9 months No S Goal - Building habits for 2017
Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 8:33 pm
I've realised recently that I discovered No S almost exactly 2.5 years ago. In that time, I have maintained my weight and changed the way I think about food a lot; it's always the default I try and make my way back to now, rather than jumping from one band wagon to the next. But despite knowing it works, I've never really built up a long green streak, and really made it a proper habit.
It's not an excuse, as the real reason being this is simply that change is difficult, my bad habits are deeply ingrained and I have put in the necessary legwork, but the 2.5 years I mentioned have been pretty turbulant. I've gone from living with my fiance to moving out, breaking up, starting a new career, and now ending said career and not really having "A Plan". The new year has been a bit of an opportunity to reassess. I'm quite a black-and-white, rigid kind of person, I've never not had a specific goal, but knowing that the next few years may also be a bit of a rollercoaster, I know that one thing I really don't want to be dragging with me is my weight hangups and sub-par eating habits into the next stage of my life. Every single option I want to explore in the future will be easier if I am not spending so much psychic energy on just what goes in my mouth.
So here's my goal: 9 months Vanilla No-S, from the 1st April to 31st December. Wherever I am in 9 months time, I don't want my new Year's resolution for the 13th (omg, that's depressing) year in a row to have anything to do with weight loss or dieting.
If I can do 9 months of NoS, I know already from my inconsistent No Sing that my weight won't really matter; either I will be at a weight I am comfortable with, or I'll still be a little way off, but I will have had 9 months without dieting, counting or spending any additional time thinking about it than what it necessary to maintain good habits.
And honestly, if in 9 months time I weigh the same but with solidly ingrained habits for eating well, then that's still a significant step forward, and I can decide then with those good habits in place what other measures, if any, I would be willing to follow for the rest of my life.
My weight loss goal is around 40lb, although that doesn't have to be in the next 9 months (though that would be great!). I'm going to and prepare food with that goal in mind, so limiting sugar and extra starches where necessary, but NoS is my goal more than the weight loss for now - I'll be measuring my success by my days on habit rather than pounds lost, so I'm still going to be eating proper meals of foods I enjoy, but it would be silly to eat pizza for every meal when I do still want to lose weight.
Hopefully I can come back and update this in 9 months time at the start of the new year with a 9 months streak behind me!
It's not an excuse, as the real reason being this is simply that change is difficult, my bad habits are deeply ingrained and I have put in the necessary legwork, but the 2.5 years I mentioned have been pretty turbulant. I've gone from living with my fiance to moving out, breaking up, starting a new career, and now ending said career and not really having "A Plan". The new year has been a bit of an opportunity to reassess. I'm quite a black-and-white, rigid kind of person, I've never not had a specific goal, but knowing that the next few years may also be a bit of a rollercoaster, I know that one thing I really don't want to be dragging with me is my weight hangups and sub-par eating habits into the next stage of my life. Every single option I want to explore in the future will be easier if I am not spending so much psychic energy on just what goes in my mouth.
So here's my goal: 9 months Vanilla No-S, from the 1st April to 31st December. Wherever I am in 9 months time, I don't want my new Year's resolution for the 13th (omg, that's depressing) year in a row to have anything to do with weight loss or dieting.
If I can do 9 months of NoS, I know already from my inconsistent No Sing that my weight won't really matter; either I will be at a weight I am comfortable with, or I'll still be a little way off, but I will have had 9 months without dieting, counting or spending any additional time thinking about it than what it necessary to maintain good habits.
And honestly, if in 9 months time I weigh the same but with solidly ingrained habits for eating well, then that's still a significant step forward, and I can decide then with those good habits in place what other measures, if any, I would be willing to follow for the rest of my life.
My weight loss goal is around 40lb, although that doesn't have to be in the next 9 months (though that would be great!). I'm going to and prepare food with that goal in mind, so limiting sugar and extra starches where necessary, but NoS is my goal more than the weight loss for now - I'll be measuring my success by my days on habit rather than pounds lost, so I'm still going to be eating proper meals of foods I enjoy, but it would be silly to eat pizza for every meal when I do still want to lose weight.
Hopefully I can come back and update this in 9 months time at the start of the new year with a 9 months streak behind me!