Florafloraflora's check-in thread

Counting carbs/calories is a drag. Obsessive scale stepping is a recipe for despair. If you want to count something, "days on habit" is a much better metric. Checking off days on a calendar would do just fine, but if you do it here you get accountability and support. Here's how. Start a new topic in this forum called (say) "Your Name Daily Check In." Then every N day post a "reply" to that topic as to whether you stayed on habit. A simple "<font color="green">SUCCESS</font>" or "<font color="red">FAILURE</font>" (or your preferred euphemism if that's too harsh) is sufficient, but obviously you're welcome to write more if you want. On S-days just register that you're taking an S-day. You don't have to do this forever, just until you're confident you've built the habit. Feel free to check in weekly or monthly or sporadically instead of daily. Feel free also to track other habits besides No-s (I'm keeping this forum under No-s because that's what the vast majority are using it for). See also my <a href="/habitcal/">HabitCal</a> tool for another more formal (and perhaps complementary) way to track habits.

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Florafloraflora's check-in thread

Post by florafloraflora » Thu Jan 18, 2007 2:04 pm

Hi everyone, I stumbled across the No S Diet by way of Urban Ranger, by way of Mistress Krista's weightlifting page at http://www.stumptuous.com/cms/index.php. It sounds awfully sensible to me, so I'm trying it. I have some questions and comments that I'll be posting later, but for now, here's my checkin thread.

For now I'm tending to eat large meals because, having been a bit of a grazer until now, I'm still slightly panicky about getting lightheaded before the next meal. I also tend to eat weird combinations of foods, so don't laugh.
Last edited by florafloraflora on Sat Jan 20, 2007 8:39 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Check-in, Days 1 and 2

Post by florafloraflora » Thu Jan 18, 2007 2:26 pm

Day 1, Tuesday 1/16: SUCCESS
Breakfast: blueberry-strawberry yogurt smoothie, hardboiled eggs, tea
Lunch: Burrito, Baja Fresh
Dinner: Jambalaya, apple
Between meals: water water water water water, herbal tea with honey in it at bedtime
Comments: felt ravenous when I got home, ate biggish dinner before going to yoga class, then felt terrible/dizzy through class

Day 2, Wednesday 1/17: SUCCESS
Breakfast: tea (PG Tips) with milk, soysage, oatmeal with some peanut butter in it (no sugar), half a grapefruit
Lunch: homemade split pea soup, Trader Joe's multigrain fig bar thing (a slight cheat, but it only has 17 grams of sugar as opposed to 32 in a can of soda so for now I'm calling it OK), milk, quite a few cashews
Dinner: baked salmon with mysterious yellow sauce, mixed vegetables, new potatoes, milk (IKEA cafeteria)
Between meals: water water water, big cup of mate with milk in the PM
Comments: starving and awfully lightheaded before lunch, took a while for food to kick in, then felt fine all afternoon, hardly hungry for dinner

I hope this is going to work for me, as I have a lot of trouble with fluctuating blood sugar. I'd call it a borderline-medical condition, but I want to try the three-squares-a-day plan because it just seems so sensible. Up until now I've had a tendency to graze, with tiny meals interspersed with snacks in the afternoon and bedtime. The trouble is, some of those snacks were on the sugary/fatty side. Now I'm tending to eat more at each meal, to the point of feeling a bit uncomfortable, but getting into sort of touch-and-go territory by the next meal. If this doesn't even out in a few days I might give myself permission for an afternoon snack.

Right now my strategy to keep hunger pangs away is to eat some nuts or peanut butter at each meal. I'm hoping I'll be able to rely less on them as I figure this out. Milk is also a lifeline for me, which feels like cheating, but for now I'll take it.

I'm thinking that since I'm a morning person, hunger in the morning and at lunch time will be my biggest problems. Unlike a lot of people, I don't usually get hungry at night, to the point of forgetting to eat dinner sometimes, so I think I'll tend to weight my meals toward the earlier part of the day.

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Post by Jammin' Jan » Thu Jan 18, 2007 3:46 pm

When I feel my blood sugar dropping, I will have a glass of 100% fruit juice to tide me over until the next meal. Works like a charm.

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Post by florafloraflora » Thu Jan 18, 2007 7:36 pm

Thanks, Jan. Things are already getting better today, but I'll keep the juice in mind for the next time I have trouble.

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Check-in, Day 3

Post by florafloraflora » Fri Jan 19, 2007 3:20 pm

Day 3, Thursday 1/18: SUCCESS

Breakfast: soysage, blueberry-strawberry yogurt smoothie, a little peanut butter straight from a spoon (I know this sounds bizarre, but this kind of eating pattern is a holdover from my years on the Zone diet), tea (Tazo chai with milk and a bit of honey)
Lunch: small tamale appetizer plate (Chevy's), with some chips and salsa (I held off the corn chips at first, but when my food arrived it was a tiny portion with plenty of room on the plate for chips, so I added some)
Dinner: Indian chickpeas with brown rice, string cheese, 2 pineapple slices
Between meals: just water, plus a tiny sip of some Vietnamese coffee my coworker made, just to be polite (it would have felt cheaty if I'd had a whole serving, what with the sweetened condensed milk he added, but I think a sip was well within bounds)
Comments: ate before yoga class again, but felt better than Tuesday - I had more time between dinner and class, and the workout wasn't as tough.

I think this is getting easier. I'm certainly having to think less about it, and I'm relying less on nuts to keep me full between meals. The biggest challenge is getting enough food together for breakfast. I'm used to nibbling something small, then counting on a midmorning snack. Now I really have to make a proper meal.

My birthday is this weekend (dang, two S-days in one) and I'm looking forward to my usual orange cake with marmalade filling and bittersweet chocolate glaze. I'm also looking forward to just not having to think so much about food.

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Check-in, Day 4

Post by florafloraflora » Sat Jan 20, 2007 7:57 am

Day 4, Friday 1/19: SUCCESS (sort of/I think)

Breakfast: plain yogurt, oatmeal with a bit of brown sugar, half a grapefruit, tea (PG Tips) with milk
Lunch: Indian chickpeas with brown rice, some cashews, strawberry drinkable yogurt (awfully sugary, 42 grams--yikes!)
Dinner: a rather large takeout serving of beef chow fun with broccoli and carrots, passion fruit juice drink (again, 32 grams sugar, as much as a can of soda, bleah)
Between meals: just water, probably not as much as I should have had
Comments: I didn't have any special trouble getting from meal to meal, but I'm really not sure whether today was a success or not, given the sugary drinks. I took my usual weekend road trip in the afternoon/evening and didn't stop for any snacks, which felt like a victory. I could have used some water, but I just wanted to motor through and get where I was going.

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Post by Jammin' Jan » Sat Jan 20, 2007 12:00 pm

It takes a while to tweak this. You're going to notice sugary things more as you proceed. Keep up the good work! :D

PS. I see we are both in DC!

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Check-in, Day 5

Post by florafloraflora » Sun Jan 21, 2007 12:32 pm

Day 5, Saturday 1/20: S-DAY
I'm not going to write down everything I ate. I had planned to let myself pig out if I wanted to, but to my surprise I was very, very sensible, until it all fell apart at my birthday dinner, where I'm sorry to say I ate until I felt sick. I have a terrible case of Clean Plate Club membership, and I just don't know when to stop. I find that at really good restaurants the portions are actually nice and small so it's OK to eat a multicourse meal, but that wasn't the case last night. Also, I think my stomach has shrunk in the past week.

If there's an upside to this, it would be that I know I can be satisfied with eating less than before.

Exercise was good: went for a nice hilly, rocky hike by the river, about 1 1/2 hours. I think climbing the stairs at work is doing good things for me because I never really got fatigued, even when running up the stairs on a particularly steep incline.
Last edited by florafloraflora on Mon Jan 22, 2007 1:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Check-in, Day 6

Post by florafloraflora » Mon Jan 22, 2007 11:58 am

Day 6, Sunday 1/21: S-DAY

Again, I kept it pretty reasonable. I reverted to my habit of grazing from the fridge, but didn't overeat outrageously. I had one sweet (a Danish at breakfast) that I didn't really even enjoy, although once I bought it, dangit, I felt that I had to finish it (got to work on that Clean Plate Club mentality). At dinnertime we ordered pizza and I wasn't very hungry so I only had one slice. That's a new occurrence.

I just have to say that I really like bread and butter, cheese sandwiches, bread and dairy anything. Things like that seem to be my downfall.

Exercise: it was wet and nasty out so I didn't do any of the yardwork I'd been planning. My only exercise was walking up and down stairs to the laundry room.

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Post by Jammin' Jan » Mon Jan 22, 2007 4:40 pm

Today's even nastier -- watch out for those icy sidewalks! There was sleet mixed in with the snow last evening.

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Check-in, Day 7

Post by florafloraflora » Tue Jan 23, 2007 2:18 pm

Day 7, Monday 1/22: SUCCESS

Breakfast: big slice of bread, half with cheese and Marmite, half with peanut butter and honey; clementine; a bit of trail mix; plain black tea
Lunch (on the road): 2 slices leftover pizza; clementine; handful of trail mix
Dinner: deviled eggs with tuna; Italian wedding soup; 2 slices pineapple
Between meals: water; big mug of plain tea in the afternoon
Comments: dinner was really late (8:30-9:00), but I didn't start really feeling hungry until right at the end. Major victory: I baked bread during and after dinner, and didn't eat any of the dough or the finished loaf.

I weighed myself yesterday and today. I seem to have backslid by about half a pound over the weekend, but that's OK. I'm still a couple of pounds below where I started at the beginning of last week.

