Everyday Systems

so let's do well this last month of the year!
holidays fall on weekend so it should be fine...
im thinking of taking an S day on St. Nicolas' even though im an atheist but my mum is arriving for a visit from croatia and she will bring some lovely eatable gifts for us, and that holiday means so much to her... yes, im doing it...

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16th - triple bday party and had a snack there and a tiny piece of cake...
26th, 27th - Sick days

Oh my..Oh course you should celebrate any time your mum arrives with home made goodies! Unless she lives next door and this is a weekly event. In that case, consider yourself a lucky duck and save the goodies for S days.
I am talking from a mum's point of view, not the official No S stance on the matter... but Everyone Needs A Winter Holiday!

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I'm in! I wonder how my first ever NoS Christmas will go. Hoping for much more control than in previous years!

26th Boxing Day - now changed to 27th as we will be having family over that day. I should be able to have a normal NoS day on the 26th.

5th A planned non weekend S day. Going to an awards evening with my husband's work. Will try and stick to meals breakfast and lunch, and enjoy whatever comes with the dinner!


7th Today was a bit of a challenge, popped in to my parents house to celebrate my Auntie's birthday, I was expecting a birthday cake which I had planned to politely decline. Instead I was faced with a full on buffet at 4.30pm! Decided the best way to handle it was to have 2 small plates of food in place of dinner.

Monday 12th Life is a bit difficult right now. My cat has gone missing, we haven't seen her since last Weds, seems like she's just vanished. Also have found out that my Auntie has cancer. She is a very dear aunt and very close to my mum too. Still, somehow the structure of NoS is staying in place, and for the first time ever I am not turning to food for comfort. It is almost a relief to have at least one area of my life under control.

16th supposed to be staff Christmas lunch, which I had ordered main meal only. However I had to leave before the food was served to take my son to minor injuries, he has broken a couple of bones in his little finger. Lunch ended up being a flapjack and a packet of crisps from the vending machine! Oh dear.

20th well that went wrong I had snacks seconds and sweets. Two glasses of mulled wine and the company of good friends loosened my willpower. Back on it today, and can report that I had a very nice plateful of leftover buffet food for lunch and nothing else!

Oh dear. I have just eaten and drunk my way through Christmas. Feeling over full and will have definitely gained a pound or two. Reverted to all of my bad eating habits. Enough is enough, I am drawing a line and aiming for 3 green days. Come on I can do this.

Phew I ended on a green streak.

Excited for my first challenge! I just put 21 days under my belt yesterday, so now's a good time for a new goal. I've maintained my weight through November, which is pretty good for me, but I still need to make some changes if I'm going to start losing, I think.

I have two family birthdays in December plus Christmas, but luckily I think all of these days fall on weekends anyway! Very lucky.

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Here's hoping for a greener Dec.



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Looks like no NWS days this month. Just doesn't seem right. I'll be making some NWS days or fails along the way to even the score.

Day 9: Took an NWS #1 day. Daughter and her family for dinner and she brought dessert.
Day 14: Too much sampling while making fudge.
Day 15: Ate a small handful of nuts between lunch and dinner. Slippery slope ensued.
Day 16: Making this my #2 NWS day this month. Bought my favorite donuts at the Amish Mart. Heartburn is returning.
For all red days afterward, I have no good excuses, except:
Day 30: Daughter had a NY's Eve party a day early.

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I'm planning an S event on Friday, 12/2 I am attending a Christmas Gala and if memory serves me correctly, the desserts are amazing. I don't want to make to many exceptions to vanilla no S, so I'm not sure the thoughts on S events (ie, I'm not planning to stray from the usual template the rest of the day). 12/23 is a family Christmas celebration so that will be an S day as well.

Cheers to a great December!!!!

I hoping I will stay on track. I'd like to stay green until my Christmas events.

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Just trying to get all the dates and emoticons lined up has been a challenge never mind the whole of December

Ok so month challenge-first part should be fine as although I have some Christmas things planned some are at weekends and some parties I am hopeful I can stick to the NoS. Have taken boxing day as S day we still have family and friends over. Then have 30th as an S days as away for New Year, if I manage to achieve about 80% of my challenge I will delighted. But it if it goes wrong its ok- this is the long haul and a change of life. Slowly slowly!!!!
Good luck everyone : oh dear not going well this week but have posted on my daily check in. Move on and try to do better next week

I'm pretty sure that 26th will be a food-filled day for me - so I'm going to give myself some leeway there. it's the only extra S day in the month, amazingly!

