Everyday Systems

Really grooving on No-S. I'm about ten days in, and I feel like my body is learning not to expect food between meals. I still need a coffee with milk and sugar at 4, as I can't seem to quite make it from 1 pm lunch to 7 pm dinner. Otherwise I feel really good and my system seems to appreciate the regular meals. My food is nicer overall, and when I go into a store, I'm not as attracted by junk food on display because I go in well-nourished. Weight wise I have only lost a pound or two. I'm hopeful as I get more confident I'll be able to start trimming dinners a bit.

So today was a fruit smoothie and oatmeal with brown sugar for breakfast; a ham and swiss on rye and rainbow salad with nuts and raisins at lunch; coffee with milk and two spoons of cocoa mix at 4; chicken with spinach, mashed potatoes, bread at dinner. It's still kind of high in sugar, but I'm okay with it for now.

So far so good!

Great job! And, Welcome!

Hey everybody--

The good news is, I'm green for the week except yesterday-- a thought-out (I like to think) decision yesterday to have a goodie that I associate with childhood. Just had a few bites.

The bad news is, I haven't lost any weight. Well, yesterday I was down three pounds, but I'm back up today. This is not my first rodeo and I know not to get too worked up about the scale, but of course I would like to drop weight like a rock, right? I mean, who wouldn't? I have a weight averager app which is soothing-- downs are up are just points on a trend line. I know some people do better not weighing, but I am quite sure I am not one of those people-- the fit of my clothes is just not a reliable guide.

To be fair, I haven't been too strict about "no seconds" since I have been trying to convince myself I won't starve between meals. And I am interpreting "no sweets" as "except for a couple of spoons of hot chocolate mix in my afternoon coffee, sugar on my oatmeal or syrup on my Kodiak pancake." So, hm, maybe not so surprising dramatic downward action is not happening on the scale.

That said, I really like this way of eating. Going without snacks has gotten much easier. Some of my meals have been a little lighter since I've been able to trust I am not going to be chewing the stuffing out of my pillow from inanition. It's so nice not to think about food between meals, to be more resistant to junk and less jerked around by what I assume are random insulin surges. It's better for family life since it's more conducive to eating together which we always try to do-- it's harder when you had a giant snack at 4 and you're not hungry for dinner at 7.

This week I will be more careful about no seconds. Let's see what that does.

I bought a fancy lunchbox from Wegman's for only $5! So, yay!

I think I'm doing all right habit wise. Sometimes I have to have a coffee with milk and cocoa mix at 4 to keep from chewing the furniture. And I am sad I have not lost any weight- maybe a pound? Maybe? But the other benefits feel worth it to me, and I can't help but think I might be gaining weight otherwise.

Working on no seconds this week.

b/ cherry whey shake, bagel with swiss
l/ham and swiss sandwich, rainbow salad with raisins and vinaigrette, tortilla chips
4/ hot chocolate
7/ gnocchi, cheese bread, 3 figs

Cheers, all!

Neither of us set the alarm and we had to condense our already streamlined morning routine into 25 minutes. Whee ha! It was exciting! So breakfast was:

7/ ezekiel 4:9 ("grapenuts with divine mandate" copyright Reinhard), half an english muffin with butter and jam

1/ gnocchi, apple chips, trail mix, hot chocolate and 2 mini chocolate bars-- can you tell I was annoyed by a delayed lunch/work woes?

5/ hard cider *yum*

7/ chicken breast, roasted potatoes and carrots, dark chocolate

Today is red, but not too far off the rails. I am thinking of adding a mod next week for some dark chocolate after dinner.

Week 3 and have not lost any weight, alack. Enjoying meals more and liking how much easier it is to plan things, so that's all to the good.

Rolled over instead of getting up to exercise this morning. I did do my fifteen minutes of intensity yesterday, five minutes of hiking down a steep ravine with a creek at the bottom and ten gasping minutes hiking back up. At 50 I should probably be worried about my heart but I just don't LOL. I worry about everything else, but not that. I did do 4 sun salutations this morning, so that's something.

B/2 kodiak cakes with butter and syrup, cherry/soy milk shake
1130/ tortilla chips, re fried beans, cheese, bread with almond butter, cherries
530/ ch soy milk (too hungry), 1/2 T almond butter
630/ pork, beans, roast onion, dark chocolate

Fail, I guess?

Hi! Well done staying on track. I'm new at this too. I'm a little nervous about weigh in day Sat. I hope I've lost at least a pound.

Hopefully your weight loss will start soon. Maybe your body has to adjust.

Have a great, in control day!

Hi Lackspur, Welcome! I've been a returnee to No S for about the same amount of time you've been here! Wishing you well! I like the way you are exercising by hiking! I think you're doing great!

Felt low yesterday. Physically pretty droopy by five-- I had to eat lunch at 11 for work schedule reasons, did okay after school not snacking. I take my daughter to ballet at 4:30 which takes an hour so I didn't get dinner on the table till 6:30. And I felt definitely droopy. I need some kind of mod for those 6-7 hour stretches till dinner. I think it would help me eat a little less at the meal.

Also struggling with some disappointment over not losing weight, which would be okay, except it's tying in with some body image stuff. I really dread Getting Into a Thing. I wonder if I need to just give up the hope of losing scale pounds until I'm out for summer break, when I can hike to tip the seesaw in the right direction. Just experiencing shades of my dad, who's been battling obesity despite regular jogging/walking and restricting for fifty years. He is legalistic about food and obsessed with his weight, poor guy, and not without reason. His thin brother is still playing tennis at 85. I've always felt I would prefer stable fat to Diet Head. I enjoy my meals much more, feel less conflicted/guilty about food, and I'm eating I think overall a better quality diet. So we'll go with that for now.


B/ egg and cheese on a muffin, chocolate soy banana shake with 1/2 T t whey powder
1215/ tortilla chips 8-10, bit of leftover beans, yogurt with pear, almond and apple

Hi Larkspur!

Thanks for stopping by my thread. I just wanted to give you some encouragement. The first time I did NoS was several years ago. I was perfect for a month but didn't lose any weight so gave up. 5 years later and 20 lbs heavier I was at the end of my rope. My obsessive thinking about food was at an all time high and I was experiencing a lot of body hatred.

