Okay, tribe.
Here are my updates. I promised the update and Oolala, no, I have not slinked off (slunked off?)(grammar!?) in shame. That said, I am not sure my modifications still qualify me as a bona fide, card-carrying member of "No-S." (But I don't want to leave you guys!!!)
So, here is what happened...
I was doing "No-S" but then, over time, I noticed that I was eating at meal times yet I was not hungry at all (despite not snacking - or, subversive thought, maybe BECAUSE of not snacking?). I noticed that on those occasions, if I ate at meal times without being hungry, I seemed especially prone to overeating.
This took me to the concept of hunger. Hunger. Actual hunger. Hunger in its different manifestations. I THOUGHT that I knew all about it.
In his book, Reinhard says something like hunger is a dumb beast with a rote mind, trainable. (I am quoting very loosely as I am not home and don't have the book in front of me.) He also says it's uncivilized to eat in response only to hunger. Okay, fair enough, on both points.
But my own experience, as I paid more attention in recent weeks/months, was that (1) I was NOT hungry very often at my meal times, and (2) if I ate anyway, without being hungry, I would quickly find myself in the grip of an insatiable appetite. I would then just eat and eat and eat (plates be damned, seconds be damned, sweets be damned, you get the picture).
This took me to hunger. HUNGER as a concept and as an experience.
I am middle-aged, short, female, with a history of caloric restriction and significant weight loss. What if I don't actually NEED so much food? My intuitive sense was I don't actually need nearly as much as I was eating, but how could I accomplish the feat of NOT overeating?
As explained, No-S was working for a while but increasingly, I was not hungry AT ALL at meal times. I ate anyway, to stay on plan. And overate.
So I started to experiment.
One of the key insights for me with No-S has been that, in my opinion, the MOST IMPORTANT rule is not snacking. This, naturally, progressed for me into longer spaces between meals. Longer spaces in-between meals really started to mean... fewer meals.
I decided to eat at meal times BUT ONLY IF I AM HUNGRY. (Note that this is different from "eating when hungry"). I may feel hungry, but won't eat if it's not a meal time. Conversely, if I am NOT hungry, I will NOT eat at meal times. I will just wait until the next meal.
I have thrown out a lot of stuff I was living by as a hard-core, devoted WeightWatcher. And I still swear by much of what I learned over my years there. But I have thrown out some of the tenets that I had adopted as gospel, so to speak (using religious metaphors ONLY as a figure of speech, no offense intended to anyone!!!!!):
-- Breakfast is no longer required or mandatory
-- I no longer believe in "starvation mode" because of a skipped meal
-- I no longer believe that I will overeat if I "let myself get too hungry" because my actual experience has been, in recent weeks/months, that when I am actually HUNGRY (truly hungry) my food tastes much better AND I am satisfied at meal's end, which no longer feels forced
-- Currently, I am eating usually just one (1) meal per day, and I feel fine
(AGAIN, this is probably NOT for everyone - just for little me, with my height, gender, and history)
-- My meal, whenever I do eat it, is hearty and as I have been eating, it is not restricted to just one plate, but it IS based on an actual meal concept
-- I am no longer afraid to eat after 6:00 PM
-- I have breakfast occasionally, as I feel like it (making it 2 meals in one day)
-- I find that sweets throws me off, so I am keeping those to a minimum
I feel fine and I have dropped about twelve pounds without much effort. From reading stuff on the Internet, apparently the thing I am doing has a name, called "Intermittent Fasting" on the web. I have read some of that stuff but then, I would still like to remain a member of the No-S tribe.
Question is: have I disqualified myself? That is the real question. I hope not. But then, the thing I am most successfully practicing is the NO SNACKING rule. And I am finding I don't get ravenously hungry. I get pleasantly hungry when it's time for my meal in the late afternoon or in the early evening, late evening even at times.
So there. I have bared my soul.
AGAIN, I WANT TO CAUTION MY WAY COULD BE A REALLY BAD IDEA FOR THOSE WHO HAVE MUCH GREATER CALORIC NEEDS THAN ME. But I am comfortable and I am eating happily when I do eat. Any thoughts???
Thanks, Elyssa