Everyday Systems

Hi!

I started yesterday after reading the book in about a day and a half. I heard about NoS from someone on an intermittent fasting Facebook group who mentioned it every time someone asked if it was okay for kids to fast.
So nutshell: 58, female, married with 4 kids, 3 on their own and one in college ( lives at school). Married to an awesome man who has never ever once mentioned my weight whether I was 112 or 150.
Diets: in no particular order....calorie counting, low carb, carnivore, Paleo, primal, and most recently a six month stretch of intermittent fasting. IF “worked†in the sense that I lost weight and am a normal BMI but I could never find a window that worked for my preference to eat early in the day and having and cooking dinner with my husband.
I am using the HabitCal to track but really want to keep it simple. I’ve read through a lot of threads today ( freakin cold outside!) and this feels like a nice place to hang out.

Also: yesterday N day SUCCESS!
Today S day


Thanks for having me!

Laura

Hi Laura! Welcome! I hope you find NoS a great fit for you for a new lifestyle. Look forward to reading about your journey.

Welcome Laura. Hope you find a meal schedule that suits you.

Welcome! Cute username.

Welcome

Jx

Welcome! I was 56 when I started seriously. That was nine years ago. So glad I finally found it!

BTW, no one can make you eat three meals. Valter Longo, an researcher on aging and modified fasting likes a 12-hour window. He skips lunch.

You'll find your rhythm.

Thanks!

For now, I just want to establish three normal sized meals with no snacking. I did find that on my first day I caught myself a few times waiting to eat some nuts or something small between lunch and dinner. I often wander through the halls at my office to see if there is anything tasty lying out.
With IF I felt free to eat if my “window†was open. I waited til noon to eat or drink anything besides black coffee 🥺 or water and even after a decent lunch I’d get hungry. I don’t get home til about 6 so dinner wasn’t til at least 7. I think eating breakfast will help. I don’t eat a huge dinner but the times I’ve cooked for my husband and then packed the leftovers,because I had closed my window, I sometimes felt resentful.
I also found myself caught in the perfectionism that inevitably occurs . That’s on me, I know.

I hope you have a great S Day! And tomorrow, great success at not roving the halls looking for snacks (I think we all know that very easy tendency). Eventually you just don't even consider food as an option if it's not mealtime. That's such a freeing feeling.

automatedeating wrote:I hope you have a great S Day! And tomorrow, great success at not roving the halls looking for snacks (I think we all know that very easy tendency). Eventually you just don't even consider food as an option if it's not mealtime. That's such a freeing feeling.

Thanks! I may even pack my breakfast (oatmeal , fruit, a boiled egg or two) to eat at work since I leave the house at 7:30. This means I can eat lunch around 1 and then dinner by 7. I have never had a problem with eating after dinner. While I never thought of my eating as “ seconds†meaning I don’t go refill my plate, I am sure I will have to watch portion size.

So two S days in a row ...I will be glad to get a little structure tomorrow. I made some delicious pecan shortbread bars yesterday but had quite a few already and my husband will finish them off.
I had a glass of Prosecco ( my new favorite wine; used to be mainly into reds but have lost my taste for them) tonight but think I’ll call alcohol an S for me.
Got my meals all planned out for tomorrow at work. Wish me luck!

Really easy day!

B oatmeal w a few walnuts,two clementines , 2 coffee

L lemon chicken orzo soup, a few triscuits

D meatballs with rice, one slice sourdough

I was most surprised that I was fine waiting til 7 to eat. Before NoS I would eat lunch, forage at work for a snack and then be ravenous as soon as I got home at 6. Before NoS I was not eating breakfast since I was doing 16/8 IF. I think I like this better!

Posting mid day just so I don’t forget about staying to my plan:

B oatmeal, an apple with peanut butter, 2 coffees

L chicken wings, two clementines

AND THEN I RAN INTO AVAILABLE FOOD!

I work in a large office with 97% nurturing nurses. There’s always treats around, free to whoever wants them. Today it was bagels and cream cheese left from an earlier meeting. Really good bagels, even if we aren’t allowed a toaster.

