Everyday Systems

I wandered away from No S but am back again. The weekdays go well and I am maintaining my weight (as opposed to steadily gaining). I'd like to lose a bit though, and I think my problems are the weekends. My good weekday habits are not transferring to the weekends: I'm eating tons of stuff - mostly healthy, but just too much.

I don't want to make the weekends too restrictive, as I want to relax a little, but I'm being piggy. Any tips or ideas?

Laura

Rather than tweaking No S can you add exercise or something like a new hobby to the weekend to keep your hands busy?

The general counsel is to not get too restrictive on S days. How long have you been doing No S? If you absolutely must, maybe just pick one of the No S to carry through on the S day, i.e. no snacks even on an S day.

A lot of people recommend sticking to a three-meal structure with added treats, instead of grazing all day. Also, planning your treats -- think ahead what would be a really yummy special treat and make it something you really enjoy and look forward to, don't just eat whatever junk happens to cross your path.

It sounds like you're already making decent choices, so unless you're eating to the point of physical discomfort, are you sure it's really a problem? Eating "too much" two days a week shouldn't be that awful a problem if you're doing great the other five. Maybe if you stepped up the exercise a little instead of restricting the food further, that would be enough to move from maintaining to losing? Or lead to toning, which can sometimes have a greater positive effect on your appearance than losing if you aren't terribly overweight to begin with.

I have a couple of mods to keep my S days under control.

No Eating from Packages (NEP). Anything you want to eat has to go on an individual plate or bowl (eating off serving plates is not OK) before you can eat it. Food packages must be closed up and put away before you can start eating. This means you can't do stuff like keep a cereal box on the table while eating breakfast- the box has to be closed up and put away in the kitchen. This makes it harder to get more, which is the whole point. There may also be some benefit from having to see everything you're going to eat, all laid out together. If you eat too much, it looks like too much.

Sitting. This one's even simpler. No eating in any position other than sitting.

I also have a rule that packages of food may not be stored anywhere other than the kitchen, pantry, or (in special cases) basement. That means no stashes of food in my office or bedroom, no candy dishes in the living room, and so on. If I want food, I have to get up and go to the kitchen to get it.

Another rule is, no hanging out in the kitchen. You can prepare meals and clean up after meals there, or do general housecleaning, but it's not a place to hang out and read, talk, or watch TV. There are other places for doing those things (that's what a living room or den is for, and the chairs are probably more comfortable to boot). Per the above rules, there is no food in those places, unless I brought a plate or bowl of food there.

When you buy sweets or snack foods, the goal is not to get the most food for the least amount of money. You don't need a lot of sweets or snack foods. Buy smaller packages. Yes, it will cost more per pound (or whatever unit the food is measured in), but people tend to eat more from larger packages. You can do more damage by pigging out and eating all of a large bag of snack food than you can with a small one. It's better to limit the possible damage if you go off the rails.

If one of your problems is overeating at meals, you might want to try serving food buffet-style instead of family-style. That means the food is not put in serving platters that go on the table. Instead, any serving platters stay out in the kitchen (or you can serve directly from pots), so you have to get up if you want more of anything.

Another thing to try is making less food overall. People tend to eat more if there is a lot of something available. That whole idea of "make extra so you can have leftovers later" doesn't work for all of us. Unfortunately for me, Nicest Husband is totally wedded to that idea He doesn't like it if there isn't enough for leftovers from a dinner.

I find that I work best with "positive mods" for S-days instead of restrictive ones.

The ones that worked best for me...
- I drink enough (which I do naturally at work, but not at home)
- I PLAN nice treats (instead of eating whatever-comes-along)
- I stick to the basic 3-meal structure (this is because I have finally figured out that I LIKE it, not because I feel I'm supposed to)
- I remember to eat fruit/veggies (again, I like them and feel better if I have them)

I also follow some of Nicest's rules about eating sitting down, with food on a plate.

The biggest thing that helped me is paying attention to ENJOYMENT. A nice treat in a reasonable portion is wonderful - I savor every bite. If I overeat, or eat mindlessly... it's really not that enjoyable. I often decide whether or not to have something by asking first "Will I really enjoy this?" It's quite amazing how often the answer is "well, no." (My follow up question is "what DO you want, then?" and the answer is often sleep, exercise, time to relax... When I take a moment to ask myself these questions, I usually end up with much better self-nurturing! It's just so ingrained to use food for comfort...I'm trying to develop other strategies.)

Blithe Morning wrote:Rather than tweaking No S can you add exercise or something like a new hobby to the weekend to keep your hands busy?

The general counsel is to not get too restrictive on S days. How long have you been doing No S? If you absolutely must, maybe just pick one of the No S to carry through on the S day, i.e. no snacks even on an S day.

I spend most of the weekend gardening at the moment, so my hands are full (and dirty) much of the time. Then I come in and pig out. I'll have a look at the other suggestions.

Thanks again

Laura

I can't give you tips on not binging on S days because unfortunately none of them ever worked all that well for me. The only thing that helped slow my binging on S days was letting myself have them and I had them every week the first three months. I've been binging a lot less in the last month. So if all else fails, time might do the trick for you

I do not have explicit rules for S-days. I do try to adhere to some guidelines, though if I don't, it's not a failure and I'm damned if I'll breast beat about it.

Guideline one: EAT BREAKFAST just like I do every N-day.
Guideline two: PLAN a good treat (or two). I'm less likely to graze if I am specifically looking forward to a planned treat.
Guideline three: EAT A PROPER LUNCH. I am not a morning snacker if I've had a proper breakfast. If I also eat a proper lunch, my habit is so strong at this point I don't have the urge to graze, especially if I'm looking forward to some nice dessert or something. But if I am not looking forward to something explicit, I will often start rummaging through cabinets, or eating buttered toast half the day.


Last weekend I snacked on bread a great deal of the day and had not planned any treats. Still not a failure, but it's generally not what I like my S-days to look like. I am planning to walk to the grocery store today, and I think I'm going to make dessert shooters for dinner. I had cold pizza for breakfast 'cause we had pizza last night and I'm sentimental about have leftover pizza for breakfast. (Honeymoon memories. Goofy what we get attached to, but there it is).

laura corin wrote:I spend most of the weekend gardening at the moment, so my hands are full (and dirty) much of the time. Then I come in and pig out. I'll have a look at the other suggestions.

Try plating up a moderate snack when you come in from gardening (after you've cleaned up your hands, of course). Then take it out of the kitchen to eat it. Do not take any other food with you when you do this, just your plated snack. Wait at least 20 minutes after finishing that snack to eat anything else (it takes about that long for most people to register not being hungry any more). During that 20 minutes, you should not be in the kitchen or in close proximity to food, and you should be doing something that has nothing to do with food. If you still want more food after that, repeat the process.