Reinhard on redundancy for reinforcing habits

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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ladybird30
Posts: 1118
Joined: Sun May 07, 2017 10:41 pm

Reinhard on redundancy for reinforcing habits

Post by ladybird30 » Fri Sep 24, 2021 10:46 pm

Recently I checked out Reinhard's podcast # 56, Good Redundancy. This is where "You do things twice or three times in order to make sure it happens at least once."

So what were the redundancies he suggested to reinforce the NoS habits, and how have I been doing?

1. No S rules “No snacks, no sweets, not seconds, except (sometimes) on days that start with S.” Sweets aren't really part of my life, and definitely not on N days. Seconds I eat whenever I feel like I haven't had enough to eat at a meal, as this is preferable for me than undereating. I have got far better at judging how much I need to eat at a meal after several years of No S practice, and this is mostly not a problem for me.

Snacks - I probably have a snack about once a week on average, including a snack on N days about once a fortnight. My snacks are usually the result of hunger or poor organization, which leads me to

2. intelligent dietary defaults. Having one or two meals easily available at all times would certainly help. Could use improvement here.

3. Tracking: yes, an essential part of habit compliance for me, have been using a spread sheet to track for years. The 2 months I didn't track compliance last year were accompanied by a lack of habit compliance and the gain of some unwanted pounds (since gone). I have also gone back to reporting my success and failures here.

4. Daily planning tool - complete fail here as I don't have one except a rudimentary diary to remind me of appointments. Mostly when I get up I have an idea of what I want to do during the day, but that is as far as it goes. Definitely an area to work on.

5. Mantrafication - nothing formal, but I do do a lot of mental reinforcement, going over No S habits, especially when I am out walking. Its a sort of positive rumination.

6. Food logging - yes, I adopted a food log earlier this year as part of my progressive habit tightening.

7. Weighing policy - I weigh most days before I have my morning shower, but only record new high or new lows. Definitely a good tool to prevent nasty surprises.

8. I also have some additional reinforcers, especially important for a retired person living on their own who likes to read with meals:

Once the meal is finished, stop reading, get up, clean up the dishes and kitchen and go and do something else.
Have a project to work on, one that is engrossing and that can be resorted to whenever food starts to call.
Have a displacement activity for times when tiredness makes other more useful activities uninviting. The idea is to stop eating being the go to activity.

Have strategies pre determined for difficult times. For example, if the cravings hit in mid afternoon, I remind myself that it is at the most 2 hours to the next meal, and that the discomfort I am feeling is relatively minor.
As for social occasions, I find that a polite but firm no thankyou or not just at the moment thanks works well.

I go a lot out of this podcast and reflecting on it. Highly recommended.
Three meals a day - not too little not too much, but just right

Amy3010
Posts: 1282
Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2012 9:48 am
Location: Belgium

Re: Reinhard on redundancy for reinforcing habits

Post by Amy3010 » Sat Sep 25, 2021 6:21 am

Thanks for the summary, Ladybird, this does sound like an interesting podcast.

I used to love reading the newspaper while having lunch, but it did make it hard to stop eating, because I wanted to finish the newspaper! This got solved for me when my husband switched to a digital subscription :wink:

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

Re: Reinhard on redundancy for reinforcing habits

Post by oolala53 » Fri Oct 22, 2021 12:36 am

I'm posting this on multiple threads, in case people didn't see the post in September, as I didn't until this week.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12589&sid=f78e58541 ... 8b9ac412b4
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)

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