Everyday Systems

I wish I had an answer for you Imogen but am struggling to a good solution to S days as well as you know. I almost don't feel like not making any plan at this point. I'm wondering if I just have to endure wild s days in order to make my N days so doable.

Looking forward to seeing what you decide for this weekend.

Linda

automated, I was doing vanilla without any mods from winter 2011 until summer 2012. I was able to lose weight in spite of continuing wild S-days because I was quite overweight, so creating sufficient calorific deficit wasn't a problem. After the summer I started tweaking. I was able to lose a bit more doing one of the three mods:
- vanilla+calorie counting
- three desserts a week instead of full-blown S-days
- keeping the 3 meal, no snacks, no seconds structure, but having sweets whenever they fit my calorie budget.
Linda, thank you for your support.

Again, fail today - a chunk of Swiss milk chocolate with my lunch, and more later, plus some pretzel sticks and various other nibbles between meals. Grrr. I guess it's sort of a sick (TOM-related) day. Permasnacking, yes, but not binging.
I'm trying to pay more attention to nutrition - eat less animal products, more freggies, nuts etc. That's also one of the reasons I want to stick to vanilla. Better health is a great motivator for me... unless vanity gets in the way, haha!
Starting my personal 8 day challenge:
- journaling for the next 8 days
- three pre-planned, single desserts after Fri, Sat, Sun dinner
- no calorie counting (I'll have enough data to analyze/adjust later anyway)

Day 1

B: quark cheese/half avocado mash, wholegrain bread roll/butter, glass of rice milk, kiwifruit
L: wholegrain bread roll, egg salad, chickory, apple
small cup of full fat milk
D: 4 rye flour crepes with spinach/feta, vanilla pudding for dessert

Imogen, I had to look up quark cheese (again, i'd forgotten already): now I think of a little like what I call cottage cheese. And I had to look up chicory.

Wait til I introduce spelt semolina!
My mom is an excellent cook, and loves to play with variety of flavours and ingredients - my New Year's resolution is to emulate her and be more creative with my meals. I guess I'm doing fine...
I had my three meals plus dessert as planned, with two exceptions: small cup of milk between lunch and dinner, and 2 crepes instead of 4, because they were so unexpectedly yummy! My plate was a bit crowded, but all fit nicely, with proper edges showing.

Love quark and don't much like cottage cheese -- both texture and flavor of quark are different, like one big, creamy curd that has a denser texture than yoghurt. In fact the closest thing to it in the US is to drain off liquid from yoghurt overnight, leaving a kind of cheese. I miss quark!

I could eat quark for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. One of my favourite foods ever. When I lived in Wales I missed it more than my family, I think. If you can lay your hands on some good-quality quark cheese, you can make a divine cheesecake with it, dense and heavy.
Update: two pralines in the evening, but I was totally okay with that. It's one of the things that is so incredibly counterintuitive, but works: giving yourself permission to "break the (self-imposed) rules" eliminates WTH effect.
Except for Monday, it's been a binge-free, rather serene week. I was not stressing over food too much. Most of the time I ate three meals a day, but if I really wanted something in between, I had it, and moved on. May not be ideal behaviour weight-wise, but it surely calms the mind.
Weigh-in tomorrow! I need to keep in mind that I haven't exercised as much as I used to in the past two weeks.

Imogen, it seems to me that if your mind is calm, that is ideal for weight management. There's a reason 'mark it and move on' is so popular around here for dealing with unplanned eating.

Day 2

B: rye flour crepe with a tablespoon of homemade cherry preserves, glass of rice milk, quark/avocado, slice of bread with butter
L (will be): fried turkey liver, carrot salad, potato, pain au chocolat for dessert
D (will be): a moderate portion of homemade pizza, orange

Weigh-in: 52.4. 0.3 kg lost - exactly as my calculations had predicted. Who says that "a calorie is not a calorie?".
I ate a bit more than I'd planned yesterday - after a particularly vigorous walk I was desperate for carbs, so I had a handful of spelt biscuits, bread with liver pate, and a spoonful of organic "nutella" with my supper. No freggies *sigh*

Day 3
B: honey/shoyu glazed drumstick, 1/2 bread roll, a slice of poppyseed roll
early D (having guests): cream of leek soup, 2 cabbage rolls in tomato sauce, another slice of poppyseed roll, a piece of orange yoghurt cake, 1/2 bowl of homemade strawberry sorbet

I'll most probably skip lunch, and get a cup of milky chai tea in place of supper. I woke up so late that having three full meals would be too much.

Seems like a pretty tame weekend so far. Enjoy the rest of your day!

Linda

I'm not even sure I'm taking proper S-days anymore...
I've been able to eat pretty sanely throughout the last week - seems like forgiveness for breaking the rules, and calorie counting as my additional safety net can work, at least short-term. I try to eat three meals per day, and if they do include sweets, so be it.

