Everyday Systems

I am one of those people who cannot seem to find moderation on S days. I was just wondering if anyone had tried simply always sticking to a no snacks, no sweets, no seconds diet and letting S days happen naturally? Or maybe cutting down to only 1 S day a week? Thoughts? Experiences?

Don't give up the S days. But you might try not considering each S day a day to go wild. Instead -- think of events. If you're going out to dinner, you can have whatever is being served (including appetizers and dessert). If you're going to a movie or watching something special on TV or the like -- you can have a snack. If something at a meal is really tasty, you can have seconds.

I'm currently not routinely taking the weekends as S days. I found I was eating stuff just because it was the weekend -- not because I really wanted something. Instead I'm taking floating S days.

There's 8-9 weekend days each month, plus we're allowed another couple of days. Instead of taking those weekend days, I'm allowing 10-11 S days (usually S events) each month. I thought I might have fewer S days/events and enjoy them more if I did it that way and so far that seems to be the case.

For instance, I'm going out to lunch today and the place I'm going often has very good desserts. I may have one. Previously, that would have made today a red day, but not on my "plan." It's the second S day/event this month. I really don't plan to have another one until Thanksgiving, though if I go out next week I might have another one. So far it's been no more than one S day/event per week.

I think events are interesting. I could see just keeping track of them for a while and then after a few months trying to reduce how many I'm taking very slowly.

I didn't mean to make it sound like I was getting rid of S days. I just read S Days Gone Wild and I'm interested to hear from people who have made mods that have been working LONG TERM to help them with moderation with S days.

I dont' recommend getting rid of s days. Again, they're part of the beauty of the whole thing. Having said that, my s days are a bit like wosnes'. I try to keep them on more of an s event status. I used to hord all the denied sweets of the week and eat them for breakfasts on Saturday and Sunday. I now am able to eat like a normal person for breakfasts on S/S and I never seem to hord the weekday denials anymore. I used to make a dessert every weekend and eat it after almost every meal just b/c I could. Don't do that anymore either.

Now my s days are a lot like N days as far as meals are concerned. I only make desserts if something special is going on. I eat normal food for breakfasts and still stick to one plate but if I go out, I don't try too hard to virtual plate it, I just eat what I want. I don't go out of my way looking for ways and opportunities to eat like a fool. I try to keep it Nish with S options.

I still keep them to S days but I don't go hog wild . . . unless called for.

Before you go to the drastic extent of dropping S-days, listen to the "S-days gone wild" podcast and read the accompanying thread (it's stickied above).

There are a lot of intermediate steps that might work.

invisiblprincess wrote:I want to hear about what mods people have taken and have worked long term to reduce binging on S days

I think that there are very few days that should be S "Days" -- I've listed them in another post, but basically national and religious holidays, your birthday and so on -- days when you can (and maybe should!) throw caution to the wind. That's less than one per month, though two of them do come within a week of each other. Everything else is an S event. Not a day when you can go wild, but a meal or situation when you can relax and enjoy a little without guilt.

By the way, I went to lunch and they didn't have a dessert that called my name today, so I didn't have any. I just had my one plate of food.

To some degree, that will improve with time.

I like to eat mindfully on S days. That is, I eat a single serving, then I think about if I want more. If I want more, I take more, but only after I finish the first serving. I won't hesitate to put marmalade on my english muffin the morning. I snack, but only if I'm hungry. I'll eat sweets, but only if I want them after thinking about it for five minutes.

This is what's been working for me.

invisiblprincess wrote:I am one of those people who cannot seem to find moderation on S days. I was just wondering if anyone had tried simply always sticking to a no snacks, no sweets, no seconds diet and letting S days happen naturally? Or maybe cutting down to only 1 S day a week? Thoughts? Experiences?

wosnes said:

I think that there are very few days that should be S "Days" -- I've listed them in another post, but basically national and religious holidays, your birthday and so on -- days when you can (and maybe should!) throw caution to the wind. That's less than one per month, though two of them do come within a week of each other. Everything else is an S event. Not a day when you can go wild, but a meal or situation when you can relax and enjoy a little without guilt.

I like that... I'll think a bit on this.

wosnes wrote:
I'm currently not routinely taking the weekends as S days. I found I was eating stuff just because it was the weekend -- not because I really wanted something. Instead I'm taking floating S days.

There's 8-9 weekend days each month, plus we're allowed another couple of days. Instead of taking those weekend days, I'm allowing 10-11 S days (usually S events) each month. I thought I might have fewer S days/events and enjoy them more if I did it that way and so far that seems to be the case.

This is what I do, too. I did vanilla NoS for about a year and while it helped me get rid of my excessive eating habits and lose a few vanity pounds, I never felt I really mastered the S days. Like wosnes, I'd find myself eating all kinds of stuff just because it was the weekend--and feeling pretty gross come Monday. I just call them S events instead of floating S days, but they're what I've been doing for the past couple of weeks. I like them a lot. I usually allow myself 3 S events per week, plus 2 extra random S events (akin to the Special days on vanilla NoS, which Reinhard says should total no more than 2 per month) for a total of 11 S events per month.

This has eliminated the mindless snacking that would often occur on an S day. Also, I just find it more enjoyable, because sometimes I just feel like having a treat on a Tuesday afternoon. If someone felt like having an S event would sort of open the floodgates and cause them to snack or eat more the rest of the day, I wouldn't recommend they do this. But for someone who has their N days down solid and can contain the S events, it's great.

Hi there! The "Vanilla" concept is really about N days not S days...
I usually enjoy S days without restrictions.. That's really the only way to truly enjoy them.. They are the reward for being good during the week and something to look forward to and savour..
That doesn't inherently mean to over indulge and pig out, but if it does happen once in a while, don't sweat it.
At this point, several years in, I find that on S days we have one or two S's per day.. That's not planned, it just happens that way..
We (my Son and I) don't enjoy pig-outs anymore, though for the first year on NoS, we did have some pretty ritualistic S day feasts!!

Anyway, just to clear it up.. Really don't worry about trying to restrict your S days..S days don't make or break my weight loss.. For me the only thing that matters for weight loss, is getting the N days down right and doing moderate exercise at least five days a week..
Good luck!