Tonight is my earlier yoga class. I'm going to try and hold off on dinner until after class, with some help from a mug of tea with plenty of milk late in the afternoon.

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Check-in, Day 8

Post by florafloraflora » Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:41 pm

Day 8, Tuesday 1/23: SUCCESS

Breakfast: 1 slice oatmeal bread with LF cheese, 2 links soysage, 1 cup Italian wedding soup (awwww, my first dinner-for-breakfast!)
Lunch: mesquite chicken breast cutlet, homemade cream of celery soup, an apple, a few cashews
Dinner: pimento olive omelet, 1 slice oatmeal bread with LF cheese, 3 slices pineapple
Between meals: water, big mug of mate with milk late in the PM
Comments: felt really hungry most of the day, especially between lunch and dinner, which didn't end up happening until 9:30-10 PM (after yoga).

Exercise: tough-ish yoga class, plus about 45 minutes walking with the dog

I'm going to have to figure out what to do about yoga class. Last night I held off on eating until after class, in hopes that I'd feel better than last time, but I felt awful in a different way, shaky and weak. Hmmm. Really not sure how to handle this. 7:30 is such an inconvenient time, too early to get home, make dinner, eat it, and give myself a chance to digest, but too late to wait to eat. It would probably be better if I had something ready to eat right away when I got home, instead of having to cook.

Almost every meal involves virtual plating. Although I'm careful to make sure that everything would fit on a real plate, the soup, yogurt, oatmeal, etc. require their own little bowls. It may seem that I'm eating a lot at each meal, but servings of each item are small. It's time-consuming to put these meals together, but right now the variety feels essential to me.

The cupboard was pretty bare last night. The best I could scrounge up when I got home starving from class was that sketchy olive omelet. I bought meatloaf fixings, yogurt and more fruits and vegetables yesterday, and this morning I made some soup with the broccoli that had been sitting in the fridge, so the rest of the week should be a bit better.

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Check-in, Day 9

Post by florafloraflora » Thu Jan 25, 2007 2:14 pm

Day 9, Wednesday 1/24: SUCCESS

Breakfast: plain yogurt, slice oatmeal bread (toasted) with PB and honey, half a grapefruit, tea (PG Tips) with milk
Lunch: salmon cakes with mashed potatoes and peas, stray onion ring from a friend's plate, tea with creamer, no sugar (diner near work)
Dinner: Punjabi platter (large dish with tiny bowls of chickpeas, dal, aloo gobi, spinach, salad, pickles, and raita, surrounding a small bowl of rice), masala tea (with milk or cream, but no sugar)
Between meals: lots of water
Comments: starving in the morning, decided to go ahead with huge lunch, still a bit hungry after that, ate medium-large dinner. It nearly killed me :wink: to pass up the tiny, two-bite serving of rice pudding on the platter last night, but I did it.

Exercise: lots of walking (with dog, bus to Georgetown for dinner & play)

I was just starving so I allowed myself to eat a lot more yesterday. Checked my weight this morning (Thu 1/25), back down to lowest weight from last week.

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Check-in, Day 10

Post by florafloraflora » Fri Jan 26, 2007 2:26 pm

Day 10, Thursday 1/25: SUCCESS

Breakfast: blueberry-strawberry yogurt smoothie; two slices oatmeal toast: one with LF cheese and Marmite, one with butter and marmalade; green tea; a few peanuts
Lunch: mesquite chicken breast cutlet; 2 c. Italian wedding soup; an apple; a handful of cashews
Dinner: tortellini with pesto, homemade cream of broccoli soup
Between meals: water; mate with milk in the afternoon; small glass milk before yoga
Comments: Dinner was really late, after yoga (10-10:30 PM)--again, I felt like I was starving most of the afternoon, but eventually the hunger went away. I know milk is a "free" drink, although it still feels like cheating. But it helped me get through yoga. I think I'll make it a habit from now on.
Last edited by florafloraflora on Fri Jan 26, 2007 10:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Check-in, Day 11

Post by florafloraflora » Fri Jan 26, 2007 8:16 pm

Day 11, Friday 1/26: FAILURE

Bah. I'm posting early because I failed at lunchtime. Plus, I won't have Internet access over the weekend, so I won't be able to post tomorrow about today.

Breakfast: plain yogurt, oatmeal with protein powder (bleah! I won't do that again) and cinnamon, half a grapefruit, a bit of peanut butter
Lunch: Chili Bubba, free appetizer (Hard Times Café)
Between meals: water, plain tea at midmorning
Comments: I had planned a couple of days ago to go to the evil Hard Times Café with a coworker, who had been craving it. I knew I'd be having a huge plate of food, but I figured it would be OK b/c it would still be just one plate, and it would banish any hunger pangs for the rest of the day. I didn't order any fries even though they smelled good. But then the waitress brought some free chili and cornbread as an appetizer, and that's when it all went wrong. Feh. I wasn't even that hungry, but I dug in the way some people climb Mt. Everest: just because it's there. :roll:

The rest of the meal was interesting: I was still able to eat almost the entire plate of food (except that I left the sour cream off), but it was a slower process and I felt more stuffed than I would have before. I could have quit before finishing the plate if I'd been forced to.

Why the failure today: I think my motivation has been flagging because of the extreme-hunger thing over the past few days, and because I'm feeling stressed and I'm not noticing any significant weight loss. I will try to stick to the rules for the rest of today, then take my S-days over the weekend as planned, starting over at Day 1 tomorrow, and stock my refrigerator with plenty of food to carry me through the N-days next week.

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Post by reinhard » Fri Jan 26, 2007 9:05 pm

Sorry I took so long to pop in here... I think I have this instinct for when people mess up and only get to their checkins then. :-)

That's tough, with free food shoved in your face. I don't know if I'd be able to resist that. Cut yourself some slack. You've been really good so far, despite the fact that you've been so hungry between meals.

I do think habit will reduce that hunger... but again, if it gets too awful, consider an official healthy 4th mini meal (don't call it a snack!) to get you through.

10 days is not a lot of time, for habit or for results. I wish I could offer you some quick fix, but I'm afraid it just takes patience.

Best,

Reinhard

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Post by florafloraflora » Fri Jan 26, 2007 10:06 pm

Thanks, Reinhard. I'm not too fussed about this failure, and I'm far from wanting to quit. I'm trying to look at it as more of an opportunity for learning. I think I solved the yoga-class issue yesterday by drinking a small glass of milk beforehand. Now I just need to stock the fridge and the freezer for when I get home hungry from class, so I can eat right away.

And no, I'm not pouting because I haven't seen major weight loss yet. I'm feeling better in subtle little ways, and I can tell that my stomach capacity and my sweet tooth are changing for the better. So I'm sticking to the plan.

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Check-in, Days B1 and B2

Post by florafloraflora » Mon Jan 29, 2007 1:56 pm

Day B1, Saturday 1/27: S-DAY

And what an S-Day it was. I might not really be able to count this as a success, because I probably was an idiot. But I'll just chalk this up to S-Days being S-Days so N-Days won't.

Day B2, Sunday 1/28: S-DAY

This was a bit more moderate than Saturday, except for some leftovers from Saturday. By dinnertime I was tapering down naturally, and just had one plate of healthy delicious food (although my friends encouraged me to have more) plus a healthy fruity dessert.

Back to Friday, just to stay accountable: after my humongous lunch I finished the day very reasonably, with just some soup and maybe a bit of something else (I can't remember) late at night.

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Hard Times Cafe

Post by jent » Mon Jan 29, 2007 4:14 pm

Hi Flora - I'm Jent and I just joined. I'm from DC too ... I had to laugh when I saw your post. Free chili and cornbread at Hard Times would have brought me to my knees. :)

I just wanted to introduce myself to a fellow Washingtonian (you too Jammin Jan). Too bad its cold again. Yesterday was beautiful. Have a great Monday!

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Re: Hard Times Cafe

Post by florafloraflora » Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:41 pm

jent wrote:Free chili and cornbread at Hard Times would have brought me to my knees. :)
Hi Jen,

Glad somebody understands! :)

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Check-in, Day B3

Post by florafloraflora » Tue Jan 30, 2007 2:34 pm

Day B3, Monday 1/29: SUCCESS (sort of)

Breakfast: plain yogurt, oatmeal with peanut butter, freshly-squeezed orange juice, plain tea
Lunch: (tiny) mesquite chicken breast cutlet, last of the homemade cream of broccoli soup, Bosc pear, handful of cashews
Dinner: (oh the humanity, see comments) six sticks of string cheese, guava juice drink (33 grams of sugar, yikes)
Between meals: water, plain tea at midmorning, herbal tea with honey at bedtime
Comments: I was feeling absolutely ravenous when I got home from work, but I didn't have time for dinner right away because I had to take my dog to obedience class. I was planning a nice dinner of Indian chickpeas and brown rice for after class, but I was so hungry it started to feel like my personality was changing. I was getting road-ragey and feeling all HULK SMASH. So I unwrapped some of the nasty generic string cheese I use as training treats for my dog and ate that, and then remembered that I had some tropical juice drinks in the car and drank one of those. I have to say it worked: I felt cheerful the rest of the night, and I never got hungry after that. But I don't want to make a habit of eating six ounces of cheese and calling that a meal.

I hope last night's dinner was the most dismal one I'm going to have on this diet. I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed by the logistics of getting a large meal together at precisely the right time. It's not just the need to coordinate dinner around evening activities, but breakfast too: it takes forever to get together enough food to hold me until lunch.

I'm sorry if this seems like whining. I'm having doubts about my efforts to break the habits I've cultivated, of eating tiny meals several times a day. But I'm not quitting just yet.
Last edited by florafloraflora on Wed Jan 31, 2007 2:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by Jammin' Jan » Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:27 pm

And if you quit, what will you have? Lots of snacks to tide you over, lots of sugar?

