Everyday Systems

How many people have a hard time getting back to No S after your S days?
I find Monday afternoon is HARD after the weekend! Any ideas how to not snack? I've been good so far.....

Just don't do it. You're not going to starve.

what helps you not to do it? Do you drink anything or chew on something?

I rarely get hungry between meals. When I do, I have coffee, tea or water.

I do get hungry between meals -- but it doesn't last. I just observe it, rather than feeling I need to do something about it. Coffee or tea help. So does distracting myself with a non-food interest. I also try to taper off from S-days -- Saturdays, I just have what I want, but Sunday evening is pretty moderate, so Monday is not such a shock. Hope you were able to hold out today!

Brush your teeth, use mouthwash, or chew gum, or do 15 push ups, go for a quick walk, call a friend, stay the heck out of the kitchen, break room, food area, sanctimoniously judge other snackers, pray for the starving, think gratefully about your last meal, vow to have a nicer dinner, tickle a baby, count your blessings, do one icky but easy thing on your to-do list that you keep putting off, start an argument, read an article, knit a blanket, watch a funny show and laugh out loud, double down on your TPS reports, look into the infinity that is our world when we take our eyes off of food, food food.

Or just read the discussion boards. I am encouraged whenever I read about another person's NoS journey.

I am still relatively new at this so I do find that coming back from S days required a bit more focus in order to keep my N days green. In fact, I was really hungry this afternoon. My coworkers were having cake in the pantry and I just had to step away from the temptation because it was too hard to stand there and just watch. I had a cup of milk to tie me over until dinner.

Hang in there. Keep snacks far far away.

Finally full: I LOVE it!!!

Love that list, finallyfull! Last night I had to help host a reception with homemade cookies -- "sanctimoniously judging other snackers" came into play! These receptions occur several times a month, so I have to build up a list of strategies. BTW, I also told my young nephew, who was making heavy inroads on the cookie trays, that they were just for decoration -- and it worked!

Hey JW, turns out your I Ching quote makes my point better than I did. Never try to "not think of a pink elephant" because it only makes you think about a pink elephant. Instead, think of a grey wolf, or something else.

I have thankfully moved from "trying not to eat" to "doing something else". But those first few weeks were hard, in retrospect, because I was still food focused.

One thing that also helps greatly in the beginning: fill up that plate at meal times. Don't make it a diet by skimping. One day you will realize that five or six hours between meals is nothing, and that hunger will go haunt someone else who's willing to feed it all the time.

Finallyfull, I think you might have posted a classic just then! I will be copy & pasting that into my diary right now to keep me strong in times of weakness!

jw wrote:I do get hungry between meals -- but it doesn't last. I just observe it, rather than feeling I need to do something about it. Coffee or tea help. So does distracting myself with a non-food interest. I also try to taper off from S-days -- Saturdays, I just have what I want, but Sunday evening is pretty moderate, so Monday is not such a shock. Hope you were able to hold out today!

Yes I was thinking maybe I should try tapering Sunday too. I did hold out but boy it was hard. Now today Tue I volunteer but I'd had a frozen meal and I worked longer cause I did not feel hungry! Yeah staying busy is important too!

Finallyfull, what is a TPS report?

musiclvr02 wrote:Finallyfull, what is a TPS report?

From the movie Office Space. It's shorthand for BS paperwork.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy3rjQGc6lA

You held out, music lover! Bravo, you! Next time it will be easier --

Finallyfull, glad you like the I Ching quote! I am getting a better feel for how much food I need on the plate -- it's not all visual, is it? I need a lot more zucchini than potatoes, for example!

i really like some random pushups, pullups, and body weight squats when im thinking about eating between meals. just one all out set of each or so and my body stops the pointless craving.

Don't have food around, if you can help it. Don't spend time in the kitchen, unless you are preparing a meal, eating a meal, or cleaning up after a meal. Don't keep food around outside the kitchen. If you want to snack, then, you have to stop what you are doing and go to the kitchen to get food. That little extra time and effort, minimal as it seems, can be enough to dissuade you from snacking. Or at least it works for me, maybe I'm just that lazy.

Find something to do. It doesn't have to be a constructive or self-improving activity, it just needs to be something to distract you from food. Play video games or watch mindless tv if you want, just don't eat while you do it.

Keep a HabitCal. I don't want to have to admit to the whole Internet that I couldn't stick to No S. knowing I would have to admit I failed gives me a little extra incentive to not fail.

Remind yourself that the next S day is never more than five days away.

Remember that your feelings and thoughts, whatever they may be, do not constitute failure. The only thing that can be a failure is if you put food in your mouth. Thinking about how much you'd like to eat something isn't a failure. Being unhappy that it's not an S day any more is not a failure. Those are thoughts, nothing more. If you're having thoughts like that, it's not because you're doing something wrong, or because you're a bad or weak person, or anything like that. You don't have to do anything about those thoughts- they will eventually go away on their own. However intense they may feel now, they won't last forever. And like all your thoughts, they will only do the amount of harm that you let them, by stressing about them or acting on them.

If you feel like you want to eat because you're stressed, ask yourself "how would that help?" Eating isn't going to do anything about whatever it is that is stressing you. If anything, it's going to add more stress, at least if one of the things you are stressed about is your weight.