Everyday Systems

Hi everybody. I found No S last week via somebody's blog and have been lurking for a few days before finally jumping in myself. I've been calorie counting for a couple weeks now and it hasn't been that bad (even kind of fun, using a ruler and junior-high geometry to figure out how much pizza I ate because the US RDA information lists calories per square inch). But I'm liking the sound of No S quite a bit more, so I'll probably overlap calorie counting and No S for the next week or so and then just go to No S exclusively.

Anyway, here we go with Day One:

Wouldn't you know it, today's the day our office manager picked to come around with ice cream treats for everybody. Tempting, but I politely declined.

Breakfast: Yogurt
Lunch: Smoked beef on wheat bread, and an apple.
Dinner: Chinese chicken (some orange, some mandarin) and rice. I suppose the sauces on the chicken might be a borderline case (kinda sweet) but I think that should be okay so long as I don't make a habit of it.

So I'm thinking I can call Day One (Tuesday) a SUCCESS.

Bonus: a little over 3 miles of (Sub)Urban Rangering. Probably won't be an everyday occurrence, but I'm surprised at how easy it was.

Day Two:

Breakfast: Oatmeal and orange juice.
Lunch: Turkey sandwich and apple.
Dinner: Tacos and chips.

That's what we call a SUCCESS.

No Urban Rangering today, sadly...tomorrow's much more likely.

Hi Steve,
You are doing great and heading on to the weekend which is the best part of this plan. Welcome and hope to hear more from you.

Thank you so much! I think these check-ins are really helping.

Day Three:

Breakfast: Cereal and OJ
Lunch: Corned beef sandwich and an apple
Dinner: Pizza

SUCCESS.

Welcome Steve! You're doing great, and I like your avatar, it's the kind of reminder we all need. You must be one of those urban rangers I keep hearing about!

Congratulations on your success with No S.

Hey Steve!
Welcome and good luck!
Looking forward to more posts about urban rangering and successful office manager/ice cream avoidances!

Peace and Love,
Deb

Thanks Deb! Yesterday at the office they actually had cake for some reason. It's not usually this common to have work-provided junk food, I guess this week was just kind of an anomaly.

Anyway, Friday/Day Four happened to be an S-DAY for me on account of it being my birthday. Just a little bit of seconds on breakfast and dinner, and a sweet for dessert.

Plus about 3 miles of Urban Rangering. (Which is going to get tougher as we head into summer -- better stock up on mosquito repellent...)

Happy Birthday Steve
Enjoy the rest of the weekend!
Peace and Love,
Deb

Thanks.

Saturday/Day Five: S-DAY with another 3+ miles of Urban Ranger.

Sunday/Day Six: Ditto, though this time around my walking didn't have a destination to speak of. I'm really surprised at how easy it's been to walk what I had previously thought of as a pretty big distance -- and how good it feels. I found a great forest preserve to walk in -- but it's 1.5 miles just to get there, so I imagine actually walking through it is something I'll have to work up to.

Still going strong!

Day Seven: SUCCESS

Day Eight: SUCCESS with another 3 miles of walking.

Day Nine: Success plus 3.5 or 4 mile walk.

Welcome Steve!

Great start (and great avatar!).

Reinhard

Thanks Reinhard! I'm surprised at how easy this is so far -- I was expecting a lot more snack cravings, but other than a particularly rough evening of Day Two, it hasn't been bad at all.

Anyway, just to catch up:

Day Ten: Success

Day Eleven: Success with a little funny stuff of the "well, I COULD put this all on one plate if I wanted to, but it'd be awkward" variety.

Day Twelve: S-Day

Day Thirteen: S-Day

No urban rangering, per se, over the weekend, but plenty of practical exercise helping my fiancee move. I sure *feel* like I walked a marathon...

Good for you Steve!!!
Moving is one of the most underestimated intense workouts, and it's easy to overdo it...
No wonder you feel like you did a marathon!!! LOL..

Keep it up
Peace and Love,
Deb

Days Fourteen, Fifteen, and Sixteen - all Success.

Getting closer to club 21!

Days Seventeen and Eighteen - Success

Days Nineteen and Twenty - S-Days. Little too much pizza on Sunday, I think, but ah well, at least it was an S-Day.

Oh boy Steve! I bet you can taste that 21 days!!!
You're doing great!

Peace and Love,
Deb

Day 21 - three weeks of success!

And day 22 was an S-Day, being the Fourth and all.

Finally had my first outright failure -- ah, pizza, bane of the "no seconds" rule. Ah well -- if my math is right that means I've got a 38-1 record, and I can't complain about that!

Checking back in...

- 2-3 minor failures over the past month or so (granola bar late at night when I get *really* hungry...not a huge deal, but I should still try and get back in the habit of just trying water first).

- another pizza-related "seconds" failure...It's such a specific thing (seconds on pizza on the occasional Friday nights that I'm visiting with my long-distance fiancee) that I'm not too concerned about its overall effect on my diet so long as I don't let it lead me down a slippery slope.

- Overall, things are going quite well. Averaging 2 pounds lost per week.

- After a bit of plateauing, my moving average from my PhysicsDiet profile is finally 20 pounds down from when I started dieting (most of that is no-S).

- Still walking a few miles each day that weather permits, though it's not really for a practical purpose (other than exercise and relaxation) so it's not technically urban rangering as such.

Awesome Steve!!!!
20 lbs is very significant!!!
You see! Even with occasional messups, this stuff works!!!

Yay you!
Peace and Love,
Deb

YAY! That's so great! And it sounds like it was relatively effortless for you to do that. You must be so proud of yourself. I am.

Thanks Deb and Cristi! You're right, it is easy, and I am pretty proud of myself. Given some of the junk binges I used to go on, it's really surprising.

Anyway, one more failure to report -- early this week, I had to be in at work around 3am, which threw my whole schedule out of whack and had me eating a second breakfast without even really thinking about it. Whoops!

(...okay, I had a donut too.)

Back on the plus side, I think my weight's starting to go back down after a bit of plateauing, so that's good.