Everyday Systems

Thalia

That is just fascinating! I can't decide whether not smelling skunk was a net positive or negative for you.

Thalia

Not sure what did not appeal to her about no-S (maybe slow weight loss) I really think that No S is a hard sell in some ways, because it's NOT difficult. I know when I was younger I attacked a diet with a lot of new-project energy -- I will work super-hard! I will be the best! I will lose really fa...

Thalia

You're anosomic? Wow! I guess other than gas leaks and knowing when to change the baby, that's actually not a life-changing problem in the modern world.

Thalia

Sure, pizza is nutritious! Cooked tomatoes for lycopene and vitamin c, cheese for protein and calcium, veggies for all the good stuff that's in veggies ... we make pizza at home a lot, actually.

Thalia

For me, comparing to other women or myself when I was thinner just makes me feel bad. A good visual motivator for me is something that makes me feel attractive -- whether it's a manicure or a new pair of earrings in a color that looks good on me.

Thalia

Seconding the recommendation for "How to Get Kids to Eat ..." or the same author's other book, "Child of Mine." Ellen Satter (or Sattler? I forget.) is a great voice of sanity about kids and food, and really helped me feel comfortable NOT pushing my daughter to eat or stressing about what/how much s...

Thalia

I'm still in! and still green. I saw a new low a few days ago -- my pattern is I bump around plus or minus the same weight for a week or ten days, see a drop to a new low, then bump around a pound of two above THAT for another week or ten days, then another drop ... I spent yesterday at Disneyland w...

Thalia

Hi Susie and welcome!

Thalia

Hi Jeanne! Four months without losing has to be very frustrating. You really are allowed to eat anything you want for your meals, as long as it's not a sweet and it fits easily on your plate. That is the beauty of No S! No fake foods, no forbidden foods, and the only measuring you do is based on pla...

Thalia

Yeah, my body wants peanut M&Ms.

Thalia

But when others comment on how well it correlates to what they crave and normally eat anyway, it does make you wonder if there is some truth to it

It's confirmation bias, I think. Same way that newspaper horoscopes seem "true" because we focus on whatever they say that seems to apply to us.

Thalia

See, the blood type guy would take away your oatmeal.

Thalia

a fruitcake that did not fall far from the tree

Really mean, but a brilliant turn of phrase!

Thalia

I have a glass of wine every night, pretty much, and I'm still seeing good results. I don't lose FAST, but I am losing! Your meals sound pretty moderate, so in your shoes I'd just commit to do the 21-green-day challenge without weighing, and then see where you are. And walk a lot. ;-) If after that ...

Thalia

I agree that you are probably seeing water retention, which will resolve itself. But I'm sure it's tremendously frustrating in the meantime!

Thalia

Hi tasogare! Welcome to No S. I'm wondering why you just don't eat a plate of Thai food? Soy sauce, hot sauce, and meat are all totally allowed on No S, as long as you keep it to one plateful. Pretty much anything you can get at a Thai restaurant except soda, dessert, or Thai iced tea is fine!

Thalia

I'm not Reinhart, but my understanding is raisins are fruit, with no sweetener added, and therefore A-OK. I put them in my oatmeal all the time.

Congratulations on a good first day.

Thalia

Catlady, I am so sorry for your loss.

Thalia

I don't like any canned juice much -- they either taste metallic or rancid to me. I do like Bloody Marys, though.

Thalia

I have low blood pressure, and I'm convinced that without my predilection for salty foods, I would be passed out on the floor most of the time.

Thalia

One of the great things about this diet is NO MORE LEAN CUISINE!

Sing it, sister!

I am laughing and laughing about the sugar-free lard and the rock-eating dog.

Thalia

Is it Michael Pollan who says "Don't eat anything that has a health claim on the package"?

Thalia

Thalia

shake it like a Polaroid

Oh, how much do I love this? So much!

Have a GREAT birthday, and welcome back.

Thalia

Wow, he sounds terrific! And he's very poised onstage, isn't he?

Thalia

I don't think a shake is a good choice, because they are really sweet and I would definitely count a milkshake as an S food. Is there something else that could keep you satisfied? Could you bake a sweet potato the night before and just reheat it, or make some kind of bean salad? I know everyone's di...

Thalia

Welcome Marianna! That's a very delicious-sounding menu.

Thalia

LOL! YEah, we got the worst of both worlds!

