Everyday Systems

Another newbie here. Just started yesterday after reading and after it clicked! No Sweets for me is fine, i quit sugar long time ago except occasionally and don't crave it.
The no snacking is the issue specially with the no Seconds.
I was snacking on nuts and fruits in the past. I don't mind to stick to 3 meals a day 1 plate a meal, but the fruits are an issue. How should I suppose to put fruits in the same main dish?! I understand that Salad dish is ok to have, but what about fruits? Oh and 1 more thing, what about soup?
In other words, for the organization sake, can I just have 3 small plates (fruits+soups+salad)+1 big plate for main meal and still call it a No S diet?
Thanks

In order for your way of eating to truly be "No-S," the fruit you eat with a meal should occupy space on your plate. The idea here is that you're developing the habit of not snacking between meals, and utilizing a method of portion control that doesn't require a great deal of thought, planning, or will power (i.e., what you eat at a meal should fit on one plate). Having soup and salad as a meal is fine, but not in addition to another full plate of food. Try eating a small bowl of soup, along with a big plateful of salad with a variety of toppings (get creative!)... that's all the food anyone needs at a sitting.

Shuggernaut wrote: Having soup and salad as a meal is fine, but not in addition to another full plate of food.

So you are telling me that it is not good to eat a bowl of green salad (with no dressing or spices at all) in addition to my pasta or my steak plate? And I have to either add the salad to the pasta plate (Yak!) or else skip the green salad?! Sorry but how that could make sense?

lagflag - No need to panic! I have a separate bowl of leafy green salad with lots of cut veggies in it with my dinner every night, and I was able to achieve my weight/fat loss goals and continue to maintain. I think if your salad is itself a meal--i.e., if you have a large Caesar salad, add a hearty portion of protein to it like chopped eggs or meat, etc., then you would want to plate it and treat it as your total meal. But side salads in addition to your plated meal are perfectly fine.

As I'm not a big fruit eater, and since fruit in general has higher calories than vegetables/salad due to the sugar content, I would think that you should allot a "space" on your plate for it to account for the higher carb/calorie levels. Obviously don't feel like you should smoosh your fruit alongside your protein/veggies/starch, but definitely account physical space for it on your plate--perhaps you could use a small plate alongside your dinner plate to get an idea of what portion of the larger plate the fruit would take up?

Regarding soup, if you have a small bowl or cup of a light broth-based soup with your meal, you should be fine. But if the soup is heavier, creamier (like New England Clam Chowder, Cream of Whatever soup, or hearty thick soups with lots of meat, chili, etc.), again, you should treat it as your main plated meal.

Hope this helps, and welcome to the NoS boards!

I didn't say anything about your choices being "good" or "bad." I'm talking about the parameters that are described as being "No-S." Nutritionally, you could eat all the plain greens you want with no ill effect. However, the driving force behind No-S is the development of healthy eating habits (independent of you what choose to eat), that will help ensure good health over a lifetime. Generally speaking, if you can teach yourself to only eat three, single-serving meals a day and avoid sweets for five or more days each week, you will have ingrained portion- and calorie-control habits that will lead to sustainable, healthy weight management.

There's nothing "wrong" with eating a salad, a bit of pasta, and a nice steak, though I don't see why anyone would need to eat more of these than would fit onto a single plate. If it's a logistical issue of simply not wanting one item to touch another, then it certainly makes sense to use separate dishes... I don't think anybody here is so ridiculously hung up on the "rules' that they'd insist otherwise. If you want it to remain truly No-S, however, the total quantity should not exceed that which would fit on a single dinner plate. As for the soup, if you're already sitting down to steak, pasta, and a big salad, I'd say save it for another meal, perhaps having it in place of one of the other items.

My understanding with fruit was that if you leave the space on your plate that the banana or whatever occupies, it will thus replace other, less healthy foods that will otherwise go there - i.e. instead of snacking on fruit as well as eating lunch of sandwich and chips, you include the fruit with the meal and thus can fit fewer chips on the plate.

For meals that don't go together, like soup with a sandwich, or cereal and toast, when I was starting out I used to pop my bowl on my plate, so I could visually see what would fit around it. These days I generally run with "serve all the food at the same time on plates or bowls at the table". If I can see it all, and it seems like a reasonable one person meal, that's fine. I run in to problems when I try to eat things in succession - e.g. crackers and dip, then main plate, then fruit salad, as I can eat a lot more without really noticing and thus probably have far more than I would have served if I saw it all at once.

The nice thing about No S is that it doesn't micromanage nutrition decisions. If you're keen on having lots of little things compartmentalised, like a Bento box, that's up to you.

Welcome! Do you have the book? The book talks about "virtual plating" and deals with some of the issues you are questioning. But as others have said, you can use separate plates as long as what you are eating would physically fit on one plate. So reserve a space for that apple or orange if you want it on a separate plate.

No-S limits quantity of food by getting us to think about single-plate meals. Yes, there are times you may need higher-tech options like virtual plating (ha-ha!), but the vast majority of the time, you're thinking about a plate. It's much easier than counting calories etc... as a means of portion control.

I count a side salad, etc. as being on the plate. I also count a half cup of fruit, apple sauce, and so on, as being on the plate. I interpret, at times, as a plate being a meal. Usually the dinner hour. There are no sweets, seconds, or snacks. I guess it is a visual plate. For instance, an old style steak house would give you a steak, potato, and a side salad. I just count that as a plate.

Lagflag, another possibility, which I am contemplating, is to get a plate you can eat off of but that has three or more "sections" for different types of food so they don't touch...

Elyssa wrote:Lagflag, another possibility, which I am contemplating, is to get a plate you can eat off of but that has three or more "sections" for different types of food so they don't touch...

I have a couple of divided plates and love them! It's a great strategy!!