Everyday Systems

I also feel a Daily C/I will make me more accountable. I started No-S on March 20th and learned a lot in about myself in those 11 days. Lost 1/2# the first week (3/27), was pleased because I don't have all that much to lose and some of you know how those last pesky pounds can be. Last night was a slip-up for me, learned don't buy Top the Tator (used as chip dip) until the weekend.

New day; new month. I'm going for the green!

Success!

Welcome! Congratulations.

Thanks for welcome, Reinhard. Am hesitantly returning your book to library today; I've read it 2X.

Success yesterday! Today was weigh-in. Stayed the same. A little disappolnted, feel I actually may have lost a little because I forgot it was weigh-in day and drank a glass of water both during the night and when I woke up. (oh my, being a daily scale person, do you suppose I've let go of that habit?) I think the thirst was the result of some packaged pasta for dinner last night so between the sodium & water, I may have lost 1/2# or so. At any rate I recorded it as "stayed the same". And that's ok.

Eh, the numbers aren't important anyway. Especially if you are doing any type of exercise that will build muscle - you might end up "gaining" weight but looking slimmer! Sounds like you are doing really well. Keep it up!

Thanks, Marleah, for checking in on me and for encouragement! Appreciate it!

Yest = SUCCESS

Today I ran 4 miles, then had 1st meal about 10:00a. Had some errands including Costco - feels freeing to try 2 small sample giveaways being it's an "S" day. Between the samples and drinking lots of water and 2 cookies, I'm going to wait for dinner which will be vegetarian pizza.

Oh my - know as I've gotten older I have a more sensitive stomach but this was eye opening! Sat was certainly an "S" day in that after the pizza I delved into some peanut M&Ms. Woke up at 3:00a with stomach cramps and lost a day on Sunday. I cannot/should not do chocolate in any way, shape or form. Sunday became an "N" day, ate piece of toast & tea for bkfst and a little soup & bread for dinner.

Fast forward to Monday: SUCCESS - Because of feeling weak I had given myself permission to make it a Non Weekend S Day, ended up too busy and it was a perfect N day. Went to bed hungry but proud of myself for not giving in. Going for an hour run this a.m. so won't eat until about 10:00a. This actually feels more natural, working out, then eating later. I know I shouldn't bend the rules but then who says breakfast can't be at 10:00, lunch at 2:00, dinner at 7:00, right?

Gave in to weighing, it was just too tempting after not being able to eat. Down 1#.

Success both Tue & Wed. Well, alittle slipup yest. Had one of those 10 cal SF jello things late afternoon. Don't think 10 calories is going to make or break it and know it won't start me leaning toward a late afternoon snack. Actually, was trying to calm down my stomach, stressful day at work and stomach was killing me all day. Last night I got to thinking about whether I have added a new supplement. For years been doing the Viactiv calcium chewie with my lunch; Costco here no longer carries so I bought their brand. Diff brand - and only flavor is chocolate. Could be.

Sounds like you are doing well - funny about planning to have a day be an S day and then it turns out to just be another N day! I have done that a few times where just the regular schedule is too appealing and nothing S-wise really sounds good at the moment. And it was probably best to have a little something (note - little) to calm your stomach that day. We do what we have to sometimes!

Success although dinner was popcorn. Gained 1/2# back but that is still 1/2# less than last Friday. So in 20 days I have lost 1#. Since I'm only and seem to be always 3-4# from goal I knew this wasn't going to be a fast process. And I get to eat. With my stomach problems I'm cutting my lunch down some. Had to mostly walk rather than run yesterday. Today's lunch was cottage cheese w/applesauce and cinnamon and a banana with a tiny bit of p.b.

