Everyday Systems

Day 1!
Success
B smoothie, egg
L chicken curry, chickpeas, orange
D v hearty soup, bread, banana

Yay me! Hard to remember not to snack when I first got home from work.

A good first day is wonderful - welcome here!

Thank you

success

B smoothie and egg (veges in smoothie my only veges for the whole day)
L crumbed fish and chicken wedges
D sweet and sour pork takeaway

I resisted many Christmas chocolates and biscuits today. But not really a healthy day. Oh well.

I was soooo hungry from about 4.30 pm. Just had alot of coffee and water. Yay the weekend!

Kate, as long as most of you meals are nutritious and include veggies and fruit, one day of not-so-healthy eating is balanced out by better-eating days.

Plus, you turned down choccies and biscuits, so celebrate that!

Thanks Giada. Yep I do think I did quite well on Friday not eating all the Christmas treats

Saturday

B baked beans, egg

MT nut slice

2nd MT chocolate cake (social)

L yoghurt, fruit toast with jam

AT xmas mince pies (social)

D goat curry, rice, salad, sweet corn (first of the season!), beer

Pudding - pieces of gingerbread house (social)

Kind of nice to just say yes to everything but already looking forward to Monday! I know nothing is stopping me from turning down the occasional treat...

I know I always feel so torn about my S days. They're just not as enjoyable as they should be but somehow I still need them.

Enjoy tomorrow!

Linda

B tomatoes,mushrooms,asparagus,egg

MT gelato

L chickpea salad, bagel with peanut butter, banana

Snack banana

D peas, carrots, broccoli, spat Bol
Ice cream

Wish I was already on holiday....

Kate

Sounds like you had a great S day, Kate.

Enjoy the holiday - are you taking a proper holiday, or will it just be the Christmas break?

Giada I will be off work from xmas day until 7 Jan so yes a proper holiday. We are going on a 3 day canoeing trip with our teenagers after Christmas, which is something new.

Day 5
Success

B chickpea tomatoes and egg
L chickpea salad, small tin of fish and an orange
D fish and chips, again! My 86 y old mother's choice for her birthday!

Managed to forego biscuits, xmas mince pies, ice cream and marshmallow santas, so NoS saved me from feeling really ill.

Happy birthday to Mum! And enjoy the canoeing! (I learnt to sort-of row on a dam in the middle of winter - nothing like a tumble into cold water to focus one's attention on staying upright and inside )

Perhaps you should start a thread on what you've dodged over the Christmas run-up thanks to No S - this way of life really is a life-saver.

Looks like a great day! I bet the canoeing trip will be fantastic. What a great idea!

Just a few more days till your holiday begins--yay!

Linda

Day 6
Fail

But only a tiny one. I forgot for a moment and ate a cherry. But for me it's about trying to lose that habit of eating things as I walk past. Otherwise a good day. Not hungry.

B chickpea, tomato and egg breakfast
L bean salad, little fish tin and orange
D asparagus peas broccoli carrots potato beef and mushroom pie

Saved from the Christmas chocolates and biscuits again. I'm going to enjoy Christmas Day all the better for it.

Good for you for noticing it but glad it wasn't a huge fail!

Success

I am pretty please with myself right now, considering the time of year.

B chickpea tomato egg breakfast

L bean salad, chicken , cherries, apricot

D lamb chop, pilaf, salad

Saved from biscuits, caramels, chocolate, ice cream

I think Christmas Eve will be an S day from after dinner only, when we break open the Christmas cake.

Wahine wrote:
I think Christmas Eve will be an S day from after dinner only, when we break open the Christmas cake.

I had been thinking the same, to make Christmas Eve an S day starting at dinner. That's really when the celebration starts for us.

Sunday morning here now. Anything goes with this run of S days, but yesterday I sat down and ate 3 pieces of Christmas cake all alone, which I don't feel so good about. There are plenty of opportunities for social eating! On the other hand, I don't want to force feed the rest of my family just because I feel like a snack....