So...I rationalized that since I only ate 5 wings, this half bagel would have fit just fine on my virtual plate. I ate it with cream cheese and then felt kind of guilty. I’m not overly full but I can’t say I was hungry, either. I am not beating myself up ( I rarely do that lol) but I would like to stick with my planned food.

D will be one of my meal kits...I will decide when I open the box later. This is a totally new thing for me and dh.
ETA it was crispy chicken cutlet with Caesar salad. Quite good.

Here is something you might like to think about - if you had had a bigger lunch, would the available food have been less tempting. Was your lunch truly satisfying, or were you really thinking that it wasn't quite enough when you finished.

If the answer to these questions is yes, I had quite enough for lunch, then at least that is not your problem here. If, on the other hand ......

I think you are right! I packed what we had left from Sunday lunch but would have liked a few more. I know better than to try and make this a diet so I guess I need to make sure I have a full plate at lunch. At dinner I am really not all that hungry but like to eat with my husband.

Thanks for stopping in, ladybird ðŸ˜

Eventually you just don't even consider food as an option if it's not mealtime. That's such a freeing feeling.
_________________
I love Auto’s words here!
Welcome Laura, good luck with your No S journey.

Thanks guys!

Today went well! GREEN

B scrambled eggs and toast, coffee

L spicy meatballs and rice, two clementines

D rigatoni , toast

I waited til about 1:30 to eat lunch and it wasn’t difficult as I was really busy.

If whether you eat snacks or not depends on how good the available food is and how much you ate at lunch then you are back to using "bandwidth" and bargaining and that doesn't fit with the concept of systematic moderation. It's ideal if you can take that mental energy out of the mix.

It's good not to feel guilty afterwards. It's more effective to feel it beforehand!



You'll find your rhythm.

Good point oolala

Good day so far...I didn’t eat enough breakfast but am going out to lunch around noon so I’ll be okay. Dinner already planned. I started using the Dinnerly meal kits and I have to say they are pretty good.

I plan on baking some delicious cookie bars on Saturday morning so I can enjoy them on my S days, if I want to. Last night my husband actually tossed the remaining pecan shortbread I made last Saturday. Yay us, that really never happens. He isn’t doing NoS exactly but his habits have evolved for the better since he’s gotten older.

First week done!

Overall I am pretty happy. Yesterday started off rough since I woke up at 2:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep. So my breakfast was spread over about 3 hours although it wasn’t more than a plateful. The rest of the day went fine and I was 💤 by about 8:30.

I am a daily weigher with weekly averaging and I am unchanged this week which is okay by me.

Today I am making Millionaires Shortbread. I plan on having some both days and then I am sure my husband will finish it off after that. We are expecting snow and extreme cold so I already shopped for food for a few days. I want to sit my by fire and read and finish the last season of British Bake-off.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

A great first week. I’m curious. Were you hungry when you woke up early?

Enjoy your baking!

What a really nice week and your restful plans for the weekend sound rejuvenating.

oolala53 wrote:A great first week. I’m curious. Were you hungry when you woke up early?

Enjoy your baking!

I wasn’t hungry at first but by 5:30 am yes. I ate some toast and a clementine and then picked up some rare London broil when I was at Wegmans .i think lack of sleep was stressful but I did t eat more than usual, just my timing was a little off.

GREEN DAY

I enjoyed the hell out of my S days. I had Prosecco on Friday and Saturday and many many millionaires shortbread bars Sat and Sun. I grazed a lot yesterday too.

Win: I did not even look at any snacks at work. It helped that I was slammed!

I did 23 minutes on the treadmill at lunchtime. Trying to get 20 minutes in 5 x week.!

Sounds like you’re doing great, Laura!

Hi Octavia!

So far so good. I did do some silent internal whining today thinking that it’s only Wednesday and I can’t have anything sweet til Saturday but I got past it.

B oatmeal with pecans, raspberries , coffee
L leftover chicken and beans, clementines
D pork fried rice

I tend to be most hungry between about 9am -12. I was doing IF prior to this and that was my ideal window, though it did not mesh with eating dinner with my husband. I feel like I mainly eat dinner out of habit ..if I eat a good bit at lunch I’m really not all that hungry later.

Going to NYC Saturday for the day so I can do some Urban Rangering.

