Everyday Systems

Honestly, I'd been doing fine and not thinking too much about No-S, just kind of DOING it for a long time when I got slapped out of nowhere by Life.

I became a grandmother (YA!) back at the end of last October then almost four months later, well, she died. I'm not going into details just because I don't really want to focus on it (anyone dealing with a loss can understand that one, I am sure).

I'm back to make sure I keep to my good habits for a bit. In the midst of a crisis, I am often quite good about keeping to my habits, but afterwards? That's when I am at risk of collapsing. It's been close to eight weeks now, and about the time when I may start falling apart. Hence the tracking.

Last week was actually pretty good. No-S was fine, no red days. One day of a plate of junk food that wasn't sweet for lunch. Still, "real" food like veggies and fruit and fresh things I actually need to cook are better.

My S-days were a bit more extreme on the sweets than usual. A slice of cake on Saturday, and French toast for breakfast and a slice of cake on Sunday. Usually I only have one S event on a weekend, though that's not planned. It just... happens that way Because Habit, you know? Unless we're socializing a lot or something.

I'm... not drinking at all. I'm scared to. I went from wondering if I were developing a bad alcohol problem several years ago to a drink or two a week, and well... I don't want to go back there.

I'm not swimming, either. I can't bring myself to spend an hour or so a day face down in the pool with nothing to distract me from my thoughts right now. Instead of Urban Ranger, I'm wearing a fitness tracker and being sure to get in over 10,000 steps a day. It's as much as I am up for.

Anyway, that's where I am at, and I am trying to make sure my habits stay good.

Good luck to you! I'm sure you'll do well.

Looking forward to hearing from you

Cool blog.

I was very sorry to read of your loss.

So sorry for your loss, Noel.

We hope you will post - we'd love to hear from you again!

Thanks guys. I appreciate your kindness.

Monday

No-S

Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs, 2 slices of bacon, 1/2 apple, coffee
Lunch: salad with chicken, cucumbers, celery, dried cranberries and walnuts with a raspberry vinaigrette dressing.
Dinner: Chicken stir fry with broccoli, red pepper, carrots, onions, garlic, ginger and rice.

Steps: 12,816

My goal for steps had been 10815 yesterday. But it was a nice day, and my husband and I went for a walk after dinner, bumping up my steps way above what I intended.

I bought a treadmill because I haven't wanted to leave the house much and had been pacing around the house to get my steps in. Dorky, but goodness knows I am moving. Mostly what I do is listen to an audiobook and do the treadmill for 30-45 minutes in the mornings, then when I take a break from work, walk a bit and listen to an audiobook or short podcast. It adds up.

Awesome day, awesome step count.

Tuesday

No-S

Breakfast: Steel cut oats with sunflower seeds, dried blueberries and chopped walnuts
Lunch: Bento with meatballs, cherry tomatoes, yellow bell peppers, grapes and onigiri
Dinner: Pork loin with baked potato and broccoli

Steps: 11,636

Wednesday

No-S

Breakfast: Bacon, eggs and apple
Lunch: Bento with ham and cheese wraps, orange bell peppers, cherry tomates and an apple.
Dinner: Pasta and spaghetti sauce

Steps: 11,962

Today is an S day. Well, an S event. I don't socialize a lot, so for me Socializing is very much an S. I had coffee with a friend and made coffee cake muffins. I had ONE. I had a nice breakfast, and will have a normal day today with a salad for lunch and soup for dinner.

FWIW, I love The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook. You can make single or double-serving treats and you're never really tempted to over-indulge and still get to have fresh-baked treats.

Well done, Noel, for taking care of yourself like this.
hugs xxx

Sounds like a lovely food day. Kudos on those steps.

Thursday:

No-S

Breakfast: Steel cut oats, dried blueberries, sunflower seeds and walnuts
Morning coffee: Coffee and a coffee cake muffin
Lunch: Chef's Salad
Dinner: White chili


Steps: 11307

Friday:

No-S

Breakfast: Bacon and eggs, coffee
Lunch: Bento with pork loin, sliced apples, sliced red peppers and onigiri
Dinner: Pizza

Steps: 11,237

Saturday:

No-S

Breakfast: 2 coffee cake muffins, coffee
Lunch: Omelette
Dinner: Spaghetti
Snacks: Tortilla, handful of sunflower seeds, ham wrap


Steps: 12,633

Memo to me: The muffins were great, but sweets and a lot of coffee and no protein is bad if you're going to take a long walk several hours later right BEFORE your lunch. You'll get dizzy. You know that.

NoelFigart wrote:Saturday:

No-S

Breakfast: 2 coffee cake muffins, coffee
Lunch: Omelette
Dinner: Spaghetti
Snacks: Tortilla, handful of sunflower seeds, ham wrap


Steps: 12,633

Memo to me: The muffins were great, but sweets and a lot of coffee and no protein is bad if you're going to take a long walk several hours later right BEFORE your lunch. You'll get dizzy. You know that.

