Everyday Systems

I am just getting into the No S process and am enjoying the freedom it allows while reinforcing good habits.

In going through this, I have a few questions on the single plate thought. For my breakfast and lunch, I usually eat over an extended time at my desk. In the past, I would make oatmeal, then an hour later I would get my yoghurt, then get an egg, etc. On No S I have been making my breakfast for the single plate but I take a couple of hours to eat it all. Same story with lunch. Does that still fall within the agreed parameters of No S?

I am mainly looking at this program as a maintenance strategy. Over the last 3+/- years I have lost about 55lbs to my idea weight. This was all through diet and excessive and obsessive calorie counting. My main downfall has been the snacking (and obsessions that snacking breeds) and the sweets. Those two S's are what appealed to me about No S. I would occasionally get seconds, so knowing that isn't part of the program is good as well.

Appreciate the discussions on this board and welcome any thoughts on the question I posed above.

1320401,

That seems reasonable. Honestly my breakfasts are much the same; I'm fixing breakfast for the (homeschooled) kids while husband does math lessons with them, but then have to take over lessons when he goes to work, so my own breakfast can take over an hour to consume -- sometimes I have to microwave it back to life.

The important things it seems to me are (1) you've got it all assembled on a plate -- physical or imagined -- to start with, so your amount is fixed; and (2) at some point you arrive at a definite End To Breakfast (or lunch). I like to signal that to my brain by drinking my second cup of coffee.

1320401 wrote:I am just getting into the No S process and am enjoying the freedom it allows while reinforcing good habits.

In going through this, I have a few questions on the single plate thought. For my breakfast and lunch, I usually eat over an extended time at my desk. In the past, I would make oatmeal, then an hour later I would get my yoghurt, then get an egg, etc. On No S I have been making my breakfast for the single plate but I take a couple of hours to eat it all. Same story with lunch. Does that still fall within the agreed parameters of No S?

I am mainly looking at this program as a maintenance strategy. Over the last 3+/- years I have lost about 55lbs to my idea weight. This was all through diet and excessive and obsessive calorie counting. My main downfall has been the snacking (and obsessions that snacking breeds) and the sweets. Those two S's are what appealed to me about No S. I would occasionally get seconds, so knowing that isn't part of the program is good as well.

Appreciate the discussions on this board and welcome any thoughts on the question I posed above.

Congrats on your loss! I have two thoughts...

If I'm understanding you correctly, is this the same amount & type of food that you were eating when you lost weight? If so, it seems very reasonable to continue.

If it's more or different than what you ate before, I'd be more wary. I might try it for a couple of weeks or a month and see how your body responds. My hesitation:

if you are eating it over that long of a time period, it's more like a series of snacks than a meal, and it might make it harder for you to feel hunger/fullness signals. It may be that you'll end up eating more food overall this way than if you had one, 30 minute meal that was all on one plate. Or, it may also be that it impacts you in other ways (making snacking or seconds harder to give up for dinner, making snacking all day on weekends less of a mental "jump" which may or may not end up sabotaging your overall results). It's hard to say whether it might be just fine or if it might have some negative impact on the overall habits you want to establish or your overall goal of maintaining. So that's why I might take a "try it and evaluate" type of approach.

Let us know what you discover!

There are advantages to having longer gaps than we might be used to between eating events but that can be superseded by other conditions. I don't see a reason not to give it a whirl for a month.

Thank you all for the responses.

Generally, I have been trying to eat about the same amount of food for the meals that I was eating before, just all at once vs smaller meal and a midmorning snack before I started No S.

For this past week I haven't been able to "graze" on breakfast and lunch as I had in my first week. I think it actually is helpful to eat breakfasts and lunches in a concentrated period of time rather than spreading it out.

I typically do breakfast around 10:00am, lunch around 1:00pm and dinner at 5:30. So far I haven't had overwhelming hunger at any point. On mornings that I workout I drink a few egg whites with some kefir right after the workout.

I did do a little binge last weekend (oops) and stepped on the scale today to a bit of a surprise. I like to think it is my increase in strength training but....

Binges on S days aren't an oops at first. They're not required, but they are often a release valve. Not meant to be permanent, but the timeline on them with and without mods is individual.