Why NoS works

[mjn]

I posted a couple days ago about my year journey with NoS. I had a "light bulb" moment while I was on a walk this morning and hope I can clearly share it with you. I have been on diets, most my adult life. I have been up and down the scale so many times, I have lost track. I am real good with my willpower on any diet for at least 3 months, then I am back to my old ways. I have been following NoS for a year and for the first time, I have been able to maintain. That is tremendous for me. I admit, that after I quit a job that I loved in Oct., my weight started creeping up again and I turned to Weight Watcher's Online. That lasted one week!! Iwas sick to death of counting points, and I had tried it before with no lasting effects. So, from there, I tried the Phenotype diet. That lasted less than a week. I just knew that wasn't going to get me anywhere. From there I thought well, I had success with a Christian diet program 10 years ago, so I will try the 3D diet. Wow, that didn't even get past the first 2 days. What I kept coming back to each time was the NoS diet. Well, it finally stuck as to why I kept coming back to NoS, I feel that is way we are designed to eat and it makes sense. All the other diets for me just don't feel right. I am going no other place now, and this has truly been keeping my weight off. If I go a little crazy with food, I know what I need to do and it is plain and simple. I don't have to search for something else. It is not a diet to me, it is a way of life, and it feels good!!!!

[apomerantz]

This is a great post and so encouraging to those of us (ME! ME!) who have done the diet thing over and over only to gain back the weight. I'm so sick and tired of dieting.

No S is different I think because it actually has a pleasure component that is totally lacking in other diet plans. Meals really do become more enjoyable because you are hungry for them, AND because they can actually taste good, AND because you aren't micro-managing every aspect of them so you have some mental energy left to actually enjoy what you've prepared.

And then the relaxation of the "rules" on the weekend means you can socialize without constant guilt.

Guilt has got to be the ultimate diet killer of all time. I can't think of a time where I was dieting, ate something off the diet, and didn't feel so guilty that I then ended up saying "what the heck" and eating everything in sight. I so agree with your message that for three months, you can do anything, and then it just becomes harder and harder and harder. I think I must have "started WW over" about 20 times.

No S is pleasurable, which just makes it so much easier to stick with. And I think the results are going to be there, and I'm willing to wait. I can feel my body changing even though the scale hasn't reflected that change yet . . .and I'm excited to see what happens.

[TexArk]

You said it well. One reason I enjoy this group so much is that I feel so many here have lived my life. I feel as if we are all part of a diet recovery group. Hello, my name is___________and I am a recovering point counter. I have been "clean" 42 days.

I hope that many are able to be successful with NoS without all the background that you, Anita, I, and others share, but I don't think one can really appreciate NoS the way we do. Today is Day 42 for me and I have no intention of trying any other path. This is the only way. Those of us who have committed to this have no doubts because we have actually tried all the other ways first!

Thanks for sharing with us.

[resting52]

You said it well. One reason I enjoy this group so much is that I feel so many here have lived my life. I feel as if we are all part of a diet recovery group. Hello, my name is___________and I am a recovering point counter. I have been "clean" 42 days.

That would be more funny if it weren't so true. It needs to be a banner for NoS along with the explanations of why WW and other S.A.D.s don't work. Well, at least they only work when they are your job....your full time job.

Even then I wonder about the folks that work at WW or other places. What do they do when the camera is turned off? Surely they get as weary as we all did trying to keep up the program. I bet they run off and hide with contraband foods, stuff them in as fast as they can, wipe the crumbs off their mouths, and pretend to the world that it never happened.

I've been here since last April. For me the healing has been slow but good-undoing all the lies, programs, guilt, failures. It is like the veil has gradually been lifted and the truth exposed is that DIETS DON'T WORK.

After all, if WW or any other program truly truly truly worked, there would be zero obesity because everyone would be fixed. for good.

Resting

[apomerantz]

I bet they run off and hide with contraband foods, stuff them in as fast as they can, wipe the crumbs off their mouths, and pretend to the world that it never happened.

