can you/should you/do you really eat anything on an S day?

[queencushion]

I'm new - and this is my first S day after a run of TWO WHOLE no-S days!! My question is this - do you throw all caution to the wind on S days? Do you snack, have seconds and have sweets? My inclination would be to graze all day and not worry about sweet things - I've never been a great one for seconds (but make up for it with sweets).
Or do you just do one of the above? Ie one sweet thing a day, or one snack? Of course I want the answer to be - snack all day long and eat as much sweet as you like - but I guess that's not going to relieve me of the poundage...
What do you all do?

[wosnes]

There is no one answer to your question. Some folks eat whatever they want on S days -- even if that means multiple snacks, sweets and seconds. Some people choose one snack or treat and that's it. Others fall in between.

[NoelFigart]

I let myself be TOTALLY off the hook when I started to see what habit would do. Some days, S days were pretty excessive, but what I was worried about was N-day habit. Straight up, until you have that down, S-days aren't ready to be a concern.

When I realized that N-days were always green, I started deliberately planning treats on S-days.

I do consider myself off the hook even now, that I feel like I can't fail on an S-day. But that being said, I tend to confine my eating to one-plate meals and have a treat or dessert somewhere in there. I like to make fancy dessert shooters in 2oz martini glasses, so even my desserts aren't excessive, though they are special and delicious.

I had pizza for breakfast this morning. We had it for dinner last night, and I'm sentimentally fond of cold pizza for breakfast. (Had it the night after my wedding night, as we had to get our butts in gear down the road).

I haven't had lunch yet, but it's probably going to be either a cheese sandwich or boiled eggs and toast soldiers.

No idea what dinner is going to be, but I'll be making a dessert shooter to go with it.

Part of this is just that now that I have my N-day habits down, I want to deliberate train myself not to snack for the most part. As in, it's gotta be more than just a weekend for me to do so. A dessert shooter with a couple of meals is really plenty for a non-special weekend for me at this point.

It would NOT have been when I was starting out. I really did need that COMPLETELY off the hook experience when I was getting started. YMMV of course, but I encourage trying that at first and seeing where the evolution of habit takes you.

[Sienna]

I don't really have set rules for what/when I eat on S days. If I want ice cream for breakfast, I eat ice cream for breakfast. If I'd like to have some snacks in the afternoon, I have snacks in the afternoon.

What I do do (on N days to, but it's more relevant on S days) is ask myself *why* I want something. If the answer is "I'm hungry" I generally go ahead. If the answer is "I'm stressed" I usually try tell myself to do something else to de-stress and THEN revisit whether or not I want it. When I do indulge, I try to pay attention to portion size. So if I'm going to have ice cream for breakfast, I have 1 to 2 servings of ice cream (which is about 150 - 300 calories) not a gigantic bowl or an entire pint.

I do follow (or try to follow) the "Don't be an idiot" mantra.

As my N day habits solidified, by S day behavior became fairly sane without doing anything additional. I still have crazy days every now and then, but they are the exception, not the rule. And for me, I think having a crazy day/weekend occasionally is actually a good thing. It allows me a complete release. And then on Monday I'm back in business. If I eliminated all crazy days, I'm sure my weight loss might be a bit speedier. But, if having those crazy days makes the plan more livable (and honestly, part of it is knowing that once I'm AT my goal weight, I can have a crazy day now and then so long as N days stay N days and *most* S days stay sane) so that I stick to it more, what does it matter if it takes a few extra days/weeks/months to reach my final goal? After all, what is 1-2 months added to a year and a half of weight loss (estimated).

[Blithe Morning]

I agree with Noel.

I generally don't snack on S days as snacking makes me feel ucky but at the beginning it was important to me to be able to do so.

I now have a mod where I have S opportunities. I allow myself 5 - 6 during a week. I had seconds and sweets on Wed. and seconds and sweets on Friday so I have two left for today and tomorrow. I don't HAVE to take two, I can take one. I will probably have a sweet today and maybe tomorrow.

[Kevin]

You should fee free to have what you want but, as you can see from my signature line, I'm a big fan of not going nuts. Moderation will probably come of its own accord, later on. So have what you want. Just don't have more of it than you want, just because you can.

