Everyday Systems

Hello everyone,

So I bought the book and I'm halfway through it. I started no essing on Monday. I was doing so well until yesterday. It was mid-morning. I had eaten a good breakfast and by 10:30 I was like a ravenous beast! I was so hungry, which triggered the failure. I tried drinking some tea. I had already had coffee that morning. But the thought entered my mind to eat those granola bars with the chocolate chips in them and the biscuits from dinner the night before.

I pretty much thought, okay, I guess that's it for that diet. But then this morning I said, no. I will just try again. And I did. And I did really well today. I skipped to the part in the book about having a failure.

I feel really bad about it, though. Mostly because it was in my first week. I have about 15 pounds to lose, but I also want to learn to maintain it. Hopefully I will continue to do better.

Thanks for listening.

Hello, Michele -- No one said that it was easy to form new habits! It is great that you were able to begin again the next day. Try to analyze why you were so hungry and learn from the experience. You will feel so accomplished if tomorrow goes well . . . because the day after is an S day.

Here is a great quote to remember: There are no failures, only feedback.

Slip ups are part of the process. And the fact that you jumped right back into habit building this morning is a wonderful sign that you are on your way to success. While you are learning from your experiences, try increasing the size of your breakfast or lunch.

You are doing great.

try eating some protien with your breakfast . That always help me
Don't give up!!
The book talks about false starts . So I think thats what happened to you
Just stick with it !!
Good luck to you !!

Failures are an integral part of the NoS learning experience.
Ask yourself "why did it happen?" and take measures to minimise the chances of it occurring again.
If unable to resist _this_ sweet, or in _those_ circumstances, avoid being exposed to them. It's _way_ easier to avoid temptation than to fight it.
If you eat out of boredom, get busy.
If you eat when you're actually thirsty, have a bottle of water with you.
If you get really too hungry between meals, check that you have balanced and filling meals.
Personally if I sweeten anything in my breakfast I get _very_ hungry around 11am. So experiment with your breakfast food until you find the correct formula. Also having whole grain foods and fibers might help regulate your appetite better.

Congratulations on not giving up. If you're like me you will experience many more failures, but it doesn't matter. NoS is not about perfection, it's about not giving up and learning from your failures.

Thanks for all the replies and encouragement. I appreciate it.

Naturally thin people aren't perfect in their eating habits either. They just don't let it derail them.

tgp157 wrote:Naturally thin people aren't perfect in their eating habits either. They just don't let it derail them.

I'm not sure that naturally thin people even think about it -- which may be a pretty healthy thing.

So, you had a failure. So what?

FLYLady (www.flylady.net) always says:

"Progress, not perfection"

So, by starting again, right away, you've already made PROGRESS!

There's another quote out there, but I don't know who said it. But it says something like this:

Failure isn't 'failure' until you fail to try.

In other words, as long as you're still making the effort, you haven't failed.

Good job on trying again! And, remember, habits take time to build. You aren't gonna get this in a day.

I completely understand you! This is my first week too and I've had alot of slip-ups. Except mine comes mostly at night. You and I are going to be struggling with this for awhile. My only suggestion is to really pile alot of food on that one plate, drink lots and lots of water and hope it will be enough to satisfy you for the rest of the night! I am still dealing with my late night cravings. I know they are not true hunger so I've been trying hard to contain it. I ended up drinking a cup of milk, as Reinhard suggested. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Don't give up. Everyone fails at first, eventually, you'll get it right.

Ya know, I think there's entirely too much use of the word "failure." A mistake or a slip-up is NOT a failure -- it's a mistake or a slip up! Get things in perpsective. Stop fearing a mistake and making more of it than it is!

wosnes wrote:Ya know, I think there's entirely too much use of the word "failure." A mistake or a slip-up is NOT a failure -- it's a mistake or a slip up! Get things in perpsective. Stop fearing a mistake and making more of it than it is!

So it's not a big deal that I had a perfect day except for the one little cookie I ate?

I also don't like labeling an entire day a failure if you have a little slip-up. It seems like all the effort and control it took while I was hungry in the afternoon counts for NOTHING just because of a cookie. Or when I only had one plate when I could have easily had seconds at dinner. I don't know, it's tricky. You want to hold yourself accountable, but you don't want to be so harsh you don't recognise the progress and things you did really well.

nfalcone wrote:

wosnes wrote:Ya know, I think there's entirely too much use of the word "failure." A mistake or a slip-up is NOT a failure -- it's a mistake or a slip up! Get things in perpsective. Stop fearing a mistake and making more of it than it is!

So it's not a big deal that I had a perfect day except for the one little cookie I ate?

I also don't like labeling an entire day a failure if you have a little slip-up. It seems like all the effort and control it took while I was hungry in the afternoon counts for NOTHING just because of a cookie. Or when I only had one plate when I could have easily had seconds at dinner. I don't know, it's tricky. You want to hold yourself accountable, but you don't want to be so harsh you don't recognise the progress and things you did really well.

It's certainly not perfect, but it's not a BIG RED F, either. It's sort of like taking a test with 100 questions and missing one. The mistake is marked in red, but it's not a failure. It's marked in red so you notice it and can figure out how to fix it for the next test, not to make you think you failed.

this has been my 1st week and i think i can have a green star for today...
i did it no snacks today....they are my monster in the closet....
makes it worse my office is across from the kitchen so it seems to call to me......so i am making a curtain to go in the door way... just to say kitchen is closed right now.....

nfalcone wrote:So it's not a big deal that I had a perfect day except for the one little cookie I ate?

It is a big deal and it isn't. That cookie, more or less, did not really effect your weight loss.

What it effected was your HABIT. If you take a look at my Habitcal, it's bleeding. I was on vacation, but ya know, I DIDN'T comply with No S this week, so I'm calling it a failure. I don't think I'm a bad person. I don't think I'm weak or horrible or whatever. But I did fail to do what I said I was going to do.

That clear-eyed, objective and unemotive way of looking at it works well for me because I DONT beat myself up, and I don't look for ways to wiggle and make excuses, either.

Yet. the power of habit and routine are such that this morning being back in my own kitchen, I went ahead and made my usual nuts-n-fruit porridge for breakfast. I just realize that my habits are not yet strong enough to carry over onto vacations. They will be in another six months or so, and that's cool, too.

Noel,
can you look at other people's HABITCAL'S are we sposed to?

How do you do that?
Blueskighs

I'm not sure how easy they are to FIND.

This is the URL to my public view: http://www.everydaysystems.com/habitcal ... &t=Workout

wow .... I think that would be IMPOSSIBLE to find unless you told me

but since you showed me yours, here's mine so far!

http://everydaysystems.com/habitcal/edi ... &t=NoSdiet


Blueskighs

Don't worry about it.
It took me several months and numerous attempts to jump on the No S bandwagon.
My first several months were a No S embarrassment.
One day, I decided to just bite the bullet, endure a couple of rough weeks until it became habit and I haven't looked back since!
I still have an issue or two to deal with but any type of problem with a certain food I have, I just leave it for weekends and eventually I will get to them.
It's what you do 80% of the time that gets the results.