Everyday Systems

I am actually returning to NoS.

I started in March this year, but quickly got side-tracked into trying mods and then out-and-out crazy fad diets. I got married in June and was trying to make the last ditch effort of magically not be at an all-time-high weight for the wedding. Guess what? Didn't really lose any weight, managed to have a wonderful wedding anyway. But, did get 'diet head' going BIG time.

After a few months post-wedding of trying the more 'sensible' diets where food journaling is king--well, all that accounting IS joyless *for me*.

I returned to NoS yesterday. It was a Failure day. I'm not going to beat myself up. It will happen.

I'm doing something a little different with the HabitCal. All that food journaling has left me a bit cold, but I do need to keep track. I just don't want to have to obsessively log. So, I filled out the rest of November with my S days in yellow and N days in green. I only need to go into the HabitCal to mark the Failures. (Which I did for yesterday)

November is a heavy S day month for me. Thanksgiving. My birthday. My husband's birthday. My step-granddaughter's birthday. My mother-in-law's birthday. Other than Thanksgiving, my strategy is just to simply have the cake dessert on all those birthdays. Nothing more.

I have great confidence that NoS will work for me. I'm looking forward to Sanity with Food once again in my life.

Welcome, Yellow Tulips! (What a great screen name, so sunny!) Congratulations on your marriage. I hope you're having a great first year. Hang in there with nos, you can do this. It's not fast or flashy, but effective. It sounds like your November has lots of yellow, so don't worry about the scale, and just focus on habits. Let us know how we can encourage you.

Thank you Merry for your words of encouragement. Merry is also a very cheerful name

I did not have to revisit my Habit Cal for Day 2. SUCCESS

I did go into Habit Cal anyway and added the month of December. What a relief to see not much yellow. Having the holidays fall on weekends is great!

I also lucked out this November. The Retirement Lunch for my boss (he's been with the organization 40 years) falls on the same S day as my husband's birthday... There will be no shame, no blame for what I do with food that day, but fortunately the events will line up to be lunch-time and dinner-time. Sweets, as I stated yesterday are my somewhat planned 'sometimes' for that day. Also my mother-in-law's birthday falls on Thanksgiving this year, and step-granddaughter's is on a weekend.

Future Novembers, I won't be so fortunate. By then, I hope to have enough of a habit formed to deviate from strict Vanilla S to allow for a 'swap' of weekend 'S' to weekday if that seems the thing to do. This year, I filled myself with too much 'diet head' to deviate. I need to focus on RELAXING around food decisions a little bit, the fewer decisions the better. 'S' is 'S'. Period. Just 'don't be an idiot.'

I've been doing some reading on the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. Traditional reducing diets are definitely OFF my plate from now on!

Onwards.

YAY for a green day today!

Day 3: YELLOW

Yesterday was my birthday. I know a few days ago, I had put something of a restriction on myself for the birthdays this month ('just a bit of cake'), but that was foolish

The point of S days is that they are S days. I was not an 'idiot' yesterday, but I did deviate more than a simpe piece of cake for dessert. And as my 'diet head' began to beat up on me ('You blew it! That was a SNACK, you weren't supposed to have SNACKS--just a Sweet today), my newer 'NoS head' stood up and said 'Wait, this is an S DAY--no worries, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!'

And I see my challenge for the time being: not beating up on myself on S days. SO, NO RULES/MODS for S days for now (not even anything as simple as preplanning what S I will have on that day).

My measure of success for now is just being on habit. Let the true S days fall where they may. (And I am grateful that next month isn't nearly as Yellow).

Happy Birthday! I'm glad you enjoyed your day

Thank you for the birthday wishes, Merry

Day 4: S Day, YELLOW
Day 5: S Day, YELLOW

I am in the middle of my 3rd S Day in a row. I am looking forward to Monday and a return to Normal

I have not been going crazy, but I haven't been making the best of food choices. Quick stuff, which means lots of convenience-based stuff or meals out. Lots of sodium and I feel it. At least there have been some fruits & veggies too.

I decided not to start any renumbering of my days on habit (Day 1 was a Failure=Red). It is currently my plan to maintian this daily post until the end of the year (which will make 52 days) and re-evaluate then regarding Daily Check In.

On the same note, I've decided not to weigh or measure myself anytime soon either. (I do have 'before' numbers). I just want to focus on habit right now. I know 21 days just isn't really enough for me to have it sink in. A month a bit better...but with the frequest Yellow days of November, I will need longer. Bibical 40 would be a good choice, but there is something very neat and tidy about extending to the end of the year.

DAY 6: GREEN Successful N Day.

It was difficult after 3 S days in a row. Lunch was defintely a bit larger than it usually is

Welcome, YT!

Out of curiosity, how many non-weekend yellow days do you have this month, including Thanksgiving?

I think your plan of having only the cake for the NWS birthdays is perfect. It's what an S day is meant to be. Having a piece of cake doesn't mean it needs to be a free-for-all the rest of the day.