I was completely convinced that my body was incapable of losing weight at this point but I just wanted some sanity with my eating. I decided to do nos again but this time without the expectation of losing weight. I only lost a few pounds the first year but I gained a lot of self-esteem just proving to myself that I could stick to a reasonable way of eating. It also took away my constant obessing over when and if and how much to eat so that was huge.

The following year my husband had a heart attack and it was a big wake up call for us. We start excercising and eating healthier. I started losing weight slowly but surely. I noticed it was easier for me than my dh to be consistent because I had the nos structure already in place. Over the next 2 years I made other changes like scaling back my drinks and eating off smaller plates. I'm now down 45 lbs and my eating feels very sane & normal.

Sorry for the long response but please don't get discouraged about the lack of movement from the scale. Right now you're just laying the groundwork by getting your habits in place and you can tweak things later (much later) to help you meet your goals. You didn't say how much you need to lose but if you really have weight to lose it will come off with nos eventually. Remember though Reinhard doesn't promise to get you model skinny but you should be able to get to a nice healthy weight.

Best of luck!

Linda

Ps reading fat acceptance books helped me a lot while I wasn't losing. It just helped me to see that a lot of these body standards are socially imposed.

Linda, this was so helpful for me. I did need to hear this. Weight loss is one thing, but feeling good mentally and physically matters more to me. I do feel really good on No S and planning meals, that bane of my existence, is way more fun. I did drop a couple of pounds, which I attribute to walking my feet off in NYC this weekend. I managed to stick with meals pretty much and did not go too overboard with the yummies. I have to watch myself Optimizing ("but is this EXACTLY what I want? Is it the BEST POSSIBLE treat?") I do that in general. Have to remind myself that another chance will come around soon, in food as in life.

I feel like I've persuaded my pancreas to wait for meal times, and I have good hope of persuading the rest of me that I don't actually need all that much food at a meal. I am hoping in the summer there will be more moving around and I won't have to spread my mealtimes so far apart. I might see more progress then.

I am adding a mod: a little dark chocolate at the end of dinner.

B/ 1/2 egg and cheese on an english muffin, chocolate soy banana shake with a T of whey
L/ 1/2 bagel with butter, vegetable soup, granola and yogurt
4/part of a homemade cafe mocha
D/beef, potato salad, collard greens, granola with a little chocolate, seltzer and juice

Very sedentary alack!

BMI 30.6

7/ cherry whey shake, english muffin with butter and jam

12:15/ vegetable soup, granola, plain yogurt, popcorn

I can't tell you how many people want to eat mid afternoon. It has actually never completely gone away for me. The only times that come to mind it doesn't is when I've had something like Costco pizza or flat out overate at lunch or am really really occupied during those hours. I think for me it's also about discontent in general. But others who are quite happy with how other things are in their lives say it's a tough time, too.

You are normal!

Larkspur wrote:7/ cherry whey shake, english muffin with butter and jam

12:15/ vegetable soup, granola, plain yogurt, popcorn

5/ juice and seltzer, soymilk

615: (too hungry) grilled cheese sandwich, roasted broccoli and potatoes, cherry shake (frozen cherries and milk), dark chocolate

Greenish? Slightly red?

Oolala: thank you for the encouragement! I do experience discontent/angst, but I don't usually eat my feelings unless I'm angry. I think most of my overeating is straight up insulin resistance where I know I have enough food on board but I'm not feeling it on a cellular level, if that makes sense. The 3 meals does seem to help with that.

My understanding of insulin resistance is that longer gaps between eating events can get the body to process insulin better. It's very reasonable to think that some of the sensations are the body not being able to shift to its other sources, so would feel uncomfortable. Feeding it food often definitely doesn't give it a chance to get good at it.

Oolala: Interesting stuff. I'll look for more reading on the subject.

I meant to say earlier, but was typing on my phone: I am sorry you have afternoon discontentment! I hope it is no more than is normal-human stuff. I just read Maude, a fictionalized biography of the author's grandmother born in 1892. Reading about someone else barefoot in the Dustbowl was good for temporary adjustments of my own discontent.

Decided to eat bf at work today as I was not very hungry this morning. My 15 year old is having some struggles and even though this is our third child, and the other two seem to be more or less functional human beings, we are worried and feel like we're failing her.

Anyway--

7/ juice and seltzer
8/yogurt and granola, english muffin with butter and jam
1215/ plate of bean nachos and a few potato chips
4/cup of very fabulous homemade cocoa
630/butterchicken, rice, samosa, poori

Hm-- calling that green, but not really slimming. Lovely though. Dinner with DH at a favorite Indian restaurant, very quiet and smelling of warm spice and the owners very kind. Saved half my meal for a delightful lunch tomorrow. Eating very comfortable and happy today.

Oh big hugs re your daughter. Parenting is heartbreaking sometimes.

My daughter 13 yrs has a lot of angst and it's hard to deal with at times. Right now she's miserable because of her Jr lifeguarding class. Apparently she's the weakest swimmer there and the most popular boy happens to be in this class as well as one of the popular girls. She's finding it ever so humiliating and she's angry and near tears every night when I pick her up.

Ugh, okay didn't mean to make this about me and it sounds like you're daughter is going through something much worse. But I do understand how heart wrenching it is to see your kids in pain. She's lucky though to have parents who care so much. I'm sure she'll get through this okay. Hang in there.

Linda

Linda, all encouragement welcome! DD has been in preprofessional ballet for years, got a serious injury outside of ballet, and has not been able to work at anywhere near the same level. I figured she and major ballet were going to part at some point. But this was a hard way to have it happen. She doesn't really have anything to replace it, has some ADD and is getting poor grades. She's our baby and in some ways is young for her age. She also suddenly shot up to 5'11" which has been a major adjustment and of course not good for ballet. She's bright and sweet and pretty-- I hope it will all work out okay. But some rough water for the present.

Your daughter's experience sounds like a very typical 13 thing. It's great to be able to swim well enough to be training as a lifeguard, but I guess that's not much comfort, is it?

Woke up not hungry. Decided to take bf to work. Which is less than relaxing, as I have to munch while trying to work. Not sure what to do about that.