If you continue, you will have the occasional bad meal, occasional snacking, occasional ill-timed sweet.

Which path will benefit you more?

I have found that planning for impossible days and keeping a stash of good quick foods on hand goes a long way to not messing up too frequently.

String cheese wasn't so bad, but the fruit drink could've been replaced by 100% juice.

Whining is okay too, because you're really admitting a problem situation, and then analyzing why it became a problem (sticky schedule, normal hunger run wild, poor foods immediately available). Now you have the tools to begin to address your difficulty.

I'd say you're actually doing pretty well.

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Post by florafloraflora » Tue Jan 30, 2007 4:24 pm

Thanks, Jan. In a way it's too bad I have to inflict every detail of my experience on everyone, because I'm mostly keeping these notes for myself. But I appreciate the encouragement. Don't worry, I'm not planning to quit, I'm just identifying and working through the problems just as you said. Sometimes the "identifying" sounds a lot like "whining" :wink:

I don't plan to buy the juice drinks again. I have a bunch of them on hand because I bought them at Costco before I started NoS. I'm going to finish them off, gradually, but after that I'll probably stick with just water, milk and tea to drink.

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Check-in, Day B4

Post by florafloraflora » Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:59 pm

Day B4, Tuesday 1/30: SUCCESS

Breakfast: strawberry-blueberry yogurt smoothie, oatmeal with peanut butter, freshly-squeezed orange juice
Lunch: homemade split pea soup, mesquite chicken breast cutlet, Bosc pear, handful of cashews, plain tea
Dinner: Indian chickpeas with brown rice, cottage cheese with chives, glass of milk
Between meals: water, big mug of mate and milk late in the PM

After yesterday's hissy fit, I felt like I was on a very even keel for the rest of the day. Finally I wasn't hungry before or during yoga. I think the reinforcement from the cashews at lunch helped keep me going. I got a boost from the milk in the mate too (I drink from a huge mug, more like a bowl, with lots of milk in it; I'd say at least 1/2 a cup). I actually grocery shopped after yoga and took about 45 minutes to cook some brown rice before eating, and it was OK. Amazing.

Major victory: I usually can't keep sharp cheddar cheese in the house because it disappears way too quickly. But last night I picked some up for a couple of recipes I'd like to make, figuring that the NoS rules would keep me from snacking on it. Before NoS I would have opened it up as soon as I got home and nibbled on more than one slice while cooking, but this time I just brought it into the kitchen, put it away, and proceeded with the rest of what I was doing. That is HUGE for me.

I'm going to do some controlled S-ing today. I'll be giving blood at lunchtime, and I have a hair appointment immediately after that so it will be a while before I can have lunch. Since giving blood affects my health, I'm going to treat this like a Sick day. I'll drink some milk before going (along with the ton of water I always drink to keep my blood volume up and my veins easy to find). Then I will take some cashews to nibble on after donating, to fend off the temptation of the cookies at the snack table. I'll have lunch as normal (well, maybe a bit of a treat as the yummy authentic Mexican place is right near my salon, but just one plate) after I get my hair done. If you're reading this, wish me luck!

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Post by Jammin' Jan » Wed Jan 31, 2007 2:55 pm

Luck! Although with the plan you've set for yourself, you don't really need luck at all!

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Giving blood

Post by Kevin » Wed Jan 31, 2007 7:53 pm

Giving blood is *definitely* an S day.
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Check-in, Day B5

Post by florafloraflora » Thu Feb 01, 2007 3:10 pm

Day B5, Wednesday 1/31: SUCCESS

Breakfast: 2-egg omelet filled with (drained) chive cottage cheese, half a grapefruit, tea with milk
Lunch: 2 soft tacos (lengua; I know, I'm a freak), 1/2 cup apple-peach sauce
Dinner: 1 cup Italian wedding soup, glass of milk
Between meals: water, glass milk before going to give blood, plain tea in the PM

Yesterday was a good day, although it didn't go according to plan. I had my glass of milk before going off to the Red Cross to give blood, but I ended up running out of time and having to leave before they could actually draw it. So I didn't have my planned snack of cashews (left them in my purse, no nibbling!), but just waited until after my hair appointment to get lunch at the Mexican place down the street. By the time I brought it back to my office and ate, it was three o'clock. Between that and the tea I had later in the afternoon, I wasn't really hungry for dinner. I just had a cup of soup, rather late, and a glass of milk.

Further little victories: still haven't broken into the cheddar cheese (I can't tell you how unusual this is for me). Even more amazing is the fact that I still have one of the six-pack of strawberry drinkable yogurts I got two and a half weeks ago; before I started NoS, I could have easily polished off all six in a couple of days.

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Post by florafloraflora » Fri Feb 02, 2007 2:46 pm

Day B6, Thursday 2/01: SUCCESS

Breakfast: plain yogurt, oatmeal with peanut butter, half a grapefruit, tea (Tazo chai with milk, a bit of honey)
Lunch: roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes w/ gravy, peas, tea (slightly sweetened)
Dinner: (the theme: baby food) cheese grits, applesauce
Between meals: water

Lunch and dinner consisted of bland comfort food. Lunch was rather on the huge side, but still just one (large) plate, at the diner. I'll probably have to start worrying about portion size at some point, but for now I'll just concentrate on cementing the NoS habit. Most of my portions of things are pretty small, so I'm not worrying for now about the occasional big meal.

I finally broke out the cheese for dinner, and yes, I'm a freak for eating a meal of nothing but baby food. Still, only eating 2 ounces and putting the rest away is a huge victory for me. Dinner came about 45 mins. before yoga, and I felt fine in class. I was slightly hungry afterward, but I just drank water and that was enough.

Baked bread, resisted breaking into it as soon as it came out of the oven (held off until this morning's breakfast). Another small victory.

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Check-in, Day B7

Post by florafloraflora » Sat Feb 03, 2007 10:57 am

Day B7, Friday 2/02: SUCCESS

Breakfast: 3 small slices homebaked bread (just water, flour, salt, and yeast): one with butter and marmalade, one with LF cheese and Marmite, one with just cheddar cheese; strawberry-blueberry yogurt smoothie; a few peanuts; green tea
Lunch: Indian chickpeas, brown rice, an apple, a handful of cashews, a glass of milk
Dinner: beef-vegetable stew, cheese bread, (100%) grape juice
Between meals: water

More moderate cheese consumption: just a piece on my bread in the morning, most of the brick is still in the fridge. Amazing. Also, finally drank the last strawberry yogurt in this morning's smoothie. I can't believe a single six-pack of those lasted almost two weeks.

Road trip again in the afternoon/evening, didn't stop for any snacks, waited until I arrived to eat dinner (around 9 PM). I thought my portion of stew was huge, E. thought it was tiny.

Once I'm used to this I may have to tighten up a bit more on nutrition and portion size, but for now I'm just glad to get snacking and sweets under control.

I'm not particularly craving sweets during the week (cheese is much more of a temptation) but I'm looking forward to baking something sweet this weekend.

florafloraflora
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Check-in, Day B8

Post by florafloraflora » Sun Feb 04, 2007 12:08 pm

Day B8, Saturday 2/03: S-DAY

Not too bad yesterday. I grazed a bit in the morning, had a biggish lunch, and a sweet with dinner. But overall I just can't seem to eat as much as I used to. Meals that would have been totally routine for me now make me feel stuffed and logy. I got a box of candy at the movies and didn't even finish it.

There was some extra exercise, too: lots of yard work and running around with the dogs, and a bit of yoga in the evening.

More evidence of the changes wrought by NoS: I was in an office with a candy dish at one point, and picked out a couple of my old favorites. They tasted way too sweet to me, not even good. I don't think I'll be craving them any more.

My mission today is to find and eat a good donut, something I've been craving. I figure, when you have a specific craving it's good to take care of it.

florafloraflora
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Check-in, Day B9

Post by florafloraflora » Mon Feb 05, 2007 1:55 pm

Day B9, Sunday 2/04: S-DAY

I was a bit more of an idiot yesterday, consciously loading up on things I'd missed over the course of the week and even adding some favorite binge foods to reward myself preemptively "just in case" I might miss them later in the week. Very bizarre thinking. The good news is, I absolutely cannot eat as much as I used to (although I did my best to test that this weekend).

It's actually a relief to get back to an N-day. I was hardly hungry for breakfast this morning because I still have some junk food in my stomach from last night's Superbowl party, but I ate more or less normally anyway.

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Check-in, Day B10

Post by florafloraflora » Tue Feb 06, 2007 2:24 pm

Day B10, Monday 2/05: SUCCESS

Breakfast: 3 small slices home-baked bread, chive cottage cheese, half a grapefruit, black tea with milk
Lunch: Amy's stuffed shells, apple-peach sauce, glass milk, handful cashews
Dinner: gnocchi with gorgonzola, 1 slice pear
Between meals: water, plain tea at midmorning, mate with milk in PM, champagne cocktail at concert after dinner

Lunch wasn't really big enough, and with my busy evening schedule I sort of panicked and ate too much for dinner. It all fit in one pasta dish, but it was a big plate of rich food. It wasn't so much that I was starving as that I was worried about getting ravenous later. Also, a bit of funny business: after I had taken a few bites of gnocchi, I saw a pear in the fruit bowl and decided that that would be good too. When I finished the gnocchi I cut a slice of the pear and ate it, but realized that the rest of the pear was too ripe to eat and threw it away. This was sort of a borderline situation, but as it did all fit on the plate (and the extra food was fruit) I'm calling it OK.

Also, I hardly ever drink so the cocktail felt a little indulgent, but I'm going by the rule that says alcohol is allowed.

