How automatic are your 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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zoolina
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How automatic are your habits?

Post by zoolina » Fri May 11, 2007 8:00 am

I've been eating sweets on S days only for 6 a full months. I've been more successful than not, though there have definitely been a few slip ups. But I just haven't been able to make the habit automatic. It seems that several times every N day a little voice in my head says: "hmmm, sure would be nice to eat something sweet right now."

So here's my question for the lifers: how long did it take before you stopped having to really work at no S? I would really like to get to the point where I don't have to maintain the habit, but can just cruise from S day to S day without having to put so much energy into it. Has anyone gotten to that point??

Thanks,
z.

florafloraflora
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Post by florafloraflora » Fri May 11, 2007 2:47 pm

My habits are pretty close to automatic, but it helps a lot if the food in question isn't around or is so hard to reach that it's easy to resist. Yesterday I had a leftover piece of cake from my friend's birthday dinner sitting on my counter, and it nearly killed me to resist it. But once I put it away in the fridge, it was no problem. So while I'm not necessarily perfect at staring down a tempting sweet or snack that's right in my face, I'm pretty good at sticking to my three-meal routine on an average day.

Hiding also works to help me avoid seconds, which have been a big downfall of mine in the past: I dish up my plate in the kitchen and get it all onto the table before I start eating. If possible I put the leftovers away even before the meal, or else immediately after it.

wosnes
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Post by wosnes » Fri May 11, 2007 8:38 pm

My habits are pretty close to automatic, but it helps a lot if the food in question isn't around or is so hard to reach that it's easy to resist
I agree. Yesterday I went out to dinner with my daughters and did very well. Skipped dessert without a problem. Then I realized I could have had dessert because the whole point of going out was to celebrate my daughter's birthday! It was an S day!
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."

cab54
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Post by cab54 » Thu May 17, 2007 6:23 pm

That's me, too, wosnes. My habits are beocming so ingrained that I forget I CAN have a little S on S days! 8)
Cheryl

Starting weight--200 (gah!)
Currently--185
Goal weight--135, or wherever I end up

kccc
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Post by kccc » Thu May 17, 2007 6:50 pm

Mine were pretty strong, but have eroded recently due to travel that started on an S-day. I wanted to treat the whole trip like an S-day, which was not good.

Actually, I did very well on no sweets. Snacks I fell down once, and caught myself. No seconds was the worst - I was eating out a lot with groups, and not managing "virtual plating" very well. (I don't eat out a lot normally, and usually only on S-days.)

So I'm back to "build the habit" thinking. I am writing each No-S separately on my "to-do" list to remind me to attend to it.

Fortunately, I'm home so it's easier. I have food I like that I know will "be enough" on hand. I'm on a regular schedule. I don't have junk around at inopportune times. All these things help support the habits I want to develop.

(An aside...someone at the conference said they fall into "camel mode" at these things - eating a lot b/c of not being sure when there'll be food again. Ah, yes, I recognize that.)

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JustAnnie
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Post by JustAnnie » Fri May 18, 2007 2:03 am

I haven't been around the board for a couple of months. I thought my new way of eating was a learned habit, and it WAS a habit for quite a while. Strange things happen though. The change of seasons with warm weather somehow seemed to send me back to old bad habits so I'm back again for a refresher course. :wink:
Just Annie

You Can't Fail Until You Quit Trying

thtrchic
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Post by thtrchic » Mon May 21, 2007 12:17 am

Mine sort of are and sort of aren't. During the week when life is the same I very routinely eat my breakfast of oatmeal or cereal and oftentimes a fruit (depending upon how hungry I am) and pretty routinely eat my set lunch. Dinner gets a little more difficult for me to keep healthy, but one plate is nearly always fine. And I'm completely settled into not having dessert after that. And pretty settled into no snacks, although it's on this point that I slip a couple times a month. Weekends, though, I fall far away from that. I do think I very naturally eat less now. I've noticed that a set of snacks has taken to replacing one of my meals. And I commonly also have dessert on these days. Although I also commonly have at least 1 vegetable, which is something new in the last few months.

So I guess after about 5 months some progress is being made, but I have quite a bit more work to do to be truly healthy (and to lose all the weight I should lose).

Julie

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reinhard
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Post by reinhard » Mon May 21, 2007 2:55 pm

I'm not sure if I count, but at this point the only thing that ever gets me is social pressure. You could put me in a room full of the most delicious French pastries and I wouldn't think of touching them on an N-day.

But insert a guilt-tripping relative into the room and there might (rarely) be a problem...

I sometimes have dreams that I'm eating something sweet and realize all of a sudden that it's an N-day.

I pretty much stick with meals on weekends. But I always have something sweet. I'll have seconds, mostly to just assert that I can, but it feels weird. There's no question that I eat less.

On big holidays (Christmas, Thanksgivings) I still eat astonishing amounts of food. But though I haven't every approached this scientifically, I think that while they feel just as astonishing as ever, the absolute amounts of food I eat on these days are less. By usually eating so much less, my sense of excess has been re-calibrated.

Reinhard

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