Everyday Systems

Hello,

I've decided to start a check-in thread. I love No S and I completely believe that moderation and habit forming is the way. I've been doing No S on and off for about six months now. Changing habits is hard and there is a lot to change, so I think a bit of accountability will really help.

I am experimenting with a slightly modified version: I'm going to keep S days to a one S limit, as I've found weekends tricky in the past and I don't want to lose the rhythm.

My goal is a 90 day streak.

Here goes...

Day 1: Success!

Had a good first day. Feeling very motivated. Bit peckish now as had an early dinner, but hopefully it won't interfere with sleep. Gotta stay up to see who wins the Eurovision song contest!

Welcome to the boards. I think you will find a check in really helpful. Everyone is really great & supportive of you. I like your mod & may try something similar.

Linda

Welcome!

Day 2: Success!

Thank you Linda and Eschano for your messages. It's great to have support from the No S community.

Tricky day. Had one of those situations where there's real social pressure to snack - went with a friend for tea and cake and they 'didn't want to eat cake alone!' I was going to cave in but I didn't want to end my streak on day 2, so I stuck to my guns. They understood and it was totally fine. They still had their cake (and ate it)!

Oh well done! Those are the hard ones.

I hate it when friends say that they don't want to eat their "snack/dessert/etc." alone. I'm pretty direct (up to a fault), and once I said in a whole group of friends: "Oh good, it's going to be so good for you all not to have that cake before dinner. Imagine, how much you'll look forward to it." They all ate the cake and never asked me again to chime in

Day 3: Success!

Day 4: Success!

Trying to make an effort to eat without distractions (i.e. in a quiet place without TV, radio, books or internet) and actually pay attention to what I'm doing. I think this will help strengthen the mealtime habit and also make me more attentive to signs of fullness. That's the plan anyway.

Day 5: Success!

I read about bite counting on some No S threads. I tried this once before, with an iPhone app called 'eat slower pro', and found it really good, so I've decided to give it another go. It was nice today eating in this way. It really makes you slow down and you can feel yourself getting fuller. Then the app tells you how many bites per meal. Cool.

Day 6: Success!

Day 7: Success!

Enjoy your weekend!

Day 8: Wedding!

Wasn't sure how to approach this one. There was lots of food scattered throughout the day, and lots of sweets. I probably overate a bit but I did exercise some moderation. Initially I thought about virtual plating everything. In the end I just decided to 'take part' in eating with everyone else, but not have anything 'extra'. I did have more than one sweet (couldn't say no to wedding cake!) so did break my '1 S on S days' rule, but I'm gonna go ahead and call this a 'special' S day and make an exception.

Day 9: Success!

Just the one S today, some yogurt.

Day 10: Success!

Day 11: Success!

Wow, you are doing great. I find the board is be invaluable because I post honestly exactly what I eat and what kind of exercise I do. Everybody is so supportive, no judging.

Welcome.

Day 12: Success!

Thanks for the encouragement Berry! Much appreciated.

Day 13: Success!

Trying to practice mindful eating. I think it's key. It feels quite unnatural, but hopefully it will start to feel normal after a while.

Day 14: Success!

Day 15: Success!

S day today - had one piece of cake with tea, which was lovely

It looks like you're doing great!

Day 16: Success!

Thanks clarinetgal!

Day 17: Success!

Found it hard today. Glass of milk helped.

Congrats on making it through a hard day! Great thinking to have a glass of milk to tide you over until dinner.

Day 18: Success!

Really tough today as been home all day studying for an exam - this is my weakest time for snacking. Also ran out of milk! Hopefully tomorrow will be easier.

Day 18: Sister's birthday!

Called this an S day and had some cake

You done with finals yet?

Day 19: Success!

No not yet unfortunately, another 10 days study to go!

Day 20: Success!

Woohoo!

Excellent work, look at all those "Success!"es! Very motivating for me too

Day 21, here you come!

Day 21: Success!

Had dinner and drinks, so virtual plated starter and mains. Quite a lot of alcohol, but hey that's allowed right. Then had today's 'snack' at 3am. Great night though.

Haha about having the first snack at 3am!
Congrats on 21 days....you're on your way!

Great job!

Day 22: Success!

Thank you for all the lovely comments

Day 23: Success

Day 24: Success

Day 25: Success

Day 26: Success!

Days 27-33: Success!

Days 34-42: Success!

Still good. A bit sloppy around keeping it all on a plate (i.e. dipping in to yogurt pots, nibbling fruit for desert, ordering starters) but I'm gonna allow it.

Will try and get better at making sure I 'eyeball' my meals.

Still no snacking between meals at all. This seems really easy now. I get the odd craving but much less than before when I used to snack regularly. Amazing.

I'm also allowing sweet drinks (e.g. milk, juice, smoothie, mocha, chai, sherry). My sister points out that they may contain more calories than a solid food snack, but I think the fact that they are drinks makes them psychologically different. Also it's hard to draw a line around which drinks are allowed and which aren't, but it's easy to omit all solid foods, so this makes sticking to the rules much easier. I might have a think about whether some drinks constitute a food, or whether the sugar content should be a guide, but I'm happy for now.

