Everyday Systems

I challenge you to publicly set a goal for the Month of June!
This is for anybody who needs encouragement and daily accountability. Think of this as your own little cheering section.

- post your progress once at the top with your goal and edit that first post all month. It's easier to skim-read and find each other. Accountability helps!
- please re-read that last one, some people don't get it.
- after a couple days we can post encouragements and support at the bottom.
- anyone can start whenever through out the month. The more ~ the merrier!
- good luck and have fun with it!

Emma's June 2013 challenge.
My goals: strict vanilla No S, exercise six days per week.

1 Yoga.
2 Run/walk.
3 Family birthday Yoga, walk. B: toast, scrambled eggs, apple, walnuts. L: salad, tuna, avocado, orange. D: Crumbed chicken, vegetables. Birthday cake with ice cream. Lollies(candy) and snacks in the afternoon.
4 Run/walk, weights. B: yoghurt, nuts, apple, muesli. L: salad, chicken, orange, apple. D: chicken and vegetable soup, mandarin.
5 Yoga, run. B: yoghurt, nuts, pear, muesli. L: salad, chicken stew, fruit, nuts. D: stir fry, rice, fruit.
6 Run, weights, yoga. B: toast, apple, nuts. L: soup, sandwich, fruit, nuts. D: beef tagine, couscous, orange.
7 5 min cardio, walk. B: toast, eggs, cucumber, celery, walnuts. L: sandwich and salad. D: sushi, orange.
8
9
10 cardio/weights circuit, run. B:yoghurt, nuts, muesli, pear. L: chicken burrito. D: veg curry, dahl, rice, naan. Technically compliant but lunch and dinner were big meals and now I feel stuffed and uncomfortable. Still working on eating the right amount.
11 yoga, run. B:coffee. L: chicken sandwich, orange, apple. D: pork, vegetable and noodle stir fry, apple.
12 walk, weights. B:fruit. L: salad, tuna, egg, nuts, apple. D: lamb stew, bread, fruit, nuts.
13 yoga, run/walk. B:yoghurt, nuts, muesli, pear. L: pizza, grilled vegetables. D: beef and bean nachos, fruit.
14 yoga, run/walk. B:carrot and cucumber slices. L: leftovers, salad, nuts, fruit. D: roast vegetables and haloumi cheese, fruit, nuts.
15
16
17 No exercise. A bit sick.
18 As above
19 Walk, gentle yoga
20 Walk
21 Sweets after dinner. No exercise
22
23 Overate this weekend. Stress eating
24 no exercise B: coffee. L: salad, beans, tuna, apple, banana. D: chicken and spinach enchiladas.
25 yoga, walk. B: yoghurt, muesli, fruit, nuts. L: salad, beans, tuna, apple. D: lettuce rolls with chicken, veg and noodles.
26 weights, walk. B: fruit, nuts. L: salad, beans, chicken, banana. D: leek and potato soup, salad, bread, fruit.
27 yoga, walk. B: egg, toast, apple, nuts. L: soup, sandwich, veg, fruit. D: pasta with beef and veg.
28 no exercise
29
30

One red day! I think that is my best month ever. Still some overeating and permasnacking on weekends.
Exercise started out well then dropped off toward the end of the month.
Weight stayed approximately the same over the month.

Goals: Vanilla NoS, exercise 4-5 days per week
+ less mindless eating (while reading etc.), intelligent lunch defaults for crazy schedule days