I also am hungriest in the morning. I do actually get hungry for dinner, but if I eat at 5pm, I'm good for the night. (LOL, unless there is some junky and highly palatable food tempting me)

Yeah,lol,it would be easier to be single as far as my perfect meal schedule!

Going out for sushi tonight. My only mod from vanilla no S has been to limit any alcohol to Friday and Saturday. I find that more than a glass messes with my sleep and I am better off keeping any sugar/snacks on Sat and Sun but alcohol on weekend nights. This place ( like many in my Puritanical state) is BYOB and I only have part of a bottle.

I am a daily weigher/ weekly averager and my weight is unchanged since starting No S two weeks ago. I keep reminding myself that I am not focusing on losing at this point.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Alcohol absolutely disrupts my sleep (well, like you said, any more than 1 glass).

Have fun this weekend!

NYC this weekend. Ah, what would it be like to be able to say that.

I guess you have the warm clothes you'll need! It sounds brutal. (Don't hate me because the high was 75 deg today...)

Lol I will be mainly inside (Vogue Knittjng Show, a giant yarn fest) but will get some Arctic style walking in from the train.
I do envy your climate. I’m from the South originally and even after 25 years here I am not happy about winter, ever.

So yesterday was interesting. A few crazies on the train, as usual. I ate one of the shortbread bars I made last week for breakfast . For whatever reason I am starting to not love coffee as much the last few days have to force myself to finish a second cup so maybe I’ll drop down to one this week.

A post on the FB group made me think about the hours I eat. One thing that really seemed to be effective with my experience with IF was the breakdown of hours eating/ hours fasting. I am going to try cutting my eating to 12 hours or less. This may sound simple but I wake up at 5 and don’t get home to then fix dinner until almost six. So normally it’s about 14 hours . I can delay my coffee until 7 or so. Worth an experiment and still staying with vanilla S overall.

Yesterday I really missed my three meal structure. I went to NY with two women who had never been to a yarn show and told them pretty much as soon as we walked in to just text me when they wanted to eat lunch . However, they never did...one kept mentioning she had crackers in her purse. My own fault for just not taking care of my own needs! We ended up finally having an early dinner around 5. I ate two more shortbreads on the drive home from the train, so not much S.

Today

B leftover chicken, some really nice Italian bread

L a little bacon my husband cooked and the LAST shortbread bar, a couple of clementines

D will be a lamb sausage pasta, dh cooking yay

I will probably also bake a quiche for breakfasts next week.

Lamb sounds great! That's something I'd like to eat once a week, but I haven't seen it at Costco or even my local grocery (it's probably there - I haven't looked)

We actually find the D’artagnan lamb sausage at Giant. I do love Costco’s boneless leg of lamb from New Zealand. We marinate and grill those when it’s warm enough to grill.

I will check for that at Costco!

Whoa I haven’t updated in a week!

All is going well. Green N days and yellow S days. I think my sugar dragon is backing off some. I baked some Revel Bars on Saturday and ate a couple each day but no other s stuff. Two tiny glasses of Prosecco Saturday afternoon resulted in a 3 am Sunday wake up. This seems unavoidable unless I take a Benadryl and I really don’t like having to do that.
The snacking thing seems completely under control.

Still not getting much activity. I walk around at work a lot and usually hit 10K steps on weekends but that’s about it. Lots of knitting and reading.

For your occasional insomnia I can't recommend enough an ayurvedic plant called ashwagandha. It's saved my sanity! I buy it in bulk from Germany and then put it in capsules. I tried also the KSM66 root extract, that is said to be very good, but I like better my normal bio ashwagandha in bulk. Not only do I now sleep through every single night, while I previously suffered of insomnia for 15 years, but if I happen not to sleep much because I go to bed too late and have to wake up early I feel rested anyway. It is an adaptogen, that is, it helps the body to adapt to things. It has also another ton of medicinal properties.

And I can put in a plug for magnesium supplements. I think Linda also uses them and says they help her sleep.

Yes that too. I have taken magnesium supplements for years, but this summer I moved them to the evening, and it helped too. I take them at the same time as the ashwagandha.

I do take magnesium, and it seems to help most of the time. It also helped with the constipation i was getting while IF.

