Everyday Systems

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Samurai, Jan. It was late and I was way overtired and that can go either way. Maybe I'll stick some of it under the "What do you mean by seconds?" header on the home page. Good point about the platters, Samurai. Again, while one could technically get away with this...

This sounds very encouraging. Not starving yourself but catching the auto-pilot eater before damage is done -- that's what this is all about.

Sounds good, leenie. If this level of tracking feels too obsessive to you, you can also just enter a simple "YES" or "NO" every day. But maybe given what you're used to this is pretty free and relaxed?

Hi Ruth, If you go to the main board page here: http://everydaysystems.com/bb/ You'll see a forum called "daily check-ins." Read the little blurb there and click on it. I've provided a sample and a bunch of people have started up. All you have to do is start a topic called "Ruth's Daily Check-In" or...

Day 2 (yesterday): SUCCESS. No funny stuff. Except given the recent bread discussion in the main no-s forum, I guess I should mention I had soup for dinner with a piece of bread that obviously didn't go on the plate without vertical stacking.

Welcome, leenie! I hope your experience bears out that "fundamentally elegance and sanity of this system" line on the home page. But do be aware, since you have medical issues around diet, that I have no medical training whatsover, and you're a bit of a pioneer here coming at it from your angle. I'm...

Jakmaw: I think the definition of "normal" is a little like that supreme court Justice's definition of pornography: "I know it when I see it." Literally. Because you are limited to single plates, you can actually do effective eyeballing of quantity, which you don' t have a prayer at if you're snacki...

Another option is I could fascistically change this topic title to "Deb's Daily Check In," like I did with Elinor's, which has the added advantage of bringing every topic in this forum into perfect consistency (which will last for about 10 minutes, I'm sure). But only with your ok. I'm a strictly co...

Elinor, this is great. Very helpful for even newer newbies than you. Do you mind if I go in the database and change the topic title to "Elinor's daily check Ins" so you can continue updating it here and have it all in one place? I know it sounds fascistically pedantic, but since this forum is brand ...

Congratulations, Deb! My thought when I created this forum was that everyone would start their own personal "daily check in" topic and reply to it every day to update their status, sort of like a minimalistic (or not so minimalistic) diet blog (or the red/yellow/green "habit traffic light" that was ...

Jan, that's great news. Try starting a new "Jan's Daily Check In" topic. That way you have one page you can go to to get an overview of how you're doing.

I created a new daily check in forum. Click on the main board page to see it listed. It's an experiment. It seems like it could be useful. Sign up if you agree, or give me feedback here if you emphatically don't. I'll provide a running example just to give people an idea. If it turns out that people...

Day 1 (yesterday): SUCCESS. A little bit of funny stuff because we had a dinner with the neighbors and there were some coordination issues (the chicken was done about 2 hours after the potatoes), but my virtual plating skills are excellent at this point.

I'll do this for three weeks just to give an example. "Day 1" is actually more like day 1001, but you get the idea. Every day for 3 weeks I'm going to post a reply to this topic to update how I did. I'm not particularly worried for myself, but just want to give an provide an example for beginners. F...

Deb, it sounds like you're doing great given all that's going on in your life. If it's a little unorthodox, heck, you're a little unorthodox. Your 80% discipline plus extra impromptu efforts seem to be working great. Keep it up! And keep "confessing" here, to inspire the rest of us (and keep you mot...

Hey, a warhammer is just a tool -- for killing people.

Looking forward to more details on those scenarios.

Freakwitch, I've never been to Portland, but given our relative proximity, I'm sure I'll make it up there some day soon. So be sure to give us detailed urban ranger updates. It'll be like a travel guide for committed pedestrians. Not that I don't enjoy reading about people's breakfasts and such on n...

That sounds pretty good, Ruth. If the first few weekends aren't wild binges, you're doing well. A little more than normal is fine. Your weekday behaviors haven't had time yet to habituate you to less, and frankly, even if you continued at a little "more than normal" on the weekends you'd be fine if ...

Ida, thanks so much for posting. That's an astonishing success. Obviously a little stricter than nos, but close, and wow, if you lost any faster I'd be worried! I've been hearing a lot from people who've independently discovered no-s-like diet plans. It's very encouraging! If no one else had thought...

Welcome, Elinor. Don't worry about the spelling, back in the more civilized 18th century, spelling was a matter of personal style. As Jan mentions, daily posting is a good way to keep yourself honest. Even if it's just a short "today went well." I'm thinking a good thing for people to do who are jus...

