Everyday Systems

Hi,

I am either on week two or three & I have noticed a multi pound loss already. I exercise daily & am very strict about my No S'ing.

I do have a question though, I am noticing it is taking less food for me to feel full, but I am eating the same as day one.

Here is my actual question, I eat a meal & say 3/4 of the way through, I am starting to feel full, I know if I stop eating, I will likely feel full & could be done with my meal but the FEAR of stopping early & being hungry 20 minutes later seems to force me to finish my plate as I KNOW I wont be getting another meal (as I dont snack at all).

I am finding that the 12:15 to 6:15pm break between lunch & dinner is doable without much 'pain' but I would hate to eat less during lunch to find that I could have finished the sandwich & didnt, so now I pay the price.

I do notice my pants are less snug & the scale says I lost 3.5 pounds over the last 2 weeks & I am very happy & feel this could be a great life change.

So how do I deal with the fear of eating less, having a slip & having a red day vs a green day?

Thanks,
Rich (OCD)

I'm going to suggest something radical: get over the fear of a red day. Try stopping when you feel full and see what happens. The goal isn't to never have a red day, it's to have more green days than red days.

Alright, or maybe I can try tomorrow on an S day. eat my normal lunch & stop when I start to feel full.

My wife made Chili yesterday & the bowl left me very very full (uncomfortably full) & I was not hungry at all & even felt full in the morning. Tonight, I had more chili (its excellent) & I had a little less & I still feel full.

I guess I look at red days as failures & with my routine, I dont want to fail. I will try to change my view. I am used to the WW system & when I was out of points, I was done for the day, then I fell off WW & did a modified version of it which gained me some poundage.

I guess its not so terrible if I stop eating early & have an apple between a meal (only in that type of case) if I am really hungry.

I am proud I have not snacked at all & I can see where that could become a habit without much more time. I dont want to mess myself up & give myself a rational about snacking being ok.

This No S is so simple to follow. Gee is it dinner/lunch? No? Then DONT EAT PIGGY! At least in my head thats how it sounds.

You could cut back just a LITTLE and see how you do. If still too full, try some more.

If you do get hungry, chalk it up to a "learning experience" and drink some milk to hold you to the next meal. Or eat it a tad early.

And... news flash: hunger is survivable. For hours at a time even. Honest.



We have such a fear of hunger in our society, and really it isn't that big a deal. Another term for it is simply "having an appetite."

My husband was having a lot of trouble with this for awhile. Although it went against the advice of people here (I can't find the thread where I asked about it, but I know I did...) he added a modification where if he started feeling full, but still had food on his plate he would put aside his plate, but he was allowed to pick it back up if he was still hungry within the hour.

Since he started doing this several months ago (maybe September or October?), he's only *actually* gone back to finish his plate two or three times. Which may sound like a lot, but since he very often sets aside his plate (well, not as often now - he's gotten better at just starting off with less food on his plate, but at first it was at least 50% of the time), it was a huge savings over how much he had been eating. Basically it was a safety net that he needed to be comfortable with only getting one plate of food 3 times a day. And for him it worked: he was just maintaining before, and he's now started to lose weight (or his pants are looser anyhow - he isn't a weigher).

Obviously this strategy isn't for everyone (and the thread that I can't find brings up some good arguments *against* it), but since it worked for him I figured it was worth mentioning.