No S diet is fun :)

washburne · Post by **washburne** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 3:23 pm

Hi Everybody (especially weird goateed programmer guy),

I stumbled upon the No S diet from the "20 Minute Workout"-Blog and found it immediately intriguing. Mainly because it wasn't full of shit, like most other diets. And I like it simple.

I'm following the No S diet for about 6 weeks now and have actually gained almost 10kg, but I still like it. I guess I now eat bigger portions than my snacks were before, and I now REALLY abuse the S-days. But it has helped me with discipline, I can now walk by sweets and coke without craving. And if I reduce the portions, I might actually start to lose some weight. I'm not doing shovelglove or urban ranger, but I'm into boxing and I sprint and do bodyweight exercises for fun.

Occams dietary Razor: The simplest diet is most likely the best one.

Thanks, weird goateed programmer guy!
I really love your way of thinking.

chentegt · Post by **chentegt** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 1:19 am

Hello washburne, and congratulations on your new nosdiet journey

It is a great accomplishment to manage to avoid naturally the sweets and snacks, now your next step is to start losing!

I believe that we all already know deep inside why we are "failing", and usually it is a matter of reviewing some little pieces of the puzzle that one is missing. In this case, no s, you already posted that you have abused the S days and have not exercised. I suggest you start by taking care of these 2 steps and I'm sure you will start to see the pounds disappear. But the most important aspect is to make all these things a habit little by little. There's a new feaure here called habitcal check it out, it can help you out, I'm tracking my shovelglove habit there

.

So welcome and, btw, also check out the 'dont be an idiot' rule that helped me a lot to start seeing real progress

.

See you around

zoolina · Post by **zoolina** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 6:37 am

I have to say, despite Reinhard's caveat about no snacking, that I gained some weight on NoS too, when I tried to give up snacks. One problem was that I'm hypoglycemic and tend to "crash" if I go too long without eating, so I was eating waaaay too much at mealtimes to try to make it to the next one without losing it, and even that didn't always work.

When I gave up on the "no snacks" rule and went back to the 5 mini-meals (and I mean mini) a day plan, but kept the other tenants of NoS (with some additional strictness about snack foods), I did start to lose weight.

In general, I do think the no snacks rule is a good one, and I believe Reinhard when he says that over time the size of your meals will become more reasonable. I just wanted to throw out my experiences here too. In the end, you need to find the right plan for you. Even a very reasonable, no nonsense plan like this one won't jive perfectly with every body on the planet.

joasia · Post by **joasia** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 4:27 am

You gained 20lbs. in 6 weeks?

washburne · Post by **washburne** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 4:56 am

You're right, it might only be 5kg (10pound). My weight changes a lot over the day (like 3kg) and I might have mis-rounded a value or two: I'm not quite at a 100kg atm and I wasn't quite 90kg before. So it could be just 5kg. But it's still a major gain consistently over 6 weeks, not a flicker or temporary thing.

I have no problem doing "only" 3 meals a day. I've always been a low-frequency-eater, I've often spent weeks only eating twice a day when there was no need to do the regulars. I've tried the "Warrior Diet" for two months (it actually gives you a surreal power surge until the evening, but it's socially awkward. Try explaining to EVERYBODY why you can't eat with them EVERYDAY!)

So quitting snacks wasn't a big thing. Quitting sweets - I'm not really a "sweet-tooth". I'm a sweet-monger. If there are no sweets, I don't miss them. If there are sweets, I eat them all. At once. There's no way I can dose that. That may be part of the problem here, "free" weekend days lead to unreal craving of every piece of food I can get hold of. Food has actually started to taste better.

I do work out. Just not very regularly. One week I do tabata sprints every day and go boxing for 8 hours, another week I'm too lazy and only do push-ups or pull-ups once in a while.

Conclusion (why am I even here, I can figure this out on my own, maybe it's just I like talking to same-minded people):

Don't be an idiot on weekends
Workout more regularly

Thanks for your advice everyone, I'll look into the habit calendar.

rose · Post by **rose** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 12:10 pm

hello Washburne,

I have (had?) the same problem with
sweets, if there were some at home I couldn't
help myself. So I made sure there weren't
any on N days.

S days are a little tricky. To avoid
excess I would buy sweets by the unit, for
instance ONE little pastry. Then I would go
back home and make a little ceremony out of
eating it, with a nice non-sweet drink such
as herbal tea or sparkling water.
(obviously since I bought a solid sweet,
I did not buy soda. That would break the rule
of buying only one sweet at a time).
I could have some more only if I went out and
bought either a single soda can or a single
piece of solid sweets. But only after I finished
the piece I had bought at first, so there was
never more than one serving of sweets at home.

Since I am rather lazy and I live alone it was
not too difficult to do and it did tend to
limit the amount of sweets I ate on S-days.
Plus there were never any sweets left on Monday
morning so my N-days were easy.
(when people come over it is a little trickier...
one has to feed one's guests, but what if they
don't finish the sweets ?)

Nowadays I worry less about the amount of sweets
I eat during the week-end - I am losing weight anyway -
and I have more self-control during the week
provided the leftovers are out of sight. So I allow
myself to buy a box of cookies on Sunday evening,
eat half of it as a wild S-day dinner, and put the
box on the highest shelf, where I don't look often,
and where I can't reach without some tool,
to wait for the next saturday's breakfast.
If I had tried that in the first few months of
No-S diet I would have eaten it all by Monday
evening - or possibly I would have eaten eat it all
on Sunday night and then gone out for some more.

washburne · Post by **washburne** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 7:19 am

Try that when your roommate is a sick programmer dude who buys $10 of sweets every day, letting them stray on the kitchen table all the time (bzw. he lives off white bread, salami, coke and sweets and weighs an incredible 70kgs at 1.89m - not a single muscle on his body though).

I'm not too serious about the whole weight-thingy. Yea, I'm very heavy, but I have the feeling that my belly is getting thinner every day

And the whole idea of not-results-thinking is a good way to keep working out while getting no "number"results.

joasia · Post by **joasia** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 5:17 pm

I have friends like that. They eat junk and are thin. I does affect your health in the long run.

gratefuldeb67 · Post by **gratefuldeb67** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 10:18 pm

Go Washburne!
Peace and Love,

Debs