heal from the inside...encouragement for all of the newbies

~reneew · Post by **~reneew** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 4:38 pm

I feel that I need to make a comment on one of my big breakthroughs that No S has tought me. I have been healed of many a bad habit, but the one that seems to me to be a huge one is that I no longer binge. I have started, and actually stopped a couple of times in the past few months, but I used to binge oh... once a day probably. I'm not talking a graze in the pasture here... I'm talking loads of manure out in the pasture. (had to have a visual)

Some of you may know the feeling and how it works. It starts out as a simple few bites, then a graze, then you're eating large amounts of crap and you know you need to stop and can't. I'd yell at myself and ignore myself, and try all of the tricks... put a lock on the pantry, freeze everything... send food to the neighbors...I even duct taped my mouth shut one entire afternoon. It may sound funny, but to a true binger, it's not!! I had no power over it! One single bite can set it all off, then you eat until you feel sick. Then the guilt comes. I never ate whole loaves of bread or buckets of icecream... I was too smart to do that... I switched it up. There's a big difference between grazing and binging. I binged.

Now I feel that I have control over the binges and I'm so very thankful to Reinhard for that. I have a long way to go weight-wise, but I felt that I needed to tell this to the newbies that binge... following no S stops binging!

Does anyone else want to mention their big breakthroughs so new people know how No S really helps to...
heal from the inside?

flightisleavin · Post by **flightisleavin** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 5:46 pm

I think the breakthrough I have had is accepting slow weight loss. Before when I tried to diet in the past if I did see not immediate and dramatic results I would assume it/I was a failure and just give up. Now I am willing to take it very slow but know that this is a way of eating that I can sustain forever so that encourages me to keep going.

I am confident that I can lose the amount that I want to lose but I am looking at a whole new timeframe to get that accomplished. So even the pace of losing is moderate in addition to moderate eating and moderate exercise.

harmony · Post by **harmony** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:49 pm

My husband once told me that the secret to losing weight was to stop thinking about food so much. Back then, I thought that would be impossible. I was never much of a binger, but I spent countless hours thinking about food, making menu plans only to panic about my weight, change my diet, and start all over again. Food was my hobby, food was my life. Now, I barely spend time thinking about food. I feel like I have my life back.

I have little to no issues with blood sugar anymore. I used to get shaky and irritable if I didn't eat every couple of hours. I used to be afraid of not having food around. Now, I don't panic if a meal is an hour or two late, because I don't get the uncomfortable blood sugar drops anymore. (Now I need a different excuse for being grumpy. haha.) I had two or three uncomfortable days in the beginning, but I got through them and it was worth it. (My blood sugar symptoms were not of a serious nature, just pesky.)

I have also gotten over my expectations for how fast the weight will come off (which was another time consuming habit). I know I will be fine eating this way and weight loss will happen at about the same rate whether I weigh myself daily or not. I still have my scale out. I still stand on it once in a while, but it really has very little power over me like it had in the past.

Really, I only have good things to say about No-S. My only complaint is I have to relearn what to do with all of this extra time I have now.

LoriLifts · Post by **LoriLifts** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:35 pm

Brian Wansink, the author of Mindless Eating said that the best diet is one you don't know you're on.

That's why I stick with No S. Whether I get to a certain weight in 6 months or 2 years, it doesn't matter. I plan on eating this way forever.

bizzybee · Post by **bizzybee** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:37 pm

I have to echo the discovery that hunger wasn't going to kill me. I was terrified of hunger, sure I would "pass out". Now, I know that I can go for hours being hungry and be just fine. Its not pleasurable but I have found that the body brain connection is strong and many times I have thought, "Oh no, I'm already hungry and it's X hours till dinner... " and then I become involved in something else and remember wait, wasn't I hungry, I'm not hungry now, what happened?

My DD told me, when she was 10 that she didn't like to get kicked in the nose in Tae Kwon Do, but it was good to know she could take it if she had to.

TunaFishKid · Post by **TunaFishKid** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:27 am

flightisleavin wrote:I think the breakthrough I have had is accepting slow weight loss. Before when I tried to diet in the past if I did see not immediate and dramatic results I would assume it/I was a failure and just give up. Now I am willing to take it very slow but know that this is a way of eating that I can sustain forever so that encourages me to keep going.

I am confident that I can lose the amount that I want to lose but I am looking at a whole new timeframe to get that accomplished. So even the pace of losing is moderate in addition to moderate eating and moderate exercise.

That's my breakthrough, too. Frankly, I thought I had just matured enough to accept slow weight loss. It wasn't until I read your post, flightisleavin, that I realized it's more likely due to NoS. I mean, I was fifty when I did Kimkins because it promised super-fast weight loss.

clarinetgal · Post by **clarinetgal** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 5:13 am

A big breakthrough for me has to do with the kinds of foods I am eating now. Gone are the frozen meals and the sweet snacks that I didn't really like anyway, My meals have become much more filling and enjoyable, and I've felt so much better since I started eating this way. I'm still struggling with counting calories, but I don't do it as obsessively as I did before. Now that I now longer 'have' to track my food intake, I don't worry about things like proteins, carbs, or fat grams.
I am also slowly, but surely, breaking away from my addiction to the scale. It's Monday night, and I haven't weighed myself since Friday night. I'm hoping I can get to the point of weighing myself once a week, or even less.

wintry · Post by **wintry** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 7:33 am

reneew, I don't have a success story yet, but something that really spoke to me was the part in Reinhard's book where he writes about binges being a form of self-punishment and self-harm.

I have never been a particularly spiritual person in the past, more an "If there is no god then everything is permitted" kind of person, but I am trying to take a more religious view of my body because I see how caring and discipline may help me with compliance.

(Disclaimer, I'm not technically a binger, more a nibble-every-hour-for-the-whole day person, but I think fundamentally the motivations may be similar.)

Kodama · Post by **Kodama** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:34 pm

I too have defeated the fear of the 'hunger monster'. Hunger is not a monster, it's not the end of the world, it can at times be helpful, even enjoyable.

And I'm still amazed that sometimes I get really hungry and then, without having eaten, the hunger... goes... away. It's like hunger is a little boy inside screaming for attention, ignore him and he sometimes quiets down.

Nichole · Post by **Nichole** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 4:09 pm

I don't know if this applies, but it wasn't until I truly believed in myself that I lost the weight I wanted to lose. I had tried to lose weight before, but it wasn't with much thought or with much belief that I could. Then when I figured that if I just eat less than I burn, I can do it, I did it! :)Now I'm down 16 lbs, lost 10% of my weight, and working on maintainence.

I also figured out that losing weight is not tied to my happiness. It doesn't really mean much besides good health and fitting into my clothes. It doesn't make my life more fun, or happier, or even that much better. A tad more confident, maybe, but that's about it. It just kind of is.

clarinetgal · Post by **clarinetgal** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 5:49 pm

Nichole, I totally agree! I had to adopt that same mentality in losing most of my pregnancy weight. It wasn't until I started to really buckle down and focus on my eating that it started coming off. I'm hoping with No S I can lose these last few pounds (4 more to go) without having to count calories. And I definitely agree that losing weight doesn't tie into happiness.