Everyday Systems

Well it's been quite a good S weekend really.

Had my three meals a day as usual and the extra S's were:

7 chocolates
2 packets crisps (one was as part of a meal but I count as an S food because they are often a binge trigger for me)
2 small slices Hm apple tart, one with creme fraiche one without.
3 oatcakes with coleslaw as a snack
1 portion and then seconds of roast plums on sweet bread.

Spread out over the two days I'm happy with that, pretty much what every day would have been like before No S.

Today:
Breakfast - Usual
Lunch - 2 Ham and tomato rolls, grapes and a peach
Dinner - Fish pie with red cabbage and whatever fruit I buy on the way home.

Hmm yesterday was tricky, I have a usual routine for mealtimes.
6am breakfast, 12.30ishpm lunch and 7pmish dinner. But due to working late then going straight to a pottery class I couldn't eat till 10pm last night. I am so very much a breakfast person, I delayed my breakfast till 9.30am, to have a much later lunch, it worked but I wouldn't like to do it every day.

Today -
Breakfast - usual (at the usual time)
Lunch - gnocchi bake; strawberries and a peach
Dinner - Toad in the hole, red cabbage and green beans; grapes and blueberries.

Long couple of days, but still No S compliant.

Having some friends over for dinner tonight, we only see them once or twice a year when they come over to the island so really looking forward to that

Today:
Breakfast - Usual (I find this really helps to prevent my S days going wild.
Lunch - Will have a sandwich and and a cake in gorgeous cafe near work which does wonderful looking cakes, that I stare at often and have only had once.
Midafternoon snack - packet of crisps.
Dinner - Coca cola ham with home-made coleslaw and home-made cornbread followed by hubby's home-made trifle.
Oooh and there is a box of chocolates at work again so maybe I'll have a few of those too.

(Well I had the sandwich and cake for lunch but although the cake was lovely the service was awful so I won't be going back there again )

Right my S treats this weekend were:

Saturday-
1 chocolate
1 slice cheesecake
Half a packet (50g) caramelised peanuts and cashews
1 bowl pudding after dinner

Sunday:
1 packet crisps
half bag (about 90g) cadbury giant chocolate buttons
yogurt after dinner
about 4 crackers with cheese on, evening snack

Then straight back on track Monday
Breakfast - 3 slices toast and some grapes
Lunch - mackeral and rice cake, and a few chips stolen from hubby but I put them on my plate before I started eating, then didn't take any more.
Dinner - steak, roast potatoes, green beans and carrots; and an orange and a banana

I think after these two weekend days I will continue to post my S treats as it does help to feel more accountable, although not totally restricted.

My in-laws are coming over this week.

Think I might take two NWS days, I only see them twice a year so it is pretty special and I haven't really taken any 'special' S days yet. I think what I'll do is try to spread my S days over 4 days, so if my average is 8 'S treats' over 2 days (which I'm ok with because compared to what I used to eat like before?) and just have that many over the 4 days they are here.

Today
Breakfast - usual
Lunch - Cous cous with roasted veggies, almonds, pumpkin seeds, lemon and mint
Dinner - Stuffed butternut squash with blue cheese, walnuts and thyme.

You are doing brilliantly skykitty!

I am craving couscous now, that sounds gorgeous

Oooh I'm doing less brilliantly now!

Having family over, I had dessert thursday evening, and yesterday was a non-weekend special S day. I think if I try to not have any S treats until after work today (finishes at 3pm) it will mean I really only have dinner to consider which will be a 3 course meal, but the first course will be home-made soup so thats not terrible. Then family leave tomorrow so I'll have breakfast, then lunch after we've taken them to the airport. I'm working a late shift so will have dinner at work, that will be easy to have one plate-ful.

So really, I can take tomorrow as an N day without any trouble which makes my two S days Friday and Saturday with an exception Thursday evening because I only see my in-laws twice a year!

I know No S (book especially) discourages swapping and 'making up for bad days' like this because it can get out of hand, but it makes me feel like I'm still remaining in control.

Absolutely no trouble taking Sunday as an N day.

Breakfast - Usual
Lunch - 3 slices of cheese and tomato on toast; cherries and a nectarine
Dinner - (at work) lasagne, roast potatoes and parsnips. Didn't finish it as it was all leftovers and not as nice as it would have been fresh, but I didn't have the option of eating it when it was fresh; followed by an apple and an orange.

Don't think I got my 5 a day in.
Is one tomato enough for a serving?
Can you really count parsnips when they have been deep-fried to oblivion?

