Remembering "sometimes" really does mean sometimes

No Snacks, no sweets, no seconds. Except on Days that start with S. Too simple for you? Simple is why it works. Look here for questions, introductions, support, success stories.

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Diligence
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Joined: Wed Dec 11, 2013 6:09 pm

Remembering "sometimes" really does mean sometimes

Post by Diligence » Thu Dec 12, 2013 8:58 pm

I am a new user on this board but not new to No S or to visiting this board. I posted a quasi-intro in the check-in board yesterday.

I'm sure many of you have considered and discussed this before. I think I've even read discussions on this here before. So I hope this isn't too much of a bore.

As I was listening to Reinhard's interview on the Smarter Science of Slim, it struck me that one of the main reasons I've departed from No S living in the past is that I allowed "sometimes" to, first, become "musts" and then become "all the times" (or at least whenever I wanted). I found myself choosing S's because it would be another week (or whatever the period of abstinence was at the time) before I could indulge in an S if I wanted to, which physically and mentally fed my appetite for more S's and eventually derailed my way of intentional living.

Returning to living No S again, I'm endeavoring to remember that it is except for SOMETIMES on S days. I don't have to take an S day on every S day or weekend and don't need to make the whole day or weekend marked by S choices. And, for me, I think the oftener I choose to not take an S day or weekend, the easier it is to break old habits and to break free of the social inclination toward and my personal appetite for sweets, snacks, or seconds.

As I've been typing this, I've been thinking I want to come to think of N days as Nutritious days rather than No S days. I want to think of them as positive days, and when I think of the term "No S" right this moment, the "no" part reminds me of what I can't have rather than the good that I am choosing. So, for the moment, at least, they're nutritious days for me, which may improve my eating habit further. :D I am not sure that I will mentally rename S days--there are far too many negative words I could use to describe them, and I don't want to beat myself up for using them... sometimes. :D

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NoSnacker
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Re: Remembering "sometimes" really does mean somet

Post by NoSnacker » Thu Dec 12, 2013 11:06 pm

Diligence wrote:the main reasons I've departed from No S living in the past is that I allowed "sometimes" to, first, become "musts" and then become "all the times" (or at least whenever I wanted).

Returning to living No S again, I'm endeavoring to remember that it is except for SOMETIMES on S days.
To be honest I could have wrote this..this is my 3rd attempt..I let my S days be "Food Gone Wild" days, that lead into my weekdays...and then it was just plain hard to get my mojo back.

This is like quitting smoking I'm guessing..eventually as long as we are persistent we will succeed.
Age 56: SBMI=30.6 (12/1/13) CBMI 28.9 (2/2/14) GBMI-24.8

automatedeating
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Post by automatedeating » Fri Dec 13, 2013 2:28 am

I like thinking of N days as "nourishing", similar to your idea of nutritious, but I have some baggage about health-nut crazy times in my past, so the word nutritious is, strangely enough, somewhat negative for me right now.

Thanks for your post!
Month/Year-BMI
8/13-26.3
8/14-24.5
5/15-26.2
1/16-26.9; 9/16-25.6
8/17-25.8; 11/17-26.9
3/18-25.6; 8/18-24.5; 10/18-23.8;
3/19-22.1; 10/19-21.8
6/20-22.5; 7/20-23.0; 9/20-23.6
4/21 - 25.2

jw
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Post by jw » Fri Dec 13, 2013 11:26 am

I just think of N as normal, S as special -- anything else makes me feel a little rebellious, especially the "NO -" aspect, as Diligence mentions. I also find it helpful to reinforce what is for me a new normal by reminding myself that moderate eating three times a day really is how normal people in other cultures and in other times have eaten!

Funny, when I first started doing this, I could never remember all three of the S's I was supposed to avoid -- I just had a mental block about listing them! I found the three-plate rule much more helpful than the list of forbidden S's.
"The second you overcomplicate it is the second it becomes the thing for which it is a corrective." -- El Fug

wosnes
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Post by wosnes » Fri Dec 13, 2013 7:12 pm

automatedeating wrote:I like thinking of N days as "nourishing", similar to your idea of nutritious, but I have some baggage about health-nut crazy times in my past, so the word nutritious is, strangely enough, somewhat negative for me right now.

Thanks for your post!
I've gotten to the point that I can't stand the words nutritious, healthy or clean when it comes to food.

EDIT: I think one of the things that kept me from bingeing, having food gone wild days, or suffering Last Supper Syndrome on S days was that the only food I restricted on N days was sweets. If I wanted chips, fries, tacos, pizza or any food considered "junk" food during the week, I made it a meal or part of a meal.

More recently I've adopted the French habit of no snacking at any time -- not even on S days. Anything I want to eat is consumed at meal times.

Snacks are for emergencies only, for instance, if the next meal will be delayed by more than an hour or two. I've found that even then it's rare that I "need" to eat something. It's usually that I want to or consider snacking because it's "time" to eat.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."

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NoSnacker
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Post by NoSnacker » Thu Dec 19, 2013 10:27 am

wosnes wrote:I think one of the things that kept me from bingeing, having food gone wild days, or suffering Last Supper Syndrome on S days was that the only food I restricted on N days was sweets. If I wanted chips, fries, tacos, pizza or any food considered "junk" food during the week, I made it a meal or part of a meal.
This is true, for the most part I ask myself what am I in the mood for..sometimes it is my normal everyday food, and sometimes it might be what you referred to as "junk" food.

Makes a difference to allow oneself to have a food that in the dieting days would be a NO NO.
Age 56: SBMI=30.6 (12/1/13) CBMI 28.9 (2/2/14) GBMI-24.8

good enough
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Post by good enough » Fri Jan 17, 2014 6:34 pm

This is a great thread! I'm going to try and remember the 'sometimes' this weekend.

Thank you!

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Jethro
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Post by Jethro » Tue Jan 21, 2014 8:49 pm

To control S days I had to adopt a mod of S=1; one second, snack and sweet on S days.

Maybe I can expand the number when I reach target weight. :D
"Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence."
- Vince Lombardi

Sometimes you need to take one step back for every two steps forward.

Time heals everything!

90% of a diet is 60% mental

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