Don't give up too soon!

AnnaBanana · Post by **AnnaBanana** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 12:38 pm

I have only been doing this for several weeks with lots of stops and starts but I am happy about those. I am learning just as much in my mess ups as I have in my successes. I don't know if that makes sense or not but it is true. I have lost some weight. However, I have a TON of weight to lose so anything would be an improvement over the starvation and binging cycle I had been on for years.

That brings me to so many women struggling and wanting to give up. I can understand that gaining weight must feel horrible when you think it should be the opposite, but I think if you have come from a background of strict low fat or strict low carb or even calorie counting, you are going to have to expect some rebound weight. I think it is kind of like what Dr. Schwarzbein (msp?) says in her book.... this is a period of healing the metabolism. Even more so it is a period of healing the obsessiveness of dieting, so there will be a period, I think, of eating all your favorite foods just because you can.

I think, if everyone hangs in there, in the long run the weight will come off and in the meantime you will make peace with food.

Don't give up. Give this wonderful program time to work. Trust the simple rules and eventually you will have success.

Just my 02 cents for the day.

AnnaBanana · Post by **AnnaBanana** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:14 pm

Okay ... just realized something and I have to toot my own horn. I may have had some extra food at the improper time, but nothing outlandish, and since I started this way of life I have not binged one time. That in of itself is AMAZING to me!

patticake · Post by **patticake** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:28 pm

I ageee- "Trust the rules and eventually you will have sucess". Works for me. Congrats on not binging. My problem is night eating and in the middle of the night eating, well I have had success for 26 days-Yea for us!
Patti

OrganicGal · Post by **OrganicGal** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 2:06 pm

I think your 2 cents are golden LauraAnn!! We all, or at least most of us, have this 'diet and deprivation' mindset to get over...we probably even have to build a new Habit with that, not just with the actual meal plan of No S.

We need to be patient and gentle with ourselves and this plan. I am not doing anything in particular to tweak it as yet....I'm not yet at 21 days and I may need longer to set the Habit of No S-ing. I have noticed some 'natural' changes since I started No S-ing. For example hunger between meals is minimal, urge to snack or have 2nds is also minimal. Desire for sweets is still there, but again has decreased, and now I plan my sweet treats to make them special and worthy.

Just my .02 worth

Noturningback · Post by **Noturningback** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 2:17 pm

Hear, hear!

Post by **reinhard** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 2:33 pm

Thank you for posting this...

Maybe I should put a disclaimer on the home page that says something like "DO NOT EXPECT ANY RESULTS FOR THE FIRST MONTH."

People seem attracted by the long term focus, but are then frustrated that it actually takes a long time.

I'm torn, when people post in frustration about not seeing immediate results, between advising that they simply stick with vanilla no-s and give it more time (which I think would do the trick for most people) and encouraging them with specific tweaks (which I think, more often than not, are dangerous distractions). The urge to tweak, more than the tweak itself or what it is addressing, is often the real issue.

That being said, the urge is real. I can't just say "don't feel it" or "stamp it out." I feel it myself -- and it can *sometimes* be a tremendously useful urge.

I like tinkering with self-improvement rules as much as anyone -- that's why I created everyday systems. What I find helpful in balancing my "creative urge" with the demands of reality, with the slow pace of lasting behavioral change, is to make my basic increment of evaluatory time not days, not weeks, but months. If I have a new (or modified) behavior I want to try out, I try to give it at least solid month. I call this "monthly resolution."

http://everydaysystems.com/podcast/episode.php?id=16

Reinhard

blueskighs · Post by **blueskighs** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 2:37 pm

I think it is kind of like what Dr. Schwarzbein (msp?) says in her book.... this is a period of healing the metabolism. Even more so it is a period of healing the obsessiveness of dieting, so there will be a period, I think, of eating all your favorite foods just because you can.

LauraAnn,

I read Dr. Schwarzbein's book too and I think you make an excellent point. Like you and many others I really beleive this is the road to ending all the insanity. However for many of us it IS just going to take some time ...

and like you I am learning along the way,

Blueskighs

tgp157 · Post by **tgp157** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 2:43 pm

Excellent thread--Thanks Laura Ann. Needed to hear this today.

JillyBean · Post by **JillyBean** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 3:46 pm

I am writing to express agreement here. I have not binged either since starting this new way of eating. For me I think it is so much about taking away all the guilt. Shame, rebellion, and guilt are the motivators for bingeing, in my opinion. This is just coming to me now after having done No-S for only a couple weeks.

I thought I binged because I loved the taste of the binge foods. Before, when being on a diet, I couldn't get those foods, so when I would go off the diet I would binge on all the foods that had been forbidden. I thought I was just "making up for lost time" by eating those things that I missed so much when I was on a diet. I'm beginning to see that that is not what it was about for me at all. I don't need to binge now because I do not have guilt. I have been through two weekends and on a vacation where I could have binged "legally" because they were labelled "S-Days". I have not once felt the need for a binge. I love this.

Making peace with myself and the food -- that's what is happening for me.

Shirls · Post by **Shirls** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 7:52 pm

My feelings exactly, Jill. It's great not to be thinking constantly about eating. Only three times a day. It used to be three times an hour. I had a drawerful of health bars, wholewheat crackers, nuts and raisins and trail mix, all in dinky little packets. So very healthy. So very calorific. Every time I was stressed at work I'd grab one. My job is pretty stressful and I have an office to myself so you can imagine my snacking patterns.

Now that I know they're not an option I can't say I miss them. And obviously I don't keep such items anymore. A thermos jug of iced water seems to do the trick.

fkwan · Post by **fkwan** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:03 pm

I'm thinking about eating less and less.

Today I thought about how long the pecan pie, that I could only eat tiny pieces of two days a week, would keep in the fridge, and would my husband (who made it for me) have to throw it out, or could HE eat most of it....

Needless to say that's the first time I ever had such contemplation about a pie. It used to be when the hell can I eat it, and can I eat it all without being discovered.

f

Mavilu · Post by **Mavilu** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:41 pm

Oh, I'm not quitting, ever!.
This is the best that has happened to me food wise in a long time.

angelka71 · Post by **angelka71** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:48 am

I agree with everyone here too. I too have not binged ONCE since starting this diet...and I thought I had some sort of deep psychological problem. I even seriously considered hypnosis to MAKE me stop binging! Who knew it was just a bad habit that could be overcome so simply?

After my first daughter was born when I was 20, I tried for 5 months to lose weight. After that, I gave up and lo and behold...started losing weight. I firmly believe that it was b/c the more I focused on food, the more I felt deprived, the more I WANTED food, the more I ate. Once I took away all the restrictions I gradually started unconsciously eating normally and since nothing was off limits, nothing was particularly tempting. I remember even saying things like, "Eww! That's too sweet!"

That's why No S jumped out at me. I had already done it w/o realizing it.

lola628 · Post by **lola628** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:27 pm

I mostly ate low carb before No S, so I did notice weight gain when I started eating fruit and bread. I pray this all evens out then decreases as the habits become ingrained. I can't tell you how rotten doing low carb has been -- I hated it!