Everyday Systems

I have to admit that I'm feeling like I've hit a bad patch in No-S. I don't own a scale and haven't weighed myself since I started, but I'm feeling really stuck. I eat really well (or at least I think I do), and I don't eat a whole heck of a lot. But I think that nothing is happening. I've been doing this for about six months, and in the middle two months I imagined that there was some change. But in truth, my clothes all fit exactly the same.

I still feel doughy. I've got zilions of freaky food allergies, so my eating options are somewhat limited. I am not all that big to begin with, but I can't seem to see any changes.

I think I need a pep-talk.

I don't remember off the top of my head how much movement you manage to get in.

I can say that for myself, I will not lose unless I'm getting about seven hours a week of exercise.

Before you freak out, that does not mean seven hours a week in the gym. Now, for the past month I really have, no kidding, been doing an hour a day of Wii Fit and like it, but in the past just WALKING every damn place I go (Urban Ranger) and some weight training or swimming thrown in has been just fine, too. You know, like about an hour a weekday of Urban Ranger and fifteen minutes a week day of Shovelglove? It's about the right amount of exercise for me, and apparently others, too...

Diet alone won't do it, and neither will exercise alone. It really is, no kidding, the combo.

If you're working out, I'm not sure what to tell you. Maybe a reality check for a couple of days doing a calorie count? Thing is, I've done a few, and I think it'd be really hard to fool yourself on those three plates a day.

If that's all good, have you had your thyroid checked?

Tyroid is normal.

I do manual labor -- working in theatrical construction.

When it comes to losing weight it all comes down to calories in vs. calories out. The no s diet tends to naturally do this for most without them having tho think about it or count anything. If after 6 months on a diet you are not losing then I would change something and make no s work for you. To get to my lower weight I follow no s and use small plates. I also give myself on s day. Get a scale. Studies show that people who are successful weight losers do weigh themselves. I know we don't want to be obsessive and make or break our days by the numbers, but even every month or so because I believe you need a point of reference.

Who me? - ok firstly, you eat RIDICULOUSLY well - so many fresh fruits and veggies, barely any sugary, sweet or processed foods, I'm always envious of your food log! When I first started reading about NoS one of the things that stood out for me was that it wasn't aiming to get you down to your lowest possible weight. It talked about sensible eating habits and getting to a stable weight, letting your body 'settle' as it naturally is with a reasonable diet.

I suppose it comes down to the fact that NoS is a method of eating sanely, not obsessing over food, and not getting drawn into the crash-diet-binge mentality. In that way from your diary entries you have been a massively successful NoS-er! NoS can never promise to help you lose a specific amount of weight or get to a certain shape, as it just isn't specific enough about the calorie in vs calorie out numbers.

If you aren't happy with where you've settled, maybe a brief period of calorie checking would be useful to see if you are eating more than you are expending. Are you within the healthy weight range for your height already?

I've been following NoS (admittedly not that well recently ) for months now and am still very similar in weight to when I started, and still fit into the same clothes that I used to. But, I wouldn't change it for the world - I feel a lot happier about what and when I eat than I used to.

*hugs* don't lose hope, and don't lose sight of your original reason for starting NoS (if i remember rightly) which was to gain control over your eating habits.

I echo milliem's thoughts. Assuming I'm remembering correctly as well -- you don't have much weight to lose and you're very active with work, but wanted to gain control over snacking. You seem to be doing awesome with that! Do you feel more in control? And when you do have snacks/sweets/treats/whatever feel like you actually enjoy them more?

You could think about being more restrictive with food choices and could very well lose a little weight and/or tone up some, but the question is whether or not that's your goal.

Julie

If you feel doughy then start some hard core weight training. Lift heavy, lift to failure. Up the protein. If you want to get cut or even just buff and you just don't have the genes for it, you will have to work at it.

But really, I bet you are fine. I'm wondering if working in the entertainment industry hasn't skewed your perception of what you should look like. You don't strike me as someone with body dysmorphia but it's so insidious. You can find yourself thinking you need a six pack and no bra fat.

To be honest, having read a fair few of your posts, I kinda get the impression that you're not losing weight because you don't need to - that you're at a normal weight, you have a normal BMI and I bet you look really good.

If you don't feel good - I recommend doing some resistance work. I use resistance bands and do a martial arts class and I really like the changes that they are making to the way that I feel. I don't look that different - although a bit more muscular which is nice - but I feel stronger and that makes a big difference to my self image.

What the heck is a no fat bra?

Who Me? wrote:What the heck is a no fat bra?

As much as I love the sound of a no fat bra, I meant no bra fat. Bra fat is that little squidgy on your latissimus dorsum muscles from your bra band.

