The World Does Not Have to Agree. No-S WORKS! (for us)

[Rumba]

I'm noticing how often I encounter outside pressure to somehow modify the No-S diet--in two ways:

1. Eat frequent small meals to keep your metalobism up. It seems every personal trainer and fitness guru is singing that song. (Never mind that a couple of years ago it was some other song, and a couple of years from now it will be yet another song, right now they are singing in unison "You MUST eat every two to three hours.")
Well, I tried that, and it does not work for me. For me it seems this food thing is very much like an addiction. Eating so frequently when I'm not even hungry just feeds the addiction (for me.) I'm convinced of that, now that I've observed how easily the No-S diet eases my struggle. Now I'm convinced that eating snacks (for me) works like saying "I'll just have a couple of puffs on this cigarette to tide me over until dinnertime." Doesn't work (for me.)

2. Ban certain foods. Whatever the banned foods du jour may be, that doesn't work for me either. My shrink told me today that I should not eat ANY refined carbohydrates at all ever. What I've experienced is that now on No-S, knowing I can have them if I want them on S days, I can completely control those cravings during the week, and I don't go crazy on S days either. When I was telling myself "no, no, mustn't, mustn't, bad, bad food" those San Francisco sourdoughs, mocha frapuccinos, and black forest cakes relentlessly pursued me all day and all night until they defeated me.

So my point is, WE know the No-S diet works for us. We don't have to convince others of it, we don't have to argue with them, we just have to have confidence in our own experience. I personally have adopted the technique of murmuring something non-committal "My my my is that so." or "Mmmm hmmmm ... interesting." (Of course, if someone WANTS to know about No-S, I'm happy to tell them about it.)

As to the foolishness of personal trainers and shrinks---what can I tell you---I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area where everyone eventually ends up with a personal trainer, a shrink, and a redwood deck with a hot tub. Resistance is futile.

[peetie]

Hey, Rumba, I'm in the southern California area, so I know of what you speak regarding lifestyles!

I am a FIRM believe in finding what works for us. We are all just different enough that we need some trial and error to see what fits with our bodies and our minds. Can't ignore either.

I too found eating frequent meals did not work for me. I was never completely satisfied....always on the edge of hunger.....wildly preoccupied with food, and I am finding now that I can eat the same amount and not gain by giving my body time to burn it off.

As far as limiting carbs....I certainly can't speak to any medical conditions, but for the vast majority, I think it all comes down to balance. And if we aren't walking around in a semi starved state, we are much more likely to make more thoughtful choices.

I think you are right. We just have to nod and say, "I'm glad you found something that works for you." Engaging in "diet wars" is like politics and religion. People are very invested in their feelings about this stuff, and unless they are open to some new ideas, best not to go there!

Peetie

[cvmom]

Rumba.

It sounds very odd to me that your shrink would tell you not to eat something. I am perplexed.

But dittos to you and Peetie. I echo everything that you guys are saying. Peetie, I grew up on the beaches of So.Ca. so I have a distorted body image. I live on the Central Coast now, but everytime I go back to Lala land I feel huge. Everyone there is sooooo thin. (All my girlfriends there are underweight).

There's just no other way to say it: No S Rocks!!!!!! And Reinhard is a genius.

CV mom

[ClickBeetle]

It is lovely that all these people would like to propose a 100% solution ... which turns out to be unworkable, and therefore not a solution. I think Rumba and Reinhard are right on the money: an 80% solution that works is infinitely better than a non-solution.

Honestly, I understand the origin of your shrink's position. I know refined carbohydrates are serious bad news. They raise your triglycerides. They rot your teeth. They promote insulin resistance. They make us fat. They contribute calories and no nutrients. And I am doing all I can to reduce their presence in my own eating plan. BUT,,,,,, on balance, if one eats them mostly on the weekends and special occasions and the rest of the world goes on eating them every DAY, who is better off?

Sure, there's the .00001% of the population that is capable of eliminating them entirely, but I would argue that those people probably never had a big problem with overeating them to start with. So there!

[planner lady]

I have a good friend who is a nutritionist for a local hospital and last fall I asked her about three meals vs. five or six and she said either way was fine. She said the mini-meals idea is overrated and I should do what works for me.

Also, this is kind of a weird observation but it intrigued me anyway. I have a three-year old black lab and she eats irregularly. However, many mornings she comes to me when I'm fixing my usual grilled cheese sandwich and begs for bread. Lots of times I give her a piece. The dog who wasn't interested in her dog food suddenly wants breakfast and goes over and eats her food. It's like eating makes her hungry. The same thing happens at other times during the day. I've noticed the same thing in me, especially when it comes to snacking in the afternoon. I can go all afternoon with no food and be fine but once I start eating, it's like I can't get enough -- just like my dog. See -- silly but interesting.

