Everyday Systems

Doing No S- for real this time. Will post my check in right before going to sleep nightly.

Day 1- successful N day! Rather large lunch and dinner, and a heavier pour of wine at night but no S’s.
Breakfast- shredded wheat with strawberries and whole milk
Lunch- cauliflower soup, turkey and Brie sandwich, apple
Dinner- hot dog with salad, sauerkraut and baked beans on the side, strawberries with real whipped cream (no sugar)
Evening- large-ish glass of wine

Day 2- successful N day
B- avocado toast, orange, vanilla yogurt
L- brown rice bow with chicken, veggies, curry sauce
D- spaghetti, garlic bread, orange
Mid day- unsweetened chocolate almond milk
Evening- tea

Day 3- successful N day. Had to really white knuckle it in the afternoon and evening and considered quitting several times. But stuck it through.
B- oatmeal with nuts and banana, almond milk
L- fish, grains and greens bowl with sauce
D- leftover spaghetti and garlic bread
Evening- 1 generous glass red wine

I am shocked that there's someone besides me who likes unsweetened hot chocolate! (I do put sugar, but not a whole lot, I like it bitter!).
Hello, bitter chocolate buddy!
And of course congrats for sticking it through, if I ever ate fish which I don't, a part from rare sardines because I think I have to, I would be hungry half an hour after eating, it goes right through like nothing ever happened. Hours of agony in the making...

Well done on sticking it out, were you hungry or just craving?

Jx

TRAC77 wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 04, 2019 11:04 am

Day 3- successful N day. Had to really white knuckle it in the afternoon and evening and considered quitting several times. But stuck it through.
B- oatmeal with nuts and banana, almond milk
L- fish, grains and greens bowl with sauce
D- leftover spaghetti and garlic bread
Evening- 1 generous glass red wine

It Will get easier. May I ask what type of nuts you're putting on oatmeal?

Whoa- this is awesome. Thank you all soooo much! How cool that people popped by my daily check in to encourage me!

Whosonfirst, I tend to put walnuts or slivered almonds in my oatmeal. Adds a little staying power to it. I also love to sprinkle slivered almonds on greek yogurt with fruit. they aren't sweetened but somehow the slivered almonds have a sliiiightly sweet flavor to them (to me, anyway).

Soprano, in the afternoon, I was first craving sweets, then legitimately hungry - in the evening it was pure craving. I wanted some chocolate or a cookie. Evenings are kind of hard for me because after I put my daughter (who is a toddler) to bed, it's kind of like that "exhale, relax and enjoy" hour before bed where I like to give myself a little treat.

Margot17 - Bitter chocolate buddies - LOL! Yes I loooove bitter chocolate! If it's hot chocolate I put cocoa powder with just a tiny touch of sugar in the milk and I love it. I actually found an unsweetened almond milk that is chocolate flavored and it did help with that mid-afternoon craving at work (quick and easy for work and nothing to prep). I did find that I was hungry after the fish lunch - salmon keeps me satisfied but this was a white fish and a little lighter - maybe that's why I got so hungry in the afternoon!

TRAC77 wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 04, 2019 6:25 pm

Soprano, in the afternoon, I was first craving sweets, then legitimately hungry - in the evening it was pure craving. I wanted some chocolate or a cookie. Evenings are kind of hard for me because after I put my daughter (who is a toddler) to bed, it's kind of like that "exhale, relax and enjoy" hour before bed where I like to give myself a little treat.

Cravings are hard, you need some other way to treat yourself. Try think of something you want to do for yourself then you have something to look forward to in your "me time" :0

Jx

A woman on another site that I frequent will do something as simple as light as little candle that she wouldn’t normally light as a reward for some behavior she’s kept too. She also used to give her self five or 10 minutes to pop bubble wrap! These were think she could just do, if she wanted, but forcing herself to save them as a little reward worked.I have to be things that are just about as easy as it is to go get extra food. But you don’t have to figure that out right away. Just keep going!

Great ideas, thank you!

