build a hab...

Thalia

It is a constant battle because it's in most every name brand advertised item.

Yep. Which is why any food item with an advertising budget should in itself be a big red flag.

You can buy 100% real maple syrup, btw -- no HFCS in that!

Thalia

I totally relate to that! Diets ARE sexy -- the idea of total, fast self-transformation, and they're also this huge project that you can sink tons of energy into and obsess about. I loved starting a diet (and I started many in my day) -- I was going to work it so hard and look so great! Everyone che...

Thalia

Bravo on your dipping weight.
It's clear to all you're doing great!

Thalia

That is exactly my pattern -- I'll see a drop to a new low, then I'll bounce back up for a few days, and gradually settle back to the new low weight until the next drop. Honestly, the scale measures so many things that have nothing to do with fat -- the number just isn't that important. Have a fabul...

Thalia

I'm still here! I have not stepped up in a blaze of glory on the exercise, but my No S compliance is solid green for the month.

Thalia

hahahaha!

Man, I love The Onion.

Thalia

Yep. They also don't make as much money from people buying fresh ingredients instead of prepared processed foods. Although it's fascinating to me the way that pomegranates, and now cranberries, are being marketed the same way that corporations traditionally market breakfast cereal or snack food or f...

Thalia

Congratulations! That's quite a difference!

Please don't sic your raccoon on me if I ever annoy you.

Thalia

Nice work! Have you ever posted "before" and "in progress" pics? That's a pretty dramatic difference.

Thalia

AFAIK, a homemade granola bar or cookie is still a granola bar or a cookie -- just a higher-quality one. A good treat for the weekend.

Thalia

Kids are told that they NEED snacks, and snacks are GOOD for them. Me, I am not big on the idea that five-year-olds should be completely responsible for their own health decisions -- so yes, in this case it is society.

Thalia

I think granola bars are basically glorified cookies, so for me they are an S.

Thalia

In general, I think doctors and nurses should keep their mouths shut about patients' weight unless it is alarming (like a sudden unplanned loss) or affecting their health in some way, so maybe she is just following that excellent rule.

Thalia

Oh, that sounds fantastic. We usually just make a generic vinaigrette and add oregano and feta, but I get tired of that (DH, whose family is Greek, NEVER gets tired of it!).

Thalia

I had a really excessive weekend -- it was pretty much the first time since I've started where I felt like I was just eating compulsively, for the sake of cramming food in my mouth. I don't know WHAT that was about! Except that I was really tired?

Thalia

I would stick 'em in the freezer. And as a parent, I think you're well within bounds to tell the kids to limit their baking to the weekends, at least for a while, because it makes it hard for you and you are the boss of the house.

Thalia

Oh, I didn't mean to pick on your office supplies! I think that's a MINDFUL "splurge." Along with the kisses and the reading time and so forth.

Thalia

Yeah, newborns have tummies the approximate size of a peanut M&M or something -- OK, maybe they're not quite THAT tiny, but they need to eat pretty frequently because they can hold so little at one time, and plus growing is really hard work.

Thalia

Honestly, I think one of the reasons our economy is in the toilet and we aren't eating very well is that we have been sold the idea that EVERY DAY is National Splurge Day. We need National Abstain and Contemplate Day.

Thalia

No one should have the power to make us feel badly about ourselves. This is so powerful. Why are you hosting people you don't even like and who aren't nice to you in your home? Personally, I thnk I'd dump the entertaining duties on DH, who is actually related to them, and run off on my long-planned...

Thalia

It would be fun to make a necklace with those little alphabet beads and use:

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRTUVWXYZ

Thalia

If you eat a lot of legumes, your body eventually adjusts and gets better at digesting them -- but in the meantime, Bean-O is your friend! It's a supplement with the enzymes your body naturally uses to break down the sugars in beans -- you can get a liquid you sprinkle on your food, or take a teeny ...

Thalia

Don't fail just because of your doctor!

Here's some praise and approval -- you rock! You have been doing so well.

Thalia

Green for the month so far! I'm not doing so well on exercise, however -- I really need to build that as an official habit as mandatory as the eating rules.

Thalia

Yeah, I have found that unlike Weight Watchers or, heaven forbid, the "Bloomingdale's Diet" I did in my misspent youth, there's no long list of byzantine rules to follow or Points (tm) and Exchanges (tm) to count. I don't need a constant reminder to keep from eating snacks! A ring might be nice to h...

Thalia

Yes, food is a huge part of culture -- sharing food, feeding each other, takng pleasure in food, these are the things that make us human. And No S, it seems to me is partly about embracing that and enjoying the food we cook and share, rather than sitting in the corner with a calorie-counter or a foi...

Thalia

I think tornados come under the heading of an S for Scary S%!t.

I'm glad you're OK!

Thalia

And I could have a picture of Amrish Puri. I love him -- best Bollywood villain ever.

Thalia

I love the "summer in the kitchen" plan -- how fun!

Thalia

LOL! Now I want a "My Body Is a Temple ... of DOOOOOM!" t-shirt.

Thalia

If it's any help, I think S days go better if you plan your meals -- I like to cook on the weekends (I get home latest in the family, so during the week either DH cooks or we eat leftovers), so one or both nights I'm making a nice dinner. My usual S days are breakfast, lunch, some kind of afternoon ...

Thalia

It seems to me that phasing in a series of new habits is a great idea -- get one down, then add the next.

Thalia

I totally agree -- one of the benefits of moderation is NOT that it teaches you "food is just fuel, and shouldn't be enjoyed" - it's that it increases your enjoyment! Both because you don't feel sick from overindulging, and because it makes a treat a TREAT -- something special, not just something yo...

Thalia

Carolejo, you sound astonishingly composed and strong and clear-headed. I wish you and your little girl the very best possible outcome, and a rich and happy life.

Thalia

I think part of being moderate, honestly, is having moderate expectations -- which is really hard, because we as a society are pretty nuts about women's bodies. It's crazy that we are told we're hideous and fat and unspeakably ugly if we don't look like a movie starlet with an army of personal train...

Thalia

Of course it's up to you! I would consider more than one bowl of soup to be "seconds," myself.

Thalia

Food researcher Barbara Rolls wrote a book called Volumetrics based on her research, and she highly recommends soup as a relatively low-calorie food that is extremely filling and satisfying. One thing I love about soup in cold weather is it warms you up so efficiently, and you feel all warm and cozy...

Thalia

KCCC, taht was a great post. And yeah, I need to feel relaxed some of the time -- able to enjoy a dessert or a cocktail nibble before dinner -- in order to feel happy and centered and determined during the week. I passed up cookies at my writing class last night, no problem, because I can always hav...

Thalia

I think it's totally reasonable to ask a spouse "Hey baby, I'm trying to accomplish something, and it would be easier for me, at least right now, if you didn't eat such-and-such right in front of me -- would you mind taking your ice-cream in the other room, or buying a flavor I don't like?"

Thalia

My husband's naturally skinny -- if anything he has to be concerned about not dropping in weight. I think it's part heredity/metabolism, and part that he is, as someone said upthread, naturally moderate. He doesn't generally overeat, and he rarely snacks. It hasn't been a problem -- we all eat the s...

Thalia

Carolejo, I am so sorry to hear this. My very best wishes and hopes are with you, your family, and your daughter.

Thalia

I love the idea of a sensory pleasure list like that. One thing I've been doing this spring is ordering perfume samples - for a dollar a pop or less, I get to smell something new. What's funny is that since I've gotten interested in perfume, I swear that my sense of smell has gotten stronger! It's l...

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