Noel, Your step counts are impressive. May I ask what device your using to track them? btw, we grew up in Lebanon, Pa and see your home is Lebanon, N.H. Thanks, Trace

Garmin Vivofit. I have a Garmin swim watch, so it's a way to track swimming and other things, so I am in the Garmin ecosystem pretty heavily. It's really a basic thing, tracking steps and sleep, but not much else. If you want a fitness device that tracks heart rate and things like that, there are other fitness trackers on the market that do that.

I do know step counters worn on the waistband are more accurate than those worn on the wrist, but I often do not wear clothing that has a waistband. Hence the wrist model. I figure that's good enough, ya know?

Sunday

No-S

It was a holiday. I paid utterly no attention to when where or how I was eating. And yeah, totally had a lot of chocolate.

Steps: 11,737

Monday:

No-S

Breakfast: Bacon, Eggs, grapes
Lunch: Ham, left-over macaroni and cheese, strawberries, broccoli and cucumbers.
Dinner: Beef Stew, Salad

Snack after dinner: Bread and butter.

This is where I must avoid the "What the hell" effect. (Link is to Reinhard's podcast about it).


Steps: 13,191

Great steps, nice meals. How did the rest of the day go?

The snack was it. I was more worried about the next day.

Oh yesterday?

Tuesday
NO-S

I don't remember what I ate yesterday, but I did have three meals, I didn't snack or have seconds. I think I had porridge for breakfast, some sort of chicken and onigiri bento and steak for dinner... Yeah, that's about right.


Steps: 11,499


I had dental work today, and I'm quite scared of the dentist. On top of that, I've been having some on-going work, so he's been seeing me at regular intervals and asked about my granddaughter. I was able to tell him what happened, but then when we got to the part where I had to have a shot, I burst into tears. *snarl* I hate that shit. I feel terrible, he feels terrible about prompting it. It's a damn downer all around, and the man specializes in people with dental phobia and is really gentle, so I know he prides himself in giving as comfortable an experience as possible. It's one of those things where everyone feels terrible, and no-one did anything wrong, ya know?

I came home and took a nap then got up and listened to an audiobook and walked on the treadmill. I woulda knit, but I didn't have anything on the needles and I was too stressed to cast on what I wanted to make.

I suppose Terry Pratchett and a walk is hardly the worst way to react to feeling bad, huh?

Dental work is upsetting. I know as a grown up I always feel it shouldn't worry me so much, but it does. So I think you get a huge atta girl for going and doing that difficult thing and, as you say, it's nothing you or he could have anticipated. Sounds like Terry Pratchett and walking was a great response to a rough day.

I've been getting big giggles out of the Mystery Science Theater reboot. I also get a kick out of The Onion.

Wednesday:

No-S

Breakfast: Porridge, dried blueberries, walnuts, sunflower seeds
Lunch: Bento with two minibagels and mini cheeseburgers, broccoli florets, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and sliced strawberries
Dinner: One bowl of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish. Yes, yes, I see you making a face and asking, "How can this not be cheating?" Wasn't a sweet. Wasn't a snack. (Had it at dinnertime for dinner) Wasn't a second. I had one bowl. Do I do this often? No. Do I think it is a great idea to do often? I do not. It's not in the least healthy to do often. But what it did do was keep me from binging on a bunch of junk food because I was stressed out.

Steps: 11,347

Thursday:

No-S
Breakfast: Bacon, eggs, apple, and coffee
Lunch: Cranberry, apples, celery and walnuts on a greens bed with chicken and raspberry vinaigrette dressing.
Dinner: Ham, Macaroni, broccoli

Steps: 11,375

Your meals sound so nice

Wishing you a good spring Friday.

Friday:

No-S I don't remember what I ate.

Steps: 11,453

Saturday:

No-S

Steps: 11,417

Sunday:

No-S

Steps: 11,704

Awesome steps.

Hi Noel- I know you sometimes pop back in for the holidays. Hope to see you around here soon!

Hey.

As a matter of fact, I am not doing at all well on the No-S thing and I am taking this as a Sign to get my stuff together. (THanks!)

I am a computer applications instructor, among other things, and have taken a contract to teach an electronic medical records system to a bunch of people who don't seem too happy about the change.

I am living in a hotel, working a lot of hours and for go-lives like this, there is always a lot of food around all the damn time. It is mind-bendingly stressful (as anyone in the software industry knows, big hospital go-lives are intense) and so there's a lot of stress eating going on.

However, I have an electric griddle in my room, so I can cook decent meals.

So, as I've had a proper breakfast this morning, perhaps it would be useful to be back on No-S.

Monday

No-S
Breakfast: Two sausage links and two eggs
Lunch: Roast beef sandwich with lettuce and tomato, yogurt, chips
Dinner: Pasta with meat sauce

Steps
5313 Damn Pathetic

Glass Ceiling

One G&T

Love your blog. It inspired me to attempt a bullet journal

NoelFigart wrote:However, I have an electric griddle in my room, so I can cook decent meals.

Good to see you. Great that you can fend for yourself. I'm sure with your long history of successful no-S-ing, you'll slip right back in.

Good to see you here again!