My No S Musings

[ShannahR]

Hi!
Welcome to my new check in thread. Due to the fact that reneew is taking a break from monthly challenges, I've decided to start a semi-daily check in.
I plan to write primarily about what I've learned about myself and eating in relation to No S. I'll probably also include a record of my habbits and whether I am sucessful in sticking to them. I am calling this semi-daily because I don't have important, life altering thoughts about diet everyday but I'll let you know when I do. What I don't plan to write: a daily log of what I eat. Let's face it, that's boring to write and for other people to read. I guess I might be alittle overconfident assuming that other people will be interested in reading this thread but I'll go with that assumption until proven otherwise.

3/31/10 (yesterday)
No S: SUCCESS
15 minbeachbod: SUCCESS lower body

I did my monthly weigh in this morning and I'm down another 3 lbs bringing my No S total to -13 lbs in 3 months! Surprisingly, I was vaguely disappointed in this loss, I think because I lost 5 lbs the first two months so I felt anything less than that must be failure.
There are several possible reasons for the weight loss slow down:
1) I've lost weight therefore my body doesn't need as much food but I didn't reduce my portions accordingly
2) 15 minbeachbod-which I thought would increase my rate of loss-might actually be adding muscle which would show up as a weight loss slow down
3) 5 lb/month weight loss isn't sustainable consdering how moderate No S is
4) I'm getting close to losing 10% of my weight and I have read your body resists that much weight loss

Anyways, I'm working on being happy about any weight loss-which I should be! When I think of it as a >1 lb/week loss that makes me feel happier.

For April I'll be continuing my No S and 15minbeachbod habbits and adding a new one which I've entitled MorningMulti. My goal is to take a multivitamin every morning. You would think that if I can get my eating habbits under control and start exercising I should be able to do something as simple as take a multivitamin! I feel like taking a multi will help round out my healthy habbits-eating, exercise, and supplements. Unfortunately I've already messed up today so I'll have to start tomorrow !

[ShannahR]

4/1/2010
Morningmulti: FAILURE
No S: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS core

Today is when I usually plan my grocery shopping/S day treats because I like to shop on Saturday morning. An important feature of my S day treats is that they need to contain NO DAIRY! I have recently come to accept the fact that diary is bad for me. I had this epiphany in January. I have always been lactose intolerant but I always tried to eat milk products because I was totally brain washed in to thinking they were good for me or 3 servings a day would help me lose weight. After being sick from low fat organic greek yogurt (what milk product could be healthier than that?) I realized that anything that makes me that sick cannot possibly be good for me. Don't I know more about myself than some conglomerate trying to sell me their product?
My new thinking: Dairy is bad for me. Lactaid products? That's simply putting the antidote in with the poison.
This relates to S day treats because last weekend I bought a flourless chocolate cake for an S day treat. I was of course sick because it had a good amount of heavy cream in it. That made me feel "cheated" because I couldn't enjoy my treat and it led to permasnacking and me trying to "make up" for not being able to have my "treat". As a result, I consumed far more than I usually do on S days.
No more! I will find a S day treat with no milk that I can enjoy this weekend!

[ShannahR]

4/2/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: EXEMPT

4/3/2010
No S: EXEMPT
Morningmulti: EXEMPT
15minbeachbod: EXEMPT

4/4/2010
No S: EXEMPT
Morningmulti: EXEMPT
15minbeachbod: EXEMPT

Well, it was kinda of a rough S-weekend. Saturday was just short of total disaster, but I analyzed the situation and used what I learned to have a really successful Sunday that I'm happy with. I guess that if I have to gain a few pounds to learn about what eating habbits work and which don't than that's a price I'm willing to pay.
Saturday went a little something like this: I woke up at and a very very small breakfast in anticipation of purchasing some treats when I went grocery shopping right after breakfast. I came home and eat a mid morning snack (or a couple), then lunch, then a early afternoon snack, a late afternoon snack (I probably had a couple of these too), a really late (and huge dinner) and ended up lying on the couch, unable to sleep with a stomach ache, feeling terrible, until 2 am.
While I was laying on the couch I had some time to think (obviously). I felt totally out of control all day and just had one compulsion to eat after another-I suppose you could call it a binge. One of the three Ss was definately going very, very wrong. I thought it probably had something to do with insulin levels, blood sugar, gherlin, leptin, and all that stuff but I was too tired to figure that out. I decided I would try Sunday snack-free. Not really for any reason backed by evidence, but simply because S-days without sweets was definately not going to work for the long haul, and you can't eat everything on one plate if you're eating dessert with your meal, so seconds were in also.
Sunday went something like this: breakfast: homemade egg and cheese biscuits with strawberries, lunch: superfood salad, chips, chocolate covered strawberries and mango tangerine sorbet, dinner: 1/2 piece of pizza and chocolate covered strawberries. Not heathy by a long shot, but no out of control eating, and I enjoyed everything to the fullest--a success in my book !
Lesson learned: I should strive for my S days to only contain sweets and seconds for right now. Perhaps in the future I'll be able to incorporate snacks, but I'm just not ready for it at this point.

PS I wanted to put some future topics that I might want to talk about here so I don't forget:
1. The Jungle effect
2. My garden
3. Home made bread
4. Kerry gold

[groovy1]

Dear ShannonR,

Congratulations on such a successful day yesterday My last Tuesday and Wednesday were a lot like your Saturday. I did all the damage in a few hours in the afternoon each day. Tuesday was bad enough, but then I did it again on Wednesday, and made myself miserably sick. I started with this wonderful dessert that I made myself, kind of a praline candy with nuts and chocolate. But that lead to eating 1/2 of this low-carb coffee cake that I had in the fridge --and only because only 1/2 the cake was left. And that didn't even taste very good. I have found for me that eating too much seems to make me ravenously hungry - maybe because I am glucose intolerant? Anyway, talk about a paradoxical and unhelpful response from the body!

So I too think I am better off without the snacks, because that is how it happens, at least to me.

Your Sunday sounds great.

Wishing you more green and happy days,
Sherry

[ShannahR]

4/5/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS upper body

I decided to increase the weight I've been lifting during 15minbeachbod from 5 lbs to 7.5--the heaviest I've ever lifted regularly, not because I'm especially weak but more because I usually give up exercising after about a month. I have one of those adjustable weight systems (Nike Pro something) which has 2.5 lb increments from 2.5 lbs up to 12.5. I'm not one of those girls who's afraid of growing "manly" muscles from lifting too much weight. First of all, I only "lift" 15-20 minutes 5 days a week, probably not enough to make huge muscles. Second, I'm pretty sure that women don't have enough testosterone to make muscles that huge anyways, I'll let you know. Anyways, it went pretty well, of course I got tired at the end of sets and couldn't do every rep but that's how it was when I started with the 5s so I know I'll get there, it just takes time. I was expecting not to be able to lift my arms this morning but so far, my arms seem fine--however usually my soreness sets in about 24 hours afterwards so tonight will be the real test. My goal is to be able to lift 12.5 lbs, if that ever happens I'll definately have some sort of celebration!