Tomorrow will be noS, but I will be offline. Tuesday Wednesday Thursday we are canoeing so s days. Friday New Years Day I suppose is no S? I won't be alone, all those New Years resolutioners. But still offline. Then there's the weekend.

So I will be back here Monday 4th. And my first 5 no s days in a row. That will be a bit of a shock to the system I am sure.

It is evening of Sunday 3rd now and I am home. Great holiday, but I love being home!

Friday we were staying with friends and I went off-plan, no went noS today instead. I will still mark Friday as red though. One disadvantage of this system is that once it's a red day nothing in the system to stop you stuffing yourself. I know, common sense, but sometimes that fails me. Anyway, I find it helpful to think I will log my food here, on s days and red days especially.

B muesli, yoghurt
L BLT sandwich and chips
D steak, salad, bread with butter, cheese

Looking forward to a week of sanity. Also still on leave this week apart from Thursday. Lovely.

Welcome home!

What works for me about the RED is that is shows that even one digression from No S IS a RED - after that it encourages me to be self-regulating. Reinhardt cautions against 'paying back' for a RED day - like giving up an S day to compensate. I think there's probably a podcast about it. A RED is just a RED day - then you just move on and have your S days. I think he says that if you start thinking you'll pay it back by giving up an S day - it sort of gives your brain permission to break the No S habit on an N day. In the end, you'll end up counting and trading - and you're back to the calorie counting thing - which is not NO S. (if I can find the right podcast, I'll come back and let you know)

here you go:-
Take a look at, or listen to, Podcast 13 - it was the bit in issue 3) that I was thinking of.

Please forgive me if I'm over-egging it a bit, intended to be helpful - ignore me if it doesn't resonate with you.

Thanks Rawcookie, that is helpful. I had a look at the podcast and I see the point about opening up a line of credit and therefore giving myself permission to blur the lines in future. So I won't do that again.

8 of the previous 10 days were S days, starting from Christmas Day and carrying on through the Canoeing trip etc. Then I had a red day on one of the two noS days! So I was kind of keen to get started. Anyway, a full clear week ahead now.

Technically a red day today, because I was making some hummus and "accidentally" licked the bowl. Just one swipe with my finger... It shows how engrained my habit of taking little nibbles is. Oh well, practice makes perfect.

B smoothie and an egg
L bean salad and an Apple
D Moroccan lamb dish (with the hummus)

Wow -- one swipe with the finger -- especially as it was inadvertent and not on purpose -- counts as a red day?

I get it that we're cleaning up our mindless eating but, gosh.

Nah Queenie, it wasn't really accidental. I loaded up my finger on purpose and ate it.... Plus I really want to get it right. I can see I sound a bit crazy.

Phew ! Made it through Tuesday. It's hard because I am at home on holiday and there are lots of tempting things left over from Christmas. A box of Turkish delight arrived today. However, have stashed my share away to bring out on Saturday. May have to hide the tub of cashews better too.

Have been cooking from my new Jamie Oliver cookbook because I am a lady of leisure this week.

B beans, egg, vege breakfast
L mince, noodles and salad, apple
D tofu burgers and salad, apricot

it wasn't really accidental. I loaded up my finger on purpose and ate it.... Plus I really want to get it right. I can see I sound a bit crazy.

Ah. I now get the meaning of the quotation marks. : )

Nice clean Tuesday.

Ok got through Wednesday but finding it very hard at home. I am going in to work tomorrow so that should be easier I think. Cupboards are calling to me. Many drinks drunk today. At least the system is good for my hydration.

Not hungry exactly, just feeling very snacky.

B beans, egg, toast, vegetables etc, apricot
L beef mince, noodles, salad, cashew nuts, peach
D chicken, rice, salad

Kate, I work from home, so I know how loud that siren calls. I don't have anything tempting in the pantry - but then, it's just me and I don't have to cater for anybody else, so it's easy to do. I actually feel sorry for people who are confronted by office sweets every day.

How did the canoeing go?

Thanks Giada. Welcome back

The canoeing was really good.

