Everyday Systems

I've been reading the "No S Diet" site, I'm guessing, since it was first created...think I ran across it via the Shovelglove site while looking for some alternate ways to train.

Anyway, after all these years and buying/reading the book, I finally made it through a full week of No S'ing and wanted to share the results:

1. Food bill was down a bit since I wasn't buying things like Balance Bars or nuts for those requisite afternoon snacks.
2. Energy was up after the 2nd day and I honest-to-goodness slept straight through the first night. The sleep alone makes me wish I'd made the change years ago.
3. I ate less at meals as well as we made sure things like vegetables and good carbs (eg barley & mushrooms, for example) took up most of the plate.

Results? The first week, I'm down nine pounds (yes, you read that correctly).

While I did focus on "clean" foods, I didn't omit carbs, fats or proteins. eg Breakfast is an egg white omelet w/ one whole egg along black beans, spinach & no-fat cheese bathed in salsa. Lunch is typically ezekial bread with 4oz turkey, tomato and a light smear of mayo, some veggies, some apple slices and then dinner is a lean protein w/ grains of some kind & veggies. We're grabbing different recipes from Mark Bittman and I like some of the recipes in Tosca Reno's books.

Workouts? I'm not starting "cold", so, continued with my typical training.

The only setback was Saturday...overdid it a little bit at an Irish Festival, otherwise, probably would have lost more. But, I restricted the indulgences to the evening.

Anyway, great program and it works. Just load your plate up with the nutrition your body needs...think Dr. Joel Fuhrman notes this is what hunger's all about, anyway...and the rest will fall in place.

Oh, one last item: I'm going to start adding up to two Intermittent Fasts/week to see how that works out.

Congratulations on an amazing first week!

Nine pounds in one week is awesome! But please don't panic if it slows down. Sometimes flushing toxins and dropping water weight can cause drastic immediate results, but this plan will help you maintain a nice and steady (if not sometimes slow) rate of weight loss.

Also, with the intermittent fasting, ultimately do what seems right to you (the best part about NoS is how it can easily be personalized to fit an individuals needs and diet style). But, you might consider logging at least a month of solid habit building N days before you mess around too much - just so that you can get the 3 basic rules ingrained before you start adding more.

Welcome to the board! And here's to continued success!

I second the motion to wait until you have some weeks of Vanilla No S under your belt, and especially having S days you're pleased with. The IF crowd can say what they want but there's an awful lot of anecdotal evidence that the pendulum swings from big restriction to big overeating.

But mazel tov on your terrific week!

I'm glad you noticed the improvement in sleep. It's one of the first things I noticed, and it continues if you continue.

Welcome and congratulations!

1. Food bill was down a bit since I wasn't buying things like Balance Bars or nuts for those requisite afternoon snacks.

I think I'm going to start selling "No-bars" so people start taking this diet seriously. It'll look just like a dietcandy bar except when you unwrap it there's nothing inside. Except maybe a relevant fortune cookie style message of encouragement or motivational cracker jack toy. I could fit the entire system in there I guess, and then some. Perhaps a new way to sell a mini-version of my book?

Reinhard

Wow fantastic!!! Congratulations and well done!!
ps.. Hahah Reinhard, love the idea of the NoS "diet bar" fortune cookie, mini book, very good

reinhard wrote:I think I'm going to start selling "No-bars" so people start taking this diet seriously. It'll look just like a dietcandy bar except when you unwrap it there's nothing inside. Except maybe a relevant fortune cookie style message of encouragement or motivational cracker jack toy. I could fit the entire system in there I guess, and then some. Perhaps a new way to sell a mini-version of my book?

Reinhard

While I recognize you were being silly, you might wanna consider just that.

Are No-S coffee mugs still available on Cafe Press? Been meaning to get some.

Why are you fasting?

reinhard wrote:I think I'm going to start selling "No-bars" so people start taking this diet seriously. It'll look just like a dietcandy bar except when you unwrap it there's nothing inside.

I love it!

Though on further reflection, maybe what you really need is a little locked box inside, that unlocks itself when an S day arrives. You'd have to charge $100 for the gizmo, given all the wireless tech required, but it'd make people take it that much more seriously ...

I would recommend against adding any mods (such as fasting) for at least your first month on No S. The reason for this is that your willpower is a finite resource. You've only got so much of it, and if you spread it too thin, you end up trying to do a lot and accomplishing nothing. Wait until No S eating habits seem like a natural way of eating to you, then you can add mods. When the No S habits are established, it won't use as much of your willpower to stick to them as it does now, when they are still getting established.

The initial success does make it tempting to try to do other things to improve your diet. I've been there. But if you try to add too many mods too soon, you'll run the risk of not establishing good new habits.

First of all - WELL DONE on your 10 lb weight loss! That is AWESOME!!!!

