Everyday Systems

Hello everyone! It's time for my yearly update.

2013 was my 3rd year of sticking to NOS for real!!

"Hey, what's the secret for a flat stomach?"... "I used to be like you, in highschool"... "How can you eat so much and stay thin?"... "You are the only one from the group who has not put on weight since we all married!"... this is the kind of feedback I get from friends and people I've not seen in a while.

It did not use to be like that pre-2011, when I was strong but I had a beer belly.

These kind of observations show better what I've accomplished, much better than any metric or stat would.

I could give millions of explanations about how I've managed to stay successful in this NOs journey but it all boils down to just sticking to the habits.

Other than reducing the amount of red "glassceiling" days, I did nothing different in 2013, just making the best of my monthly habitcal in No S + Shovelglove. I also try to walk for at least 30 minutes a day in the mornings. Sometimes I like doing hunders of pushups for a month or so in addition to those things.

Everything is automatic, nothing seems "hard" or "instrusive". If you ask me what's the most difficult thing, I'd say it is explaining almost every week to my workmates that I don't want to "eat that cake" everytime they celebrate someone's birthday at the office while I sit there just drinking my water. That's it.

Now... I'll be very honest. Of course I'd like to be a ripped machine, like the rest of the men out there, as I've expressed in the past here in the forums. Who doesn't? Sometimes the 'optimization-temptation' from outside sources or programs knocks on my door but something that helps me put that away is an easy thought: my only goal when I started this was to lose my belly fat, nothing more, I was satisfied with everything else, so why risk my mantainable success by overcomplicating my life? I found out last year that it's better to adapt other things to my already good enough system instead of the other way.

So, this year I'll just keep going strong with the habits and learn to cook so I can incorporate more healthy meals in my NoS (intelligent dietary defaults).

Oh, and here are the before-during pics.
http://imgur.com/a/CKv2q

Cheers, everyone!!

Great job!

Good for you!
You're right, it's all about good habits!

Woo-hoo!!!! I just read this out loud to my husband, who I am trying to get to join me on the NoS journey.

I could give millions of explanations about how I've managed to stay successful in this NOs journey but it all boils down to just sticking to the habits.

Congratulations! And thanks for the great and succinct explanation!

Very inspiring!

Congratulations and thanks for letting us know! Nothing makes me happier than continuing multi-year success stories like this.

I love the quotes from friends and acquaintances. Especially "How can you eat so much and stay thin?" because I think it's so revealing: with No-S, you seem to be eating more simply because there's no hidden eating. People assume there's this hidden iceberg of snacking etc. under the surface but there isn't. What's above the water, though respectable, is all there is.

Great pix, too!

Reinhard

I just started No S-ing seriously. Good to see a success story. Thanks.

Congratulations! Impressive.

Congrats! Looks like getting a bit of sun didn't hurt either.

Thank you everyone!!

And about the sun... yeah! going to te beach a few times last year made the difference hahahaha. Cheers!

By the way, I have a question that may not seem common in these boards but here it goes:

has anyone managed to gain muscle weight withing the Everydaysystems structure, once you lost fat? I mean, using NoS 3 meals and SG or maybe something else? Is this feasible without risking the good habits?

Congratulations! Nice work keeping it simple with No S.

I just started shovel glove last week, and with a heavy sledge, I definitely think that's an effective way to put on muscle in a very manageable time commitment. The "14 minutes of anything" podcast is a great listen.

Hi, congrats to your success.

Regarding your question (Building muscle with Everydaysystems):

You got an answer per PM ( An answer in a terrible english.....)

Congrats!!

check the lost secret to a great body by david bolton, despite the silly name, it seems to work greatly and its rather interestng. you dont even need a gym... and it respects more less the 14 mins rule... (more like 20 or 25 mins) but personaly thats a habit i can manage

guille wrote:check the lost secret to a great body by david bolton, despite the silly name, it seems to work greatly and its rather interestng. you dont even need a gym... and it respects more less the 14 mins rule... (more like 20 or 25 mins) but personaly thats a habit i can manage

It's an interesting book. But at least at the start it's more like 45-60 Minutes a day. That's a little intrusive.

But on the other Hand: You only need very small dumbbells for it.

Congratulations firstly on your loss & secondly of your maintaining!

Your before and after pictures are a wonderful example of how well No S works!

Thanks for sharing.

hi germanherman

yeah, in the beginning it takes longer, like 40 mins in my case, but after more less 1 month it takes less time. in my opinion, considering the benefits people get ,20 to 30 mins per day is acceptable. personaly im just starting with the method. been doing it for a month moreless, i plan to do it for at least a year before i write more about it

another thing to consider is that this is a very safe way to add muscle, without the need of a gym (and i dont feel the bodybuilding style of training that people do in the gym is safe for the body to begin with). i liked shovleglove but my back felt a little odd with it and i wanted a little more muscle...considering i am gym allergic, i found this solution great.

right now it takes me like 13 minutes to finish all the workout because im not reading the book anymore to do it...but i guess as i get more reps it will take me the time the author mentions (25 mins) and as you said, one only needs superlight 3 to 5 pound dumbbels (which are very cheap).

im curious, what did you recomend chentegt regarding building muscle with everyday systems?

Thanks everyone for your "congrats" words!

Guille and germanherman:

those are very interesting approaches; actually I've been investigating about all of this and I'll open a new thread in the shovelglove section to discuss muscle building withing everyday systems, as I have not seen it around.

awesome, let me know when you do so, because i will be writing about my experience with my method on it, i think a developed and healthy muscle mass may be very helpful with mantenance as one ages too.

Done!

here it is:

http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=9952

Thank you.

"Of course I'd like to be a ripped machine, like the rest of the men out there" Like all the rest of WHAT men out there? Do not be fooled by cherry-picked examples on the net and TV, ads, etc. People more ripped than you are in the minority and they are likely that way for a limited period of time or without little purposeful effort. (I have been taking West African dance for 20 years and have seen many incredibly muscular black me who don't do any resistance exercise. It's the luck of the draw.) I doubt most of the young muscle builders will be working out the way they need to 10 years down the line. They may be doing less than you at that point! If you stick with what you do for another 7 years, you will be way ahead of most of your peers. And your life is sustainable!

I don't think many people on No S are paying that close of attention to changes in bodyfat/muscle mass. I'd be very surprised if Reinhard and others have not gained muscle in their years of using Shovelglove. But if they are not aiming at lowering bodyfat specifically in order to reveal the musculature, they may not notice it much. You can be gaining muscle without looking ripped.

I'm also pretty sure that you could purposely build more muscle within the 14-minute time frame but you would likely have to vary which muscle groups you target each day and use slower movements and higher weights. With SuperSlow, they recommend using a weight that brings you to failure in 90 seconds of slow repetitions no more than three times a week for any muscle group and they don't advocate more than two or three exercises for upper or lower at at time. The rest days in between exertion seems to be quite important to muscle growth. It might be hard to figure out how to tax yourself enough for 14 minutes without taxing the same muscles every day. Then you may lose the advantage of consistency.

The great thing is that your holding pattern is terrific while you mull this over. You are way ahead of the game.

I love that you say you've gone three years into it without aiming at healthy meals!

Congrats again!

Thanks for sharing, it sounds like you've had great success on No S and the results cna be seen in the photos, well done!