I suppose I already knew this, but last night I noticed another reason I want to snack is when I get upset and have arguments. I am hoping this system will be really good at training me out of all those dumb eating habits. Anyway, time will tell.

A successful Thursday.

B homemade granola, milk, fruit
L peanut butter sandwich, carrot, tomatoes
D chicken rice, veges, yoghurt dressing

Yay!

Made it through Friday. My first full week. Actually I had a little taste of cheese when I was cooking so I'll mark it as red but I am still pretty pleased with myself. Resisted cake, Apple pie, ice cream plus all the family Christmas food still in the cupboard.

B porridge, berries, yoghurt
L pasta dish
D pizza

Looking forward to Saturday!

Well done, Kate!

Is the red for cheese because you make a distinction between tasting for flavour or doneness while cooking, and having a bite of an ingredient? (I've resisted ice cream after dinner three times in a row now...)

Have a great weekend!

First full week for me, too. Great to have this success together.

I've got it easier that you and Giada because I live alone. There are Christmas cookies in the freezer but there's no one having apple pie or ice cream to tempt me.

Giada I ate the cheese because I thought "yum cheese" . It was an ingredient but definitely no Chef-ly reason to be eating it.

Queenie you are my noS twin on the other side of the world

Saturday, eating all the treats I have been promising myself. Interestingly I technically had no snacking.

B smoothie and piece of Turkish delight
L pasta, banana cake, Christmas cake, Turkish delight
D sandwich, cherries, wine, caramel slice

Might try for more veggies tomorrow...

Sunday

B Toast and pancakes with jam

L quiche, salad, Spanish cream, berries

S fudge, chocolate

D chicken, bread, salad, ice cream, custard

Green Monday

B granola banana

L bean and tuna salad, Apple

D fried rice, fruit

Green Tuesday. Only just, I made a cake for my son's birthday tomorrow, so hard not to eat the icing etc. Not quite enough icing either but ran out of icing sugar so will have to fix it up tomorrow.

B granola, yoghurt, banana

L bean salad, apples

D daal, salad

Will try to make it an S event tomorrow night, rather than the entire day.

Nice green start to the week.

You sent me to google with the mention of Spanish cream. Looks like it's what we call custard or flan.

Spanish cream has gelatin in it so probably more like flan. It's considered very old fashioned here, so probably due for a revival and will soon be very trendy.

S event tonight as my younger boy's 14th birthday. Feeling stuffed. So easy to reproach myself for 2 helpings of birthday cake and consider making rules about these things. But no I at least have to get the core habits established first, like not eating every time I walk into the kitchen!

Evening eating: crackers, cheese, dip, vege sticks, roast chicken, potato, broccoli, cauliflower, salad, chocolate, caramel cake. And bubbly

consider making rules about these things. But no I at least have to get the core habits established first

Great save with the mental game there!

Glad you enjoyed the party, and recovered so quickly from the stinkin' thinking.

I call that a bungee jump: when I start to go downhill with my thinking, then I catch myself and "bounce" back up to normal.

I love your mentality. I struggle so much mentally with this eating thing. Ugh! I love the bungee jump....I usually just unhook at the bottom and keep falling....and rehook the cord a week later. 😝😝😝

Thursday and Friday in the bag! Very standard food - weetbix, cheese sandwiches, curry, pasta. Probably a bit low on the vegetables now that I think of it.

Yay the weekend again in the morning!

tobiasmom wrote:I usually just unhook at the bottom and keep falling....and rehook the cord a week later. 😝😝😝

It sounds like you USED TO do that. But I visited your thread, and I see you're rehooking later the same day (on the Costco day) or the next day (after Thursday).

Wahine wrote:Thursday and Friday in the bag!

<snip>

Yay the weekend again in the morning!

I belong to a buying club where we order from farmers and pick up the orders once a week. So last week I ordered my treats for this weekend. I picked them up yesterday. Was tempted just knowing they were in the house. "Fortunately" I began feeling ill so there's been no temptation since then.

And also fortunately (without quotes), although I'm still under the weather I'm feeling better than I did last night. So I think I will be up for having my treats this weekend.

