Everyday Systems

While I really like the simplicity of Habitcal, I'm going to give this check-in thing a whirl, maybe draw some useful conclusions. I'm starting with today, even though I've been working at this for a couple of weeks, and today was a failure.

July 28: FAILURE. I suspect I ate too little at breakfast to get me through lunchtime yoga. When lunch finally arrived, I was weak and ravenous, and ate one, slighly heaped plate. By the end of dinner, the headache had kicked in, and I gave in to the brownie calling my name. Will try to eat more for breakfast tomorrow.

July 29: SUCCESS. Ate a little more for b-fast and tried to time lunch a little better.

Today has been difficult. So far, so good, but I'm definitely dragging--no energy, feeling kind of blue.

Good on you angigal. I know it can get tough but you did well to stick it out for a green day. We are all behind you on this journey.

angigal wrote:
Today has been difficult. So far, so good, but I'm definitely dragging--no energy, feeling kind of blue.

Awww, don't feel like that! As Bushranger said, we're all behind you - only a post away!

Mimi

Thank you Mimi and Bushranger for your kind words and encouragement! That was a pleasant surprise!

July 30: SUCCESS
July 31: S-day (Fridays and Saturdays are my S-days). Was an N-day with the exception of a brownie after dinner.
Aug 1: S-day. Was an N-day with the exception of s'mores around the campfire.
Aug 2: SUCCESS

If only my scale was encouraging as the people here.

Weight:
July 19: 139.5
July 24: 137
Aug 3: 139.5

Ignore it. The scale lies anyway. Give it a month of No S with almost 100% compliance then check in. Measure you waist too, it's more accurate than a scale regarding actual fat loss as opposed to just weight.

Thank you Bushranger! I'll try to avoid the scale.

Aug 3: FAILURE. Once again, I was starved by dinner. I had my one plate, but then I had chocolate, and more chocolate.
Aug 4: SUCCESS! My plan is 4 meals/day. Well, three meals, and one mini-meal, as this is the only way I know to prevent getting up in the middle of the night to eat. I had an *enormous* dinner plate, and ended up not needing my bedtime mini-meal.
Aug 5: FAILURE. Had chocolate again after dinner, although not as much as two days ago. I think I tend to go for the sugar if I'm tired as well--I'm looking for energy.

I have tot add an additional “cheat†for last night, as I got up at midnight, a couple of hours after going to bed, to eat. This is frustrating, because I ate right before I went to bed. Normally, my best hope of preventing getting up to eat at night is to eat at bedtime. But, sometimes I don't eat enough at bedtime, and end up needed to get up at night to eat.

Aug 6: SUCCESS! I was hungry right after lunch, but I had some vanilla almond tea with lots of milk and that took care of my sugar craving, and got me through the afternoon.
Aug 7: SUCCESS! (Technically, Friday's are S-days on my calendar, but I've had two failures already this week, and it worked out to make this day a success.) Today, I had some of Trader Joe's decaf chocolate tea after lunch, and this seem to help again.

I don't think I've posted here that I am modifying No S for me to include three meals, and one mini-meal, at bedtime. So far, this is the best way I've found to manage the night eating (and to avoid getting up at 1-2 am to eat). I find it's better to have a planned snack/small meal in the even than to wait till 1 am, when my judgment seems to be especially poor. So, for me, a success is three meals, and one planned snack. This week, I got up to eat at night only once (I'm using habitcal to track my night eating). Some weeks are bad, where I get up 3-5x in a week, and others are great, where I don't get up at all. I hope to eliminate getting up to eat at night completely. Unfortunately, I can't quite trick my body by having a glass of milk at bedtime, as not only do I need to eat to sleep, but I need to eat 'enough' to get rid of the jitters. Some nights, a glass of milk might work, but not for the majority. I did have one night recently that I didn't need to eat at all at bedtime. That evening, I had an exceptionally larger dinner—yes, it fit in one plate, but I admit it was rather heaping and I felt stuffed afterward. I think I'd rather have a planned snack than stuff myself that much at dinner.

Aug 8: SUCCESS. (Another S-day turned into a success due to convenience.)

Aug 9: SUCCESS
Aug 10: SUCCESS. After dinner, I was hungry, but after a while the hunger started to fade. I still had my bedtime mini-meal, as I wasn't confident I could sleep without it.

Aug 11: SUCCESS. Had my 3 meals + bedtime mini-meal. Felt rather low on energy for most of the day.

One thing I do like about this plan is its convenience. I think, to eat healthy, planning meals helps a lot. I've tried a 6-meal-a-day plan, and what a pain in the butt to plan and create six separate, healthy things to eat each day without burning out on certain food items.

Aug 12: SUCCESS. Had my 3 meals + bedtime mini-meal. Felt rather low on energy for most of the day. My bedtime mini-meal was smaller than usual, even though I was hungry most of the day. Hopefully this is a good sign.

