back from vacation

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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Betty
Posts: 197
Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:58 pm
Location: London

back from vacation

Post by Betty » Sat Jul 14, 2007 5:30 am

à did two more or less successful weeks of NoS before I went on a week long vacation. Despite planning to stick with No S while on vacation, I failed utterly and went back to the perma snacking regime. Now I"m trying to get back on track again.

Any advice for vacations? I'm a schoolteacher and I have a lot of them. I can see that they will constitute a big problem unless I deal with them in a sensible way.

Betty

London Mum
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Jan 10, 2007 10:05 am

Post by London Mum » Sat Jul 14, 2007 9:55 am

I think at first you just have to concentrate on getting the normal routine in place and then eventually vacations will take care of themselves. I started No S in November and Christmas set me back quite a bit.

However we just went on holiday for a week to a hotel where the food is *good*. We did the same holiday last year and I put on 8lbs and carried on putting on afterwards. This year I only put on 3lbs and two weeks later they are gone already. I allowed myself three extra S-days, and failed on one of the three planned N-days (scones with jam and cream, yum). But I just think the habits are so ingrained I was eating less than last year without really realising it. I should say on the N-days I still allowed myself more than one course at dinner, etc, and had fruit salad or cheese for desert so not really depriving myself.

I just found it much easier to get back on track. To be honest I can't ever imagine eating another way that No S now, and habit-cal is helping me consolidate the habit. For example we are staying at the in-laws this weekend, and arrived late Friday night. They brought out drinks and potato chips. I was thinking, "oh well, it is the weekend" but then I remembered my run of green squares this month, and stuck to a cup of tea.

Can you tell I am feeling very positive about No-S today!

LM

Betty
Posts: 197
Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:58 pm
Location: London

Post by Betty » Sat Jul 14, 2007 1:51 pm

Thanks Londonmum. I do hope that over time this gets easier. Waiting for habit to kick in...

And here's another question: should I count the vacation days as S days or as failures?

The truth is, I did hope to continue with N days while I was away, but it just seemed impossible in the face of all the tasty cheeses and sausages and regional cakes my husband kept buying. So I failed at what I hoped to do, but think that at this point it would have been nearly impossible to stick with No S... so how should I mark my habitcal???

Betty

kccc
Posts: 3957
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 1:12 am

Post by kccc » Sat Jul 14, 2007 2:21 pm

Some questions to help you decide....

How many non-weekend S days have you had this month?

Do you FEEL that they were failures? I sometimes think that the decision-point determines it for me. After-the-fact is failure, before is an S-day.

And how much does red discourage you? I have strong perfectionist tendencies, and that's an issue for me.

One option is to leave them blank. I missed an intended exercise day yesterday, but exercised first thing this morning, which was going to be a day off. I don't want to count it as a failure, b/c the red will discourage me. But it's not a success, because I failed to carry out my intention - and I don't want to encourage "I can make it up" thinking. So I will leave yesterday blank, and make today green. I know what that means.

Do whatever will support your habit-development best.

London Mum
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Jan 10, 2007 10:05 am

Post by London Mum » Sat Jul 14, 2007 3:45 pm

At Christmas there was no habit-cal, but in my head I considered that I had taken more S-days than I had intended (two weeks altogether), so I think I would have marked it yellow.

This time 6 weekdays fell on holiday, I planned that three would be S and of the three remaining two were green and I marked the other as red. But actually I don't actually feel it was a failure as in "I wish I hadn't done that".

If it would help you not to feel discouraged I would mark the holiday days as yellow. For the future, maybe try and work out a more realistic rule. I am considering marking the next holiday as all yellow as I have more faith in my ability to make sensible choices now without going overboard (for proper holidays away anyway, which we do once or twice a year, as opposed to staying at relatives, or non-working days at home, where I plan to stick to No-S).

I had a similar dilemma with my version of glass ceiling which has been a less secure habit, and I found I kept changing the rules, and in the end marked the holiday yellow. But seeing it in three colours has made me realise this system was not working for me, so I am cutting out alcohol all together for a while - at least a calendar month is my plan.

Kate

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