You have to be very lean and very muscular as a woman to get rid of bra fat. Not worth the work in my opinion. YMMV.

Oh, that's funny about the bra confusion. I've got a fairly muscular back, for whatever that's worth.

I was thankfully never out of control with my eating, just sloppy. And goodness knows there are always opportunities to eat crap at work. Also, there's a lot of social drinking around the workplace which I don't partake in. I'm too much of a lightweight and don't care to drink with the guys.

I spoke to my partner about why it was that he cancelled my part of our membership to the Y. Very baffling. He has no memory of doing this, and I was semi-offended when he did it.

(I'll shamefully admit that I'd rather eat dirt than lift weights. I took a class years ago and had a miserable experience. Everyone in the class was much older and bigger than me, and they were so MEAN SPIRITED. It was horrible.)

I'm so demoralized.

Six months of being so good ... And NOTHING. No change at all.

Sorry you're not noticing any differences and feeling discouraged...

A few things I'd consider:

1) You might actually want to weigh yourself to confirm that it is in fact the case that you haven't lost weight. It could be that you have made a little progress, that with another few months might even become noticeable without specialized instruments. You should also keep in mind that for most people these days, not gaining is progress. That is something. Especially if you've been enjoying the process of no-s.

2) It sounds like your compliance with the rules has been very good. Assuming so, and assuming you haven't lost weight, and assuming you are reasonably active, perhaps you are now at the weight you "should" be -- that is, the weight you can maintain with sane, moderate efforts. It might be time to consider a little self-acceptance.

3) If you think excess is still creeping in somehow, consider adding a tweak either on the diet or exercise front. Small changes, over time, can make a big difference. But if you are genuinely eating moderately and staying active, I'd be very careful not to veer into extremism. You say you are not very overweight, so your situation could certainly be a lot worse and extreme behaviors usually wind up backfiring big time.

Hope something here helps -- please keep posting here to let us know/ask for more ideas.

Reinhard

I'm just throwing out ideas here. Are you drinking enough water? I can get bloated if I'm not drinking enough.

I do drink a lot of water.

I have been struggling with some weird health issues -- severe food allergies, and chronic sinus infections.

I have no plan to stop this way of eating. I truly enjoy this system, but it is a bummer to say no to so many things and see no results.

Do you feel you have a lot of weight to lose? Like 30 plus pounds? Or are you just trying to lose 5 or 10 pounds? I think this is a very important question. Because the less weight you have to lose, the slower it comes off. So if you are already close to goal weight, it will be a snails pace. Whereas if you have a lot of weight to shed, it tends to come off quickly at first.

Ah, if you have weird health issues then you have to consider No S as prevention rather than remediation.

There is no way to know what would have happened if you had spent the last six months eating as you did previously. No S most likely prevented you gaining more weight even if it didn't remediate your current weight.

Prevention is worth a pound of cure. Don't give up.

And I know you had the bad experience weight training but it may be something you want to consider at some point. I would recommend a few sessions with a personal trainer rather than a class. Ask around for recommendations. Check out Angie's List. And do your own reading.

Hope you get through this bad spot. I know how discouraging something like this can be.

I realize I never answered the question about my goals.

A few years back, my partner and I -- without really planning to -- started phasing out highly processed food from our diet. We both agreed that food extruded from a factory wasn't really food.

So, we cook from scratch A LOT, which is kind of the only choice since I developed these freaky food allergies. We keep bees (in a tiny yard in the city), and grow some of our own fruits and vegetables. Neither of us eat meat. Robb bakes much of the bread we eat.

However, I had somehow gotten into the habit of eating sweets while reading at night. Also, we'd both become less active since Robb's paralysis. We used to be hikers, and that's much trickier now.

Anyway, I'd like to drop 20 pounds, which is and isn't a lot of weight. I don't own a scale, so I only weigh myself at the doctor's office.

I sugggest you google " a BMI calculator you'll like." It's hard to find here at work for some reason, or I'd include the link.

I've said before that No S cannot trick the body. Everyone here who has lost weight has done so by somehow eating fewer calories than they need. They have put themselves on a calorie-restricted diet without knowing it. I've also said I'm surprised by how little some people eat. Their check-in logged meals sound more strict than some diet. But it's their free choice.

It seems if you're really not losing, something's gotta give. More movement, a few bites fewer at meals, longer gaps, fewer dense foods. Some people have to eat much closer to their satiety levels than others, I think.

Good luck finding the shift for you. Or peace with where you're at.

Okay friends....

I went to the doctor today, and was weighed for the first time since starting No-S. And I weigh more than I've ever weighed in my life.