B: savoury French toast, cherry tomatoes, almonds
L: pasta/broccoli/chicken salad, pear, 2 pralines
D (will be): 1 cabbage roll in tomato sauce, baked apple with cinnamon

I binged yesterday... right after I'd thought of going back to vanilla. So naturally I had to get rid of everything sweet I had at home, preferably by eating it all. How pathetic.
Maybe vanilla means moderation to some people, but it definitely does not in my case. I'm going to just stick to three meals most of the time, and have dessert if I want it, as long as it fits into my calorie budget and doesn't deprive me of important nutrients. I eat about a pound of freggies every single day, lots of whole grains, some nuts, fish or dairy, I exercise and walk a lot, with BMI 21 - so I consider my diet and lifestyle pretty healthy. I can't see why I should restrict dessert if I want one.

Imogen,
I like the way you sound! Confident and proud of yourself! You go, girl!

Imogen, as per our usual, I'm right on par with what you're thinking. I can't tell you how much success I've had compared to usual when adopting this mentality. It's precisely what I do and find my sanity and calmness increases a HUGE amount when I do the same thing day in, day out. 3 meals is all that really matters (providing you have a good ability to regulate healthy foods and sweets. I just need a taste usually). Hoping this works for you too!

Thanks for the encouragement, girls! Sinnie, yes, I know that just a bit of something I crave is satisfying enough, as long as I taste it mindfully and slowly.
I sometimes feel like the weirdo here, but different strokes for different folks, right? I firmly believe that NoS is the most sensible eating habit one can hope to have, it just sometimes requires further customization - but not so much that it morphs into something else entirely. No snacking and no seconds is absolutely crucial to me.
To sum it all up, I have three safety nets prepared: 1) three meals, no snacks, no seconds, 2) small bites of dessert if I want it, eaten slowly and mindfully 3) basic calorie counting with 1800 as my daily allotment. If one of these fails, I have the other system to minimize the damage.

"I had to get rid of everything sweet I had at home, preferably by eating it all. How pathetic."

I did exactly the same thing on New Year's Day, Imogen -- LOL, I thought I was showing foresight, getting it out of the house before the N week started!
As for your mod, when I have been at this successfully as long as you have and have reached a healthy BMI, I will feel entitled to tinker with mods as much as I please! Go for it!

The way I see it, the first 3 years on No S were about "deprivation", and only now I'm starting to get the concept of "moderation". Let me explain.
Deprivation doesn't have to be such a bad thing. It's omnipresent in adult life, right? After all, we deprive ourselves of some things because we would rather have the benefits we get as a result (going to work vs. sleeping all morning, staying in a committed relationship vs. shopping around, keeping our mouth shut vs. giving in to a flash of anger etc.). During my first 2, maybe 3 years of NoS, when I was overweight and constantly overeating, vanilla NoS and subsequent deprivation was essential - I couldn't have reached my goals otherwise. But now deprivation sets off massive binges. There's no reason why I should refuse a heavenly treat now (well, I can only leave it till later!), for the reasons stated in my previous post. And because, subconsciously, I know I can afford my dessert (or even two), I become resentful, I rebel, and eventually binge on vanilla. Weekday deprivation is no longer essential to my well-being.
My naturally slim coworker always says she has everything she wants, whenever she wants, because she believes stress of deprivation is far more dangerous for physical and mental health than sugar. Most of the time she doesn't snack (she's a Francophile *nudge*), eats three meals a day, but when something is calling her name, she has a little, but just a little - less than she thinks she really wants. And voila, she's been at the same healthy weight for the last 20 years.
Case study: I really, really wanted to taste my favourite chocolate today, even though I had a big dessert with my lunch earlier. I was afraid I was going to binge on it, and besides, it was two hours after dinner, so - snacking! But I gathered my courage, mindlessly devoured two squares, then decided to do it properly, and slowly, mindfully, tasted two more. I was absolutely satisfied. I still am.

You have really developed a way of eating over the past few years that is beginning to seem "right" and "reasonable" for you long-term. My husband is always really good at trusting his gut, and it sounds like that is what you are doing in finding some patterns you can maintain over many years. I think it's quite neat to be able to peek at how NoS evolves over the years. Someday I'll be a veteran NoSer like you, and who knows how well I'll know my mind and body by then?

Onward, Moderation Solidiers!

You are definitely healthy Imogen. You eat well, you exercise and you're at a healthy weight so I wouldn't worry about that regarding sweets. Just find what is going to bring you the greatest peace of mind and that is sustainable.

I knew I couldn't stick to nos without my daily mocha so I allowed them. There's no point in doing something I cant stick to long term. We've all been down that road right? And I can tell you right now if sweets were a must-have for me, I'd find a way to include them too. I'd probably do it in a way that I could contain them so I didn't have to overthink it to much. Like maybe as long as they fit on my plate with my meal, or 2 small dessert plates a day. Something simple, sustainable.... So whatever that looks like for you is where I'd aim.

Anyway keep tweaking till you find that perfect Imogen formula!

Linda

Thanks for that retrospective, Imogen -- the kind of development you describe is really what we all should be aiming for, a sane, moderate individual way of eating. You are maintaining your weight and not being ruled by food, either through excess or deprivation. What more could one ask for?