Margot thanks...I will have to try the ashwangandha. I order anything on Amazon that I possibly can, so I can probably have it by Friday

Auto, I think we have similar genetics!I did 23andme years ago, both the health and ancestry. I'm 50% British and Irish, 21% French and German, and 11% Scandinavian, the rest "broadly northwestern European". I also did DNAFit recently, which told me what I already know about me about processed carbs. I actually thrived on straight carnivore for two years but it makes for a tough social life.

The taste of the ashwaganda is not the best... also, the powder is so thin it goes up your nose (awful). So initially I used to take it with milk, but then again, it takes a second glass either of milk or water to chase it down. It could get into full S territory. The best I think is really to buy some empty capsules, 00 if you don't have problems. Also, I wonder if you could take it only in case you drank wine. It may be sufficient for you. It has a bit of a cumulative effect, but with me it worked already at day 1.

The ashwaghanda seems to be doing the trick as far as helping me sleep. I got capsules from amazon and Im only taking one at night, not the three suggested.

Green weekdays still...I feel like i have nothing to report really. My weight is going down very slowly, about .2 per week, which is fine as I am at a pretty good weight for my height/age. I ate a few sugar things this weekend but I'm okay when Monday comes...I dont miss it like I did the first week or two. Did not bake anything sweet but did manage to create a decent sourdough loaf with my three week old starter.

DH and I are going out to dinner on Valentines Day (Thursday) so I will add an extra S day as I will probably have at least part of a dessert.

It's an S day!

For today, I plan on having my regular breakfast (oatmeal with walnuts, a dash of maple syrup and raspberries) and lunch (a delicious thai chicken recipe we had for dinner) and then dinner out with DH at a nice old school American restaurant (think surf anf turf, etc). Probably will have some dessert.

I was trying a glass of wine or Prosecco most nights in the last week or so and all it seems to do is make my weight go up, so I'll cut it back to S days.

Work is very busy so I'm not bored and looking to graze. Also, I have zero interest in those ultra sweet Irish potato candies that show up all over this time of year.

Happy Valentine's Day! So glad you and hubby are going on a nice date!

I had to look up "Irish potato candies". I'd never heard of them! Maybe they are a particular East Coast thing?

Oh, and I meant to tell that I find it impressive that you make your own dressing with avocado oil! I am slightly tempted to try that, although my laziness will probably win out.

Thanks auto! It's a nice side effect of not having any kids at home anymore!

I think those potatoes are actually a northeast thing, maybe even a Philly thing. I grew up in Atlanta and never saw them before I moved here. They are PERVASIVE around St Patricks Day, but I find anything besides dark chocolate kinda gross, lol...I think they are 99% corn syrup.

Mayo is so easy if you have an immersion blender. Just break an egg and a little acid (either lemon juice or vinegar) in a pint mason jar. Stick your blender in, pour (one cup) oil in and VOILA. It keeps about two weeks.

I did the mayo with the immersion blender once and it worked, oh excitement! the next time I tried and tried, used up the whole carton of eggs in the end, nada. What's the secret? I do have a cheapo stupid and old immersion blender because I only use it with soups.
It matters to me because store bought french mayo, bar all the problems with seed oils, is the most horrible unedible thing. Brrr... You don't want to know.

Margot, I think it is just pulling the blender up slowly. I’ve actually never had a fail with it.i use my own chicken eggs but I’m sure you can get really good eggs too.

Is French mayo as disgusting as British salad cream? DH grew up with that and is scared off mayo for life because he thinks it’s the same.

Margot, I make my mayo using the immersion blender and have done so for several years. Do you have all your ingredients at room temperature? That makes a big difference.

Ha! the temperature may be the secret! the eggs came from the fridge in my failed case!
Pulling up the blender was done, although not too slowly.
THANKS I'm gonna give it a shot as soon as I can, then report back.

I made a lot of mayo by hand (w/ a whisk) in culinary school. The most important thing is to pour the oil in VERY slowly and gradually especially in the beginning. Otherwise itll break. GL!

lpearlmom wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 15, 2019 10:43 pm

I made a lot of mayo by hand (w/ a whisk) in culinary school. The most important thing is to pour the oil in VERY slowly and gradually especially in the beginning. Otherwise itll break. GL!

omg I'd be hopeless. I always tend to dump things in as quick as possible. My patience sucks.

