Everyday Systems

and I won't be having dinner for another 2 1/2 hours- what should I do?

I know I could willpower through the wait, but I am concerned that I will overeat when dinner comes around (restaurant reservations with a friend who has a penchant for overordering)...

Have a cup of tea?

Drink a glass of whole milk......satisfying & totally within the "rules"

Embrace your hunger, it is a natural feeling.

Do not eat more food on your plate than you would have normally,

and guess what?

You win.

Those first three weeks (in September) that I was on this diet were really, really hard. My kids were in school, I was waiting for a callback on a second interview, and I did absolutely nothing. Then it got easier.

Today, I realized at 4 PM that I hadn't yet had lunch. I ate lunch. At dinner at 6:30, I didn't finish what I had put on my plate.

How could that be? How could that change occur in only a few months? I think I got out of the habit of eating outside of mealtime and just learned to tune out hunger.

Stick with the plan...

Kathleen

StrawberryRoan wrote:Embrace your hunger, it is a natural feeling.

Do not eat more food on your plate than you would have normally,

and guess what?

You win.

I agree. Being hungry isn't a problem. You will get food.

Take a hot bath, take a nap, drink something low in calories, some skim milk perhaps? Take a walk. Do some yoga type stretches.

I agree that hunger is a natural feeling, but if you're feeling weak, that's a terrible feeling. I personally break up the time between lunch and dinner with low fat yogurt, a piece of low fat cheese, or both. Otherwise, I feel really weak and starving and can't function.

I've found that the weak feeling passes -- with or without food or beverage.

1. Have a beverage -- even a caloric one.

2. While you're enjoying that beverage, take comfort that you're building habit by holding out. You're teaching hunger a lesson, that it has to wait till meal time. Be firm and soon enough very few such lessons will be required.

3. Don't listen to the siren song that you're somehow doing something strange and inhumane to yourself by holding out till mealtime. This is how people used to eat everywhere. It's profoundly normal. It's snacking that's weird.

4. Some people take comfort in the thought that "hunger is the feeling of calories burning," but I personally find that thought a little too diety. Still, if it works for you.

5. Consider how awesome you're going to feel when you post back here that you managed to hold out.

If worse comes to worse, you can always make a "mod" to allow a fourth meal, or some kind of exempt, healthy "non-food." But I'd give habit a good few weeks to kick in before even considering it.

Best of luck!

Reinhard

Wow, thanks so much for the advice everyone! Like I said above, the problem wasn't that I would lose willpower in the afternoon, between meals, but that I would lose willpower out to dinner with friends when I was starving and surrounded by food and drinking.

And you know what? I did. Capital F-failed. I had considered making it a "special" day because a friend was coming in from out of town and we were planning a big dinner event, but I wanted to hold out because Monday is Memorial day and too many "special" days defeat the purpose. I'd rather take a red box than excuse it away.

So this is something I am going to have to address long-term. Left to my own devices, I eat lunch between 1 and 4 and dinner, often in a restaurant, between 8 and 11. My friends are foodies with a terrible sweet tooth, and they are supportive but not going to change their habits to accommodate me (which they shouldn't). I usually work out or practice yoga before dinner. So dinner is where this diet is really going to need some highly concentrated willpower to put a cap on my single plate of food.

I'll stay mindful of this and report back when I figure out some solutions.

Kaidell wrote:Wow, thanks so much for the advice everyone! Like I said above, the problem wasn't that I would lose willpower in the afternoon, between meals, but that I would lose willpower out to dinner with friends when I was starving and surrounded by food and drinking.

And you know what? I did. Capital F-failed. I had considered making it a "special" day because a friend was coming in from out of town and we were planning a big dinner event, but I wanted to hold out because Monday is Memorial day and too many "special" days defeat the purpose. I'd rather take a red box than excuse it away.

So this is something I am going to have to address long-term. Left to my own devices, I eat lunch between 1 and 4 and dinner, often in a restaurant, between 8 and 11. My friends are foodies with a terrible sweet tooth, and they are supportive but not going to change their habits to accommodate me (which they shouldn't). I usually work out or practice yoga before dinner. So dinner is where this diet is really going to need some highly concentrated willpower to put a cap on my single plate of food.

I'll stay mindful of this and report back when I figure out some solutions.

I would have called it an S day. Sometimes they do get somewhat jumbled together, but that's just the way life goes.

Kaidell wrote:So this is something I am going to have to address long-term. Left to my own devices, I eat lunch between 1 and 4 and dinner, often in a restaurant, between 8 and 11. My friends are foodies with a terrible sweet tooth, and they are supportive but not going to change their habits to accommodate me (which they shouldn't). I usually work out or practice yoga before dinner. So dinner is where this diet is really going to need some highly concentrated willpower to put a cap on my single plate of food.

I'll stay mindful of this and report back when I figure out some solutions.

One of the great things about this way of eating, IMHO, is that it really helps to crystallize exactly how the weight gets put on. It seems to me that you've identified the culprit. For me, it is big portions, snacking and sweets (LOL---all three of the S's!).

Kaidell, you are aware and that is what matters.

The beauty of this eating plan is that there is no "Sorry I can't eat dinner (breakfast,lunch) with you. I am on a diet.

If a non S day, one just eats a normal meal like a normal person and that's it. They decline seconds and desserts saying - Oh no thanks, my meal was more than filling.

None of the calorie/carb/points/ drama.

That's the beauty, no explanations needed for just being normal.