Everyday Systems

6/5/07 SUCCESS
6/6/07 SUCCESS
6/7/07 FAILURE

I failed on day 3 by having a sweet snack, then had a strawberry lemonade with my dinner. The successful part of the day was that I couldn't finish my dinner. With only two days of nos my capacity for large meals had decreased. Also I don't feel that well, and I really enjoyed how good I was feeling the first two days.

6/8/07 SUCCESS

It is very interesting to me to notice how often I think about snacking. I can really see how easy it would be to eat quite a bit more with snacks and also with seconds than without. I'm enjoying the process.

Sounds like you're learning what you need to learn! Welcome to No-S!

Thanks Jan. I do feel like I'm learning a lot about myself. I am really noticing this tendency to think of food when I am stressed or bored.

6/10/07 SUCCESS

I have decided that for myself I will consider s days a success if I neither deprive myself nor binge. I don't want to feel sick from overeating or eating too much overly rich food, but I also don't want to head back into the no s days with any feeling of deprivation.

I wanted to add that on an intellectual level I always knew that I ate when I was stressed and sometimes when bored, but I just wasn't really that aware of it. Now it is becoming really apparent.

6/11/07 SUCCESS

I ate dinner much earlier than usual. In the past that would have always meant some snacking later. This time although I did experience some mild hunger I resisted the snacking.

I am still just so amazed by how often I think of snacking. Sometimes I'll realize that it is actually time for my next meal (not that I am following a strict time schedule just that it would make sense to have my next meal now). Other times I am just bored or stressed. It is so much easier to just say no (to borrow a phrase that I used to hate) than to analyze whether or not I should snack and what kind of snack would be acceptable.

6/12/07 SUCCESS

6/13/07 FAILURE

Usually I wouldn't be thrilled to bite into a cookie and find that it tasted so bad that I couldn't possibly eat it. On a nos day however I was very happy to have my failure consist of one bite of a cookie. I was debating whether to call it a success since it was only one bite of a cookie, but I realize the failure was not in what I ate it was in the decision. It was luck, not a successfully instilled habit, that resulted in only one bite of a cookie being eaten.

6/14/07 FAILURE

I realized a couple of things from the last two days. One is that I need to some planning if I am going to be very busy, the other is that I will have trouble being successful with this is I don't eat a decent sized breakfast early in the day. I am still feeling really good about the program despite having a couple of failures in a row.

6/15/07 FAILURE

Argh, I didn't even want to post tonight.

Hang in there! I think you will find that staying within the boundaries will get easier. You are right though, a decent sized breakfast does help me to get off to a great start for the day. There is no way I want to be battling hunger from morning until I go to bed. Don't give up, I think you will find the rewards beneficial.

Charis is right! Hang in there and you'll see improvement and results.

Thanks Charis and mimi. I appreciate the encouragement.

6/16/07 SUCCESS
6/17/07 SUCCESS
6/18/07 SUCCESS

I was happy with the amount of snacking and sweets on Saturday and Sunday. I had a satisfying amount but didn't feel like I pigged out.

I started freaking out a little over the weekend because my weight was up a little. I started to think about doing a different program, but decided that I really want to stick with this and I don't want to impose any extra rules at this time. I can always add some extra restrictions down the road if I need to in order to lose weight.

6/19/07 SUCCESS

I'm still just amazed by how often I think about snacking.

It's not you, overly beige - it's the nature of the culture that we live in! We can break out of it, though, with some effort! Keep up your good work!
mimi

Thanks mimi. It is weird to me when I will think about having a snack. I will be telling myself I can't have any snacks. I have to wait for my next meal. I will look to see how long I should wait and sometimes I will realize that I am past due for a meal. Yet my first thought when I was hungry was not about having a meal but about having a snack.

6/21/07 FAILURE
I only ate two meals and one definitely included seconds. Calorie wise I have no doubt that I was fine for the day. Habit wise it was not a good day. In order to really make this work I need to get used to eating breakfast earlier in the day before I get to work. Otherwise, I will sometimes (like today) not manage to eat my first meal until about 1 p.m. Considering I was up at 7 a.m. and at work at 9 a.m. this is not acceptable. I had seconds at dinner. I suppose I could rationalize it and call it two separate back to back meals. But I won't!

6/22/07 FAILURE
6/23/07 SUCCESS
6/24//07 SUCCESS
6/25/07 FAILURE
6/26/07 SUCCESS
6/27/07 SUCCESS

I'm really happy with my experience with the diet lately. I am much less susceptible to temptation in terms of snacking. My biggest issue is not fitting in breakfast. Monday I had seconds so I considered it a failure but the real issue was that I hadn't had breakfast. Tonight and last night my husband and MIL (who is visiting) were having fudgesicles after dinner and I wasn't even tempted. It isn't that they didn't sound good but I just really didn't think of it as an option. On Tuesday night we were out to eat and my MIL asked if I wanted to have dessert it was so nice to say no and not feel like I should look at the menu first and consider it. I know I can treat myself on the weekend so I don't feel deprived denying myself during the week.
So far I tend to put on water weight (mostly water) during the weekend and then take it off towards the end of the week before the next weekend. I am hoping that I will see some weight loss this week, but I am planning to stick with this regardless. As I have mentioned before I want to follow this pattern permanently, if I also have to add some additional rules to lose weight I will do that as well not instead.

6/28/07 SUCCESS
6/29/07 SUCCESS
6/30/07 SUCCESS

I am loving this diet.
So far no weight loss. However, I hardly exercised this week, I had a house guest and ate out a lot of rich meals at restaurants and despite this I did not gain any weight. I really enjoyed going out to eat and not even looking at the appetizers or desserts. No need to tempt myself or torture myself with indecision I knew I could just say NO!
I really like not thinking about food so much. I can look forward to my next meal. I can eat some rich things without feeling guilty.

7/1/07 SUCCESS

7/2/07 SUCCESS
7/3/07 SUCCESS

7/4/07 S DAY
7/5/07 FAILURE
7/6/07 FAILURE
7/7/07 S DAY
7/8/07 S DAY
7/9/07 SUCCESS
7/10/07 SUCCESS
7/11/07 SUCCESS
7/12/07 SUCCESS
7/13/07 FAILURE

I was on vacation from 7/5/07 to 7/8/07. I hadn't reread the section on vacations before I left and I misremembered it as being allowed to treat vacation days as S days. Oops!
Well at least I really enjoyed myself!

7/14/07 SDAY
7/15/07 SDAY

3/6/08 SUCCESS

I'm back. It's been a long time and unfortunately I am still overweight and still prone to gluttony.

I'm motivated and reading the book. I am also working with some cognitive therapy techniques to help me.

I have decided both with habitcal and here that I will start the day as a success and then edit later if I have to.

3/6/08 FAILURE
3/7/08 FAILURE
3/8/08 SDAY
3/9/08 SDAY
3/10/08 SUCCESS

Unfortunately 3/6/08 turned into a failure.

3/11/08 FAILURE

I think I may need to work on coping mechanisms for stress or I am going to have a lot of trouble sticking with this.