Nearly half way to 90 days!

This is cool stuff! Sounds like you are really finding your NoS-groove.

Great job!

Nice attitude! I agree with you on the drinks. They are different. I had a great NoS success years ago with hot chocolate. Many would have considered it an 'S' but for me it was just what I needed to stick to the rules in every other instance, which led to overall success.

Days 43-50: Success!

Thanks everyone for the comments.

I can't quite believe it's still working. I've never felt this in control of my eating. Having a streak totally helps - I have come pretty close a few times to breaking, but it carries me through.

The weight is a little static, but I'm trying to resist the temptation to get into my old habitual 'diet' mentality. Also I haven't been exercising at all, which is a huge missing piece of the puzzle so gonna try and build that back in.

I think the rhythm is the key. It feels really natural, but I know that my old habits are just there below the surface. 50 days is great, but I think it will probably take a year before the neural pathways are really changed.

If I'm honest, I've been a bit lazy about plating up before starting a meal. For example, if I have some yogurt and strawberries for pudding, it's easier to just eat out of the big yogurt pot and nibble the strawberries, but this is not good practice. If I'm eating baguette with soup, it's easier to just tear off what I want. I kid myself into saying this is all just a virtual plate and I'll just leave what I don't want, but I'm sure this means I eat more. Also I'm not practicing 'eyeballing' my portion sizes. Day 50 seems like a good time to introduce a new rule, so here it is:

From day 50 to day 90, I will always plate up everything before starting, if it is possible to do so. Exceptions include: restaurants, liquid food, cereal, and when I don't have a plate. To be honest this applies mainly to evening meals, which is an area where I need to sharpen up.

Another issue are sweet drinks. I just had mocha cooler in Costa. It was 475 calories and contained 56 grams of sugar! I've been putting away a lot of fruit juice, sometimes between meals, or sometimes with meals. It's a tricky area as fruit juice has a lot of vitamins. I think the simplest rule is to just say, 'one sweet drink per day'. It's not a sweet, or a snack, it can be had at any time, and take any form (fruit juice is a better choice than mocha cooler), but must be measured out in a glass.

So it's: No 'solid' snacks, sweets or seconds, except 'once' on days beginning with S, and one sweet drink per day.

I'll let you know how it goes.

I think tightening up on sugary drinks is a good idea (at day 50, as you mentioned). And if it makes you feel any better, fruit juice does NOT have a lot of vitamins! It has Vitamin C, which you can easily take in a tablet form if you'd like more of it in your diet.

And I think your idea to follow the "plate" rule more carefully is also great. It's nice if you can load up your plate, sit at the table with your family, and eat up the whole plate at once!

Days 51-56: Success!

OK, new rule needed. Still trying to keep this as simple as possible, but it has to work for life right?

'It is OK to make an exception if you feel it would cause offence.'

This situation happened this evening for the first time. I went out for a drink with a person I had just met and wanted to make friends with. He bought some warm peanuts to share and put them on the table in front of me. Now I could have said no thanks, but it was clearly a friendly gesture. I would have felt uncomfortable saying no and maybe made him feel uncomfortable. So I made the call and enjoyed the peanuts. Now I know we have to tread this line carefully: the social conventions around snacking is a big problem and a key thing that No S tries to challenge and hopefully change. I think this is a matter of judgement. This has happened once in 56 days so I don't think it's a big risk. I could reset the counter, but ultimately,this diet has to work for life and maybe, for me, it still needs some refining.

So it's: No snacks, sweets or seconds, except once on days beginning with S, and occasionally to avoid offence, and one sweet drink per day.

I came unstuck at 74 days. I think this was related to a routine change, a period of travel and then a period of stress. The S day rules started to go, then it was a bit like a domino effect. No major harm done, though I did have about a week of feeling a little out of control, but it's back to normal now. It's nice to say that, 'back to normal'. The No S diet is starting to feel normal. It's not there yet though. I think I've over complicated things, so I've decided to go back to the original diet. No snacks, sweets or seconds, except on days beginning with S. The only exception I will allow is to avoid causing offence, as I feel this is very rare. I'm going to be rigorous with 'seconds' rule as I think this is important. I will make sure I use the plate where possible. I'll check in from time to time. Day 1 starts tomorrow.

Welcome back, abmindful! I hear you on the travel and getting off schedule. I'm in the same situation with that and am on day 4 back. I have been to much in and out of NoS and on and off the boards, but it really is a great way to eat and I always seem to come back and it helps so much.

Welcome back indeed! It's good to have long vanilla periods between stricter periods and not to go overboard with mods

Inertia. Ok had a wobbly week. Hard to get started after a relapse. Back in tomorrow. Straight No S.

Day 0 of 90.

74 days in a row! What a streak! I haven't made it more than a couple of weeks. You've already done so great, that you know you can do it, and this will be easier than starting the first time. Don't focus on the long term, just focus on getting to the next meal - the only thing you can affect is right now. You can do it!