Thalia

Well, I listen to Bollywood music and dance around the kitchen, but that might not work for everyone. :oops: Other stuff I like -- window-shopping (exercise! And consumerism! Combined!), bubble bath, bike ride, needlework, bread baking (keeps you occupied, makes the house smell amazing, and you aren...

Thalia

It's an open message board, and I think some people who use it are more "No S-ey" in their philosophy than others

I agree that being obsessed with food and dieting is counter-productive. Also, boring.

Thalia

A manicure is a great idea - -it's fun, it makes you feel pretty, and you definitely can't eat for a while!

Thalia

WOW! Congratulations on your achievement! This is very inspiring.

Thalia

Deb, I feel like I just want to follow you around the board today and say "Yeah, what she said!" That was a great post -- and yeah, treats really are a TREAT now, instead of something I just eat because it's there.

Thalia

I tell it like it is. Weeeellll, it might be more accurate for any of us to say "I tell it the way I see it," and of course none of us has the magic perspective that makes us infallible authorities to advise others. I think there are many plans and systems that encourage pushing as hard as you poss...

Thalia

My own feeling, for my own diet, is that the great glories of world cuisine were not created by or for cave people, and enjoying them is one of the myriad benefits of civilization. So I'm going to continue to eat pasta, bread, spanokopita and such, in moderation. I like grains, and seem to feel fine...

Thalia

IME, on any diet men and heavier people lose more quickly. Smaller people just have lower caloric needs!

Men lose faster because not only are they larger in general, but they have more muscle mass and hence greater caloric needs. Or, what vmelo said.

Thalia

I think medicinal bananas don't count as a snack

-- I'd call that day green, too!

Thalia

Nope, still green here. And the same weight I was on April 1, sigh.

Thalia

You can even have caloric drinks, if they aren't heavily sweetened -- milk, fruit or vegetable juices, I suppose you could have keffir or whatever too.

Thalia

apomerantz, that's basically how we night-weaned my daughter! Sippy cup of water from Daddy instead of nursing, a little back-patting, and within three days she was sleeping through the night because her body didn't expect to eat then anymore.

Thalia

Well, sort of. Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, possibly the most famous epicure who ever lived, is dead, so he can't write jacket blurbs any more. But here is how he concludes his chapter on preventing and treating obesity in "The Physiology of Taste" -- tell me if this doesn't sound like a 19th-cent...

Thalia

I like it when they give me too much! That's a free lunch the next day.

Thalia

One of the things that bothers me about the paleo diet is that it promises "this is what primitive man ate, so if you ate it, you'd be all thin and rugged and caveman-y too!" (assuming that they were in fact thin and rugged). But it's overlooking the fact that: A) They weren't eating factory-farmed,...

Thalia

I love that their idea of "healthy snacks" is low-fat boxed cookies, energy bars (you need them because they're so convenient!) and baked potato chips.

Thalia

this was my first real S Gone Wild weekend too! I went to a girls' night at some friends and, frankly, stuffed myself. And then Easter ... oomph.

I figure that no one weekend is going to make or break us, right?

Thalia

I'm here! I just don't have anything very interesting to say. Still green so far for the month.

Thalia

I just go ahead and have peanuts and crispy chicken if I want to -- they just have to fit on my plate! One of the things I like about No S is that I don't ahve to throw away broiled chicken skin -- I do toss it from braised chicken, because it's all flabby and unappealing, but if I have a chicken th...

Thalia

Man O' War ate oats, and look what they did for him!

Thalia

Brother John, thank you so much for your eloquent warning of the dangers of oatmeal zealotry! That is a level of rhetorical brilliance rarely seen on a diet-oriented bulletin board, and I applaud you. But now I'm casting a wary eye on my little bag of bulk-bin oats -- who knows what perils of madnes...

Thalia

Spinach is just so delicious. I don't know how it got a reputation as somethign to dread. I made creamed spinach last night, in fact, with some leftover heavy cream -- yummmm.

Thalia

Oh look, a spammer! Sellin' some spam!

Thalia

I think oatmeal is quite tasty! I eat old-fashioned oats cooked in skim milk (never water), and add either dried cherries or raisins in fall and winter, or chopped fresh fruit or berries in summer and spring. Oatmeal with sliced strawberries and peaches is YUM. I eat a half-cup of oats cooked in a c...

Thalia

April Fool's Day was green, green, green. And I kicked the month off by having a croissant (well, half a croissant -- that sucker was way oversized) and strawberries for breakfast, in homage to French Women Don't Get Fat. Googling that book was how I found the No S Web site in the first place, so th...