7/ juice and seltzer
9/ yogurt, granola, chopped apple
12:15/butter chicken, rice, pourri, diet soda (craving sweet)
4/cocoa
6/pancake and a half, omelet, smoothie

I'm probably doing something hazardous, but I actually sometimes eat in the car. I put a dish towel over my lap. I can chew much more slowly on the freeway than when sitting at home. I could lie and say I always take things I can easily pick up with my fingers, but I spoon some things. Do you want to know which freeway so you never drive at the same time I do?

It's a conundrum.

Could you make a smoothie and have it on the way to work?

oolala53 wrote:I'm probably doing something hazardous, but I actually sometimes eat in the car. I put a dish towel over my lap. I can chew much more slowly on the freeway than when sitting at home. I could lie and say I always take things I can easily pick up with my fingers, but I spoon some things. Do you want to know which freeway so you never drive at the same time I do?

I'm not worried, I'm on the east coast

That does sound really tough Lark. I imagine a lot of her identity is wrapped in being a ballet dancer. I hope she finds something else to be equally passionate about.

A really nice weekend, though heavy on the Swedish Lemon Pie. I want to remind myself that though it did take the equivalent of a third of a pie (via the "just a sliver more" system) I did reach a place of satiety and contentment even with that extremely fabulous pie. I was not even jealous of my husband when he had the last piece for breakfast this morning. Did tons of moving around doing yard work, so a healthy appetite. Can't wait for summer when I hope to do a morning's work in the garden, followed by afternoon doing pleasant things indoors like writing, sewing and cooking dinner. Of course there will be tons of errands but I can fantasize

7/ juice with seltzer
8/egg and cheese on a muffin-- got hungry at 1030-11 and then it kind of subsided a bit
1245/ granola with yogurt and a small box of raisins, apple chips, gnocchi
4/ hot cocoa I feel a little guilty about, but man does it help
7/1 slice pizza, rainbow salad with raisins and sunflower seeds and vinaigrette, 8 oz berry smoothie

7/ not hungry (hmm) and sort of rushed and fussed and cranky. English muffin with butter and jam and a cherry whey shake which I brought to work.
11:45/ couldn't wait any more-- two slices of marathon bread, 8 triscuits, cheese stick, blue cheese, rainbow salad with sunflower seeds and raisins and vinaigrette dressing
4/ seltzer with juice
6:15/ a little bran muffin batter (hungry! and it was yummy!)
6:30/chicken, pasta, roasted broccoli, banana bran muffin

Have to mark this one red, but I did yard work for about an hour and I was pretty pleased at my ability to get through between meals, though the morning was uncomfortable.

Just reading this reminds me that I meant to do some weeding before dinner today! Too late.

A green hump day tomorrow.

Minor fail & great job on the yard work! 😍

7/ kodiak cake with butter and syrup, banana bran muffin, juice with selzer

12/ 2 bran muffins with butter, nachos with beans and cheese, 3 figs

615/ 3 chicken wings, cucumber salad, 3 potato wedges, a few cashews and a tablespoon or two of chocolate chips

I am calling kodiak cakes green. So there. Sticking ok so far, it's 1015. Getting bf to last is a thing.

Lunch stuck nicely. Not hungry till 6.

My pants that used to need a pin and then didn't need a pin now need a pin again. So some slooooow progress.

As an old roommate used to say, you know what you have to do.

Yeah, but am I doing it? LOL

I'm tryin'! It's hard when Duties don't let up-- 50 year old perimenopausal balogna in a big ole generational sandwich. Neither husband nor adult son can drive; we're managing three properties (and three mortgages) since my FIL died suddenly last fall, MIL is failing, father is aging far away, daughter 15 is struggling, I'm working full time and DH is working more than full time... What a sob story LOL. I need to get up earlier to exercise and lately I have been full of no doubt sort of valid excuses, but the bottom line is, I'm just shortchanging myself. Summer's coming and things will get easier soon.

All you have to do for now is put non-sweet food on a plate 3times a day and eat it.

For exercise, start with just floor exercises for 4 minutes.

Don't underestimate the power of small, consistent changes leading to bigger ones. Just don't try to plan what those are now.

Oolala, I did some sun salutations this morning LOL. So that's something!

B/ cherry whey shake, half a bagel with blue cheese, some orange juice with very disgusting psyllium that I didn't realize was flavored space age orange. Gross. Did not finish.
12/ plate of homemade nachos, bran muffin
4/cocoa
6/2 kodiak cakes with butter and syrup, an ounce or two of trail mix, juice and seltzer

That's exactly something! I swear, if I had just kept doing 12 sun salutations on N days since I learned them at age 27, I'd definitely have a different body.

But we have a lot of those, "If I had just...."s, don't we?

B/ cherry whey shake, 1.5 English muffins with egg and cheese
L/barely remember. Swamped and working. Big headache. Muffins? 2 cheese sticks. Small box of raisins. Very sad lunch.
2/ cup of coffee with vanilla creamer. Somewhat comforted. Head better.
5/ chicken, 7 or 8 cashews
730/ rest of chicken, potatoes, roast broccoli, , dark chocolate

Have to mark this one red. Inadequate lunch plus late dinner means I needed to eat something in between.

Weight is down a bit. Could use the cheering up Entering the minor hell of I didn't have time to make a nice lunch. But it's Friday, so yay there.

Here to cheer on your weight being down a bit! Have a great weekend!

When you have more experience, even imperfect lunches won't seem like such a big deal. Guess it's too late in your evening to recommend doing whatever you can to have a moderate rest of the day. But it's over. Now for a bit more spontaneous weekend before the peace of routine again.

Thank you for your good wishes! I think I did ok not overeating-- I just would have been too uncomfortable for too long without the snack, and eating together as a family seemed like my more important goal. Another one up for no S: I am really enjoying the habit of satisfying hunger all together around the table.

Scale down again (practicing nonattachment, but still lol) so I am hopeful I can have a lovely fun weekend without excessive emphasis on food.

Yay for scale going down. Hope the weekend went well!

Having meals be social and satisfy hunger is a nice reinforcing pairing. The way it's supposed to be!

So a good weekend, maybe not what I consider ladylike S days, but not too messy. I did have this weird dream where I was definitely experiencing scale anxiety. The nature of No S is moderate, but there is no question I am trying hard and invested in the outcome, and I had this bad dream involving weight gain. I have lost probably 4 or 5 pounds solid, finally, and I am anxious about putting them back on. I'm trying to chill out and focus on habits. I know many people get around this by not getting on the scale, but I think I would be too devastated to finally get on and have lost less than I thought. I prefer to keep an eye on it which entails its own set of difficulties.