What a bummer it would be to get sick on the weekend and miss having the treats.

Yeah it would be awful to be sick for the weekend.

No danger of me being off my food today!

B omelette, toast, tomato, spinach

Mt Christmas cake

L fish, salad

D cheese, capsicum, pizza, garlic bread, marshmallows

Pizza and marshmallows! LOL!

I'm sure you enjoyed it.

13 and 14 year old boys for a sleepover last night. Tried to ignore them but did wake every now and then to crashing and banging. Was woken about 7 am asking for pancakes. They still hadn't been to sleep. There were marshmallows all over the living room.

So I think my 14 year old rates that as a good party

Anyway I blame the sleep deprivation and ghrelin/leptin disruption for my eating today.

pancake
Granola with yoghurt and fruit

Chia fruit pots

Toasted cheese sandwiches
Peach

Chocolate

Cheese, crackers, capsicum

Lamb chop, bread, salad
Ice cream

I don't think I got properly hungry once today. Thank god it's Monday tomorrow!

That is funny....and adorable!

Successful Monday! I ate more vegetables than in the weekend too. Feeling healthy and virtuous.

Virtuous feels great!

Wahine,

Just caught up on your thread. I really related to your comment about being "properly hungry" for your meals. That is the one thing I LOVE about No S. I find that I think I truly do enjoy my meals more with that "sprinkle" of hunger.

Anyway, it sounds like you've had a great Monday. Enjoy your week!

Agreed natj, the proper hunger followed by a hearty meal feels really good.

Successful Tuesday. Of note was that I piled up my dinner plate and couldn't actually finish what I served myself. The same thing almost happened yesterday but I bravely battled through it all yesterday.

I am hatching a plan that my next habitcal will be for cycling to work. There will be many S days -whenever there is strong wind or rain for example. But I want to get to 21 days before I start that.

Successful Wednesday. Yay!

Today I keep thinking of the many things I could put on a habitual to make my life better:
Cycling
Muscle training and flexibility
Meditation
Professional reading
Reading books
Practising Italian
Training the dog
Flossing
Tidying up...

Hmm wonder if it's good or bad that I don't have anything there to do with my family or friends? Or anything that helps anyone else at all! At the rate of one a month, in 8 months my life would be perfect. To hell with it, I'm going to start the Italian one today.

In bocca al lupo, Wahine!

I dont think it's a bad thing that your goals are about you. We woman tend to not be selfish enough IMO besides if you're only giving because you think you should then you're just being a martyr and nobody really wants that anyway. When you've filled yourself up enough, you'll be ready to give again.

How'z the Italian going btw and what's a professional reader?

Linda

Grazie, Giada.

By professional reading Linda I mean reading for my job, which I will enjoy a lot more if I keep learning.

I am doing 15 minutes Italian practice on Memrise to start. 3rd day today.

Successful Thursday. I am feeling strangely confident. Early days though I know.

It's nice to start strong in these early days.

Yep successful Friday. Perhaps I need to explain what I'm doing better to my beloved though. He was in charge of dinner and he brought out bread and guacamole only for the first two hours. I gradually got grumpier and grumpier as I got hungrier and hungrier.

"I can't eat that, I can only eat dinner"

-this is dinner, it's the first course

"I have to put the whole dinner together on one plate"

-that's RIDICULOUS!

Sigh

Eventually, the chicken and salad came out and I loaded up with that AND bread and guacamole. The trouble is, I have had so many phases and food fads etc etc that this will just seem like another one to him.

Also I wish I was actually losing weight. I feel like quite a lot of mental effort is going into this and that should make me svelte! However, I started before Christmas and with all the celebrations and birthdays and the Canoeing trip, plus 4 red days, so far I have only had 18 green days and 19 non green days. So I should be grateful to be staying the same over that period.

I know that I should be concentrating on just building habit. Still, I can feel my faith starting to slip. Maybe I should go and read the testimonials or something.

Maybe I should go and read the testimonials or something.

