Everyday Systems

I finished my first month of NoSing. I had two failure days - still kicking myself for that last one because I threw away a good streak for a single Pepsi. For the most part, the N days were easy. I piled up my plates at first but the last couple of weeks have just been reasonable, normal sized meals.

But I gained a pound and a half this month. I know it's because I'm still going nuts on the weekend. I'm still learning to distinguish between Ss that are worth it and Ss that I'm just eating because they are there. For example, last weekend we were invited to a traditional Shabbat dinner - a delicious multi-course kosher meal made of whole foods and reasonable portions, complimented by some good chardonnay. One of the best meals I've ever had. And I knew right then, those kind of experiences are what Ss are made for.

Compared to that lovely dinner, sitting on my living room couch eating a cheap candy bar seems like a joke. But if the candy bar is in my house, I will eat it - this much I have learned. I guess I am thinking about how to make my Ss truly special - and less frequent.

So it's like, I don't know. On the one hand I'm frustrated that I gained weight. Just a couple of days ago I was ready to quit NoS (hence the bitter, defiant failure day soda.) But I realize this is the only diet I have ever tried that I could see myself doing, easily, for the rest of my life. I just have to find a way to make it work.

Don't despair. Many people gain some weight when they start No-S.

My 2¢ worth:

I think that S days -- when you throw caution to the wind in terms of what you eat -- should be infrequent. Maybe your religious and national holidays (plus Super Bowl Sunday, of course). S days should be replaced by S events. This morning I heard a dietitian say that there could be maybe 3 splurges weekly. You could manage those however you like.

Still, others of us manage them differently. I allow myself one S daily. I don't always use them and they don't carry over. If I don't have one today, it doesn't mean I get two tomorrow. For me, it was a more sensible way to manage. I don't have to count how many S's I've had. I do make sure the S's are worth it.

Hi RacingSlug,

In addition to wosnes' very valuable two cents, I'd just like to add a word of caution about scale numbers:

While it's nice to be able to see a big drop, I'd be careful about reading too much into a mere pound and a half. I've been weighing myself daily as an experiment over the last few months and it's usual for me not to see that much fluctuation in a single day. Despite the fact that I now have a higher end (tanita) scale than I've ever had before, I've (again) seen jumps of over 10 pounds from one day to the next. So make sure you're looking at the results of several measurements over the course of several days before you conclude one way or the other. Perhaps you're already doing this, but I thought I'd mention it just in case.

Best of luck figuring this out -- even if the gain is real, it's not huge, and I'm sure that with some fine tuning you can get it under control. In addition to wosne's "S-event" mod, a bunch of others have been proposed on this board over the years. Though you might not need to resort to a formal mod (good no-s habits do start to carry over to the weekend with continued practice), just knowing they exist can be motivationally useful. A couple of links to get started on this vast and ever expanding literature:

http://everydaysystems.com/podcast/episode.php?id=40

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

Reinhard

And please remember you've been at this only one month. Yes, there are some who gained even after awhile, but I find it hard to believe they were really responding to hunger. S days can definitely take awhile, too. You'll have to make similar adjustments to the ones you'd have to make anyway. It just seems less painful this way to me.