[goops]

I am currently reading the book on the Leptin diet and I don't claim to totally understand it yet (just started reading it) but he says to keep Leptin at a proper level it is much preferable to only eat the 3 meals a day. He also stated it was better for not spiking your blood sugar which makes sense.

[brownstudy]

I think frequent meals are suggested because it keeps the body's metabolism chugging along to burn the food (I think that's the theory). Also, on the Body for Life plan and other exercise regimens, since you're exercising so much and so intensively, you do feel hungrier and you naturally want to eat more.

For myself, preparing all that food and finding appropriate snacks was so distracting. The No S plan of 3 meals/day means I can go to the grocery store and leave the snacks on the shelves.

Interesting how a simple rule like "3 meals/day" (or however many you think you need) vaporizes lots of little problems.

[carolejo]

On the subject of preparing food...

I could never be bothered with more than 3 meals a day. I love to eat and I also (more importantly in this context) love to cook, but sometimes I just get really tired of having to DECIDE what to eat all the time, 3 times a day! It sounds really silly, but it's like we have too much choice now. If I had to decide what to eat 5 or 6 times a day, I think I'd spend all day wondering about what I really wanted to eat next - hence, spend all day thinking about food!

Does anyone else ever get like this? I mean, where you sometimes just wish you could sit down and eat the nice food somebody else put in front of you, without having to worry about what it is...?

Incidentally, this is precisely why I never lived in catered accomodation as a student. I was aware that my already present tendancy to overeat would be much worsened by having someone else choose what I was to eat and when I was to eat it!

C.

[Ariel King]

I could never be bothered with more than 3 meals a day. I love to eat and I also (more importantly in this context) love to cook, but sometimes I just get really tired of having to DECIDE what to eat all the time, 3 times a day!

Does anyone else ever get like this? I mean, where you sometimes just wish you could sit down and eat the nice food somebody else put in front of you, without having to worry about what it is...?

Yes yes yes yes, and yes again. Everything you said here is 100% true for me. I have read about people doing the BFL (body for life) plan, which requires not only 6 meals a day but 6 meals meeting very exacting specifications (regarding protein/fat/carb composition) EVERY DAY!!! The woman on whose blog I was reading about it even admitted that she got sick of preparing food constantly. She said it felt like she was ALWAYS either getting ready to eat, eating, or cleaning up after eating. Needless to say she didn't have a job - it would be impossible if she did!

Anyway, I only have to decide what to eat for 2 meals a day (since breakfast is always the same thing during the week), and I still get sick of it. I enjoy cooking, but deciding what to cook is nothing but a hassle. Anyway, in short, I could never do any plan that required 6 meals a day, and don't see how anyone else could (in the long term) either.

[ClickBeetle]

That food prep & decisionmaking process got markedly more burdensome with the atomization of the "modern" household. In other words, now that average household size is 2-point-something in much of the Anglo world, more people are directly involved in the immediate process of planning, preparing or buying meals.

However, the general lack of time to do anything personally about it results in your take-out food, hence the rise of Boston Market, KFC, etc., etc.

In contrast, 100 or 200 years ago, each village had a community oven for bread (which was never produced on a household basis except perhaps in manorial households), and most other household food preparation involved two or three women or girls producing food all day long for a whole batch of family which typically included not just parents + child but maiden aunts, superannuated granddaddies, cousins, hired hands, apprentices, live-in servants, etc., etc.

The other thing is, everybody wasn't involved in constant trips to the grocery store, as recently as even 50 years ago; foods were routinely delivered by merchants based on orders placed remotely, and perishable things like milk and eggs were delivered to doorsteps more or less daily.

The modern system in which everyone brings their car to the store and carries the groceries themselves was a cost-reduction measure that was invented by the supermarkets when they came into being about the 1950s and eliminated butchers', grocers', bakeries, milkmen with their trucks, and so on (which all used to deliver food).

In a sense, all those much-publicized gains in food production efficiency -- going from 50% of the population being directly involved in agriculture around the year 1900, to less than 1% today -- have been lost as diminishing household size causes a higher proportion of people to spend more time on food preparation and delivery within each household. Is it any wonder our diets have gone to hell and we eat half our calories out of a crinkly bag or plastic container?

[brownstudy]

However, the general lack of time to do anything personally about it results in your take-out food, hence the rise of Boston Market, KFC, etc., etc.

Can't remember where I was reading this, but basic cooking classes are booming now because people aren't learning basic cooking techniques (roasting a chicken, making stock, how to use a knife, etc) from their parents. The rise of fast food (not just restaurants but frozen meals, etc.) a generation ago means lots of adults don't have basic kitchen skills to pass on to their kids.

A co-op grocery in nearby Carrboro that makes its own bread has a community oven night every couple of weeks but the attendance is so low that they're thinking of canceling it. Much as I love the smell of baking bread, I just don't have the time or counter-space to make it. I prefer to buy it freshly baked since it's so plentiful and cheap.