Hello everyone. Help needed

No Snacks, no sweets, no seconds. Except on Days that start with S. Too simple for you? Simple is why it works. Look here for questions, introductions, support, success stories.

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IKeeptrying
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Nov 07, 2015 10:30 pm
Location: Britain, Derbyshire

Hello everyone. Help needed

Post by IKeeptrying » Sat Nov 07, 2015 10:44 pm

I've been trying to keep to the no s plan for about 3 weeks, having found the book during my Amazon searches of no diet diet books. I know that diets don't work for me -in the past 20 years or so, Ive done lots of diets and work hard at them when I'm on them almost to the point of obsession and take all of the weight off, sometimes more than I should for my own own good and then, surprise surprise, I put it all back on again in 6 months!

I'm finding it hard as I've been under a lot of stress and having bad insomnia as mymum has been very ill for 5 months and is now in a nursing home, it's been a very stressful time of almost daily 100 miles trips to visit her in hospital and negotiating the minefield of funding, carehomes and social and health services in GB. Not to mention supporting her and my siblings through this. During this time I've put on weight, unlike some people who lose it during stress

So, how do I get myself out of the bad eating habits that I've acquired during these past few months of my mums illness? I am trying not to snack or have seconds and sweets, I'm trying not to have so many sweets and cakes but they along with a couple of glasses of wine most nights have become my stress relievers. Things are starting to look a bit better though, for mum so now I want to sort out my eating etc :)

osoniye
Posts: 1257
Joined: Sat May 22, 2010 2:19 pm
Location: Horn of Africa

Post by osoniye » Sun Nov 08, 2015 1:04 am

Hi IKeeptrying- Welcome! Sorry to hear about the tough time with your mom. Glad the situation is getting easier. Just build up your N day habits, allowing that there will be occasional failures while you get the habits down and be easy on yourself after that happens. Keep plodding on, and you'll be surprised how the habits stick.
Looking forward to hearing of your progress.
-Sonya
No Sweets, No Snacks and No Seconds, Except (Sometimes) on days that start with "S".

gingerpie
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Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2014 8:16 pm
Location: Pennsylvania, US

Post by gingerpie » Sun Nov 08, 2015 1:37 pm

Hi. I'm glad you found us. I can totally related to the stress about you Mum. Mine is in a nursing home and the process can be overwhelming. No- s Can help you through it by providing structure around your food choices but it doesn't add stress by adding on too many rules. Just work on focusing on achieving 3 meals a day no snacks and no suger. The rest will fall into place.

Kind regards.

HappyHiker
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2015 2:00 pm

Post by HappyHiker » Sun Nov 08, 2015 3:19 pm

Welcome! Sorry to hear about your mum.

Don't be so darn hard on yourself for gaining weight during this stressful time. The long car trips and disruptions to your routines can make healthy habits nearly impossible. I say give yourself a break. Now that things are settling down, just get comically strict about No S and your new habits will form quickly. Just my 2 cents.

IKeeptrying
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Nov 07, 2015 10:30 pm
Location: Britain, Derbyshire

Post by IKeeptrying » Sun Nov 08, 2015 5:49 pm

Thanks for your replies :D you're really kind and it makes me feel better about myself and I'm going to have a read and a think about the no s and come up with a plan for myself. Ginger you're right about no s giving me some structure. I need this as I often end up not eating lunch until about 5 in the afternoon after visiting my mum, then I have my evening meal at about 8 and I'm not hungry but eat it anyway.

Do people wait til they're hungry to eat or do you set yourself times to eat? as I often go for hours, like I said, either cause I haven't got the time or inclination or the food I want/like isn't available then I end up packing 2 meals into a short space of time x

oolala53
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Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2008 1:46 am
Location: San Diego, CA USA

Post by oolala53 » Sun Nov 08, 2015 9:33 pm

Be gentle on yourself for the past, but possibly a bit firm for the now and future. Get clear what your motivation is. Why is living with moderation better than living with overeating? It makes thing a lot easier when you pump up the value of this in your mind.

Calmly and with objective curiosity, ponder whether stress eating actually relieves stress. Is it a temporary fix with little repercussion or something else? It is important not to to panic about this or get incriminating, but to be thought-ful and calmly rational about it. When it becomes clear, it gets easier to make the better choice in the moment. Not necessarily easy, but easier.

I have found that for the most part, eating moderate meals regularly, of decent food- I don't have to be perfect, especially if I'm sticking to one-plate meals- is a stress reliever and supports living in difficult times. This is relatively hard-won knowledge! I had to go through some stressful experiences of tolerating the anxiety of wanting to eat without doing it. Making sure I had meals to look forward to made it easier. And it was worth it. Of course, the old habits do have definite "grooves" in the brain that can make them seem attractive or even imperative, but we can create new ones, one meal-gap at a time. Just think that every time you get from moderate meal to moderate meal without a food crutch, you are building your bank account of successful experiences and/or creating new grooves in the prefrontal cortex or making new neural patterns, etc., whichever metaphor (or make your own) seems most powerful. These go a long way!

BTW, on N days, I do not wait for hunger. I used to get hungry for my meals, but as I've gotten older, eating even tiny meals doesn't not lead to hunger in a reasonable meal gap, say 5-6 hours. I ran into trouble when I skipped meals on weekdays. I am more likely to skip meals on weekends, ironically. But that didn't come for about two years.
Count plates, not calories. 11 years "during"
Age 69
BMI Jan/10-30.8
1/12-26.8 3/13-24.9 +/- 8-lb. 3 yrs
9/17 22.8 (flux) 3/18 22.2
2 yrs flux 6/20 22
1/21-23

There is no S better than Vanilla No S (mods now as a senior citizen)

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lpearlmom
Posts: 4812
Joined: Fri Aug 02, 2013 4:59 am
Location: Arizona

Post by lpearlmom » Mon Nov 09, 2015 5:04 am

I definitely don't wait to eat till I'm hungry. I have break as soon as I can In the morning, lunch at 12-1230 and dinner time anytime between 6-8. You will train your body to be hungry at those times even if you're not originally hungry, but it won't take long.

Gl--you can do this!

Linda
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

oolala53
Posts: 10059
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2008 1:46 am
Location: San Diego, CA USA

Post by oolala53 » Mon Nov 09, 2015 6:48 am

I meant to say that I think it is a good thing to go ahead and have at least some small meal in your midday even when things seem hectic. It might just be a bowl of soup and piece of bread. Just for the habit.
Count plates, not calories. 11 years "during"
Age 69
BMI Jan/10-30.8
1/12-26.8 3/13-24.9 +/- 8-lb. 3 yrs
9/17 22.8 (flux) 3/18 22.2
2 yrs flux 6/20 22
1/21-23

There is no S better than Vanilla No S (mods now as a senior citizen)

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