Ok, I didn't even work at WW, and I did this plenty . . .sigh.

I'm definitely a testament to the DIETS DON'T WORK theory. I've gained 20 lbs over 20 years . . .despite loads of exercise . . .but the ongoing cycle of on and off diets - - deprivation followed by gorging. . .has done nothing for me. I'm ready to re-learn what I've been doing my whole life.

[planner lady]

I, too, have been/try to be a points counter. I lost 85 pounds in 2000 through WW. I had that "spark" and did what it took to succeed. I was at my goal for about 20 minutes before I started gaining again. I had gained 45 of the 85 back as of 1-1/2 years ago but was staying pretty steady and then I went back to work full-time. I've gained about 12 pounds since I started working. I am a legal assistant but I am on my feet quite a bit. I think I've gained since I started working because I am so busy that I'm eating food that's easy to grab. I don't have a lot of time in the morning (not a morning person) and rarely get more than a few minutes for lunch and then eat dinner with my family. I have gained because I'm not exercising and I'm eating really bad stuff and obviously too much of it. I have tried repeatedly to do WW again - I've gone to meetings, joined on-line, done it on my own. I just can't do it anymore. I am sick to death of counting and weighing and measuring. I have been aware of the NOS diet for a couple of years and tried it a couple of times but never been able to get through even one day. It's harder than it sounds.

My biggest obstacle is getting from lunch to dinner which is usually noon to 6:30 or so. By the time I eat dinner, I'm starving to death and then I decide it's too hard and eat everything that doesn't eat me first. But I really want to do it. It makes so much sense and it's a way I can eat forever - not just until I get to goal.

Does anyone else find it hard to make it between meals - -especially lunch and dinner?

[TexArk]

Welcome to the club!
I found it difficult the first week or so. It helped to drink LALoser's recommended H2Orange drink. Also, knowing that you can have a glass of milk (which has protein and fat) to carry you to the next meal helps. Some of us have found that drinking coffee in the afternoon dulls the appetite for a couple of hours.

After a couple of weeks I will have to say that it got easier to go from lunch to supper. I am on Day 43 now and I am still very hungry by suppertime, and I do need to have something prepared ahead of time or at least 30 minutes away, BUT it is getting easier. I had always had afternoon snacks and I think it has taken awhile for my body to get used to not having that snack. If you just can't make it, there are some mods that people have used. You could plan to have at 4:00 a cup of cottage cheese or something bland. It would have to be at a regular time and not a treat and not too interesting in my opinion--something that is part of the habit so you don't have to think about it. You still want to be hungry for your evening meal. But the hunger is really a good thing. It is something that I used to be afraid of. Now I don't feel right on S days because I feel too full and not empty. I am working on it. At least I am now aware.

After 4 decades of trying to stay in Olympic training mode (vigilant point counting or something similar and much exercise) I can say NoS is a breath of fresh air. Your focus is on the 3 S's and that's it! The more green days you can string together the stronger the habit becomes and life becomes strangely normal! It helps to post each day and be aware that you are not alone. This really is a pleasant, encouraging group of folks.

[Mavilu]

I tried WW for one month exactly.
I fretted during the whole month, I had only 1200 cals a day or less to eat, so food became a very precious commodity that I was not to ruin!
I remember eating lots of turkey breast sandwiches because I was too hungry to make point calculations for anything else, being that very hungry I eventually quit exercising because it gave me headaches and so I quit WW altogether.
I ended up very frazzled with less money and I didn't lose a single pound.

eDiets worked beatifully when I did the very first Discovery Health Chanel National Challenge, I lost 10 pounds in eight weeks or so, but once I was off counting teaspoons of this and quarter cups of that and cutting meat into 3oz. portions I regained the same 10 pounds in a year.
I tried to keep eating the eDiets way, but honestly, it became a problem when it was time to cook for both my husband and I and my husband started asking "is there any other meal that you can do but the diet ones?" and soon I began looking forlornly at the olive oil bottle and at my baking books...