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Check-in, Day B11

Post by florafloraflora » Wed Feb 07, 2007 4:05 pm

Day B11, Tuesday 2/06: SUCCESS

Breakfast: cheese grits, half a grapefruit, black tea with milk
Lunch: pad thai, jasmine tea
Dinner: 1 cup Italian wedding soup, Trader Joe's multigrain fig bar, an apple, small glass of milk
Between meals: water, small glass of milk before yoga class

Breakfast and lunch were pretty substantial, and I was barely hungry for dinner. I didn't even really need the milk before yoga, but I had it just in case. The fig bar is sort of a borderline item, but it's only got 13 grams of sugar in it (down from the 17 I had guessed before) and this is only the second one I've had in three weeks, so I'm not going to sweat it.

It's nice to know that I can stick to three meals a day and not be hungry, but on the other hand I'm not losing any weight. If anything my weight is rising. What's making me eat heftier meals is not so much extreme hunger as a fear of the extreme hunger I experienced when I first started this. For now I'm going to focus most on developing the three-meal habit, and then when I'm feeling more secure with it I'll reduce the size of my meals and focus more on the nutritious eating.

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Check-in, Day B12

Post by florafloraflora » Thu Feb 08, 2007 3:15 pm

Day B12, Wednesday 2/07: SUCCESS

Breakfast: cheese grits, half a grapefruit, a bit of green tea
Lunch: pho
Dinner: lima beans with sausage, baked sweet potato
Between meals: water, green tea at midmorning

I woke up ready to feel disgruntled with my lack of progress, then I weighed myself and found that my weight is a bit lower. I've been bouncing around in the same 3- or 4-pound range since I started this, but at least I'm at the lower end of the range right now.

I was worried about my hefty-ish breakfast and lunch, and then for dinner I found that all I wanted was vegetables, with just a bit of sausage in the lima beans. I had to take several tiny tastes (for seasoning and doneness) as I was cooking dinner, but I'm counting it as part of the cooking process. The lima beans were done way before the sweet potato, so I ate them first before they could get cold. Everything did fit on one plate, though. In the end I couldn't even finish my sweet potato.

I've killed off the cheddar cheese (can't believe it lasted more than a week), so that's the last of the cheese grits for a while. Probably a good thing.

I have an appointment today to give blood after lunch, but I'm not sure I'm well enough to go. If I do decide to go, I'll give myself permission to have a hefty lunch (all on one plate, but it may be a big one), then I'll have some cashews with me for afterward, to eat instead of the cookies at the snack table.

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Check-in, Day B13

Post by florafloraflora » Fri Feb 09, 2007 2:27 pm

Day B13, Thursday 2/08: SUCCESS (partial S-DAY: gave blood)

Breakfast: 2 slices homebaked oatmeal bread, one topped with butter and Marmite, one with peanut butter and honey; strawberry-blueberry yogurt smoothie; tea (chai with honey, a little milk)
Lunch: 2 tamales with dirty rice and black beans
Dinner: mesquite chicken breast cutlet; grits; lima beans with sausage; a clementine; green tea
Between meals: water; planned post-blood donation snack of cashews and 1/2 cup apple-peach sauce; mate with milk, late PM; herbal tea with honey upon waking up in the middle of the night at 2AM

I forgot to take cashews with me to the blood donation center. I was going to skip the snack entirely because I was so full from lunch, but when I got back to the office I felt a little light-headed so I had the snack after all.

I bought some strawberry kefir to use in my smoothies from now on instead of the delicious drinkable yogurt that is way too sweet.

Success: Avoided the appetizer of chips and salsa at the Mexican restaurant, the cookies at the snack table after donating blood, and the snack I was tempted to eat when I woke up in the middle of the night.

Near-miss: Dinner was really a bit too big. The grits spread over one half of the plate in a big flat puddle, and it took a bit of virtual stacking to fit the chicken and clementine in. If it weren't for cutting myself some slack b/c of giving blood, I might call it a failure. The portion of lima beans should have been smaller, and the grits should have been half as much. I've been making what the package says is one serving, but that turns out to be a cereal bowl full, which really isn't a reasonable starch portion for dinner or even for breakfast. I will cut the amounts in half from now on.

I most likely won't have online access over the weekend, so my next checkin will be Monday.

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Check-in, Days B14-16

Post by florafloraflora » Mon Feb 12, 2007 4:47 pm

Day B14, Friday 2/09: SUCCESS

Breakfast: 2 hardboiled eggs, 2 slices homebaked oat bread (one with butter and Marmite, one with peanut butter and honey), piece of fruit? can't remember.
Lunch: Amy's Indian Mattar Paneer, a piece of fruit (can't quite remember which kind), handful cashews, glass of milk
Dinner: lima beans with sausage, Trader Joe's fig bar
Between meals: water, tea

Days B15-16, Saturday-Sunday 2/10-11: S-DAYs

My weight on Saturday morning was the lowest I've seen so far since starting No-S. My eating over the weekend was still pretty indulgent, but not outrageous. I baked a yummy coconut-cardamom tea cake. The only firm rule I'm sticking with on S-days is that everything I eat must be delicious: no pointless calories. If I start eating something treat-y and it doesn't taste good, then I'll throw it away.

Exercise: tough yoga class Sat. morning (left me hurting all over, like I'd been through a meat grinder), long walk to the park on Sun. where I ran up and down hills with my dog
Last edited by florafloraflora on Tue Feb 13, 2007 2:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Check-in, Day B17

Post by florafloraflora » Tue Feb 13, 2007 2:20 pm

Day B17, Monday 2/12: SUCCESS

Breakfast: 2 hardboiled eggs, strawberry-blueberry yogurt smoothie, black tea w/ milk
Lunch: mesquite chicken breast cutlet, tomato-red pepper soup, 1 pear, 1 clementine, a few cashews
Dinner: mushroom pot roast on grits, a clementine
Between meals: water

Dinner didn't happen until after 8 (dog training class), but it was fine. I had the smaller portion of grits, it worked much better.

Hunger between meals is generally much less, and much more manageable. My weight was down around the low end again this morning, which means I bounced back nicely from the weekend. Now I have until Friday to make strides. I know I shouldn't get hung up on weight and I'm trying to focus instead on forming the No-S habit, but I can't help feeling anxious about all the weight I have to lose.

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Check-in, Day B18

Post by florafloraflora » Wed Feb 14, 2007 5:00 pm

Day B18, Tuesday 2/13: SUCCESS

Breakfast: mushroom pot roast, grits
Lunch: Amy's Indian saag paneer, a clementine, small cup applesauce, handful of cashews
Dinner: mesquite chicken breast cutlet, potato-celeriac puree, an apple
Between meals: water

Breakfast of champions: pot roast and grits! I had made this overnight Sunday-Monday and had a mad craving for it even after having it for Monday night's dinner (after leaving the sauce in the fridge all day for the fat to separate), so I decided to have it again for breakfast. It was tasty and filling, but I noticed that I really missed the slight sweetness of a piece of fruit, a smoothie or some oatmeal, and I was craving a sweet all morning. Didn't give in, though, and the fruit at lunch took care of the sweet craving.

I really think I'm getting the hang of this. It's amazing how my portions are becoming self-regulating. I felt a bit guilty about my hefty breakfast, but after lunch I felt so stuffed, all afternoon and evening, that I could hardly think about dinner. I'd planned to eat even more pot roast, but when the time came I just couldn't face it, so I had a small serving of the puree with just a (small) chicken breast cutlet-thing. Worked like a charm.

Last night's yoga class was canceled, but I managed to go snowshoeing this morning 8) My weight this morning was even lower than on Saturday. I've been in between sizes for a while, able to take my bigger jeans off without unzipping, but not yet fitting into my smaller jeans. This morning I managed to zip up my smaller jeans: it was a stretch, but now they feel comfy :D

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Smaller jeans

Post by jent » Wed Feb 14, 2007 10:27 pm

Hey Flora - congratulations on the smaller jeans ... it sounds like you've been reaching a lot of small, and not so small, accomplishments since you started. You sound great.

It looks like we started around the same time. I've lost about 4 pounds too ... or hovering around it anyway. Slow but sure, right?

I like your approach, too ... you seem to be using No-S to break habits and start healthier ones ... that's what I'm trying to do too.

By the way, are you snowed in today? I had to take the day off since my son didn't have school in DC.

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Post by florafloraflora » Thu Feb 15, 2007 6:46 pm

Thanks, Jen. As of today I've lost a bit more than five pounds, but then given Reinhard's recent magical 10-pound loss, I'm not taking this for granted: I might have gained five, or lost twenty, or something!

I wasn't snowed in at all yesterday. I was parked on an unplowed street, but I didn't let it slow me down: first I drove to the park where I went snowshoeing, then drove myself to work. I have a cross-commute (I travel to Maryland from DC), which makes it a little easier.

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Check-in, Day B19

Post by florafloraflora » Thu Feb 15, 2007 7:09 pm

Day B19, Wednesday 2/14: SUCCESS (partial S-DAY: Valentine's Day)

Breakfast: 2 hardboiled eggs; oatmeal with (a bit of) brown sugar, pecans, and cinnamon; 1 clementine; mate with milk
Lunch: mesquite chicken breast cutlet, tomato-red pepper soup, a pear, a clementine, a few cashews
Dinner: jambalaya, a clementine
Between meals: water; in the evening, I came home to find some homebaked cookies (one large and two tiny) that a friend had left for me, and I ate them with a glass of milk

I didn't plan to do anything for Valentine's Day, as I won't be celebrating until I see my sweetie this weekend, but when I came home and found the cookies I thought it would be OK to eat them. Reinhard says it's OK, and who am I to argue with him?