Been MIA with Easter weekend and now on vacation. Have had 2 Failures Mon & Tue. Yest it was a few chips/dip before dinner, today was 2 cookies right after lunch. Schedule is way off, need to regroup and think come weekend I can have the treats if I want them. Also, with running & golf think I need to up the meal intake, lunch today was a few slices of cheese, half an apple and whole grain crackers. DD & famly left the bit of chip dip and Grandkids left those cookies in pantry and did not resist temptation because I was probably still hungry - they really weren't even that good. More veggies tomorrow! Well today, since it's wee hours of a.m.

Still on vacation and have not been good at all. I am, however, slightly smaller either in inches or wt, I don't know as have no scale. I religiously run or walk everyday, am doing Tracey Mallet's Pear Rotation which involves 18 min of cardio/wts and playing golf a lot. I want to get back to No-S this week so I'm in habit when I get back home and back to 'normal' life.

Mon: FAILURE

Much better, but ice cream was left in freezer after SIL b.d. and last night had a few spoonsful- doubt if it was 1/4 c. Tried talking myself out of it, didn't work so like everyone says, owning up to it.

Tue: SUCCESS!

Was so happy with myself as got unexpected invitation to dinner out. Certainly not low calorie (Italian) but only ate half, we all shared a large salad which would have fit on other half of plate. Everyone else ordered dessert and when I didn't they said I could run it off today. Wish it were that easy! Got home and it was tempting to pour myself a glass of wine while watching Biggest Loser and did not, said I had had enough with dinner and wanted to feel good today, run this a.m.

Way to go! Eating at restaurants is one of my weaknesses, and it's always easier to eat more. Good job sticking to the plan!

Thanks, Marleah! And now I can look forward to the other half of dinner soon. One of the guys at dinner had just lost 11# doing NutriSystem and others really criticized it, said food was like cardboard. Not smashing here, I have no idea how the food is. Almost brought up No-S and decided not to. This guy is coming over to help me move a table on Sat. Thinking about mentioning it to him. He's a retired doctor.

I tried Nutrisystem at one point. My first month I enjoyed it (the novelty I guess, plus some of the food was good and lots of snacks ) but I was not able to complete the second month. I got very tired of the food.

Wed: SUCCESS

Ran 5 miles, did 2 segments Total Body Cond (12 min) and Abs (6 min).

Brkfst: 1 C. Total Cranberry Crunch w/skim milk, sm gl of oj
Lunch: Turkey & cheese sandwich w/sm amt Mir Whip, few chips, carrot & celery sticks, gl of Low Sodium V8
Dinner: Chicken, 1/2 baked potato w/butter, salad (all on one plate)

Guadopt: thanks for stopping by and your comment on NutriSystem. You gave me an idea. I may say to this guy if/when you get tired of it, you might want to try out No-S, more something you can stick to for life.
Thanks again!

Thursday: FAILURE

Did a 1 hr exercise tape, then walked 2 miles. Went to Happy Hour here in my vacation neighborhood. Decided beforehand to have 2 gl of wine, no food and eat dinner at home. Hindsight tells me I wish I would have taken a plate, filled it with appetizers and called it dinner. Had dinner, then finished off the ice cream which I had tried giving away earlier in day. Thankfully, there wasn't as much left as I thought there was.

Friday: SUCCESS

But then it was easy as I start my S day on Fri nite. I know some think this makes 3 days but I don't see why if I cutoff all Non-S by 6:00p Sunday. Depending on my wt upon return from vacation, I may make S Days Fri nite and Sat only. Usually Sunday turns into 2 meals, a larger later breakfast, then dinner.

Invited out to dinner and play w/friend. When she heard chardonnay she said me too, let's order a bottle. The meal was 3 course - tomato soup which we didn't get, entree (chose salmon) and dessert - cheesecake w/fruit. Well, we saved room for the dessert and IF I eat dessert cheesecake it is. Ate 3/4 of it and the couple strawberries & felt totally satisfied as well I should.

Ok - I'm putting this out there. My main emphasis for May is Glass Ceiling. I'm going to start with Sun-Thur having 0,1, no more than 2 and not limit S days at this point, but no one likes hangovers.