So yeah, for one reason or another, diets don't work.

My biggest obstacle is getting from lunch to dinner which is usually noon to 6:30 or so. By the time I eat dinner, I'm starving to death and then I decide it's too hard and eat everything that doesn't eat me first. But I really want to do it. It makes so much sense and it's a way I can eat forever - not just until I get to goal.

Does anyone else find it hard to make it between meals - -especially lunch and dinner?

Yeah, everyone struggles with that in the beginning, don't worry, it'll go away once your body gets used to wait until it's dinner time, you can have a bigger lunch or you can always add a small fourth meal (afternoon tea?) to your routine in the meantime.

[Consu]

Hello, my name is___________and I am a recovering point counter.

TexArk, I need a nametag like that!

To me, the hardest thing about No S has been consciously un-learning to count points. I can't express how free I felt this weekend, going out of town to a wedding and not having to fret over if I had enough points left for the reception or not, should I avoid the points in the wedding cake, etc. My sister-in-law, who's been on and off WW for years, skipped the cake.

Well, not me. They never serve you that humongous a slice of cake at weddings, anyway. It was a dainty little piece & I enjoyed every bite of it with no regrets. Anybody remember the other points--the Activity Points? Well, the morning after the wedding, since we were staying with my hubby's cousin, I got up before everyone in the house to go for a walk. Not because I needed to "earn APs" but because I love to walk. It's good for your heart and that Georgia neighborhood was new and fresh to me, so I took in it, felt energized, and didn't have to write that into a little booklet, either.

I don't know if I've lost anything because I don't let myself be ruled by the scale anymore, but I do know I've maintained so far. Also, I've been doing this for almost a month and I notice that I'm not as obsessive with food since turning my back on the points-counting craze thing. I feel like now I'm eating to live rather than living to eat, as the adage goes, and I'm not fearing making it through the week wondering whether I can "stretch out my points and stay OP." Instead I'm looking forward to other things that have nothing to do with food.

That, alone, has made my still-young journey with No S worthwhile! And, incidentally, I look forward to all your posts. Keep them coming!

[la_loser]

I love the "12 steps nametag" as well. Since a number of posters are fairly new to No S, let me share a little thing you may have not run across yet. I looked back into the No S Glossary that I started a few months ago (it's near the top of the No S General Discussion as a stickie)

On July 31, 2008, resting52 said. . .

Was reading THE book again and just thought it was funny that Reinhard's name for excess attention diets is:

Substance Accounting Diet or S.A.D.

I know they always made ME sad. Crying or Very sad
_________________
I've left the S.A.D.ness behind.

So, yeah, no more SAD-ness for me. . . wish I had a nickel for every point or calorie or carb I've counted, and for the little devices I've bought to keep up with them.

This old tortoise must say, "Slow and steady wins the race!"

[Thalia]

I am REALLY GOOD at Weight Watchers. I follow all the rules and work and work at it and I always lose weight. I am like a poster girl for "working the program." But I cannot work and work and work at EATING for the rest of my life, and as soon as I go off, I gain tons of weight because restricted eating makes me binge when I stop. Never again!

I can't weigh and measure and do accounting for every meal for the rest of my life. I can't worry about how many teaspoons of oil I ate if I ate a tossed salad in a restaurant. But I can eat three meals a day and save treats for the weekend for the rest of my life -- because I just don't need to think about it, it's so simple.

[connorcream]

I am so grateful for nos and I could have written each post. I am a lifetime WW. Hit goal twice and sustained the loss for a while. But the accounting became too much.

I love my life and my DH loves Nos even though he eats like this naturally. He doesn't get the novelty of it but is so glad we aren't eating "dieting" food.