Good luck!

[mbell]

I'm on day 15 of No -s and today is my third weekend of S days. I started out this morning like a kid in a sweet shop trying to decide what I would eat today. Turns out I haven't done much different from weekdays except I had a piece of cake at lunchtime and intend to finish off a box of chocs from Xmas (about 4 left) this evening. Funny how I've been fantasising all week (you know what I mean) then when it comes to it, I reckon my weekday habits are slowly starting to affect the way I eat at weekends. Just hope I didn't speak too soon!!

[Strawberry Roan]

I eat about the same every day. If I were to do anything different on the S days, it would be to have pretzels or something in the afternoon, between meals. Would have sweets only if I made a homemade coffeecake or something, not candy bars or anything like that.

[Lorelei]

When I started the No S plan, I was coming off of years of calorie counting, so I still had a "diet head" mentality. For the first few months, my S days were free-for-alls. I learned pretty quickly that this type of eating did not make me feel good at all. Now, about 8 months into this, S days have calmed down dramatically. I think many people have to go through a process to figure this out for themselves. I was never big on seconds, so that S is not an issue for me. Snacks, however, were the biggie. Now I find that snacking (large snacks or "permasnacking") ruins my enjoyment of meals. I do snack sometimes on S days, but the snacks are small and not enough to "ruin my appetite." As for sweets, I have found that not eating them on N days has made me pretty sensitive to them. I definitely enjoy small desserts from a local restaurant, or a few squares of dark chocolate. But large, super sugary desserts make me feel tired, headache-y, and sick. Below is my S day menu from yesterday, in case anyone is interested. This is pretty typical for me.

Breakfast: Grilled ham, Greek yogurt, fresh strawberries

Lunch: Tortilla soup, lemon mousse

Dinner: Ossobuco, polenta, veg (leftovers from restaurant)

Snack: Popcorn, limonata

(I also made some feta & red pepper spread and sampled it on a few cucumber slices and Triscuits right after I made it.)

[r.jean]

I agree with Kevin, "Moderation will probably come of its own accord, later on. So have what you want. Just don't have more of it than you want, just because you can. "

I had some pretty wild S days at the beginning, but now I usually do not eat all that different on the weekends. Occasionally I indulge, but often I forget it is a weekend and simply follow the N day plan by habit.

[exdieter]

I'm with the camp that says "eat whatever you want on weekends" (within reason). For me, this has been a slice of cake, a tootsie pop, and a sleeve of thin mints so far, plus a healthy breakfast and dinner. Not exactly my finest moments, but I'm not panicked about it, and have gotten the thin mints craving out of my system (am actually bringing the other sleeve to work to get rid of it).

You'll have a few weekends that are off the rails, but I think it's psychologically important to know that on weekends you won't be denying yourself anything. Once your habit kicks in, you'll start practicing moderation without realizing it.

Er, except for girl scout cookie week.

[Starla]

When I started No S, almost 18 months ago, I saw that Reinhard and various long-timers said not to worry about S days, so that is how I approached things. I've had every kind of S day possible, but I don't stress about it. For me, by far the most important thing about S day is the release of any sense of deprivation.

I've found it hard to understand why some people worry so much about S days, but, after a year and a half, I think I'm starting to get it. Some people find it very stressful to impose no limits on their eating. For those people, absolute freedom on S days is not a release of stress, it's a cause of stress.

So you probably need to figure out where you fit in. What feels right to you? If you tell yourself you have unconditional permission to eat whatever you want, will you really be fighting a subconscious battle with yourself all weekend? That defeats the purpose of S days. Do you feel that you'd like to try unlimited S days and see how that works and if it moderates? Go for it!

As S day examples, I had an indulgent S day yesterday. I ate as follows:

1:36 AM - chocolate covered almonds
9:00 AM - breakfast with friends (chorizo and pepperjack strata, roast potatoes and a large glass of orange juice)
1:30 PM - snickerdoodle cupcake
3:00 PM - lemon meringue pie cupcake
7:00 PM - toasted and buttered pretzel roll

If I analyze the day's eating intellectually, I'm a little horrified. Lots of sweets and breads, absolutely no vegetables. However, I experienced this as a very pleasurable day.