You might have a lot of pressure from old habit over the next 52 days to deviate from the plan, especially when we get closer to Christmas. I can't predict what your experience will be but I will say that I just about NEVER regretted holding out against even the strongest urges to eat outside the plan. At least I can't remember any. No matter how good the food was, I can't remember thinking, oh I wish I had had more of the stuffing or biscuits or whatever even though it had seemed like a really good idea at the time. But I do remember being sorry I gave in, and I don't mean that from a moral standpoint. It was just obvious afterwards that it was more than I could really enjoy during and afterward.

Hope I'm not loading you with too much.

It's good you have a lot of things you know you don't want to go back to. Feeling that this is your best bet can really help.

Thank you for your encouragement during the birthday/holiday season, Oolala. Your experience with seconds during feasts is something I've experiened too. In more recent years, I've had difficulties with my digestive system (abdominal adhesions from a surgery years ago). It is painful to overeat, both emotionally and physically...but the physical pain isn't right away...hours later. That hours later isn't the greatest reinforcer not to overeat, since there is no immediate: That is the one bite too many!

I have 3 non-weekend Yellow days in November, including Thanksgiving. That's one a week since recommitting to NoS.

Day 7: SUCCESS

This was a success in terms of habit: 3 meals, 3 plates. But I was a bit foolish. My dinner plate, although still my 9" standard, was indeed piled a bit high. I am paying the price for that this morning in terms of lower abdominal pain as my body copes with the excess.

I forgot to mention:

Day 7 involved 'just say no' to fresh donuts brought to office by co-worker. This was good

However, I do wonder, if I had broken and had one in the afternoon, would I have been better about the dinner portions? Would I not quite be in the pain I am this morning? Or rather than a sweet/snack, I should have had a glass of milk to avoid the over-hungry at dinner?

Oh, well. Onwards. I must remember: milk between meals is a viable option if I really need it. (Will both satisfy hunger AND won't add to food volume/fiber issues that affect digestion).

For habit's sake, I think something drunk (sipped is preferable) is better than something eaten between meals. There's just something about chewing that sets things off, in my experience.

It's very tempting to try to micromanage and figure it all out in the beginning, but adjusting goes on for quite awhile. It's okay; we're here and it can be done!

Day 8:FAILURE

A new day tomorrow.

Day 9: S Day YELLOW

Did not go crazy...even with 2 S events (retirement party for lunch and husband's birthday dinner).

DAY 10: SUCCESS

I dodged the left over cake from the Retirement Party! I did not eat after dinner (really, I thought about it, but did not want to go back in to the Habit Cal to change to the dreaded red )

Last night I gave quite a bit of reflection time to No S. These are the basic principles that I followed in other seasons of my adult life when I was at a 'normal weight.' What happened those times to bring me back to obese (on the BMI scale)? It's simple: I had not really 'codified' what I was doing other than 'eating less, moving more'. I had no direction about what to do if my clothes got tighter or the scales moved up. So, I went on traditional diets, forgetting entirely that the only times I'd been successful in losing/keeping weight off for any length of time did not involve commercial diets. It involved me just being more involved in life (less boredom eating) and eating in the 3-meal-day pattern and having more natural movement during the day (more walking places, etc.).

The more I read the results of the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, the more I realize just how 'not helpful' the commercial diet approach to weight loss is.

The more I focus on what I'm eating, the less involved I am in life.

Does anyone know how to change the default view to 'most recent message first' rather than the 'oldest message first'?

You might want to post this question on this thread. I think Reinhard always read it, though not on weekends. Only people who read your thread will see it here on yours.

https://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewforum.php?f=7

That would be a good feature. Pages get pretty long!

Yellow tulips! It reminds me of that picture that comes with windows as a background...and it is my FAVORITE windows background.

Looks like you're forging on, and you should be proud of yourself for tracking it in habitcal. What a great idea putting the entire month, and anticipating all green and yellow! love it!

What oolala said up thread about sipping rather than eating something, to get to the next meal, I can attest to BIG time, as a week or so ago, I decided to have some toast to tide me over for a later supper. Well darned if that didn't open the floodgates to several big handfuls of potato chips! garrrr. My first red day in over a month

anyway, keep at it! you're doing great!

yellowtulips wrote:Does anyone know how to change the default view to 'most recent message first' rather than the 'oldest message first'?

Oooh, that would be awesome if we could do that!

DAYS 11 & 12: S YELLOW

Thank you Oolala for suggesting the other forum for my 'order of messages' question

Hi, Yellow Tulips! My favorite flower! I like your plan of having only cake on your NWS days! That's brilliant. I might use something like that in December. That's always the month where I have too many special events. Good luck with No S!

DAY 13: FAILURE

Had to go in and change the HabitCal. Oh, well.

I had planned out my breakfast at my work café today. Lo and behold, they were out of what I usually get. I misjudged the replacement breakfast (although enjoyed it), and wound up having a *snack* (oh my) in mid-morning.

I have not used this as any sort of excuse to 'just eat whatever, whenever.' I may be a FAILURE habitcal-wise, but it's all good. It's *normal*

Not descending into WTH is also a win.