I've not been here much recently, but I find this thread very interesting, as this is exactly what I was thinking today...
This became a really long post - feel free to scroll down to *** for a summary
So to start from the beginning:
I started noS in May 2008 and was doing vanilla noS with tracking for about 8 months.
Then for about a ten months, due to health problems that affected my eating as well, I was doing noS when I could, but I was less strict, no tracking.
For the next two months I went back to vanilla noS with tracking.
Over the last month I kept "falling off the wagon" and struggled with a lot of my old emotional eating issues.
Weight wise, until last month I was more or less maintaining my initial weight loss. Due to the recent slip-ups, now, I am probably slightly going up, but I am still lower than when I first heard of/started noS. My weight isn't probably a good indicator of success though, as 1) due the above mentioned health issues my activity fell dramatically 2) at some point I started losing weight rapidly due to the illness (so ironically, when I look at the pictures of myself, I look best on those when I was most ill!!)
My ultimate goal regarding my eating habits is exactly what wosnes describes: three meals, occasional snack when I find something really appetizing or it is a special event. I also agree that there are actually just few S days per year. I am also a big fan of unprocessed/home made food - they keep me satisfied, they taste better and they are of course much healthier.
And while I think that this structured/unstructured way is the way to go, I would not be here without noS. And without the eight months of strict vanilla no S. These were crucial for me in several ways:
a) to retrain my body - I actually don't feel hungry between the meals any more. I do not need snacks to keep me going through the day, whereas in the past there was no way I would go for seven hours (which now is easy) without a snack (a healthy or unhealthy depending on mood/availability).
b) to realize what snacking does to my body - it makes me want to snack more and more... it makes me eat less healthy food, because I don't get hungry enough to go through an effort of making a proper meal. It makes me lose control and it can easily lead to overeating.
c) to realize what excess of sweets does to my body - it also makes me want sweets more and more, despite the fact that I end up enjoying them less and less... The more sweets I would eat, the more bloating, discomfort, pain issues I would suffer from. I almost always end up with a headache when I overindulge for few days and then go back to no sweets.
d) to learn what my body likes and wants. I see a dramatic difference in my general well being when I follow no snacks, no sweets, no seconds (which can too easily blur into snacking) principles.
Since discovering no S I learned/realized that snacks are almost never worth it. They disrupt a system that works so well for my body. I want to be hungry for my next meal, I enjoy it more, I end up making better food choices. And I can still have the food I would pass on - just later, as a part of the meal.
Sweets are for me difficult to give up completely (which I would love to do, because I believe that sugar just isn't good for you), hence I do not plan on giving up occasional S events. However, as a consequence of "noS training" I also make better dessert choices - I am much more fussy, I would rather have a piece of good quality chocolate than sugary chocolate bar; I will choose home made cookies/cake over sugar loaded supermarket "I-do-not-understand-the-ingredient list" sweets. And I will choose them because I they taste so much better and not because they are actually healthier. And this might sound silly, but I have actually learnt not to eat things I do not like. Because surprise surprise - it is not enough to be labelled a sweet to taste good.
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Sorry for a lenghty post. I think what I am trying to say is that I do believe that an occasional dessert/snack might be a more natural way of eating and a way to stop overindulgance over the weekends. But I would never get to appreciate that, if it wasn't for noS and months of vanilla noS, which for me was an excellent lesson to retrain my body, teach me control and moderation.
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And I am posting it also to re-iterate these things in my head and regain my control that I lost recently due to a bit of emotional upheaval and tiredness (because suprise suprise again - sweets and snacks did not make me feel any better)...
So now that I bored you all my last sentence: Reinhard - thank you!!! And thank you to all of you that where here when I was starting with lots of help, advice and support!!![/i]