Everyday Systems

I've been a lurker for a couple of months, sort of experimenting with No S and related ideas. I like the idea of creating habits because I am done (d-o-n-e) with traditional dieting.

What I found was that no s is do-able, but the no snacking part was really hard for me as I have a "flexible" schedule, both lunch and dinner are fairly eratic, and I have blood sugar issues. So I've been experimenting with other sorts of "habits" and this is what I came up with:

* No snack foods (sweets, processed snacks, things considered treats) except when someone else (and not hubby!) offers them to me. This takes even more of the guess work out of No S and makes it possible for me to have the occasional treat on a weekday. I have a (think 3 small kids) extremely limited social life, so for me I eat even fewer snack foods this way than I would if I just went wild on S days. Plus, you're not going to be an idiot on someone else''s dime, right?

* No eating after dinner.

So far, I'm 3 weeks in and have lost 2 pounds....

I know that this isn't really no-s, but I thought someone else out there might be interested. I think this works for me mainly because I'm a Dr Jeckll and Mr. Hyde eater, that is, I make sure to always have my 5-7 servings of fruits and veggies, but I also have my 1-2 servings of snickers bars every day too This way I eat fairly normally without too much stress but have found a way to avoid Mr. Hyde...Plus I'm not waiting for S days. I just get snacks at social occasions, period, and I don't have to make any decisions about should I? Can I? at all.

I think that the important thing is to find a system that works for us. At the beginning I was trying to follow all the rules and found myself going completely off track if for example I had a snack (even if it was healthy) -- in my mind, the snack turned my day into a RED, so might as well take advantage of it. Obviously, that didn't yield any results. Now, if I have a healthy snack, I call it a YELLOW day even if it's not an S-day -- it prevents me from turning it into a red day.

I hope that at some point I'll start seeing more GREENS, but for now, YELLOWS are better than REDS.

Good Luck!

Welcome, Aya!

I know that this isn't really no-s, but I thought someone else out there might be interested.

It might not be orthodox no-s, but it's clearly no-s-like. It's a form of "systematic moderation."

The details are obviously important, but these sound very sensible.

Hope it works for you and let us know how it goes,

Reinhard