Everyday Systems

Today is my first day following NO S. I want to lose about 15-20 pounds. I am currently 180, but once weighed in at 230 @ 5'6 inches tall. I am athletic and train hard. Here are my problems and my planned approach. I am a grazer. My meals are usually small, but I eat all day long. I do not see anything wrong with a snack if you are hungry, but I want to try this for a 3 weeks so that I can get rid of the snack HABIT. Then, if I am tryuly hungry and my next meal is a while off, I will have a small snack. So, I am really just using this to learn to snack like a thin peson snacks.
Once I break the snack habit I will not revert to constant grazing. What do you guys think about the plan? Also, I am a proponent of the whole "just eat when you are hungry" idea. If you are not hungry at meal time, do you just wait and eat your meal later, or do you eat anyway. I probably won't have this problem once I cut out my snacks though. Finally, I love sweets, and I plan to have a small portion at the end of some of my meals (never inbetween), I am talking a spoonful of icecreal or a chocolate square, not an entire Sunday. How does this sound? I am excited about my journey. I have notices that all my lean friends snack rarely, and eat fulfilling meals. They often tease me that I eat like a girl, but they don't know all the calories I am sneaking in with my grazing. Thanks for your opinions and advice in advance.

Welcome. No-S is a really sane way of eating, and this board is really supportive.

I would suggest that you either
1) Do No-S exactly as prescribed for 21 days (including no sweets on non-S days - wait until your S-days for those) or
2) Phase in all three No-S habits until you have them all, and then continue for 21 days before tweaking.

Here's why - one of my favorite podcasts of Reinhard's:
http://everydaysystems.com/podcast/episode.php?id=13 (link to the transcript, but you can get to audio from this page).

Best of luck!

PS - I was also a big snacker, and had to phase in that particular change. My "phase in" was to allow an afternoon snack of a fruit or vegetable "IF I really needed it" (had to check in first, to see if I really did). That worked for me - good luck in finding/creating your own path.

I thought I was a confirmed grazer too, but after a couple of months of No-S'ing I've more or less forgotten all about having snacks. I highly recommend trying the plan just as written until you reach 21 straight days. If you fail, just start again; it took me three tries. You'd be amazed at what a difference 21 days can make in your habits.

About eating when you're hungry, I personally find that it really helps to eat on schedule. After a couple of decades of screwed-up eating, my hunger alarm was more or less broken, and I couldn't really tell the difference between hunger and a craving. Since I started No-S I've had some little hunger pangs between meals, but I've learned that I can't actually starve in 6-8 hours, and I'm never hungry at the end of a meal. If you're anything like I was, plain No-S is the way to start.

Let us know how it goes!

I agree with flora.

For me, I tried to modify it with a snack here or a snack there and it really was defeating the purpose of not snacking. I found myself eating bigger and bigger snacks and then just screwing it and going for an entire box of crackers and a full sized pbj bagel! Ouch! I floundered around like this for about a month before I decided to just bite it and stick to the noS.

I am a years long confessed permasnacker. And now, I admit, I hardly give it a thought. If I do, it means I'm bored and need to find something else to do.

Good luck on your journey!
Tiffani