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Bah. Failure today, at Day B20.

Post by florafloraflora » Thu Feb 15, 2007 10:28 pm

Afraid I failed today. We had a bunch of yummy food in the office from a project delivery celebration that I organized, and chocolates that a colleague brought in to celebrate the birth of his daughter. I was good at lunch and stuck to one plate while everybody else had seconds, and I didn't have any of the dessert (that I made myself!). But toward the end of the afternoon, boredom and cravings got the best of me, and I ate some chocolate and some seconds of the food. I didn't even think I liked Russell Stover, but apparently I like these gooey pecan-caramel things. Bah.

I'm not quitting though. I'm trying to get into the No-S habit for good, so I figure it won't hurt to track my food for the next 21 days again. So I'll start over tomorrow with Day C1. I'd rather rack up 20 failures and find myself starting over at day T1 a couple of months from now than get too embarrassed to post and fall off the wagon entirely.

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Check-in, Day B20

Post by florafloraflora » Fri Feb 16, 2007 3:08 pm

Day B20, Thursday 2/15: FAILURE

Just to make it official, here's yesterday's failure report:

Breakfast: strawberry-blueberry yogurt smoothie, 2 soysage patties, tea
Lunch: roast chicken, potatoes, hummus w/ bread, cucumber-onion salad
Dinner: none, after late-afternoon eating
Between meals: water; untimely, extended snack in the late afternoon, of roast chicken, potatoes, hummus w/ bread, chocolates

Exercise: yoga class was easy, mostly restoratives

Once again I felt rather sick after eating an amount of food that would have been totally routine for me before No-S. The only good thing about this is that after bingeing in the afternoon I didn't want dinner and I didn't have any. Oh, and even though I was bingeing I still didn't eat any of the baklava that I had set aside for the weekend.

I'm starting again today at day C1.
Last edited by florafloraflora on Fri Feb 16, 2007 5:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Fri Feb 16, 2007 4:43 pm

Once again I felt rather sick after eating an amount of food that would have been totally routine for me before No-S
Hi Floraflora!
This is a very excellent step in the right direction.
You are noticing your bodies signals now and you know you don't like the stuffed sick feeling (though in all honesty, aside from the chocolates you listed, to me, it sounded like a totally normal amount of food for a day)
The power of those bad habits, I have to say, is so formidible..
But as long as you stick this out, over time, those new ones will start gaining strength, and then, you will squash the old ones like bugs!!

I really think a huge component to this plan is to totally use S days as your carrot on the end of the stick.. Just put on your blinders as best you can during the week, and keep repeating "It's not an S day" when tempations arise..
They will taste 1000% percent better when they are earned and guilt free!
Really!

Have a nice weekend.
Peace,
8) Debs
ps.. Yoga is the best!! Thanks for the reminder! I need to get back on my mat :wink:
There is no Wisdom greater than Kindness

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Post by florafloraflora » Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:54 am

Thanks, Deb! I can always use encouragement. I think what killed me Thursday was the feeling that "I have to eat this stuff NOW because it's not going to be here later". If I'd been more rational I would have realized there would have been nothing wrong with saving some chocolates for the weekend just as I did with the baklava, and I could (and in fact did) eat some of the leftovers the next day. But emotions--feeling like a martyr because I'd organized the lunch and stayed up late making a dessert that I couldn't even eat--got the best of me.

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Post by florafloraflora » Sat Feb 17, 2007 12:10 pm

Day C1, Friday 2/16: SUCCESS

Breakfast: plain yogurt, oatmeal with (a little) brown sugar and cinnamon, a clementine, tea with milk
Lunch: chicken salad, tomato-red pepper soup, hummus and bread, a clementine, plain tea
Dinner: chicken breast with mole sauce, refried beans, a small flour tortilla, cooked greens
Between meals: water

Dinner was really late because I didn't get in from my road trip until 11 o'clock at night. I made, it though.

This is my third attempt at the 21-Day Club. Let's hope third time is the charm.

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Check-in, Day C2

Post by florafloraflora » Sun Feb 18, 2007 2:24 pm

Day C2, Saturday 2/17: S-DAY

Nothing dramatic to report. Had an extended brunch in the morning, some afternoon tea with a few cookies, and cake at dinner.

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Check-in, Day C3

Post by florafloraflora » Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:29 am

Day C3, Sunday 2/18: S-DAY

One big indulgence early in the day, then not much eating at all after that as my stomach recovered. Silly me. Well, if I had naturally brilliant eating habits I wouldn't be in a position to have to diet in the first place. This way I'm relearning my limits.

On the upside, I actually threw out an entire half a cake I had baked on Saturday. Not that it wasn't good, just that I was tired of it and knew I didn't need the calories.

I'm taking today, President's Day, as an S-Day. That might be a little silly, but this is the last holiday until May, so I'm going to go ahead and take it. I have a road trip and then a friend's birthday dinner to get through.

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Check-in, Day C4

Post by florafloraflora » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:48 am

Day C4, Monday 2/19: S-DAY

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Post by florafloraflora » Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:39 pm

Day C5, Tuesday 2/20: SUCCESS

Breakfast: (at Wendy's) sausage egg & cheese sandwich, hash browns w/ ketchup, yogurt & granola, 2% milk
Lunch: roasted potatoes, garlic-yogurt sauce
Dinner: pot roast, potato-celeriac puree
Between meals: water, plain tea

Breakfast was way too big. I didn't have lunch until 3 pm, and I never got hungry. I didn't have dinner until 9 pm, after yoga class, and I wasn't hungry for that either but I had some pot roast I had to eat before it went bad.

The bad news is, I felt unpleasantly stuffed all day. The good news is, I think I'm ready to start backing off from the big meals. I'm realizing that, not only will I not starve if I don't eat a huge meal, I will probably feel much better if I keep my meals lighter.

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Check-in, Day C6

Post by florafloraflora » Thu Feb 22, 2007 3:48 pm

Day C6, Wednesday 2/21: SUCCESS (Ash Wednesday: partial fasting)

Breakfast: big cup of mate with milk
Lunch: mushroom-Swiss omelet, home fries, toast and jam
Dinner: clear chicken broth
Between meals: water

This was my first time ever actually following the rules for Ash Wednesday: just one meal, no meat, no solid food the rest of the day. I considered it last year, but my blood sugar was so wonky then I didn't think it would be safe. This year things are more under control and I felt that I could take the challenge. I felt pretty terrible when I got home in the evening, but the chicken broth gave me a boost for the rest of the night. Lunch was big (it fit on one plate, but it was a big platter-like plate at the diner) but I thought that was OK under the circumstances.

I feel like all I've done for days is give excuses: it was a huge meal, but... No more. I'm ready to start decreasing my portion sizes. One good lesson from yesterday is that I can handle skipping entire meals if I have to, so I should certainly be able to handle smaller portions.

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Check-in, Day C7

Post by florafloraflora » Fri Feb 23, 2007 3:13 pm

Day C7, Thursday 2/22: SUCCESS

Breakfast: 2 soysage patties, strawberry-blueberry yogurt smoothie, half a grapefruit, black tea with milk
Lunch: pho
Dinner: pesto tortellini, an apple
Between meals: water, small glass of milk before yoga

Nothing too eventful. Made it until after yoga without eating, felt fine.

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Post by Jammin' Jan » Fri Feb 23, 2007 10:58 pm

Rules for fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday: one normal-sized meatless meal, and 2 smaller meatless meals that together don't equal a full meal. Sounds strange, but it keeps the blood sugar a little more even.

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Post by florafloraflora » Mon Feb 26, 2007 3:55 pm

Thanks, Jan! I was going by the rules in the bulletin from my church, which said one meatless meal and no other solid food.

Of course, just now in looking back at this, I realized that the chicken broth might not be considered meatless. It truly never occurred to me until just now. I'm sure some meat was involved in making the broth, but I never saw it! :)

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Check-in, Days C8-C10

Post by florafloraflora » Mon Feb 26, 2007 4:01 pm

Day C8, Friday 2/23: SUCCESS

Breakfast: oatmeal with currants and (a bit of) maple syrup; 1/2 a grapefruit; 2 hardboiled eggs; black tea with milk
Lunch: Indian potatoes and chickpeas; plain yogurt; a pear; handful of cashews
Dinner: scallops with linguine
Between meals: water

Day C9, Saturday 2/24: S-DAY

Day C10, Sunday 2/25: S-DAY

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Check-in, Day C11

Post by florafloraflora » Tue Feb 27, 2007 2:52 pm

Day C11, Monday 2/26: SUCCESS (snatched from the jaws of failure)

Breakfast: plain yogurt, 4 links soysage, half a grapefruit, plain tea
Lunch: chicken and dumplings, a pear
Dinner: beef empanada pie, a glass of milk, some pineapple
Between meals: water

I had to chuckle at myself yesterday. My own hunger-addled mind saved me from near-failure. As I was leaving work I felt ravenous. I had to stop at the store to pick up the makings of dinner, but as I left the store I decided I was just too hungry to wait and I'd be stopping at the Evil Burrito Place before going home.

The Evil Burritos fit on a plate, technically, but in reality they are humongous and contain enough calories for at least a couple of meals. I didn't care: I was intent on stretching if not breaking the rules, if that was what it took. But my poor starved brain was driving on autopilot and took the turn for the highway, away from the Evil Burrito Place, before I realized what was going on. Curses! Foiled!

I went home, did the fastest onion-chopping job ever, and got dinner into the oven in record time. Amazingly I did not starve to death while I waited.

