Everyday Systems

I’m celebrating my first NoS anniversary today ïŠ

In the last year, I have lost 8.5kg (18.7 pounds), which is about 10% of my starting weight and which pushed me right into a healthy BMI. I’m still losing but at a very slow rate of about 1kg every three months. It’s effortless and I forget that I’m doing NoS more often than not, it’s just a habit now. That said, I like my current lifestyle with about 75-80% green days and occasionally wild S-days so I’ll see where I’ll end up.

The most important thing NoS did for me is to teach me to not only accept but love my body. I no longer let perfection be the enemy of the good – I don’t punish myself or make up for fails, I don’t indulge in a guilty conscience, nor do I beat myself up for what I ate. When I fall off the wagon it’s only for one meal, not for a 3-week binge as pre-NoS. And as for my exercise: now 14 minutes are enough, I don’t have to transform into a personal trainer over night. It’s delightful!

As a former classic binge eater I finally made peace with food and subsequently with many other areas of my life. And as an extra benefit to NoS I’m becoming a respectable cook through the whole process of enjoying every meal.

NoS also solved a puzzle I was working on for years: Pre-NoS I never understood how my thin friends could eat the way they did and stay skinny. I always thought that there was something inherently wrong with my genes as my portions were usually smaller than theirs. Guess what, my friends had grown up with very similar principles to NoS and all I saw was the effortless weight maintenance. Now, we eat the same and look the same

Thank you so so much!

Congratulations, that's great!

I remember that I used to think, when I saw some thin person walking down the street eating a giant ice cream cone or something, "How can they eat that sort of thing and not be fat?" After starting No S, I realized that there's actually an answer to that question: "Occasionally."

Fantastic! Thanks for posting.

I love that you and Dave both figured out (through action, first-hand) how slim people still eat well while remaining slim.

I am almost 7 months in, and hearing very happy well-fed people who have done it for a long long time gives me a very good feeling. That is the most intriguing part of No S that sets it apart from diets: it seems to get easier instead of harder.

Congratulations! Thanks for sharing your story.

First impressive weight loss. Second, you did it the way Reinhard suggested by focusing on habits. I am learning for you that the problem I have is being distracted by diet mentality or not seeing a loss everyday on the scale but instead focusing on three plates a day nothing more. I also need to realize slip ups happen and goal is not to use them as an excuse to go on a binge. Great job. Really admire your success.

Eschano,

I'm on vacation with lousy connectivity and typing into my phone now, but just wanted to extend a quick congratulations on your success and thanks for sharing it here! I'll respond in more detail when I get back next week.

Reinhard

Thank you all for your congratulations and support! This forum is great.

Reinhard: I can't thank you enough! For coming up with NoS but even more for your implementation: this fantastic Forum and the fact that you're still willing to encourage us all and check-in! Thanks!!!

resident0063: You are absolutely right: don't let the scale discourage you. My weight fluctuates throughout the week so I always use an average. I had my fair share of plateaus and once I even went up randomly for two weeks and down again just as mysteriously. It reminded me that the body is a very complex organism after all. If an average still discourages you I suggest not using a scale at all until the habits are solid.

Dave: My boyfriend ask me the other day how I can eat that much and still lose weight, haha. So yes, "occasionally" is the motto of the year.

I'm very thankful for all of your stories. I wouldn't have stuck to the process without all of your support throughout the year! My resolution for the coming year is to not fall of the boards but to keep on checking in at least once a month as I sometimes forget that I'm on NoS now.

Enjoy your next plate!

It hasn't been a year yet but I realised this massive NoS benefit for me and am finally brave enough to share it:

I'm very much feeling the massive difference NoS made at the moment:
I never really had relationships before doing NoS. I had such a horrendous body image, I couldn't imagine being loveable at all. NoS changed everything about that. My body image, my idea of what constitutes a healthy "ideal" body - and it's no longer a supermodel - , my confidence, everything. So while my first relationship after starting NoS didn't work out for sheer incompatibility, this one is looking good so far Either way, NoS mended my most important relationship -that with myself. YAY!

