Everyday Systems

Hi everyone, it's Debs here, signing in for my almost thirteen year old Son Richard.
He is joining me on NoS this year, and we just set up Habit Cals for him.
He is trying to cut down on sweets and snacks and also track his daily exercise.
We both weighed in this morning to check our official start weights and will weigh again in a month.
Richie hopes to lose about 10 lbs and I hope to lose, ultimately, about 60.
I don't know how much he will post on the check in thread, but I created this profile so he could use Habit Cal.

It's really nice to have his help. It's great to be officially doing NoS together again and I'm very proud of him

Best wishes to all!
Debs and Richie

Welcome, Richie!

Happy new year and best of luck to you and your mom,

Reinhard

Richie says thanks! We are both feeling great about making the commitment together
Sorry, for taking so long to respond.. Been having a hard time getting on the site cos one of our computers has a lot of viruses on it and screws up the display.
Have a great week all!
Debs

Hi Richard, don't worry about the scale or even how your clothes fit. At your age, your body is doing all kinds of crazy things. You are still growing so you could very well put on weight even though you follow the rules and exercise perfectly. And then there are the hormones.

I have three sons and the oldest two got a little "chunky" just before they put on their manly muscle weight around the age of 16. They both are athletic and active. It's just one of those hormone things I think.

Believe me, you will NOT regret establishing these habits early on in life. Then when you get to be old like the rest of us, you will be off living exciting adventures because you are healthy and fit. You have a great future ahead of you and you have a great Mom!

Hi Blithe Morning! I just wanted to thank you for your message to Richie.
I read it and then passed it on to him, but he may also write you back at some point.
To reply to your kind words about the hormone changes possibly having something to do with gaining weight, that may be very true, but I'd say that my own bad behaviour this last year or so has been much more influential.
Sadly..

But, we are both excited to have a great week this week.
Last week Richie had two green days on NoS and several green days for exercise, both walking and some weight stuff at the school workout room, and he's been using his dumbells too at home!
He would have had even more of a successful week if it weren't for me sabotaging both of us when I had a few stress days and bought donuts..

But this we are both agreed about getting back to strict adherence to the rules, and go for 21 days on Habit challenge for the remainder of January!
I know that as long as we both encourage each other it will happen.

Have a nice week all!

Debs

PS.. By the way, Richie was so proud of himself for having the two green days, and I applauded him very very loudly for it!!

Hi Everybody! Its Richard
Thank you Reinhard and Blithe Morning for your welcome. I'm really determined to be good on No-S and have had 7 good days this month!
Just wondering, today I had a jolly rancher in school along with half a cookie. It was just one of those moments where I realized I had a sweet while it was in my mouth.
I marked it as a success because mom said it wasn't so bad, but I wanted to know what you all thought about it? Should I mark it a failure?
Have a nice week,
Richie

Richard- I think the more our green days are totally green, the better our S days will be. I had a small (1/2" taste of chocolate frosting) sweet last night from a cake that a dear lady had baked for the family. I was very content with my orange slices but wanted to taste the frosting. So I did.

I marked the day green but your post helped me to see that it was a red day and it needs to be marked as such. I don't think it is about amount as much as if it is about yes or no.

Glad you are here.

Hi Richie,

I personally would probably mark that as "red..." It's hard to spin a cookie and jolly rancher as anything but a sweet...

But the habitcal is a tool, not an end in itself. If you think it would be discouraging, give yourself green since the rest of the day was good except for this unconscious slip up and make a mental note that if you do it again you'll get a red. Consider it a "consciousness raising" experience.

Reinhard

Richard,

There are two things to consider...
1) Is it "against the rules" (I think it pretty clearly is)

and, more importantly,

2) How will marking it red affect your morale/determination, etc.

Just because you have room for improvement doesn't mean that you didn't do well. Recognizing "oh, this is sweet!" and STOPPING is a huge step forward. If it makes you feel discouraged to mark it red this time, don't... but resolve to mark it in the FUTURE if you do it again.

Look forward, not back.

Best wishes. BTW, Reinhard's podcast on "strictness" is my absolute favorite, and may be useful to you right now. (It outlines why it's good to be strict, but also emphasizes "No Retribution," which I think is a very healthy outlook.)

Glad to see you here, and hope to see you more.

HI Everybody its Richard
Today i had a success and felt really proud of myself
A friend had given me a snack in a wrapper and when I opened it, it was a chocolate chip cookie. I decided to just throw it away and be good today!
Also, I ran 1.5 miles on the treadmill at school and did some bench press and such...
I'm really feeling good about NoS, and thanks for the support!
Peace,
Richie

Richie, I am so very proud of you!!!!
I'm glad to have such a positive and hard working, smart and wonderful Son!
And,,, guess what day tomorrow is?????
hahahah...
I'll give you three guesses what I bought at the supermarket this morning to make for a special S!!
Hint:
1. It has chocolate chips in it..
2. you like them

LOL
Love,
Mom xoxoxoxo
ps.. I'm very glad you are noticing your muscles showing in your arms this week! You are doing great with your working out!!! Watch out Reinhard.. I think we may have some very impressive "before" and "durings" for Richie this year!!