Exercise: 18 holes Golf
Steps: 12.3K
Water: 40 oz (not enough)
Glass Ceiling- 2+ (half bottle wine)

Saturday - EXEMPT

Good day. Ate the treat I wanted - chips & dip - then realized how it spoiled my dinner.

Exercise: Run 5 mi; 15 min wts
Steps: About 16K, dropped it and it zeroed out
Water: 60 oz
Glass Ceiling: 2 Bud Light Limes, 2 gl of wine

Sunday: Exempt/Failure
Travel day, did not do well on any aspect.

Monday - SUCCESS

Exercise: Walk, 18 min of aerobics/wts
Glass Ceiling: 2 gl wine
Steps: 12K
No S - dinner was 'virtual' plate in that I had a bowl of homemade soup, 2 sl bread, strawberries

Tue: SUCCESS

No S: good
Exercise: Ran 4 miles with 5 one min intervals. Did 24 min of wt tapes.
Glass Ceiling: failure - 3 gl wine
Steps: 14.3K

Broke down and weighed today (been over a month and was on vaca for 3 weeks of that). I gained 1/2#. On vaca in hot weather and playing golf, laying by pool resulted in Bud Light Limes in addition to my evening chardonnay and sure that's what contributed. Not bummed, could have gained big time being out of sync. I'm a little scared that doing No-S may result in my weighing more than what I think my goal wt should be. The good news is I feel smaller, clothes fit a wee bit better. I'm 5'4", now weigh 115.5 and want to weigh 112. Always striving.

Wed SUCCESS

NoS - Dinner was hot dogs & FF but fit on one plate.
Exercise: 24 min w/o tapes; approx 4 mile walk
Glass Ceiling: 2 gl wine
Steps: 14.3K

Thursday: Failure

What is it about Thursdays?

Friday SUCCESS

NoS - pizza for dinner but stopped at 2 slices
Exercise: REST day
Glass Ceiling: 1 gl wine
Water: 40 oz
Steps: Low

Scale was high this a.m. I have to weigh myself much more often; wt creeps up little by little otherwise. We all react differently, scale reading is a motivator for me, accept and understand fluctuations but I'm going back to daily weighing.

Sat/Sun Exempt

Good news is wt was down 2.5# from Sat a.m. to Sunday a.m. Thought Sat might have been a fluke. Glad I weighed again or would have remained in questioning mode of whether No-S is working for me.

Ran 4 miles on Sat, did 15 min of wts, played 18 hole golf on Sunday.

Good weekend.

Monday SUCCESS

Success for the most part.

NoS - yes, except dinner included some tortilla chips with dip
Exercise - YES, 18 min of wts; walked 4 miles
Alcohol - NO, dh poured me 3rd gl of wine and I did not protest.
Steps = YES, 14.3K

Took a break. Had decided on NO-S I eat too much. However, it didn't take long for that nightly chips/dip snacking to come back. I am now 117.5, back to where I started. Exercise has been good, in fact, I'm constantly sore. Glass Ceiling not so good. Water fairly good.

I like Marc's idea of having the one plate but if you don't eat it all, can have later. I think I'd get more fruit in that way, I mean sometimes I just don't feel like eating the apple with lunch. He certainly is successful. What man thinks in fractions and percentages when it comes to wt loss! LOL

Sat: Exempt

Good day.
Was actually more of an N Day.
Water: Good amt
Exercise: Ran 4 miles
Glass Ceiling: ok

hehe ! Well, my scale has a 0.2 pound range that's why I can be more precise now. My old scale used to have a 0.5 pound range. I like the precision of the new scale, seems reliable too.

I bought my new scale in february when the old one started malfunctioning. It was an old scale though, I had been using it for 20 years probably ... mostly NOT using it the past 8 years !

Cheers !