Great points, Linda and jw. I think both of your points could find their way into people's signatures! Such as, "there's no point in doing something I can't make long-term"; and "Maintaining weight without deprivation or excess"

I agree with Linda that if sweets were a super big deal to me, I would most likely have found a way to keep them in my weekdays, too! Reinhard found a system that works for him, and I think he would be right up there with the rest of us supporting others in finding a system that works for them! I like having wine, not just on weekends, and I love having good milky coffee. Luckily both of those fit in the NoS diet without modification. But if they didn't? Well, I might have either never started, or I would have tweaked it to be able to have them!

I was just thinking on my walk home yesterday that it's nice that both of my "food" pleasures are actually beverages, so I can indulge whenever I want without having to justify myself.

So, Imogen, can you tell we think you're awesome?

Well, thank you!
Anyway, since the Tuesday binge I've been eating pretty sanely: three meals as a default, but I'm not beating myself up for tiny snacks or sweets that I have from time to time. I've noticed that having just a tiny portion of something I crave, and eating it slowly and mindfully, is enough to keep binging at bay. I wouldn't have guessed that just a square of chocolate or 3 pretzels can be so immensely satisfying if you give give yourself time and attention to savour them.

Yeah. And I binged again. There goes my awesomeness.
Will anything work for me long-term? Vanilla leads to binging. Calorie counting leads to binging. I'm so ashamed of myself, but then, it's not the most productive feeling in the world.
EDIT: trying to pick myself up - just talked to P. My fiance is so wonderful, kind, and supportive. Things we figured out this evening:
- clear-cut rules are a must
- if Eddie Izzard, whom I adore for his iron will and superb intelligence, was able to run 43 marathons in 51 days, I can keep up with the vanilla NoS
- picking myself up, trying, and hoping is the most important of all
- so is daily check-in
- calorie counting works short-term: knowing that I have some calories left over makes me want to snack (and I often do)
- must work on tasty meals - nutrition is important, but occasional junk on N-days is okay, too
- hot (and sweet, if necessary) beverages can save the day

Rules for S-days:
- desserts after meals, must fit on a dessert plate with some edges showing
- don't bring any S-es before the actual S-day
- only one S at a time
- take just enough money to buy the one chosen thing
- no seconds of dessert
- if something sweet is left over, bring it to work, give it to the family or flush it in the toilet

Imogen, you are lucky to have a fiance that had that kind of a supportive talk with you about this stuff! Cool guy.

As I read through your check-in, I found myself agreeing with/already abiding by most of your list. Clear cut rules--essential; reds on vanilla mean mark it and move on (not a different diet); check-in is fun and motivating; eat whatever I want on N Days as long as it fits on a plate and isn't a snack; milky coffees are a perfect solution when craving snacks; don't buy desserts on N days (to theoretically "save" til the weekend); give things away or toss them when S days are over.

I had one question for you: I have seen you go through a lot of angst while applying the NoS diet to your life (just in my short time on the boards). Have you always struggled this much emotionally about NoS? Or is this a newer thing? I only ask because I feel empathy for the amount of energy and sadness that moderating food has brought to your life. I wish for you to have a greater sense of peace about your diet someday!

Drama Queen, you say?
Truth be told, I'd been perfectly happy with NoS until I started meddling with calorie counting as an addition to vanilla. That's the point when angst entered the picture. To put it simply, I'm fixated on the number on a scale (reaching the mythical 50 kg that I once weighed), suffering from diet-head. I know I should focus on forming sustainable habits once again, and stop obsessing about weight, because I'm already thin. Not as thin as my peers, mind you - you wouldn't believe how skinny young women in Poland are! - but I have curves in all the right places. And that should be "good enough". But it isn't. So in addition to doubling my NoS efforts, I need to work on my mindset. And stop counting calories!

B: scrambled egg, butter, slice of bread, broccoli, orange (I'm trying to eat less animal protein for health reasons)
L: 9 pierogis with green lentils and caramelized onion, pear, 1/2 French cruller (fit on a dessert plate)
D (will be): homemade pizza, 1/2 French cruller, vanilla praline

I am right there with you -- calorie counting, for me, ruins No S and ruins my day. The whole point is to live moderately so I can get on with my life and not think about my body and food, and calorie counting wrecked that in the first hour!

Vanilla is accepting the peace of gratitude for what IS rather than the phantom of what could be. Paradoxically, it's the only way to ever really permanently get to "what could be" (for me anyway).

Thanks for your posts, and congrats on your wonderful success. I hope the phantom of losing one more kg won't keep luring you off the path.

finallyfull wrote:
Vanilla is accepting the peace of gratitude for what IS rather than the phantom of what could be.

Mind if I steal that quote for my sig? I LOVE IT!

Imogen, I once had a job where we didn't have sick days. If we were sick, we stayed home with pay, but there was no set number of days in the employee manual, as there usually is in most US jobs. They had found that if they allotted, say, 14 paid sick days per year, every employee took every sick day that they felt they were entitled to. With no fixed number, people tended to just come to work unless they really were sick.