The scale made me happy today. I know not to put too much stock in it, but I'd rather see it lower than higher :D

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Post by thtrchic » Tue Feb 27, 2007 4:06 pm

Looks like habits kicked in and took over. I guess this must be working. :)

Julie

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Check-in, Day C12

Post by florafloraflora » Wed Feb 28, 2007 3:08 pm

Day C12, Tuesday 2/27: SUCCESS (with some sketchy stuff)

Breakfast: cheese grits, half a grapefruit, tea with milk
Lunch: mesquite chicken breast cutlet baked with garlic vinaigrette, tomato-red pepper soup, a pear, handful of cashews
Dinner: Italian wedding soup, broccoli rice, carrot sticks
Between meals: water, herbal tea with honey before bed

Sketchy stuff: as I was cooking dinner, I was hungry and snarfed up some soup without even thinking. It was part of the portion I'd already measured out for myself so I'm going to chalk it up to virtual plating, but I can't be doing this again.

The scale was lower again this morning. I've been ping-ponging around in the same five- or six-pound range since I started this about seven weeks ago, but the range is slowly stretching downward and I'm consistently spending more time in the bottom of the range.
Last edited by florafloraflora on Wed Feb 28, 2007 4:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by USAFwife » Wed Feb 28, 2007 4:27 pm

Thats awesome! ....and might I add your food sounds so good!

Keep it goin'!

Janine

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Post by florafloraflora » Wed Feb 28, 2007 10:19 pm

Thanks, Janine! I do try to eat only things that taste good to me. I figure the advantage of No-S is that I can eat anything if the portions are small enough, so the best way to stick with it is to make sure everything is delicious :)

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Check-in, Day C13

Post by florafloraflora » Thu Mar 01, 2007 2:30 pm

Day C13, Wednesday 2/28: SUCCESS

Breakfast: black tea with milk; strawberry-blueberry yogurt smoothie; 4 soysage links; 2 small slices homebaked pumpernickel bread, one with LF cheese and Marmite, one with butter and marmalade
Lunch: small cheese sandwich, Italian wedding soup, carrot sticks
Dinner: beef empanada pie, glass of milk, pineapple
Between meals: water

This feels like it's getting to be automatic. The scale continues to say nice things to me, although it's a slow process.

Other bonuses: My skin is in great shape from all the fruit & vegetables I'm eating. And I like how light and energetic I feel now that I don't have so much food weighing me down all the time. Don't get me wrong, I still really eat plenty and I enjoy my meals when I've been looking forward to them, but I like that they're not as big. It's also a load off my mind not to spend time craving things and pondering whether and how to take care of that craving. Now the answer to a craving is always, "No, not until S-Day. Next question?"

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Check-in, Day C14

Post by florafloraflora » Fri Mar 02, 2007 6:29 pm

Day C14, Thursday 3/01: SUCCESS

Breakfast: oatmeal with cinnamon and brown sugar, plain yogurt, 4 links soysage, black tea with milk
Lunch: mesquite chicken breast baked with garlic vinaigrette, broccoli rice, pineapple
Dinner: beef burrito
Between meals: water, plain tea

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Check-in, Days C15-17

Post by florafloraflora » Mon Mar 05, 2007 7:23 pm

Day C15, Friday 3/02: SUCCESS

Breakfast: 4 links soysage, strawberry-blueberry yogurt smoothie
Lunch: salmon cakes, mashed potatoes, peas
Dinner: tuna-egg-salad sandwich, pineapple
Between meals: water

I was pretty hungry before lunch, and lunch was big. But dinner was relatively tiny, and it was just as much as I needed.

Day C16, Saturday 3/03: S-DAY

Day C17, Sunday 3/04: S-DAY

Nothing too outrageous was consumed. My weight this morning was 2-3 pounds lower than it tends to be at the end of the weekend.

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Check-in, Day C18

Post by florafloraflora » Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:56 pm

Day C18, Monday 3/05: SUCCESS

Yesterday was weird. I didn't have lunch--I didn't feel especially hungry, and I kept putting it off--and suddenly I realized it was 4:30, time to leave work, and I was feeling lightheaded. So I went to Chipotle (the Evil Burrito Place) and had a chicken Burrito Bol (the filling without the tortilla), with tomato salsa and no cheese. I figured that was one of the more benign things on that menu. Then, at night just before bed I had a small, snack-y meal.

Breakfast: 2 soysage patties, 2 slices home-baked oatmeal bread (one with LF cheese and Marmite, one with butter and marmalade), half a grapefruit, and black tea with milk
Lunch/Dinner: chicken Burrito Bol
Bedtime snack: a piece of cheese, some pineapple, a glass of milk, a few cashews

Something weird is happening with my eating. Hunger and cravings are disappearing now that I eat on a schedule. I eat when it's time to eat, and I enjoy my food, but I don't have much of a notion of when I'm hungry. I guess I'm going to go with this, because I know in the past my body has certainly been known to fake hunger, so it's not as if I'm losing a valuable source of information. I'm going to keep an eye on the situation though.

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Check-in, Day C19

Post by florafloraflora » Wed Mar 07, 2007 4:05 pm

Day C19, Tuesday 3/06: SUCCESS

Weird situation at lunch yesterday: I tried out a Peruvian chicken place I'd never been to before, but the food was wretched. After a few bites (part of a roast chicken leg, some rice and beans) I threw it away. Then I went down the road and got a beef patty at a Jamaican place. With virtual plating it all fell within the rules, but it was NOT exactly the lunch of champions.

Breakfast: black tea with milk, plain yogurt, 1 slice homebaked oatmeal bread with peanut butter and honey, half a grapefruit
Lunch: see above, yuck
Dinner: Italian wedding soup, 1 slice cheese toast, a pear, hot water with lemon (bleagh, won't drink that again)
Between meals: water, green tea at midmorning

I'm almost at the 21-day mark, but I'm not going to let down my guard. It seems every time I start to feel cocky about this, something goes wrong. Still, right now I'm pretty comfortable with the plan.

My weight still fluctuates from day to day (higher after weekends, lower on Saturday mornings), but I'd say I have achieved a pretty solid five-pound loss so far.

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Post by Jammin' Jan » Wed Mar 07, 2007 6:19 pm

You're really doing well!

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Post by florafloraflora » Thu Mar 08, 2007 3:01 pm

Thanks, Jan! The encouragement I've gotten from you and other No-S'ers has really helped.

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Post by florafloraflora » Thu Mar 08, 2007 3:09 pm

Day C20, Wednesday 3/07: SUCCESS

Breakfast: black tea with milk, 2 soysage patties, 1 slice homebaked oatmeal bread with peanut butter and honey, half a grapefruit
Lunch: tomato-red pepper soup, mesquite chicken breast baked with garlic vinaigrette, a pear
Dinner: jambalaya, pineapple
Between meals: water

Lunch wasn't quite enough, and I was a bit lightheaded by the time dinner was ready at 9. It was good that I didn't have any starch, but next time I think I will add a few cashews. I have finished most of the food I have frozen. I'll have to make some more either tonight or tomorrow.

I'm slightly frustrated by the s-l-o-w pace of my progress. I like that the No-S plan is sustainable, but it's a little depressing when I think that it's taken me nearly two months to lose five pounds, just a fraction of the 50-80 I'd like to lose.

But hey, today is Day 21! Wow! I hope I don't screw it up. I have a plan, so knock on wood, I think I'm going to do this.

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Check-in, Day C21!!!

Post by florafloraflora » Fri Mar 09, 2007 1:51 pm

Day C21, Thursday 3/08: SUCCESS

Breakfast: black tea with milk, 2 soysage patties, 1 slice homebaked oatmeal bread with peanut butter and honey, half a grapefruit
Lunch: chicken tikka masala (frozen from Whole Foods), handful cashews
Dinner: cheese omelet, lima beans, strawberry yogurt
Between meals: water

Third time was the charm! I am now a member of the 21-Day Club. I have to admit that when I started this back in mid-January I was deeply skeptical. Since then:
  • my portion sizes have decreased dramatically
    I've learned that I can't actually starve to death in five or even eight hours
    I've baked bread and waited overnight before having a slice
    I've had the same block of cheese in my refrigerator for more than a week
    ...and what is most amazing to me, I've forgotten all about afternoon snacking
Oh, and as of this morning I'm down five pounds. It's not a lot, but it feels more sustainable than other weight-loss processes I've been through.

It will be a relief not to have to write down everything I eat from now on, although I hope that I'll still be able to make nutritious food choices without the daily check-in to keep me honest. I'll try to check in once a week, let's say every Friday, and whenever I fail. But from now on, success will be my default, baby!

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Weekly Check-in 1, Day C29

Post by florafloraflora » Fri Mar 16, 2007 6:31 pm

I'm at Day 29 now and still on track. No-S feels like my normal way of living now. It was touch and go earlier in the week when I had to resist sweets for three days in a row at work (first a coworker brought in some brownies, then we had donuts left over from a meeting), but I made it. My weight was really stagnating and even threatening to rise a bit. Then I got back to walking up stairs and going to yoga class, and the scale started being nice to me again.

If anything is going to be a problem, it's not losing weight fast enough. I know I'm eating less, I feel healthier, and my clothes are fitting better. But the scale is just barely, barely moving. I have to admit I felt a little whiny about having to resist the donuts. This is what has torpedoed all my previous weight-loss efforts: feeling that "I've been perfectly behaved, and what do I have to show for it? I still have problems, and my weight/my life isn't changing fast enough." I think I'll actually try more treats this weekend--not bigger quantities, necessarily, but a greater variety--to try and counteract the feeling of deprivation, because I think that could derail me.

Another potential trouble spot: licking spoons and vacuuming up crumbs while cooking. Got to watch that.

