Everyday Systems

Hi!

I started NOS on 12/27/06 and so far lost 6-7 lb. This is a system that I can maintain for life. I realize that my weight loss will slow down, but eventually I should get to my ideal weight.

Question about snacks: The French do not eat snacks and are fairly trim and healthy compared to us. What is the reason we can have them on S days? What if we banished snacks?

Thanks!

I don't know that many French people, but I think they've been known to eat snacks, like a croissant or brioche au chocolat in the afternoon with coffee or tea. And what about the Nutella crepe stands all over Paris? They wouldn't exist if people didn't buy from them.

Mireille Guiliano (the French Women Don't Get Fat writer--my mom is obsessed with her and passes her books on to me) certainly doesn't rule out afternoon snacks. French snacks may be tiny and balanced out by lots of walking, etc., and they may be more like a classy pastry eaten in a cafe than a bag of Cheetos in front of the TV (although I daresay something like that has probably been eaten in France at some point), but they exist.

As for why we're allowed them on S-Days, I'll defer to Reinhard or someone else who has more experience with the diet, but I would guess it's like everything else, a safety valve to ward off temptation and feelings of failure on N-days.

According to the narrative at the no s diet cite (http://www.nosdiet.com/) From a 2004 article in Harvard Magazine:

"The French explanation for why Americans are so big is simple," said Jody Adams, chef/partner of Rialto, a restaurant in Harvard Square, speaking at the Oldways conference. "We eat lots of sugar, and we eat between meals. In France, no one gets so fat as to sue the restaurant!" Indeed, the national response to our glut of comestibles is apparently to eat only one meal day all day long. We eat everywhere and at all times: at work, at play, and in transit.

Isn't "eat between meals" a snack?

I've read a lot of the books on the French Paradox and it's actually very similar, at the core, to No-S and Urban Ranger.

The key is that the French traditionally aren't having those snacks every day, it's a treat. Same thing with desserts, which are richer and less sugary, I understand. More eggs/nuts/dairy and less actual sugar. And they walk, walk, walk, often for daily transportation.

When I was in Europe, the thing I noticed most was the small portions that were eaten routinely in restaurants and at family dinner tables. I think the "Super Sizer" portions here are what is making us so fat. Most Americans go for the mega meal. I saw Europeans eating very small snacks nearly every day, but again, .......the snack was SMALL.

I don't think that quote should be read as meaning, "no French person EVER snacks PERIOD" but rather "the French do not habitually snack on a daily basis."

So I think the No S weekend exception passes even gallic muster.

Could you reduce calorie consumption a little more if you extended this S rule to weekends? Maybe. But it would come at a cost in clarity (an exception to the exception) and reward that I wouldn't want to pay.

As for the afternoon coffee and croissant, I believe the French would consider that a meal. I know that's how my relatives in Germany consider it. But no, I don't think that means we here should jump to four meals. No S is a useful approximation, not an exact replica. We can't build an exact replica without rebuilding a whole society.

Reinhard

Hi all
Johnny, congrats on your loss so far!
Everyone has a particular S they are grappling with which made them fat.
Some are coping with more than one. Snacking seems to get most easily banished, especially at the outset of NoS.. Feel free to banish it, but the beauty of NoS is that weekends are flexible and free..
Without that feeling of total freedom (again it doesn't mean you must have all S's, you just have the option) then they don't feel like the reward for being strict during the week.. That strictness on N days just shouldn't carry over in the slightest bit, on the weekends.. We need the steam valve to recharge and reward ourselves for a good week of N days..
It really does work.
I had a very indulgent weekend, and some of it was a tiny bit of snacking, though I don't snack during the week at all.. I lable it snacking because basically, on the weekend, I just loosen up the rigid three meals a day, and allow a small afternoon meal or a cup of soup or a little slice of bread with butter.. In the end, it's my strictness and the addition of exercise during the week that makes or breaks NoS.. I would deeply resent having to carry over rules over the weekend..
Infact, I tried to do this with my son last night because he wanted two S's at once.. He wanted some cherry pie, and also some rice pudding..
Part of me was thinking, "We don't have that much food in the house or money to be scarfing down all the S's at once" and part of me didn't want him to get back into his only big S problem, sweets ad nauseum, but when I said "Hey, what about having one of those, not two at a time? You don't want to start getting overweight" He replied, "But it's an S day" and seemed pretty bummed out.. Thing is, he never has had a bad reaction to me restricting the sweets on N days.. He really has accepted, without resentment, the structure of N and S days.. So it was as if I was taking away the fun of S days for him.. In the end, I allowed him to have both, but I only gave him a small portion of each so it ended up being a medium sized dessert plate and not a whopper..
Anyway.. I rambled with that story a bit, but my main point really is that once you get used to the structure of strict and then rule free, it really does solidify in your "habit brain"

Aside to our esteemed leader
Reinhard, to my knowledge, I've never heard "Habit Brain" used in any other context besides your writings.. Perhaps you ought to trademark it..
Training that part of us is the biggest selling point and success/failure factor in NoS as far as I am concerned..

Have a great day!
Peace and Love,
Debs