Everyday Systems

Ok guys, I keep starting and re-starting No-S - I'm having major committment issues because I keep being derailed by the way I've lost my excess weight (and keep it off, although a few pounds have crept back on) which is basically two meals per day plus dessert. I haven't been able to stick to that recently, however, and I feel like my sweet tooth is out of control. The reasons I revert back to 2 meals per day plus dessert is because it allows me to have dessert every day, and lets me avoid eating breakfast (which seems to make my appetite RAVENOUS. I know this plan would definitely work for me (in fact, it's where I got MY idea for my plan; to reduce number of times per day that I was eating) but the sweet tooth and the ravenous appetite due to eating breakfast keep getting in my way. Any help or stories about how you finally stuck to it?

Thanks,
Jocelyn

You don't HAVE to eat breakfast you know. You could have brunch, tea and supper. Or just eat the two meals. Many cultures do.

The idea is to avoid snacking in between meals, but there's nothing that says the number of meals needs to be three. It could be, for example, two. I guess if you're eating dessert every day you're doing a sort of "one S diet", but if that worked for you there'd be no reason not to try it -- but looking again at what you wrote, it sounds like it's not actually working for you?

When you say your sweet tooth is out of control, what do you mean? Are you eating too much for your daily desserts, or are you not able to defer sweets until the weekend, or ... ?

A lot of us have found that it does turn out to be possible to retrain your sweet cravings so that they wait until the weekend, but it can be rough going for the first few weeks. I wonder if a more incremental approach might work for you: rather than eating dessert every day, try eating dessert every day but one, then every day but two, ... until you're only eating dessert a couple of times a week. Might that be a way to sneak up on it?

If breakfast is derailing you, don't eat it. As someone else mentioned, there are cultures who do not eat it and they are just fine. As long as skipping a traditional meal is not part of disordered eating, there should be no harm in it.

I ignore the no sweets rule and stick to no snacks and no seconds. I don't usually eat sweets-only as a meal, and I don't often eat sweets as a part of my meal, but I don't worry about it.

I feel better if I eat breakfast, but it is hard for me to do so, I don't love it.