Or maybe read them to your husband? Only half-joking. If he understood that someone who's been on this "diet" for seven years and going strong lost no weight in the first year, then lost 30 lbs in the second year -- he might get it.

But I hear you about having done so many diets that this can seem like "just one more."

I, too, did not gain over the holidays -- after steadily gaining for the prior 18 months. That feels significant to me.

But then I don't have anyone presenting me with a first course two hours before dinner.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Couple of thoughts with that:

- Maybe hubby can be in charge of dinner on weekends only, at least until it becomes clear that No-S is not a passing fad.

- Or, iff hubby is in charge of dinner one weeknight a week (I'm guessing it's not more often if this is the first time this has come up) -- then make that weeknight a mod for you.


After all, we're doing something for the long-term. If your husband's occasional cooking night is going to be along these lines, it's something you'll need to incorporate for the long-term.

And much as I admire you for having a successful Friday -- suffering for two hours isn't a sustainable success.

Thanks Queenie.

I've made my husband look bad. Actually we both cook 2 nights a week and each of our teenage sons cook once a week. No one usually cooks on Friday, it's our relax night. This particular Friday he decided he was going to cook a nice meal...

He is very fond of 'nibbles' being put out before dinner. But normally they don't delay the dinner by much. This was a bit of an exception. There was alcohol involved...

Anyway, my S day yesterday was over the top. Highlights included a chocolate French pastry, iced coffee with ice cream in it, a bag of lollies at the movies (The Revenant - a lot of effort to go to, just to get an Oscar. Why not just die instead of getting into that horse?) and golden syrup pudding.

So my reptile brain is still going "No rules?? Quick, let's get all the good stuff in before she changes her mind!" In which case, I should stop thinking about changing my mind, really enjoy my food and it will all settle down more quickly.

There was alcohol involved...

LOL!

I should stop thinking about changing my mind, really enjoy my food and it will all settle down more quickly.

Good point.


As for me, I was so focused on storm preparations that I forgot to buy S-day treats. Now there's no driving, not that stores would be open even if I was willing to try to drive anyway.

I did have leftover cheese popcorn and potato chips in the cupboard from last weekend ("did" have, meaning I've already eaten them).

I might end up baking cookies, just to have some sweets. Right now I don't want to make the effort.

Your comment about alcohol being involved is giving me ideas. Maybe I'll open a bottle of wine.

Oh! I just remembered, I have some chocolates leftover from Christmas. Lindt truffles. I'm all set if I feel like that. (I do find cookies far more satisfying as a treat, the but chocolates require no prep work!)

Successful Monday yesterday. I feel like I have been doing this for ages but actually it is only about 5 weeks. I am feeling impatient. So, I will commit to continuing until mid May at least and then review. Because that will be 5 months which seems a good chunk of time.

Advantages:

Establishing lifelong habits and starting with maintenance

I hope one day free brainspace that was taken up with diets, weight and food

Normal social eating without regret

Being able to clearly see what I eat because it's there on the plate

Disadvantages:

I feel like I am eating less fruit and vegetables than I used to

Lots of mental effort at this stage but no change in weight

A tendency at this stage to eat loaded up starchy plates and then feel a bit unwell afterwards

Overeating on s days

Fierce hunger in the hour before dinner

I like your cooking schedule! I would love to know what the boys cook!

Kate, my weight's been up and down, up and down: I have not lost much, but I know from previous attempts at No S that this is normal - and that the ups do even out and that the lows become the new highs. Give it time - up to May might not be long enough.

I'm surprised that you feel as if you're not getting in enough fruit and veg - why is that? Is it because of the starchy plates? Could you try having slightly less starches in favour of F/V? Would it help to have a 'starchy' veg like butternut?

Anyway, good luck for the week!

Well Giada I think the reason I was eating less fruit and fewer vegetables was that I can eat what I want.... I'm basically a 3 year in a 47 y old body. But today I had more veges and I do have a greater sense of wellbeing.

Success again today. Hurray.

Beloved cooked tonight -steak and couscous salad.