Aug 13: S-DAY: had a planned dinner out with my boyfriend. Enjoyed dinner and dessert. The unplanned S is that I ended up getting up to eat at 2 am, after laying in bed awake for 3 hours. Oh well.... at least it's an S-day.

Well, I weighed myself today. I'm working on my relationship with my scale. I'm still at 139.5. At least I haven't gained. I am trying to ignore the scale, but after feeling hungry for the better part of 3 weeks, I though I'd see some sort of progress. I know there's natural fluctuations, and that the scale doesn't distinguish between fat and muscle, but for me, for my clothes to fit better, the scale must go down. Also, my scale is pretty dang consistent for me--I'd faint if I had a 10-pound 'fluctuation'. I my fluctuations are less than a pound.

In the past 3.5 weeks, I've had 5 S-days and 3 failures. I'm trying to use the "strict" approach Reinhard recommends for Newbies and not swapping a failure during the week for an S-day on the weekend.

On a positive note, No-S-ing seems to be getting easier. I just resigned myself to feeling hungry most of the day. For me, I cannot sleep when hungry, hence the "bedtime mini-meal". Perhaps that is my downfall. Will keep plugging away. In the past year, I've grown out of most of my clothes. I feel like I either need some hope that they will fit again, or I need to buy a larger-sized wardrobe. Not being able to wear most of the clothes in my closet makes getting dressed in the morning so fun at all!

Aug 14: SUCCESS
Aug 15: S-DAY. Made my favorite home-made chocolate-covered toffee.
Aug 16: SUCCESS
Aug 17: FAILURE. Sure enough, 11 days in, I mess up. What seems to be my common mistake occurred again--I didn't eat enough at lunch to prevent myself from being ravenously hungry come dinner time. I packed some leftovers for lunch (shepherd's pie), but there just wasn't to get me through to dinner without getting a headache. We went out for dinner, but I ate biscuits before dinner, veggie's from my boyfriend's plate, and then dessert. I was basically a vacuum cleaner for 45 min.

Aug 18: SUCCESS
9:30: 1 ezekiel toast, peanut butter, string cheese, fruit
2:00: veggie & cheese sandwich on multigrain
6:30: Half bandito with corn chips. Funny stuff: chips arrived before dinner, so I counted out 15 to fill the other half of my plate.
11:00: 1 bowl kashi cereal, 2 kashi granola bars. Tried to go to bed at 10ish without my bedtime mini-meal. But, ended up getting up to eat after all. It's frustrating, but at least I didn't wait till 2 am.

exercise: lunchtime yoga class

Aug 19: SUCCESS
8:30: veggie quiche, fruit
2:00: itty bitty leftover shepherd's pie, cascadian farm granola bar, fruit
6:30: ww spaghetti w/meat sauce & veggies.
10:00: I was still so stuffed from dinner, I didn't need my bedtime mini-meal

exericse: lunchtime weight training class

I'm going back and editing my post to add what I eat and success/failure status so I have have one day in each post.

Aug 20: SUCCESS
9:30: 1 ezekiel toast w/peanut butter, string cheese, fruit
2:00: half sandwich on multigrain, chick pea salad
7:00: steak, corn, veggies
10:00: 1 small bowl natural corn chips

exercise: day off from gym, spent 2 hours running errands/grocery shopping (ok, not the best, but at least involves a decent amount of walking--going to consider it exercise as urban ranger)

Aug 21: S-DAY
10:00: oatmeal w/fruit & nuts
2:00: ww pasta with veggies
8:00: pasta salad with beef, veggies
10:00: s'mores

Was essentially an N-day with the exception of s'mores.

Exercise: didn't 'exercise', but did do a lot of running around, packing, etc. to go camping. I think it qualifies as "15 minutes of anything", since it took a couple of hours to pack everything.

Aug 22: S-DAY
10:00: french toast, fruit
2:00: sandwich, veggies, fruit
7:30: salad, pork chops, corn
9:30: s'mores

Was essentially an N-day with the exception of s'mores.

Exercise: Went riding ATVs, which doesn't sound like much exercise, except I normally stand, as this is more comfortable over the bumps, so it ends up being like doing 200 small squats. This is definitely exercise in my book.

Aug 23: FAILURE
10:00: 2-egg omlette, fruit
3:00: sandwich, veggies, fruit
10:00: everything snackish (cereal, olives, donut). Got so busy unpacking from the weekend, that, by the time I got around to dinner, I once again was just a vacuum cleaner for half an hour or so.

Exercise: More ATV riding.

Aug 24: FAILURE
10:00: toast, fruit
1:00: leftover pasta/beef/veggie salad
7:00: leftover pasta/beef/veggie salad (yup, made way too much), and dessert (ooops)
10:00: small bowl of natural corn chips

Exercise: took day off, sore from ATV riding

Guess I was enjoying S-days so much, I didn't quite stop when I should have. Other than dessert, did well.

Aug 25:
11:00: oatmeal w/fruit (slept in a little)