Good for you Tracy!
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
![Cool 8)](./images/smilies/icon_cool.gif)
Moderators: Soprano, automatedeating
That is impressive!i'm really happy that i've been successful the first time I tried
It is amazing how powerful this childishly simple technique can be. I'm very happy to hear it's working for you!I keep a physical note on a wall calendar (a green triangle). When I feel like cheating after dinner, I think about how I'd have to put red on there and start counting over again. I remind myself not to negotiate or rationalize, just to stick to the basics.
Yeah, 21 is a fun number to shoot for, but obviously it isn't going to bring everyone 100% of the way there. Keeping a habitcal is a good way to keep the motivational pressure on in a relatively unobtrusive way.I got here, but I still feel like I need to get this habit entrenched more firmly
That is kewl! On both counts, behavioral and results. Congratulations!I have been true to the program and did not have a "failure". In three weeks, I went from 206 to 193. So kewl.
Hey, it was an S-day. I have some pretty awful ones myself. Big picture, they don't matter. And I think the less you worry about them the rarer such over the top S-days will become.Man, I was bad.
Try the "14 minutes of ANYTHING every N-day" system. That way you can experiment with different exercises until you find something you like without waiting till you find it to get some real exercise in -- the experiment, the quest becomes the exercise.Hope to also add some execise this week. I have not been able to do the exercise part because of some lower back issues, but feel ready to at least try the treadmill and the shovel glove program.
That is fantastic, congratulations!So I've successfully stayed on habit for as many days as I my old in years ( 51 )
That isn't bad either!I'm down 15ish pounds.
Good idea. Racking up a string of days is a great way to kick start a habit, but it doesn't have a whole long of fault-tolerance. Monthly Personal Olympics (with or without the habitcal) is a better long term motivational maintenance tool. Good attitude regarding S-day excesses, too.My brain wants another days-on-habit target but I fear it is building itself a clever progress trap...I think I'll switch to a monthly personal Olympics.
You're very welcome, Richie.Thanks a lot Reinhard and Mo!
ReinhardStudies show that altering eating habits for good requires 10 to 12 concerted attempts to succeed - which is to say about a dozen failures come before the eventual success.
Don't beat yourself up. Human nature is a strange thing. According to Dostoyevski, most prison break attempts occur toward the end of a sentence, because the goal is so unbearably, tantalizingly close.I'm very ashamed to say that I cracked on day 21! How stupid is that?
Doudou, take Reinhard's advice to heart and please don't beat yourself up!!Doudou wrote: I'm very ashamed to say that I cracked on day 21! How stupid is that? I wrote in my daily check-in that it almost feels like I sabotaged myself on purpose. I mean who would resist 20 days and then consciously and with great determination fail on day 21? I don't know, had a very low point there followed by an angry "i don't care what happens now" day.
21 days of no redsdoes it have to be 21 days in a row of only greens, or is it 21 days of no reds?
I'm afraid so. It takes many, maybe even most people a few times to make it. But once you do, you'll be a good way towards building a solid habit, and it'll get easier and easier. At some point, if you keep it up, it'll become harder to fail than to succeed.- I presume if for example, at day 10 we "get off track", we have to start over?
Yes, that's it.- do we just post here once we have achieved the 21 days in a row success?
I am!Are you serious? Really?
That is huge, congratulations! That's a great way to look at vacation/chaotic times: as a chance to "galvanize" your habits under extreme circumstances.I've just returned from a family vacation, and have immediately plunged into long days of teacher trainings. So I just counted out the days on my HabitCal. No reds! As I've said before, if I can make it through a family vacation on No S, then I can do No S any time, anywhere.
Absolutely. I find it strange that adults who see so clearly how children learn and are motivated don't see how it also could apply to them. Is it pride ("I'm not a child!") or mere forgetfulness? "Be ye as little children" is sound practical as well as spiritual advice.I think that applies to what No S is about: that when you allow your eating patterns to have very simple, predictable routines, then you can devote your brain to other matters.
This is exactly what I do. There are other "legitimate" approaches, but this safeguards the clarity of the rule best, I think. And yes, it is amazing how little other people notice or care what I'm doing.One question: What happens when you're in a restaurant, and you order a salad, and then there's a dinner roll/chips on the table. What I've been doing is NOT eating the salad or roll until my entree arrives, and then physically putting everything on the plate.
Use the habitcal, if you're not already. It's a great motivator that you can continue to use indefinitely. And it will nudge you towards long term "habit-think" rather than finite "goal-think."I'm not out of the woods yet myself, i usually find any change to my diet easy for the first few weeks then start to really struggle a couple of months down the line.
tlang313 wrote:Today is my 21st day! And I weighed in today at 159.4 lbs, so I'm out of 160 ville, where I had been stuck for way, way too long. Losing four pounds in three weeks may not sound like much, but it's a big deal to me to not see 160-whatever on the scale, very motivating. I actually feel like I can reach my goals this time, because No-S is sustainable.
-Tana