Love the board - you bunch are like the nicest people I've ever met anywhere and I wouldn't have shared this otherwise.

So very happy for you!

"NoS mended my most important relationship -that with myself."

Great quotable!! I love it. It of course spills over into our relationship with others. If I don't like me, why would I expect anyone else to?

Thank you for keeping us posted on the journey -- I am also finding the non-physical aspects of No S (how I look at my lunch hour, my day, my week, my year, my life) to be of huge benefit and importance. This alone makes diets seem like such a booby-prize.

Keep it up! (Also thanks for the 80% compliance figure -- helps me!)

Thank you Vicki and finallyfull! I love following both of your threads and advice!!

eshano,

I'm so happy to read this. I love this "qualitative" aspect of No-s that you and others report. Congratulations, and many thanks for sharing!

Reinhard

That is fantastic new, eschano!

You totally rock eschano! You are such an inspiration and I'm just thrilled for you.

Linda

Congratulations on your success!

This mental benefit you've identified is not trivial… after all, the goal of life to be happy - these diet/fitness endeavors we engage in are merely meant to supplement the overall objective of 'happiness'. I had a similar revelation about feeling open to a relationship when I released some of my previous food obsessions and fully made No S my default style of eating.

Food compulsion and/or obsession is, simply put, not a pleasant thing to live with. It's amazing how much mental energy is freed up and how much perspective changes when we realize "it's just food/it's just my body" and simplify our scrutiny of our dietary habits/body image by merely asking/answering the questions "have I eaten too much? how does my body feel?" I feel much happier now that I am simply asking/answering these questions than I ever did pursuing/maintaining a mythical physical ideal that I held onto in my own head.

May you continue to enjoy the many benefits of No S!

Thank you so much to all of you, especially Reinhard!

You all rock! I love this community

So glad to hear this. There is so much to be gained from taking the focus off weight loss and aiming at moderation, whatever that might be for any one person, as you've shown. Congratulations!

Peace with yourself is the real goal we all secretly have. It's too bad there's such a hard sell out there to make it so hard to get. (supermodel exercise trainer)

oops! post got repeated.

Congratulations!!!! on your lessons learned & absorbed as normal now for you!!

Time really flies and this is my second anniversary! Or it was yesterday anyways.

I am so happy I stuck to NoS and sat out my impatience. I nearly gave up a couple of times but time does fly and suddenly I find myself in a much better position health and weight wise than 2 years ago!

I didn't lose much more this year. Maybe one or two kilos more. So I'm -12k since I started NoS. This year was very much about maintenance and I go up and down 1-2 kilos seasonally but now I know that's no reason to freak out!

So apart from being healthy NoS has done a world of good to me! I started to take care of myself with the very basics - 3 meals a day regularly. I felt like my body started trusting me in that it won't starve and the weight came off.

This kindness led to me stopping to be so extreme in my perfectionism. If anything ever held me back in life it certainly was perfectionism! I have really come to appreciate my body for the wonderful organism it is and to love myself and subsequently open up to the possibility of romantic relationships, which I before considered myself "too fat for". (Sad as this is to admit - ridiculous!). I'm now in a happy, healthy relationship not only romantically but more importantly with myself! (I was one of those beating-myself-up types). I fully credit NoS for that!

What I found hard:
Plateaus: I had many and long ones! It's hard if the scale moves upward or not at all for some months when you stick to the plan as much as usually (I only have between 80-90% compliance at any time). However, well worth it!
Cravings: Yep, I still have them. It is easier to sit them out but I do have to force myself or find something else to do. I now have phases where I fly through NoS with complete compliance - these I didn't have pre-NoS, just so we're clear this is a complete improvement - and phases where all I want to do is stuff my face during my waking hours. Sometimes the latter phase leads to heavy S days and sometimes to fails but often this can be ignored. These craving times frustrate me as I feel like I shouldn't have them anymore but it is likely they will accompany me the rest of my life and that's ok. It doesn't mean the extra weight has to come along too.