[NoelFigart]

You're right. 12.5 lbs isn't going to give you big muscles. I alternate weight training and swimming and do weights twice a week. I'm working out with 55lbs for bench press, and 70lbs for most of my leg work. I don't have big muscles, either!

You have to lift very hard, very heavy and have a bit of chemical help before you start looking like a man. Keep on with what you're doing and I expect the consistency will give you results that will make you happy. But if you WANT to go heavy, you're probably stronger than you think.

[ShannahR]

Thanks for the advice Noel! I'm really impressed with the weights you are lifting As far as results go, I realized that I'm not really looking for a certain result per se I just want to be healthy and achieve a healthy weight I can maintain, and I think strength training will help me get there.

4/6/2010
No S: SUCCESS
MorningMulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS core

I just finished a book over the weekend entitled "The Jungle Effect: Healthiest Diets from Around the World--Why They Work and How to Make Them Work for You" by Daphne Miller. Before I can actually recommend the book to someone I feel like I should try at least one recipe from each region. For those of you unfamiliar with the book, it's about Daphne's (she's a doctor) travels to "cold spots" for 5 different "diseases of Western civilization" and the indigenous diets of the people in those cold spots. She goes to mexico (something canyon--I don't have the book with me right now), Crete, Iceland, Okinawa, and somewhere in West Africa. I would definately say the diets of Crete and Mexico were the most appealing to me, which was a good coincidence because I'm also most worried about those health problems heart disease and diabetes respectively.
Additionally, reading this book gives me a good reason to start making more healthy lunches. I always pack my lunch and take it to work, but I've been doing a bad job of planning something nice and healthy ahead of time and cooking it on the weekend. I usually just cobble something together from leftovers or anything I can find in the house, which sometimes leads to trouble. This weekend I've resolved to make one of the recipes in this book and eat it next week for lunch. The only problem with this plan is that all of the recipes call for local, fresh vegetables of the summer variety (tomatoes, tomatillos, corn, zuchinni) and let's face it, it's April and I live in the Northeast. So I think I'm going to have to rely on what I can find in the frozen section at Trader Joe's, I know they have nice grilled corn, pepper and onions, and canned organic diced tomatoes. I'm not sure exactly which recipe, probably a Mexican or West African stew-like dish because the stuff from Crete all calls for "wild" greens and the Farmers market here doesn't open until May 1-- I am counting down the days.

[Starla]

Shannah, thank you for your kind comments on my thread. You asked about vacation, and I thought it made more sense to answer you here.

I think taking all S days on vacation worked well for me for a few reasons:

1) My normal S days aren't a big problem. If your S days aren't a catastrophe on weekends, why would they be on vacation?

2) I had a clear idea in my mind of why these were S days - because I didn't really want to think about food, NOT because I wanted to pig out. Now, some days I did eat a lot - we went to an upscale restaurant and had a six course tasting menu - it did NOT fit on one plate! But I wasn't eating just to eat.

3) I understood that I might gain some weight (and I did gain two pounds), but I was sure it would come off quickly, and it did.

4) I've been doing No S for 7 months now, and I feel rock solid with it. I had no doubt that I could come back from vacation and get right back into the swing of things.

So I guess my advice is to go on vacation and use your eating to add to your enjoyment. Don't stress out about it, and know that what counts isn't so much what happens on vacation, but what happens when you get back. Have fun!

[ShannahR]

Thanks for the advice Starla! Unfortunately, I don't think my No S habbits are quite as firm as yours, so I'm going to have to "fake it until you make it." I feel like my N days are rock solid-I am almost never even tempted to engage in off habbit behaviors on N days. I haven't totally figured out S days yet though as you can see from some of my previous posts. I do feel like I'm okay with the fact that I might gain a few pounds--which I won't even notice probably becuase I don't weigh myself that often. I also feel like it will be no problem to go back to N days when I get back from vacation, in fact it will probably be a relief. The other stuff...well I'll just have to try to remind myself that I don't really enjoy food if I eat too much which I hope I learned last weekend. Only time will tell I guess. I think I'll try asking myself how much I will enjoy this at every eating opportunity...that might help.

4/7/2010:
No S: SUCCESS
MorningMulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS lower body

[ShannahR]

No S: FAILURE
15minbeachbod: FAILURE
Morningmulti: SUCCESS

Well yesterday went to hell in a hand basket, as they say. I come home from work, hungry as usual, and I walk in to no evidence of food cooking. My fiancee, who was supposed to make dinner, is instead on the computer looking up facts about his car, which probably needs some serious maintenance on the A/C. I know it might seem harsh for me to expect him to make dinner but I always plan everything and make sure he has all the ingredients, and usually I cook the majority of meals on the weekend and we just heat them up during the week. Realistically, he only has to cook on weeknights once every two weeks or so. Anyways, we ended up going out to eat, by this time I'm ready to eat my arm of course, and the first thing they always do at a resturant is...bring the bread basket. Needless to say, I ate a ton of bread which sunk No S for yesterday. On the good note, I ordered a 'small plate' of fish, vegetables and quinoa and skipped dessert so it wasn't total disaster. Still, not good.

Then by the time we got home it was late and I was pretty full so 15minbeachbod didn't happen.

The problem here is obvious, and I've run into it before, I'm not good at sticking to No S in restaurants. This is not going to work for the long run because restaurants are part of life. I do try to minimize restaurant outings (which could be part of the problem because I need to practice making good choices in this situation) but still this is a skill I need to master. For good or bad, we have planned to go out to some restaurants this weekend, and I'll be eating in restaurants when we go to Costa Rica in a few weeks so I'll definately be getting some practice in. I need to come up with a strategy and stick to it.

[sophiasapientia]

The problem here is obvious, and I've run into it before, I'm not good at sticking to No S in restaurants. This is not going to work for the long run because restaurants are part of life. I do try to minimize restaurant outings (which could be part of the problem because I need to practice making good choices in this situation) but still this is a skill I need to master. For good or bad, we have planned to go out to some restaurants this weekend, and I'll be eating in restaurants when we go to Costa Rica in a few weeks so I'll definately be getting some practice in. I need to come up with a strategy and stick to it.

Yeah, restaurants are tough. My family eats out on a regular basis. I suspect most of us have a handful of favorite places we eat out at most often. For these, I have some "default" meals that I know are relatively good choices, especially during the week. (I don't count calories generally but I do look up the nutritional information for meals at favorite restaurants if it is available. I've been shocked by the calorie count of some dishes in the past and sometimes, given that info, certain dishes really aren't worth it to me.) On No Days, I either pass on the bread basket/tortilla chips or set aside a portion to put on my plate. If I felt that a binge was probable, I'd probably ask them to not bring it or take it away. It also helps to make sure that restaurant meals have some veggies/salad if possible.

It sounds like you did quite well, all things considered!

[ShannahR]

Thanks for the encouragement sophia. I'm actually feeling pretty down about this failure. I re-listened to the podcast about failure this morning and I'm trying to remember that having a failure does not mean being a failure. I guess what bothers me most is I have alot of restaurant eating in the near future and I'm worried that's going to cause me not to make my weight loss goal for this month (2 lbs). That thought really bumms me out.

