Everyday Systems

While thinking about diets today, I recalled an old story from an Elizabethan author I'd like to share;

There was a cunning Doctor at his first going to sea, being doubtful that he should be sea sick, an old woman perceiving the same, said unto him: "Sir, I pray, be of good comfort, I will teach you a trick to avoid that doubt. Here is a fine pebble stone, if you please to accept it, take it with you, and when you are on ship board, put it in your mouth, and as long you shall keep the same in your mouth, upon my credit you shall never vomit." The Doctor believed her, and took it thankfully at her hands, and when he was at sea, he began to be sick, whereupon he presently put the stone in his mouth, & there kept it so long as he possibly could, but through his extreme sickness the stone with vomit was cast out of his mouth. Then presently he remembered how the woman had mocked him, and yet her words were true. -- George Silver's 'Paradoxes of Defence'

It struck me as a story analogous to a dieter's relationship to the diet industry. Here, our poor doctor is worried about sea-sickness, and is offered a 'cure'. The cure's effectiveness depends entirely on his own ability to not be sea-sick.

What about us? As dieters, we are people who recognise that our problem is the moderation of food. We come looking for a cure, and are offered plans which rely on our ability to moderate food. The result? Diets look plausible but almost always fail. They fail because they rely on the dieter's ability to moderate food. Which is the very source of the problem.

It's a terrible knot, but it does suggest what is most important in dieting. It's the innate ability to moderate eating. Just something akin to willpower, or habit, or instinctive reaction. Without that, no diet will work. With it, any diet will work.

That's what I like about no-s; the habit-forming part attempts to do what needs to be done; turning people into those who can moderate their eating.

I love this post. The story is great and the analogy even better. Thanks.

Thanks for another great post, Steve.

LOL-great story!!

That's what I like about no-s; the habit-forming part attempts to do what needs to be done; turning people into those who can moderate their eating.

And this is exactly what brings about the peace that so many of us speak about! Those of us who have been on countless diets in the past and failed because we lacked the necessary abiltity to moderate our food intake. I liken it to being released from "food jail." I'm free to eat what I want within the perimeters of No-S without guilt or shame. All thanks to a very unselfish individual who found something that worked for himself and wanted to share it with others. There should be more folks like him!
mimi

Great quote (and observation).

I think a lot of the difficulty people have with moderation is that they just don't see excess -- or at least, the point at which something becomes excess. It's not so much a defect of willpower as a kind of blindness. No S draws these big goofy lines around excess, so even most myopic can see it without straining and then bring their little (but sufficient) willpower to bear.

And of course, with practice, their vision (and their willpower) gradually improve.

Reinhard

I'm new to the board & just discovered No S last week !

I just wanted to say that I now realize (at the age of 44) that I didn't see my excesses.

I told the girl I sit beside at work that I'm No S'ing, which is a lucky thing! She has saved me from automatically eating outside No S quite a few times already.

I just don't think before I accept something I'm offered, and I have lots of opportunities in the day!
Its automatic for me to eat the treat and I realize that in the back of my brain, those foods 'didn't count' as food, causing me to be excessive.

I think I'll need a lot of practice before I break these automated habits and learn moderation!!

Debbie