2nd - Darn it - went out for a 'birthday lunch' with a friend, and then caved in and said 'yes' to dessert - really wish I hadn't - didn't need it, didn't even really want it; social pressure?!

21st - some chocs & cheesy biscuits at work - doh!
22nd - some chocolate and crisps in the evening - mostly due to feeling hacked off at work
23rd - just one square of chocolate mid-afternoon - hardly a fail, but a fail none-the-less
27th - several chocolates and cookies at work in the evening
28th - some chocolate and cookies after the panto in the evening
30th - five chocolates

gosh - I am going to plan a better strategy for NEXT Xmas! This was really chaotic - I didn't like it!

Hm, tricky month for me since I usually do S days on Fridays and Sundays! Decided to switch for Christmas weekend. I have a party to go to on the 7th, and will be with friends on the 30th-31st...so, hopefully this will work out and keep me to two NWS days for the month!

LOVE the little calendars with the plan marked out! How did you do that?

It does help a LOT that the holidays correspond to S-days this year. I do have at least one Friday-party, but that's all I can think of that would be an extra.

kccc wrote:LOVE the little calendars with the plan marked out! How did you do that?

It does help a LOT that the holidays correspond to S-days this year. I do have at least one Friday-party, but that's all I can think of that would be an extra.

Hi. If you click quote on one of the posts with a calendar, then delete everything except for the calendar, then submit, you will have your own calendar. This was kindly explained to me in the October challenge!
I find it helps a great deal to have a daily check in, and somewhere to be honest with myself.

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Ok here we go, wishes for lots of green
All green week: I can get into the 21 day club if I keep this up 1 more week!!!
= It was a hard earned, white-knuckled tough week, but I got through it!=
21 days, woo hoo!
149.6, 2 days in the 4s finally!
20th- Extra bites during and after grand opening of Bojangles, big bite of pumpkin Danish
21st- ugh 2 in a row. The white chocolate peppermint pretzel crisps did me in. Ate a half of one, then continued to eat most of the bag
Nasty stomach bug on 22nd so 23rd taking a Sick day and just starting eat little bland things again
26th- Kept evening up the cheesecake, licking off forks, plates, having any stray bite I could find to cheat and not call it a red dot day!! . Also my lunch and dinner were both more of a grazing; pretty much did the same thing with the lasagna as the cheesecake
27th- I really wanted to keep this green but in my heart I know it's red, see daily check-in. Licked off cheesecake utensils again
28th- ate rest of son's bowl of cereal and 2 bit o honey candies, daughter's homemade bran/flaxseed muffins. Wow is this end of month going red.
29th- Christmas cookies when putting fake display up of dining room table pictures.

Here's January for everybody
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update below, such as it is

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The calendar is suddenly less appealing when I start with a red. (Details in my daily thread.) But I'm here for accountability, so will mark it and move on.

I'm in but wanted to wait until I had a successful No S day to post. I do modify the plan because for me it's better to have 3 plates of anything I want but keep that consistent 7 days a week. I have binge issues and I find this mod (as suggested by Lifeisablessing) helps me out tremendously because no food is ever off limits...only the behavior of mindless snacking/bingeing is! I'm also going to track my weight here.

12/3: SUCCESS - 123.4
12/4: FAIL *fail: protein bar before bed because I was starving!
12/5: -122.6

Allisonmeg wrote:
Ok here we go, wishes for lots of green

Christmas greenery is so pretty

moderatemeals wrote:I'm in but wanted to wait until I had a successful No S day to post. I do modify the plan because for me it's better to have 3 plates of anything I want but keep that consistent 7 days a week. I have binge issues and I find this mod (as suggested by Lifeisablessing) helps me out tremendously because no food is ever off limits...only the behavior of mindless snacking/bingeing is! I'm also going to track my weight here.

12/3: SUCCESS - 123.4

Sounds like a good plan, and congrats on your successful day .

Merry, I like that visual of Christmas greenery.