The 17 y old tends to cook from recipe books so quite a variety. Last meal involved mince and celery and almonds. I'm having trouble remembering the details. He is still learning about what's in season and what's expensive because we have generally just bought whatever he puts on the shopping list for him. He'll probably leave home at the end of the year so that's the next parenting task - teaching a better grasp of budgeting etc.

The 14 y old cooks a lot of spaghetti bol. Sometimes roast chicken.

I can eat what I want.... I'm basically a 3 year in a 47 y old body

I feel like that a bit. I've eaten more noodles in the past five weeks on No-S than I'd probably eaten in the previous two years.

Same with ice cream. I'm having it every weekend (except last weekend when I was snowed in). Prior to that, I'd have ice cream on vacation and then one other time during the year.

But I'm finding that this is helping me soften my judgment around these foods.


Back to you, perhaps a mod mid-afternoon for a piece of fruit or something specific (not a random snack) to take the fierceness off the pre-dinner hunger?

What I was going to suggest was adding starch (butternut squash or sweet potato) at lunch but you said you're already eating a lot of starch.

~ Q ~

Just wanted to stop in and say hi, and that I understand how you are feeling.

I think providing yourself a set stopping point (like May) is reasonable. This way, you will get some perspective with the passage of time and it will be an informed decision with plenty of time to build your habits.

I'd like to believe that you'll decide to keep going, but the truth is that you must do what is best for you.

Hang in there and let's try to keep each other supported until then!

Natj I hope I will keep going too. I am more setting myself a minimum, so even if I am gaining significant weight I will still stick to it.

Queenie good to hear you are on the noodle and ice cream train as well - makes me feel more normal. I am hoping the pre dinner hunger will improve. It's not every day. I don't drink enough water during the day and I suspect a lot of it is thirst. Drinking a litre or so of water seems to help quite a bit.

I think I'm going to have my Sunday s day on Monday this week. Trouble is I haven't decided yet and if I'm tempted I may well go for it on Sunday. But on Monday night I'm in charge of the snacks for book club...

Anyway success today. I am biking to work tomorrow.

Glad you're sticking to it still Kate. Nos is definitely a slow process and sometimes it takes the body awhile to catch up w/ the program.

Personally, I wouldn't mess w/ my S days. Could you just take the book club as an S event? Do what will work realistically. set yourself up for success! Btw, reading anything good?

Linda

Oooh biking to work? Seems like such a great way to get your head clear before going into work.

I also like your comment about drinking more water- a lot of times hunger can actually be thirst.

Finally, I agree with Linda- I wouldn't mess with the S... days. At least in the beginning.

I made it an s event so technically haven't failed.

I'll never get to the 21 day club at this rate but oh well. I wish I could be hungrier on weekends so could eat more.

Linda, Station Eleven was good but from the USA and a popular book club choice so you have probably already read it. also The Chimes is interesting.

Success today. Definitely would have eaten more without the system. A hungry day plus the 14 y old has returned from staying at his grandmother's with shortbread making skills...

Also biked to work today and practised my languages. Next one to add might be the dog training I think.

Definitely would have eaten more without the system

Yes, I have a lot of N-days like that. Maybe even ALL my N-days are like that!

And I hear you about the 14-year-old coming home with shortbread-making skills. I make a great oatmeal cookies, after a few years of experimenting with recipes.

I need to make several batches to give to neighbors who shoveled me out. Which I thought I'd do on a weekend. But I just made plans to go away this weekend and probably the following weekend as well. So I will need to bake the cookies on a weekday.

The good news is, I am so certain of the recipe that I won't have to try one to make sure they've baked right. But when they're baking and the house is filled with the aroma?

Well, we shall see how that goes. Ideally I'll bake on Thursday night, since I"m leaving town on Friday. That will be the shortest amount of time that I'm exposed to the cookies before the weekend.

Can't you take the cookies to your neighbours immediately after you bake them? Or will it be too late at night? Anyway good luck Queenie.

Successful but hungry Wednesday.

Successful Thursday. And less hungry! I couldn't finish my lunch or my dinner. I basically did no exercise today so that might have some bearing.

