Everyday Systems

hi reinhard and all NoS'sers here!
i am back after years of being totally awol...
unfortunately, the reason i'm back is that i've had a really bad year as far as old terrible habits taking hold again and i've put on nearly 40 lbs since last september
i'm now at my highest weight in my adult life and feeling so bad about it and just so physically uncomfortable...
for those who don't know me already, i was here in the first few years of this board, and a VERY avid poster! i posted so much, i wouldn't be surprised if i still have the most posts of anyone, even after years of being away! lol...
i'm going to start a new daily log, and i'm beginning my re-commitment to NoS with the 21 day challenge...
i'll try to check other people's threads as much as i can, but please forgive me if i sometimes just come on here to update my own thread...
i'm excited to be back and i know, from personal experience of losing about 18 lbs in the first year on NoS, without even 100 percent perfect compliance on N days, that this works for me! i hope i can reverse the damage i've done this year... i think being on here and posting more often will help me stay on track... thanks for listening! wish me luck please!

Welcome back, and good luck!

thanks earl!

Hi, Debs!

I am SO glad to see you. I just found NoS earlier this year and have been reading all the old posts. I wondered if you were still at it or just got tired of posting. It was a real delight to catch you on SG not very long ago, so I knew you weren't completely out of the picture.

Your son must be quite the young man by now.

Sorry I don't know how to reference a previous post, but if you can find my intro within the past month or so, you will read what an encouragement you have been to me through thousands of posts.

Welcome back, and I hope you can be as encouraged as you have so often been to everyone else. Here's hoping for *good enough* compliance and lots of weight lost as a reward for good behavior.

oh thank you very much elegant!
i'll look thru the posts and see if i can find it... i really appreciate it!
yes, my son richie is now 18 and an amazing guy! he's gonna be attending harvard this fall and i'm so incredibly proud of him!
i look forward to getting to know you and wish you the best of luck with NoS!

Welcome back Deb! I remember your posts from a while back, great to see you here and best of luck.

I remember you - Welcome back

Welcome Back Debs!!!

I have missed your cheerful posts and the encouragement you shared so freely with us all.

Looking forward to seeing your successes as you settle back to No S.

(((Hugs))))

Welcome back! I can't believe your little guy is off to university! Congrats to you both!

thanks so much guys! i'm glad to be back!
so far, i've had two very reasonable s days and a good N day, with only one very small infraction, and it was on an s day... i had a few containers of jello i think, late at night... other than that i am happy to say that i even managed and felt good about having one very substantial plate at the indian buffet for my birthday on sunday, and didn't even want seconds...
and i did the same thing yesterday with a very large portion of pasta which i got for lunch... i ate half, and then saved the rest for dinner, instead of having the whole thing... so really i'm psyched and feel very much in control again! haven't gained any weight, like i typically do after eating huge portions from take out or at a restaurant, and it looks like i even lost about 1.5 lbs so far since saturday!
yes vicky, my son is going to college in the fall... he's been accepted at harvard and we are so excited!
will check back in again soon... it feels great to look at my habit cal and see a green day right at the beginning of the week! i'm feeling very good about being back!

Good luck.

Deb, so glad to see you again, though I feel for the circumstances. No matter how wonderful an eating system is, relapse is possible, especially in an unsupportive culture. As Reinhard says, there is no such thing as before and after, only before and during. I had one period about two years in during which I reverted to old habits and almost got back to pre-No S weight. I almost couldn't believe it! It helped me get serious again. It also helped that I remembered so clearly what I had been like at the mercy of every whim for food. I still have to deal with whims, but they are a lot easier to dismiss. Sometimes, an memory will come to me of a rather melodramatic scene from a very old TV show in which the guest star refuses pain medication after surgery because she is so fearful of relapsing into an addiction to morphine. I don't pretend that I need to be as dramatic about it, but it's a useful analogy. Those neural pathways don't seem to go away. It sounds like the most we can do is make new, brighter ones in the prefrontal cortex and reinforce them with practice, practice, practice.

