Everyday Systems

Hi! I'm completely new to the whole No-S diet (started last monday), and have a few issues that I'm not sure how to deal with.

Firstly, and I've read several discussions here about this, is the whole plate size thing. I have one 3 cup bowl for breakfast, and 10" dinner plates for lunch and dinner. I'm a college student, so these are the only microwaveable things I have, and I'm wondering if I should just pony up now and get smaller bowls and plates (and in that case, what size?), or if, as I get used to eating only three meals, I'll slowly be able to not pile the plate with a ridiculous amount of food.

The ridiculous amount of food is part of my second issue. I've been loading up the plates pretty severely, kinda scared that I won't eat enough and then I'll have to snack, and as a result have been getting those half up-chucks from stuffing a bit too much.

I'm not really sure how to set a good goal weight/dimension-wise for myself, does anyone have a good method for determining what should be healthy?

Now one of the reasons why this habit works so well is that most people don't have to really work around their friends and family's eating schedules, since most people eat at least three meals a day at regular times. Unfortunately, while I have a 7 or 8 to midnight schedule, my live-in partner has a 3-5 pm to 6-10 am schedule. This leads to me being included in lots of mid-afternoon breakfasts (when I'm not quite hungry yet), and then midnight "lunches" right before I go to sleep. In addition, hes quite picky and wastes a lot of food, which usually leads to me eating a good deal of snacks of crusts, 1/2 cups of soup, slightly medium-rare or slightly burnt parts of meat, and any parts of tv dinners that he doesn't like as much.

Lastly, I work part-time at a convenience store/bakery. Since I close the store, I'm in charge of throwing away all the old products, or taking them home if I want. I absolutely hate wasting food, so I often try to take home as much as possible, however, this leads to too much breakfast and snack foods. I'm looking for ways to use bagels/muffins/etc in ways that don't include breaking up two bran muffins into the nearly full bowl of oatmeal (that was thursday morning...).

Any suggestions?

Hi elisaelli -- and welcome. Sounds to me like you're at Purdue -- my alma mater!

I wouldn't buy new plates. I think bowls are the biggest problem, but what I'd do is measure how much cereal a serving is in your bowl -- then eyeball it after that. A serving is usually about a cup.

I also have 10" plates but they have a raised border which leaves a little more than 6½" in the middle. I keep my food in the middle. If your plates don't have a border like that just try to keep some room around the edge.

There's nothing wrong with being hungry -- we don't have to eat every time we feel hunger, though we're conditioned to eat like that.

Don't eat your partner's leftovers -- unless it fits on your plate at meal time. As for the food from your job, is there anyone else you can give it to or maybe donate it to a soup kitchen or something?

I wouldn't worry about a goal weight. Just see what happens over time. I think once you start eating this way, you'll get an idea of where you want to be or you'll naturally find a weight that seems good for you.

Welcome, elisaelli!

I agree with Wosnes (whose suggestions are always good) that you can work with the plates, but the bowls may be a problem. It might be worth buying one inexpensive smaller bowl with a one cup capacity, because it will make it easier to control portion size.

For working out a healthy weight to aim for, you might try looking at a body mass index chart, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_mass_index

although there is some disagreement about how helpful these are.

As Wosnes says, could you give away some of the food, maybe to fellow students?

The scheduling does seem problematic, but there are other NoSers with experience in this area who may be able to make suggestions.

Welcome, and good luck.

Thanks for the advice!

I'm going to try and find some other students that I can give the food to--I imagine if I wander to one of the study rooms with a bag of food, I can leave it there and it'll disappear to some good.

For the plate issue, one of my friends (who is going to start this too now!) suggested either making myself leave an inch or two of space, or always putting two rows of celery pieces around the plate--I can eat them or put them back, but i can't have any other food there.

I think its probably a good idea not to make a goal as of yet, so we'll see how it goes and then maybe try and tune it a bit.

Welcome to No S!

I wouldn't worry too much about the amount of food on your plate to begin with. The most important thing is to make No S habit. Trust me-the portions do get smaller after awhile. It happens so gradually that one hardly notices it at first. My plates used to be downright embarrassing!

Thanks for the celery around the plate tip. I'll have to try that.

I'm new to No S too. It seems to me that worrying about plate sizes and bowl capacities is almost the same as counting calories. Sure, I don't want to eat from a Serving Platter every day, but I feel like part of changing my eating habits includes learning to use my common sense and eye-ball the "proper size" of a meal. I bring my lunch to work each day and I take several containers. I am pretty sure that they would fill up a plate, but I'm not going to worry about it too much as long as I'm no-S-ing it.

Seems to me that no matter what your schedule, it should be fairly easy to establish a general three meal system. Is your partner aware of your No S quest? I think that if it's important to you to change your habits, then you shouldn't have to adjust to the meal times of anyone but yourself.

If you are worried about waste, there are two things you can do other than eating it yourself. Throw it away or give it away. Choose whichever of those two you want.

I don't think there is any reason to buy new, smaller plates or bowls. It is not necessary - having a large bowl doesn't mean you have to fill it to the top . Fill it with what you think you need, eat as much as you need and stop eating. Over time you'll get the hang of filling it with the 'right' (for you) amount. Someone here started with a *platter* her first week

In my opinion - you deserve better than to finish off someone else's burnt, icky leftovers that were not good enough for them or to eat when you're not hungry just because they are, and eating food you don't need so it doesn't go in the trash is still wasteful - unless you really want it and will enjoy it, (or have someone else to give it to) don't take it.