Everyday Systems

Day 1 SUCCESS

B: oatmeal with milk and a chopped plum

L: leftovers -- ratatouille and cauliflower/potato saute thing from a Deborah Madison recipe. Delicious, but I should have planned better and gotten some protein in there.

D: Chicken and dumplings, side dish of green beans with parmesan and olive oil, glass of red wine. I don't quite know how to figure something you eat in a bowl, like the chicken dish, into a "plate," but I figure one chicken thigh and a couple of small dumplings with broth and veggies is probably reasonable. 3 small fresh French prunes.

Exercise: Not very much. Walked about seven blocks, took the stairs in the office once.

Day 2 - SUCCESS

B: oatmeal with skim milk and a chopped pluot

L: Was supposed to be a roasted chicken panini, but they screwed up and gave me a turkey meatball panini; green salad. I was able to fit it all on a plate, but the sandwich was too much for me and also kind of gross. I ended up throwing the last part away. Reminder to self: do not do that in office trash; do it in kitchen. My cube smelled weird for the rest of the afternoon.

D: Turkey-mushroom burger with cheddar cheese; no bun because I was still kind of overloaded from lunch. Lots of green beans with olive oil and parm. A glass of chardonnay.

Day 3 - SUCCESS

B - cold cereal with milk

L - Lentil soup

D - Turkey burger, whole-wheat bun, cheddar. Green beans and green salad. Chardonnay.

Exercise - yes, finally. Up and down the stairs at work twice, walked seven blocks as usual to take kid to school, a 20-minute bike ride (not much, but that's all the time I had before dinner) and now I'm going to dance a little.

Day 4 - SUCCESS

B - cold cereal with milk

L - two shrimp tacos, salad, about eight tortilla chips

D - shrimp with tomato/feta sauce; couscous; salad; fruit. Glass of chardonnay

I was an afternoon meeting where they brought in a big bakery box of good chocolate chip cookies, and I didn't take one! I'm very pleased with myself.

Days 5 and 6 - SUCCESS -- of course, given that they were S-days. And I got both a almost-2-mile walk and a four-mile bike ride in on Saturday, plus a trip to the farmer's market Sunday. So, a good weekend all around.

Day 7 - SUCCESS

B - Oatmeal with mixed berries

L - Shrimp California roll with brown rice, fruit salad

D - Homemade succotash (YUM), broiled chicken thigh, plums. Glass of chardonnay.

Day 8 - SUCCESS

B - Oatmeal with mixed berries

L - Tuna sandwich, some small tomatoes and spinach

D - Leftovers: chicken thigh, succotash, sliced tomato with feta and olive oil. Chardonnay.

funny business: I had some grapes and a couple of figs after dinner. There had been room on the plate for them, but I ate them about three hours later.


Rode bike to store and back (2.5 miles), plus stairs and the usual.

Day 9 - SUCCESS

B- Oatmeal with berries

L - udon soup with tempura; two pieoces of inari sushi; a little dish of fruit salad; a little dish of hijiki salad. Definitely a LARGE lunch by my standards, and I left much of the soup and noodles.

D - Cod poached with garlic and yellow tomatoes; mashed yukon golds with buttermilk and butter; dandelion greens with olive oil and garlic. Chardonnay.

continuing to take the stairs, 1-3 times a day.

Day 10 - SUCCESS

B - Oatmeal, berries, milk

L - Venetian chicken sandwich, fruit salad

D - leftover fish with tomatoes; succotash; dandelion greens. Chardonnay.

This is so easy that I feel like I am cheating somehow. Like there's some kind of catch that I didn't understand.

Day 11 - SUCCESS. Um, what did I eat? Last Friday seems like a long time ago ...

B - Scrambled egg, slice of buttered toast

L - Chicken sandwich, green salad

D - glass-noodle soup from Whole Foods with shrimp, bean sprouts, and other veggies. Yummy! Glass of wine.

