Everyday Systems

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Are you substituting one of your meals for a shake? can I ask why?

I often have a can of slimfast for breakfast, as I have to leave before everyone else is even awake and I have a long commute.
If the protein shake is part of your meal, then it is part of your meal.
If you are having it as a pick-me-up at 3:00 then it is a snack, and, therefore forbidden on no-s days.
If you are substituting it for ice cream, then it is a sweet. and forbidden on no-s days.
You can eat however you want on s-days. If you had huge breakfast and a snack before lunch, maybe you would prefer to skip lunch. that's ok.
This is how I see it.
GL! Carrie

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Eat real food. Not shakes. They're technically an S, and they won't satisfy like real food will. Trust me.

So you are doing this out of thrift, rather than nutrition or weight-loss strategy? You've got tubs of it lying round the house and it'd be a shame to throw it out? If so, I'd consider just biting the bullet, buying yourself some oats, and making yourself porridge instead of protein shakes. Oats won't break the bank.

No-S has two strengths, I think; very clear rules, and a strong historical precedent...

1. It focusses in very clear rules, and that clarity builds habit, and the habits are there to last forever. The protein shakes stop you establishing your habit, because they'll be around for a bit then used up. For this reason, I'd suggest you get rid of them. They'll screw with your habit formation.

2. No-S is best done when you use it to attain a kind of normalcy, a kind of reverting to traditional ways of eating that have been proved historically. One nice expression of this idea comes from this ny times article:

Eat food. Though in our current state of confusion, this is much easier said than done. So try this: Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. (Sorry, but at this point Moms are as confused as the rest of us, which is why we have to go back a couple of generations, to a time before the advent of modern food products.) There are a great many foodlike items in the supermarket your ancestors wouldn’t recognize as food (Go-Gurt? Breakfast-cereal bars? Nondairy creamer?); stay away from these.

The shakes seem like dubious ground, for their obvious sweetness and for them not being something a nineteenth-century person would recognise as food.

Anyway, that's what I'd suggest.

They sound like "borderline" food to me. So I think it is your call. And I think that if you like them and want to use them, you should, whether it's for N or S days.

Since they are high in protein, I might go ahead and use them on N days. I admit to using stevia (and some artificial sweeteners) in my coffee and tea on N days. (I would like to cut back, though.)

I guess that if a person eats sugar-free "sweets" like jello or pudding (a diabetic, for example), that even they should be reserved for S-days. Is that correct?

Jesseco wrote:
I guess that if a person eats sugar-free "sweets" like jello or pudding (a diabetic, for example), that even they should be reserved for S-days. Is that correct?

Yes - otherwise, it screws with habit formation. (Not to mention that there's growing evidence that artificial sweeteners confuse the body - but that's another topic.)

But do keep in mind that the rule is NOT "no sugar," it's "no sweets." I put a teaspoon of sugar in my coffee. Since I only have two most days, it's really not enough to worry about.

As to the shakes, I'd ditch them. But then, I wouldn't have gotten them in the first place, since I'm with Steve on the "real food" bandwagon. However, I think Carrie offers a nice middle ground that might be helpful.

I'll jump on the real food bandwagon too!

There is just nothing as satisfying or fulfilling. I have used protein shakes and bars through the years I ditched them several years ago and have not one regret!

I was in the same boat a year ago when I started NOS. Lots of protein shakes and bars. I couldn't bring myself to throw them away because I'm too cheap. So I used each as a meal. This way I still met the 3 plate rule. Place 1 or 2 bars in a plate and that's a meal. Place a shake on a plate. That's a meal. Alternate them with real food. I suggest one shake/bar meal followed by a real food meal and so on. Eventually they'll run out. This is not the previous advice given here but hey, it worked for me.

Johnny Quick wrote:Place a shake on a plate.

Doesn't it run off the sides? *ducks and runs*