a kind of anniversary, 15 years
Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2023 11:59 pm
I just noticed that I signed up in this community on Oct. 9 in 2008. So it's been 15 years. If I remember correctly, I had one green week before Thanksgiving and fell apart until the next summer (2009), also for about a week when I was at a workshop for teachers out of town with a dining hall. Didn't get traction at home on the return but finally surrendered after Christmas of 2009. I call 1/1/2010 my official start, but really the time leading up to that with efforts and failures and whatever new learnings brought that final commitment were part of it all, too. I've been in a similar normal BMI weight range (started in low obese range) since spring of 2012. I can't say I follow quite as systematic a plan after becoming a senior citizen with changing appetite and nutritional priorities, but I will be forever grateful I came upon No S. I really can't imagine at that point finding a better way to deal with the bingeing I did routinely for years. Even now with some occasional overages and old compulsive eating bx, I never think of myself being that far away from No S (systematic moderation) and as long as I have my faculties do not fear ever getting as caught by crappy food again. Some of those "foods" are in the never category now because experimenting with moderation over several years showed me they just weren't that fun in small quantities and thus didn't supply the celebratory factor anymore. But you don't have to get there. Every successful loser/maintainer has to find the combo for him/her.