What I find easy:
The fact that I barely ever go to bed overstuffed anymore when I used to have weeks of never feeling normal, just overstuffed.
The fact that I look forward to food now.
The fact that I enjoy cooking and hosting.
The fact that no one knows I'm doing this, really, unless I want them to.
The fact that I can make exceptions for truly special and unique foods or situations (NWS days).
And so on and so on.

What was new this year:
My biggest accomplishment is that I stopped drinking diet soda, which effectively means any soda. I feel so much better and sugar cravings have gone down.
I feel healthier, more energetic, happier, and have much more time to focus on better things in life.
Cooking has become a real hobby that greatly relaxes me! Linda and ironchef - your recipes were very helpful on that!

And I started other everydaysystems: Looking After Myself (LAM) where I try to do something nice for myself every day most days.
and SavingToBuyAMiniYacht where I try not to spend anything two days a week (this one I still struggle with greatly but it led to brilliant savings anyways) - the inspiration comes from automatedeating.
and the newest: DoSomething3x/week (DS3) which is very new so we'll see how I go!

Thank you all so much! Reinhard - I will never be able to express my thanks in all it's glory but I do try to tell many people and make them buy the book and EVERYONE thanks for making this board so very special, with a special thanks to oolala for her wise words at all times!

Congratulations on your loss this year and more importantly your maintenance!

You sound so happy and content in your posts now!!

Congrats! Awesome post. Another of your accomplishments: helping others stay with No S.

Thanks for inspiring!

Woohoo! Celebrating with you!

BEE- YOO- TEE-FUL!

I'm going to cut and paste this into an email to the NO S team on Sparkpeople. We have a teeny active group, and small passive one. Spark is not the smartest pond to fish in since the emphasis is tracking, and, worse to me, always seeking the way to weigh the lowest you can, which to me seems to boil down to how to get the most water out of your body, since it ain't fat that's fluctuating half a pound or more in a day. I just hope once in awhile to keep snagging one or two fed-up dieters who want to give up the worst of the struggle.

BTW, my dear, would you mind telling me what your starting weight was? And your height, which is probably the same? Don't laugh; I shrank an inch in the last 15 years. So I really was too short for my weight for awhile...

Thank you so much, all of you! Couldn't have done it without you!

Oolala, post away on sparkspeople - I'm all in favour of catching strays.

I'm 175 cm (which depending on where you google is somewhere around 5ft . This hasn't changed. Also, in case this is of importance, I'm 31 years old now.

And my starting weight has become a bit of an enigma: I thought I started at 83.2 but I saw in my records that I actually weighted 85.3 Kilos at my heaviest just before starting NoS. Now I range between 71.8-73.8 but am mostly within 72 (72.1-72.9). I'm quite happy with that success and don't feel like losing any more as I like my curves.

Thank you for being an inspiration!

Congratulations, eschano!

Sounds like a great year on many fronts!

And I love the new systems!

You're so right about the dangers of perfectionism. I think one reason no-s is a helpful tool against it is that it actually conscripts it against itself. No S is moderate, but not wishy-washy, and the perfectionistic urge respects that clarity, even in the cause of moderation.

Reinhard

Congratulations dear eschano! It's a been an honour to share this journey with you (I joined within the same month) and a delight to see the increasingly joyous tone of your posts. I think you have done something really incredible in changing your thoughts and attitude so substantially.

175 cm = closer to 5' 9".

Sounds like you are at your perfect weight: the happy one.

Thank you so much Reinhard, I think you are right about clarity and perfectionism. Clarity makes it possible to "win"/follow the rules perfectly, even when they are moderate. And eventually I realised that if you follow some very tough rules imperfectly I still win.

Thank you ironchef, also for your continued advice - your a great companion for this journey!

Oolala, that made me laugh - "the perfect weight: the happy one". How right you are!