Today my meal times are out of routine again, but it's getting easier to adapt and not panic about having a fail.

(Editing this to add...

I just proved a point to myself!

I just ordered a toasted sandwich in a cafe and it came with a very small handful of crisps on the plate. Since starting No S I haven't had crisps on N days because they have always been a trigger for binge eating. So I ate this tiny amount of crisps and then couldn't stop thinking about buying a full-size packet, or 2 full-size packets. I had to come back to work and quickly eat some fruit to replace the taste in my mouth to try to stop thinking about it, and even now I still am thinking about it and how long it is until S days when I can have some.

No more toasted sandwiches from that cafe)

I love your postscript about when nothing goes right... Wonderful.
I think you are doing really well. In this country we have not only vacations but "stay"cations. Vacations are S days on this diet. If you only see your in-laws once a year, that, to me would sound like a vacation (staycation) day or days. It sounds like you still planned meals as best you could to be visual plated and kept dessert-y items to a minimum.

I think I am going to start a thread about cravings on the discussion board. I would like to see how people see cravings and how they deal with them.

Usually when I miss a few days posting it means all is going well. Which it is.

Yesterday:
Breakfast - A fried egg in a ciabatta roll with brown sauce, yogurt and a banana.
Lunch - 2 roasted chicken thighs with roast potatoes and steamed chinese greens; cherries and an orange.
Dinner - (at work) salmon with a white wine sauce, green beans and a buttered bread roll; an apple and some strawberries.

i've also been back to the gym for the first time in about 2 months. It was hard and I had NO energy afterwards, although that was possibly more due to the sauna and steam room than the gym itself
Now the hard part is keeping up with it and not letting life get in the way.

S day today!!!

Swapping my S days as I'm working a late shift tomorrow, which seems like kind of a waste of an S day, and if I take it today I can bake some cookies to take round to a friend's house this evening, they are making home-made pizza and we are going to practice tango. Will probably also have some crisps with my lunch as I only have those on S days.

Yesterday:

Breakfast - Usual
Lunch - BLT and a side salad and some strawberries
Dinner - Veggie stir-fry (green beans, baby corn and pepper) with noodles and a home-made satay sauce.

Tango!! Awesome.

Sounds like fun

I love tango, our tutors are away though so it was good to get a small group of people together to practice. We struggle to practice at home because it's just impossible to dance properly on carpet. The home-made pizza was good though and I had plenty .

I baked oatmeal and raisin cookies with chocolate on and took those. I nibbled a few 'quality control' of course before we went and had 2 more after dinner. The cookies were nearly a disaster though, I hadn't allowed enough time for the chocolate to set on top, and so we weren't too late, waiting for them, I had to throw them in the freezer for a few minutes.

Today I'm back on an N day, and have got to work to find a box of chocolates left for me as a thank you from a guest. Personally to me, which never happens, and I can't have any!!

So I've taken 2 of each flavour and will have them tomorrow when I am on an S day, and try to give the rest away so that they are hopefully gone by Monday adternoon when I am back in work.

I think I like moving S days around as needed. Maybe not for every week, but when necessary.

Yesterday I ended up all chocolated out after 7 individual chocolates, a nibble of chocolate while making a sauce, and then doughnuts with a chocolate sauce. Big S day, (also had a packet of crisps.) I did stop when I was ready to stop though. The chocolate sauce was delicious, time was I would have finished it all just because it was there. Instead I had a few dips with doughnut, plus one spoonful and then stopped and got rid of what was left.

Today:
Breakfast - 3 (small) slices toast and a banana
Lunch - Chicken casserole, roast potatoes, green beans; grapes and an apple
Dinner - TBD at work, maybe chicken wings, maybe a bacon sandwich, don't feel like a full big meal, but will also have an orange.

I jogged today!!! Not a lot, but its a start. I went down to a beautiful glen about 5mins from the house, and walked/jogged as the mood (or music on my ipod) took me. I jogged more than I thought I would and tomorrow I will go again, maybe I'll jog a little bit more.

I'm going to be unemployed for 4 months at the end of October, so depending on the weather I should be able to get into a good routine, going down to the glen a few days a week and going to the gym a few days a week.

Yesterday:
Breakfast - Usual
Lunch - Ciabatta with ham, tomato and pest; raspberries and a peach.
Dinner - French onion soup with cheese croutons; strawberries and an orange.

The french onion soup was hilarious, it was made with purple stock. I made vegetable stock last week and had some red cabbage.....
It made the purplest sock imaginable - looked the exact colour of a cadbury dairy milk wrapper! It tasted great, but looked bizarre!