BTW - Great advice, Nicest, re. Vanilla No S! I was a bit fed up this morning as I weighed myself (after a particularly heavy S Day birthday weekend - well I ate out on Sunday and had a few drinks!) to find out I was NOW 173 lbs! 3lbs up since last week! As you can imagine, I momentarily panicked and thought is there NO END to this weight gain of mine!! In a funk and panicking about this apparent "out of control and inexplicable" weight gain, I tried to figure what I should do: I even considered going off No S and trying out some other kind of restrictive diet in a bid to lose these pesky pounds! OR I considered being very strict with my No S mods and doing away with S Days altogether etc. etc.
Sinking into the depths of depression and thinking Oh no! Do I really want to go down that food anxiety path AGAIN??? I took a deep breath and once I took time to calm down and think it over... taking into account my birthday bash which really wasn't all that excessive but when you're late 40's, menopausal, not used to eating out in restaurants a lot.. blah, blah, and you don't seem to get away with eating as much as you used to... blah, blah.... then I guess it's all relative and its not really a surprise that I may have put on a few lbs.... depressing, a fact of life, but not really a big mystery. My point being (yes, I'm getting round to it....) Making any tweaks or mods at this stage would only serve to put me in a worse/more vulnerable state than I already am. It would give me added stress and worry on top of the weight gain and if diets had worked in the past, why did I still have a weight problem/food issues??? Sooo...I've decided to carry on with Vanilla No S as I have been doing. No mods or tweaks right now. Maybe in a month or so, I can give it some thought. This past two weeks, I've been adding in more outside walks so I figure I should give this at least a month to kick in and see what happens. I also have to realize that not every weekend is going to be spent eating out. I hardly drink - only on special occasions. If you can call a small margarita and 2 shots on the rocks 'excessive' - just kidding! I Do also have thyroid issues and perhaps this too has something to do with it.
Thanks anyway for listening to my rant folks, and sorry - I didn't mean to take the focus away from your 10 lb weight loss. i just got a bit carried away once I started writing about my experience this morning, so please forgive me.
You have done absolutely fantastic!!

reinhard wrote:Welcome and congratulations!

1. Food bill was down a bit since I wasn't buying things like Balance Bars or nuts for those requisite afternoon snacks.

I think I'm going to start selling "No-bars" so people start taking this diet seriously. It'll look just like a dietcandy bar except when you unwrap it there's nothing inside. Except maybe a relevant fortune cookie style message of encouragement or motivational cracker jack toy. I could fit the entire system in there I guess, and then some. Perhaps a new way to sell a mini-version of my book?

Reinhard

You could make them out of "Miracle Noodles", no calories, and absolutley disgusting...That will slow down any afternoon binges.

I'm serious that you, Reinhart, should consider something like that to market. If Pet Rocks could make someone money, an Air Snack Bar could, too. Or Wisdom Snacks. On another site, women were sharing their favorite snacks under 150 calories. I said mine favorite one was air, although I did share my recipe for mocha.

montanajack wrote:I finally made it through a full week of No S'ing and wanted to share the results:
I'm going to start adding up to two Intermittent Fasts/week to see how that works out.

montanajack,
Congratulations on your No S success,
and good luck with your IT plan

NoSRocks wrote:I was a bit fed up this morning as I weighed myself (after a particularly heavy S Day birthday weekend - well I ate out on Sunday and had a few drinks!) to find out I was NOW 173 lbs! 3lbs up since last week! As you can imagine, I momentarily panicked and thought is there NO END to this weight gain of mine!! In a funk and panicking about this apparent "out of control and inexplicable" weight gain, I tried to figure what I should do: I even considered going off No S and trying out some other kind of restrictive diet in a bid to lose these pesky pounds! OR I considered being very strict with my No S mods and doing away with S Days altogether etc. etc.
Sinking into the depths of depression and thinking Oh no! Do I really want to go down that food anxiety path AGAIN??? I took a deep breath and once I took time to calm down and think it over...

Feeling panicked or depressed is not conducive to making good decisions, in general, for most people. Lots of people don't even make good decisions about minor things with little long-term consequence, like "what's for dinner tonight", in that state. I know I've made decisions while in a panic that made me think later "what on earth was I thinking, to think that was a good idea?" Some people (hopefully, not you) have gotten so depressed that killing themselves or others has seemed like a good idea. Depression and panic do not improve most people's decision-making abilities; quite the opposite.

I'm glad so many of you like the No Bar idea.

Now if only I had the foggiest idea of how to actually implement it...

Another potential tweak: It's a Serial Bar: one chapter/installment a bar -- collect all 7!.

Are No-S coffee mugs still available on Cafe Press? Been meaning to get some.

They are!

http://www.cafepress.com/everydaysystems

Reinhard

Aw! Thanks Nicest, for your kind and helpful words. Not feeling so bad today and thinking a lot clearer/rationally about how I might have gained those extra lbs. I guess its pretty overwhelming sometimes when I think that in a matter of 6 months, I can suddenly gain 14 lbs. BUT I forgot that I had started out No S at 170 lbs initially ... I figure I just had trouble maintaining the weight loss. As Reinhard says, this is the most difficult part therefore I shouldn't be so hard on myself.

