"No Spirits" and Spain-style mealtimes
Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 5:42 pm
Greetings all!
For years I've been using a similar diet of my own invention, which is "no snacks, no alcohol, no dessert" for concrete periods of time (e.g. 2 weeks). I don't follow this diet all the time, just to lose a few pounds now and then - though now that I'm 29 years old and my metabolism is slowing down, I may go full-time with it soon. Recently, someone told me, "That sounds just like the No S Diet!", so I had to Google this "No S" thing and check it out.
I added "No Spirits" as a "No S" for myself because, with my active social life, I'm constantly at bars and restaurants with my friends. Even though beer, for instance, is not one of the three S's, it has boatloads of calories. And let's not even talk about the White Russians, Long Island Iced Teas, and miscellaneous blender concoctions that I love to drink! LOL
I believe 100% that it's not WHAT you eat, it's WHEN you eat. My typical daytime schedule, which works extremely well for me diet-wise, is: wake up at 6:30 or 7:00, drive to work, drink a large coffee with milk/no sugar, eat breakfast at 9:30/10:00, eat lunch around 1:30/2:00, go to the gym after work (not every day), then eat dinner around 7:00-8:00. The advantages of this schedule are many. The milk or cream in the coffee puts enough substance in my stomach to tide me over until the late breakfast. The late lunch means that I'm still full at 3:00, which is the hour that I got my BIGGEST snack craving when I used to eat lunch at noon. And the late dinner means that I'm still full while sitting and watching TV in the evening, another prime time for snacking.
I got onto that meal schedule by accident a few years ago while spending 2 weeks backpacking in Spain. In addition to "doing as the Spanish do" as far as mealtimes, I was walking a lot every day, and I was also abstaining from alcohol due to being on antibiotics. When I got back to the States, I was shocked to discover that I'd lost 5 pounds. I've stuck as close to that schedule as possible ever since.
My biggest challenges are (1) saying no to alcohol when out with friends; and (2) finding polite ways to refuse food that's offered, such as when someone bakes a cheesecake and brings it to work. My sense of "oooh, look, it's delicious and homemade and free AND someone else cooked it!" poses a *powerful* threat to my willpower!
What do others think of my meal scheduling strategy?
Abstinence in moderation,
Jen
For years I've been using a similar diet of my own invention, which is "no snacks, no alcohol, no dessert" for concrete periods of time (e.g. 2 weeks). I don't follow this diet all the time, just to lose a few pounds now and then - though now that I'm 29 years old and my metabolism is slowing down, I may go full-time with it soon. Recently, someone told me, "That sounds just like the No S Diet!", so I had to Google this "No S" thing and check it out.
I added "No Spirits" as a "No S" for myself because, with my active social life, I'm constantly at bars and restaurants with my friends. Even though beer, for instance, is not one of the three S's, it has boatloads of calories. And let's not even talk about the White Russians, Long Island Iced Teas, and miscellaneous blender concoctions that I love to drink! LOL
I believe 100% that it's not WHAT you eat, it's WHEN you eat. My typical daytime schedule, which works extremely well for me diet-wise, is: wake up at 6:30 or 7:00, drive to work, drink a large coffee with milk/no sugar, eat breakfast at 9:30/10:00, eat lunch around 1:30/2:00, go to the gym after work (not every day), then eat dinner around 7:00-8:00. The advantages of this schedule are many. The milk or cream in the coffee puts enough substance in my stomach to tide me over until the late breakfast. The late lunch means that I'm still full at 3:00, which is the hour that I got my BIGGEST snack craving when I used to eat lunch at noon. And the late dinner means that I'm still full while sitting and watching TV in the evening, another prime time for snacking.
I got onto that meal schedule by accident a few years ago while spending 2 weeks backpacking in Spain. In addition to "doing as the Spanish do" as far as mealtimes, I was walking a lot every day, and I was also abstaining from alcohol due to being on antibiotics. When I got back to the States, I was shocked to discover that I'd lost 5 pounds. I've stuck as close to that schedule as possible ever since.
My biggest challenges are (1) saying no to alcohol when out with friends; and (2) finding polite ways to refuse food that's offered, such as when someone bakes a cheesecake and brings it to work. My sense of "oooh, look, it's delicious and homemade and free AND someone else cooked it!" poses a *powerful* threat to my willpower!
What do others think of my meal scheduling strategy?
Abstinence in moderation,
Jen