Day 4- successful N day. Not as hard as yesterday but going to bed a little hungry
B - plain Greek yogurt, banana, almonds and flaxseed
L- salad with quinoa chicken apples dried cranberries cheese and vinaigrette, orange
Mid day- unsweetened chocolate almond milk
D- chicken teriyaki stir fry with veggies and rice, berry flavored siggis yogurt with strawberries

Siggi's yogurt is one of my yogurts! Siggi's, Zoi, Grace Harbor, and Alexandre. I mix all 4 together for lunch every day.

Oh I haven’t seen those others! I love siggis, especially the full fat kind- something I could never “afford” in my weight watchers days

day 5 - failed N day
B- omelette with blue cheese and spinach, 2 slices toast with jam and butter
L- pb and banana sandwich, carrots and hummus
D- sushi, miso soup, wine, small scoop ice cream

Day 6 successful N day
B- did some virtual plating and ate in two separate sittings.
Tiny bowl (maybe 1/2 c) Cheerios and milk with my daughter- had to do a goodbye Cheerio sit down with her before leaving for business trip. Size was so small that I could have added it to my plate with my actual breakfast later, which was 1 egg mc muffin and 1 hash brown from Mc Donald’s plus black coffee at the airport. Mornings I feel virtuous and ready to tackle no S. Afternoons and evenings is where it gets tough. Going to try to make this an N day because I have evening events later in the week that will better lend themselves to S days.
L- salad with mixed veggies, latte
D- virtual plating due to group dinner with appetizers. A few bites of nachos, poutine, smoked meat, and then my entree: chicken kabob with side salad and a few bites of fries. 1 1/3 pints beer. Left a lot of food on the plate.

I will be the one to say just leave your poor S Day alone and don't make it an N Day. I think moving them around and shifting the days makes the "fences" too blurry around the rules.

And, probably already this has been discussed/suggested, but drink a nice cup of whole milk in the afternoon (or have milky coffee or something similar) to get you through the afternoon or evening.

I was wondering if I should leave it as an S. My concern is that I have two days during the week that I really wanted to designate as S days due to business functions. However I didn’t want to have like 6 S days between now and next Sunday, because I fear that I won’t be appropriately building the N day habit, since I’m so new. Today is a work and travel day for me so not really a real “weekend” day anyway. Maybe I’ll make it an S but not go overboard.

Today is an S day!
B- bagel with cream cheese and salmon
L- salad, soup, dinner roll with butter, few roasted potatoes fish in cream sauce, berries with honey
Afternoon- cheese (maybe 2 oz), a few crackers, 1 glass Chardonnay (pre dinner function)
D- big multi course meal with beef tartare, burrata salad, calf’s liver, potato, bread, wine, champagne, several dessert bites and an after dinner drink. Too full but a totally fun night with colleagues. And the food was excellent.

Another S day and I’m stuffed and exhausted after lots of business meals and dinners and drinks for days. Wishing I was going back home but have another 5 full days to go. The real challenge comes in for going back to N days for the remainder of this week until Friday. Still lots more irregular meals coming my way.

Hang in there!

Checking in on day 9- failed N day
B- croissant, omelette, yogurt, fruit
L— salad, veggies, fish, bread and butter, small slice pear tart
Afternoon- Mini cupcake
D- salad, calamari, pizza (more than one plateful of food), 2 beers

From one of your meals above: "pb and banana sandwich, carrots and hummus"

I literally just posted my lunch yesterday as peanut butter on rice cakes and raw veggies with hummus! I thought it was so odd that that is what I wanted to eat, but I see you had almost the same things together LOL!

Also, I never would have thought have unsweetened hot cocoa, but I tried adding just a little cocoa to plain milk (cold) and....Oh so good! This wouldn't even be a "cheat" between meal drink. Its a keeper!

That’s awesome, April! peanut butter and banana- a much loved sandwich for me that I regularly denied in my diet days!

