Post
by Kathleen » Fri Oct 10, 2008 1:11 pm
resting52,
What I mean is that I can plan the Special Day or can use the Special Days for what would have been an N Day failure.
I started this accumulation of Special Days on September 15th, the week after I started The No S Diet -- which started with four failures on N Days.
Starting on September 15th, I had 2 Special Days (earned for the month of September) which I could use however I wanted. I didn't use any Special Days from September 15th through 30th.
On October 1, I earned another 2 Special Days, for a total of 4 Special Days to be used however I want.
On October 1, I had planned to take my kids to TCBY just for a treat to celebrate my son earning Star rank in Scouts. The only reason for this treat to be on Wednesday was there are discounts on TCBY cones on Wednesdays. I had the freedom to simply use 1 of the Special Days. On October 1, after I took the kids to TCBY, my allocation of Special Days went down to 3.
Now I have 3 Special Days. If I go to the grocery store today and I decide to have a taste test, that is not a Failure. Instead, I use one of my remaining Special Days, bringing the total down to 2.
Part of why I like this idea is that I don't want to be one bite -- or one grocery store taste test -- away from an N Day failure. I cannot tell you the number of diets that failed because of grocery store taste tests. When I'd see a grocery store taste test, I'd just cringe at the thought of all those failed diets. Now I know I have the choice to use a Special Day if I see a grocery store taste test that I really want to try.
Another part of the reason why I am accumulating Special Days is that it may not always be convenient to have a Special Day on what would be defined as a Special Day. For example, my 50th birthday is coming up on October 23rd. That would be pre-defined in The No S Diet as a Special Day. Here's what is happening on that day:
- By 7 AM, I am driving my 14 year old daughter and 12 year old son to school so that my son can be in jazz band practice at 7 AM.
- By 8 AM, I am getting the other two elementary school children to school.
- From 8 AM until about lunch, I am going to work -- my second day of work.
- At 2:40 PM, I am picking up the two elementary school children.
- At 3:15 PM, I am bringing the 9 year old to a flute lesson that lasts until 4 PM.
- At 6 PM, I am bringing my son to Scouts.
- At 8:30 PM, I am picking up my son from Scouts.
- At 9 PM, my husband will get home from a business trip.
As far as I'm concerned, the actual birthday can be an N Day, since I'd like to have my birthday cake with my husband!
Also, I spent a lot of time reading blogs on this diet, and it seems to me that people are constantly debating -- is this a Special Day or not? Should I be eating the pie that my sister in law baked from scratch because we were visiting from out of town? If I eat the pie, can I define the day as a Special Day since I'm on vacation and out of town, or should I define the day as an N Day failure? There's no debate with this approach. You use a Special Day allocation, or you don't.
Finally, one failure does not doom this diet, but -- again -- in reading blogs, I noticed that many people reported one failure, then several, and then stopped checking in. Why? Did they recover or not? I think that any failures weaken the whole system of this diet, which is to build habits so that you aren't even thinking about food except at mealtime on N Days. My approach with building Special Day balances isn't failure-proof, but it is failure-resistant. I have 3 Special Days at this point. I cannot fail on an N Day until I have used up all the Special Days, which means the first time I would report a failure is on Wednesday, after not following N Day guidelines on Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. It's a perception on my part that I am 100% successful as long as I have enough Special Days to cover occasional lapses when I see a really good taste test at the grocery store. I'm not going over a cliff into failure if I succumb. I'm just using one Special Day allocation.
If I followed The No S Diet way of determining Special Days, I'd be turning down pie on visits to in-laws, wolfing down food -- and birthday cake -- on a birthday that is too packed with activities for me to enjoy the cake, and "walking on eggshells" with the perception that I am "one bite" away from failure on N Days. My preference would be to use the Special Days when they are convenient for me to use and when it would be socially awkward not to use them. My preference is to avoid any failures if at all possible. Reinhard has a guideline of about two Special Days per month in his book, and that seems very flexible to me.
I start work in two weeks, so I've had an awful lot of time to think about this diet. My family is very skeptical it will work. They've seen too many diets go up in flames. I've lost 6.2 pounds in 32 days, going from 215 pounds to 208.8 pounds. I feel the weight loss, but no one else notices it. Time will tell, but I am feeling confident that this diet will work because each week it is getting easier.
Kathleen
PS. My sister-in-law is a really good cook. Whenever I'm at her house, I want to eat what she's made. That means that N Days visiting her are very likely to become Special Days! I have incentive to build Special Day balances for any Special Days that are spent with her and her family.