Everyday Systems

Hello all,

First a little bit about me. I was avid bike rider until I was about 19, refused to own a car in fact. I got a desk job, real estate, a car and over the course of 4 years gained 35 pounds and was miserable.

So now I'm 23 and will be a new father before the year is out. I quit my job, taking a 75% pay cut, and have never been happier. Of course those things have made me realize just how out of shape I have become and I hope that will spur me to stick to correcting it.

I have started and stopped both the no S diet and shovel gloving before and so am here hoping this will keep me on track. Both plans seemed easy to stick to at the start but I found I kept drifting away. My biggest hang up with the diet is snacking. The work out would some days leave me aching and beat and I found it hard to get myself to do it next time around.

So any advice for someone starting out again?

Matt

Good Morning Matt and welcome! Congratulations on being a new dad!!
My suggestion, and there are many on this board more expierenced with this program than I am, is to start with baby steps, if you find cutting out all snacks too hard, just eliminate them one at a time. Try and eat enough at all meals, have a good balance. God BLess and good luck.

My advice is to be gentle with yourself. It's better to start slow and stick with it than start hard and quit.

Do less than you think you can for a week or two, then when you feel as if "this is a no-brainer!", you can bump it up.

That goes for exercise and for No-S, both.

Welcome!

With a baby on the way you are wise to get in shape physically and mentally.

I found that I wasn't quite the disaster I thought I was going into this. There really were only about 3 times of the day that I really struggled with those snack attacks. I found I was able to just push through 2 of them with some determination in the beginning and by the time I would have caved in with other plans, I really had made NOT snacking at those times my new habit so 2 out of 3 ended up being really simple. That blasted third one was a killer. It was the 8PM if I don't have a snack I will die kinda thing. I went ahead and substituted my usual sweet snack with a cup of sugar free hot cocoa for about 6 weeks. I didn't have to have it every night but when things got bad I used it as my default. I knew I would have to give it up eventually and I did and because it was a beverage it wasn't that hard to give up.

I think the key is to plan ahead. You know in the beginning you will run into temptation, but if you have a default in place, you have a much better shot at this. And the good thing is that it gets easier, not harder like other plans.

As for exercise, you just have to find something that you don't hate. I'd say enjoy, but I know a lot of us don't really enjoy any exercise. I am a walker and I enjoy aspects of it, like spending time with my husband without the kids interrupting. But if I could burn as many calories by sitting on the couch watching TV I'd do that instead.

Good luck!

Matt -

Use a lighter sledge hammer (or whatever) until you're comfortable with it. If you're aching and beat, you're overdoing it. Also, you may have to work up to the 14 minutes. Take your time. This isn't a speedy process.

Congrats on the baby on the way.

Have a great day!

Welcome, Tagir (and congratulations)!

I stuck with no-s and shovelglove through 2 kids (so far) -- so while tough, it is possible.

I think the trick is just to put the emphasis on a consistent, sustainable minimum of compliance. Realize that some meals will be large and not optimally healthy. Realize that not all 14 minutes are created equal, that some will be much more relaxed than others. But insist on meeting the minimal superficial requirements of the systems every N-day and over time, you'll be very happy with the results. I find the habitcal (online or paper) very helpful in this regard. If 14 minutes is a problem, make it 12 or 10. A regular consistent *something* is the important part -- the absurdly precise number is mostly just a trick to get you to start that something every N-day. And I think you'll find that once you do start, and let yourself take it easier some days if you need to, 14 minutes isn't actually a problem.

Snacks can be tough to resist at first, but the good news is that once you break the habit your really won't miss them. Sweets and seconds will always stay something desirable, real pleasures (and on S-days they'll become even more pleasurable). But snacking is more like a nervous tick, scratching an itch. You won't miss it any more than you miss a mosquito bite.

Reinhard

reinhard wrote: But snacking is more like a nervous tick, scratching an itch.

How funny - I'd never think two of my worst habits - snacking and scratching - will get put together in one sentence!

reinhard wrote: Snacks can be tough to resist at first,
but the good news is that once you break the habit you really won't miss them.

Sweets and seconds will always stay something desirable, real pleasures
(and on S-days they'll become even more pleasurable).

But snacking is more like a nervous tick, scratching an itch.
You won't miss it any more than you miss a mosquito bite.

Reinhard

Oh....If only that turns out to be true for me,
.......assuming I can ever GET a no-snacking Habit.
I would be SOOOO Very HAPPY.

Hang in there, BA, you will get the habit! I truly don't miss the snacks now and very rarely even think about eating just for the sake of eating between meals. Even on S-Days.

But, I do still miss the sweet stuff. If I could get away with it, I would eat sweets every day. But, the strangest thing is, on Monday and even on Tuesday I am fine without them. It's on Wednesdays (like today) that I really start to get antsy for some cookies or ice cream. This is the day that I have to say to myself "hang in there" because Saturday is coming.

It's a beautiful system, really. If I didn't have Saturday to look forward to, I would cave most of the time, I just know it. I would have caved today. But, I am stubborn and persistant and pig-headed and persevering and perfectionistic and... All those things help keep me on track. I will wait until Saturday, I can wait until Saturday, I will wait until Saturday...

So, for now I am just glad I can make it to Saturday. Someday, I hope, I will not be thinking about making it to Saturday and it will just happen naturally. But, as I said on an earlier post, I am just going to stick like glue to what "the boss" says and build the habit of No S on No S days.

(Thanks, boss!)