So I’ve been bad about checking in daily - aforementioned work travel got me out of my routine for a while- but here’s my update. I joined an online program that basically advocates for 3-4 balanced meals a day but the first part of the program consists of a lot of journaling and stuff that deprograms you from diet mentality and then very slowly has you work on one habit at a time towards the goal of structured balanced meals and a movement habit. It’s a little less black and white than No S - but the ultimate goal is similar to what is followed here. I am loving it so far and feel like the incremental changes is a good mental place for me. I have been pretty much sticking to 3 meals and a small evening snack, sometimes a sweet, and feeling good about it. I’ve decided to not step on the scale for a while but will report back again in a while to check in on how I’m doing.

Thanks for the update!

Hello again! I am a big fan of the other program you are referring to, and if I was on Facebook, which I am not, I would gladly join that group as well. Her method is part of the reason I choose the mods that I have (see my April 22nd diary entry) I have read her book and listened to a great podcast of her being interviewed. I really like her pleasant demeanor and her gentle-but-structured approach.

April what a small world! That is so cool. I think I may have also listened to that same podcast and I agree she is so calming and puts a really nice perspective on loving life well, which is what this is all about! I read your post and I’m very similar with No S in that the no sweets part was very difficult for me- I don’t need a big dessert but just a little something. Your modifications sound great to me! I hope you are doing well and enjoying the journey!

It would be great if you would share a link to the podcast

Jx

Disclaimer - I hope I am not insulting or taking away from the original NO S by posting this link here - if so I apologize to Reinhard!

https://www.halfsizeme.com/187/

Half Size Me: 4 Core Habits That Will Help You Lean Out with Georgie Fear

You can access this podcast also on the Castbox app by doing a search for episode 187 on the Half Size Me channel.

I guess we were referring to different podcasts LOL! Thanks for sharing, I will check that one out. Here’s the one I was thinking of:
https://elisemuseles.com/podcast/tonya- ... -and-life/

I love Tonya Leigh and her French approach to food and life. Separately, the program I just recently got into is called Balance 365. They also have a podcast:
https://www.balance365life.com/category/b365-radio/

It’s great that there seems to be a movement towards non dieting moderate paths towards health, there are some great communities and podcasts out there now.

Too funny! It's amazing how I must have read between the lines and just assumed that it was Georgie Fear's habit based plan you were referring to! I have actually heard of both of those other ones that you mentioned also, but it's been a long time and will be glad to revisit both of them!

I posted a reply but it seems to have disappeared! Oh my goodness that is hilarious that your description of three to four meals and habits made me automatically assume that it was Georgie Fear! I clicked on both of your links, I have heard of Tonya, but not balance 365, will definitely check it out too! Thank you so much for sharing!

This is great because now I’m totally checking our Georgie Fear as well!

Lots of sharing going on on this thread.
Maybe I'll listen to one of these podcasts on my morning walk!

Whelp....I went and did it again. Was lured back to weight watchers! I had fallen off of No S- had a stressful and emotional summer, soothed with ice cream and junk food, gained weight, got desperate, and went back to WW. The thing is I could hardly even stick with it for a week before going crazy- then a junk food binge and restart. Finally- this week WW launched a weight loss food tracking app for CHILDREN, ages 8-17. I found it so distasteful on so many levels that I finally (again) cancelled my membership with them. I’m back to re reading the No S book and focusing on healthy habits. Day 1 for me again tomorrow- wish me luck!

Hi there!

Good luck Trac!

Omygosh, I hear you on the ww kids app. So upsetting! Glad you found your way back to sanity. When I was doing traditional diets, I noticed the length of time that I could tolerate a new diet got shorter and shorter till I’d have days of starting a diet in the morning and quitting by dinner time. Diet burnout for sure.

GL!

Thanks everyone for the support and welcoming me back! Unfortunately I gave in to surprise gourmet donuts at work today But! Just Marking it as a red day and moving on. I didn’t tank the whole rest of my day because of it. I did have a dinner out which was a multi plate affair but I tried to not overdo it. Tomorrow will be more of a “normal” day for me where I’ll make family dinner at home so it will probably be an easier day for a true reset.