You go girl! Jogging is addicting! Enjoy!

Totally addictive but unfortunately I didn't go today. Too wet, the glen would have been very, very muddy.

BUT...

I did have a breakthrough in that I did 14 minutes of exercise at home. I did 14 minutes of stepping. Not using a fancy shop-bought step or stepping machine, just the bottom step of my stairs with my ipod on. I was as sweaty and out of breath at the end as I have been with any gym session. It was fantastic!

I tend to go through phases with exercise, sometimes I'll feel really motivated for a while, then maybe it'll tail off again. Right now I'm feeling very motivated. Tomorrow and Sunday I will walk to work, then back to stepping or jogging Monday and Tuesday.

Today:
Breakfast - Usual
Lunch - Chicken with stir-fried greens in wraps; grapes and an orange
Dinner - onion, cheese and potato pie with veg, either green beans or broccoli; strawberries and an apple.

Oooh the pie I made yesterday was lovely!

Today I'm in snackaholic mode. I had half a crumpet and a bite of sausage in addition to my breakfast which I wouldn't normally have, and then biscuits after lunch. I work surrounded by packets upon packets of biscuits every day, and I never look twice at them, but today because I had an S treat ( a rice crispie cake) as part of my breakfast, it's flicked the 'must snack' switch in my brain on.

I know I'll have a packet of crisps after I finish work with a diet coke, I really enjoy that, it's almost like a little ritual, but after that I should be ok again and just have dessert after dinner this evening.

It's not thefact really that I'm eating more snacks than usual, it's that I'm back to thinking/obsessing about them more that is bugging me.

Well yesterday sort of turned into a surprise S day, as I found out I got a job I interviewed for last week! So chinese take-away, strawberries and ice cream and champagne for dinner!!

Oh well, I'll have an N day on Saturday and all will be well.

Hubby is going away today for a few days for work, so meals usually get a bit smaller when I'm eating by myself, often soup for dinner; I've got enough soup portions stashed in the freezer to see me through a nuclear winter

Congrats! A new job is a great reason for taking an S day!

Yesterday I binged.
It was an S day but I was definately an idiot.
I need to confess it here, it's no good recording the good days and not the bad.
There was a small plus. I didn't eat all the food I bought to binge on. When I threw the rest in the bin I squirted washing up liquid on it to make sure I didn't get it out again. I opened each individual crisp packet and put the washing up liquid in each one.
Good that I did that. Bad that I had to do it.
That is all I have to say about that.

You're definitely right in recording the good and bad. I try hard to remind myself of that. It's so much nicer to just talk about it when things are going well, but that doesn't really accomplish the goal.

Good for you for destroying the "loot" so you could stick to your healthier decision!

Julie

Right back to SUCCESS days after the weekend.

Today:
Breakfast - Usual
Lunch - Cous cous with roast veggies, lemon and mint; nectarine and an apple.
Dinner - Pasta with chilli, prawns and rocket; orange and grapes.

I read last night about a counting bites diet. It seems that 85 bites is the number suggested to have in a whole day to lose weight. This seems a ridiculously small number. Have decided to count how many bites I take today, just to see jow my usual diet compares.

So far I'm up to 30 on breakfast, and I can see how it makes you concentrate more on food, but I'm not sure it increased my appreciation of it. I also think it would make me eat less healthily if I was restricting the number of bites of food I had in a day. I'm sure I would end up eating less fruit and veg because I would want to save my bites for more filling carbs and meat.

I really wonder about counting bites. It seems that if the eater were even a little bit obsessive, it could go wrong very easily.

Well I'm clearly not obssessive!

I lost count at lunchtime, and didn't even try with dinner, I had spaghetti for dinner and find it hard enough to even eat spaghetti in a civilised fashion that I can't think about counting bites as well.

The thing is I'm not so much interested in trying to eat less as in trying to eat a normal amount. One plateful of food and one or two pieces of fruit, that's a normal, regular amount to me.

Today -
Breakfast - Usual
Lunch - As yesterday
Dinner - Veggie stir-fry using up loads of bits of leftover veg (broccoli, chinese leaf, baby sweetcorn, mushrooms) with a hoisin sauce and noodles.

Ooh meat-free day today - yay!!

Tomorrow am going over to England on the boat to see my mum. Very long day. I find I have breakfast and dinner from the cafeteria on the boat, and a filling plate of lunch while I'm with her. I struggle on these days to eat very healthily so I concentrate on sticking to the rules, even if the food isn't as healthy as I would normally try to have.