My younger daughter has taken an interest in jogging and we made a pact to get up early. We did some sun salutations (to the rising sun, no less) and I walked the dog while she jogged.

My older daughter comes home from England for a short visit this week. Woot!

Bought some glucomannan (konjac root) after Oolala mentioned it. Interested to see if it helps me hold out till lunch.

Hope everybody had a good weekend! I got lots of garden work done!

B/ cherry whey smoothie with konjac root, English muffin with butter
1230/ small box of raisins, cup of beef barley, cheese stick, six or eight triscuits, coffee with creamer, apple chips
4/ hot cocoa
6/ juice and seltzer with Konjac root-- weird texture but sort of entertaining
730/ small bagel with cheese and bacon, green salad with vinaigrette, 1 small slice pizza, dark chocolate

4 sun salutations

730/ 2 kodiak cakes with butter and syrup (one of my mods, people), juice and seltzer with konjac root, tangelo
1115/ ate early because I had to schedule wise. Also very hungry. Small bagel with bacon and cheese, half a banana, cherries and plain yogurt
4/ juice seltzer konjac
6/ ch soy milk
615/ super hungry-- 1/2 burger, roasted potato, salad with vinaigrette, English muffin with butter and jam, shot glass of chocolate chips (another mod). A little too full but I was so hungry.

Gorgeous day which somewhat makes up for unfortunate tax news which for the moment has quite taken away my appetite. We don't have the final word yet but it is definitely not going to be the best-case scenario. But, what are you going to do? These things happen.

Hoping to get a nice walk in and some enjoyable fambly time. And my older daughter is coming home tomorrow!

4 sun salutations. Not counting walking the dog around the block, which is too lame to qualify as anything. But the dog liked it.

B/oatmeal with chopped apple, sliced almonds, raisins, brown sugar and butter, coffee with creamer
1215/ triscuits, cuppa beef barley, raisins, apple chips, cherries
And 2 cheese sticks
1 pm/ tiny mounds because my coworker saved it just for me, and a cookie because I had the mounds
6/ 2.5 slices homemade pizza, salad with vinaigrette, hard cider
8/ 1 lemon candy my daughter brought back from Italy

So RED. It feels like an S day though. Daughter's home! Woot!

7/ cherry whey konjac shake (sounds awful, but it's good), 1.5 english muffins with butter and lemon marmalade my daughter brought back from Italy

11/ coffee and creamer
1230/ beef barley soup, apple with peanut butter, slice of homemade spinach pizza while lunching with my DAUGHTER, yay
4/ small glass ch soy milk
6/ juice and seltzer, chicken stirfry, English muffin with butter and jam, strawberries, shot glass of ch chips

Scale is making me sad. Up 1-2.

8/ 2 kodiak cakes with butter and syrup, banana
1230/ 2 slices pizza at the mall with the fam
5 pm/ cup of light sweet coffee

a great week!

After a lovely weekend, I took today as an S day because I knew it would be that or a fail. All the kids home which feels really festive and I wanted more time with our nice treats. Boxing things up, and asking the kids to put their own candy in their rooms. It's incredibly simplistic, but it helps me a lot not to see things. The sole advantage of a poor memory

I am nervous about getting back on the wagon. I have enjoyed this way of eating so much. I feel so much better physically and mentally this way. I am happy to be losing rather than gaining fat, even if it's slow. Really don't want to lose momentum.

Back to work/ packed lunches tomorrow. Gah!

R u weighing infrequently? I would weigh the last three days before the weekend and average the 3 days.

Wishing you luck for getting back on the N day wagon. I'm in the same position as I also took yesterday as an S day, without even having children and their treats around, for me it was just the treat of having a long weekend with my husband.

On the plus side, there are now only 4 N days until the next S day.....

Tuesday was green, whew.

7/ smoothie (ch soy milk, whey powder, banana, konjac root = weird but tasty)

1/ lunch out. Did ok despite lateness. Thanks to the Easter refueling Half a chicken salad sandwich, bowl of chili, potato chips which I usually ignore but these were good and I was ready to eat.

4/ coffee with 2 creamers

630/ pasta with mushrooms, english muffin with butter, salad, 3 small chocolate eggs (mod!)

I did get on the scale this morning and I am up 1 pound, which is not too bad considering. Did my token 4 sun salutations and took the dog around the block.

So far today:

7/ 2 kodiak cakes with banana, butter, syrup, and a little bit of cherry shake (frozen cherries and milk)
1030/coffee with 2 creamers
1230/ 7 or 8 triscuits with 2 cheese sticks, bag of apple chips, hardboiled egg (of course), walnuts
4/ 1/3 c juice with selzter
5/ hot cocoa made with leftover chocolate bunny (fail)
7/ naan, butter chicken, rice, some lovely appetizer thing with chickpeas

Red today, alack. But I did dodge the Second Arrow, aka the WTH effect.

Yay for green days! Don't you love how you can't really fail on NoS? The green days are the goal but the red days teaches us something and when they're just mini fails that's a success as well.

Hope the rest of the week goes well!

Linda

b/ ezekiel with raisins and milk
l/leftover Indian with, yes, naan
d/matzobrai (however you spell it-- I'm only an honorary Jew) with butter and syrup and banana, and six malted milk eggs

RED

Annoyed at myself for eating too much delicious naan with the family at dinner last night. I'm never going to lose weight that way, and I do, in fact, NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT. Grr.

I think eventually we get that if we want to avoid that feeling of disappointment or regret later, we have to make the choice when the food is available NOT to have as much. One researcher said something interesting: getting upset afterwards didn't really change the behavior but wanting to AVOID getting upset later did! I hope you can remember you don't want to be sorry later next time you are at a dinner where it would be easy to overdo it.

But at least I hope you enjoyed what you did eat... Naan is pretty easy to eat a lot of.

Oolala, I really think you could be an awesome health coach. When I was looking around at What Am I Going to Do About it, I almost hired a coach-style service. Somehow you put things in a way that's very helpful.