Thalia

when I was pregnant I was pretty much starving all the time, at least during the first trimester -- it calmed down after that. I think you shouldn't worry too much about sticking to three meals -- maybe add a midmorning or midafternoon meal? You really want to get enough to eat when your body is doi...

Thalia

That is FANTASTIC!

Thalia

Marc, in those situations, why not take a couple of bites to be polite, then set it aside and keep chatting and sipping your coffee or whatever? I bet her feelings wouldn't be hurt, as long as you aren't outright rejecting her offering. The other day I was thinking if I lived in a small cabin somewh...

Thalia

I was down two pounds from my previous low this morning, so I expect to stay in this neighborhood for a while, but I'll jump in anyway:

April 1, 178.5, for a total of 12 pounds lost so far.

Thalia

I'm in -- I've been all green so far. I don't know how much loss I'll have to report, though, because it's been going SLOOOOW for the last month or so!

Thalia

Ha! I know what you mean about a weekly cycle. My weekly pattern is, Monday is fine because I just indulged myself on the weekend. Tuesday, the treats of the weekend are distant enough that I feel deprived and want some more and the rest of the week seems too long to wait, but I tough it out. Then f...

Thalia

I have made this warm squash and chickpea salad from the Smitten Kitchen blog several times and it's SO GOOD. Makes a great brown bag lunch!

http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/01/warm- ... pea-salad/

Thalia

I'll try to remember to post the braised asparagus recipe tonight -- it's from a Patricia Wells book, and we make it ALL THE TIME (well, all the time when we get our hands on good fresh asparagus). It's even better than roast asparagus.

Thalia

Or pie recipes! Wait, maybe not.

Seriously, I'd love a recipe thread. It will be so much less grim than the recipes threads I used to frequent on the Weight Watchers boards. Let us not speak of the dreaded "Diet Coke Chicken."

Thalia

why, you wild-eyed radical! How did you come up with such a wacky idea?

Thalia

And on that very page, in the "most popular" sidebar, we find this: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/nyreg ... dy.html?em -- people eating more candy to cope with economic anxiety.

Thalia

Too solid, that is brilliant! Or maybe a bunch of helium balloons ...

Thalia

No, no, I would get on until I saw a number I liked, and then I'd stay the hell away from the scale!

Thalia

Maybe I should see if my scale will give me different numbers if I get off and get back on. I bet that would cheer me up!

Thalia

The fancy brand is Tanita, and they ARE pricy!

Thalia

I have a Taylor and realized, after I bought it, that it only measures half-pound increments -- gee, maybe I should have read the box copy more closely! I can't decide whether that's a good thing or a bad one. I think I might obsess more than I already do if it was showing finer variations, but on t...

Thalia

I just feel bad this morning and I think maybe writing about it will help. I have been doing GREAT on No S -- I haven't had a red day since I started waaay back in January, and there's even been very little that I can classify as "funny business" on my N days. My S days have been great -- not a big ...

Thalia

Sure, I eat whipped cream -- why not? Not that often, but you can't have pumpkin pie without a dollop of whipped cream! Cool Whip doesn't even taste like food. It's like some kind of polymer. Even on Weight Watchers, I didn't eat it (I didn't eat whipped cream either, I just suffered) -- and I ate s...

Thalia

I like whole-wheat pasta.

Thalia

"monkish affectations" -- I love this phrase, thank you!

Thalia

Fruit is totally fine! "Sweets" means stuff like candy, soda, and pastries, things that are heavily sweetened. You don't have to eat "diet food" on No S, unless it's something that you actually like and would choose to eat anyway -- not sure how you feel about dinner salads and cottage cheese, maybe...

Thalia

I think it's a combination of things. Some studies (like the infamous "milk aids weightloss" one) are paid for by industry groups, and they massage the data considerably -- not out and out lying, but phrasing things in the most positive possible light, and not reporting negative results at all. In o...

Thalia

I also think it's a little misleading to label the eggs and milk and bacon you pick up from the local supermarket in the plastic wrap as "real food," because those animals have been fed and doctored up with some horrible stuff -- it's not exactly like you went out and hunted a buffalo. Although even...

Thalia

I don't really like pictures of myself this heavy, so I'm reluctant to post one.

I've lost 10 pounds, but have at least 20 to go!