Days 12 and 13 - S days. Saturday was pretty much like an N day -- I don't think I had any S stuff, actually. Yesterday I ate a lot, though; I went to a party. A couple of foofy drinks were also consumed.

Day 14 - SUCCESS

B - oatmeal, berries, etc.

L - chicken panini, green salad

D - odds and ends: shepherd's pie, a little leftover Korean pancake, dandelion greens, cauliflower salad, and two of the appetizers from Sunday's party -- dates stuffed with parmesan and wrapped in bacon. WOW.

I've been sick all week with a yucky cold. Technically that makes them automatic S days, but given that this is the first three weeks, I'm not counting anything that doesn't help me establish the habit of observing N days. So, today is Day 1 again. Sigh. On the positive side, I am not finding this hard to do at all, so the prospect of restarting today is not particularly daunting -- I don't really have to think about what I'm doing, which is nice. On the negative side, I spent most of those days lying in bed and swilling diet 7-Up, so whatever muscles I possess have presumably completely atrophied away.

Day 1 (again) -SUCCESS

B - shredded wheat

L - Chicken panini, salad

D - Bowl of avgolemono, a little chicken, good crusty bread, green salad. SO YUMMY!

Walked a little over a mile taking kid to school and back.

I seem to be down around seven pounds since mid-August. this is definitely not a crash diet, but I was frankly skeptical that I would lose at all, and I do seem to be at a reasonable rate. And it is really, really easy -- even starting over after being sick (I wasn't exactly eating a ton then, but I would have a popsicle or whatever if I wanted one), it's pretty effortless.

Day 2 - SUCCESS

B - Oatmeal with mixed fresh berries

L - Chicken sandwich

D - Leftover linguine ala vongole, green salad

Walked kid to school, took stairs at work.

Wow, looks like you are doing great! It's wonderful that you've lost 7 pounds, and are finding this plan so easy to stick with Makes me want to succeed as well!

I especially liked your comment that NoS is so easy you almost feel like you're cheating-like there's some catch you missed! What a perfect way to put it! I love it's simplicity too-thanks for the inspiration!

Thanks, Hilary!

Day 3 - SUCCESS

B - 2 frozen waffles with butter

L - a burrito from the tacos al carbon place, about 10 of the chips that came with.

D- linguine al vongole, green salad

Walked kid to school, walked to lunch, took stairs

Day 4 - SUCCESS -- I guess, although I think lunch counts as funny business

I need to handle lunches better, though

B - Shredded wheat milk

L - Chicken sandwich, chips. No plates available and this may have been more than a "plateful"

D - small BBQ chicken salad, cup of split-pea soup, glass of chardonnay

Walked kid to school, took stairs at work, parked and walked to restaurant for dinner.

Day 5 -- SUCCESS

Um, I can't really remember what I ate. I think it was:

B - Shredded wheat

L - salmon panini, green salad

D - Leftover chicken made into sandwich, and maybe another salad or something, it's all a blur

D6 & 7 - S days

Day 8 - SUCCESS Kinda a big lunch, though. I just have to start brown-bagging.

B - um, waffles?

L - Chicken sandwich, chips

D - Brown-rice sushi, wine

Day 9 - SUCCESS

B - Shredded wheat, grapes

L - pasta with kale and sausage in cream sauce. Too rich for my poor tummy, hence ...

D - Green salad and pomegranate seeds. I was queasy all afternoon from the pasta ...

Day 10 - SUCCESS

B - Oatmeal with blackberries

L - chicken sandwich, chips

D - broiled chicken, green beans, pasta with tomato sauce, wine

Day 11 - SUCCESS

B - Shredded wheat

L - Chicken Sandwich, salad

D - broiled chicken, pasta with tomato sauce, green beans, chardonnay

God, my menus have been boring lately. I'm usually more creative in the kitchen!

Wow, I've totally been forgetting to post. If Friday was day 12, this must be day 17. I've been plugging along like a good little No-S'er -- my only issue is that I am not in a position to plate my lunches, and I'm pretty sure they're too big. No snacks and no sweets = extremely easy, though.