I think that's what you are doing with calories! you are taking every calorie you are entitled to and that's what makes Vanilla so difficult. I'll bet you could just eyeball the calorie amounts of each meal with no difficulty to make sure you weren't overdoing things -- and if you didn't have a goal number of calories in mind, the thought of getting in a snack or a treat wouldn't nag at you or get you started on a binge. Just a thought.

And PS, your guy sounds awesome!

jw, that sounds like a pretty cool work environment that you were at! I like that.

Imogen, thanks for expanding on the calorie-counting and vanilla. The feedback from finallyfull and jw was wise and interesting, too.

S-day (a moderate one!)

- 3 plates of food, not exactly overfilled, but probably still big for someone as tiny as I am.
- No snacking.
- S-es: French cruller, vanilla praline.
- No calorie counting, though it was soooo tempting! I figured I could count Saturday meals tomorrow.
- All my self-imposed rules (more elegantly and scientifically called "precommitment devices") worked well.

S-day!

B: fish/root vegetables stew, slice of spelt bread, banana
on my after-breakfast dessert plate: nougat praline
early D: cucumber soup, pork chops with sage and ham, potatoes, two kinds of salad
on my after-dinner dessert plate: 2,5 small pieces of London-style cheesecake, and (virtual plated) homemade strawberry sorbet, coconut praline

I'm still tempted to count calories, but successfully resisting. No supper tonight, because I'm too full. And I didn't snack! Woohoo!
I've decided to make store-bought yoghurt cups an S - almost 5 teaspoons of sugar in one serving, can you believe it?! That's most certainly dessert! So I'm saving my favourite Greek yoghurt (raspberry tart flavour) for Saturday.

Your meals always sound so appealing, Imogen! What is London-style cheesecake? I know German style with quark and US style with Philadelphia--

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/lon ... secake-147

The best ever.

B: fish/root veggie stew, slice of bread, orange
L: 6 pierogis with green lentils and caramelized onion, pear
D: cucumber soup, pork chop, potatoes, salad, apple, slice of homemade pork ham (oof, that was a lot! and not exactly on one plate...)




My jeans are getting a little looser already - I've probably lost some water weight I must have been carrying around for quite a while. It's a nice change after so many Mondays when I was waking up bloated.

My goodness, Imogen, are you a chef and haven't told us? You eat the most luscious-sounding foods.

Haha! More like an amateur cook. But if something does sound good to you, I'll be more than happy to post a recipe.

I'd rather just hire you to cook it for me! I am kitchen-phobic.

B: 1/2 cup cottage cheese, handful of cherry tomatoes, small apple, bread/butter, semolina/homemade cherry preserves (in a ramekin)
L: 1/2 round of camembert, 1/2 bread roll, 1/2 red pepper, orange
D: 2 homemade hot dogs, tuna salad

I was tasting my food for seasonig way too often - snacking! But otherwise, I had three square meals, with lots of different teas in between.

Woke up with a sore throat I could barely swallow my food this morning. I'm feeling a little bit better already, but I guess full recovery is going to take two or three days... well, unless it morphs into some full-blown strep throat or something. Working on stopping the infection in its tracks.

B: rice/milk/sprinkle of sugar, homemade hot dog bun with ham and cheese, pear (no vegetables...)
L: 1/2 camembert round, 1/2 red pepper, apple, 1/2 bread roll, 10 pretzel sticks
more pretzel sticks
D (will be): wholewheat pasta with quark cheese/butter/sugar (no vegetables...)
pasta, peanut butter, two squares of chocolate, and more nibbles of different stuff here and there...

Fail today. I'm coming down with a cold, and I clearly needed more food this time. Sipping hot milk with turmeric, cloves, peppercorns, honey, and ginger as I type.
Goal for tomorrow: more vegetables, spices, and immunity-boosting foods.

I put those spices in tea for a cold, Imogen -- and my sister drinks turmeric tea every day. She picked up a case of MRSA in the hospital a few years ago and turmeric is the only thing that keeps it under control! Hope you can head off your cold.

Still not doing well. I'm thinking of skipping my Spanish class in the evening, staying home, and curling up with a book.

B: 1/2 cup cottage cheese, T sunflower seeds, handful of cherry tomatoes, chopped parsley, lots of pepper and paprika, graham roll, pear, some green beans, ginger/lemon/honey tea
L: wholegrain roll with liver pate, red pepper, mandarin orange, pretzels, cafe au lait
D: barley, red cabbage salad, turkey patty in onion sauce, plus extra portion of barley with onion, garlic, and spices

S-day. It turns out I do have slight fever, so it's most probably some garden-variety cold. I'm going to call in sick tomorrow. Had an extra helping of barley with spices with my dinner.

I hope you get better soon!

Hope you feel better fast too!!

Linda

Thank you, ladies. I'm doing whatever I can to recover fast! Just had another cup of turmeric milk. I'm not a fan of taking OTC meds unless my fever goes way up. We'll see how that goes. I'm a bit sad that I won't be able to lay my itching hands on some supposedly amazing, artisan sweets I had in mind for the whole week Next weekend, then.

