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Vainglorious check-in thread

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 2:38 am
by vainglorious
About me (health + no S)
I've never really dieted and I think mostly my relationship to food is already in a good place. However, last summer, after the second time I put on 10-15 pounds of weight basically overnight with no change to my diet or exercise, I was diagnosed with a chronic health condition (PCOS). Half the people with this condition become diabetic before age 40, and I really don't want that to be me. One of the things that is recommended for people with this condition is to eat three big meals and not snack, but I am an inveterate snacker. I also have a large sweet tooth. I did a two week long sugar fast (no added sugars whatsoever, but I ate apples, pears, sweet potatoes, etc) and it was really easy to not eat the sugar during a time I knew it was a no-no. However I didn't feel any better after restricting sugar, so I started eating it again. Much less of it, but it was annoying because I'd think "oh I'll limit myself" and then I wouldn't really. So when I heard about No S, it sounded like something that I could live with--I already hardly ever eat seconds, I did snack but it would be wise to stop, and I should also reduce sugar for my health but I'm bad at limiting myself without clear guidelines set.

I've already been following it for probably two weeks or so, and there have only been one day really where I snacked when I shouldn't have, and it was because family visiting threw my schedule off. I've been good about the sugar & seconds, except for that one family visiting day again (how can I refuse when someone offers to buy me dessert?).

To keep myself accountable (or try), I'm going to be posting progress here.

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 2:40 am
by vainglorious
Today's been good so far: three meals, no snacks, no sweets. I am somewhat worried though because I already ate dinner but I'll be awake for 4-5 more hours. I had to eat lunch two hours earlier than I would have liked due to school scheduling, and I'm worried that tomorrow is going to be even worse. :\

Still though, so far so good today!

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 6:07 pm
by Merry
Welcome! I've occasionally eaten dinner that much before bedtime (actually, sometimes I'm quite the night owl & dinner is a lot before I go to bed!). It can be hard to get used to no nighttime snacking the first couple of months, but it starts to feel more normal as time goes on. Keep up the good work!

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 8:48 pm
by vainglorious
Merry wrote:Welcome! I've occasionally eaten dinner that much before bedtime (actually, sometimes I'm quite the night owl & dinner is a lot before I go to bed!). It can be hard to get used to no nighttime snacking the first couple of months, but it starts to feel more normal as time goes on. Keep up the good work!
Thanks! I'm looking forward to it getting easier. I didn't slip up and have any treats but I was so hungry the next morning when I woke up!

I forgot to check in yesterday! Oops. It was mostly successful. I did slip up with a sweet with my lunch, but it was really hard to resist--one of the campus groups was handing out Otter Pops and it was like 97 degrees so... But, I ate it with a bunch of really good food packed from home, so, not that bad.

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 2:18 am
by vainglorious
8/24: Success all around :)

8/25: On track for now; have had two meals, one left to go. Haven't had any sweets or snacks, not even one little lick of the batter in the shortbread cookies I just made for partner's work. Will almost certainly be setting one aside for tomorrow though ;D

Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 4:25 am
by vainglorious
8/26 + 8/27 were S days, but there was no snacking and no seconds. Had a sweet and a half on the 26th and half a sweet on the 27th. :)

Today has been good so far, I'm worried I'll get hungry before bed because dinner was relatively light and I had it on the early side but it's not likely to be too bad.

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 6:15 am
by vainglorious
All good today, and spent some extra time in the kitchen making a big batch of food so I would be sure to be able to eat meals tomorrow too (long day).

Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2017 9:14 pm
by oolala53
Just try to remember that it's okay to sometimes have to go longer between meals or after dinner. It gives your body more of a reason to dip into its stores. We kinda want that... :) But, it shouldn't be daily suffering.

Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 5:48 am
by vainglorious
oolala53 wrote:Just try to remember that it's okay to sometimes have to go longer between meals or after dinner. It gives your body more of a reason to dip into its stores. We kinda want that... :) But, it shouldn't be daily suffering.
Thanks for the reminder! :) Yeah, I've been trying to be okay with that hungry feeling. It used to feel like the end of the world but even after a few weeks I'm getting used to it and not feeling so urgent. I'm finding that even when I am hungry for a while, the experience is rarely as bad as I thought it was before I drew the "no snacking" line.