It has been too hot. I have no air conditioning at work or in my car. Ready for autumn now.

I have after work drinks tomorrow. So cold beer is ok right? Just no chips.

A cold beer sounds just right in your hot weather - enjoy!

Hope you're feeling better, Kate.

And a cold beer sounds like a terrific way to enjoy after-work drinks.

I had a cider as it turned out. Very nice. All three of us left the pub on our bikes afterwards. We would be hipsters if we weren't in our late forties. I'm pretty sure there is an age cut off for hipsterism - maybe 35? My bike has a basket and I was wearing a skirt...

I'll be complaining about the cold wet windy weather soon enough so don't make me feel bad by being sympathetic!

Success today. And tomorrow morning it will be Saturday. I'm planning some baking.

Decided to learn some of my food vocabulary in Italian by sometimes doing bits of food diary in Italian. I really hope this doesn't come across as horribly pretentious

Colazione
Pranzo
Cena

Spuntini

"Spuntini"! I only just looked that up. The word is enough to put you off snacking!

Colazione: uovo, faglioli neri and so on. I think I need to build up my vocabulary gradually!

lol I love it--not pretentious at all!

I think I need to mark yesterday red. I was considering yellow because it was a public holiday but I hadn't decided ahead, so.

Ate some cheese standing up while getting my lunch ready, then licked the bowl, then gave myself free rein (sp?) on the book club snacks.

Colazione: riso negro, mango, uovo

Pranzo: fagioli all'uccelletto, mela

Cena: agnello, riso, cavolfiore, broccoli

Wahine wrote:Decided to learn some of my food vocabulary in Italian by sometimes doing bits of food diary in Italian.

Hey, I had pizza for dinner on Friday so I'm right in line with you here. ; )

Wahine wrote:I think I need to mark yesterday red. I was considering yellow because it was a public holiday but I hadn't decided ahead, so.

Ate some cheese standing up while getting my lunch ready, then licked the bowl, then gave myself free rein (sp?) on the book club snacks.

If it were me, I might consider the book club snacks to be yellow (an S event) but the cheese while getting lunch ready, and licking the bowl? Assuming it was a meal-preparation bowl and not the bowl you ate your lunch out of, then yeah, I'd mark those as a fail for snacks.

Queenie wrote:]

Hey, I had pizza for dinner on Friday so I'm right in line with you here. ; )

Ha! If I only ate Italian food, this vocab thing would be so much easier. pizza, spaghetti, zucchini....we booked our tickets now, so I'm keeping going with the vocab so I don't starve in Italy...

Successful Wednesday

Colazione : riso negro, mango, uovo
Pranzo: insalata, mela, pesce
Cena: riso, carne, faglioli, insalata

Lol awesome ! What part of Italy are you going? (Everything looks so fancy in Italian! )

Northern Italy

I am doing ok last two days, weekend in the morning!

I still get hungry during the day! I wonder if that improves eventually?

On Friday night I was excited about the weekend coming. Now it's Sunday night and I'm excited about going back to normal days. A weekend of excess. My weight has stayed basically the same over the last 2 months but I'm pretty sure my tummy is growing. But not allowed to even think about mods until May at the earliest.

What can I remember of the weekend excess?
Snacks and seconds including croissant with jam, chocolates, Turkish delight, nuts, ice cream, biscuits, scones with jam and cream, fudge, cheese, orange juice, beer, whiskey. Yikes! There were parties and lots of visitors and a festival. OK. Food is just food. There is not good food and evil food. Spending time with people is good. Life is good. A tummy is just a tummy. Breathe.

Sounds like an eating weekend!
You're one of few people around here whose days start and end even earlier than mine (here in Africa).
Here's to a moderate new weeks for both of us!

Wahine wrote: Food is just food. There is not good food and evil food. Spending time with people is good. Life is good. A tummy is just a tummy. Breathe.

I love this x

Successful Monday

Welcome! Didn't read every post but I think I got the gist.

I imagine over time your plates will look different, either rather naturally or by design and possibly sooner than later. That is likely where the difference will be made.