[ShannahR]

4/9/2010
No S: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS core total body
Morningmulti: SUCCESS

4/10-11/2010
S days! I was pretty happy with these, no excessive eating.

4/12/2009
No S: SUCCESS
15minbeadbod: SUCCESS pilates hips, thighs
Morningmulti: FAILURE


I had a doctor's appointment this morning which meant fasting...ugh. That pretty much tanked morning multi. It did a number on the rest of the day too but I ended up sticking with 2 plates so that's minimum compliance. I have a few other appointments this week (hair and the dentist) so I've got to learn not to let these upset me, eventhough they aren't my favorite thing.

[marygrace]

No S: FAILURE
15minbeachbod: FAILURE
Morningmulti: SUCCESS

Well yesterday went to hell in a hand basket, as they say. I come home from work, hungry as usual, and I walk in to no evidence of food cooking. My fiancee, who was supposed to make dinner, is instead on the computer looking up facts about his car, which probably needs some serious maintenance on the A/C. I know it might seem harsh for me to expect him to make dinner but I always plan everything and make sure he has all the ingredients, and usually I cook the majority of meals on the weekend and we just heat them up during the week. Realistically, he only has to cook on weeknights once every two weeks or so. Anyways, we ended up going out to eat, by this time I'm ready to eat my arm of course, and the first thing they always do at a resturant is...bring the bread basket. Needless to say, I ate a ton of bread which sunk No S for yesterday. On the good note, I ordered a 'small plate' of fish, vegetables and quinoa and skipped dessert so it wasn't total disaster. Still, not good.

Then by the time we got home it was late and I was pretty full so 15minbeachbod didn't happen.

The problem here is obvious, and I've run into it before, I'm not good at sticking to No S in restaurants. This is not going to work for the long run because restaurants are part of life. I do try to minimize restaurant outings (which could be part of the problem because I need to practice making good choices in this situation) but still this is a skill I need to master. For good or bad, we have planned to go out to some restaurants this weekend, and I'll be eating in restaurants when we go to Costa Rica in a few weeks so I'll definately be getting some practice in. I need to come up with a strategy and stick to it.

I don't think it's harsh at all to expect your fiance to prepare dinner once every couple of weeks--especially when you plan everything out for him! If he doesn't cook frequently, the meal might not be the best you ever tasted, but what's important is that he's making the effort. On the flip side, I definitely understand how hard it can be to get your partner to make a meal if they're used to you being the one to cook. The one time (ONE! TIME!) I asked my husband to prepare dinner (because I would be getting home late and hadn't time to cook something in advance), he gawked. He did it, but I had to lay everything out exactly for him, and I've never bothered to ask him since.

And I hear you with the restaurant trouble, too. I tend to see eating out as more of a weekend thing anyway, but there are definitely times when I end up at a restaurant during the week. Staying away from the bread or chip basket on an N-day is something I always strive for, and usually succeed if I order a drink to sip instead (it doesn't have to be alcohol, and usually it isn't. Tea is usually a good choice, I find.) Also, like sophiasapientia said, it's good to have defaults if you frequent the same restaurants often. The restaurants I go to don't usually have nutritional info posted on their menus or websites, but I definitely become familiar with a few items that feel reasonably healthy and don't leave me stuffed if I eat the thole thing.

[kccc]

I agree with Marygrace on expectations... in your place, I'd be having a talk with my significant other! (But that's a different topic... my spouse and I are very careful about keeping agreements once made. If we're unsure that we can/will, we don't commit. But that's us, and every relationship is different.)

On food... I have a couple of "pantry meals" that I can throw together from ingredients that I always keep on hand for when I get home late. They can be put together in less time than it takes to go to a restaurant and order. Mine include... frozen tortellinit and jarred pesto, a selection of beans for quick chili, tuna and frozen bagels for tuna melts (I like mine on bagels rather than English muffins), quesadillas and cheese for quesadillas... you get the idea. With those "default meals," I truly can "eat faster" at home than going out (at least to anyplace that serves bread, lol!).

Also, I second (third) the idea of looking up nutrition info for restaurants you go to frequently, and figuring out some "default" dishes. And you can ask for bread not to be brought until the meal starts (your fiance ought to go along with that one).

Consider this a learning experience... you've identified areas to work on, and that's half the battle. Now it's just problem-solving, and trial-and-error to find a solution. Just keep this one thing from derailing you completely, and you'll be fine.

[ShannahR]

KCCC and marygrace--
Thanks for the advice and encouragement. I had better luck with the restaurant situation this past weekend than I did on Thursday thankfully. Part of it could have been the fact that it was and S day, or that I wasn't starving when we got to the restaurant. It could also have been that I have been thinking about this and was trying to improve the situation. Anyways, I'll keep you posted.

4/13/2010
No S: SUCCESS
MorningMulti: FAILURE
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS core pilates

I am resolved to get back on the morningmulti program today. I'm not sure why it is so hard--seems like No S and 15minbeachbod should be more challenging!! I'm thinking of modifying MorningMulti to just Multi---that being if I take the vitamin anytime during the day then I get the green. I think the morning thing helps me remember it though.

[ShannahR]

4/14/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS arms, shoulders, chest

[ShannahR]

4/15/2010
No S: SUCCESS
MorningMulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS rear

I've been thinking of adding a mod. I know there are some inherent dangers here as our brave leader has reminded us many times but I think I'm ready to take the risk. I want to "shrink" my dinner plate to a salad plate. Why? I feel like I could easily eat less food-especially at dinner- and I think a smaller plate would remind me to do just that. I'm hoping eating less will lead to more weight loss of course. I wouldn't make it a iron fast rule, if I was starving I wouldn't punish myself or feel bad if I choose to use a bigger plate, but I would like to make my default plate smaller. I usually wait until the beginning of the month to make changes like this, but I think I'll start slowly adding it in and see how it goes. If it starts to adversely effect any other system it will have to go.

[ShannahR]

4/16/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod EXEMPT-headache

4/17-18/2010
S days: SUCCESS

It seems like I learn something new every S-weekend. I wish I could just get a hang of it and have a system that would work everytime. On the other hand it seems like my body's reaction to food is still changing so maybe I just need some more time until that stops.

More specifically here's what happened this weekend.
Saturday: I put into action the plan I came up with last weekend. Bascially, no eating inbetween meals but I'm free to eat as much as I want at meals including sweets, seconds, whatever. However, my eyes were bigger than my stomach because I ate way too much at both lunch and dinner and ended up with a stomach ache. However, I'd like to mention to anyone reading this with the same problem that ginger tea helps a great deal in this situation. A couple of cups and my stomach feels alot better, it either works or has amighty strong placebo effect.
Sunday: I stuck to the 3 meals per day plan but concentrated on making each one--mostly lunch and dinner--smaller to compensate for the sweets I wanted to have. I got out the small plates and made sure the "healthy" part of the meal was no more than one small plate. I had "smogasboard" lunch with a few bites of several things I wanted to eat that I knew I couldn't fit a full serving of in my stomach. This seemed to work pretty well. I got to eat a little bit of everything I wanted. Unfortunately, there was a small aspect of deprivation and dieting because I needed to stop myself from eating (and remind myself of consequences) quite a few times during the day.
Conclusion?? I count both Sunday and Saturday as a success. I didn't really eat that much Saturday when compared to how I used to eat pre-No S (probably about the same amount). Obviously, my tolerance for eating alot is very low now which is good, and that lesson was brought home a bit painfully on Saturday. Sunday, I adjusted the game plan and made it through the day without any stomach aches so I improved upon Saturday. I think that smaller portions will start to come more naturally I just need to give my brain time to catch up with my stomach when trying to estimate how much I can eat. The no snacking which I decided to implement last weekend was a little bit challenging too but again it's only been one week. It took me months to get comfortable with my other habbit changes. Again, PATIENCE!

Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow -- that is patience.
Unknown Source

[ShannahR]

4/19/2010

No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS pilates, total body

Yesterday was just a normal Monday. I tried using my small plates for dinner and it worked just fine, I wasn't hungry after dinner nor was I extraordinarily hungry this morning. That's pretty much what I expected, now I just have to learn to eat a little slower so I'm not done with dinner way before my finance
I leave for vacation tomorrow. I've decided to go with all S days because I don't want to be obsessing about food the whole time. If I have a choice I'll stick to my 3 meals and no snacks, but I'll probably have sweets (my favorite S, the other two I could take or leave). Of course, when you vacation with family, you rarely get your way
I'm looking at this vacation as another "learning experience." Of course I've had quite a few of those this month, so I'm not really optimistic about achieving any weight loss. I guess it's worth it as long as I "learn" this month and that allows me to have a successful May!

I'll let you know how the vaycay goes next Monday!

[ShannahR]

4/20/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morning Multi: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: FAILURE

4/21-25/2010
S Days! Vacation

I'm back from vacation. I had a good time eventhough it was HOT, HOT, HOT! Eating-wise there was lots of fruits and vegetables, which was good. I only didn't like how I was eating one or two times the entire time so that was pretty good too. I'm sure I gained a little weight but I'm not due to weigh myself until May 5 so maybe any extra weight will have gone away by then. I'm going to get back on the No S train today, but it's going to be tough because we don't have any food at home and I'm tired due to the time change. I hate to admit but part of me wants to just give up because I'm probably not going to lose any weight this month and my parents are coming in a few days which won't help any.
I'm not going to give up though, I'm going to do the best I can for minimum compliance, eat as healthy as I can and not beat myself up about it too much. Hopefully I can make it to May and recommit with a vengence!!

[ShannahR]

4/26/2010
No S: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS core
Morningmulti: FAILURE

I'm hanging on by the barest thread. Last night we ordered Chinese and after I ate one plate I actually said to my fiance, "I don't want to do No S any more I would rather have seconds." Then I sat there and realized even though I would like to eat more for the taste, I wasn't really hungry. I put the Chinese away so we could eat the rest tonight for dinner. It was a close call, really really close. I also had to force myself to do 15minbeachbod--I bribed myself by allowing myself to do only 10 minutes but I did it so I'm counting it as a success. Same thing this morning, I was eating breakfast and it took all my will power to order something not sweet--eggs on a bagel instead of a sugary muffin or pastry. I got some fruit too which helped me feel like I was getting a sweet treat (even though it's not a S) and that helped alot. Although it doesn't work for everyone, most of the time, if I eat fruit it really helps placate the sweet tooth because I LOVE fruit.

At least I'm hanging on--hopefully if I can get through this week with minimum compliance I can get back to trying to be healthier next week. It will help alot to have time this weekend to make nice healthy meals. Basically it feels like I'm starting back at week one, except I know that it gets easier instead of just hoping that it gets easier--that helps alot.

I'm not quite sure why I'm having such a hard time but I have a few theories:
1) I'm tired from the trip and the time change--that always makes me want to eat--especially sweets
2) I'm upset about something--it's not too hard to figure out what
3)There's a chemical/hormonal reason why you should only have 2 Sdays a week and my system is now out of wack

I'm hoping for 1 or 3 because those will be the easiest to fix---if I just hold on they will correct themselves. Unfortunately, I have a feeling it's 2 and that's going to be hard to fix.

[ShannahR]

4/27/2010
No S: SUCCESS
MorningMulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS arms, shoulders, back

Still hanging in. I think it is getting a little easier, had a craving for food/sweets after dinner last night but it wasn't really that bad--kind of a pathetic grumble from my subconcious. I had a little trouble getting myself to stop reading and do beachbod but once I started I enjoyed it--I like the feeling of getting stronger and I also like the fact that my arms are starting to look toned. I thought I would want to quit 15minbeachbod after the wedding/Costa Rica but motivation to keep going just keeps piling up--I'm going to see my sister next month and we're going to the beach, my birthday (i'm hoping to have lost 10% of my weight by then), and another wedding in September should keep me going for a while.
Today doesn't look too hard, I've got a healthy lunch ready to go. Dinner could be tough because I don't have anything planned and I have a feeling my fiance will want to go out, but I can pick something healthy and I will.

Oh yeah, minor victory last night: I ate my dinner off a small plate--I'm going to try to keep that going, I think it helps alot. I did wake up pretty hungry but some cereal and fruit took care of that.

[ShannahR]

4/28/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS rear, inner thighs, thighs

Still going, I'm definately on an upwards trend. No S-wise everything is going well and I'm starting to look forward to my S days. I'm thinking some chocolate might be in order.

Minor victory: Last night we did end up going out to a restaurant--Italian. The victory part came in when I ate my salad and only 2/3 of my entree--it was pasta with wine sauce and spinach and tomatoes-not too healthy but not terrible and I didn't eat all of it.
Big victory: I didn't even touch the bread basket!!

[ShannahR]

4/29/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: FAILURE

Yesterday was a pretty good day No S-wise. Breakfast and Lunch were fine. For dinner I went to a Greek restaurant with my parents. I ordered some nice grilled chiken shiskabob with salad. I have to admit I did eat it all which was more than I would normally eat. On the plus side, I only ate one piece of pita which I fit on my plate and I didn't touch dessert. I think I'm starting to get a hang of the restaurant thing. I've had two successes in a row that I've felt good about and haven't felt deprived.

S days start tomorrow. I'm happy about that but I'm not sure why--I don't really have anything in mind that I want to eat. Actually the more I think about it, the more I think it's not actually S days that I'm excited for. It's a weekend when I can do what I want. My parents will be here until tomorrow afternoon but after that I've got "big" plans. I'm going to shop for food--FINALLY-at Trader Joes and Whole Foods. I'm also going to hit the first day of farmer's market--I don't think they will have much because it's so early, but I'm determined to buy some stuff even if it's only greens. I'm totally sick of not having quick-to-heat-up, healthy, homemade food in the house! My tentative plan is to make whole wheat foccacia with sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, and parmesan cheese. I tried the white flour version before and it came out really well--it makes a ton so it's a great lunch for the week. I'm also going to make lemon chicken with wild greens from The Jungle Effect--because it's a whole chicken and it's just me an my fiance that should take care of dinner for the week, I just need to come up with some sides.

Yipee for the weekend!!