1 exercise: work out including squat challenge day 5
2 no exercise: really bad cold
3 exercise: gentle work out (still cold) incl squat challenge day 6; managed not to read while eating. Still ate very fast - wanted to start reading
4 no exercise, stupid cold is not going away
5 exercise: gentle cardio incl squat challenge day 7
6 exercise: running very slowly for 30 minutes
7 exercise: work out incl squat challenge day 9
8 no exercise
9 exercise: swimming & squat challenge day 10
10 no exercise I am glad that I wrote only 4-5 times exercises per week, I exercise much less than I would like to... groan
11 I had a slice of melon after dinner. Exercise: 5.5 km run
12 exercise: walk
13 no exercise
14 no weekend vacation but I ran for 50 minutes
15 work out incl squat challenge
16 exercise: cardio
17 fail: strawberries in the afternoon, no exercise
18 40 minutes' run
19 work out
20
21 ran 5km in the morning & 5km in the afternoon
22 walk
23
24 ate lots of things, exercise: 40 minutes' run
25 no exercise, too tired
26 same as yesterday
27 50 minutes running
28 several catastrophes, absolutely no time for exercise
29 exercise: dancing
30

I think I have lost a bit more than one kg, only one really stupid red day. Not too bad at all. Less exercise than I would have wanted to but I did not exactly suffer, I would not really mind if I could go on like that.

My goal for June is to stick with Vanilla, work on gently reducing portions and to avoid binges on S days. I will score my day as green/red/yellow and then comment on my success at portion control etc.
Love these challenges, good luck to all of us!

Vanilla No-S, Walk Away The Pounds 5 days a week, tamer S days

6.13: GREEN!!
6.14: RED
6.15: S DAY!
6.16: S DAY!
6.17: RED
6.18: RED
6.19: GREEN!!
6.20: RED

Vanilla No S. C25K on N days (and once I've finished that, stick with Week 9 for a while).

1 S day
2 S day
3
4
5
6
7
8 S day
9 S day
10
11
12
13 S day for C25K (not allowed to have lunch for medical reasons)
14
15 S day
16 S day
17
18
19
20
21
22 S day
23 S day
24
25
26
27
28
29 S day
30 S day

My Goal for June: Vanilla No-S

1. S-Day
2. S-Day
3. Success
4. Success
5. Success
6. Success
7. Success
8. S-Day
9. S-Day
10. Success
11. Success
12. Success
13. Fail
14. Success
15. S-Day
16. S-Day
17. Success
18. Success
19. Success
20. Success
21. Fail
22. S-Day
23. S-Day
24. Success
25. Success
26. Fail
27. Fail (end of month meltdown because I have been doing two things which have always ended in N-day disaster for me: gave up my "cheese @ 10" mod and also tried to eat off smaller plates. Do I ever learn? Yes, because this time I'M NOT QUITTING!)
28. Success
29. S-Day
30. S-Day

Starting June 3 (since I just came back from a weekend out of town that was out of compliance with just about any rule there is)

My goals:
Have some sort of vegetable at every meal. (Tomato juice counts.)
Keep a food log.

I have been keeping my food log even though I have not been posting every day here. It has been revealing. The log tells me how inconsistent I am with eating my vegetables. This June challenge along with keeping a log is helping me to improve. I still have a hard time at breakfast, but I usually manage to at least drink a small tomato juice. I am doing pretty good at the other two meals.

Total reds on keeping a log: 1
Total reds on vegetables at each meal: 5

I could use some tips for how to work vegetables in at breakfast. I put tomatoes in my cottage cheese or drink tomato juice or put veggies in an omelet but need to incorporate vegetables in other ways.

I did manage to keep a log of my food intake through the month of June and mostly ate my vegetables most meals. It was enlightening.

I'm in! My goals will be to eat 4-5 healthy meals per day (doctor's orders, because of acid reflux), and to not binge on the weekends. The next 2 days will be weird, because I have an upper endoscopy scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, so I plan on having an extra meal before midnight tonight (since I can't eat anything besides clear foods after midnight).

3. NWS day
4. Will also be an NWS day, since I'm not sure what I'll feel like eating after the endoscopy.
5. Fail
6. Fail (I didn't eat satisfying dinners either of those days, and I snacked after my kids went to bed.
7. S day
8. S day
22. Well, I've failed for most of this month, but I think I am finally back. I think it has finally clicked with me to focus on habit, as opposed to calories, restricting certain food groups, etc... Today was my best No S day in a long time.
23. Fail I figured out my problems for today: 1) Not enough protein. 2) I was really tired, so I snacked on a bunch of carbs. Tomorrow will be a better day!

