the "whine" country

[oolala53]

specific topic: overeating on S days

Thought perhaps we should have a general complaint thread, although everyone will be welcome to start their own thread. It just seems our problems are often similar and they get lost in the past pages of the board, so maybe we could keep them together and people could skim for their interest. I've searched for topics at times, but I usually get so many posts to choose from, it's overwhelming. Also, perhaps posters here could please include the specific whine in the subject line for easy skimming.

Even as I write encouraging posts to others, I'm having to fight feeling disappointed in my overeating on S days 15 weeks into this. I've only had 4 official failures in that time, yet I am starting to feel like a failure again because I pretty much permasnack on weekends and most of it is sweets. Yet I'm reluctant to apply any rules to my S days yet. I want to believe that this should be an organic process. My motivation was very high to start, and sticking to N days (after mostly failure spread out over 14 months) was pretty easy to start and stay with this time, but I guess I thought by now I would have lost the desire to eat, eat, eat on the weekends. During the week, when I imagine thinking I'll stick to 3 meals and have only one dessert and or snack a day on S days, since I've shown that 5 days a week, 3 meals alone is plenty, inside a voice says, "NO! I must have permission to eat a half a gallon of ice cream or cookies or whatever over the weekend or all hell will break loose!" It's not a squeaky little voice, either. It sounds like it comes from a creature in a deep dark cave, and I'm telling you, I'd just as soon keep it happy in there. I'm a little afraid of what might come out.

I know Reinhard has a podcast on S days gone wild and I should probably go listen to that, but I thought of whining first, and now I'm out of time and have to get to the work I was procrastinating doing all weekend. However, I will read all answers in due time.

Thank you all for listening.

[sophiasapientia]

(((Oolala53)))

I'm sorry that you are struggling with S Days. If it makes you feel any better my Sunday wasn't all that great either. I didn't permasnack but I ate an unsatisfactory lunch which led to eating some junk later in the afternoon that I hadn't planned on. Oh well. Tomorrow is another day, right?

And, yeah, please do listen to Reinhard's "S Days Gone Wild" podcast if you haven't already. It is brilliant.

[dmarie710]

I can say, my Saturday's are very mild, but my Sunday's I do enjoy immensely. I do a Eat stop Eat fast on Mon. which helps, though. I can understand where your coming from, but I think that we need to come to a place where we feel satisfied with just enough. I'm slowly getting there & I bet you are also, but maybe it's a slllllloooooow process?

[KareBear]

I feel the same exact way. I feel like I go way (weigh) outta control on my S days. So much so that I feel bad, fat, failure and then just want to give it up completely. Although I have not been on this that long, I am not feeling like I can control myself on my S days.

I also do not want to put any rules on myself but since I am 5'1 and have approx 30 pounds to lose I should really take it easy. Sweets are my downfall and yesterday, that's all I ate. I don't think I even had a meal. I just ate sweets all day. So much so that I felt yucky the rest of the day. Today, however, I did not have any sweets. I think I have a sugar hangover of some sorts. I want to stick with this as I need to conquer this addiction and that is exactly what it feels like. I am right there with you!

[oolala53]

I'm getting inspired reading these. don't want to stop the flow, but just hearing you makes me see my situation more objectively. I need to give it more time and incorporate exercise.

[ShannahR]

I've been having the exact same problem lately. When I first started No S I was pretty strict on S days and didn't eat very much. Unfortunately, I've been eating more and more on S days lately and it has been making me feel unwell. I've listened to S days going wild several times but I finally decided to put in a S day mod. I noticed the worst problem was snacking--it lead to continuous eating (permasnacking). So I've removed snacking from S days--basically I can eat as much as I want of whatever as long as it's only 3x per day. If you have to eat all of your sweets right after you eat a meal you definately eat less, trust me. Of course, that bred a new problem--sometimes I eat too much and end up with a stomach ache , but I think it's better than permasnacking.

I think it just takes some time to figure out what's going to work for you.

[drswife]

Personally, I think it's fine to try to have some sort of structure on S days. When I did NoS last time, I went completely crazy on S days and it just didn't feel good.

This time around I decided to have a little more structure. Instead of eating nonstop from morning to night I now still have 3 meals a day but if I really want 2nds I go for it, also if something comes up during the weekend that I feel like partaking in I go for it. For instance, when I'm at Costco I'll let myself have some samples if I really want them. If I'm out to dinner, I let myself have an appetizer if I want it.

Also instead of just eating sweets all day long, I plan on something special for dessert both days. Last weekend we made brownies and I had one w/ some ice cream each night. It was perfect.

So I think the key is to think about what you really want that you normally don't allow yourself to eat during the week, and plan for that instead of just going on autopilot all day long. It's suppose to be a Special day not a Stuffed Full day! I feel more in control and satisfied, but this is just what works for me--maybe you need a different approach?

[marygrace]

I know this is a complaining thread, but surely a little troubleshooting won't hurt, right? =)

I've had some wild S-days in the past, but have been able to improve a lot. Here's how:

-I have a plan. This doesn't necessarily mean limiting myself to 1 or even 2 Ses per S-day, but it does mean knowing in advance what my Ses will be. For instance, I might know that on Saturday, I'll treat myself to a scone for breakfast, have an appetizer when I go out to dinner, and enjoy ice cream for dessert. This leads to my second piece of advice...

-I anticipate my Ses. Since I've made this plan and am looking forward to those treats, it motivates me to not stuff myself, because then I won't be hungry to enjoy them.

-I don't keep snacks in the house. No snacks around makes it a lot harder to permasnack or ruin my appetite for the real treats I want. All the food I keep in my house are ingredients to make meals, not pre-made or packaged snacks. If the kinds of things in your pantry or fridge are ingredients instead of ready-to-eat foods, there's just no way you can go crazy snacking, because eating a can of diced tomatoes or a cup of flour, for instance, is obviously not appealing at all. This is probably the most important part of my success. When I did NoS while living with my parents, I'd permasnack all day because my mom kept the house fully (and I mean FULLY) stocked with every kind of snack you could imagine. Every time I'd walk past the kitchen I'd grab a handful of this or that, and feel stuffed and gross. Now in my apartment, there just isn't anything to grab.

[oolala53]

I definitely meant for this to be a thread for complaining and getting help. I'm so glad to hear from people on the crazy S day issue. All the ideas are percolating. It might not be this weekend or next weekend but at some point, I'm going to get saner about this and it will come from all different sources. Thanks and don't be afraid to keep commenting on my whine or to whine about your own issue.