Everyday Systems

Hello everyone. It feels like I'm conducting a psychological experiment on myself trying to adopt these NoS principles!

My reflections as I head into week 2 are:
1. I wasn't wholly successful on the 'no sweets' part, and allowed myself dessert at meal times 3 out of the 5 noS days... it adds up! I felt ok about it, because I didn't snack and that felt like a major achievement. BUT I'm feeling a renewed determination to try and stick to the programme this week, knowing the weekend is on its way...

2... However, I certainly didn't enjoy the S days as much as one might have anticipated. I think I've read a few people saying this. I think it was specifically allowing myself to snack, which turned into permasnacking on both afternoons, so then meals are less enjoyable etc. and it all feels a bit out of control.

3. It feels a bit of a relief that it's Monday again and sanity/structure has returned. I hope I can encourage myself to not go wild on the S days (lots of you say this settles down, so I hope so!) because the NoS days have made meals SO much more enjoyable, so that's the feeling I like! I think permasnacking is the biggest culprit, and that if I maybe think just enjoy sweets on the weekend without also allowing snacking then it would all be a more pleasurable, less alarming experience! (But just knowing I 'can' snack makes it hard not too...!)

4. I'm also determined to get the exercise component going. i enjoy exercising and know it's very good for my general sense of well-being, but for some reason last week I did less than usual, so i've started with a first attempt at Shovelglove this morning and have a long walk planned for later.

5. I'm trying to ignore the numbers on the scales for now, la la la! I won't make any decisions about that until the new year, so until then the scales can say whatever they want, and hopefully that's long enough to see a difference which will encourage me to continue. There are some amazing success stories on here, and what I find most helpful is to see the time frames involves - a year, two years - I need to be realistic! Thanks if you've read this far!!!

Sounds good for Wk 2.

At the weekends, I find that once I allow myself to snack, it can end up being snacks all day - it seems to upset my metabolism and I feel 'hungry' all day! I do better if I stick to three meals and plan the 'sweets' and 'extras' as part of the meal-events.

Keep going.

Great comments and observations as you head into week 2! I think observing as you go is so important.

One thing that can make S days more enjoyable (someone said this early on--maybe Oolala or Rawcookie!) is to plan a specific treat to look forward to. Sometimes that makes me less likely to do the "free for all" thing on S days! But either way, I usually do really enjoy that specific treat.

Planning the treat was Rawcookie, (and in the book.) I'm not opposed; just hasn't been a strategy that changed anything for me on S days. Ironic, because it has worked on N days (planning something extra scrumptious at a meal.)

I know it's tempting to feel that S days have to get worked out in a few weekends, but it's likely S days will go through several phases over the years. Even N days will, but that will be more over what's on the plate. If there's anybody out there who fell into a pattern that stayed the same for two years or more after just a few weeks or even months, give us a holler! But assume everyone else had lots of adjustments.

Do your best to plan some good meals and then take your mind off it, if you can.

[quote="oolala53" If there's anybody out there who fell into a pattern that stayed the same for two years or more after just a few weeks or even months, give us a holler!"

I wish I could give that holler!

If I could do things differently, I never would have left No S X2, because my weekends were wild and wouldn't tame after months, the first time, and almost 2 years, the second time. They say the third is the charm, so I'm bound and determined to stick to No S, no matter gluttonous weekends. I've also learned more about myself in those times, and this is helpful to my S days.

Concentrate on your N days. I allowed the "discouraging" S days to seep into my N days, which only caused more frustration. That caused me to quit, which was my bigger mistake.

Noni, do you have a check-in thread? You don't need one, but I looked and couldn't see it, if there is one.

Thanks all... Yes, I think the danger is to feel so disheartened by an S day that it ruins the rest. I tried to simply observe myself more this last weekend and think 'well, that's interesting'
It was definitely noticeable to me that permasnacking really reduced the pleasure of eating... So, I think I will try rawcookie's suggestion of trying to keep away from snacking and make the sweet 'Event' part of a meal...
And, therefore, that's Merry's suggestion of making it something very deliberate... We'll see how it goes!

This will be harder on Saturday afternoon when we're at a kids' birthday party and there'll be food everywhere!

I take your point, oolala53, that it's best to not get overly hung up on this, but rather to have an expectation of ups and downs. my tendency is definitely to be 'all or nothing' perfectionist, which is why things go crazy I guess.

ModBod wrote: This will be harder on Saturday afternoon when we're at a kids' birthday party and there'll be food everywhere!

Enjoy the party! These are special occasions--I wouldn't worry about that one bit.

You are not alone about being all or nothing about eating. Researchers have found it to be typical of dieters; the what the hell effect. Just knowing about it can help reduce its effects- over time.

oolala53 wrote:Noni, do you have a check-in thread? You don't need one, but I looked and couldn't see it, if there is one.

No, oolala, I think about it now and then, but I don't have sticktoitiveness, and I'm wouldn't want others to see what a mental case I am...lol

It's the people in my real life who see only too clearly what a mental case I am. I think I hide it relatively well online.