Welcome, CV Mom. No worries about the "reinhold." If it starts with an "r" and ends with a consonant, I respond to it. I'm not a huge fan of food journals (they tend to be fascinating for about a week and then become unbelievably tedious) but some people swear by them. But do post frequent updates o...

Hi arl0401, Congratulations on deciding to recommit. I'm afraid I don't have a good recipe for the strawberry tart (fortunately the bakery across the street does). You'd think someone like me with all these methodical systems who loves to cook and eat would be a great baker, but somehow in front of ...

I'm excited to hear it, Jan. Keep us posted. And make sure to take it very slow. Remember that the only hard parameter is 14 minutes (and even that is negotiable for beginners). You can do the movements as slowly as you want, there's no quota. Do them in slow motion until you feel really comfortable...

Sorry to hear it, Freakwitch. Sick days are definitely S days. With shovelglove, as I mention somewhere on the home page, my rule is "if anything hurts, stop immediately and take the next day off." This has worked so well for me that I 've never had to take more than one "next day" off, and it's bee...

Hey, amused is better than offended. Samurai, you make a great point (with some very helpful examples). It's true that the shovelglove mentality can be applied pretty well to conventional exercise equipment (or even furniture, in a pinch). It's always a fun challenge when I'm traveling to come up wi...

Third weekend down, this time no funny stuff whatsoever. Sorry for getting a little behind on the BB action... will remedy tomorrow.

It does sound strikingly familiar: "Following the 5 lifestyle rules in Mastering Leptin will significantly make healthy weight loss easier. These rules include eating 3 meals a day with no snacking, no eating after dinner, and eating a high protein breakfast." They give you 4 out of the five "lifest...

Hi, Ruth. I'm very psyched to hear it's been such a breeze for you. As for S days, the key is probably the opposite of what you think. Don't hunker down, hope you don't get hungry, and try to free-fight whatever urges may arise. Instead, preempt your urges by planning ahead and getting something you...

That's great news, Jan. It doesn't necessarily get hard. It was easy for me right from the start. But most people find they have some toughing out to do, so it's safer to expect trouble. And it's a rather nice surprise when it doesn't come, isn't it? Still, my rule of thumb is it takes three weeks t...

The beginning is the hardest part, Ruth, I'm glad it's going so well for you. Keep posting your progress. An audience helps any resolution. No-s "budgeting" is more fun than weight watchers calorie accounting-- it's also a lot easier. It's essentially, "here's my chance for a meal, now what do I wan...

You'll have to do without me for two 12 hour blocks a week. Sorry!

Congratulations on getting your first shovelglove workout under your belt. Not having tried it, a dumbell sounds a little short, but if it feels right, go for it. Your baseball bat move sounds like "chop the tree," which Justin posted a long, long time ago to the yahoo group. I don't have any slow p...

I like the idea: routined variety. But I've gotten so accustomed to my daily routine that I'm not tempted to fix it if it ain't broke. I'm curious what other people think, though. It might be a good way to get some of those scenarios people have posted in without too much brain wracking every morning.

If you dig here and in the old group, you'll find quite a few postings. Note to successful nosdieters: it's ok to repost maintained losses every now and then. Please do! Maintenance is the hardest part, so it's not redundant information. Nothing is more useful to newbies than success stories, and no...

Welcome, ScrappinTay. The main trick is give yourself very big firsts until you get the calibration down. Much better to overeat a little starting out and build proper meal habits than starve yourself into breaking down. After every successful day you can reduce the portion size a bit until you reac...

That is very funny. It's really not such a jump from your dream criteria to no-s. It's just a slightly more concrete reformulation. As for patience, just remember: it went out of fashion about the same time as everyone started getting fat. Coincidence? Your new, uncomplicated pleasure in eating shou...

Lot's of enthusiasm for distance parking in a previous discussion: http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=29 Has anyone actually tried it? I would, but I'm too darn lucky, I can walk the whole way to work. Failure stories welcome. Others can learn from them, and maybe even help you troublesho...

I don't quite know what a body bar is, but assuming it's some kind of heavy stick, I don't see why not. You won't get quite the leverage effect (light weight seeming much heavier), but you may not want that starting out anyway. I like the washboard movement. "Washboard abs doing washboard movements....

This is one of those borderline issues that probably isn't a problem for most of us and shouldn't be worried about disproportionately. I'd say don't worry about a bit of jam on your breakfast toast unless you're doing everything else perfectly and you need to go an extra step. I've been known to hav...

It is officially legal. Go for it.