[ShannahR]

4/30/2010
No S: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: FAILURE
Morningmulti: SUCCESS

5/1-2/2010
S Days!!


May is finally here! It's a new month so it's time for "month in review." I did this informally the last couple of months but I'm making it official: on the first Monday of the month I look over the last month and consider the new one. So, last month:
Things which have improved:
1) I did a pretty good job on vacations and my parent's visit. No out of control eating behavior. I've also done well working on the restaurant issue. Other than that No S is giong well only 1 failure in April--I didn't get a medal in the stats but I think it's because of the vacation.
2) Morningmulti is definately getting me to take a multivitamin much more consistently than anything else I've tried.
3) I feel stronger when I do 15minbeachbod--weights up to 7.5 lbs
4) Got a good report from the dentist--and the doctor/blood work

Things to improve in May:
1) 15minbeachbod compliance was pretty bad this month, I need to try to do better
2) Eventhough I've been sticking to 3 plates, no snacks, no sweets on N days I feel like I've been eating alot.

For the new month I'll be continuing with all of the systems I've got so far--they seem to be working pretty well. I'll be emphasizing weekend behavior with No S--try to keep snacks out of S-days. I'll also be using salad plates for dinner to keep portion sizes down. I'll be trying to get better consistency with 15minbeachbod, I'm adding in some new workouts but I won't be increasing the weights this month. No changes to Morningnmulti are ncessary. I'll also be starting a new system which I've entitled WS. I don't think it's something I'm comfortable discussing on line so I'll probably only record if I do it or not and it's only a habit that is relevant Wed/Thurs-Sat.

[ShannahR]

5/3/2010
No S: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: EXEMPT
Morningmulti: SUCCESS

I'm not sure what I did to my back but it's definately a problem. I don't actually remember a stressful incident-which is weird because the last few times this happened I definately did a movement that triggered it. On the plus side, it's not as bad as it has been in the past--I can still move and walk, it just hurts quite a bit. Needless to say 15minbeachbod will have to be suspended until this clears up. I'm giving it 1 week to show improvement--it doesn't have to be all better, just improved--or I'll have to go to the doctor.

Other than that everything is going well. I ordered some new books to read this month. I get myself a few new books every month I do well with my habits. Its half reward system half spending control--I get it a reward for following habits but it also means I can't buy anything for myself the rest of the month. I bought The end of overeating and healthy at any weight. I think they will both be interesting reads. I was also looking at the Beck Diet Solution which looked quite helpful. I've always been a believer in cognitive therapy but not so much of a believer that I've actually gone to a therapist (not to mention where would I get the money for that??). Anyways, do-it-yourself cognitive therapy that helps you follow your healthy eating plan seems like a good idea to me. Maybe next month.

[ShannahR]

5/4/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: EXEMPT

I started reading both of my books already! Last night I started Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth about Your Weight by Linda Bacon. And I must admit that it's depressing. She starts by debunking alot of weight loss myths, basically arguing that it's almost impossible to lose weight. I know that she's just doing this to try to make you feel better about your weight loss failures but it kinda makes you want to throw up your hands and admit defeat. I knew that she was in the "intuitive eating" camp but it's already starting to be a little irritating. I've never all out tried intuitive eating but from my behavior when I'm not eating healthfully I can tell it will never work for me. I'm hoping she'll give me some advice I can use on S days but the section where she actually outlines her advice isn't until chapter 9 and I'm not there yet. Of course I won't judge the book until I finish it--it's unfair to judge a book on 4 chapters.

I also started reading The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite by David Kessler. He also starts with alot of discussion about set point weight and the like. Then he gets into the way the food indutry is manipulating us--that part is just sickening. It seems so immoral to try to get people hooked on junk food just to raise your stock prices. Still, I'm suspending judgement until I get to the end of the book.

Keep on keepin' on.

[Kathleen]

I read The End of Overeating last August, and it changed my eating habits. There's a one page description of a Snickers bar, which used to be one of my favorite foods.
Kathleen

[ShannahR]

5/5/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: EXEMPT

Great results this morning! I stepped on the scale and I'm down another 3 lbs! I think that is pretty amazing considering I had a few S days I wasn't happy with this month not to mention 5 days of vacation! Since starting in January I'm down 16 lbs in 4 months! This months result tells me that I need to quit agonizing over S days. I need to go ahead and indulge alittle without guilt. I still want to keep the eating behavior in check and feel in control of what I'm eating but there is no need to agonize over an extra treat. I think if I relax a little I'll probably enjoy it more--the whole thing reminds me of Reinhard's podcast about S days gone wild where he explains how sometimes you think there is a problem with your S days but there is really not a problem...which ends up being a problem . Anyways, looking forward my goals are kinda messed up in a good way. Here were my original goals:
1) Lose 20 lbs in 1 year
2) Lose last 10 lbs the next year
Obviously I'm going a little faster than planned. I haven't seen numbers on the scale this low since my last "successful" attempt at South Beach in 2004. I think the best thing to do is throw the weight goals out the window. I will keep on habit, try to eat whole, homemade, healthy foods and let my body figure out what needs to happen. Also looking forwards I'll probably be able to update my testimonial thread in a month or two (1.5 lbs to go until I hit 10% of my weight lost). YIPEE!!

In other thoughts:

Kathleen: I totally see what you mean about The End of Overeating! It is making me never want to eat in a chain restaurant again. The chapter about Chilis was pretty gross.

The fruit truck called my name this morning. I think I'll probably be giving in to that temptation tomorrow. Of course, it's allowed on N days because it's a bowl of fruit with a banana but it's sooooooooooo good.

[sophiasapientia]

Since starting in January I'm down 16 lbs in 4 months!

Way to go Shannah!

[ShannahR]

5/6/2010

No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: EXEMPT

Well it looks like I've found the lower end of what I can eat and not feel starving and ill . I had switched to my salad plates for dinner this week and inadvertently decreased my lunch size. My body let me know that this was not okay yesterday with a vengence. I was starving pretty much from lunch until bedtime and a raging headache started at about 8:00. It was pretty much the same as when I tried a low calorie diet that limited you to 1100-1200 cals/day. Today, I plan to make my meals extra filling to try to "make up" for yesterday. I'll be switching back to the large plates for dinner as well. I know I can lose weight without switching to the small plates and I don't think it's good to be starving all of the time. Of course I would like to lose more weight but if I don't, and am able to maintian where I'm at right now, I need to be happy with that.

[ShannahR]

5/7/2010

No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: EXEMPT

5/8-9/2010
S Days!!

I think this was a good S weekend, one of the best I've had so far. I ate some sweets for snacks (a double S) and felt satisfied. No crazy over eating and no stomach aches. I ditched the "no snacks" rule because after I eat a meal I'm too full to eat a dessert immediately--I just don't enjoy it. I moved my sweets from seconds to snacks and that worked really well. I"m not sure why I couldn't do it before-maybe I'm still getting a hang of this. I assume S day behavior is the last thing that falls into place when you're eating the No S way, which makes sense because you get so used to the rules that you feel a little lost with out them. Also this way of eating does kinda promote a "eat all the Ss you can on the weekend because you have to do with out them for a whole week" mentality. It takes a while to get past that.