Marc

Monday SUCCESS

Made it an N Day.
Brkfst: cc/with unsw applesauce, cinn
Lunch: homemade chicken soup, 1/2 c potato salad, banana
Dinner: 1/2 steak, 1/2 sweet potato, veggies

NoS - Yes
Exercise - Walked 9 holes of golf, not enough but something
Water - No
Glass Ceiling - Yes, 1 lt beer on golf course, 1 drink b4 dinner

Tuesday and Wed SUCCESS

Something feels different, like it's finally starting to click. I've lost 1.5# so that helps. At night I still struggle with wanting something, in fact, wake up hungry but I make myself wait til brkfst. I'm wondering if I'm not doing a little better because I've added nuts. I'll eat a handful of raw almonds while having a glass of wine and since the glass of wine is legal and not considered a snack I figure the almonds are too and keeps me from drinking more than I should because I'm actually hungry. Guess you have to experience that for it to make sense. For brkfst I have half amt of Total cereal w/skim milk and another bowl of cut up canteloupe w/cottage cheese & some walnuts. Saw tv ad for Ice Cream Drumsticks; it looked really good and I have one in freezer but right away I told myself can have it on Saturday.

Exercise: Tues- ran 5 mi; Wed - 1/2 of Tear It Up and walked 1.5 mi.
Water: Good on Tues, pretty good yest.
Steps: 15.9K Tues, 10.9K Wed.

Pretty good over weekend. S for sure but didn't go all out.

Ran 5.5 miles on Sat, played 9 holes of golf Sun. Not enough steps on Sunday but is my rest day (10.5K). Sat. nite anniversary; we went to dinner and play and I ordered a little cake to be served during intermission. Had very small piece and dh enjoying for brkfst everyday. Just one piece left. Not tempting to me at all which is a good thing. Feel hungry today (Monday) as dinner was an experiment dh is doing with barbequeing. It was awful. So ended up having some Wheat Thins before bed.

Ok new month! Wt went from a high of 118.5 to 116. That couple # makes the clothes fit much better. Main reason for wt loss was upping my runs from 4 miles to 5 (3X/week) and getting some wt work done too.

Mon Success
Tues FAILURE

Monday I did 1/2 of Shape It Up (40 min) and walked 1.5 miles. Was very hungry. Tuesday I ran 5 miles, did 1/2 half of SIU. Had a nerve wracking eye dr appt (everything is fine, well borderline) and succumbed to ice cream drumstick that has been in my freezer for weeks, kept thinking I'd have on a weekend and then wouldn't be hungry for it. Had some crackers later on. Emotional eating.

Today am thru brkfst & lunch and doing fine. Sipping on my low sodium V8 and will save my apple from lunch for later this afternoon if I get hungry. I did Mix It Up (58 min) this a.m. and gave it some good intensity, just some walking breaks during my day here.

Wed SUCCESS

The apple did taste good about 5:00p. I did ok rest of evening, however, think I have to eat earlier on days dh works late. I always wait for him, get cranky, 2 gl of wine turns into 3, etc. etc.

NoS: yes
Exercise: yes, MIU, walked on breaks during day, walked 2 miles of hills before dinner
Steps: 12.8K
Glass Ceiling: No

Back for a 2nd go around. Started Tues 8/18. Checked calendar & picked Fri & Sun as "S" days. Been tracking on HabitCal and so far so good. Weighed Tue, then again Fri as Fri will be my w/i day.

I've checked in with you guys now & then all summer. I tried Fit for Life diet with the food combining concept. I usually w/o in the a.m. and just fruit until lunch was not cutting it not to mention too much fruit causes 'ahem' problems. Missed my half baked potato or sweet potato with dinner at night and found myself wanting protein at lunch sometimes. No S helps me with the nighttime snack habit. And yest I took out a mini TJ pb cup from freezer to thaw AND PUT IT BACK SAYING IF I STILL WANT IT TODAY I CAN HAVE IT. Yeah for me!

Oh, what's Vanilla No S?

Marc, are you around, or did you reach goal already? If I recall you wanted to get there by Sept. I'm not as extreme as you but more than some, I'm sure, so I enjoy reading all that you do. I read a lot of your posts to pick up tidbits here & there, keep them coming!

