Everyday Systems

Hello! I am new to No S. (well... I did read the book years ago but never actually DID anything). So I am an RN and I work 3 days a week- Sat, Sun, Mon. Which means my "weekends" are Tues-Fri. My husband is a truck driver and his days off are Wed and Th. I am considering making Wed and Th my "S" days, but worry that because they are not "officially" S days, that might lead to not following the program as well. So I am trying to decide whether to leave "S" days exactly the days that start with "S" despite them being work days, or modifying to count the other days as "S" days. Does anyone have any experience with doing this? Thanks so much!

This is a bit of a hard one. Is it likely at all that you will socialize on weekends even though you work? Though there are people who have succeeded in changing S days, in my experience here, I've seen a lot more try it and abandon it. Are your work hours on weekends such that you treat them truly as work days, just as you would if they were M-F?

Truth is no one can tell you with complete assurance what will work. And it's okay if your first attempts don't work completely smoothly. It's just not typical for any eating changes to start AND stay smooth. There will likely be bumps and adjustments as you figure out the best schedule of meal times, etc. Bumps can come early or late. Best to pick something and try it for a month or so, working more on discipline. Try to be calm, firm, and kind, if you can. The time will pass anyway, so you might as well try, since this is one of the more humane ways to moderate your eating.

Thanks so much for your reply! My workdays are 12 hour shift, so unlikely that I would be doing any socializing on those days. Typically they are just workdays. But I also had concerns about changing days just for the simple fact that routine is routine and treating Weekdays as "s" days could be a problem despite the fact they are truly my weekends. At this point I think I will stick with using Saturday and Sunday as the S days and see where it goes thanks so much

Think through your habits and where you encounter the most S-type eating when thinking about this issue.

For me, if Wednesday and Thursdays were days off for my husband and I, and I was most likely to want to go special places or maybe be home and snack with a movie with him or have a special treat together--well, I wouldn't want those days to be N days just because it's no one else's weekend, you know?

On the other hand, if you and your husband don't really have those kinds of traditions, but have other traditions that involve sweets and snacks on the weekends--then making Saturdays and Sundays your S days still makes sense.

In my case, I do Fridays and Sundays. Fridays are a day I'm commonly out with friends, plus my kids like pizza on Friday nights and sometimes we do a treat with that. Sundays have treats at church and more socializing there, tend to be relaxed home days, I might not cook and we might snack, or I might cook an extra special meal and we want a treat with a movie at home that night, etc... Those are the two days that I am most likely to want to have treats or want to snack.

I think the key really is--can you make it the habit every week or almost every week? Try to avoid "floating" the S-days, because then you aren't able to harness the power of habit. If it's your habit every week, it's much easier to stick to (no need to make decisions about it or think it through.)

doglady wrote:My husband is a truck driver and his days off are Wed and Th. I am considering making Wed and Th my "S" days, but worry that because they are not "officially" S days, that might lead to not following the program as well.

I think it depends on personality to some extent. I would 100% go for the We/Th S days if I were you. It would be fun to have the time with one's spouse be unrestricted. But that's just me.

Thank you all! Merry, I'm glad to hear you use Friday and Sunday as s days. I was wondering if anyone else did that. The suggestion to think about our habits is brilliant. We do tend to go out, etc on Thursdays and plan any over night trips and whatnot for midweek. If there is a special occasion, for instance my nieces upcoming wedding that falls on a weekend, we request those days off, so obviously those are exceptions rather than rules. For some reason I just was feeling like I should stick with "the weekend" but that probably won't work long term. And yes, no floating s days, but our days off are consistent, they just aren't traditional, so I don't think that will be a problem. I can't believe I haven't been following this plan all along. It's exactly the way I ate as a kid and teenager. I was always thin. Why do we think "diets" will solve our problem? Sheesh. The answer was right here all along.

i also think, given your schedule(s) and habits, it is a good choice to take wed/thu as S days...

doglady wrote: If there is a special occasion, for instance my nieces upcoming wedding that falls on a weekend, we request those days off, so obviously those are exceptions rather than rules.

You can do up to two NWS ("Non-weekend Special") days per month, so when something really special like a wedding comes up, you're covered .

Exactly! Thanks so much everyone!