Read some more of Health at Every Size this weekend. The books is still coming up with myth busting facts and statistcs that run contrary to the current dogma. Most of the stuff about fat not actually being correlated to the Western diseases was pretty uplifting and she keeps reiterating the fact that slightly over weight people actually live longer than thin people. Both of those things make me a little confused because it's so contrary to everything else out there. The part that is highly depressing to me is the fact that she basically says that your body, including your genetics, is almost completely in charge of what weight you are going to be. She has several studies that say even if you lose weight initially in the long run--even if you stick with your healthy eating and exercise--you are going to gain whatever weight you lost back. That's pretty depressing. I'm just hoping my body decides that my lower weight is more in line with its preferences than my higher one. I'm not willing to start extreme dieting or anything just to stay "skinny"--not to mention at my goal weight I wouldn't even fall under the category of "skinny!" Anyways I'm hoping that once I get to the part where she explains how to maintin a healthy life style I can incorporate a few of her ideas, as long as they fit inside the No S framework!

[ShannahR]

4/10/2010
No S: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: FAILURE
Morningmulti: SUCCESS

I think it's time for me to start 15minbeachbod again. My back is much better but every once in a while I feel a little tingle. Last night I mean to start but I didn't hence the failure.

I had several things to do this morning that I didn't want to do. It wasn't that bad but I'm totally drained now because of the stress. I keep telling myself just to do the minimum and start over again tomorrow, hopefully that will work. I'm not hungry but my old habit to stress eat and/or eat as a "reward" for doing things that I didn't want to do is nagging me. It's kind of a weird feeling-there's habit war going on in my subconcious I need to think of something that's allowed on N days that will make me feel better. On the other hand maybe if I get some stuff done that will help, the feeling of accomplishment settles me sometimes.

[ShannahR]

4/11/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: FAILURE
15minbeachbod: FAILURE


Yesterday was tough. I had two Drs. appointments in the morning and those always stress me out--which I blame for the moringmulti failure. After that I was exhausted but went to work and tried my best to get some stuff done--which I did. I went home, ate dinner and curled up in bed-- I didn't even care about taking the red on my habitcal for 15minbeachbod. It's funny how stressful situations make all your old bad habits rear their ugly heads. I had some urges to eat excessively and to eat sweets--both of which I ignored but it used up pretty much all of my will power for the day, which was pretty low due to the "Dr. stress". I have to start 15minbeachbod again. I'm afraid I'm going to lose all my strength and muscle tone gains if I don't get on it--it's been 1 week and a few days! I read somewhere that you lose almost all of your aerobic endurance about 2 weeks after you quit exercising. I think it would be a little longer with strength training but I don't know and I don't want to find out!!

[ShannahR]

4/12/2010

No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: FAILURE

Alright, tonight is the night. 15minbeachbod or bust. I'm bribing myself which is not a good way to get yourself to do things but I'm desperate. If I do 15minbeachbod tonight I give myself permission to:
1) Order whole wheat thin crust Margarita pizza on Friday for dinner
2) Buy new jeans this weekend.

I have totally been wanting to try this pizza and my fiance won't be here Friday night. It's a double bonus because I won't have to cook.

I've also been wanting to buy new jeans for a while. I've been wearing a few pairs that I stripped off in disgust and decided they were too tight to breathe and I would never wear them again-- in January. Now, they are baggy and slide down my waist to my hips--this gives me what I call "baggy crotch". What really bums me out about them is I think they make me look bigger than I am, and I want everyone to see how great I look now! I'm going to visit my sister this weekend and she has some great stores, it's a great time/place to get some new jeans!

[ShannahR]

5/13/2010

No S: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS, upperbody
Morningmulti: SUCCESS

Never underestimate the power of bribery! With all those promises to myself on the line, I managed to get up the willpower to do 15minbeachbod. It wasn't that bad, I think I did lose a little of my strength during my break but not all of it. I was still able to use the 7.5 lb weights and I did almost all of the reps. I've just gotta keep building from there. My back protested a little bit but it's not too bad, definately not a spasm just a litte soreness.

I'm leaving to see my sister tomorrow. She likes to fly without a plan so we're going to do whatever. Definately shopping, I'm looking for new jeans(!!) and a dress for a family wedding in September. It's probably not a good time to be looking for a dress--who knows what size I'll be in September--but I figure I won't lose more than another 10 or so lbs and my mom has given us permission to use her credit card!
Obviously, I'm taking a NWS day for Monday because I'll still be at my sisters. I'm not too worried about it though. I get the feeling that she doesn't eat very much--unfortunately what she does eat is junk. Maybe I can convince her to go shopping somewhere healthy and stock up--whatever I don't eat while I'm there she can eat after I'm gone.

[ShannahR]

5/14/2010
No S: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: FAILURE
Morningmulti: SUCCESS

5/15-17/2010
S Days and NWS Day EXEMPT

5/18/2010
NO S: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: FAILURE
Morningmulti: FAILURE

I'm back from my sister's! I had a great time. We had a day at the beach, we shopped--I got new jeans that actually fit as well as some tops and a dress in a super small size (for me and which I haven't worn in years)!--and we relaxed. It was great. Of course now I'm back to real life. I don't think those three days did any huge damage weight wise but I'm noticing my habitcal is looking pretty red lately-not No S, mainly my other habits. So red that after I filled it out I actually got up and took my multivitamin so I could get my morningmulti green ! I've got 3 days until I leave for a conference all next week and I really want them to be green on all of my calendars! I am going to try my best. Next week I'm going to a conference for me and because it is not vacation I think I should just stick to my normal routine a much as possible--keep up No S and morningmulti and maybe come up with a substitute for 15minbeachbod with no weights. I feel like if I decide to let myself have it exempt it would just fuel boredom/stress eating, not the good kind of "vacation treat." On the other hand I don't want to get stressed out about food/eating when I should be concentrating on the conference. I'll think about it.

[ShannahR]

5/19/2010

No S: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS abs, waist
Morningmulti: SUCCESS

Yesterday was a "all green" day! I'm feeling very proud about that, it seems like it's the first one I've had in a long time. I think it's a big accomplishment that I'm more worried about my habits and "greens" than about my weight--I'm not even tempted to weigh myself. I know that I only have two more days before I go away AGAIN and eventhough it seems like all these breaks are messing up the habits I can't help wanting those two days to be green.

Not much else going on. I've got a list of things I want to eat this weekend, which is a little unusal for me but I think it's just a symptom of the fact that I've got alot of upheaval and stress in my life right now. In the past I'd deal with stress by eating but I've avoided doing that since I started No S. That doesn't mean I don't get cravings however, it just means I deal with them differently. Instead of instantly giving in to every single stress induced craving I simply acknowledge how I feel and move on. I think to myself something like "Right now you really feel like eating BLANK (usually some sweet) would make you feel better. However, you know that you feel that way only because that's what you've done in the past. If you think about it, you're not actually physically hungry which means you can wait until lunch/dinner." It's working so far. Here's my list: Whole foods sticky bun, brownies, chinese food. I'm having alot of "pastry" cravings which means I feel like eating sugar and fat. It will either pass by Saturday or I'll pick something decadent--maybe I'll investigate a new bakery, that would be fun.