Behold the power of vanilla and sane S-days! 2 pounds down since last Friday! Current weigh-in is therefore 51,5 kg/113 lbs.

B(runch, I woke up very late): 2 savory French toasts, cherry tomatoes, apple
chocolate, pralines, halva etc. - not in industrial quantities, but fail is fail
D (will be): spicy pumpkin soup, green beans with garlic breadcrumbs, potatoes, fried egg, pear
lots of other things

Fail today. Big, big fail. I believe boredom and relatively light breakfast were to blame.
Goal for tomorrow: getting the usual big breakfast rich in protein. Full-force vanilla with moderate and contained indulgences after meals.

S-day

B: bowl of plain porridge, handful of almonds, orange
dessert: one small piece of peanut-cocoa brownie
cafe au lait with cardamom and cinnamon
L: herbed potato soup, white buckwheat, turkey patty in onion sauce, sweet&sour red cabbage salad
dessert: another piece of peanut-cocoa brownie

Then things went awry, and I had huge, three-course supper plus dessert. Why? First, carb-rich breakfast. I'm fine with carbs for lunch or dinner, but breakfast just HAS to be protein- and fat-based. Another mistake? Not filling my plates with enough food. I subconsciously wanted to overcompensate for yesterday, I suppose, and kept my portions today way too small... which backfired later in the day. That was a totally unsatisfactory S-day
So, for tomorrow: big breakfast with enough protein, and moderate portions for dinner/supper.

Imogen, I'm starting to see what you mean about meals with protein. Yesterday I had toast for breakfast instead of my high-fat, high-protein Greek yogurt, and I was ravenous by lunchtime.

S-day

I had decent, protein-rich breakfast (+dessert), two-course dinner (+dessert), and vegan supper (surprisingly yummy millet/caramelized apple/peanut butter combo). At some point I did sneak a snack - 4 squares of chocolate. Not terrible, but far from ideal.
For the longest time I've been trying to be "good" on S-days, skipping supper whenever I was having two course dinner - so basically, eating just two meals on weekend days. I don't know if it was just diethead... really, after soup and main course followed by dessert (all around 3 PM) I'm not hungry until bedtime. And today I wanted to "violate" that "rule", because I'd had an amazing recipe in mind, and wanted to try it out right away. I realized it made me feel guilty, as in "you're not supposed to eat that, you're not even remotely hungry!". But hey, it's "three meals a day", not "eat only when hungry"!
I'm not happy about that binge yesterday, but at least I know what might have provoked it. And today was pretty tame. Still, I'm looking forward to N-days. On Tuesday I'll probably be invited to a family celebration which surely will include very special, once-a-year food. My plan is to treat that celebratory meal as S-event, and have my dessert plate afterwards, otherwise stick with N rules for the rest of the day.

I wanted to snack in the evening, but managed to stifle the urge with a cup of hot cocoa made with milk and heavy cream (it's not about calories, but habit, right?). I actually prefer that concoction to real hot chocolate made with ganache. Need to remember the impromptu recipe for future reference: 2 t unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 t sugar, pinch of salt, mix with 1/2 cup of hot water, top up with milk or milk/cream.

Doesn't that really do the trick!!!

Great job Imogen!!!

Red already... I had homemade mini doughnut with breakfast, instead of having it as an S-event after celebratory dinner tonight. I'll do my best to keep the rest of the day green, and have that damn doughnut at proper time.
EDIT: Reddest red. Ugh.

I am sorry I don't feel TOO sorry for you, Imogen. If I had all that delicious food around that you make (and homemade donuts, to boot!!!!!) I would never stop eating.
Seriously, though, hope tomorrow goes better for you. With NoS success is just a meal away!

Three meals: 2 moderate, 1 big. Lots of tea in between. I was so terribly tempted by leftover halva my boss brought from Turkey, but resisted somehow. I'm not yet immune to the WTH effect, and one bite is one bite too much.

Yay--you're doing wonderfully!!

Protein-rich breakfast which kept me full until noon, followed by a quite too big lunch (I wasn't hungry for dinner), and then dinner - soup in a bowl, and half a plate of fried rice with vegetables.
Thinking of decreasing the size of my lunches a bit. I eat dinner right after I get back from work, at around 4-4:30, so VERY early. I never get properly hungry. Eating late dinners is not practical in my case, so I'd rather eat less at work - perhaps I'll skip fruit and add it to my dinner plate.

Two green smilies in a row -- yay! I have also started leaving fruit for the evening. Lunch is filling and dinner, like yours, relatively early (5-ish) -- it's a good strategy, I think.

When I'm working I am in the exact same position. I tend to eat very early, but I am sorta used to it because growing up we ate right after school. Maybe a little weird to some. It was really hard to get used to eating later at night for me but now I'm at a point I can eat early or late and it's generally not a problem! However, as you said, the main issue is not feeling hunger too early...

Yay, another green day! I followed my own advice, and had very modest lunch (leftover rice with vegetables). Normally I'd have added fruit and nuts. I got a little hungry at around 3, and OH MY dinner at 4:30 tasted sooo good!

