Everyday Systems

I'm currently on my second attempt at 21 days (made it through 20 days last time!), and am doing fine. Am now on my eighth day this go-round.

The first time round, I posted every day on the check-in column, also writing down everything I ate. Have not done that this time, and am wondering what's appropriate as one continues on this path.

I can't say I feel like writing down everything I eat, though if it's helpful to myself or others, I am certainly willing to do it. Or is it enough to just weigh and post my weight every three weeks, perhaps saying the number of days which were SUCCESSful and which were not?

I want to do what's best for my own progress and for the board as a whole, since I do believe it is encouraging to read others' posts.

Any advice?

Judy

What's appropriate is what you feel you should do. Whatever you do will benefit everyone else. So really, it's your call. Don't you just love the freedom in this program?

Hi Judy,

I think if you've got to the point where you don't need to write it all down, then great! If you start sliding and feeling like it would help again, you can always start back up again, but in the meantime then posting only if there's something 'funny' going on, and every 21 days to tell us you're still going, that in itself would be very valuable.

Imagine the impact that has on struggling new people, if they see your checkin only has a series of reports 21 days apart, saying "still here. Still doing well. Only had 2 days where I wasn't totally on message this time. Lost another 2 pounds." Or even "Hello again. That makes a total of 63 consecutive days NoS for me!" and suchlike. The value is in showing that this is really a sustainable thing, not some 'flash in the pan, lasts for 3 weeks then you go back to eating crappily and gaining the weight back' type of thing.

Congratulations, by the way. You seem to be a NoS natural! I wish I could stick it out so well myself, but I guess I'm gonna be around for quite a while longer before this really gets ingrained.

Like Jan says, do what *you* want to do. Whatever you decide will be fine by us at this board. Of course, we'd rather you didn't vanish entirely, so popping in every now and then to let us know how you're doing would be great

C.

I will absolutely not disappear. If I don't post every 21 days, it's because I've fallen so far, and feel so hopeless, that I've abandoned the whole thing. And I can't see myself doing that, because where is there to go from here?

Hey Judy! You can do what Reinhard does, which is to post "funny business" if it happens... No one expects you to post every day, though, like Jan said, you can if you feel it helps you and you enjoy it..
If you post "funny business" days, or just a plain, "Today was good..etc.." type of post, it will keep you on track and diffuse any negative energy which goes with our messups.. If you post those, it's a tool for turning a negative into a postive by being proactive...

Have a good day

Peace and Love,
Deb

Thanks, Deb. I like that idea. From now on I'll post daily, but briefly, in the check-in forum. I'll explore it more if there's been any funny business that day.

Judy, officially one of the things that makes an everyday system an everyday system is "No keeping track of things."

From http://everydaysystems.com

None of the systems require you to keep track of anything beyond the day of the week, what planet you are on, etc. You have too many things to keep track of already.

The daily check-ins not required, ever. But for many, they're good as a kind of training wheels during the initial habit building period. If you feel confident and it's becoming a drag, by all means make your entries more terse, go from daily to weekly or monthly or even not at all (though a quick hello every now and then to let us know how you're doing would be nice).

Someone once told me that one of the tenets of "information theory" is that only deviations from the expected are "information." If the expected thing happens, it's redundant to note it, it's not informative (I wish the nightly news would hold to this tenet). When beginning a new habit, anything is information: success, failure, just the fact that you are trying. After a while, though, success, we hope can be assumed. So then only note the unexpected: failures, funny stuff. And sporadic "still with it"s to let us know that your that intervening silences can continue to be interpreted as success.

The other benefit of the check-ins is that they give you a gentle, voluntary feeling of accountabilty, which can be helpful, well into your habit. Not a whole lot of volume is required to reap this benefit. A post a week or month would do just fine.

Reinhard