Thanks so much Merry! You are such a great support to these boards and I always enjoy reading your comments.

moderatemeals

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It worked! Friday I didn't have a proper dinner and then wound up eating a mince pie with cream. So it is a fail, but it wasn't a binge. Thursday will be a planned S day due to a work night out, and so will the 22nd. Also possibly the 27th. I haven't quite decided what to do about 27th-30th - I'm going to my dad's and the wine alone will be lavish and liberal, never mind the constant flow of mince pies/Christmas cake/puddingy things/after dinner port and cheese etc etc. How many extra S days are you all allowing yourselves over the festive period? I'm just glad that Hogmanay and New Year's Day fall at the weekend this year.

Same as always: 2 NWS days. One of mine will be dessert day next week at work. Not sure about the other yet. Or I'll have some failures!

But some people regard travel as vacation and are more lenient. I find that I don't feel cheated by sticking to the structure. I can still have most foods. I can feel more deprived by not getting to be really ready for a meal by NOT eating for several hours before it. But you can't force that, I don't think.

RhiVir2016 wrote: I haven't quite decided what to do about 27th-30th - I'm going to my dad's and the wine alone will be lavish and liberal, never mind the constant flow of mince pies/Christmas cake/puddingy things/after dinner port and cheese etc etc. How many extra S days are you all allowing yourselves over the festive period? I'm just glad that Hogmanay and New Year's Day fall at the weekend this year.

oolala53 wrote:Same as always: 2 NWS days. One of mine will be dessert day next week at work. Not sure about the other yet. Or I'll have some failures!
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That's what I'm doing too. That made me really think about the most special days to me. If I end up with more than two NWS days, I'll count them as red days. But, I do that for vacations too--if I end up taking extra days off, I just count them as red. For me, it makes an easy visual when I'm looking back at my habit-cal--I immediately know how many extra days I took, instead of having to go back and count the yellow days. And, it also motivates me to pay more attention later--if I have a month with several red days, I tend to want to be more "on plan" the next month.

I think the most important thing is to have a plan for those vacation days--rather than how you mark it. For example, if you are really looking forward to some after-dinner wine and pie, you could make these "S events" rather than all day every day being an S day. OTOH, if there are some days that you really want the whole day to be an S day, that's okay too.

When I was newer to No-S, I didn't limit myself on vacations at all--it just sounded too much like a diet then, and I wouldn't have enjoyed it. But this past Thanksgiving, I did decide to have more of a plan to follow--then I felt ready.

So...think through what you really want to do, and what you are ready for (you don't want an overly-depriving plan that makes you want to rebel against No-S and bounce the wrong way later--so doing something doable needs to be in keeping with what you are ready for, if that makes sense.)

Bump

Update below
Man, I have a hard time with updating daily when no alert comes from others checking in. I guess I'm not very committed if I rely on others to get me to check in.

It doesn't help that I'm failing so often and have never been able to find the balance between wanting to avoid failure enough to tough it out and getting miffed when I had to record it, despite all my advice to others.

oolala53 wrote: It doesn't help that I'm failing so often and have never been able to find the balance between wanting to avoid failure enough to tough it out and getting miffed when I had to record it, despite all my advice to others.

I kind of wonder if you are going through a phase of "evening out" in a way, after the "not hungry" phase you've been in. But like you said in your other thread, at least with No-S, all is not lost and we can start back up. Here's hoping we all finish strong in December!

Not sure what you mean by evening out, though it might be true. Can you say a little more?

oolala53 wrote:Not sure what you mean by evening out, though it might be true. Can you say a little more?

I guess I just meant that after not really feeling hunger for a time, now you are struggling the other way and having some red days (whether that's due to sweets, snacks, or seconds calling to you). The body "making up for lost time" so to speak? (Kind of how the body wants to make up for food not eaten when fasting--evening out in that way.) I don't know obviously, just a thought that passed through my mind!

Totally reasonable guess but ironically not being hungry has not stopped me from eating and has actually increased the failures. I want to eat much more often than when I was getting legitimately hungry. I think it's because I don't get AS much satisfaction from what I do eat, and I want that pleasurable eating experience. It's very paradoxical because I don't get what I want either way. But it's at least a small margin of better when I keep to the meal structure, so I keep aspiring.

And it's not to say I don't enjoy my food at all. I do. It's just different. But other things affect the sense of satisfaction as well, and No S can't cure those. Good ol' human frailty!

see 12/22

We have some strong-lookin' folks here!

oolala53 wrote:But other things affect the sense of satisfaction as well, and No S can't cure those. Good ol' human frailty!