"A chemist from Braunschweig, Germany, claims he hasn't touched food in three years -- surviving instead on a steady diet of natural light." http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20050509-16244100-bc-germany-lightdiet.xml Something tells me this one isn't going to catc...

Looking forward to hearing from you in your next five minute break! Hope you're able to keep up your good habits with your new, busier life.

Welcome, Ruth. I'm glad to hear No-S resonates with you. I'm almost glad I used to be overweight and had to come up with this system to keep myself in check, because I enjoy food more and agonize about it less than I ever would have otherwise. Not everyone is fat, but even those who aren't worry abo...

Great scenario! Some ideas: 1) Music: Wagner is a must (Ring cycle scenario might be nice too, especially for those extra long sessions) 2) Scheduling: Thursday is Thor's day. 3) Safety: don't let that mighty hammer fly! Safe for gods, not mortals. 4) Movements: these would of course consist of Thor...

Update: 2nd weekend down. So far, so good. A number of times I caught myself wandering like a zombie over to my computer for absolutely no reason, but I always caught myself on time. The only fudgery was my inlaws asked me to update their antivirus software, but I'm not going to count that as a viol...

Link to navin's post:

http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=60

Hi, navin. No worries about the "new topic." I'll stick a link to this on the original thread. This confirms my experience. "Weekend worry" seems to be mostly hypothetical. Pretty much everyone I've heard from who succeeded doesn't worry, and most people who have fallen off can't even keep the weekd...

Welcome jakmaw, I wouldn't worry too much about this. I think there's more danger in heaping on extra restrictions than in compensatory weekend overeating. Yes, it's physically possible to make up for all your weekday virtue on the weekend, but I think it's very unlikely without deliberate sabotoge....

Hi arl0401, jools,

I'm very excited to hear this. While one's body might be more responsive at that age, it's presumably much harder to summon up the patience and discipline it takes. I'm hugely impressed. Naturally, don't force it on them, but I'm sure you aren't doing that. Keep us posted.

And the two are connected!

This guy is a tad crazy, but it's an interesting story, and very Urban Ranger:

Concise version:

http://www.whump.com/moreLikeThis/link/03931

His own version:

http://www.planetwalk.org/library/WalkingHisTalk

How about a samurai scenario, Samurai? It's right up your alley on both counts. And there's precedent (not that precedent is necessary): I mention something about "sledgehammer kendo" on the home page.

There is a funny article in the Economist about the evolution of the USDA's now somewhat infamous "Food Pyramid," known as "MyPyramid," in its latest incarnation (I'd link to the article, but it isn't free). The pyramid started out as a square, the four basic food groups. Since the square seemed to ...

Congratulations, Jan! I think you'll find that hunger between meals becomes much less of an issue once you get a better sense of how much it to put on your plate to tide you over to the next meal. In the beginning it's best to put a little too much on your plate, rather than get so hungry that you b...

Let me know what he thinks, Marsha. As far as I know, I'm the only weekend luddite in the world, and only one consecutive weekend into it. I could use some company!

You're no hobgoblin. The apparent inconsistency is creating a luddite (anti-tech) web page (tech), replete with distracting links to irrelevant subjects. But see, that's where the "weekend" bit comes in.

Jan, 8 ounces sounds totally fine. Enjoy!

Welcome, Jan! It's good you have the experience of giving snacks up for Lent. You know how difficult it is, but also that it can be done. Because as a homeschool mom, I imagine snacks will be by far your biggest temptation. I'm happy to hear about your "8 minutes in the morning" and walking. Sounds ...

You're doing the right thing, Deb. Ease up to 14 minutes. The hard part is getting started every N day, the danger once you've started is overdoing it. Sounds like you're doing great on both fronts.

Congratulations on the job, Deb. Glad it's going so well. If they're ever looking for some crazy new thing at the health club to replace "pole dancing" or whatever the latest crazy trend is, you should offer to teach a shovelglove class. Then I'll know I've made it! P.S. Don't let your day job inter...

Welcome, Jay (and wife). Kettlebells are very shovelglove-like, from what I understand. They'll go great with the NoSDiet. As for high "why didn't I think of that factor," I'm still amazed I got to it first. Keep us posted.

Welcome, Julia. Fruit juice (if it is actually just fruit juice and not fruit flavored sugar water) is legit, but do be aware that juice, however natural, is pretty caloric stuff. As long as you're not drinking more than the juice equivalent of a couple of oranges a glass, I wouldn't worry about it ...