Thalia

I think it's because weight is a pretty crude measure -- the scale doesn't discriminate between fat, muscle, water, undigested food, and waste. So one good sushi dinner with lots of salty soy sauce, and the next morning you've "gained" two pounds because of the water retention. But if your waist and...

Thalia

Congratulations! I can't think of a nicer way to get sidetracked.

Wishing you the best for an easy pregnancy and a healthy new arrival!

Thalia

Once you apply Greek mythology to something, though, I pretty much believe it.

LOL! Me too.

Thalia

I've been trying to brown-bag more and grab lunch out less, and that meant no plate to eat my "plate of food" from, just a depressing little array of Tupperware. I went to a thrift store today and found a very elegant china plate for a couple of bucks, the last unbroken relic of someone's wedding ch...

Thalia

I reviewed it on GoodReads.

Thalia

totally normal, though. You lost a lot of weight pretty fast, your body needs a little adjustment period before it settles down and loses some more. And four days at the same weight isn't really very long!

Thalia

Your colon is self-cleansing. It's SUPPOSED to have ... er, to be delicate, let's call partially digested food ... in it. That's because the whole reason you have intestines is to complete the digestive process -- you absorb a lot of nutrients while things are passing through to their final destinat...

Thalia

I have to admit, I was hard to be around when I did Weight Watchers Core program. It was pretty funny -- the Weight Watchers people basically split into two camps: the larger group of Points followers who thought Core was just an excuse to gorge yourself and you couldn't lose weight on it, and the s...

Thalia

Oh, absolutely. Also, the more you eat in a way that runs against conventional wisdom or the social pattern around you, the more smug you tend to get about being more knowledgeable/disciplined/smarter than those hapless sheep who do't know any better. I don't know if you're familiar with followers o...

Thalia

You're doing great!

Thalia

There are a bunch, with varying agendas, some of which I personally find more offensive than the Viagra ads :wink: . Parents' Telivision Council is one: http://www.parentstv.org/ Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood doesn't address adult-oriented ad content so much as aggressive or deceptive mar...

Thalia

You look great! And I love the apron.

Thalia

Honestly, I suspect that if you want to get extremely thin, No S may not be the way to do it, especially if you're a smaller woman. It's going to get you to a weight that your body is comfortable with, that is not obese, and keep you there for life, but I think to really look very low bodyfat and mo...

Thalia

If it knows when the rice is done, that would make it officially smarter than me, which is kind of scary, really.

Thalia

Ooh, thanks, that's definitely a thought!

Thalia

I've been working my way through the comments, and somewhere around the 14th page, someone says they're doing No S and how sensible it is!

Thalia

I wish I wasn't too damn lazy to get out of bed early enough to make oatmeal. I end up eating (expensive, processed) cold cereal because it takes no time, but I like oatemal or malt-o-meal so much better! With milk and raisins and a little bit of butter, mmmmmm ...

Thalia

That's one of the things I like about No S -- nothing is off-limits because of the calorie count, everything is fine to enjoy in its own time and place.

Thalia

The comments run the gamut from interesting, thoughtful, and useful to kind of loony -- i guess you'd expect that. This one made me sad: Food is nothing more than fuel for your body, like gasoline for your car. If you can divorce as much pleasure as you can from food, itâ€™s easier to control/restri...

Thalia

Yeah, it really depends on what your pickiness rules out. My suggestions would be to eat more fruit (since I'm guessing you find it more palatable than vegetables), add lettuce and tomato to your sandwiches, baked potato instead of french fries, order with whole-wheat buns or bread instead of white,...

Thalia

It probably is good! But the day after tomorrow is an S day, and there will still be ice cream readily available -- any flavor in the world you want, and you will feel really good eating it then because it is your special treat. Or so I tell myself when my rotten skinny husband eats ice cream! :wink:

Thalia

I like the "nice presentation" mod very much -- I think I'll adopt that too! I've been looking for a pretty vintage china plate for my at-work lunches, so I am eating on my N-days from fine china instead of tupperware, kind of the same principle ... I agree that How the Pants Fit is by far the most ...

Thalia

That soudns really hard. I know Reinhard (and others) say that a little hunger is a good thing, and before meals I agree -- it makes your dinner taste better and you appreciate it more. But going to bed hungry is miserable, and not sustainable. Can you have larger dinners, or are you eating enough t...

Everyday Systems

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Brillat-Savarin -- The Great Gourmet Endorses No S

Stupid Emotional Stuff About My Weight

Fine Dining at the Office