Everyday Systems

A challenge for all the witty people out there:

I am working on a variation of the NoS diet that will be compatible with my needs as a breastfeeding mom who tends towards the hypoglycemic. I am loving the idea of defining a certain kind of "mini meal" as exempt from the definition of snack, so that it could be had as needed without counting it as a snack. Reinhard warns to be careful of this practice because it's open to abuse, which makes sense. So I want to carefully design and restrict that mini-meal.

Here is the rule variation I am going to try: If I need it, I can have a between-meal aliquot of fresh fruit, real cheese, and nut pieces --- no other food allowed --- and it has to fit inside a "snack size" ziploc bag.

I picked this particular combo because: (1) I don't like to eat more than a little bit of it; (2) I lost a lot of weight while having 2 snacks per day that consisted of an ounce of cheese, a couple of bites' worth of fruit, and a few nuts. And that is about all that fits in a snack size ziploc bag; (3) At another poster's suggestion, I tried having No-S legal whole milk instead, and it worked great, but it just wasn't convenient enough. (4) Finally, the combination is really satisfying, sensorially speaking -- like having a cheese and fruit plate at a fancy restaurant.

SO anyway... Now that I have made up my mind to declare little ziploc bags of fruit, cheese, and nuts a non-snack that I can have between meals, I need help coming up with a name for it. My husband thinks I should just call the stuff "FNC" pronounced "effin' cee," but you guys are all so clever with the fun names for things, I think with some help I can do better than that. I have been thinking about riffs on the term "trail mix," as in "Phosphorus's magic anti-hypoglycemia trail mix," but this takes too long to say. I catch myself using terms like "aliquot" or "quanta" in an effort to avoid the word "snack," but this is a bit too nerdy for my taste even.

The idea is that I could alter my own personal no-S rules in a very simple, easy to remember way, so that it becomes "No Snacks, No Sweets, No Seconds, not counting [THAT STUFF], except sometimes on days that start with S." I just need a name for "that stuff." Can anyone rise to the challenge?

I like Mommy Meal. It's a great name.

It hits in two ways. First, you need it b/c you're a mommy. Second, it conjures up an image of the ideal mommy quizzing you about your choice. Because mommies want you to eat good-for-you-food, right? And will ask things like "are you really hungry, honey?" (Okay, we're talking ideal mommies here, the kind we wish we'd had.) And if you insist that really, truly, you're hungry, then they'll say in a stern-but-kind-voice "well, okay then, you can have some fruit, or some cheese if you're really hungry. No, no sweets or junk, you'll spoil your appetite for dinner."

(I can hear myself telling my son that. If he's not hungry for an apple, he's not really hungry, in my book! And that's true for me too.)

What about "...not counting a zippy, sometimes"?

I have also recently reinstigated the mini-meal. I bike to work 45 minutes each way, and at the end of the day I often get shaky on the ride home. So I am seeing what 1/2 sandwitch and 1/2 piece of fruit does. I will pack it every day and can eat that, but only that, before I get on the bike.

Never thought about coming up with a cool name for it though.

How about Savor Saver or something like that. . . it goes with the S theme. . . another system I followed briefly, too restrictive and artificial, did have a number of good ideas. One was something they called a "hunger-saver"--a handful (15) of peanuts to use an a emergency stop-gap to get you to the next meal or two peanut butter crackers--only two--not the whole package!

The fear would be that it might be too easy to begin to rely on it too much or do it too often, but in your case of making it a specific part of your daily defaults, that might work.

I thought of using Savor Saver to evoke the food/tastes images as in to savor the flavor--but as a saver, as in to save you from blowing it so you could still "savor" your next real meal.

So for someone who has determined that for whatever reason (mommy issues) or other reason that a little extra mini-meal is necessary, this could be the answer.

Not for the plain vanilla S'ers, but if tweak keeps you on habit, that will be a good thing!