MsJ's Check In

MsJ · Post by **MsJ** » Sat Oct 04, 2014 8:24 pm

I am a 38 year old wife and mom. I am a full time teacher. I have a super busy schedule. This last year has been extremely stressful. I ate... and ate... and ate anything and everything to deal with the stress. I got on the scale a few days ago and I saw 164.6. I almost cried. How in the world did this happen?

I am hoping a moderate approach will work for me. I would love to see 145 again. I hope that this diet plus exercise will work for me.

MsJ · Post by **MsJ** » Sun Oct 05, 2014 11:16 pm

Tomorrow is my first No S day. Wish me luck.

osoniye · Post by **osoniye** » Mon Oct 06, 2014 7:43 am

MsJ wrote:Tomorrow is my first No S day. Wish me luck.

Good luck, MsJ. I'm rooting for you!

MsJ · Post by **MsJ** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 8:10 am

My first two days were not so great. I would give myself a grade of F-

I am hoping today will be better.

eschano · Post by **eschano** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:02 am

Good luck! You can do it!

MsJ · Post by **MsJ** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 11:54 pm

Today was another fail.

MsJ · Post by **MsJ** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 10:24 pm

I failed again.

I am not doing so well with this. I am going to try a different mental approach. Hoping tomorrow will be better.

eschano · Post by **eschano** » Fri Oct 10, 2014 8:38 am

I am sure you will find a way. It's different things for different people. For some it's the timing of their meals, some don't put enough on their plate so they're hungry all the time, etc. Could be any of those or others.

I greatly recommend hot milky drinks for between meals or as desserts (not too sweet though).

ironchef · Post by **ironchef** » Fri Oct 10, 2014 10:29 am

Hang in there MsJ! We're pulling for you.

r.jean · Post by **r.jean** » Fri Oct 10, 2014 12:26 pm

Hang in there! No S sounds easy, but it is not. It is easy to learn the rules but not so easy to follow them. Hopefully you will settle into the pattern soon and will find the sanity that No S has brought to many of us!

aspencer27 · Post by **aspencer27** » Fri Oct 10, 2014 4:49 pm

MsJ, NoS is way tougher than it seems! Try not to get frustrated. While it seems like all of these fails are such a big deal, in the long run getting to sane eating is much more important and these fails will just be a blip.

Getting into a routine will really help. Also, don't focus on the fails - no big deal, they are over and done with, no changing them now. What you can do right now is to focus on this time in between your meals - no snacking. I find just focusing on small windows really helps me. Even if I fail at one meal, my next opportunity for success is right now. This really helps with not giving in for the rest of the day because I have already screwed up.

Focus on what you are doing well right now. Have you been successful with skipping sweets? Have you been successful with no seconds? Have you been successful with no snacks? I will bet that you are getting something right, and that is a great start!

For me, NoS has allowed me to be kinder to myself. While I am in no way perfect at NoS, I don't really care much about the fails anymore - it's just a metric of my eating habits for that day - not a reflection of who I am. This has really helped me to not binge and give into the WTH effect if I do have a fail.

Check out the most recent success story on the testimonials page - Vicky has been doing this for 6 years, lost 55+ pounds and kept it off - it is really inspiring! The one thing that really stuck out to me is that she hasn't once been successful at NoS for 21 straight days! We don't have to be perfect at this to see results.

Sorry for the novel, but I wanted to let you know that I've been there with the frustration at myself for not being perfect at something immediately. Just keep on trying, and we'll get better - still not perfect, but who cares! Good luck!

MsJ · Post by **MsJ** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 7:20 pm

Thanks for the encouragement!!!

Friday was a failure for me. So, today is an S-Day. I almost feel like it should be a No-S day since I was unable to keep the rules the other days. But then I remembered that there is no need to punish myself. I just need to try again on Monday to get the No-S days right.

MsJ · Post by **MsJ** » Mon Oct 13, 2014 11:54 pm

Finally!! A successful N Day!!!

aspencer27 · Post by **aspencer27** » Tue Oct 14, 2014 12:54 pm

Woo hoo! Great job!

MsJ · Post by **MsJ** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 12:36 am

Week 2 Day 2 Another successful day!

r.jean · Post by **r.jean** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 3:20 am

Progress!

MsJ · Post by **MsJ** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:10 am

Week 2 Day 3 and 4 were FAILS

MsJ · Post by **MsJ** » Mon Oct 20, 2014 10:33 pm

This is Day 15. I have only had two successful days since I began. Wow..this is harder than I thought it would be. I am not giving up though! I reminded myself that the fact that I was able to stick with it for two days suggests that I can do this.

eschano · Post by **eschano** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 10:19 am

It helped me to count all the successful meal periods (so breakfast to lunch or lunch to dinner or dinner to breakfast) at first. Just a thought.