Yay--Imogen you're really doing well!

S-day!

Not quite a good day... I had carb-heavy breakfast - always a bad idea! Been permasnacking all afternoon. Nothing sweet sounded good to me (unheard of!), but I had my fair share of snack foods, like saltines with peanut butter, and lots of other bits and nibbles Porridge, I really love you so, but you always do strange things to me...
No S has taught me that old saying about having breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper is absolutely true, though composition of those meals is even more important. It programs my appetite for the entire day, I've observed. If I have a decent portion of protein (eggs, meat, fish, cheeses etc.), vegetables, fruit, some fat, and only a small serving of carbs (like a slice of bread), I feel fantastic all morning, and food-related thoughts never cross my mind. But give me my beloved porridge with strawberries and almonds... oops! I can't stop eating until it's actually bedtime. And then I toss and turn instead of sleeping, because my body is not happy digesting anything solid after 5 pm...
Well, I expect to feel terribly bloated, sleepy, and miserable tomorrow. And I didn't even eat anything really good today!

Hey, I have an idea!
Have your porridge for lunch or dinner!! A perfect way to "have your cake (read porridge) and eat it too! (just not for breakfast)"

Yeah, I do actually eat it for dinner or lunch sometimes. I've been known to eat soup or dinner leftovers for breakfast as well. I don't get the whole "breakfast foods" concept. But in winter, a bowl of piping hot porridge with peanut butter and banana before I leave for work is my idea of heaven. It just doesn't love me back... before noon at least.

This might be a little gross, but I have heard of people that mix an egg into their porridge to add protein.

I've tried that too. Eggs give porridge nice, custardy texture, but I didn't notice any improvement in satiety. It seems that carb-protein ratio in that concoction is still off.
I'm going to use different traffic light system: for success, for fails, and for near misses/minor offences. Yeah, that means S-days can be failures. I think that's more motivating for me, and more habit-friendly.
Feeling sluggish, bloated, and heavy today. I've already taken an hour long walk, and plan to do a 3 mile workout in the afternoon to flush all that excess water out of my system.

Near miss today - I had a sweet snack in the afternoon. Two big meals, one followed by (plated) dessert. I'm starting to pay more attention to portion sizes, and trying to fill half of my plate with vegetables/fruit, no matter what I eat. With mixed dishes like pasta, fried rice etc. I usually get a cup, and it's surprisingly satisfying. Somebody here has said that accepting how little your body needs is difficult... well, exactly.
Yesterday my scale showed 52.7 - absolutely impossible, so I assume it's water/waste weight. It's a bit discouraging, though - without an accurate measure of progress (or lack of it), I feel less motivated for the upcoming week.

Near miss already.

B: 1/2 plate hunter's stew, orange, slice of homemade poppyseed-buckwheat bread (unbelievably tasty!)
cafe au lait
L: meat-stuffed and breaded crepe, braised beetroot salad, mango chunks, mini sweet bun with pudding filling
D (will be): beef broth/pasta, meat-stuffed and breaded crepe, salad

Near miss again, and just right at breakfast...

B: meat-stuffed and breaded crepe, orange, green beans, small bowl of homemade chocolate pudding
L (will be): 2 open faced sandwiches (egg, salami), cherry tomatoes
D (will be): 1/2 plate hunter's stew, slice of bread, apple
... and various other things/borderline binge


Full frontal fail... again. Can't even understand why.

I think I'm not doing well when I treat NoS as just another diet, with hard rules that I "cannot, should not" break. When they become guidelines, it gets a bit easier, and seems to be eliminating WTH effect (well, most of the time) - as there are no rules to rebel against then.

B: grilled mozzarella sandwich, cherry tomatoes, orange
L: 10 pretzel sticks, 1/2 round of camembert, 1/2 graham roll, red pepper, 12 almonds
D: split pea soup, 3 slices of pan-fried baguette with lots of garlic butter

Hi, Imogen. Love all your healthy, yummy eats. You can sure make food sound good.

Re: your fail, overall, you eat great. A red day here and there is not really any big deal, in the overall scheme of things.

Hm. There's a subtle difference, you know: I can live with pleasurable fails - like seconds of something especially yummy at a party, snacking on heavenly cheesecake that my boss brought specifically for me (yes, it does happen!), or having an impromptu ice cream date with a friend. But I don't want stupid fails. And yesterday was all about stupidity.
I had a very, very intense craving - white chocolate Lindor pralines, my absolute favourites. I resisted, but in result, ended up eating a lot of things after dinner, including truffle chocolate I normally hate, and some weird "subtitutes" - Greek yogurt with cherry preserves, for example. I would have been better off having the damn pralines as dessert after dinner.

Well said Imogen and a brilliant lesson for all of us! Sometimes a little bit of the right thing is better than a lot of the wrong thing.

"When they become guidelines, it gets a bit easier, and seems to be eliminating WTH effect (well, most of the time) - as there are no rules to rebel against then."

I think this is absolutely true! The pressure of rules invites rebellion; with guidelines we learn discretion. Love this insight!