[TexArk]

I don't want to be too hard on WW here because as far as diets go, it does emphasize healthy, balanced eating with moderate exercise, and it does work as long as you can do it. BUT as most of us have found out, we just couldn't make it our life's work. I even trained as a lecturer in the 70's after my second arrival at goal and lifetime. I am not good at math, but I can calculate in my head the pts from the calorie, fat, and fiber info in record time. It is a hard habit to break, but I really have not added up points in my head like that for several weeks.

As I have said in other posts, I also couldn't make the NoDiet approach work--the hunger/full methods (Intuitive Eating, Thin Within, Rise Above, Diet Survivors, Rules of Normal Eating, etc). They are more like our S days without the N days to give us the structure, boundaries, or "scaffolding" we need. You also have to think too much about whether you are hungry or full, and some of those approaches seem to be targeting those who have real emotional eating disorders. I was beginning to think I was one until I realized that it was just the restrictive diets that had caused the disorder.

Hurrah for the simplicity and freedom of NoS!

[amelie]

I recently discovered No S and I can't believe it's not more well-known. I've joined and rejoined WW more times than I'd care to admit, and the most recent time was the worst: I joined the online version and lasted one week! I just can't go back to all that stupid counting.

It's funny - the first time I did WW was my most successful time (of course when I stopped, I gained it all back in record time) and I guess all those rejoinings were just attempts to get that motivation and results back. But if you can't stick to it for the rest of your life, forget it. I did learn a lot about portion sizes from WW but all that counting is just way too unnatural.

And someone mentioned the WW leaders - I've heard a lot of them have just as much trouble as the rest of us sticking to the program.

I'm just so glad I found the No S book and this site!

[resting52]

I've been here since last April and NoS is still working its way through my system. I'm so glad that with the dips and falls I never really walked away. If you've been on a diet ALL YOUR LIFE like I have, NoS means sane recovery. Why?

Because even though no sensible, critically thinking person would choose to put themselves in prison, I chose to believe the diet (aka prison) lies. I imprisoned myself with every new wave of food obsessing restriction.

I'm more than a little angry and more than a little sad about the years I rotted there. But, just like the Lord redeems the years the locusts have eaten, NoS, and this present and future freedom, are redeeming the years that dieting has taken from me.

Resting

[Kathleen]

Double post.

[Kathleen]

I don't want to be too hard on WW here because as far as diets go, it does emphasize healthy, balanced eating with moderate exercise, and it does work as long as you can do it. BUT as most of us have found out, we just couldn't make it our life's work. I even trained as a lecturer in the 70's after my second arrival at goal and lifetime. I am not good at math, but I can calculate in my head the pts from the calorie, fat, and fiber info in record time. It is a hard habit to break, but I really have not added up points in my head like that for several weeks.

As I have said in other posts, I also couldn't make the NoDiet approach work--the hunger/full methods (Intuitive Eating, Thin Within, Rise Above, Diet Survivors, Rules of Normal Eating, etc). They are more like our S days without the N days to give us the structure, boundaries, or "scaffolding" we need. You also have to think too much about whether you are hungry or full, and some of those approaches seem to be targeting those who have real emotional eating disorders. I was beginning to think I was one until I realized that it was just the restrictive diets that had caused the disorder.

Hurrah for the simplicity and freedom of NoS!

My sentiments exactly. The NoDiet approach was called "The Peanut Cluster Diet" by my kids. They didn't expect it to last a week, but it lasted almost six months during which time I gained 10 pounds. The Diet Approach -- of which there were so many that my kids started to give them nicknames -- sooner or later meant a binge (my husband once calculated that I ate 10 ice cream sandwiches in a few hours) and rebound weight gain. It was so miserable dieting and regaining weight that I tried NoDiet and gained even more weight. In fact, I fluctuated between NoDiet and Diet for several years, starting with reading Diets Don't Work in the mid 1990s.

It's all over. I've found something that works. I don't know how much I'll lose, but I'm off the bungee jump of eating that I've experienced with increasing intensity since I was a teenager.

Slow weight loss is just not a deciding factor in whether or not to continue on this diet.

Kathleen