"Calling" S-days in advance?

DaveMc · Post by **DaveMc** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 5:48 pm

Hi all, something I'm curious about: do people find any merit in looking ahead and declaring in advance when your S-days are going to be? I was just going through my HabitCal and marking S-days through to the end of September (Labour Day, a couple of vacation days, plus weekends), and I wondered if others do this as well? My reasoning is that it makes me less likely to create spurious S-days if I identify them in advance, rather than allowing myself to "call" them on the fly . . .

bluebunny27 · Post by **bluebunny27** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 5:54 pm

Yeah, I usually plan my Habitcal a few days in advance ... not weeks or months though ... I would mark my squares 5-6 days in advance. This system works for me and lately I haven't had to change any colors based on what actually happened on that day, I was spot on. I just look at my habitcal and I know what I have to do for the day. It helps me to see what I have to do many days in advance.

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds
08/21/2009 : 196.4 pounds
( 9 months 21 days / -83.6 pounds )
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal : 11/01/2009 : 190.0 pounds ( 1 year / -90.0 pounds )

Thalia · Post by **Thalia** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 5:56 pm

I don't go through and mark non-weekend S days in advance, but I easily could. For me, it's pretty cut-and-dried: major holidays, family or close friend birthday parties (and friends almost always celebrate on the weekend, anyway, so I don't need a special day for that), or some kind of massive celebration/social event.

I think I've had around two non-weekend S Days since I started? Even Valentine's fell on a weekend this year, and so wiill Halloween.

I also allow S events when traveling, but given the state of the economy there has been precious little of that for me lately!

Blithe Morning · Post by **Blithe Morning** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 5:59 pm

My non-weekend S days are pretty well identified in advance. If a last minute opportunity presents itself I use a metric I devised to see if it merits an S day designation. I have to score something a 7 before I can call it an S day.

My metric for special days:

A) How often does this event happen?
(1)Regularly (2)Yearly (3)Once every two years or more.

B) Who is involved?
(1) People I know casually (2)People I consider close friends (3)Near family

C)How meaningful is this event to me personally?
(1)Not very (2)Some (3)Quite a bit

DaveMc · Post by **DaveMc** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 6:05 pm

Blithe: Cool, an algorithm! I always love a nice algorithm.

How do national holidays (Thanksgiving, Easter, Labour Day, etc, depending on where you live) come out, on your scale? I wasn't sure how to evaluate how well I know the people involved, for example, since it's the whole country -- or do you only count it as an S-day if you're doing something with friends or family, that day?

Nichole · Post by **Nichole** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 6:08 pm

I definitely plan ahead, especially since I try to be "good" 90% of the time. For instance, this week, I may be going out to lunch on Saturday and Sunday is a baby shower. I am choosing the baby shower to have a small treat, maybe a piece of cake, but not the birthday lunch. I already have Sunday marked as yellow. I heart Habit Cal!

TunaFishKid · Post by **TunaFishKid** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 7:04 pm

DaveMc wrote:...it makes me less likely to create spurious S-days. . .

Uh oh..."spurious" starts with S! I see bad things arising......

DaveMc · Post by **DaveMc** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:30 pm

bluebunny27 wrote:Yeah, I usually plan my Habitcal a few days in advance ... not weeks or months though ... I would mark my squares 5-6 days in advance. This system works for me and lately I haven't had to change any colors based on what actually happened on that day, I was spot on.

I like this idea! It's a form of negative tracking, I suppose: you do it a bit in advance, then don't need to touch it unless something unusual happens.

And tuna: yes, I try to indulge in all my spuriousness on S-days, and get it out of my system.

No snacks, no sweets, no seconds, no spurious arguments.

Mounted Ranger! · Post by **Mounted Ranger!** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 10:05 pm

It's about 2 non-weekend S Days per month, right?

Since I started I haven't had many non weekend s days but last month i did start thinking ahead when I saw them kind of crowding up. At that point I decided that it would be a good idea to look ahead. September should be fine but then October has my anniversary. November has Thanksgiving and That's just really not a one day event. Happily, most of December is Advent which for (most?) Catholics means a time of pennance b/f Christmas. However, there are two feast days (Feast of St. Nicholas and the Feast of the IC) that are legit S days. But then there comes the Christmas Season and there's Christmas and the Feast of the Holy Family (our family patrons). So, just to get through December, I'm going to have to do some looking ahead and making decisions on what will/won't be an S Day.

I just keep putting it off thinking that there is plenty of time but I know it'll be here and i'll be caught holding the Speculaas on a non-S Day. Of course, Speculaas does start with an S . . . see, I need to plan ahead!

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:54 pm

I know when they're coming but don't plan much for them. I don't think I have any months when they're all bunched up, but don't think I'd worry about it if I did. It wouldn't happen again until the next year.

buttercreampillow · Post by **buttercreampillow** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:43 am

Blithe Morning, I love your metric for rating possible S days. Do you mind that I posted it to my check-in? I would like to keep track of it to use when I can't decide if a day is S-worthy. I'll take it down if you object.

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 11:10 am

DaveMc wrote:
How do national holidays (Thanksgiving, Easter, Labour Day, etc, depending on where you live) come out, on your scale? I wasn't sure how to evaluate how well I know the people involved, for example, since it's the whole country -- or do you only count it as an S-day if you're doing something with friends or family, that day?

Not Blithe here, but...

To me that's kind of like asking if Saturday and Sunday are S days if you're not doing something special with close friends and family. National holidays are S days. I think some people have problems when the holiday, usually Thanksgiving and/or Christmas, either isn't celebrated on the actual day or is celebrated at different times with different family and friends.

Blithe Morning · Post by **Blithe Morning** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 1:14 pm

buttercreampillow wrote:Blithe Morning, I love your metric for rating possible S days. Do you mind that I posted it to my check-in? I would like to keep track of it to use when I can't decide if a day is S-worthy. I'll take it down if you object.

BCP, I am honored if you find this valuable. Post away.

Heck, I'm not even maintaining the copyright. If someone thinks they can make money off of this, have at it.

I work in water quality which uses metrics and indices to encapsulate all the variables that figure into whether or not water is "clean". It was a natural progression to use that model to figure out whether a day is a NWS day. However, if I start in with the coefficients, someone please make me stop.

Blithe Morning · Post by **Blithe Morning** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 1:25 pm

DaveMc wrote:
How do national holidays (Thanksgiving, Easter, Labour Day, etc, depending on where you live) come out, on your scale? I wasn't sure how to evaluate how well I know the people involved, for example, since it's the whole country -- or do you only count it as an S-day if you're doing something with friends or family, that day?

The major national holidays (meaning I am off work - Arbor Day, for example, isn't a major national holiday) are counted as S days since that is already covered in the No-S guidelines.

The metric is used to figure out whether or not something is significant enough to call it a NWS day. You know, things like birthdays and out of town travel, and vacation, and family celebrations per Wosnes' example above.

Some would say (and I can see their point) that I am overthinking this, making it harder than it needs to be. But since I very much like NOT thinking about this stuff, I much prefer running a formula and calling it that way.

guadopt1997 · Post by **guadopt1997** » Sat Oct 17, 2009 2:06 am

To me it depends if I have plans. I didn't count Labor Day as an S day because I didn't have any plans. If I'd been invited to a bar-b-q or something, sure. It was a day off but I have a hard enough time with the regular S days!

I remember back in March someone counted March 14 as an S day. I asked about it and it was "Pi" day. In the end, who are we kidding?

Liz

P.S. I like Blithe's metric too. And I think it's cool that a thread from two years ago (before my time on this board) got resuscitated.

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