Also: 8/31 all good! :D

Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 5:59 am
by vainglorious
SEPTEMBER
:arrow: :arrow: :arrow: :arrow: :arrow: 👠🎉
🎉 👠:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: 🎉
👠:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: ðŸ ðŸ :mrgreen:
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: ðŸ ðŸ :roll:
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: ðŸ ðŸ :mrgreen:

🎉 = S Day (Labor Day weekend is all S days because I'll be traveling & visiting family; I'm going to try to keep Friday and Monday N days...but it is hard on the road)
:mrgreen: = I was good on this N day
:roll: = I wasn't as good as I'd hoped on this N day
👠= designated S day that turned into an N day (hey we can hope!)
ðŸ = S day for fall; shifted to more closely match my weekends and social events since I love to do fall baking

Just a quick at-a-glance to press my happy dopamine buttons. ;D :mrgreen:

Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 6:16 am
by Merry
Cute buttons!

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2017 11:46 pm
by vainglorious
Merry wrote:Cute buttons!
Thanks :D

So I'm back from my holiday weekend. I actually was able to keep Friday & Monday of Labor Day weekend N days, although Monday breakfast was a bunch of sweet food (fruits, jams, whipping cream, etc) that I'm really not used to eating so it felt like an S day. In fact it seemed like more sugar than most of the "sweets" I eat, because I ended up feeling sick although that may have just been the car ride (prone to carsickness).

Really glad to be back to my N day routines because eating a bunch of rich food, having seconds, etc., didn't feel all that great. (Although I will say the food was phenomenal--many great cooks in my family!) So far so good today.

Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2017 3:36 am
by oolala53
Funny how what we were so sure was fun isn't. But we can sure keep getting fooled.

Eventually, there can be whole weekends with no s's. In my mind, they're still S days because the option is there. But it's perfectly possible to have enjoyable weekends s free.

Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2017 5:58 am
by vainglorious
oolala53 wrote:Funny how what we were so sure was fun isn't. But we can sure keep getting fooled.
Sure can! I think for me it's definitely easier to get fooled when traveling / around family you don't get to see often, which are often on S days.

Today = all good. I was pressed for time and actually didn't eat all the lunch I had but still didn't get hungry for 6 hours or so. So maybe have been eating lunches that are larger than they need to be.

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2017 4:07 am
by oolala53
Sometimes we find these things out by accident.

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 3:21 am
by vainglorious
oolala53 wrote:Sometimes we find these things out by accident.
Wish I'd get helpful accidents like that more often!

9/8 - all good this day

Today's an S day. Haven't had any snacks or seconds but I have had some sweets--made sugar cookies. Pretty tasty but I think I am going to ask my partner to take the rest of them into work. They're kind of on the sweeter side.

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 7:14 am
by vainglorious
Today, all good.

Yesterday, though an S day, was converted into an N day. Hooray :)

Considering the idea of taking away a weekend S and turning one of the midweek days (Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday) into an N day for fall so I don't feel deprived of doing fall baking. Also because it fits well with my shifted weekend schedule and midweek events. It would be temporary for fall. Been thinking about it for a little while, maybe I'll make a decision soon. Until it's official it's vanilla No S.

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 12:16 pm
by oolala53
In my mind, an S day is an S day whether I have an S or not. I think it keeps me from thinking I may have "earned" an S or an N day. But it is fun when you see that you can have a perfectly delicious day without S's.

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 3:12 pm
by gingerpie
I know others have tried variations on this idea. I don't know how it worked out for them thought. I imagine that, in order for it to work successfully, it would have to be a consistent day. For example Wednesday and Saturday are "S" days every week. Not, Wednesday one week, Thursday the next and Tuesday the week after. My "S" days are Friday and Saturday and they have been for years but sometimes I wonder if I wouldn't be better off just making my "S" days the traditional Saturday and Sunday because sometimes I feel like I just have to think about it too much. The other issue that I sometimes have with it, is that I feel like I'm just trying to circumvent the rules - trying to find a work-around - so that I don't feel the bite of self restraint quite so strongly. One way or another, this No-S process requires self-restraint. Best of luck to you as you find your way.

Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2017 6:55 am
by vainglorious
oolala53 wrote:In my mind, an S day is an S day whether I have an S or not. I think it keeps me from thinking I may have "earned" an S or an N day. But it is fun when you see that you can have a perfectly delicious day without S's.
Good point, I think for me it's more just a noting thing. Since I'm doing the calendar/check in thing anyway, might as well record that stuff while I'm here. :)
gingerpie wrote:I know others have tried variations on this idea. I don't know how it worked out for them thought. I imagine that, in order for it to work successfully, it would have to be a consistent day. For example Wednesday and Saturday are "S" days every week. Not, Wednesday one week, Thursday the next and Tuesday the week after. My "S" days are Friday and Saturday and they have been for years but sometimes I wonder if I wouldn't be better off just making my "S" days the traditional Saturday and Sunday because sometimes I feel like I just have to think about it too much. The other issue that I sometimes have with it, is that I feel like I'm just trying to circumvent the rules - trying to find a work-around - so that I don't feel the bite of self restraint quite so strongly. One way or another, this No-S process requires self-restraint. Best of luck to you as you find your way.
Yeah, I was planning to choose the two days and then stick to them. I think I might actually do two days together, Thursday and Friday, which more accurately reflect my weekend. They're also days that I do "weekend" socializing activities, like visit friends, have outings, etc., so I'd be able to bake my 2 recipes per week (yay!) and also distribute them much more easily than if I'd baked them on a Saturday or Sunday (yay!), thus reducing my overall amount of sweets as well as food waste (the last thing I baked I had to throw most of it away because it was stale by the time I had an event to bring it to :\). I think I'd still go back to traditional No S for the seasons I don't really having a baking "thing" for.

Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2017 5:18 am
by vainglorious
13th - all good

I went ahead and made the change to S days on Thursday/Friday, so today was an S day, I baked some goodies. God rid of some with friends today and hopefully the rest with family tomorrow! :)

Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2017 4:53 am
by vainglorious
All good today!

Had some nice S days, glad I changed it so I could eat with my family on Friday and give them my other baked goods. It's the first set of S days since I started No S where I actually maintained/dropped weight after the S days instead of gaining weight. Weight isn't really my preferred way to measure health but in lieu of a blood glucose test and whatever else the doctor does, it's what I have for a proxy! So anyway, small celebration there 🎉 It felt like the right amount of sweets, and not like I was just eating them because they were there and it's an S day and I had nowhere else to take them to.

Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2017 1:25 pm
by oolala53
That sounds pretty stupendous.

Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2017 4:39 am
by vainglorious
oolala53 wrote:That sounds pretty stupendous.
Ha! Yeah, I thought so too :D

Everything good for the last few days. Yesterday I was out with friends and afraid it was going to turn into a :roll: day, but I turned the "snack" into a meal and declined the sweets so all good.

Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2017 3:57 am
by vainglorious
Had a weird schedule today so ended up eating lunch too early. Unfortunately hungry way before usual dinner time :( I waited but it's some of the most unpleasant hunger I've had in a while.

But, all good here, so yay. Looking forward to S days :D

Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2017 5:13 am
by oolala53
Won't happen that often. Congrats for holding out!

Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2017 11:27 am
by Lilybug
Good for you for waiting!

I find it weird how afraid I am of the slightest discomfort :?

Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2017 2:52 pm
by oolala53
It's just a habit, to some degree reinforced by the culture. It's also partly the desire to avoid withdrawal. But whatever it is, your prefrontal cortex can be summoned to create the scarcity that would have just been the way it was a hundred years ago. No S a mild scarcity, one that countless people in the world would be happy to have.

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 4:30 am
by vainglorious
All good the last couple days. Saturday got a :roll: not because I had any sweets or snacks but because I ate too much dairy. :\ I'm not really supposed to eat dairy, but often I have a little cream or butter. Occasionally I will have some cheese or yogurt, but I try to keep it about a serving or less. On Saturday I had kind of a lot of cheese and it wasn't great. So I awarded a :roll: to remind myself that there's a reason I usually restrict my dairy.

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 3:54 pm
by oolala53
Health reasons or negative reactions are a perfect reason to restrict certain foods. Only you can know if it's worth the symptoms.

If I were sure certain foods are responsible for some of my new aches and pains or for my mood issues, I'd nix them tomorrow. But none are for sure and they do involve sacrifice. So, I stay with what I do.

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2017 8:32 pm
by vainglorious
September review: Did well! Only one :roll: day, and that wasn't even strictly S-related, just eating a food that doesn't sit well when I should've known better.

