Today I was walking around in a dollar store when a nutritionist came on the radio through the speaker. My thought was "Good grief! Do I have to see and hear about food and nutrition EVERYWHERE I go?!!!" I couldn't avoid listening, although I'd have prefered dull elevator music. She was talking about how she lost weight (yea right, I know her... maybe 10 pounds) and the problem with blood sugar and how people think that sugar intake is cookies and stuff but carbs are often the bigger problem bla bla blah! Anyway, she said that she was on a sugar fast this week just to get out of the habit. She has read extensively about habit and strongly believes that 7 days is all it takes to get a habit going. That left me really thinking about it. I've always heard that 21 days or a month is what it takes. I went over a year struggling to get going again on NoS. One week in March I was bombarded by incentives including a doctor visit and "talk", I turned 45, and my son saw my dish of cake with double frosting and said "Mom, you're killing yourself!". These hit me with a slap of reality. My birthday was that next Saturday and so I gave it my all during that whole week thinking that I'd really live it up on my birthday on Saturday. That got me through, then I didn't really even want to binge at all that S day. The next week went so good that I continued on and did the 21 days that I hadn't been able to do in so so long. All it took that time was 7 days!
The monthly challenges that I've issued are meant to give us all a boost. They work for many, sometimes me... But, now I wonder if just a week is all I really need to jump back on track again after a de-railing. My roller coaster goes up hill and down again every darn week, sometimes with an almost 10 pound fluctuation. Honest! But if I stay on track, I do recover. When I jump the track and skip my successful N days, they tend to continue. I'm thinking that if 7 days is all it takes to get going again after a de-rail, then put your all into the next 7 days!
7 days
Moderators: Soprano, automatedeating
Renee, I'm just starting no-s so I need to do it "plain vanilla", but I'm rooting for you.
It is sort of startling to realize how much time is taken up thinking about and talking about food (and then, oddly, if you think about it, thinking and talking about being thin). I think no-s is liberating in that it gets me away from constantly thinking about food. When I was trying to lose weight earlier in the year, my "diet" instructed me to write down everything I ate and to eat five times a day. Then, I was supposed to drink all sorts of green tea. Food was CONSTANTLY on my mind - not because I was hungry, but because that was how the diet was designed.
Cheers,
Emily
It is sort of startling to realize how much time is taken up thinking about and talking about food (and then, oddly, if you think about it, thinking and talking about being thin). I think no-s is liberating in that it gets me away from constantly thinking about food. When I was trying to lose weight earlier in the year, my "diet" instructed me to write down everything I ate and to eat five times a day. Then, I was supposed to drink all sorts of green tea. Food was CONSTANTLY on my mind - not because I was hungry, but because that was how the diet was designed.
Cheers,
Emily
Emily