And I think Reinhard could use an S to include rather than exclude: savor. Savor, savor, savor! It ruins the elegant simplicity of the formula, but it has been foundational for me, and is definitely in keeping with No S's acceptance and even reverence for the pleasure of food.

OK, enough unsolicited advice!

As a high school teacher who worked for three years teaching introductory college level English through the International Baccalaureate program, I am very impressed with your son's acceptance into Harvard. Of course, he may not need to know that he will in essence be starting over to prove himself, but who cares? To be in such an atmosphere of the delight in ideas... at least, I hope that's what it is there, and not one-upmanship, etc.

Onwards with the No S journey!

Great to see you here again, Deb! And congratulations to Richie!

I work at Harvard now (formerly in the library, now in distance ed) so maybe we'll bump into each other.

I am sorry about the bad habits having come back...

Please let us know if there's anything we can do to support you this go. You've given so much to this group in the past that I'm sure you will have many eager helpers!

One idea that might be helpful: watch our for specific, recurring problem situations and focus your attention on them. This has helped me with "glass ceiling," one of the harder everyday systems for me to comply with. Example: the later I can push back that first drink, the greater my chances of staying under the ceiling. Even without additional rules, explicit awareness of what tends to throw you off course can help. Just a thought!

Reinhard

oolala you can give me advice anytime! i really appreciate what you wrote!
reinhard! thank you so much!
i'm really happy to be back and things are going pretty well
i'll make sure that richie comes to visit you during the year at harvard! that's great you'll be there!
yes, there are definitely recurring things going on with my failures, especially the tendency to night time eat, my old and current, nemesis!
i'm putting a lot of attention on that and have had a really good week in regard to that one problem... i'm very happy to be getting things under control again and with NoS it's relatively painless...
i've decided to do official weekly reports on friday evenings and then go enjoy s days...
thanks for the welcome back my friends! have a great weekend!

Sounds like you have stepped straight back into your No S Habits!!

((((((((((Hugs)))))))))) You beat your nemesis in the past & will do so again!!!

thanks so much mo!! (((((((( hugs ))))))))

Great to see you here again, Deb. Your return has encouraged me to start a new push on No S earlier than I would otherwise have done.

thanks so much diana! glad you're still here too! good luck getting back into the NoS swing!

gratefuldeb67 wrote:i'm excited to be back and i know, from personal experience of losing about 18 lbs in the first year on NoS, without even 100 percent perfect compliance on N days, that this works for me! i hope i can reverse the damage i've done this year... i think being on here and posting more often will help me stay on track... thanks for listening! wish me luck please!

As someone who is so experienced with No S, you know that it can reverse the damage. Thanks for coming back to grace us with your presence!

By the way, I think you must be one of the people who gets referenced that "was able to succeed without 100% compliance." This gets brought up when people get concerned about failure and perfection.

thanks a lot leafygreens!
no, i've never been able to be perfect on NoS... but even being only 75% successful doing NoS, is a LOT better than not doing it at all...
i gained so much weight this year by just being totally unaccountable about, pretty much all "S's"... it's just a great way to stay on track and still eat and live normally, while losing weight at a moderate pace...
i'll take that any day!

Aww, Deb, so glad to see you are back. I know I can speak for all when I say you were missed.

And Congrats to Richie, he was certainly raised well

Best of luck on your journey to better health.

Hi, Deb!

Just noticed you have been non-AWOL for a month now. Hope your habits are jumping back into place and the routine of NoS is creating the eye of peace and calm in your stormy life. What an encouragement you are for the rest of us! May you create lasting success for yourself.

Great to see you back here! Keep posting!

Just wondered how you are getting on?

Good luck with your No S journey, I personally believe it is the journey of a lifetime and doesn't end just because the scales show us what we want to see