Everyday Systems

So I'm the college kid who posted a little while back about how it can be hard to follow no-s while at school, because of the food-centric culture that is so prevalent. After a pretty successful stint at no-s during lent earlier this year, i found myself slipping post Easter and decided to build a good no-s foundation at home during the summer, in order to ward off the temptation to abandon ship during the school year.

and again for the most part it's been pretty successful.
-I've lost most of my desire for sweets and i can politely refuse sweets during no-s days without feeling deprived.
(in fact i prefer naturally sweet foods like fruit and yogurt much more now)
-I've noticed a difference in my body when i do have sweets on s days now wanting to feel "gross" after overindulging beats out my desire to have more sweets
- I make sure i fast at least 12 hours between dinner and breakfast
(whereas before sometimes it would be 8 hours between the two)

here are some issues:
- seconds, like for breakfast i'll get grapes or some walnuts and then come back for more
-smaller portions - the amount of food i eat has decreased since starting no s, but i'm having trouble making my meal portions smaller without feeling deprived
-cheating with fruit in between lunch and dinner - not eating anything between breakfast and lunch is easy but lunch and dinner is my struggle and to compensate i'll have grapes or strawberries which aren't bad snack to have but are snacks nonetheless and keep me from feeling hunger (and that's a major part of no-s, isn't it? to be able to feel hunger and not have it be an emergency?)

- bread on weekends and sometimes during the week, what can i say? i love my carbs
- oh yes and a note on the grapes, well they are just too easy to just keep eating (and at college grapes are just not available)

So, any tips? Any thing that would be good to remedy?

While I'm not calorie counting's biggest fan, it's not a bad reality check. If you're anything over 5'3" and you're eating 1200 calories or fewer, you're probably not eating enough.

I have had a cup of coffee between lunch and dinner (or even while preparing dinner) the entire time I've done No-S. Caffeine late in the day doesn't get to me, so it's what works for me.

When you say "bread on the weekends" what do you mean? Are you eating a slice of bread or are you binging on bread (easy to do, I know). I mean, a sandwich is a dandy meal according to No-S rules, and a roll with soup is just fine, too, if it strikes your fancy.

I sympathize on the grapes thing. My daughter is very fond of them, so I tend to keep a basket of them out on my counter to encourage her to eat healthier foods. (I have teenagers, and do not require that they follow No-S. They both snack some, but not excessively, so I say nothing about it). But that basket on the counter? It's REALLY easy to grab a grape every time you pass without thinking about it. I suppose the best you can do is remind yourself that if you get a grape every time you pass the basket, you're really filling up that plate you'd be having at dinner.

Well, I don't see the issue with the bread. Unless you are gluten intolerant eat the bread and enjoy it. I have bread at lunch and dinner. Not a whole loaf but about 2 ounces.

As for snacking on fruit, that you will just have to decide to do tstop, then do it. If you find yourself rebounding because of feelings of deprivation, call it tea time and consider it a 4th meal consisting of fruit.

And I wouldn't worry about intentionally trying to make your meals smaller. The easier route would be to put more less calorie dense foods such as fresh veggies on your plate to leave less room for calorie dense foods.

I agree with the 4th meal, and the fact that you should not intentionally reduce your portions. If you wish to do so, just eat what you want to eat, by stacking everything on your plate first to make it fit.

This is good advice, thank you. I think my biggest thing with the fruit isn't that I eat it because I'm still hungry, but because i just want to be munching on something. Gum can be what I use to replace this sometimes (I tend to be a chain chewer, bad habit). I guess the solution to this would be more will power?

And on the weekend I do tend to binge a little on bread, not to the point I make myself sick but overindulgence, yes.

Maybe I will try some coffee in the afternoon as a "snack" so I'm not tempted with some other foods (which ARE often found on the counter). I'm hesitant to add a fourth meal because I think I'd just eat more.

I'm slightly embarrassed to say, but while writing this post I've been eating homemade tiramisu, but since it is Saturday and Bastille Day I won't beat myself up for having a second slice

Having your National Day on a Saturday is a shame. (I'm pestering. I could have used an extra day off in July) Anyway, yesterday qualified as a legitimate S-day anyway.

Good idea! Try to have coffee for goûter instead of a fruit, the thing is to try to do it regularly for a couple of weeks to see if it is sustainable.

I gently suggest you should not be beating yourself up for having a second slice at any time. Beating yourself up is negatively correlated with habit change.

I second the coffee (or beverage) to replace the fruit snack.

Serve yourself more grapes for breakfast and then put them out of sight. And it does seem this would be a good place to use some of your limited willpower.

It sounds like you are actually doing pretty well. Are you patting yourself on the back for your successes?

