What is the hardest thing for you?

No Snacks, no sweets, no seconds. Except on Days that start with S. Too simple for you? Simple is why it works. Look here for questions, introductions, support, success stories.

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GabbyGirl2
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What is the hardest thing for you?

Post by GabbyGirl2 » Tue Aug 11, 2020 12:58 pm

I am new here but I have encountered difficulty with no snacking. I was used to snacking (or "grazing") all day long and have been using juice or milk to tide me over. It's not so much hunger but a psychological urge. I would appreciate any help. Thanks!

Jen1974
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Re: What is the hardest thing for you?

Post by Jen1974 » Wed Aug 12, 2020 3:57 pm

For me balanced meals & a later breakfast seems to help. I don’t wakeup hungry so I tend to eat at 9:30/10:00, 2:30/3:00 & 7:30/8:00. If I’m famashed before dinner I’ll have fruit/veggies to hold me over!! And to keep myself from bordom eating I write out a checklist of “up next”. Knowing I’m going to do XYZ & than it will be about time for lunch can help fight the annoying urge to eat before I’m truly hungry :D

GabbyGirl2
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Re: What is the hardest thing for you?

Post by GabbyGirl2 » Wed Aug 12, 2020 7:35 pm

Unfortunately, I am usually famished when I first wake up. We get up at 6 AM. I often wake up at 3:30 or 4 AM and white-knuckle it until 6. I eat lunch at noon and dinner at around 6 or 7 PM. I usually am not famished before lunch or dinner, but I do have an appetite. The psychological urge to snack between meals is very strong so I try to stick with OJ in the morning and milk in the afternoon. I think your solution is a good one but I just don't feel ready for mods. The book is very strict about snacking. I like the checklist, though!

GabbyGirl2
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Re: What is the hardest thing for you?

Post by GabbyGirl2 » Wed Aug 12, 2020 7:38 pm

Sorry I posted twice. I don't know how I did that.

April
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Re: What is the hardest thing for you?

Post by April » Thu Aug 13, 2020 11:35 am

I have found that distracting myself with being very busy with something physical: laundry, cleaning, a short walk, a hobby etc. and also change in environment, even if it is stepping outside, or going in another room (but not the kitchen LOL!) helps the urge to pass which only lasts maybe 10 minutes for me. Unfortunately, overloaded plates are my downfall as I can power through the no snacking rule easily now. Good luck! Also, I know someone who used sugarfree gum as a pacifier for a need to chew on something to get through. Unfortunately now that is a permanent habit for her now between meals.
April

"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

automatedeating
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Re: What is the hardest thing for you?

Post by automatedeating » Thu Aug 13, 2020 3:24 pm

Many, many of us used milk, coffee, or tea to tide over the snack urges in the early days. As your metabolism gets a little more healthy, you will be able to go longer without eating. I'm also wondering a tiny bit if you are eating adequate protein. Not sure why that came to mind with your question, but it was a "blink" kind of thing.

I would stick with milk, and not OJ. Even very healthy people will have a pretty big sugar rush from OJ (resulting in more hunger sooner), whereas the milk will come along with some fat and protein. Milk is the rare liquid calories that our body registers a bit more and provides greater satiety.

If you are waking up famished at 4am, if you get up, just eat then (or have the cup of whole fat milk). If you stay in bed, that's tougher because does that mean your sleep is compromised? Clearly your body is on different rhythm. I wonder if you are stressed out and having a super big cortisol rush at 4am...?

And, although you want to avoid a mod, if you have a PLANNED 4th meal you are still on plan, ya know what I mean? Reinhard just found a plan that worked for him - your challenge is to now find a plan that works for you right now. You can always shift your plan as you can go longer between meals. So you could PLAN a 5am creamy coffee and an egg, an 8am omelette, then lunch at noon and dinner at 6. Something like that, because clearly mornings are your difficult time.
Month/Year-BMI
8/13-26.3
8/14-24.5
5/15-26.2
1/16-26.9; 9/16-25.6
8/17-25.8; 11/17-26.9
3/18-25.6; 8/18-24.5; 10/18-23.8;
3/19-22.1; 10/19-21.8
6/20-22.5; 7/20-23.0; 9/20-23.6
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Octavia
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Re: What is the hardest thing for you?

Post by Octavia » Thu Aug 13, 2020 5:33 pm

Totally agree with auto - milk is incredibly helpful, and also the idea of ‘splitting breakfast in two’ if you’re having to get up very early, can help. I think early mornings/long working days can be a real challenge on No S, and it’s good to be pragmatic, to make the diet work for you. As long as you’re not randomly grazing through the morning, you’re still building up that important habit of proper meals and no snacks. Good luck!

GabbyGirl2
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Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2020 11:37 am

Re: What is the hardest thing for you?