Against my better judgement, I weighed this morning and it said 170 lbs again. It was somewhat of a relief (my 'fear' being that my weight will spiral out of control/continue climbing) but I am trying to get out of the habit of weighing so much since it can put me in a bad mood/panic mode for the rest of the day. Just to reassure, I am feeling much better today and I do feel confident that I will (eventually) get back to 160 lbs one of these days.

Hi montanajack -

I did intermittent fasts (IF from now on) almost out of the block with mine, but I was used to them and did them in the context of No S. I guess I'd call it a mod - aggregate No S. IF days I move my plates up to the evening.

It works well for my wife and I, but we use the IF sparingly - mostly for those days when we know we might screw up or just are HUNGRY. We're both used to the focus the fasting gives and the feast in the evening feels good. We are, however, sticklers for the format of the plates. If the first is balanced, the rest needs to look the same and we stop when we are not hungry any more (versus more thirsty than hungry, which is a Warrior Diet thing). That usually means 2.5 plates or less, and we leave it at that.

Keep up the good work!!!

montanajack wrote:Anyway, great program and it works. Just load your plate up with the nutrition your body needs...think Dr. Joel Fuhrman notes this is what hunger's all about, anyway...and the rest will fall in place.

Oh, one last item: I'm going to start adding up to two Intermittent Fasts/week to see how that works out.

ericb wrote:Hi montanajack -

I did intermittent fasts (IF from now on) almost out of the block with mine, but I was used to them and did them in the context of No S. I guess I'd call it a mod - aggregate No S. IF days I move my plates up to the evening.

I would say that anything you were already doing before you started No S is not a mod, but a continuation of your status quo. Any changes you make after starting No S are mods. You might have had some good dietary habits established before you started No S, and there's no reason not to continue those for your first month of No S.

My example is serving food buffet-style instead of family-style. When we eat a meal in the Nicest house, we keep the food in pots in the kitchen, we don't transfer it to serving plates on the table. That does help with keeping down the temptation to take seconds (but not as well as No S, otherwise I wouldn't be here). It might be a useful mod for someone who was used to serving their food family-style. But I'd been doing it for over ten years before I started No S. It's not a mod for me, it's just my way of doing things. There would be no particular reason for me to stop serving food that way when I started No S, and some good reasons for me not to do that.

If you were used to intermittent fasting before you started No S, I wouldn't call it a mod when you kept doing it after you started No S. But adding intermittent fasting after starting No S would be something different.

Having it as an established habit before you started No S is key to this working. It doesn't take nearly as much willpower to keep doing something that is an established habit as it does to add a new habit or change an existing one. The reason for not adding a new habit right away along with No S is to not spread your willpower too thin and end up trying to do a lot and accomplishing nothing.

Nicest of the Damned wrote:I would say that anything you were already doing before you started No S is not a mod, but a continuation of your status quo. Any changes you make after starting No S are mods. You might have had some good dietary habits established before you started No S, and there's no reason not to continue those for your first month of No S.

Point well taken. We also use small plates (<9") for supper and small bowls/plates for breakfast and lunch. I don't consider these mods so I shouldn't consider the fasts that way, either.

Thanks to everyone for the encouragement and kind words!

On the feedback, I'll mention I've done Intermittent Fasting (IF) in the past and really like the energy that it provides while not eating. Any issues with the success of the approach for me is simply lack of discipline on my part.

Instead of breaking the fast with healthy foods, especially while traveling, I'll grab something less than favorable instead which kicks off the cravings. Break a fast with real food...vegetables, lean meats...accompanied by water or tea (iced, hot) and the differences are amazing. Break the fast with anything processed from alleged healthier choices (protein bars, etc.) to junk, and things the triggers are fired off. Common sense, I know.

Also, the sleep has been wonderful and the only times I haven't slept well is were the 'cheat' days--the Irish Festival and Fat Tuesday. Both days resulted in poor sleep that night.

I think I'm going to start selling "No-bars" so people start taking this diet seriously. It'll look just like a dietcandy bar except when you unwrap it there's nothing inside. Except maybe a relevant fortune cookie style message of encouragement or motivational cracker jack toy. I could fit the entire system in there I guess, and then some. Perhaps a new way to sell a mini-version of my book?

I'd suggest a No S Energy Drink, myself. "Water"...that wonder energy drink. And with the mark up, you'll be challenging Carlos Slim by next year as the world's richest man.

I can sure identify with the lowering of the food bill when I am seriously avoiding the snacks and sweets. It only goes to show how many I was actually buying.

As far as fasting, I often will start the week off at work on Mondays with a day of just drinking hot lemon water - just feels rather purifying. I then will eat a salad or something for dinner. The kitchen at work is filled with snakcs