Everyday Systems

WEEK 1:

Monday: Success
Breakfast: oatmeal
Lunch: ham sandwich, potato chips and yogurt
Dinner: Chicken vesuvio, quinoa and a roll
Wt: 122

Tuesday: SUCCESS!
Breakfast: Yogurt mixed with PB2 and a blueberry vitatop
Lunch: ham sandwich, potato chips and yogurt with PB2 & almond slivers
Dinner: Flank steak, kale salad, roll and rice pilaf
Other: hot cocoa (2 small cups)
Wt: 120.4

I'm so happy for two green days in a row! I've been pushing my lunch and dinner to much later and that has helped the past two days with nighttime snacking. I'm also allowing myself hot cocoa when I find I want something sweet and that has also helped.

Wednesday: SUCCESS (went to bed at 9:45pm to avoid a binge!)
Breakfast: Ezekial muffin with PB and honesy
Lunch: Turkey chili, chips and corn muffin
Dinner: Same as lunch (leftovers!)
Wt: 119.4

My weight is already down from Monday. Goes to show how much I consume with my mindless snacking and nighttime binges. Hoping for another green day today. I'm going to try and keep my lunches 12:30pm or later and my dinners 6pm or later if possible...that has been a key factor in the past two days being green for me.

Thursday: AARGH FAIL
Breakfast: oath bites
Lunch: Kale salad, coconut chicken and potato chips
Dinner: Chipotle & then minor binge/fail
Wt: 119.6

Ugh....doing so well and then I just caved in to some minor anxiety and procrastination. I need to have a better coping mechanism for the hours between 5-8pm. My fail wasn't over the top but a silly one since I had done so well all week. I'm aiming for SUCCESS today though and hopefully I can recap the week with an 80% success rate at that point which isn't bad.

Friday: SUCCESS!
Breakfast: Protein pancakes
Lunch: Grilled chicken and salad
Dinner: Salad, chips and vitatop
Wt: 120.2

Sat weigh in: 119

Hey mm!

We certainly sound like two peas in a pod, don't we?
I will be following your check-in for sure. It is always motivating to see other people who have similar issues as me and see how they do it. Do you mind me asking what your height is? Our weight is similar. Are you looking to lose any weight or just structure your eating?

Best of luck!!!

Hi Sinnie -
Thanks for your comments. We really do have a lot in common! I do not need to lose weight though I'd say I prefer to be around 115 for my height and build (I'm 5'5) I tend to fluctuate about 5-7 pounds which is probably not even very noticeable to anyone other than me but the fluctuation is a result of my overeating at nighttime. But the real reason I'd like to be successful on No S is because I want to have NORMAL eating. I don't want to be concerned with any diets - low carb, clean eating, calorie counting, etc. I just want to be at peace with how I eat. Yes, I want to eat healthy and less-processed overall but in general I want to enjoy my food without any little voices in my head telling me that was a bad choice or I haven't had enough protein or that was too processed, etc. I want to stop my nighttime binges/perma snacking. The only real food 'rule' I am following at the moment is I am giving up binge/trigger foods. Maybe that isn't in the spirit of No S but I'm going to follow everything else but I want to steer clear of the foods which send me in to a spiral downward (for me these are foods that are very high in sugar content). We'll see how that goes!

I'm going to try and post my meals just as a record of how it's going. I'll keep checking in with you too. Good luck and it's nice to have someone that understands how I feel!!

mm

Week 1 Recap:

Success: 80%

This week was actually a huge success for me. Usually I only get one or two days of success, then fail, and then give up because it's not a perfect week. I've decided to recap each week with an overall percentage because I don't want my perfectionism to ruin the overall good of what I'm hoping to accomplish with No S. This week was definitely hard and I really struggled with keeping Friday a success after failing on Thursday, but reframing it in my mind as hoping to achieve 80% after my fail really helped!

I'm down 3 pounds from Monday and I feel really good today!

Congrats! What a great first week! Good idea about keeping perfectionism in check. I hope your second week goes just as well for you!

Wow, moderate, you are doing so so well! It is very inspiring and I really like the overall percentage idea. What do you do about S days?

Thanks Kittson and Sinnie for the kind comments!

Sinnie - I am trying to stick to Vanilla on the weekends. No rules (with the exception of no sugary desserts) and I'm also not logging or weighing over the weekends. I definitely like the structure of 3 meals and ideally would love to keep that everyday but I am going to trust the sage advice of the other successful No S 'ers and not apply rules to Sat and Sun. So yesterday definitely had more snacks (pretzels, popcorn, granola bars, etc) than I would have liked but because I didn't binge on desserts/sugar, it went okay.

I am currently reading Gretchen Rubin's book on habits and she has an interesting chapter on Moderators vs Abstainters. I think I've learned that with sugar, I'm better off abstaining than trying to moderate. It just never works for me. I seem to be able to moderate everything else so I'm curious to see if my one mod will finally help with success on No S. Oddly, once I completely give up all desserts and have had a few months under my belt, I don't feel deprived at all. But, once I have them, I can't seem to stop and ultimately I feel both powerless and unhappy. Hence my decision to give them up entirely. We'll see how long it lasts though.

Good luck to you!

Hello moderatemeals. I've been lurking about a bit, but finally dove in yesterday and created an account here, to participate in this supportive atmosphere.

Regarding Gretchen Rubin, oh gosh! I was following her blog many years ago before she wrote The Happiness Project and even came up with my own set of happiness commandments. Recently, I rediscovered Gretchen and her theory of Moderators vs Abstainers. It's been food for thought for me, for a little while now.

I hear you on abstaining. It seems easier for me to stick to a healthy eating program if I stay away from sugar. GOOD LUCK to you in all that works for you.

As for me...I'm really hoping I can become a moderator (would Gretchen contend that this is not possible?)...Now that I've found the No S diet, it seems like the answer to me. At least I'm going to give it an honest try. Time will tell.

Again, best wishes to you and your plans.

Thanks Petal for your comments! Good luck to you as well. I'd LOVE to be a moderator as well...especially since I can't imagine never having a piece of birthday cake or an ice cream cone!! I'm attempting to go one year (it's only been 2 weeks so far so I've got a long way to go!) without sweets and then reevaluate. I'd love to just have them on birthdays and holidays ideally. Please keep me posted on how your efforts go...these boards are such a supportive and encouraging place so happy you are here!

Week 2:

Monday: SUCCESS!
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: ham sandwich, yogurt with PB2 and pop chips
Dinner: pork tenderloin, salad, green beans, chips and croutons
Wt: 120.6

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Ezekiel muffins with peanut butter & honey, 1 sausage link
Lunch: Ham sandwich, chips and yogurt
Dinner: Meatballs, quinoa and chips
Weight: 119.4

Wednesday:
Breakfast: Vitatop + siggi's yogurt
Lunch:
Dinner:
Wt: 119.2

Day 1: Success
Monday, 5/11

Breakfast: yogurt and vitatop
Lunch: Ham sandwich and chips
Dinner: grilled chicken, salad and fried zucchini

Today was a success. I've been doing relatively well with cutting down sugar from my diet. I've noticed such an improvement in my skin and sleeping. I am going to make granola bars a treat to save on weekends from now on though. Trying now to really focus on cutting out all snacks and virtual plating which can set me up for disaster!

moderatemeals wrote:I've been doing relatively well with cutting down sugar from my diet. I've noticed such an improvement in my skin and sleeping.

Hi, moderatemeals-
I'm glad the cutting down sugar thing is working well for you and that you're seeing improvement in your skin and sleeping. That's great!