Post by GabbyGirl2 » Thu Aug 13, 2020 7:08 pm

Thank you so much for your good advice! I have read "hints" in the book that OJ may not be the best thing to tide you over on an N day, so I am going to treat it as a snack on S days. I was kind of thinking that way anyhow (a beverage that works well between meals, in addition to milk, is V-8 juice). I will explore the gum. Biotine lozenges help, too. Cutting breakfast in half may also be helpful, although I may need a little more experience before that. You're right, milk is great. Also, I am probably not getting enough protein at breakfast. For example, I had cereal AND toast this morning, which only has a little protein in the milk on the cereal. An egg would be much better. Thanks again for your very helpful comments!

GabbyGirl2
Posts: 107
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Re: What is the hardest thing for you?

Post by GabbyGirl2 » Mon Aug 24, 2020 6:54 pm

Well, all good intentions.....Let me tell you what my day has been like so far. It's Monday, and I vowed to start the week keeping to my version of No S (three meals, with a planned healthy snack in between, which I plan to give up when I have more time under my belt). So I had 1/2 of a bagel with light cream cheese, plus coffee with milk and some OJ, for breakfast at 6:30. Then I got hungry around 10:30, and had the other half of the bagel with Smart Balance (a planned snack, right?). Then there was a bit of family drama that stressed me out, so I got out the pint of coffee ice cream that I was saving for the weekend, and ate a bowl of that. The family drama continued, so I ate one of those giant muffins. Then I got out that pint of ice cream again and finished it off. Now it's past lunchtime. I would like to have a good dinner at 6 as usual, but I promised my brother (an unwitting part of the family drama) that I would call him at 6. I don't want dinner at 5, so I don't know how to handle it, as we usually talk until 8 (he has some very serious stuff going on and I am his refuge person).

So, that has been my day. How does all this fit into No S?

pinkhippie
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Re: What is the hardest thing for you?

Post by pinkhippie » Tue Aug 25, 2020 12:56 am

Sorry to hear of your family drama. That is the quickest thing to derail me from No S. But luckily, this really isn't a diet per se but a way of life and new habits that you are building. So, just mark it and move on. Try again tomorrow. Maybe for your brother, just eat a little something to tide you over until you are done talking with him? Also I noticed your breakfast seems to be pretty low in fat. I know that for me, I need fat to feel satiatated and not crave things like ice cream and peanut butter. Not sure if that is the same for you.

Sorry your day didn't go how you planned it, but its really ok! Try again tomorrow and notice what worked for you, and what didn't and adjust accordingly as you go along.

oolala53
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Re: What is the hardest thing for you?

Post by oolala53 » Tue Aug 25, 2020 2:02 am

I gently recommend that you look at the hierarchy of recommended beverages between meals. Milk is the LAST one on the list. And definitely since it is caloric, and not very low caloric, I suggest it should be used only in the presence of true, strong hunger, not the psychological urge to eat. Continuing to reinforce that urge with calories I think is what makes it seem like having drama is a reason to go for the ice cream. Psychological/anxious drives to eat don't just go away on their own because a person aspires to a meal structure. Tolerating them is a form of withdrawal, which is different I believe from tolerating true hunger. They go away best when they are thwarted when they present. I know that's hard to hear! As long as a person is thinking, well, x happened so I did y, as if that is inevitable, it will probably be a repeating pattern. I don't mean to sound uncaring. I understand it is a cultural belief that it is almost impossible to resist stress eating, but it is mostly for people who don't resist it or who do it. For people who aren't inclined that way or for those who have made it a goal to break that bond, after awhile, for them, it stops making any sense at all to do it. They hear people say, oh, x happened so of course I ate y, and they will nod and have some sympathy but a part of them will be thinking, what has eating Y got to do with it?

I'm not saying you would have to go cold turkey, but it's good to have an idea where you're heading and how you might wean yourself off the habit. I started No S during three of the most burdensome years of my teaching (which was 23 years of burden), so I know! But I was 56 and didn't think I could afford to spend more years eating compulsively for the tons of excuses my brain could come up with.

I ate rather hefty meals-I would never have made it a morning on one bagel, juice and coffee back then, but sounds like you don't need much-, being sure to include something non-sweet and a little decadent in most meals to look back on and forward to. I did not then nor ever actually focus centrally on weight loss, but on breaking the bond to food. You can't sustain any weight loss without that anyway, and it has served me well. (50 lbs. off) I did drink decaf mocha and au lait (mostly concocted at work, and much lighter than commercial versions). But when those inevitable urges came (and they did in the afternoon when the students had left and I was looking at HOURS of prep and reviewing their work), I would consciously remember the lunch I had and think about something wonderful coming up at my dinner- a biscuit, nuts, cheese, whole wheat garlic bread were things that felt rewarding to me- and remind myself that there was NO WAY I needed food, that I had had plenty of food not that long ago, that I had food coming up, that my body was MADE to get through times without food, that it had a fantastic storage system that I wanted it to get better at drawing on.