Today I ate 3 egg rolls at about 11:30 AM. I will probably go out this afternoon for a bakery treat or an ice cream cone. I am making lemon basil pasta with shrimp and a broccoli-carrot stir-fry for supper. This will be a very reasonable S day.

I'm totally OK with both days - I tend to chastise myself for S days only when I eat beyond enjoyment.

Good luck with this! Figuring out how No S applies to your life is a process. You are really learning a new way to experience food, and it's well worth the effort.

[queencushion]

Update: I totally let myself go on these my two first s days. To the point of eating when not hungry and sweets just 'because i could'. Now I can't wait for the N days to start! Roll on Monday!

[kccc]

Update: I totally let myself go on these my two first s days. To the point of eating when not hungry and sweets just 'because i could'. Now I can't wait for the N days to start! Roll on Monday!

That is one reason not to worry to much about S-days. Even the over-the-top ones are a learning experience.

It's as important to learn what doesn't feel good as what does.

[Blithe Morning]

QC: Oh my weekend was over the top too. Part boredom, part stress relief, part hormones.

It happens.

[jellybeans01]

I usually start s days with my regular breakfast. I do try to keep things in control. If I eat all and what I want on those two days I just maintain my weight. For me in order to lose weight I have to be specific and just do an extra couple of treats.

[librarylady]

Luckily I have never been a binger, so my S days don't tend to go too wild. The main thing is that I don't need to worry about special treats. This weekend I had scrapple for the first time in - I don't know how long! However by having scrapple for breakfast (and a late after church breakfast too!) I was not hungry for lunch at all - so I skipped it. We almost always have fish on Sunday night, so it usually isn't an incredibly heavy meal. (But I did have dessert - with no guilt as a side offering!)

[Imogen Morley]

I followed the advice of more experienced No-Sers and let myself go wild on S-days to "get it out my system". It was a good learning experience, I can tell ya I've learned that I'm not big on snacks and I actually like being hungry for my meals, so that discovery eliminated snacking and seconds altogether. Sometimes, if I find something truly irresistible, I have a small portion as a snack, but it doesn't happen often. My only weakness now is sugar, but I no longer binge on it. Weekday habits really win in the end, but you need to wait a bit and see for yourself.

[DaveMc]

My question is this - do you throw all caution to the wind on S days?

I've never made any specific rules for my S days, and I've been fortunate enough to have pretty much the ideal outcome: at every stage, I've eaten "whatever I want" on S days, but the amount I've wanted has become more reasonable over time. I say that I've been fortunate because I have seen many stories from people here on the forums, reporting that they have not been so lucky: they've found that they didn't lose weight, or fell into extreme binging behaviour, or some other problem, unless they took specific steps to moderate their S days. (I'm also in the easiest demographic for unmodified NoS: 40 year old male, regular exerciser, and no history of binge eating).

It makes good sense to start out for a good stretch of time (months) without any restrictions on your S days. You may be lucky enough that your standards of "wild excess" will just go down over time, without any special effort on your part. At the very least, you'll find out how much excess crosses the boundary from "occasional pleasurable indulgence" into "wow, that was so crazy I actually feel ill", and that's pretty useful information for habit-training, as others have pointed out above.

Congratulations on getting underway, and best of luck!

[BrightAngel]

do you throw all caution to the wind on S days?
Do you snack, have seconds and have sweets?
Of course I want the answer to be -
snack all day long and eat as much sweet as you like -
but I guess that's not going to relieve me of the poundage...

queencusion,
You've had some good answers here.
Just don't forget Reinhard's words...."SOMETIMES...on S days".
and his caution..."Don't be an IDIOT".

Any eating plan that involves continual patterns of eating
that raise one's average weekly calorie (energy) food intake
ABOVE their average weekly energy burn,
will eventually cause weight-gain.

[reinhard]

yes/yes/yes

The guru hath spoken.

See/hear also:

http://www.everydaysystems.com/podcast/ ... .php?id=34

Reinhard