easier
Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 2:48 pm
Reading so many posts about the difficulty of No S made me want to share what has made it easier and easier for me. I've been No S'ing for 15 weeks. The first 10 I counted calories to lose my muffin top (after finding out last year that No S vanilla is my "maintenance" level), but it's been about five vanilla weeks for me now and I'm maintaining.
Here's what I felt like is not being said elsewhere: it really helps me to focus on what's awesome about No S to get me through what would otherwise be "hard." It makes no sense to focus on what you aren't getting. For instance, at 4:00 in the afternoon when my kids are eating and I'm in the kitchen helping with homework or preparing for dinner, that would be the biggest test. But I spend alot of time during meals, and before and after, thinking about how grateful I am to eat full, delicious meals. When I feel like "poor me" because I'm not having a snack when I have a pang, instead I tell myself "lucky me" because I had a filling, wonderful lunch and will have a filling, wonderful dinner, all without gaining weight. The longer I do this, and the longer my brain sees that great food keeps coming and coming, meal after meal, day after day, while not gaining weight, I really am gaining a perspective on the ridiculous notion that not eating between meals, not having seconds, and not treating myself daily to sugar is deprivation! It's not deprivation, it's simply putting aside the relatively new American-style hidden gluttony. I think the best way to make this easy is building habit, but also every day taking charge of your brain, shaking it awake and saying "hey, you! quit whining about the snack, and be grateful that you get three delicious meals each and every day, and treats each and every weekend!"
(My biggest trial has been not having seconds, because I love the dinners I make. My best tool in this arsenal is saving my salad or vegetables for last, so that I can "break" the taste of deliciousness in my mouth. I find I eat and enjoy dinner, actuall all meals, more now because I know that "this is it" and I'm not getting up to get more.)
Hope this is of some help to somebody. Muffin-top moms out there: there IS a better way!
Here's what I felt like is not being said elsewhere: it really helps me to focus on what's awesome about No S to get me through what would otherwise be "hard." It makes no sense to focus on what you aren't getting. For instance, at 4:00 in the afternoon when my kids are eating and I'm in the kitchen helping with homework or preparing for dinner, that would be the biggest test. But I spend alot of time during meals, and before and after, thinking about how grateful I am to eat full, delicious meals. When I feel like "poor me" because I'm not having a snack when I have a pang, instead I tell myself "lucky me" because I had a filling, wonderful lunch and will have a filling, wonderful dinner, all without gaining weight. The longer I do this, and the longer my brain sees that great food keeps coming and coming, meal after meal, day after day, while not gaining weight, I really am gaining a perspective on the ridiculous notion that not eating between meals, not having seconds, and not treating myself daily to sugar is deprivation! It's not deprivation, it's simply putting aside the relatively new American-style hidden gluttony. I think the best way to make this easy is building habit, but also every day taking charge of your brain, shaking it awake and saying "hey, you! quit whining about the snack, and be grateful that you get three delicious meals each and every day, and treats each and every weekend!"
(My biggest trial has been not having seconds, because I love the dinners I make. My best tool in this arsenal is saving my salad or vegetables for last, so that I can "break" the taste of deliciousness in my mouth. I find I eat and enjoy dinner, actuall all meals, more now because I know that "this is it" and I'm not getting up to get more.)
Hope this is of some help to somebody. Muffin-top moms out there: there IS a better way!