I get the sense that you don't have much to lose, possibly none for real health reasons. That can slow things, although I've seen a few here luck out. Let's hope the pleasures of legitimate hunger and sane satiety keep you going until you find the right mix for you.

Don't know if this is still an issue, but I gently suggest you avoid talking about the rules to others. Try not to give them a reason to lose faith in your efforts or question them much. Instead, try saying things like, I'd rather wait for my whole meal (instead of 'I can't have that). Or I don't want to ruin my appetite for the main dish. Or the like. In six months, if people notice positive changes and ask, you can tell them briefly. From my experience, most people dismiss it as a viable. But our culture, bless its heart, isn't much of a good judge of what's viable, IMHO, and not just when it comes to what and when to eat. Actually, few cultures are, and the human experiment continues.

I very much understand wishing you were hungrier. As I've aged, my capacity for food has diminished, but annoyingly, not my desire. I'm working on making exercise more consistent. That has many health rewards whether it works to increase hunger or not, and hope springs eternal.

As Churchill said, when you're going through hell, just keep going. I'd add, that goes for when it's not really hell, either.

Thanks oolala for taking the trouble! I appreciate it.

I do have a reasonable amount to lose (see my BMI) but I have lost that before and gained it again several times so I am hoping the Long term view will work better for me!

Perhaps I am slowly starting to feel I don't need to eat as much as possible at every meal. So I guess that's what you mean about the plates.

I think that is an excellent idea not to talk about the rules to others. I think my husband would actually forget about it if I didn't keep reminding him. And although he is generally a lovely man he has no faith in this system and so far of course there is nothing to contradict his opinion!

Here's to legitimate hunger and sane satiety. And just keeping going

Hang in there Kate! I think you're smart to wait a bit before thinking about mods. Once the habit is down you can tweak things till you slowly start losing weight. I'm sure I'm repeating myself but I didn't lose much (if any) weight the first year but my habits became solid. Once I focused on weight loss, I made a list of small mods I could start using. I told myself if I didn't lose at least .5 lbs/week I'd implement a new mod for each week I didn't make my goal weight. Seems kind of diety I guess but it seemed to work.

As for my dh, I didn't tell him for like six months and then just a very brief explanation. I never bring it up unless forced like when he's being very insistent I eat something.

Anyway you're doing great!

Linda

You sound so much like me, Kate!

Successful Thursday. Pretty easy to turn down the extras these days I am finding. Yay.

Saturday morning and I just had 4 chocolate biscuits for breakfast. My inner 3 year old is still alive and well.

love it! I'm just off to bed on Friday night - but am looking forward to my S day. (I do actually have some chocolate cookies in the cupboard.................. )

My inner three-year-old would have had a lot more than 4 cookies. But I know what you mean.

All good yesterday. Red day today. One of my boys fractured his hand. When we got back from the hospital I was suddenly STARVING. Relief I suppose. I was making myself a hot chocolate to stave it off when suddenly a piece of chocolate was in my mouth. We watched an old episode of Buffy together to relax and unwind and stave off stuffing myself. But my first thought was to make us a pile of pancakes or something. So that was interesting. I hadn't really been aware that I eat post stress.

No other red events today so could have been worse. Oh I also didn't do my Sworkit training. I could get out of bed now and do it if I cared enough. But I don't think I will.

So sorry about your sons hand. I always find myself heading for the frig after intense social interaction so can relate to that feeling of wanting to eat after a big tense moment.

Sounds like you kept it very tame though so good for you! I don't think I'd worry about getting my work out in after a day like that either!

Hope today is calmer for you.

Linda

oolala53 wrote:My inner three-year-old would have had a lot more than 4 cookies. But I know what you mean.

Ha! It's almost Girl Scout Cookie season here, and for the past three years I have not had my favorite Thin Mint cookies. This year I will be having them -- and I'll probably eat the entire box in one day, if not one sitting.

But maybe your cookies were huge, Kate.

Hope your son's fracture heals easily and well.

Helpful that you recognized emotional eating.

But I do wonder if it might count as an S day?