Today is Day 18 of my first 21 days. So far I feel that the habit-building has been going well. I've had all green days thus far. I should mention that I am combining No S with Eat Stop Eat. Last year I spent many months doing alternate day fasting (ADF)--about 30-36 hours of fasting every other day--and I lost more than 20 pounds. I began doing ADF both for weight loss but also for the health benefits. While I got used to doing without food for a day at a time, I found ADF hard to maintain because of the disruption to my lifestyle. I'd have to avoid making breakfast or lunch plans with friends on a fasting day. I also really missed having a normal dinner with my family every other day. So I gave it up and of course gained the weight back and then some.
I'd been looking around for a diet or way of eating that would help me lose weight but also would not interfere with everyday life. I had come to like the way I felt when I fasted, so I didn't want to give it up entirely. I read Brad Pilon's research about the benefits of somewhat shorter fasts (24 hours, twice a week) so I started doing Eat Stop Eat. I like it because I'm still getting the benefits of fasting but I have more flexibility in scheduling my two fasting days per week and I can have dinner with my family every night.
However, I still felt out of control around food when I wasn't fasting. So it was truly a lucky day for me when I came across No S. I really appreciated the easy mnemonic and the common sense approach to food. Having this community to turn to for help and reassurance was an added bonus. (I was going to say it was the "icing on the cake." Guess I just can't stop thinking about sweets!)
Having gotten used to going without food for longer periods of time, I found the no snacking part pretty easy, except for things that were entrenched habits like having a muffin or Danish with my mid-morning coffee or popcorn while watching TV in the evenings. It was just a matter of retraining myself not to associate certain activities with food. What I have found hardest is giving up sweets. I would always have cookies after lunch and some kind of dessert--homemade cake, a brownie, or ice cream, for example--in the evening. I LOVE dark chocolate and would always have a bag of Lindor balls or Dove Promises in my desk drawer, which I would raid several times a day. Because the pieces were small it was easy to fool myself into believing that I wasn't eating a lot, but of course my scale told a different story.
So for me the weekends are all about the sweets. I still stay on habit with no seconds and little to no snacking, but I enjoy having some of my dark chocolate again or making some very special homemade treat. Last week it was a delicious chocolate torte; this weekend I'm making pecan pie. I find I do enjoy my desserts so much more when they are limited to weekends.
Thanks, Reinhard, for developing this idea and for sharing it with us. In gratitude I've bought two copies of your book--one for me to keep and one to give away to the first person who notices I've lost weight and asks how I did it.