MsJ · Post by **MsJ** » Wed Oct 22, 2014 12:05 am

eschano wrote:It helped me to count all the successful meal periods (so breakfast to lunch or lunch to dinner or dinner to breakfast) at first. Just a thought.

That is not a bad idea. Today I was successful for breakfast and lunch but I failed after dinner. I had the munchies and couldn't seem to stop eating.

MsJ · Post by **MsJ** » Thu Oct 23, 2014 12:54 am

Day 17 Failed

Woe is me.

eschano · Post by **eschano** » Thu Oct 23, 2014 11:33 am

Oh that after dinner period. It was/is the hardest for me too. Mainly because I am running low on willpower on some N days. And I know other people on here struggle as well. But say you would manage to do NoS for the next 21 days every period except dinner - would it already be a success? For me it would have already been better than before and then you could gradually focus on after dinner?

So this way the "you can have it later" would first shift to post-dinner and later shift to every second day and even later to S days maybe? However, it would be a much slower process so if you also suffer from impatience with losing weight it might not work but habit-building wise it would.

MsJ · Post by **MsJ** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 12:04 am

eschano wrote:Oh that after dinner period. It was/is the hardest for me too. Mainly because I am running low on willpower on some N days. And I know other people on here struggle as well. But say you would manage to do NoS for the next 21 days every period except dinner - would it already be a success? For me it would have already been better than before and then you could gradually focus on after dinner?

So this way the "you can have it later" would first shift to post-dinner and later shift to every second day and even later to S days maybe? However, it would be a much slower process so if you also suffer from impatience with losing weight it might not work but habit-building wise it would.

I think slowly working my way up to full on N Days might be a good idea. I wouldn't feel so defeated.

Today was actually successful. I managed to stick to my 3 meals.

But tomorrow....well I don't know. If I make through to dinner time I will consider it a success for now.

I am trying to think about what made today different from the other days. Why did I stick with it today? I haven't figured it out. Is it mental? Is it what I ate? I really don't know, but I want to find a pattern.

eschano · Post by **eschano** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 8:38 am

Well done for today!

As for common reasons people manage to stick to it - in no particular order:
a) they're busy
b) they really look forward to their meals (N meals)
c) they have enough foods on their plates
d) they have a replacement after-dinner habit (such as drinking a hot herbal tea or a glass of wine or have a piece of fruit that would fit on your plate) that signifies the meal is over

Just some pointers. Sorry to hijack your thread.

good enough · Post by **good enough** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 12:31 pm

After dinner is also the hardest time for me, highlighting again that my overeating has very little to do with actual hunger.

As Eschano said I've been finding a hot drink after dinner really helpful the last few nights. I'm usually an awful binger at this time but a cup of low calorie hot chocolate seems to be doing the trick. I know for some people this might be considered a sweet but since it is saving me from much bigger damage I am deeming it okay.

Keep going - we can do it!

MsJ · Post by **MsJ** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:50 am

I failed last night.

But I was I successful during the earlier part of the day.

Thanks eschano.
Thanks good enough.

eschano, those were good points. My reason for success is probably smiling at me right there in you list. How do I recreate it? That is the question. I think that I really enjoyed my dinner that night. That might be why I didn't feel the need to snack. I was super busy between lunch and dinner. So, I know for sure that is why I didn't reach inside the candy box I keep in my classroom (small treats for the students from time to time).

good enough, I think that that the hot drink may indeed work.

If I wait to have that drink after dinner when the children are in bed , would it be considered a snack?

I guess that really doesn't matter because I am snacking anyway. This would be more of a controlled snack...if that makes sense.[/b]

good enough · Post by **good enough** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 10:16 am

For me a drink is never a snack, no matter when you have it. And anyway there's no reason you can't tailor things to suit you - it's your life and your body, you make the rules!

I really like the fact that you have recorded a successful part of your day. Small steps in the right direction still take us in the right direction.

eschano · Post by **eschano** » Mon Oct 27, 2014 11:23 am

I'm with goodenough. Have your drink when it suits you and feels like a non-food treat.

MsJ · Post by **MsJ** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 12:24 am

Day 23 Failed

God help me!

MerryKat · Post by **MerryKat** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 12:00 pm

Well done on sticking with this and reporting back on your difficulties.

Congratulations on the mornings where things seem to go so well.

Drinks are a great way to keep the hunger at bay and help you make it to the next meal.

I find after dinner I need to keep my hands busy (crafts) or sometimes I eat because I am tired - so I am learning to just go to bed!

((((Hugs)))) Give yourself time - as the others have said No S sounds simple on paper however it can be VERY tough!!

MsJ · Post by **MsJ** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 12:01 am

Thank you MerryKat.

I would like to say I have some successful days recently but I have not. Part of it the reason for my failures this week have been my skimpy lunches. I just haven't had the time to really put together a good solid meal. I always end up hungry and craving things before dinner. If I hold out until dinner I just end up nibbling after the actual meal is over. I have been unusually tired this week too.