Sunday: Exempt

Family outing, planned on exempt day. Ready to be back on it today.

Oh, and when I addressed reading posts to get tidbits here and there, I meant from everybody, not just Marc.

Make it a GREEN day!

Monday: SUCCESS

Doing well. Having company this afternoon, want to make some banana bread. Keep telling myself to cut off 2 generous slices and freeze them for the weekend. Let company & Dh have the rest.

Tuesday - SUCCESS

Banana bread baked and served and still around; no problem. Woke up yest feeling lighter but as day progressed stomach grew & grew, got very bloated. After an hour a.m. workout, late afternoon drove to club and did 30 min intervals on elliptical trainer, then had a one hour golf lesson. Still feel big today, even think I should go buy a pair of larger size shorts for golf tomorrow. Working on getting the water down, was tempted to skip lunch today but thought better of it. Not sure what's going on.

Wed: SUCCESS

Stomach finally went down & feel much lighter. Hungry today but will make it. Deli chicken in oven right now for dinner. Light lunch as was playing golf, just a Fiber One bar, some peanuts and Diet Coke.

Thursday: Failure

Played golf on Thurs and just brought a Fiber One bar and some peanuts for lunch. Thought it doesn't hurt to feel hungry by dinnertime, however, always eat with dh, he came home, wanted to cut grass (1 hr), then showered, etc. etc. and got way too hungry. Dinner cont'd at bedtime.

Friday: Exempt

I start S days Fri eve. Was going to skip due to Thurs failure but decided to Mark It and Move On. 1 sweet: Ice cream drumstick

Saturday: Exempt

Spent day at Renaissance, ate some junk food. Glad it's Sunday and back to N days.

Sunday & Monday - SUCCESS

After reading a thread on a wee bit of juice mixed with water, I decided I could have marked many more green days on my 60 oz/day Habitcal. I usually have in the late afternoon 2T cherry juice mixed w/15 oz water. Did not count it and from now I am. Also, last night I did add in a handful of peanuts with my glass of wine b4 dinner. I figure if that keeps me from eating after dinner and/or drinking more, so be it, it's not going to hurt me.

Today after my usual Firm type w/o in early a.m., I went to club & did 15 min walking on TM, 15 min on ET, 15 min on bike and 5 min rowing machine. After 2 weeks wt is exactly where I started. Need to move more.

Tuesday SUCCESS

Besides Firm w/o in a.m., club w/o, walked 9 holes of golf also. Got in 19.1K steps and lost 1#.

Wed & Thurs - Success

Am very happy - broke plateau, am down 1/2#. I've been 118-119 forever it seems. Today 117.5 Thurs nites seem to be harder for me and last night I just kept telling myself, one more night, then if you want some popcorn or chips you can have it but stick it out. Scale rewarded me. And now I want to be careful over weekend that I don't 'undo' what I've accomplished. Moving more is definitely helping. Yest I did a little warmup and then some stretching, then played 18 holes of golf (riding), then I did 15 min on ET, 15 min on bike, 5 min rowing. Picked up chicken chow mein last night; ate half. Worried a bit about the salt but used my own low sodium soy sauce and like I say scale was good to me today. I also went back to weighing daily; during first go around with No S I had to do same. It helps me.

Lost it, got back to 119.5. Been studying Marc's c/i and decided to put together a monthly record. Since I started AGAIN on 8/18 I put together a spreadsheet which lists how many Firm workouts I did, how many miles I walked, how many min spent on ET and bike and rowing, all of which I have increased since Labor Day weekend where I had 3 yellow days in a row. No longer plan to do even TWO yellow days in a row. I had a yellow day on Wed (planned) and will again tomorrow.

Results According to Tanita Scale:
8/18 WT: 119.0 BF 25.5
9/18 WT: 117.5 BF 24

This is helping me look at the big picture.