I want to play too!

My goal for the month is 90% compliance on N days,
exercise of some kind at least three days a week and
no weighing, just trusting the process, eating and moving my body in a healthy, loving way.
June 1- 223.2
July 1-

1 S day
2 S day
3 success
4 success
5 success
6 success
7 Failure
8 S day
9 S day
10 success
11 success
12 success
13 success
14 success
15 S day
16 S day
17
18
19
20
21
22 S day
23 S day
24
25
26
27
28
29 S day
30 S day

01:
02:
03:
BING
BANG
BOOM
KJFO3IIUR3OVA3eralkdm
AHEM...
ONWARD
20:drumroll....... Did it!
21:

I love this idea of using the smiley faces to indicate how we are doing.


No S
Exercise 3 x a week doing Push Ups / Sit ups / Squats / Dips

1
2
3 + Exercise
4
5 + Exercise
6
7
8
9
10 + Exercise
11
12 + Exercise
13
14
15
16 - This will be Day 21 for me!!!

17 PH (I had a treat after dinner with the family but gave myself green as the rest of the day was perfect!) - Start of second 21 days!!!
18 - Sick child and battling to get to the exercise.
19 + Urban Ranger
20
21 Mmmm, hungry day so far!! - Lots of water & tea to keep on track!!
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29 - Off on Holiday to the beach for 2 weeks!!!!
30

I saw this challenge at the end of May and thought -- o.k., I'm going to do it! And I didn't sign up and I didn't stick to anything on my own, and I just eat and eat and eat ....

It's Thursday, almost the week-end so not sure it's a good time to start, but I'll try. Maybe this will be my only post for the month (I always feel bad when I write here and can't stick to anything). But I'm going try again, for the millionth time.

Goal: Vanilla & Walk at least 4 times per week (even if it's just around the block -- objective is to build a habit).

7 Snacks Sweets Walk Really awful day!
8 S-Day
9 S-Day

No Snacks ..... No Sweets ..... Walk
10 ..... ..... Had a dessert but it was a special occasion.
11 ..... ..... Afternoon had big oatmeal cookie; and evening had everything in sight.
12 ..... ..... Not doing well at all -- not sure if I'm going to continue posting on this challenge. Not feeling very good about myself and my lack of discipline.
13 ..... ..... Foodwise, still not good; Went for a 25 minute walk
14 ..... .....
15 S-Day
16 S-Day

My snacking/sweets time is afternoons and evenings. This week I will report on them separately. Therefore, if I can do good on at least one of them, I'll start posting some happy faces.

SNACKS: Aft/Eve ..... SWEETS: Aft/Eve ..... Walk
17 / ..... / ..... ..... not off to a good start
18 / ..... / .....
19
20
21
22 S-Day
23 S-Day

June 26 (part 1):
It's been reds all the way through. Really discouraged. Maybe I'll try again in July.

June 26 (part 2):
O.K. Finally I'm not going to wait until July to try again. I just read LA Loser's Journey and New Found Key to Success and I feel inspired. So I'm going to try the additional calendar to track a GREEN if there is not more than 1 NoS violation in an S day.

So here it goes: the first smiley is for strictly NoS, the second is for 1 or less violation in a day, and the third is for the daily walk (regardless of time or distance).

W26: ..... .....

One third of the way through!
This challenge is helping with my motivation. I'm more likely to choose to keep a day green when I have public accountability.

I am fed up with counting calories to maintain my weight loss, so I am going to give this a trial for the rest of the month, and see what happens.

