Everyday Systems

Hi everyone,
I am close to having 2 weeks under my belt (2 days shy) and thought I had been doing good. Well, I decided to "check" to see just how "good" I was doing by stepping on the scale. BKG MISTAKE!

I usually think I am down more than I am so I tried not to get my hopes up and thought maybe I was down 3. BUT it was only 1.2. I am so discouraged and bummed out about this. I know I shouldn't be, and I know that No-S is THE way to go, but will I actually lose weight??

any suggestions?

You answered your question in your own post. You ARE DOWN 1.2.

You are still new to this and it sounds like you are still in the fad diet mentality. It's going to take time to shake that. As long as the scale is not going up you have absolutely nothing to be bummed about. You are doing wonderfully. Remember you are rebuilding a habit. That is the focus, not the scale. Also remember that you didn't gain the weight in two weeks and you aren't to lose it and keep it lost if you lose it in two weeks. Don't set yourself up for failure by having too aggressive expectations.

I feel your pain. In the thread on "how are you doing?", I posted

Though I'm having to watch the second-stage trap: "I've-been-good-for-X-days-now-so-why-hasn't-the-scale-dropped?

me

And I've been around a while, and KNOW better. Hey, I tell everyone else to focus on habits, etc.

Sometimes it's just hard to do that.

Give it time, and keep focusing on those habits. That's my plan!

DON'T LOOK AT THE SCALE!

Take a sledgehammer to it!

You can gain weight by drinking a big glass of water or lose weight by going to the bathroom. Reinhard lost and regained 10 pounds in one day.

What you should pay attention to are your pants. Do they fit? Are they tight? Did they fall down when you tried to run up the street? This is a much better indicator.

Where did the "My Pants Fell Down Club" go? We need it now!

Yes, you will lose weight. I have lost 35 (ish) pounds. Others have lost much more and some have lost less (because they needed to lose less). But the more important part is maintenance. Few people realize how impressive standing still is, but that's what matters. Anyone can lose weight. Cut off a limb, eat nothing but 3 bannanas a day, count calories until you scream, go to the bathroom. It's KEEPING it off that's hard. No-S is kind of backwards. You start by keeping it off and move toward losing it. Maybe that's why it works. By the time you NEED to "keep it off" you already know how.

That being said, we're here for you when you need to rant about the scale. Everbody is there or has been there or will be there sometime in the future.

My main suggestion is patience. Weigh yourself less often. Say, once a month. Rely on your pants the rest of the time.

swimfit,

I did a podcast about this issue a while ago that I think might be helpful (and reproduced it more or less verbatim in the book):

http://everydaysystems.com/podcast/episode.php?id=24

HG -- the "My pants fell down club" is here:

http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=398

Reinhard

thank you for all of the encouragment. I will try to weigh only 1x/month and pay more attention to how my clothes fit.

I had been very active exercise wise --------- then hurt my shoulder and subsequently had to have surgery on my shoulder. just recently started walking as that is all I can do at the moment until my shoulder is rehabbed. LONG SLOW process!

I do still have the "fad diet mentality" and have for a very LONG time, so I have to realize it will take some time to get rid of it. Patience, Patience Patience.

anyway, thanks for the support. you all are the best!

The simple fact here is that if you don't change your mind set, this will not work and you get to go back to diet #28, gee maybe it will work this time - NOT! The sooner you ditch that fad diet mentality the better you will feel, not that that is the total answer to actual weight loss, but it is the beginning of it. And as I am finding it is the beginning of feeling free and in control. You think it's all about the weight at first but after you get into it more and more you realize about the weight you carry in your head every day. I won't lie, losing weight and looking good is important and it drives me, but so does the thought of a day where I wake up and not think of food, weight, guilt, etc. Everything worth having takes time. I think you are like me and patience might be the hardest thing about the No-S. But I think you will find soon, that it just carries you along, you just have to sit back and do what you do and the results will be there and they will stay there.

Now remember everything I said so that you can repeat it to me next week when I have a freak out - it happens, but that's what friends are for.

Here is where I am at in my journey:

I have been doing this for 6 weeks and have not lost one pound - I know that sounds scary but here are some details to help explain why I have not pulled every blonde hair out by its brown roots. First off I am only about 15 to 20 pounds overweight so it's going to go slower for me than heavier people. I have a lousy metabolism and must exercise and I have just begun to incorporate that into my routine as of about 2 weeks ago. I have been having trouble going over board on S days. N days have always been easy for me and now that I have the exercise going good, my next step is to work on my S days. Being Easter weekend and having house guest should be interesting. But since I know that those 2 days are a big part of why I am not seeing any loss, I think I can tighten it up a bit without having that deprived feeling that has killed every diet I have ever been on. I look at this as approaching the weight loss ass backwards. I am on the best ever maintenance plan, but since I need to lose 17 pounds, I just need to tweak things until I see I am losing - and I plan to ditch the scale and go by a pair of jeans I have. I looked great in them about 15 pounds ago, that will loosely tell me what I have lost. Must rely on the mirror and my clothes, not the scale. (Say that with me 10 times, until it starts to sink into our thick sculls)

1.5 pounds in 2 weeks is good by the way. If I had lost 1.5 pounds since I started I would be down nearly 10 pounds! And I am sure if you think about it, the plans in your past that kept the weight off the longest where the ones where it took a while for the weight to come off.

Good luck and hang in there baby!

This is not a fast program. Which makes it doable physically and hard mentally. I have been on faster diets, weight watchers. But the calorie cut is so drastic that all you can think about and obsess about is food. It really makes life no fun.

Every little bit adds up eventually.
Take it slow and easy and the weight will stay off. Hold onto the new habits and they'll get you through without making you feel like food is the enemy.

I started out like you, just a little bit at a time but here I am down 22lbs in about 15 months. Slow, yes, but doABLE and Sane.

Another point of view on this: your situation (being bummed because you lost weight.... LOL) is nothing more than your old, destructive habit of yo-yo dieting reasserting itself. You expect to lose quickly, so you can gain it back again.

This is not about scales. This is about CREATING NEW HABITS.

Keep focusing on No-S. Build this new relationship with food. It will make your life better in every way: you'll eat better; you'll enjoy food more; you'll spend less money on food; you'll FEEL BETTER.

No-S is not even about losing weight. It is about cultivating a healthy relationship with food. Weight loss is a side effect of increasing the health of your relationship with food.

Swimfit... I just joined and don't know any of you yet... but I so relate to what you're saying. However, everything everyone said to you in this thread is so sane, doable, logical, personal and the only way to go, I can't think of anything to say that would top it. I guess I'm just saying how much I appreciate everything that's been shared with you here because it's so danged helpful for myself to hear too. Thanks for posting what you did, because I'm sure it will help you, and it's GREAT information for me. Hang in there and I just know it will get better and better for you.