[ShannahR]

4/20/2010

No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS thighs, rear, hips

My second day of "major green" in a row. I'm on a roll for sure. I'm a little bit sore from the 15minbeachbod but it's the good kind of sore, not the crippling kind. I'm definately starting to get back into all the habits which is great. What is not great is that next week I'll be gone at a conference all week which will mess with them all especially 15minbeachbod. I decided to bring my pilates DVD with me to do at night at the hotel. That seems like a good compromise because it doesn't use weights, but I'll need some time without my room mate there to do it because if she's there I'll feel like an idiot. Still, it would be nice to keep it up.

I'm considering the "S day slide" this weekend. My fiance has "caught" my chinese food cravings . Not to mention we're out of healthy food to eat tonight for dinner. His reasoning is we never eat alot Sunday night so we should give ourselves the option of eating alot on Friday night. I agree with the fact that we don't eat alot on Sunday night but to me that is a good reason not to do the "S day slide" because it keeps S day calories down. Luckily, I haven't gotten into the habit of binging right at the end of S days. Instead, sometimes I have a small final treat but I'm usually satisfied by that time and feel no compulsion to eat a whole bunch of junk food at the last minute before N days start again.

I've been feeling really lucky lately. From reading other people's posts on the board it seems like I've been having an easier time than most sticking to this way of eating. I've always been pretty strict about rules which probably helps. I notice alot of people "accidentally" or mindlessly eat snacks or eat sweets just because they feel like it. I haven't had any of those problems, which is great. Even the concept of "I ate BLANK before I even realized what I was doing" which I have seen writen on the boards several times is totally forgein and weird to me. Its great for me, however it does make me feel like I shouldn't write advice in response to people's posts.

[ShannahR]

5/21/2010
No S: SUCCESS S day "slide" in effect
15minbeachbod: FAILURE
Morningmult: SUCCESS

5/22-23/2010
S days!
No S: SUCCESS (Sunday night from "slide")

Overall, I'd say this was a great weekend--not low calorie, but satisfying. Friday night I put the "S day slide" into effect so we could have a take-out Chinese dinner. I had been craving it for a while but I ate my portion too fast and didn't really taste it. After that I decided not to use the slide to have seconds because my stomach was full but I did indulge in a fortune cookie. The good thing I learned from that was that I should try to eat slower and actually taste stuff this weekend because I feel much more indulged and satisfied when I do that--I concentrated on that all weekend and it was really good. Other good S day stuff: awesome banana french toast at fav breakfast place, soft and juicy mango is back at trader joes!!, tasty strawberries--even tastier when covered in dark chocolate , personal water melons from Whole foods (I'm not sure how but their produce is always superb). Ironically, I bought cookies and pound cake to satisfy the pastry cravings I was talking about this week and I didn't touch them all weekend--definately strange. On the other hand I ate soooo much fruit that I think I need a break from it---that has NEVER happened to me before. Of course, I ate 4 lbs of strawberries, 2 pks of dried mango, and a whole personal watermelon--I don't think I've ever eaten that much fruit in 2 days before . I guess eating all of that is better than eating the equivalent in cookies, pastries and junk!

Despite the fruit gorge, no stomach aches and I feel great today. I've decided to No S this week at the conference so I can have S days next weekend and pick my own treats. Eating treats at a cafeteria that I don't have alot of choice in doesn't really seem that appealing anymore.

[ShannahR]

5/24-28/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: FAILURE
15minbeachbod: FAILURE

Back from the conference! I'm glad to finally be home, the food there was pretty terrible. Overall, I had a nice time an learned alot which is the main point of course. Major Victory: No S wise I stuck to the program the whole time, which was pretty hard. The difficulty was due to two factors I think: 1) I didn't really like the food but I had to eat it or starve--I'm much happier with only 3 plates if they are actually food I like! 2) They offered us food (mostly sweets) approximately every 2 hours. That's alot of opportunities to eat that required will power to turn down. Usually in my day I've made it so there aren't really any opportunities to eat other than meal time--that makes it much easier. Mostly I tried to convince myself that the food wasn't very good and that if I waited until the weekend I could go out and buy whatever decadent thing I wanted--that worked pretty well. Of course I had the "stress/boredom=food cravings" thing going on in my head but I ignored it and it worked! I'm actually quite impressed with myself. I started the week thinking that I probably wouln't be able to stick to No S the whole week and that I needed to not beat myself up if I didn't make it--but I proved myself wrong! I'll be filing that under "progress."

Unfortunately Morningmulti and 15minute beachbod didn't fare as well as No S. I have no excuse for Morningmulti-I could have made the effort but didn't. 15minbeachbod was tough because I didn't have any time to myself--my roommate was always there in the hotel room with me when I had free time. I would have had to make a heroic effort for that to work which I didn't. I think the best thing to do is recommit in June. Plus I tweaked my back again carrying around my heavy suitcase so a small break would be good anyways.

Now I'm back at home and I did indeed buy myself some decadent treats. That's okay though because its an S day. I'm thinking to go ahead and make memorial day an S day as well but I'll look at my habitcal before deciding on that.

Happy Weekend everyone!

[Starla]

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!

That is very, very impressive. I totally agree with you - part of what makes No S so doable is being able to have food you enjoy at every meal. So when that's not happening? And you still stayed on plan? That's commitment!

[ShannahR]

Thanks Starla! I appreciate your encouragement! It feels good to be happy and proud of myself based on habits rather than a number on a scale.

5/29-31/2010
S days!

It is June 1 and time for "month in review." It isn't time for a weigh in yet (I'm planning on June 4) but I think that's good. This review is about habit--not result/weight. Anyways, I did a great job with No S this month--NO FAILURES, 2 NWS days, and everything else green/yellow. Considering I had a week long conference, I'm pretty proud. I got a gold medal in my stats which always makes me happy eventhough I know that's a little bit silly .

As far as Morningmulti goes, I stopped being good about that during the conference so my habitcal for this month looks terrible. I think I need to recommit to it for June. It's not that hard--take a multi once per day! I'm not sure what more I can do to increase my odds of doing it. I already put the multis right where I eat breakfast. I guess I'll just need to be better about it.

Biggest problem of the month: 15minbeachbod. I only did 15minbeachbod this month 3 times!! That is terrible. I know there were complications: back trouble and the conference, but still. I am going to focus on this this month--maybe I need to be more flexible and allow myself to do other activities? I like the lifting, the problem is that I do it at night when I would rather be spending time with my fiance. He gets home earlier than I do and works out while I'm still at work so he doesn't want to work out again when I get home, which makes sense but doesn't help. I could move it to the morning but I reallly only have 10 minutes in the morning and don't have time to shower so I'd have to go to work sweaty-that would suck. I don't even want to think about getting up earlier-I know alot of people do it but I think that would make me even less likely to stick to 15minbeachbod.