Thank you for the advice, everyone.
Coffee has proved to be a good snack these last two days - though I have a question about coffee in a bit.
and thank you for that advice, Oolala. Having a Type A personality it can be "hard" to reward myself, but it's good to get a bit of a reality check!

As for coffee, now I actually do enjoy well brewed coffee, but I have a hard time deciding if I should drink it, especially at school. At home the coffee I drink is quite good and not too strong, and I don't actually drink it all that much (before incorporating it as my "gouter" I just had it every once in a while with breakfast). But at school I turn into a coffee-holic. So I'd like some advice, because I've heard conflicting things about coffee in general.
Coffee increases stress, it dehydrates you, causes osteoporosis in women, alters mood, etc (my mom swears it causes acne break outs, but i'm not too sure). Most of my friends shrug all that off as exaggerated, insist it's crazy to go through college without some sort of caffeine fix, but I'd like some second opinions.

SeekingHealthiness wrote:This is good advice, thank you. I think my biggest thing with the fruit isn't that I eat it because I'm still hungry, but because i just want to be munching on something. Gum can be what I use to replace this sometimes (I tend to be a chain chewer, bad habit). I guess the solution to this would be more will power?

There is really only one solution to this, or to any habit you don't like. It's to stop doing the thing you don't want to be doing, and keep not doing it for a while, until not doing it seems like the natural thing to do. We're probably talking several months here, not days. There are some things you can do to help yourself break the habit of munching all the time, but any successful attempt to break a munching habit is going to involve not munching.

Don't spend time in the kitchen, unless you are preparing a meal, eating a meal, or cleaning up after a meal. If you see or smell food, you're going to want to eat it.

Don't keep food around in places other than the kitchen. No bowls of snacks in the living room or computer room. No snacks in your purse or backpack. If you want a snack, you should have to interrupt what you are doing and walk to another room to get it. Make your laziness help you avoid snacking.

Don't hang out in coffee shops or other places that sell food. Do your studying and socializing in places that don't sell food (for example, the library) instead.

Don't worry about the coffee for now, unless it is causing immediate problems. Try to break the snacking habit. If you try to break too many bad habits at once, you spread your willpower too thin, and end up accomplishing nothing. Do not try to fix all of your bad habits at once. That doesn't work, it's why New Year's resolutions almost always fail.

If you are concerned about too much caffeine, then why not try fruit juice. 100% fruit juice is allowed on no s and it tastes sweet. You wouldn't want to drink it all day but once in the afternoon could be the lift you need.

SeekingHealthiness wrote:But at school I turn into a coffee-holic. So I'd like some advice, because I've heard conflicting things about coffee in general.
Coffee increases stress, it dehydrates you, causes osteoporosis in women, alters mood, etc (my mom swears it causes acne break outs, but i'm not too sure).

I've also heard mixed things about coffee. I have been drinking coffee since I was 12. I've consumed all kinds of daily quantitites, worst has been 1.5 coffee maker bowls a day when I was a ditching student. And too much coffee makes you feel gross at some point. I know that when I reduce my coffee consumption, I also sleep better at nights.

On January 2nd of this year, I completely stopped coffee, got an afwul coffee withdrawal headache, and ever since, I have had a glass ceiling of 3 cups a day. (1 mug, and 2 social "dispenser machine" coffees with my colleagues) I don't use them everyday. The morning one is a ritual for me.

My advice would be :
- If you're not used to drink coffee, keep a daily glass ceiling and make it social.
- Don't take coffee if you don't want to.
- Too much coffee is BAD for you.
- You can be in college and make it through without becoming dependant on coffee.

And no, coffee never made my acne break out.

You can always swap up the coffee with tea. My personal favorite is a chai flavored black tea with a splash of half and half. If you don't want the caffeine, Celestial Seasoning's Bengal Spice is a good herb alternative.

TUK wrote:I've also heard mixed things about coffee. I have been drinking coffee since I was 12. I've consumed all kinds of daily quantitites, worst has been 1.5 coffee maker bowls a day when I was a ditching student. And too much coffee makes you feel gross at some point. I know that when I reduce my coffee consumption, I also sleep better at nights.

What's a ditching student?

Blithe morning : sorry, I may have used wrong words. I meant "when I was a student (and was staying in bed until 4pm instead of going to class)"

Ohhh... I get it! Thank you for the explanation. Actually, I'm not sure we in the US have a common term for a student who chronically blows off classes.

We don't have any either. I made this one up...

Back in the day, we used to talk about ditching classes. This was in the U.S.

Sounds to me like you tend to overthink things--like coffee vs. no coffee, how much is too much, etc. Relax! Follow the guidelines! Don't make things more complex than they have to be.