So my home scale is a not very fancy analog thing, and if you push it the wrong way with your toe it will convince you you've suddenly gained five pounds. We have a calibrated digital scale at work and per that I've lost about four or five pounds since I started four or five weeks ago. My tummy is less squishy, I feel better, and I'm enjoying my meals more. I'll take it.

B/ english muffin with butter and jam, banana chocolate smoothie
L/ salad, fruit, most of an Arby's roast beef (thank you to daughter!)
4/ice cream with the family-- last day DD1 is in US until June
630/ 2 slices pizza and then that thing where you want more and you have another half a slice, also known as ____!

So RED.

Thank you so much for saying that! Though I think of myself as possibly an eating coach, with a smidgeon of health. I'm just guessing on that front.

So, can pushing your toe the other way bring a 5-lb. drop? So much for measurements.

So, a great Saturday, a little high rev food wise, but lots of heaving and lifting and shoveling in the garden. Was feeling good about weight loss and NoS, loving life and everybody.

Sunday not so good. Did hours of byzantine financial aid forms for daughter 1, which were late and we didn't realize it because the deadline changed. DH's income changed again this year so the amount of the grant is always in suspense, very stressful. DD 2 keeps missing big assignments, dropping her grades from A-Bs to Cs and worse. I suppose if that keeps up we will not have to sweat paying college tuition for her, because she will not get in. So some stress eating.

Kind of a relief to get back to N days. Hope I do well this week because it helps me to have this little personal practice when other things feel out of our control. I keep thinking back to what my dentist told me-- "you have got to slow down!" I have to scale down what constitutes Defcon 1. I'm sort of vibrating all over, lol. Hmm, wonder if my thyroid dose needs adjusting...

9/ late bf, not hungry am--- homemade egg and cheese muffin
1/mcChicken, Apple chips, 2 figs
5/juice and seltzer
7/sesame chicken, potato wedges, apple fennel salad, chocolate disks (mod!), juice and seltzer

Oh geez I'm not looking forward to the whole college thing. My kids won't qualify for anything with dh's income but doesn't mean we've saved enough to cover college. Ugh, hopefully they're grades will be good enough for scholarships or something.

Anyway sorry for the stress. I hope it all works out. Yay for N days!

Linda

Linda, sounds like you'll be looking for merit aid versus need-based aid. Certainly we did not manage to save $250K per child-- DD's college is $67,000 a year. It's a small liberal arts school that meets full need so we usually pay about half that, but it's always a bit of a nailbiter. I was really worried when she was looking around at schools, but it's been okay so far. It's just hard not to know each year going in, since DH's income varies a lot. I get paid a comically low salary but I do provide the health insurance

With DD 2's freshman year grades, I don't think she will be looking at the kind of school that meets full need, alas. We'll have to find something less than $67K a year LOL.

Gratz on your daughter being chosen for the school-wide honor! Awesome!

7/ juice with seltzer
8/bagel with cheese
10/ coffee w 2 creamer
1215/ gnocchi, banana, apple chips, 4 triscuit
615/ pork chop, broccoli, potatoes, half e muffin w butter, 9 chocolate wafers

So two green days, woot. Feels good.

b/ezekiel cereal with a small box of raisins, ch soy smoothie with banana, whey and konjac root (sounds like I should be mixing that in a cauldron with an incantation-- "Keep me full until lunch!")
10/ coffee with two creamers
1145/salad, small ham pretzelwich, tortilla chips
4/hot chocolate
7:15/ spaghetti and meatballs, salad, trailmix, part of a yucky bagel with butter

Some juice and seltzer. Lunch was light and it was a LOOOOONG way till dinner. I was exhausted after dinner, as in checked out from family life at 8 pm, which makes me sad. Next time I am going to have a banana or a spoonful of peanut butter or something like that if it's going to be more than six hours between meals. There's only so much coffee and milk I can be drinking in a day

So green, but at a cost.

In other news, I am trying not to be too fixated on weight, as I feel there is enough benefit to NoS without that. I have been losing tiny bits on a pretty regular basis. I'm down about six pounds per the digital scale at work. So a little less than a pound a week, yay.

today--

7/ not that hungry (big surprise)-- shake with konjac root, English muffin with butter
1215/ pork chop, potatoes with broccoli and cheese, a few chips, bag of apple chips. A little too full, erg!
645/chicken sandwich, cole slaw, half a banana, trail mix

Note to self: do not eat a generous lunch with apple chips and then drink a large iced tea. Those chips are rehydrating. Oof.

Larkspur wrote:Note to self: do not eat a generous lunch with apple chips and then drink a large iced tea. Those chips are rehydrating. Oof.

oh my goodness, I never thought of that! I know you have to be careful with chia seeds.

Had an awful evening yesterday. I am hoping to cut back my hours to be more available to care for my daughter and my elderly MIL-- which in the US is a thing because health insurance for the self employed is crazy expensive, like $2000 a month expensive. We can afford it, sort of, but it feels risky and irresponsible. So I have some decision making to do and I'm taking it hard and making everyone else miserable while I'm wreathing and writhing and fainting in coils. But I didn't eat.

Wow, that is expensive. I'm living in Germany at the moment and am also finding health insurance more expensive for self employed people, but unfortunately that's the way my area of work is, it's all self employed. But, man, it's nothing like that expensive that's crazy. Of course I come from the UK so paying anything for health insurance was a bit of a shock to the system. Although to be honest the UK system has it's own problems, it certainly isn't perfect.

Wishing you all the best in these tough times. (but please remember to eat, you need to stay healthy too)

Had a lovely weekend with lots of gardening, shoving furniture around, and food Nothing really wild but I was hoping to go light since I am excited about shaving off some poundage. Back to N days. I was only 12 green for the month last month and I don't think I've had a completely green week yet. Let's see if I can do it

7/ all bran and pineapple chunks
10/coffee thank you God x 2 over the day
1215/ ham, r veg, apple chips, 6 triscuits, brie
4/ juice and seltzer
7/ chicken, r veg, potato, brie, chocolate

Hugs for warm wishes on my thread.

Noticing what a lot I seem to eat LOL.