Just a quick hello from me. Great thread about insomnia! I struggled with it for years, am a little better now work has changed, but I’ve never tried Ashwaghanda! Sounds like you’ve had good results with it (Margot too). I’m going to investigate...

Have a great weekend!

hey Octavia! Thanks for stopping in. the ashwagandha seems to be working really well. I also got a weighted blanket about the same time so maybe its the combination but I sleep rerally well lately.

Re: the weighted blanket. I had been eying this for about a year. I have anxiety ( and take Wellbutrin for that) and kept hearing these blankets are great for anxiety. So when they were on sale a few weeks ago at my favorite vendor Amazon, I grabbed one. Fantastic! I did end up not needing my down comforter but use this instead on top of my comforter. I really love it.

Tweak time. I started No S 6 weeks ago tomorrow. I'm up 2 pounds since then (daily weighing, weekly average), sticking to green weekdays and yellow S days. One exception Feb 14. Nothing really crazy. I'm at a normal BMI but am 130 and would rather be 125. I was this weight while IF last year so it isn't some impossible goal. I really think I can't eat a full size 3 meals a day and maintain, much less lose , even slowly.I am older (58) and small, so woe is me.

So...this week I am having coffee first thing ( I wake up at 5 ) and then a late breakfast about 9:30-10 (leftovers from dinner). Nothing in between til dinner around 6:30-7. I cook from scratch and if we eat out it is high quality, so it isn't a matter of eating junk ever. I'm not having any alcohol on N days and maybe one glass on S days. This isn't IF of course but it is giving me some definite time off from insulin surges.

I will re-evaluate in a few weeks. ETA: I know No S is not meant for quick weight loss. I'd be okay with maintenance, not okay with gaining.

Hi! I'm happy it worked and you're sleeping well!
I don't know, is 2 lb real weight gain? don't bodies fluctuate? I know it's an average but bodies must fluctuate also month to month... when I was your weight I didn't take seriously 1 kg up or down. My line in the sand was 3kg. Then again, you may say, that's how I gained all this weight, but in that period when I gained so badly I just wouldn't weigh myself at all.
I think further restrictions can make it very difficult not to snack when the first enthusiasm has faded. And the body just adapts to the restriction and goes on requiring it for the rest of your life, you've moved the bar and only made it more difficult for yourself to maintain.
If necessary at all, maybe find a mod that's not so harsh? of course jmho. Something about food composition or things you can do to speed up your metabolism.

Seems like youve git a good schedule worked out. So important to get at least 12 hrs between meals. I wish i could lose weight period. Ive been stuck for like 10 mos but at least Im not gaining (much). Anyway, i hope it gives you the results you’re looking for.

I'd say it is a real weight gain because:
- i have whole weeks when my weight is exactly the same every day, to the tenth of a pound. I lose and gain very slowly, I have never had big fluid type fluctuations.
- i am going on weekly averages, not just one day to another
- my pants are tight! and i dont want to buy bigger ones. I went from a 10 to a 2 and I got rid of all the ones that got too big.

So far, this isn't too rough. In my perfect like I would eat a fairly big meal somewhere around 10 am, then maybe someting small later, but before dinnertime. Thats not my reality right now so I am doing my best to make it work. I have ZERO interest in tracking calories or carbs , but I find the no sugar weekdays to be really easy now.

I do something a little like this on many days - just coffee (with milk) early and then eat a little at 9 or 10am.

Still hanging in there with green weekdays. The light breakfast just doesn't work for me so I'm just trying to keep a 14/10 schedule. No alcohol on green days and very little on S days.

I ordered a stand up desk for my office that should be here today. I hate it when Fitbit tells me I haven't moved in an hour, so this will help. They are becoming a trend here where I work, and while I don't have a bad back I do tend to get tension in my neck and shoulders after typing for awhile.

I am one of the last hold-outs on my floor without a stand-up desk! I like it in theory, but I think it makes my desk look messy. Just a thing for me. Luckily, I'm racing around most of the day at work anyway. I think a stand-up desk AT HOME would be good for me. LOL, I guess I do that when I put my laptop on the counter.