Yay!!!!!!!!!! Congrats to a faithful NoSer (and friend!)

Eschano, I can't believe I've missed your testimonial check in until now.
Just want to say, very well done, and thanks for being an inspiration to me. I've been reading your first check in thread from the start - you've come so far and it's so good to read.

Well done!

Thank you Skelton! I always enjoy your thread too

Wow, another year under my belt! This is my third now.

I am maintaining.

I survived the craziness of wedding planning and a wedding. Pre-NoS I would have stuffed my face as that was what stress used to do to me and because I used to be a brilliant self-saboteur. Instead I'm just insanely grateful I had NoS also that it was a stable, healthy way of life when there was a lot of outside pressure on me to be "thinner than ever for the big day" instead of thrilled to be privileged to marry the love of my life. (although this could be a whole rant right here).

Instead I'm just happy, and healthy.

I'm not thin by any means but sometimes I catch my reflexion and am surprised that I resemble SLIMish somehow with curves. After growing up thinking about myself as the "big girl" that is still a revelation to me.

Not too much has changed but here we go:

What I found hard:
It's insanely hard some days and extremely easy on others. So Cravings are definitely still hard and I doubt they'll ever go away, which is fine as at least I know how to handle them.
Bigger and thinner months. What I mean is that I tend to gain and lose the same 2 1/2 kilos now again and again. All within a normal weight range so I have nothing to complain about but let's be honest - I do feel better about myself when I'm not in the higher range. Interestingly, I don't feel too good on the lower end either- smack in the middle is where I feel energetic and beautiful. But it's a minor annoyance.
My portion sizes have gone up as I eat with my husband and I've never been good at leaving things on the plate. I could use different plates etc. but I'm not quite there yet to make that decision, if I ever will.
My mind hasn't caught up with my body yet - in terms of feeling as I am rather than as I used to feel about myself and in terms of shifting definitions where I don't compare apples with apples (for example S days in year 1 and S days now, see below)

What I find easy:
My S days are barely comparable to my S days at the beginning as they tend to be much saner now. That's probably why I have maintained despite portion sizes on N-days having gone up. Still, you wouldn't believe what a relief it is to me to have saner S days. It has taken so long. I'm glad I've never fiddled with them. Don't take me wrong - I still have crazy S days but they are far and few between and even then my definition of "crazy" has shifted so that they are never quite as crazy as they used to be. I still had a panic phase but this testimonial made me analyse my food diary and yep, they have calmed down immensly.

What was new this year:
On top of giving up sodas last year (sugar and diet versions), I have given up coffee now. I feel more alert and have less ups and downs throughout the day. I still get caffeine through my S day chocolate but it's not comparable. I feel so much better without caffeine day-to-day. Let me explain: I do NOT think coffee is bad for people. Most of the people around me are completely fine with it. I just didn't react very well to it.
I have started to eat like an omnivore in the real sense: I have become adventurous and we eat much more plant-based than we used to. Today alone, I ate a completely new dish with pulses that I never ate prior to our adventure.
I have let LAM (Looking after myself) go a little but starting right now again. And I will also start my yearly 30-day adventure challenge where I go on one adventure per day, no matter how small.

Here's to Year 4

Great testimonial eschano! Thanks a lot!

I loved this whole thread! Thanks for keeping it up and inspiring others!!!

Thank you bjalda and tacodiscos!

Thank you for sharing, eschano. Congratulations to you on year three! Your 30-day adventure challenge sounds like a lot of fun.

Congratulations on another successful year. It's been a delight sharing this journey with you over the past 3 years. Here's to many more!

Yay!! I'm always forgetting to check this thread but glad I did. What a great testimonial. It really helps to read about the long-term journey and all the subtle changes you're still experiencing. So awesome about the S days being sane now.

Keep up the great work in all areas of your life. You're truly an inspiration. Thanks for sharing your journey!

Linda

Thank you swuddly, ironchef, and Linda! I couldn't do it without you guys