7/ kodiak cakes with butter and syrup (mod!), juice and seltzer
10/ cup of coffee with two foofy creamers
12/all the things (well, two english muffins with butter, some brie cheese, some all bran cereal of all things, cherries and yogurt, chocolate)
630/chicken, roasted potatoes and carrots, chocolate
1130/ch soy milk

Very hungry (all that garden work? Too many carbs?) Back pain. Trouble sleeping. Not sure if I can justify calling this one green.

Back finally recovering from major gardening this weekend. Oof. That hurt!

Ouch, it is easy to overdo it on garden work without realising - until you wake up the next day! Hope you recover soon.

May I ask what is a kodiak cake? Is it like a pancake? I am a big fan of pancakes (and waffles), so interested if this is another incarnation?

Just looked them up. Look like pancakes. One of the last homemade flour items i still cook. And were a common breakfast on Saturdays for a loooong time.

Kodiak cakes are a whole grain mix with protein added. They're easy and yummy and make the occasional sluggish morning more manageable. I know I'm eating way too many floury things. Just having one of those weeks where life seems awfully difficult. Just have to hang in there, the school year's almost over.

Very draggy this morning. But instead I had ch whey banana soy shake, cheerios, and an english muffin.
L/ one plate of non sweet very nice food provided by the PTA , coffee with 2 creamers
D/2 slices pizza, small slice of brie; almonds, raisins, chocolate; frozen cherries; bran cereal with milk--yes, a superweird meal and a lot of dense food-- I was quite hungry and afraid of making it till bedtime since we ate around 545. I need to buy some apples to bake to see if that will help fill in the cracks.

Sounds like you very purposely make a mod that you think will allow you to stay compliant, and you're aware it might get in the way of weight lose, but you accept that. That seems reasonable to me. (I think of it as weaning; totally appropriate habit-change tactic.) Not that my approval means anything.

Of course your approval means something You are a master level NoSer! (Noser for short?)

Gah. I was going to give myself a green for yesterday, but on reflection I am awarding a red because I ate bread, salad, broccoli, fries and steak at Outback last night-- some virtual plating which would have resulted in a rather stuffed plate. I did remove most of the fries, but I don't think I get too many kudos for that. Jumped up two pounds today, sigh. Feeling discouraged.

Please don't get on the scale after a failure! It is just water weight from the salt, carbs, etc. It does not represent a fat gain. Sure, you can make your eating all about manipulating the water retention in your body, but it won't be fun.

Or weigh every day but resolve to be concerned only with trends, meaning the average over a period of weeks. I think there are even online free programs that will do daily averages.

Also I suggest you resolve to avoid have your body feel how it did after yesterday's eating. That is what you are going to want to keep to a minimum. It's likely only then will sustained loss happen. But even "normal" people have fluctuations.

Still chugging along. Had a rather discouraged conversation with my husband this morning. I eat much less sugar this way & enjoy the gentle discipline and the more rewarding mealtimes. I suspect my blood sugar regulation is better and I'm persuaded of the benefits of fewer meal times. But I am not losing any weight. I'm going to try counting the calories in my meals and drinks for a few days, to see what's going on. Between this and our super scary and depressing political situation, not feeling terribly encouraged this morning.

Good Morning Larkspur, I see we're from the same state. To steal from oolala's signature, there really is no better No S than Vanilla No S to get things moving. And just to put things in perspective, I grew up near the chocolate capital of the world, dad worked at Hershey and Mom at Reece's, so I probably have a CoC(cocoa) blood type. If it weren't for grandkids, I'd seriously consider not keeping choc. eggs, mini-bars(dark, milk-choc, or white) or other goodies in our fridge. To easy to reach in there and pick one or two mini's out after dinner, lunch, mid morning, etc.
I liked that you were doing sun salutations, and I've been on the Five Tibetan rites myself right after I get up.
You've made a good start and haven't abandoned your check in like 80% of the people I've seen come on here. Keep on checking in. Have a great week. Trace.

Thanks, Trace! I am about half a hour from Chocolate World myself I need to Get Back With It. I hurt my back gardening for too many hours straight and have been a bit feeble since then but I think I can manage a few sun salutations, especially in the morning before things start to hurt. Just whining

I'm not against calorie counting for simple information. I used to get a soft serve chocolate cone at Costco fairly often years ago. I looked it up once and was surprised that it was 400 calories. That's just a little less than a lot of my total lunches are. Though I do enjoy them, and have one once in awhile, that just didn't sound worth it anymore. And eating just a little isn't that fun, either. I did about six months of meticulous counting on WW years ago. A lot of those meals have stuck with me, so my days are similar to what they were on that, maybe with a little more coffee and creamer.

It can be very sobering to realize how little food some of us "need" to eat to lose weight. I'm reminded of brightangel. She's short and older AND had been obese, all which lead to needing a lot less than what's thought. She's been pretty much living on less than 1,200 calories a day and some days much less, for years. Even on 1000 calories, she can gain because her small body and metabolism just don't need more.

Not to scare you...

I believe you can find a way to make it enjoyable.

Hi Larkspur!

I'm enjoying reading your blog! I grew up in Southeastern PA (outside Philadelphia) and went to grad school there- I do miss it! I'm in DE now, geographically not far, but a whole different world somehow.

I've been reading your check ins and enjoying them- hoping to see some green progress as you have! I discovered Kodak cakes from one of my coworkers and I love them also- so good.

Oolala, it is kinda unhappy making if you let it be. I was able to lose 20 lbs about 7 years ago eating "clean" six days a week and working out pretty faithfully, calories probably similar to what I'm doing now (1700-1800 ish). I'm not really interested in eating less than that. I'd rather be fat. Is that awful? I don't think I have a particularly unhealthy relationship with food. I don't binge, at least not what I consider binging (shades of Sense and Sensibility-- maybe my moderation is another person's binge!)

The last two nights I ate well during the day, moderate meals with no snacking, and ended up not being able to sleep at night because I was hungry. So I had some Ezekiel cereal which makes it a red day. About fifteen minutes after I ate I could feel the carbs just spreading through my body and I fell asleep beautifully. Sigh.

My dad has to fight like a tiger to keep a BMI below 36. And my brother's is over 40. So maybe I should just accept a BMI of 30 as pretty close to what I'm able/willing to do.

I plan to be a NoSer for life, though. It's a much better way to eat and I am hoping it will help me delay diabetes, which has always been my primary goal. If you can all just put up with my grumbling about not being able or willing to cut enough food to lose weight.