B: hard boiled egg, plain porridge in a small ramekin, slice of sourdough bread, root vegetable salad (surprisingly, all fit on my standard 10-inch plate)
cafe au lait
L: almonds, red pepper, 1/2 graham roll, 1/2 camembert round, apple
D: split pea soup, 1/2 plate barley with mushroom sauce, piece of halva&two soft caramels on my dessert plate

I've taken Friday after work as S-afternoon. Had a handful of caramels, and one humongous dinner plate. Oof, I'm feeling way too full!
I'm going to my nephew's birthday party tomorrow, and I just KNOW they'll serve cheesecake.

B: 1/2 plate buttered and steamed mixed vegetables (onions, red&green pepper, potatoes, carrot, green beans, broccoli, corn etc.), 2 scrambled eggs on ghee, big red apple
L: about 1/4 of fried trout, mashed potatoes, sweet carrot/apple salad (not my favourite), 8 sections of milk chocolate

Besides Reinahard-approved "no solitary snacking" mod I've applied absolutely no common sense to my eating this weekend. There was a lot of sweets, sure, but not to the verge of stomachache. Or bingeing.
I won't have much time this week, so my updates will have to be brief. My mantras for the upcoming 5 days: "your tomorrow will be just like today" (reminding me that past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour) and "take care of N-days so that S-days can take care of themselves".

Good luck with your upcoming busy week, Imogen.

Success!

Thanks a lot, automated.
Been doing fine today - experimenting with eating more low GI foods. It seems that cooked porridge makes me ravenous, but "overnight oats" don't have the same effect on me.

Success. Extremely hectic day, and I had to eat out.

It's always a relief when NoS sees us through a hectic day! Good job Imogen! Hope the rest of your crazy week goes OK, too.

Here's to No S - the most sustainable eating habit ever!
EDIT: Very tense day at work. I munched on various snacks, and the trend continued well into the evening. Little transgression morphed into a classic case of WTH effect.
Stupid fail/binge.

Following advice of Tierney/Baumeister from their book about willpower I've started weighing myself every morning before breakfast. Conventional wisdom suggests that daily weighings are excessive, but research has shown that they are actually quite effective. The more you monitor yourself, the better you’ll control yourself. We'll see. I think posting my meals here has also been helpful.
53.6 this morning after a massive binge yesterday.
B: 2 scrambled eggs on butter, broccoli, orange, 1/2 buttered graham roll
L: 100 g homemade smoked fish/rice/vegetable pate, 1/2 graham roll, red pepper, apple
mug of milky, sweetened rooibos (feeling SNACKY!)
D (will be): a bowl of tomato/bean soup, graham roll

Hi Imogen, I weigh myself daily and find it helpful but I never ever let the scale ruin a day for me. So as long as you stick to that it's beneficial.

ditto what eschano said. Except I don't always weigh myself every day. But it only takes a second, so most days I do. Half the time I forget the number before the day is over and it's time to update my check-in. I guess I'm not totally rocked one way or the other with what the scale says. On the other hand, my experience is that my weight only fluctuates a couple of pounds up and down, so I generally don't have big surprises when I weigh myself.

Interesting: when I was feeling snacky/anxious this afternoon I tried the thought diffusion technique I had been reading about in various studies about mindfulness. It's supposed to help curb cravings and teach you that discomfort is tolerable. I excused myself, went to the bathroom, and started scanning my body, describing to myself all the feelings, sensations, and thoughts passing through my body and mind. After a minute or so my craving lessened considerably, and it did not return later.
The upcoming two weeks are going to be difficult - they've given me a big, big project to work on, deadline is the last day of February, though hurry "is very much welcome", so I'm going to put in a lot of extra hours, including weekends. It will either make or break my career. I'm feeling extremely apprehensive, and not even the tiniest bit excited, isn't that weird? Any temptations I run into will be even more tempting than usual. Ugh. I have to remember about self-care!

Sometimes when the stress/pressure to perform is so high, it really turns off our natural excitement. Bummer that so much is riding on this project. Good luck getting it done...and getting some rest during the process.

I totally understand anxiety rather than excitement -- they are pretty closely related, at least they cause the same reactions in the stomach! You are such a focused person, Imogen -- I know all will be well. Stock up on rooibos, convince yourself that it is the answer to every anxious urge, and zoom in on your assignment. Best wishes!!!

Sorry about the extra stress Imogen!! It may be an important part of your career but in no way does it effect your worth as a human being. You are wonderful no matter what.

*hugs* & be gentle with yourself.

Linda

52.9 - half a kilo lost overnight. Weighing daily really puts things in perspective.
It's barely 3 PM, and I'm already tired. But I've done so much progress in the last few hours that I can relax for the rest of the day.
I'm still considering getting back to my "x pre-scheduled desserts per week" mod, perhaps only until the end of February. It worked fine - eliminated the feeling of deprivation and binges, brought back weekday excitement etc. But at some point I thought "well, that can't be healthy! Dessert on Wed, Fri, and Sun, sometimes also on Sat? That's too much!". So I went back to vanilla (completely ignoring the fact that the amount of sweet treats I consumed after I had introduced the mod remained the same as on vanilla No S or even decreased slightly), and have been struggling with binges ever since. It was a nice middle ground between vanilla and "intuitive", "mindful" eating - I could have a moderate portion of biscuits, for example, not tiny (1 meager biscuit - IE) and not huge (the entire sleeve - vanilla), and easily put away the rest to enjoy in two or three days time. Two or three days is doable, while five makes me feel panicky...

