Everyday Systems

Hi Everyone! I hope this is the right forum to make introductions.

My Background

I'm a 40 year old man. I was naturally lean as a youth (but never had that six-pack, grrr...) despite terrible eating habits. I was a snacker and basically lived on fast food in college and my twenties. But after marriage and kids, it caught up to me. I gained about 40 pounds. I lost it all last year with a combination of calorie counting and exercise. But I don't want to count calories for the rest of my life.

My weight has basically been fairly stable for the past six months. But I want to (A) lose those last 5 or 10 pounds, and (B) have a healthier relationship with food. Now that I'm exercising regularly again I can probably get away with my sweet tooth and snacking habits, but I really don't want to. I'd like to end out like Oolala53. Her yearly testimonial is inspiring!

My particular downfall has always been a combination of wheat products with dairy. Bagels and cream cheese for breakfast. Pizza for lunch. Cereal as my evening snack. This is probably why I was intrigued by Paleo. But I actually went on a nutrition kick back in my 20's when reading about lifting weights and kind of got the paleo stuff out of my system then. I was reading some paleo forums recently and it brought back how it leads to such an unhealthy relationship with food: the quest for ever-more purity when you don't get the results you want. One of the things that appeals to me about No-S is that it makes food healthy again. It encourages you to eat with friends to make your meal more "sacred" rather than eating alone because you have strange dietary requirements.

The Plan

I hope to lose those last 10 pounds, but I'm not going to kill myself for it. I've got a healthy physique right now and if this is as lean as I ever get, I'll be happy with my results.

I'm going to start with plan vanilla No-S diet but I do intend to eventually experiment with intermittent fasting. As a snacker (I'm sure you guys can relate), going moderately extended periods of time without food seems therapeutic. Don't let your body act like a spoiled toddler when it comes to food! I also think it's a good spiritual discipline and attractive to me in that sense too.

I also plan to take on the wheat + dairy thing too. I'm going to start with vanilla No-S so I get to keep eating my bagels with cream cheese and pizza, at least for the time being. But eventually I may outlaw the combination on N days for breakfast and lunch.

Any feedback on my thinking? See any pitfalls or blind spots?

I'll also start a log on the daily check-in forum.

P.S. Anyone familiar with Whole Health Source? It's the blog of obesity researcher Stephen Guynet. It covers the theory is that overeating happens in the brain due to high-reward foods that circumvent the homeostatic set-point mechanisms. I think it dovetails neatly into No-S diet.

Hi Jibaholic, Welcome.
I love a good pizza or bagel with cream cheese too. I think instead of outlawing them, maybe come up with a few healthier alternatives for your breakfast and lunch defaults. Your go-to breakfast could be whatever healthy, satisfying meal you have planned but you could still decide to have a bagel some days without feeling that you have broken a rule.

Hello Jibaholic and welcome. I did a very restricted CARB diet 12 12 years ago and lost a lot of weight, but I hated it by the end. This, No S, works well for me. Good luck.

Hiya Emmay, thanks for the response. I was thinking about an alternative breakfast. The dietary defaults thread is pretty interesting. My only concern is that I don't want to get too far away from just doing vanilla No-S, at least for the first 21 days.