Hi, Ray. I'm not too familiar with the good doctor, but I'm assuming I should be flattered at the comparison, so thanks! Any good links? I found this random Dr. Phil quote generator:

http://www.mangydog.com/games/drphil.php

There is something absurd about it. That just shows how far gone I am. Still, I'm confident it'll work, and I won't let consistency, "the hobgoblin of little minds," get in the way.

I was watching the classic Indian movie "Aparjito" for the first time in years, and was stunned when a scene comes on showing a guy doing (essentially) shovelglove with a heavy sack on the end of a stick. Hadn't noticed that first time around! The guy was remarkably buff (especially in comparison wi...

Hi, Beth. Let's see if this works... What I'm doing is typing the image url you posted above, then highlighting it, then clicking the "Img" button. http://img90.exs.cx/img90/6223/Nathan-Jessica-smallschoolpic.jpg Looks good in preview. Very cute! Give it a try here yourself. They're cute enough for ...

Did you come up with that off the cuff, Samurai? I'm impressed! (and honored). You have at least as good an ear as the author of the "Song of the Urban Ranger." As for filling up, that's been my experience as well. I never found fruit particularly satisfying as a snack, back in my snacking days. But...

Welcome, Beth. Glad you like it. It's easier for me, too!

Wow. That is disturbing. Another good reason to buy your sledgehammer here:

http://shovelglove.com/sledgestore/

You can bet Amazon doesn't fool around with the weight since shipping costs by weight. I knew there was an upside to having to pay for shipping.

Since the birth of my daughter, I haven't been a particularly conscientious weekend luddite. I've had so little time to do anything, that not doing something didn't seem like much of an issue. But I'm starting to think it is. Having less time makes what I little I have more valuable, and I'm scrambl...

Duly flattered. Thanks, Deeyala. Glad to hear you're warming to it. I find the new format gives me a lot more mileage out of the 15-20 minutes a day I can afford to devote to it. I could sometimes barely keep up reading the old group on that.

Welcome, Kevin. I'm surprised you haven't made any converts! That is hard core. The beer is a nice touch, too, very historically accurate. Thanks for all the details. I'm glad people aren't constrained by my suggested routines. As for the truck tire, it's perfectly in the spirit of shovelglove. Mayb...

I don't see it. Maybe it's too big? Though it should give you an error message in that case.

Welcome, Dee! Sorry you aren't crazy about the new forum... I think if you give it a while you'll like it better. One good feature that helps replicate the old, intimate "drown everything out" message flow is after you log in, you can click "view posts since last visit." That cuts across all topics....

The airsoft guns were there from the beginning (though now I'm sure they'll stay on this topic page forever!). It reminds me of the time when I did a web search for an obscure Russian literary critic and one of the top hits turned out to be a porn site, jam packed with meta tag keywords referencing ...

Hi Allan, Of course! This stuff is too good to let distintigrate. I moved the archive to my server. You can find your scenario posts here: Preparing the defenses: http://shovelglove.com/group/67.html Manning the walls: http://shovelglove.com/group/71.html The links from the home page have also been ...

No problem, Ann, it's pretty well tucked away. A direct link for the similarly confused: http://nosdiet.com/#drinks In a nutshell: if it's a drink with more sugar than you would ever pour into your coffee, it's an S (sorry, but the drinks you mention sound like they fall into this category). Otherwi...

Hi Ann, Deb's advice is right on. You have to make this a daily habit. I find that it's much easier to achieve this with walking when there is an actual purpose involved, but because our society is built around cars it can be difficult to do this. Parking at a distance could be perfect, given your s...

Welcome, Ann. Although I find the pop-culture scenarios amusing and fun for a change, I also prefer the duller, historical labor imagery. It's less flashy, but I think it's more deeply inspiring. This work is in our bones! Through thousands of generations of ancestor repetitions, it's a metaphor tha...

Hi Ariel, I have nothing to add to what Navin and Deb said. That's it, really. Maintenance = loss. If you treat them separately, you're going to be in for a nasty surprise when it's time to stop losing. I've maintained my current weight for about 2 years now, and I don't consciously eat any more tha...

Mahesh, Congratulations! This is fantastic. You could have cross posted this to the "Financial Systems" discussion as well :wink: By way of comparison: http://nosdiet.com/group/3196.html I feel the same way about weekends. They're just long enough. Three day holiday weekends, when they happen, feel ...

Hi Larisa, You're right, there is an element of "penny wise..." about Latte factor. Besides potentially misdirecting your energies from bigger more important issues, there's a self righteous aesthetic selfishness about it, as if denying yourself all pleasure for the sake of your bank account were so...