13 SUCCESS - First day on the No-S Diet.
14 SUCCESS - I think! A few issues came up that I need to check on. It feels quite scary not counting the calories in everything I eat!
15 S day - First S-Day. VERY scary not counting the calories!
16 S day
17 FAIL - I left far too long a gap between lunch and dinner and had to snack. I see I will have to plan ahead a bit better!
18 SUCCESS
19 FAIL - Someone brought a home-made cake round for my Mum, and I just couldn't resist a slice. But I was just a teeny bit disappointed, which will make it easier to resist in future.
20 SUCCESS
21 FAIL - Oh dear! It was that cake, and that long snackless gap between lunch and dinner that did for me again!
I am going to revert to having a small, HEALTHY snack (an apple, an orange, a carrot) between lunch and dinner. On a plate, sitting down, and preferably in company.
22 S day
23 S day
24 SUCCESS
25 SUCCESS
26 FAIL - I unavoidably (we were in the hospital) left too long between breakfast and lunch, and ended up nibbling in the kitchen. I am allowing myself one healthy snack a day - I should have taken it along.
27 FAIL - Same problem again. I need to plan ahead and find a way to have a healthy snack regardless of the situation.
28 FAIL - Felt stressed and tired and pretty much gave up the effort to stay within my rules. BUT ... I have lost some weight!
29 S day
30 S day

Butterfly, please don't give up!!!

Butterfly - Please Hang In There! Keep marking down how you are doing and I promise eventually you get tot he point when as you go to snack, have seconds or sweets you think, mmmm Lets save it till S day or just plain old No because I don't wnat to put in another embarrased face!

((((((((((((((((((HUGS)))))))))))))))))))

This is a life style and you have some tough habits you are busy beating. It takes time and diligence and consitency.

I love a challenge. I'm in from Monday See you then.

Goal: NoS

15th - S Day
16th - S day
17th - Success
18th - Success
19th - Failure
20th - Success
21st - Failure
22nd - S Day
23rd - S Day
24th - Success
25th - Success
26th - Success
27th - Success
28th - Failure
29th - S Day
30th - S Day

MerryKat wrote:Butterfly - Please Hang In There! Keep marking down how you are doing and I promise eventually you get tot he point when as you go to snack, have seconds or sweets you think, mmmm Lets save it till S day or just plain old No because I don't wnat to put in another embarrased face!

Thanks for the encouragement MerryKat. I'll try to hang in there a little longer. Last night I was thinking of signing up with Weight Watchers today, fully knowing that it won't work for me -- but I was feeling so desperate! Thankfully today I talked myself out of it. I'll just try to take one day at a time.

Jammin' Jan wrote:Butterfly, please don't give up!!!

I'm going to try not to give up -- Thank you!

Half-way party!

No-S Math: Failing - Not quitting = Success

Jammin' Jan wrote:No-S Math: Failing - Not quitting = Success

I like that

Renew...I am still alive and kickin'!!! But, am not doing very well on this challenge! I HIGHLY applaud Butterfly who continues to strive and return in the midst of her struggles while all I do is go and put my head in the sand.

I like this Jammin' Jan!

No-S Math: Failing - Not quitting = Success

So I am NOT quitting! Not going to report all of my reds up until this point cuz.......well....it would not be pretty and I just can't do it. Well, I am admiting them to you, but I just can't write them down. I WILL be back this evening to report in....NO MATTER WHAT! Right now just working on TODAY! I know if I can get a couple of good green days under my belt I can get my groove back!

Almost at the finish line!

Hi all,

So even though I didn't publicly commit, I started No S on 5th of June. I have now reached my 21st day of habit-building, 100% on track. I am positive the rest of the day will be a green day. Some of the N days were not, food-quality wise, the best, but they definitely have all been "technically" N days. I'd guess about half of the S days were pretty much N days, as well (S days being weekends only, didn't have any special days). My net weight loss has been about 2 lbs. And I'm feeling pretty good, and comfortable with this overall. I think I can keep this up!

Good work, Christine!

I'm ready for July!

Me too! Where's the thread?

Okay! I have to admit I need it too! I'll start another one.