Routines and routines...

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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kccc
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Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 1:12 am

Routines and routines...

Post by kccc » Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:55 am

I've had more "failures" than usual of late, and have noticed that most of them occur when I'm "off-routine" in other ways. Traveling, on vacation, etc.

And one particular thing I've noticed is that my normal routine is that work days are N-days and home-days are S-days. Which seems to be translating to my wanting to eat anytime I'm at home before supper.

I am not liking that trend. I want to be able to follow N-day rules at home.

(Maybe I should have titled this "location-specific routines.")

Anyone else noticing this relationship? Any ideas?

zoolina
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Location: In Transit

Post by zoolina » Fri Jun 01, 2007 6:23 am

KCCC,

When I started No S I made the decision to have my S days on Friday and Saturday for 2 reasons: 1) If we go out it's almost always on friday nights, and 2) I wanted to establish N Day habits on a home day. In the beginnings, Sundays were definitely the hardest day of the week, but now I take them in stride. And since I live in Europe and have 6 weeks of vacation a year, not including bank holidays, I really needed to have the at-home N day habit.

On the other hand, when I'm on vacation I do tend to have more failures than I'd like, but I still think it's been good to organize my week this way.

Someone also recently added a post about having more failures now that the weather is getting nicer. I feel this inclination too. It's funny how just little changes in your environment can throw our habits out of whack.

Good luck,

Z.

kccc
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Post by kccc » Fri Jun 01, 2007 6:21 pm

I thought someone did that.

May try the same... but not this weekend, b/c we're celebrating a big family birthday.

Still, I agree that I need to make this work at my house.

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mimi
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Post by mimi » Sat Jun 02, 2007 12:01 pm

I hear you KCCC! With me, I can't bring personal temptations into the house. Not even if I justify them by saying they're for my husband, kids, guests, or for S days! I know if I bring them in, I will eat them - and usually overeat them. Ice-cream is the bad one for me. I can't keep it in the house. So if I want ice-cream, we go out and eat it. This is what helps to keep me straight at home. Maybe it will help you too!
mimi
Discovered NoS: April 16, 2007
Restarted once again: July 14, 2011
Quitting is not an option...
If you start to slip, tie a knot and hang on!
Remember that good enough is... good enough.
Strive for progress, not perfection!

rose
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Post by rose » Sun Jun 03, 2007 2:05 pm

I have some trouble too with N days at home. I find that it works better if I am busy that day (if I am not then I try to make myself busy...), and if I reproduce my workday routine (get up at the usual time, take a walk/go out shopping/go to the movies at the time you would go to work usually, eat at the usual time etc). Also preparing the menu in advance helps.

Edit: preparing in advance helps for any day which is not routine. For instance these last weeks I have had to take a few day trips for works (wake up 2 or 3 hours earlier than usual, no time for morning routine exercise, 8 hours of travel and 4 to 8 hours of meetings, get back home at 10pm, eat in the train etc.) The first day trip was a disaster habit-wise and I felt soooo guilty that I was not able to follow my usual exercise and eating habits - plus I almost missed my train because I had tried to exercise even though I had no time to do it. Then I gave myself some slack over things I can't help (like having no time for formal exercise), and I used the experience of this first failure to build an alternate routine for day trips (which include taking the underground - lots of stairs - and lugging my bag around and so on). This way I have this advance idea of how my day will go and which habits I can reasonably maintain or alter, and which I will have to give up for the day - without guilt.

thtrchic
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Post by thtrchic » Sun Jun 03, 2007 3:12 pm

In recent weeks I've noticed that the biggest thing that helps me with both N days at home and much more ordered and reasonable S days at home is to eat breakfast the way I normally do on N days at work. It seems easiest if I eat the same kind of thing at near the same time, but even just eating a reasonable and real breakfast of any kind makes a major difference. I think this first step in the daily eating pattern signals my body that that's what we're doing and it much more easily falls in line. I've managed to have a couple successful N days this way in the last month and my S days have been able to consist of meals with a couple snacks/sweets instead of a day of snacks and sweets with one meal thrown in.

Julie

wosnes
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Post by wosnes » Sun Jun 03, 2007 5:01 pm

Oh, gosh, that's way too much thinking about it for me. I usually start the weekend (S days) Friday evening at dinner and extend it through Sunday at 9:00 PM. If I have any treats left over at that time, they go in the trash and I take the trash out. Temptation removed.

As far as any other part of my routine, I do the my best and don't worry about it. Most days my best is pretty good -- occasionally it's not. I'm not trying to be perfect.
"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."

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