My wife made me sign an internet non-disclosure agreement: no familial specifics until the relevant parties reach the age of consent (and do). But thanks for the congratulations! I think the terms of the agreement allow me to reveal it's going great.

Hi Shelley,

I love it. I've been pretty unimaginative, scenario-wise, of late. I've mostly been listening to audiobooks during shovelglove. Makes it go by too fast, almost. I know it's obnoxiously multi-tasking, but since our baby girl came along, I've got very little time to read, and I need to.

Hi Michael,

Sorry for the delay, but welcome! Happy to hear no-s is working for you. Even if you got nothing else to report, that's something! Very helpful for newbies and strugglers to hear.

Hi Ink,

You are very welcome here! Who knows, maybe one week you'll check and find something you do pick up. And feel free to post about what you're doing, even if it doesn't have a catchy name or metaphor. If it's working for you, that's huge. Maybe someone else will provide the name.

I'm not remotely qualified to speak as an artist, but I know that many of the great artists were not at all flighty "artistic" types, but extremely disciplined individuals. You kind of have to be; it's like being an entrepreneur, except harder: not only is there no boss, there may be no client for y...

James, I'm happy to hear "good sore" is predominating over the other kind! I think it's awesome that you're so hard core, but I have to caution you that back in the early days when I got overenthusiastic and went beyond 14 minutes, my autonomous-excuse-system inevitably seized on that excess as grou...

Welcome, no-s-diet (now that you've taken that login, you'll have to stick with it!). You forgot the "no snacks." Freudian slip? Be careful, that's the one people seem to have the most trouble with! James put it beautifully (I especially like the algorithm bit). What you eat matters a lot in terms o...

Hi Larisa, Tell us more about your system! I haven't come up with much financially myself, but one I'm impressed with that someone else came up with (David Bach in the Automatic Millionaire, which I have to confess I haven't actually read), and you may have heard of, is the "Latte factor." Basically...

I'm a big fan of books on tape. I listen to them while walking and doing chores.

More here:

http://everydaysystems.com/group/11.html

Hi Lisa,

Congratulations! Events like this can be a great spur to build habits. There's something so pointless feeling about exercise just for it's own sake, but when you have a goal like this to shoot for, it feels more meaningful.

Deb, an avatar is a picture that identifies you, sort of like a personal logo. You'll like the official definition: http://www.answers.com/avatar&r=67 On this site, it's the image in the left "author" column by each post. How big is your avatar, Sandy? I can raise the limits, but I don't want to set...

Michael,

This is hilarious. Thanks for posting it!

My favorite line: "Busy people don't have time for going-somewhere walking, that's for non-busy people."

What fools we mortals be.

I doubt anyone here was attempting this but the New York times reports that a new study by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute: "...suggest[s] that the practice of deliberately starving oneself to live longer, called caloric restriction, might actually have t...

Just click the new topic button. It doesn't have to be anything profound. Personal status updates/questions/cries for help are all welcome.

Starts here:

http://shovelglove.com/group/1.html

It's pretty vanilla, but easy to gun through using "next" and "previous," and though I might tart them up a bit at some point, the urls will stay the same if you want to link to them.

Congratulations, Deb! Thanks Sandie for the quote instructions. One advantage of using this system is that people are familiar with it from other sites. Many of you are probably more expert than I.

hey i havent been posting much :oops: and i probably wont be much after about a month from now cause im going to america to work at a summer camp! i'll be the boating specialist there this year so should be fun. and i know i'll get a ton of exercise there but the food isnt the greatest. Have fun, P...

You are too rational, Mayo! Actually I don't have much of a problem with scales either, but that's mostly because I'm where I want to be. You're right that taken with a grain of salt and in conjunction with other metrics, scales can be useful. The problem is most people don't do either, and I'm not ...

Yes, Sandie, that's the plan. I like it better, too, but I think there are a lot of members who will need some hand holding... (lurker: if this is you, don't be shy about asking!)

Everyday Systems

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Daily Check In Forum

Reinhard's Sample Check In

Distance Parking

Man claims to survive on diet of lies -- I mean light

Re: Baby Steps toward New Habit

The man who didn't drive for 17 years (or speak!)

Mr. Pyramid isn't square (or anything else, for that matter)

Aparajito and Indian Club Exercises

Return of the Weekend Luddite

Starving yourself into longevity doesn't even work

Don't be afraid to start a "new topic!"

Archive of old posts

Re: g'day