3 Weeks In With No S and Shovelglove

[JoshT]

Hey all,

This past Friday was the end of week 3 for me on No S and shovelglove. On my blog, I did a write-up about my experiences, which I thought folks here might find interesting / helpful / whatever. Rather than be irritating and just link to my blog for traffic ("Oh please visit my website, please please please!!!" etc.), I'm just going to repost it here:

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I posted earlier this month about starting the No S diet and shovelglove. This past Friday was the end of week 3 on these two systems for me, which strikes me as a good time to note my experiences thus far. During the three weeks, I only slipped up once, having one “failure†day for No S; in my opinion, it was a fairly minor slip up. I had dinner with my older nephew at a restaurant before going to see The Dark Knight, and my meal wouldn’t have quite fit on one plate at home. Other than that day, I stuck to both systems exactly as I was supposed to. Onto the observations:

No S

Switching from my former eating habits to No S led to their being many changes for me. Previously, I ate snacks (a lot); I ate sweets (far too many); and I often had seconds. Which would, of course, probably have a lot to do with why I’m currently fat (but shrinking, thank the lords of Kobol!) Cutting out all of those all at once was a bit of a ride the first few days, but after that, things smoothed out drastically.

On the first couple of days on the system, I considered chewing on my arm between lunch and dinner; when dinner time came around, I felt rather ravenous, ready to eat the proverbial horse. After those first few days though, the extreme hunger between lunch and dinner started to subside. Now, when dinner arrives, I’m hungry (as I should be), but not ready to leap into the bowl of mashed potatoes or steal the entire pan of baked chicken, retreating to my room like some overgrown (but hopefully still more attractive) gremlin.

Removing snacks from my weekday eating habits entirely has proven to be quite revealing; now that I’m not snacking all the time, I can see just how much I was snacking. As Reinhard (the creator of the system) points out on one of his websites, “No S makes excess seem excessive.†It’s also proven interesting to see what I want to snack on during S days, when I’m allowed to. Most of the crap I nibbled on all the time before - crackers, bits of cheese, rice cakes - just doesn’t seem appealing. It would seem that throwing such things down the hatch all the time was just a habit; now that the habit’s gone, I don’t really care about the foods. This goes for many of the sweets that I “loved†before; when I can eat them on S days now, I generally don’t want to. I prefer my treats on S days to be real treats, not some yucky little white powdered donut.

It’s also interesting how sticking to a rigid but simple plan has altered how I think. When someone offers me something to eat when it’s not a mealtime, my brain immediately throws out: well, duh, of course not - it’s not a mealtime! The same goes for when there’s dessert available after dinner. I don’t have to make any choices about it, because my habit has already done so for me: if it’s a weekday, the answer is no, good sir; move along from that cake. On to…

Shovelglove

Well, I think the fact that I stuck with this every weekday for three weeks says a lot on its own, but to elaborate:

Shovelglove is fast, it’s fun, and, believe it or not, effective. Having struggled with my weight for years now, I’ve messed around with a lot of different exercise programs, and the vast majority of them were boring and unenjoyable. For a lot of them, I’d even go so far as to say that they sucked. They were things that would have made me lose weight, certainly, but they were things that I wouldn’t do consistently. Something can be 100% effective, but if you don’t do it, it’s 0% effective.

I’ve stuck with shovelglove because it’s extremely enjoyable, oddly so; because it’s helping me lose weight (along with No S); and because in comparison to what I’ve tried before - lifting weights for nearly an hour per session - it takes up practically none of my time. That, and as I mentioned before, shovelglove caresses my inner geek. It’s exercise and roleplaying; I get to pretend I’m a farmer, or a chain-gang worker, or a guy on a steamship stoking the oven, or an elf (a very hefty one!), smiting an orc. I know, that sounds absurd. It is absurd. But I challenge you: get a sledgehammer and a sweater, and do shovelglove for a week. If you go the whole week without imagining you’re doing something like the above, well… I can’t help you. Are you human?

Results

Of course, doing these two systems would be pointless if they weren’t helping me in some way, but they are, as I mentioned above. So, how much weight have I lost? It’s hard to say, honestly. The scales at first went down a bit, and then they went up. At that point, I decided that obsessively checking the scales would be pointless. Doing shovelglove, I know for a fact that I’m packing on muscle; my arms are more muscular than they’ve ever been, even compared to when I was doing a lot of heavy weight lifting. Muscle weighing pretty much the same as fat, but being much denser, it’s hard for me to say how much weight I’ve “lost.â€

So let’s talk slightly more practical results. Doing a simple “how snug are these†test with my pants, I’ve lost at least an inch, perhaps two, from my waist. One pair of shorts I wore a few days ago kept slipping down, practically falling off of me. I was able to slide them off without unfastening anything. For me, this was a bit like finding a hidden 6th toe on my foot - I don’t recall the last time I had trouble with my pants falling down. My arms are more muscular and much more toned, as are my legs (I’ve been doing Hindu squats as part of my shovelglove routine). All in all, I feel better all around, and I’m less, well, round. I’ve still got lots of roundness to me, trust me, but some of it’s gone. For a mere 3 weeks, these are results I can’t really argue with.

As a final note, I’ve chuckled a bit at the responses I’ve gotten from family members when I tell them what I’m doing for exercise. “You’re doing.. what? With a sledgehammer?†They smile and nod, as if saying: well, isn’t that nice, you’ve gone completely insane, and such an exercise routine will never work.

Except it is working. The proof is in the pudding, as they say, or in my arms, I suppose. The proof, not the pudding; it’s a Monday, and so I obviously can’t have pudding today!

[BrightAngel]

Enjoyed your post.
Looks like you are doing Great with No S and Shovelglove
Congratulations.

[reinhard]

Josh,

Thanks for the detailed multi-system update!

It sounds like you're training yourself brilliantly with no-s. Those are exactly the kinds of historically normal reactions (snacks seem excessive, hunger before a meal seems not only bearable but good) that you want to reestablish.

As for shovelglove as roleplaying -- absolutely. I spent a shocking number of hours rolling d20s in my youth -- I'm not surprised the influence shows

And do feel free to give the blog post link here -- we're a pretty tolerant crowd. And I know from personal experience how thrilling it can be to check one's server log and see actual hits from SOMEONE ELSE's computer.

Keep up the good work -- and looking forward to the next update,

Reinhard

[Nichole]

Your writing is great and this was fun to read. Plus, it's definitely encouraging.

Keep up the good work!

[winnie96]

JoshT -- Great write-up! Please post your blog address ... would love to read it!

[MelissaK]

Very encouraging for a newbie and you made me laugh.

Congrats on your 3 week success.

[Nagla929]

Your post was very amusing and REAL. Keep up the great work.

[Adagia]

*whispers* Pssst I found Josh's blog here: http://system13.org Shhhhh

[Nichole]

*whispers* Pssst I found Josh's blog here: http://system13.org Shhhhh

Wow, I read a few posts. I like it a lot!

[JoshT]

Glad you all enjoyed it. Also - oh no, I've been exposed!