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weight plateaus

Post by Kevin » Fri Mar 16, 2007 11:33 pm

My experience is it can take longer to lose weight than it seems like it should I used to plateau for a month or two at a time then BOOM I was five pound lighter. Don't let it throw you. If your clothes are fitting better, who cares whether you weigh less?

You'll get there.
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1/13/2011-189# :: 4/21/2011-177# :: Goal-165#
"Respecting the 4th S: sometimes."

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Weekly Check-in 2, Day C36

Post by florafloraflora » Fri Mar 23, 2007 2:57 pm

Still going. One semi-heroic feat this week: I resisted the gorgeous-looking chocolate cake a coworker brought in.

I've found that most of the time I barely feel hungry: my body knows it will be fed at regular intervals, and doesn't bother whining for a treat in-between because it knows that's not an option. Sometimes I'm not hungry even right before a meal.

My meals certainly are smaller than they were when I started. Basically I'm eating the same small meals as I was before No-S, when I thought I was a confirmed grazer. The difference now is that I don't eat snacks or sweets in between. I don't want to get smug because I certainly understand how backsliding could happen, but for now (knock on wood) it's going smoothly.

The scale gave me some good news this morning: I'm down another pound, for a total of seven pounds gone since I started No-S a couple of months ago. I also slipped more easily into my smaller jeans this morning. Seven pounds in two months is not a lot by, say, Weight-Watchers standards (there I think I lost 18 pounds in the first six weeks). But No-S is a lot more sustainable. It hardly feels like work at all.

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Weekly Check-in 3, Day C43

Post by florafloraflora » Fri Mar 30, 2007 7:13 pm

Things went smoothly again this week, knock on wood. The scale has told me two days in a row that I've lost ten pounds since I started No-S, so I'm choosing to believe it.

It's been ten weeks since I started trying to do this, the day after MLK Day. I had a couple of failures on my way to 21 days, but now I've been on track for more than a month.

This week's challenging event: the cupboard was bare, especially of the things I buy at Costco, so I went there to stock up. It was late afternoon and I had trouble resisting all the yummy-looking sweets and baked goods. But I managed. Now that I have all those gigantic packages in the fridge and cupboards, it's tempting to supersize my portions accordingly, but I'm doing my best to resist that urge too.

Gigantic packages aside, I find that my average portions are getting smaller and I no longer need as much variety at each meal. I still eat as much as 500 calories at each meal, but the humongous restaurant meals that slipped in from time to time during my first 21 days (technically one plate, but really pushing the spirit of the law) are now pretty much a thing of the past.

Exercise is providing a nice boost to my efforts (four hours of tough yoga last Saturday, oof).

My self-image is going through some changes, some of them awkward. Before (and this goes back to when I started losing weight at least a year before No-S, even) it was safe to assume that I would be the largest person in the room most of the time and that nobody would notice me. I can't always count on that anymore; my proportions are getting close to normal range (and yes, that's partly because there are a lot of fat people around). Of course this is a change I've been wanting, but it's still requiring some adjustments in my head to live with this new version of myself.

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Weekly Check-in 4, Day C50

Post by florafloraflora » Fri Apr 06, 2007 3:01 pm

Still on track. I gained a couple of pounds back from what I reported last week, probably because I skipped some exercise sessions and ate a bit more. Today is Good Friday, so I'm semi-fasting.

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Failure, Day C53

Post by florafloraflora » Tue Apr 10, 2007 12:35 pm

Bah, I failed yesterday. Having eaten leftover Easter ham for breakfast and lunch, I wanted to do something a bit different for dinner so I whipped up one of the yummiest, most tempting things I've ever made: macaroni with ham and spinach in a cheesy white sauce (2 different fancy cheeses!), subtly spiced with nutmeg. I waited awhile after dinner and the %$#! casserole just kept calling my name. In the end I didn't just have seconds, but thirds of it. I did manage to refrain from adding to the binge with a chocolate bunny and some dessert left over from Easter, the way I wanted to.

I think I'm chalking this up to a very very busy and stressful weekend, in which I cooked and ate a lot of amazing food. I didn't get any downtime, and yesterday it was hard, when I hadn't had any rest, to come down from my weekend tendency to overeat just to keep going. This morning I woke up at 4 am with a food hangover: great incentive not to let this happen again. Now if I can just get some good rest tonight.

On the upside, I threw away a lot of leftover sweets immediately after Easter brunch on Sunday: almost an entire cake went into the trash, because it wasn't that good but I knew that if I kept looking at it I'd be tempted to eat it. I barely even ate any chocolate or other candy: whatever was still wrapped went to the office, and the rest went into the trash.

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Post by Jammin' Jan » Wed Apr 11, 2007 12:21 am

Just keep going and don't stress too much over a "failure". It happens to us all.

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Post by florafloraflora » Wed Apr 11, 2007 1:00 pm

Thanks, Jan! I had a successful day yesterday and now (I hope) I'm back on track.

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Weekly Check-in 5, Day D5

Post by florafloraflora » Sun Apr 15, 2007 1:41 am

I didn't have an easy time bouncing back from Easter this week. I had a failure Monday night, with not just seconds, but thirds of dinner (I managed to stay away from the sweets though). After that I felt snackier, and I had a lot of trouble resisting leftover Easter candy. But by the end of the week I was back on track, and back down to my pre-Easter weight (it didn't hurt that I gave a pint of blood on Friday).

The great news is that my smaller jeans, the ones I couldn't zip when I started this in January, are now really roomy on me. I feel thinner and I'm being told I look thinner, too.

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Failure, Day D8

Post by florafloraflora » Thu Apr 19, 2007 1:37 am

Bah. Failed tonight: went to a restaurant and split an appetizer before eating my big bowl of soup. I wasn't even thinking. How silly of me.

I think restaurants aren't my friends on weeknights. I had a bit of a sketchy restaurant experience earlier this week at a happy hour for a friend's birthday on Monday: I didn't consume more than one plate worth of food, but assorted nibbles of bar food do not exactly make for the dinner of champions.

I'll start again tomorrow with Day E1. I'm out of town, heading to a convention where I'll meet some friends on Friday. I'll have to be vigilant through Friday, then the next two days will be S-Days.

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Check-in: The importance of S-days, part II

Post by florafloraflora » Thu May 03, 2007 9:07 pm

I haven't done a regular weekly check-in in a while, but I just wanted to say that I'm still on track and things are going well.

A couple of weekends ago I learned that I need some self-indulgence on S-days, or I don't do well with the shift back to N-days. I stayed in a hotel for a conference with a group of friends, and Friday and Saturday nights I was so busy that I ended up skipping dinner and making do with dessert instead (a planned S on Friday), and I was NOT a happy camper. The problem was not that treats weren't available, but the feeling that I couldn't pick and choose exactly which treats I wanted.

Last weekend I was worried about going to a wedding and staying in a hotel, but I managed to eat plenty of tasty food, and more importantly to reject what I didn't want. I had a nice lunch at the reception of salad and mushroom risotto (one of my favorite foods in the entire world), followed by a delicious wedding cake (there is such a thing!). For dinner my sweetie and I went to a steakhouse, but instead of going ape we split a steak and the accompanying appetizer, bread, and baked potato, then we each got a dessert. It was the perfect indulgence, without blowing calories on things I didn't care about. The following day we went out for breakfast, and I left most of my pancakes because they were just wretched. But that night I had a lovely dinner with a friend, of chicken, rice, broccoli, and blueberry cobbler. I ended the weekend satisfied with my S's, but not miserably stuffed.

I don't think those indulgences hurt my weight-loss effort, either. I'm back this week, stronger than ever, and I've broken through the 10-pounds-lost plateau I had been at for quite a while.

One slight wobble: I've been doing a lot of bread baking, practicing for a professional opportunity that has come my way, to bake for a small co-op. I want to taste the bread when it's done, but I end up taking a bite and spitting it out. This is my solution to not wanting to eat between meals, but it disturbs me a little because it's similar to anorexia and other obsessive food behaviors. But I really don't want to eat all that bread either. For now I'll just keep going the way I have been. I'm not going to worry as long as I don't start tasting and spitting out other foods.

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Failure, Day E21

Post by florafloraflora » Thu May 10, 2007 1:24 pm

Failure yesterday. I was having a friend over for her birthday. I'd planned to make that meal a NWS because I didn't think it was realistic to make a birthday cake and not eat any of it. But I was hungry and really stressed-out while cooking, and I ate a bunch of stuff that had nothing to do with dinner. Then I ate dinner with my friends, then after they left I had another piece of cake. Bah.

Day F1, tomorrow.

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Post by mimi » Thu May 10, 2007 2:51 pm

Hey, florafloraflora, maybe next time you could meet and go out to eat for the special occasion and then have cake at your place afterwards. That way you wouldn't have to stress over cooking, etc. Just a thought. In the mean time, don't beat yourself up. We all slip!
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Restarted once again: July 14, 2011
Quitting is not an option...
If you start to slip, tie a knot and hang on!
Remember that good enough is... good enough.
Strive for progress, not perfection!

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Post by mimi » Thu May 10, 2007 2:52 pm

Hey, florafloraflora, maybe next time you could meet and go out to eat for the special occasion and then have cake at your place afterwards. That way you wouldn't have to stress over cooking, etc. Just a thought. In the mean time, don't beat yourself up. We all slip!
mimi
Discovered NoS: April 16, 2007
Restarted once again: July 14, 2011
Quitting is not an option...
If you start to slip, tie a knot and hang on!
Remember that good enough is... good enough.
Strive for progress, not perfection!

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Post by florafloraflora » Thu May 10, 2007 4:07 pm

Thanks, mimi. It's kind of tough because I hate eating in restaurants. I always feel that I could make better food (more to my taste, smaller portions) at home for less money. Ordinarily I would invite them over on a weekend so I wouldn't have to worry about it. But they were away last weekend and will be away again next weekend. I'm really busy too, and yesterday was the only night that worked.