The last two years have been hard, health-wise. I've developed some really severe food allergies, and have been fighting chronic sinus infections. I've been more sedentary than usual.

And I'll be the first to say it: I don't have a lot of weight to lose. I'd really like to lose about 20 pounds. Even dropping ten pounds would be nice. Most people would probably think I was crazy, because I'm in pretty good shape compared to the general population. But for me, I'm heavy. I dress very, very carefully, to minimize what I perceive as my figure flaws.

I'm not giving up on this system, but I'm a bit perplexed. I guess that if I hadn't been paying so much attention to my eating patterns, I would be in much worse shape than I am now.

Dang. Gotta lay off the cheese, I guess...

Well, that sucks. As you say, though, you're a lot less active than you used to be and have been forced to change your diet to deal with the allergies so there's probably a lifestyle learning curve that you need to deal with. You're not sitting around at night eating cookies in bed anymore so you're surely better off weight-wise and general health/good habits-wise, though, which is definitely a good thing.

Julie

Did you go to http://www.halls.md/body-mass-index/bmi.htm? Are you in the 25%ile or lower? I think you should seriously work on accepting your body. Really, if we didn't live in this culture, I doubt we'd be spending so much mental energy on this. If the issue just magically went away, what else would you spend your time and energy on? Those are probably just as worthy pursuits right now.

What percentage of your weight would you be losing if you lost twenty pounds? You keep saying it as if it is not a lot of weight to lose; all I know is if I wanted to lose twenty pounds, I would have to make major changes even to what I eat now (most days very good) and pay attention to my efforts just about all day every day. At least, that's how I was living the last time I weighed close to twenty pounds less.

I very much believe that most of the people who are meant to live at the low end of the BMI scale or at low weights, whichever way you want to look at it, are already there. Most skinny people are there without a lot of thinking about it, though they are very sensitive to their hunger levels. Some of them eat all day but still never get very full. Most of them actually hate being full and just stop no matter what is still on their plate. A lot of them forget to eat. Most of them are ectomorphs. They have to try to keep weight on. Many of the female figures we see in the media are ectomorphs. I'd say a percentage of the people with eating problems brought them on by trying to be an ectomorph when they aren't.

Not that that is what is going on here. I really can't say.

Could your food allergies also be affecting how much water you retain, even when you avoid the foods?

Could you actually have more muscle than you've ever had, so it would make sense that you weigh more?

Check out this link of a young woman who made some changes to her appearance. You'll be surprised to hear how much weight she actually lost. Of course, she had a lot of room to change!

http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_publi ... id=4616525


Have you considered reinstating meat? It does seem to affect body composition for some people.

There are a lot of free resources on the web for bodyweight exercise. You don't need a gym. Of course it can't take the place of bench pressing 300 lbs, but for most people it will make a difference in leanness over time.

I hope you find some relief about this soon.

Please do not suggest that I eat meat.

I do not share the religious views of many of the people on this forum, but I would never presume to tell anyone to change their values.

From the context, I'm not sure whether or not oolala knew that your vegetarianism was a values-based choice. I know there are plenty of people who choose not to eat meat for health or taste reasons rather than animal-rights or environmental-impact reasons. I don't think that post was suggesting you change your values.

Oh, yes, I'm sorry! I didn't know where the choice came from, and was just making suggestions. If I said anything else offensive, I apologize.

That's quite all right. I just wanted to be clear that my choice to not eat meat is not made for frivolous reasons.

Have you considered eating quinoa? It's gluten free and contains all 9 amino acids that the body requires. It is a grain and usually organically grown.

sheepish wrote:To be honest, having read a fair few of your posts, I kinda get the impression that you're not losing weight because you don't need to - that you're at a normal weight, you have a normal BMI and I bet you look really good.

I think sheepish might be on to something. You might be wanting to get to a place that isn't possible without strict "dieting" and difficult, if not impossible, to maintain without constant dieting. I think it's easy for our brains to want one thing and our bodies to say "no way."

Thanks everyone for your thoughtful replies.

I suppose the core issue with me dates back to the time of my partner's spinal cord injury. Our entire lives changed. We no longer do the physical activities we used to -- like hiking. He exercise during the week, when I'm at work, and we seem to do chores on the weekend. I feel horribly guilty if I go out and do anything without him.

So, I've gotten flabby over the last few years, and it makes me really sad.

There's too much sadness in our lives these days, so I imagine that I'm trying to turn things around. When nothing changes, well...

You really do have a lot to work around. Of the bits that I've read, I have to say it always seemed you have done remarkably with the changes, but it makes sense that you feel sad about it. Our lives are already often so complicated even small things can throw us for a loop, never mind such a huge shift.

Are you in touch with any other people in your position, either online or locally?