Ramy, hiya! How nice that you read my blog! Do you mind sharing where you went to grad school? I went to college outside Philly, my husband went to college and grad school there as well, and our oldest daughter is finishing her senior year at the college where we met

I've almost never, since being on No S, been willing to eat less just to lose weight, so I understand your thoughts. I thought I was going to just be heavier many times. I was at the high end of my BMI in high school, so it made sense I might get back there, but I felt there were no guarantees, and I never felt like quitting just because I was at a plateau.

If you know you are eating mostly good quality food in reasonable amounts MOST of the time, and aren't inspired to do more, so be it. With some regular exercise, you're doing probably 80-90% of what's needed. That's more than most, even of the slim people.

Larkspur,

Not at all! I doubt it's the same school since they didn't let men in until early 2000s. I got my masters in nutrition from Immaculata. I grew up in Malvern and one of my brothers is still in Wayne. i still love Philly and am sorry to be so far from it! That's so fun that your daughter is at your alma mater.

DH used to teach in the psych grad program at Chesnut Hill College-- the late 90s when he was a newly minted doctorate himself Such a pretty area. We lived in Mt Airy, one neighborhood over.

I don't know Mt Airy very well but I do know Chestnut Hill- charming! What a great place to be. We didn't go very often (I was closer to Manayunk) but I had a friend who did her internship at the hospital over there and we'd meet up occasionally for coffee. There used to be a wonderful bakery there- the Night Kitchen? Yum.

Had a lovely weekend and Mother's Day. There was much eating out, although the first meal I had a small fancy (and yummy) salad and a cup of soup with some appetizers, and the second, ridiculously huge meal I cut in half (other half is lunch today). So not binging or feeling bad, but not eating lightly enough to lose weight. The plan is to stay the course-- I'm going to try to jot down rough meal plans. The main thing I need to tackle is exercise.

Feeling worried because all three of my children are hugely fast eaters and suck down a lot of calories at a sitting. My youngest is still trim but the other two since leaving the household have put on weight. I know it's out of my control but I do feel so bad I didn't train them to eat more slowly. My sorely tried youngest is going to be the unwilling beneficiary of this new resolve.

It was interesting to watch my SIL and her friend who visited for Mother's Day. They travel in ritzier circles than I do (think: friend with a private jet) where there is a lot of emphasis on eating great food and drinking lots of wine but still staying trim. So they do a fair amount of strategizing about what to eat and when. But the default is kind of No-S really-- good meals and no snacking.

Here to a good N week, with exercise

Happy Mothers' Day! Well done on celebrating without going nuts - that's the spirit!

Now, on to Mothers' Guilt:

Larkspur wrote:I know it's out of my control but I do feel so bad I didn't train them to eat more slowly.

I don't think this is training necessarily. My husband eats like paint dries. His brother eats like his plate is about to be stolen, and his nickname used to be "Hoover". They are 18 months apart and raise the same, by his mum and dad who are very regular eaters. Who knows what little bits of nature and nurture play into these types of habits?

Thanks, Ironchef! I have pretty good kids but every struggle they have is, of course, my fault entirely. Just to be clear about that, LOL.

I'm NoSing, though imperfectly-- as in, yesterday I had to put off dinner until after 7, so more than a 7 hour stretch. I had some raspberries at 6 because I just couldn't go that long. And I'm hungry now because I had a late dinner and didn't want much breakfast (smoothie with yogurt, cherries, and whey powder). I'll have some coffee and I'll be okay till lunch. I still need to find a more filling breakfast. I did have a very filling lunch the other day which sadly was horribly unhealthy (2 McDonald's cheeseburgers. The shame!)

Exercise is still a problem. I need to get up Very Early but I stay up late reading because I don't have much free time. I'm like a Sim LOL.

Seven hours is a long stretch when we're not asleep. My feeling is contrary to NoS rules, is if we're gonna go Red, make it something like raspberries that you chose. I did the same the other day, when ravenous a couple hours before dinner, I ate an apple and it tasted better than a donut.

There's nothing in No S that says that a Red has to be an S.

I do want to reinforce the slower eating training, if you can do it in a relaxed way. In slim cultures, they teach children to eat more like food-savoring adults quite early on. They don't rely on individual instincts. It can be a little harder here since the rest of the culture isn't supporting it, so it might seem more restrictive.

Maybe add some fat at breakfast? Or a little more volume?

Do your best with long stretches and see if beverages can get you through. It just seems like chewing can lead to more chewing. (Though it doesn't have to.)

You're just a couple of months in, right? It's all part of the adjusting.

This is not the topic of the forum but I have to take a moment to express my sadness for our British friends on the board. I am the mother of a teen and have been to many a teenybopper concert. Just horrible, horrible stuff.

Very sad. This is your check in Larkspur, so you should be able to put anything you want on it.

Thank you Larkspur. I'm looking at the screen trying to find more words but they're not coming. So, just, thank you.

Posting mini-victories as my school year winds down:

Last night and the one before I was still super munchy after I ate dinner. The desire for more food/bread-y things was really intense. I told myself I could have more if I really couldn't stand it after ten minutes. And both nights the urge went away and it was fine.

Two nights where I did stretches/yoga/sun salutations watching MST3K with the family in the evening. I sleep better and feel better.

Keeping to no snacks although no sweets/seconds has not been too good. Holding the line until school lets out in a week and a half and I can exercise more.

Just saw Wonder Woman (which is great, by the way.) Inspired by the mid-life Amazonians who looked so strong and gorgeous! It was good for my 5'10" daughter as well-- a reminder that tall is a good thing So let's see if that helps me as I wind down the school year and work on getting in better shape for my trip to England in a couple of weeks. I haven't been overseas in (gulp) 30 years, and I want to be able to do lots of walking (with my daughter who will be great at writing essays after her year at Oxford but maybe not so good at hiking either LOL).

Goodness, a month. I was in England/Scotland for two weeks (awesome), followed by stomach flu (not awesome), and now I am deep in summer activities, which include a lot more moving around in various ways so that's all good. I lost 5 pounds thanks to hiking/stomach flu, to BMI 30.6. So now I need to keep moving forward. I ordered a physical copy of the book to keep around for motivation.