So there was a BIG mental element for me. We know WHAT we should do; it's just dumb luck that some people stumble on a plan that makes it effortless. And they're usually either lying or not remembering the mental tricks they used.

Sorry for the family troubles. I did move away from my family decades ago, which has its costs and benefits. But few lives are free of some kind of associated drama. I felt I couldn't wait to have a less stressful life before I made these changes. I also don't claim I haven't had some periods of relapse over the last 10.5 years but I never truly abandoned the theory and it's rarely an issue now.

I know it's over but for the telephone situation, I might have somehow gotten in touch and said, I really need to push back the time to 6:30, no explanation. Then compromised on eating earlier, though I sometimes ate earlier because I was raring for dinner!

Because of the long eating window, I agree that it's okay to break up what would have been a one plate/bowl meal at any point in the day that makes sense.

Don't give up! It really is worth it to be less ruled by food.
Count plates, not calories. 11 years "during"
Age 69
BMI Jan/10-30.8
1/12-26.8 3/13-24.9 +/- 8-lb. 3 yrs
9/17 22.8 (flux) 3/18 22.2
2 yrs flux 6/20 22
1/21-23

There is no S better than Vanilla No S (mods now as a senior citizen)

GabbyGirl2
Posts: 107
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2020 11:37 am

Re: What is the hardest thing for you?

Post by GabbyGirl2 » Tue Aug 25, 2020 8:29 am

Thank you, Pinkhippie and Oolala! What you both say makes so much sense. It's true that life is naturally full of stress; no way to avoid it. Stress is not a reason to hit the ice cream, though. I have such a hard time resisting. I want to do vanilla No S, but haven't done it yet. Not one day since I started on Aug 7th. A very rocky start. The fear of hunger, as well as the psychological need to eat, goes back to childhood and a history of disorderd eating in my family. Not that that is an excuse; it's just an explanation.

The telephone thing got delayed until tonight, so I am going to break up dinner into pre- and post-phone call. We only talk once a week, but text every day. Maybe I need to back off a little bit; that's what my husband thinks, which just adds to the drama! Oh, well.

oolala53
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Location: San Diego, CA USA

Re: What is the hardest thing for you?

Post by oolala53 » Tue Aug 25, 2020 11:20 pm

A strategy taught by Dr. Glenn Livingston- actually, he didn't invent it but just systematically incorporated it into his program, is to write out what you imagine will happen in your life in 5 or 10 years if you keep eating the way you're eating, including the mental suffering you do over it. That can often get people to muster the will to oppose the urges when they come. He has a free book on Amazon, but some of his imagery can be a turn off. It took me awhile, buthis interpretation of what is going on makes some sense, even when urges seem emotional.

When you start seeing that you're paying a higher price by giving in and suffering later than you would by staring down the fear, anxiety, desire, whatever and just plain wait to eat, you start doing that and finding out that it's true. But it takes some faith.
Count plates, not calories. 11 years "during"
Age 69
BMI Jan/10-30.8
1/12-26.8 3/13-24.9 +/- 8-lb. 3 yrs
9/17 22.8 (flux) 3/18 22.2
2 yrs flux 6/20 22
1/21-23

There is no S better than Vanilla No S (mods now as a senior citizen)

GabbyGirl2
Posts: 107
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2020 11:37 am

Re: What is the hardest thing for you?

Post by GabbyGirl2 » Wed Aug 26, 2020 11:18 am

Thanks, all of you! I really appreciate it.

pinkhippie
Posts: 1293
Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2010 8:00 pm

Re: What is the hardest thing for you?

Post by pinkhippie » Thu Aug 27, 2020 12:25 am

I hope things are going better for you today!

GabbyGirl2
Posts: 107
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2020 11:37 am

Re: What is the hardest thing for you?

Post by GabbyGirl2 » Thu Aug 27, 2020 3:32 am

Thanks for asking, pinkhippie - yes, things are better today. I made dinner tonight and had only one plate. I count that as a victory! :)

oolala53
Posts: 10059
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2008 1:46 am
Location: San Diego, CA USA

Re: What is the hardest thing for you?

Post by oolala53 » Thu Aug 27, 2020 11:14 pm

That IS a victory! And counting it is helpful in establishing habit.
Count plates, not calories. 11 years "during"
Age 69
BMI Jan/10-30.8
1/12-26.8 3/13-24.9 +/- 8-lb. 3 yrs
9/17 22.8 (flux) 3/18 22.2
2 yrs flux 6/20 22
1/21-23

There is no S better than Vanilla No S (mods now as a senior citizen)

pinkhippie
Posts: 1293
Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2010 8:00 pm

Re: What is the hardest thing for you?

Post by pinkhippie » Thu Aug 27, 2020 11:59 pm

Dinner time has always been one of my hardest to stick to only one plate! Good job! That IS a victory! :)

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