OCTOBER
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: 🤢 :mrgreen: ðŸ ðŸ 🤢
:mrgreen: :roll: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: ðŸ ðŸ :mrgreen:
:mrgreen: 🤢 :mrgreen: :mrgreen: ðŸ ðŸ 21
22 23 24 25 ðŸ ðŸ 28
29 30 ðŸ

:mrgreen: = I was good on this N day
:roll: = I wasn't as good as I'd hoped on this N day
👠= designated S day that turned into an N day (hey we can hope!)
ðŸ = S day for fall; shifted to more closely match my weekends and social events since I love to do fall baking. Also included Halloween on here as a holiday because...obviously ;D

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2017 8:35 pm
by vainglorious
I think today's going to be a :roll: I got a migraine yesterday afternoon and today am still not recovered with it. Migraine = nausea. There's only a couple things I can eat on days like this and I can only eat small amounts at a time, so I have to snack to make sure that I'm actually getting enough food to recover on. Not so great a way to start a week or a month but not much can be done. :\

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2017 8:57 pm
by jenji
Hi Vainglorious,
Your little calendar is so cute - may I steal it? I am a newbie.

I hope your migraine that you mention above is better.
Jen

Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2017 1:04 am
by vainglorious
jenji wrote:Hi Vainglorious,
Your little calendar is so cute - may I steal it? I am a newbie.

I hope your migraine that you mention above is better.
Jen
Definitely! The little calendar makes me happy :D

Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2017 5:01 am
by Merry
I agree, such a cute calendar with the red maple leaves!

Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2017 7:23 pm
by jenji
vainglorious wrote:
jenji wrote:Hi Vainglorious,
Your little calendar is so cute - may I steal it? I am a newbie.

I hope your migraine that you mention above is better.
Jen
Definitely! The little calendar makes me happy :D
Thanks, me too! :D

Posted: Sun Oct 08, 2017 6:41 am
by vainglorious
Another :roll: today, induced by illness. This has been a really bad week for migraines, and today I was too nauseated to eat much food at meals and had to supplement with snacks. I wonder if I should use a different emoji than :roll: when the "snacking" is due to illness. I can't really help it. :\

Posted: Sun Oct 08, 2017 11:23 am
by gingerpie
Hi Vainglorious, I'm sorry to hear you haven't been well. I hope this week goes a bit more smoothly for you.
I wonder if I should use a different emoji than Rolling Eyes when the "snacking" is due to illness. I can't really help it. :\
Your emojis are super cute. Personally, I can't do anything other than " success, exempt or fail" because adding anything else makes me have to think too much, then, I get lazy and stop using the calendar completely :?

Hope you have a lovely day.

Posted: Sun Oct 08, 2017 7:38 pm
by oolala53
Yet it doesn't seem fair to use the emoji of exasperation for sick eating. Unless sickness is just an excuse, but that takes mental energy to figure out. Aack.

Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2017 7:18 am
by vainglorious
gingerpie wrote: Your emojis are super cute. Personally, I can't do anything other than " success, exempt or fail" because adding anything else makes me have to think too much, then, I get lazy and stop using the calendar completely :?
Thanks! :) That makes sense re: the three options. So S-Days are exempt and maybe sick days would be too in your scheme?

oolala53 wrote:Yet it doesn't seem fair to use the emoji of exasperation for sick eating. Unless sickness is just an excuse, but that takes mental energy to figure out. Aack.
Yeah... I think I might change it. It's definitely not an excuse--I've come to really enjoy not snacking--but I will end up vomiting if I do "the wrong thing" with these migraines (where "the wrong thing" is eating too much, drinking too much water, eating the wrong type of food, or moving too much, ugghhh). Ironically the migraines come from a health condition I'm hoping No-S will help with (and I got my blood tests done recently & go to the doctor later this month to get some info!). I've been doing so well with them in the last few months that I hope after this awful week they'll leave me alone again for a good long while.

Anyway. Today was good at least! :)

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 12:58 pm
by oolala53
Fingers crossed here.

Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2017 5:57 am
by vainglorious
Been a little while since I checked in! Last week was pretty good, I was feeling better but I definitely committed a :roll: last Monday since I was at a friends' house and they offered me cookies... No regrets though! :)

Then this Monday, I was got sick from a migraine again. :\ I threw up in the morning from the pain and had small snacks throughout the day. I felt great yesterday and good today... I haven't had any appetite at all though, which is pretty weird, but I've still been eating my three meals, at about the same amount of food as normal, and no problems.

Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2017 12:44 pm
by Larkspur
So sorry about the migraine. Sounds wretched. Glad you're feeling better.

Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 5:42 pm
by jenji
Ugh, migraines suck! I'm glad that is behind you. Happy Friday!