Re No-S, I am feeling like I might benefit from a spoonful of peanut butter or a snack of some kind at four, to keep me from being uncomfortably hungry at dinner. I'm more active in the summer and I want to keep my portions modest, but I am nervous of varying from The Pure Faith.

Hope everyone is having a marvelous S day!

http://larkspur-thebackforty.blogspot.com/

So, checking in--

* We've had a French exchange student for the last couple of weeks. Interesting and a little dismaying to watch his physique and food habits compared to the American kids. I want a do-over with my kids. (Kidding! I think!) The French kids are mostly slim-- not "average", but rather thin by US standards. One or two of the girls are a little softy and roundy but that's it. I was talking about it rather tentatively with my student-- told him that Americans eat a lot of processed food, don't take time for meals, and diet a lot, all of which are bad for your weight. He said he doesn't think it's the processed food. He says his mom taught him not to snack. So, one up for No S. He will ask for "vegetables" for dinner after a junky calorific lunch, say at the amusement park. So, some balancing of rich and plain food, and really truly not snacking.

*The three meal structure has been great for me. In the summer I'm active and have a more forgiving schedule, both of which are much better for my bod. I get rather excited about my meals and find it relatively (not perfectly) easy to ignore the junk food twinkling from every register because I'm well-fed and (I really believe) my body is not trying to fire out insulin randomly to deal with surprise attacks of food. It kind of knows when to ramp up and produces accordingly.

*I am not awesomely compliant or habit-tracking. Giving myself a B+ on No Snacking, a B- on No Seconds, and a D+ on No Sweets. My S days look pretty much like my N days. I feel energetic, less trouble with the sleepies (yay!) I love eating my meals. I'm stable in weight and not gaining like I was before No S. BMI is 30.0 so down a bit from 31.2 when I started.

I hope I will get more progress accomplished but I'm pretty happy now and pleased to have stopped the downward (upward?) slide.

Had a moment of feeling angry with my beloved and wonderful family yesterday. Before the movie we stopped to visit my 85 year old MIL, two French boys in tow. Then we went to the new Luc Besson movie. And even though I had just served lunch, my husband gave my kids money for popcorn which his mom had wanted to give them. So they got a giant tub of popcorn and a big thing of M&Ms, while the French kids, who like sitting farther back, didn't eat anything. I was so MAD. I hate feeling like a CLICHE. Both of my older kids are overweight since they left home-- notice I feel a need to plead for myself. They were okay when they lived with me! But if I'd done a really good job they'd be in a better position now. My son is trying to do NoS and he works out regularly. My daughter gained a rather scary amount of weight when she was abroad. The topic is clearly a no fly zone. Which is unfortunate in a way because a big change in weight can be a health flag, but it's one of the few things you Cannot Mention, or you will be That Mother, immortalized in the therapist's office and on advice columns for eternity. I do, actually, fully believe it's my fault. She looks a lot like my husband, or a lot like Snow White, and I was always making a big fuss about how beautiful she is. (Which she is-- I used to be amazed when I woke her up in the morning, pink cheeks and porcelain skin and tumbling dark hair). So I made too much out of it, I'm sure, and gave her a complex, and now she's working through it by gaining a lot of weight abroad. So I'm glad I cleared that one up (groan).

As for me, my S day was no snacks (I am counting the cherries while late dinner was cooking as a first course), no seconds if you don't count a pretty shocking amount (number?) of cherries, and one cinnamon bun in the morning. And I felt fine and it was all good. Annoyance at being one upped by innocent French people is a great regulator of behavior.

Larkspur, what a post! I daresay we may be over-analytical kindred spirits!
Hang in there, we all are a cliche from time to time.

I truly believe NoS can be a way of life, not a diet. So I really hope you find a nice comfort level with Vanilla NoS.

Still plugging away, though I have been eating generous meals. Out of curiosity I totted up my calories today, kind of restraining myself in the way that one does when prepraing to do that, and I came up with an easy 2000. So not a surprise that this middle aged lady is not losing weight. I do love the three meal format, which I have adopted without too much difficulty because it's great. I do, though, sometimes have a snack-- usually something at four because I don't want to go from 12 or 1 to 7, or once in a while in the middle of the night because I can't sleep. At this menopausal time of life I will be doing myself an immense favor by trimming my calories at meals and trying to eat fairly clean.

Of interest: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 091027.htm

I was interested in the macros-- 55% carbohydrate being thought optimal, 4 servings of freggies seems to be enough, and 35% fat is fine. They found that high carb (above 60%) was not so good, but they don't say anything about protein going higher-- I've read that higher protein, mostly higher animal protein, is connected with higher rates of cancer. If you add up 55 and 35 you get 10% protein which is the percentage associated with the lowest rates of cancer in other stuff I've read.

I can't imagine fussing with calories or macros on a daily basis but I may keep track of for a few days just to get an idea

So, my latest position in the dialectic (not sure I'm using that word right: I looked it up and am still not sure): do everything within reason to promote health and lose weight. I think for this week at least I will keep a habit cal. My NoS is a little different in that my weekends are not too different from my weeks, except I bake on Fridays. So no snacks or seconds, mostly whole foods or clean eating or whatever you call it, but still allowing myself some sweets during the week. If I write it down here, I'll be able to see what "some sweets" really looks like.

B/ oatmeal with apple, pecans, butter, honey and a spoonful of cookie butter
hardboiled egg

L/burger and fries out (husband wanted this after a frustrating morning trying to start my late FIL's car, and he asks for so little, I would bake a 7 layer cake if he wanted it)

Coffee with milk and chocolate at 4

D/ white beans with proscuitto, chicken breast, 2 pieces bread with butter and fig jam

Five factor workout (weight lifting and elliptical for about 25 minutes)

My NP says that 1/2 an hour of vigorous exercise will help with the sudden visitation of the Hot Flash Fairy, so here's hoping.

I think your No S sounds like what it's supposed to be (SOMETIMES) and what eating is supposed to be.

Your post a while back on your kids' eating at the movies vs. the French students' was priceless. It's too late for it to influence your child-rearing, but have you read French Kids Eat Everything? By that the author means food we often associate with adults, not they eat everything in sight. I found it useful even as an adult.

Down to the last months to solidify habit for the holiday gauntlet.