I think the solution for next time would be to do more of the prep work and cleaning in advance, so I wouldn't be so mad-stressed as I cooked dinner and got things ready.

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Failure, Day F5

Post by florafloraflora » Tue May 15, 2007 2:18 pm

Boo, another failure last night. It wasn't a huge slip in the scheme of things, but I'm posting it here to keep myself honest.

I had eaten a generous plate of beans and cornbread for dinner, then I went to a friend's house to visit her new baby. Her husband cut up some pineapple for us to snack on, and it looked really tempting, plus I wanted to be polite, so I ate a few pieces. Boo. Not deadly in terms of calories, but not good for the No-S habit.

I'd rather have a social life than not, but I'm having a hard time navigating weeknight social events.

Today is Day G1.

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Post by florafloraflora » Thu May 17, 2007 1:22 pm

Even more blah overnight: serious sketchiness, if not outright failure. Last night I was up baking bread in the middle of the night (why was I doing that, you ask? good question), and I ended up eating about half a loaf of bread, with butter and jam or cheese. I could technically say it would fit all on one plate, and I called that my breakfast and didn't eat anything else this morning, but I suspect it's a failure.

I've been sleeping pretty badly lately because I've been stressing out over some things I'm responsible for at home and at work. I've had a lot of trouble with insomnia in the past, and when I'm up in the middle of the night I crave milk and/or carbs to help me get back to sleep. So far, since starting No-S, I've been able to hold off successfully. The positive side effect of that is that eating less tends to help me sleep better, which means fewer occasions for screwing up. But this run of insomnia, over the past couple of weeks, is as bad as any I've had in a long time.

Sometimes I'm tempted to call insomnia a sickness--I have been known to call in sick to work after three or four nights in a row of bad sleep, just so I'm not a zombie in the office. But eating in the middle of the night doesn't help me; if anything it makes the cycle worse. So I doubt I can chalk this up as an S for sickness.

I think the key, ultimately, is to resolve the things that are stressing me out. But it would be nice to get my food issues under control even during the stressful times. I tried the glass-of-milk-as-last-line-of-defense trick last night (in fact I had had a glass of milk before bed earlier, because I'd had an early dinner), and it failed utterly.

Blah. I'm tempted to get discouraged. :(

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Post by florafloraflora » Wed Jun 06, 2007 5:44 pm

Another failure last night. I baked some lemon squares for a meeting of my building's tenants' association, and foolishly assumed I could stay away from them. I was wrong. Instead I had an early dinner of lemon-square trimmings, and a few more bites with breakfast this morning.

I may need to start another 21 days of checking in here every day. I feel as though I'm sticking with the program most days, but I haven't lost any weight; in fact if anything it's creeping up. I think the point of No-S is that there are only three minor rules, and they require absolute compliance. Even minor slips are the same thing as not being on the program at all.

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Post by Jammin' Jan » Thu Jun 07, 2007 12:16 am

Well, just keep going, and it will all come out right. Just don't give up, okay? No-S is really a good thing, even apart from any weight loss, because it's all about self-control, and that's an area that we can all use a lot of help with. I think that's why so many of us have so many slip-ups with something that's really so simple. The simple program addresses a major area of life. So if you have some failures, it just means you're human and are struggling with the same thing that the rest of the human race has been struggling with since we were created. So just make a new resolution and get back into the game.

PS. If you get up in the middle of the night, try a cup of hot decaffeinated tea or herb tea instead of the milk or carbs and see if that helps.

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Post by florafloraflora » Fri Jun 08, 2007 9:46 pm

Thanks, Jan. I appreciate all the encouragement I can get.

I know how good I feel when I stick strictly to No-S. If I can just beat the insomnia, which really messes with my schedule, my energy, and my resolve, I think I can get back on my game.

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Post by florafloraflora » Tue Jun 19, 2007 2:47 am

Blah. Failed yet again tonight. I'd been feeling hungry and deprived all day. After dinner I caved in to a bunch of cravings. I've never been much of an after-dinner snacker, but all day today I've been feeling deprived and craving something tasty. Tonight my resolve broke. Boo.

I'm still stressed-out and sleeping badly, although I think the worst is behind me. I've noticed that my eating is totally joyless: on No-S days, I just shovel in my allotted portion of food like nourishment, without enjoying it at all. On N-days, I graze heavily, but without enjoying it that much because my stomach doesn't have the capacity for everything I crave any more. I need to cook myself some healthy, tasty meals, but I haven't had the time or the energy. And it would be nice if I weren't too distracted to enjoy my food when I do eat it. Bah.

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Post by florafloraflora » Tue Jun 19, 2007 5:25 pm

FAILURE Bleagh, more bad eating this morning. My life is a mess, and food is just one part of that. I need to figure out how to keep eating sanely through all this, but I'm having a lot of trouble with it.

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Post by florafloraflora » Fri Jun 22, 2007 12:55 pm

*knock on wood* I think I'm back from the brink. I got a wall calendar in the kitchen, put a red X through my two failure days, on Monday and Tuesday, and since then I've been gaining motivation from circling each successful day in green. Tuesday was a pretty undisciplined day, but I decided just to eat what I craved and notice what was going on. I think I haven't been paying enough attention to what I really want to eat, and those unsatisfied taste cravings were actually leading me to stuff more unsatisfying food into my face. Now I'm making more of an effort to figure out what sounds good to me for each meal and make each meal as satisfying as possible, without adding empty calories.

What's really made the difference is that I've changed the way my bed is set up and I've been sleeping much much better. It's amazing how much it helps with willpower (and the energy to shop for good food and make a tasty meal) when you're not feeling like one of the undead.

Last night I even went to a bar after dinner to meet up with my brother and SIL, who are in town for work, and I just had a drink, with no temptation to eat anything. I hope I can keep this going.

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Post by Jammin' Jan » Sat Jun 23, 2007 4:56 pm

The heat and humidity here probably aren't helping either. :(

florafloraflora
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Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 7:03 pm
Location: Washington, DC USA

Post by florafloraflora » Tue Jun 26, 2007 12:54 pm

Things have been going smoothly since I last posted. A small victory last night: I had an early dinner, then went out with friends. I had a couple of drinks and was tempted to get something to eat too, but I had just the drinks.

I'm keeping track of my progress on a wall calendar in the kitchen. Every evening after dinner I circle the day in either green for N-days or orange for S-days. It helps me stop eating for the day, and it's good motivation to build a consistent pattern of green circles.

florafloraflora
Posts: 219
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 7:03 pm
Location: Washington, DC USA

Post by florafloraflora » Tue Jul 03, 2007 2:59 pm

Just a quick check-in to say that everything is going swimmingly. I'm out of town at my sweetie's place, and in the past this has been very much a place I associate with S-days and grazing/treats. But I am actually doing a good job of sticking to my N-Day rules. I'm planning a pie for tomorrow, the 4th, to go with our cookout.

florafloraflora
Posts: 219
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 7:03 pm
Location: Washington, DC USA

Post by florafloraflora » Fri Jul 13, 2007 1:52 am

Post-July 4th checkin: I must have spoken too soon, because the rest of the week from Wednesday the 4th through Sunday the 8th were pretty much a straight-through binge, and I gained a horrifying amount of weight. It started with pie on the 4th taking me forever to bake and not actually being ready to eat until after midnight, and it just went from there.

This week I am back on track. My NoS habit has been really strong. But I've been reading a lot in the New York Times about studies that show that people who start out fat end up fat regardless of their efforts to diet, and that thin people also tend to revert to thinness even after gaining weight on purpose. And I'm wondering if slipups like last week's aren't the body's way of making sure it doesn't lose too much weight.

Charis
Posts: 184
Joined: Thu May 24, 2007 3:07 am
Location: Wisconsin

Post by Charis » Fri Jul 13, 2007 2:20 am

Oh I desperately hope not. :shock:

florafloraflora
Posts: 219
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 7:03 pm
Location: Washington, DC USA

Post by florafloraflora » Tue Aug 28, 2007 2:54 pm

Failure yesterday, my first in more than a month. I had been doing pretty well with my circles-on-paper-calendar system, but my downfall came last night when I tried a new bread recipe between dinner and bedtime (product research for my baking gig). I accidentally dozed off while waiting for the bread to finish baking, and after I woke up and took the bread out to cool I couldn't get back to sleep. I got out of bed and ended up having three slices of the freshly-baked bread, with butter, Marmite, and/or jam. Boo.

florafloraflora
Posts: 219
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 7:03 pm
Location: Washington, DC USA

Post by florafloraflora » Wed Aug 29, 2007 9:03 pm

Boo, yet another failure today. I'm on an insane deadline at work and when I'm this stressed-out all restraint pretty much goes out the window. I had a big snack while working this afternoon, of chocolate candies and cashew nuts. I wish I could say I'm just going to have dinner and then work through the night without any further snacks, but with all the adrenaline of working to meet my deadline I doubt I'll have any energy left to resist junk-food cravings.

Bah. Bah. Bah.

It will all be over tomorrow... just hope I won't gain ten pounds in the interim.

florafloraflora
Posts: 219
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 7:03 pm
Location: Washington, DC USA

Post by florafloraflora » Fri Oct 19, 2007 5:48 pm

Failure just now at lunch, the first one in quite a while. I went to a Tex-Mex place for lunch and succumbed to the free chips and salsa, which I can usually avoid. Today I had gone running for the first time after being sick for two weeks, and I was ravenous, which I think is why I ate the appetizer. Boo. I really need to start packing a lunch again.

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