Ugh! Sorry you're still going through a rough patch (I was hoping maybe you were turning a corner here).

Well, now I've created a little quandry for myself! I switched my S day this week from Friday (my normal S day) to Saturday on habitcal for the holiday--only I'd forgotten that I'd decided that and I've REALLY been looking forward to my Friday morning treat this week! Oy! I think I'd better leave the switch though. Something treat-oriented is bound to come up on Saturday! Good thing I looked at my habitcal tonight (this is why a floating S day would not be a good idea--at least not for someone like me! Too much thought/memory needed, I'd totally forget!)

What about Christmas Eve? Won't there be sweets you want to take advantage of? Or did you declare it an S so that you could nibble in between meals? Both good reasons.

Could Friday be one of your two NWS days?

oolala53 wrote:What about Christmas Eve? Won't there be sweets you want to take advantage of? Or did you declare it an S so that you could nibble in between meals? Both good reasons.

Not sure I follow you. My normal S days are Friday and Sunday. I switched it for this week so that Saturday and Sunday would be the S days. That's how I'm going to leave it, but all week I've been thinking about my regular Friday morning treat (peppermint mocha)--I'm a creature of habit and just forgot that I won't have a Friday S-day like I usually do this week. Thankfully I looked at my habitcal and was reminded!

oolala53 wrote: Could Friday be one of your two NWS days?

No, I took one for a holiday party early in the month, and the other is saved for the last weekend in the month.

Oh, I thought you were starting to think you would miss your Friday S routine enough to change your mind. Gosh, I know how easy it is to be thrown by variation (and that bugs me: I so want to think I can roll with the punches!)

I wonder if there are people who don't stress at all about Christmas/holiday eating? I actually think not. Holiday weight gain is pretty common all over the world, even if it's a different extended holiday. Our hunter-gatherers' dreams coming true!

oolala53 wrote:Oh, I thought you were starting to think you would miss your Friday S routine enough to change your mind.

Ah, gotcha! Well, I'm with you on that thought then! I really WILL miss it, but I'm determined to keep to what I (very rationally!) decided. In October I hit 184 but regained those lost lbs. when my Mom came. It took me another month to get back there--and then I regained it over Thanksgiving! I did end up net 1 lb. down a week after TG, but I have JUST NOW gotten back to 184 again, and by golly, I'm not doing 3 red/yellow days in a row this weekend! I'm already a bit nervous about going to my friend's at the end of the month and playing this same game for a third month in a row! I may end up foregoing my NWS day that weekend but I don't know if I'll be able to stick with that. I'm so bad on vacations!

Time to remind myself, I didn't gain all this weight overnight, I won't lose it overnight. Patience!

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Well, I gained a few lbs, then lost a couple (I thought stress puts weight on). Not too bad for me over the holidays, although they're not quite over yet. But if I don't throw my hands up over the whole thing, that is, give it all up, I figure I'm ahead of the game.

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Okay, I think I've got this figured out,posting my red and green days that is. I'm better prepared for posting in January's challenge. I'm a bit late for December's challenge, but better late than never.

we are almost done with this month and this year!! one more day and then Sweekend and we are in the 2017!

Whew! End of the month is in sight! Now, if I just enjoy a few treats moderately and don't become an idiot over the weekend, LOL!

and merry, you are my hero this month!! all green in such a festive month!
excellent!!!!

Merry wrote:Whew! End of the month is in sight! Now, if I just enjoy a few treats moderately and don't become an idiot over the weekend, LOL!

Merry I just had a look at your calendar, you have had a perfect December! Well done, you must have iron willpower to get through all of those treats hanging around

This month that I achieved 21 days went completely downhill at Christmas, ready to start the new year!!!

kaalii wrote:and merry, you are my hero this month!! all green in such a festive month!
excellent!!!!

Bluebell wrote: Merry I just had a look at your calendar, you have had a perfect December! Well done, you must have iron willpower to get through all of those treats hanging around

Aw, thanks you two! I think I just do well with boundaries that are clear (well, at least sometimes! I have my moments!). That and knowing that a treat day is coming seems to really help me too. I didn't feel like I was "giving up" a lot. I felt like I was still getting plenty of treats.