I hope that was a typo

Otherwise: from what I know about you from the boards- I completely believe in you when it comes to the project - you'll be able to handle it and do NoS mostly. You can do it!

Thank you VERY much for support! I wish I were half as nice and active in the check-in board as you are *hangs her head in shame*
I have my heart set on vanilla + no solitary snacking on S days. Plain and simple. Perhaps having a sweet bread roll as my Wednesday lunch would eliminate deprivation-induced binges? I absolutely adore poppyseed rolls or quark rolls with streusel, mmm.
But seriously, why it all has become so freakin' difficult?! It seems like I need to start right from beginning, establish firm No S habit once again. ALL OVER AGAIN. Dammit. I've done that to myself. Almost 4 years of hard work wasted.

S-day

52.9 - and I binged yesterday

Small breakfast followed by several portions of dessert. And snacking on butter biscuits. Way too much. One of my most enjoyable weekends last summer did involve some restraint - I wasn't taking seconds of dessert, so had only one piece of cake, one biscuit etc. after meals. As I wrote here before, why do I complain so much about deprivation when it's actually ubiquitous in my everyday life, and I accept the discipline in exchange for the benefits it brings?
I've stopped paying attention to my portions, and it shows. At some point I developed "intelligent dietary defaults" - not dishes, but portions. I knew what I could put on my plate to feel satiated without overdoing, and the process was completely automatic: 2 crepes, 1 cup of fried rice, palm-sized portion of fish, and so on. With my height and weight a couple of extra bites here and there quickly adds up... so I'm better off staying vigilant.
I want to get committed to strictness and vanilla in the upcoming week. Absolutely no exceptions. Biggest failures always start when I allow myself a bite of something sweet at work. The thing is, it's really a huge faux pas here if you refuse taking a piece of cake that is offered to you. So if my boss gives me another macaroon or whatever (and he always brings in the most delicious, expensive things from tiny artisan bakeries), I'm going to smile, take it, wait a bit, and either dispose of it or give it to someone else.

Go, Imogen! Sometimes disposing of sweets that were given to us feels as hard as it was for Bilbo to give up the Ring at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring.

I'm quite happy with my eating today. I went to a party, and did not pig out, but had a sample of everything that was served, including two types of dessert. My "intelligent dietary defaults" were constantly at the back of my mind. Yeah, I overate, but as long as I felt in control, I was happy.
I'm making slooooow progress on my project. Too slow. It makes me anxious, so I expect a lot of difficult moments in the upcoming week. Just in case, I've made a special "No S" folder in my Evernote notebook, and put there catchphrases, a list of S-worthy treats and defaults, reasons why I'm doing it etc.
Weighing daily is actually pretty beneficial. It allows me to discern weight loss/gain patterns, and makes it clear how different foods affect my body. And even 100g down is a great motivator.

Weighing daily is kind of a fun habit for me, too, Imogen. And rather than ruin my day, I have become used to my normal fluctuations, so a pound or two difference doesn't alarm me. I've also learned what kinds of foods cause me to retain water.

I TOTALLY get you with the slow project. I am also working on a big project that I need to finish by the end of the month. Ugh. Some days I spend so many hours and have very little to show for it.

Good luck! I know you'll do great. You seem so organized, so on top of things, I'm sure your employer is extremely lucky to have you.

53.3

Awww, you're always so nice! Thanks!
I'm done for today - no more work after 7 pm. I had one plate of food for breakfast followed by dessert (party leftovers), and then two course dinner: soup and smallish main course, plus more dessert. Some OJ and cafe au lait between meals. I squeezed in my 2 mile workout and also took an hour long walk. Now I'm just going to prepare lunch and clothes for tomorrow, take a shower, and go to bed ridiculously early, and read a bit before falling asleep.

Hey Imogen, what is the 2 mile workout you do? Please share!

That's Leslie Sansone "Start Walking At Home" 2 mile workout video. It's super convenient! You can find it on youtube (not sure about posting links to similar stuff here...) along with 1 and 3 mile videos. I've been doing them almost every day for the last 2 years. Never got bored of the endorphine kick they provide.
Thinking of adding 14 minutes of anything (= strength training) before work. Nothing fancy, no equipment. We'll see how that goes.

Imogen Morley wrote:Almost 4 years of hard work wasted.

Hi Imogen, seems to me like you did really well this weekend so nothing wasted here and: it's like learning to ride a bike. Your body will be faster in adapting again, promise, that doesn't mean that if you re-start riding a bike after years you won't fall down, just less than if you never new how to do it in the first place (speaking from my skiing experience here).

Doing well! Keep it up!