Summary:
No S: Good job--keep on keepin' on.
Morningmulti: Focus on greens this month!
15minbeachbod: I think I'll join the June challenge on this one--it might help. I stopped doing the challenges because I was writing this thread and that seemed to be enough. Not to mention I have No S down pretty well at this point. However, maybe the challenge will keep me more honest with 15minbeachbod. I am willing to give it a try!

Happy June!

[ShannahR]

6/1/2010

No S: SUCCESS
MorningMulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS thighs, pilates

Yesterday was "all green" which is great. I really think that monthly "reviews" and monthly resolutions really help me. I used to do New Years resolutions but would lose enthusiasm in about February or March. Doing monthly resolutions gives me that enthusiasm you have at the beginning of anything 12 times a year instead of just 1. Thanks Reinhard! Speaking of motivation--I must admit the challenge helped last night too. I definately thought to myself "if I don't do 15minbeachbod I'll have to write on the challenge thread that I failed the FIRST DAY!" and that was motivating.

I forgot to write about a major victory: I fit into my skinny jeans this weekend! And not just the kind of fit where you wouldn't want to be seen in public--I could actually wear my "skinny jeans" out if I wanted to and I wouldn't be embarassed...except for one thing. They have 3 holes in them! I knew this at the time I put them aside as "THE skinny jeans" but now that I can wear them I don't want to! The irony is not lost on me. No matter, I'll just have to buy new .

As a final thought yesterday one of my collegues at work told that it looked like I had lost "soo much weight" and asked how much I had lost. I had to admit that I didn't know! Well that will be remedied on Friday, and I do feel a bit thinner but I guess I've got it in my head somehow that I won't lose that much more weight. I'm not sure why-- I think deep down that I believe my goal weight to be unrealistic. On some level I've convinced myself that I should be happy with the weight I'm at right now--which I am. I'm not sure if I'm explaining this well, actually I'm not sure if I understand it myself. I guess what I'm trying to say is I have this "lofty" goal weight that I don't really believe that I can achieve. Right now I've almost hit the "Not perfect but good enough" weight that I believe I can actually achieve, and I'm happy with the way I look. Because it's always been so hard for me to lose weight, I have the "I wish I could have X but I'll settle for Y" mindset. And now that I have "good enough" I guess I'm not sure if I even want "perfect".

[sophiasapientia]

Shannah -- Congratulations on fitting into your skinny jeans! That's a wonderful accomplishment!!!

I can completely relate to what you wrote about reaching the "not perfect but good enough weight," btw. I'm at a point where I look good, fit into my clothes and am waiting to see where things settle with my current habits. It's a good place to be in, overall. I know that if this is going to be for the long haul, I have to do it in a way where I don't feel deprived and know that I can keep it up happily over time. If that means, losing more weight ... great. If not, that's good too.

[ShannahR]

Sophia--
Thanks for responding, it's good to know that someone else is experiencing the same feelings I am! I feel a little weird about it, I don't mean to sound unhappy or ungreatful that I have lost weight. I'm happy and proud about it, and feel a huge sense of accomplishment. It's just that for so long I've thought I'd never reach this weight and that I'd never fit into those jeans. Now that I do, and I feel healthier and more at peace with my body, I'm a little confused. I guess I never considered the question "what would I do if I actually reached my ideal or almost ideal weight/size?" My desperation to lose weight is gone, if I stayed at this weight/size forever I'd be happy. On the other hand, I'm eating in a way I like, and feel is healthy but I'm still losing weight. I don't want to change the way I'm eating. I don't know how to even approach maintenace--I've never done it before. I had in my head that I would just stop losing weight and that would be "maintenance."

Perhaps the answer is patience. Obviously I won't lose weight forever, if I just wait a few more months things will even out, and my body will settle at whatever it determines is right for me. I suppose I just don't trust my body enough yet. There's no need for me to be "in control" of my weight, my body will take care of it, if I eat healthfully. It's weird for me and my body to actually be in agreement. Previous to No S it always seemed like it was a "war" with me and my body on opposite sides, if you know what I mean.

You know as I wrote those last two sentences it dawned on me that that is exactly what is bothering me. It's not what I weigh per se, it's letting go of the struggle to lose weight. I no longer "work" at it, my habits guide me through with extremely little effort on my part. It feels strange.

[sophiasapientia]

Perhaps the answer is patience. Obviously I won't lose weight forever, if I just wait a few more months things will even out, and my body will settle at whatever it determines is right for me. I suppose I just don't trust my body enough yet. There's no need for me to be "in control" of my weight, my body will take care of it, if I eat healthfully. It's weird for me and my body to actually be in agreement. Previous to No S it always seemed like it was a "war" with me and my body on opposite sides, if you know what I mean.

You know as I wrote those last two sentences it dawned on me that that is exactly what is bothering me. It's not what I weigh per se, it's letting go of the struggle to lose weight. I no longer "work" at it, my habits guide me through with extremely little effort on my part. It feels strange.

I understand completely because that's where I'm at too. There's not a lot of info in the book or on the forums about "maintenance," I guess since that is where we end up naturally through our habits and it isn't like crossing a finish line given that it is a life long journey. I seem to remember Reinhard saying that his body settled at a weight 10-15 pounds below what he imagined his goal weight would be. *shrugs* What a gift, though, to be able to do this easily and to be -- finally-- at peace with food & my body!

[ShannahR]

I think for me the answer is faith, but not in the religious sense of the word. I had faith that No S could help me lose weight and it did. Now I need to have faith that my new habits and my body will bring me to the place I need to be even if I don't know exactly what it is. Unfortunately, I have a scientific bent of mind and faith doesn't come easily for me.

Faith is the confident belief or trust in the truth or trustworthiness of a person, concept or thing. Since faith implies a trusting reliance upon things that are not known, it is often taken by its detractors as inevitably synonymous with a belief "not resting on logical proof or material evidence. --Wikipedia

On the other hand I am greatful that the answer turned out to be simpler than I thought. I agree this is a great place to be.

[ShannahR]

6/2/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: EXEMPT

Ugh. I'm sick. Who gets a cold in the summer? I'm not sure what kind of upper respiratory bug I've got but it's a doozy. It's not effecting my eating too much even though last night I ate extra big helpings at dinner because I was starving (kept it on one plate though). I figure if I'm hungry when I'm sick I should give my body a little extra fuel and maybe I'll fight it off quicker. I couldn't even attempt 15minbeachbod. I'm having trouble breathing and I couldn't go 2 minutes without tissues, much less 15--I seriously am sneezing probably 100 times an hour. My chest muscles are REALLY sore from all the sneezing and coughing--it hurts to take a deep breath. I'm on medicine of course but cold medicine never really works for me, I'm not sure why. Anyways, I'm trying to maintain a minimum level of functioning. I don't want to take a day off for a stupid cold!

[ShannahR]

6/3/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: EXEMPT

I weighed myself today. I'm down another 0.5 lbs. I'm not even sure if that's real weight loss or some other factor. How do I feel about it? I feel fine. No disappointment, but not really any joy either, I'm pretty much neutral. Why? I feel there are alot of good things about my current weight 1) I feel healthy, happy and comfortable 2) I can enjoy eating and indulge on the weekend without having to count or feel guilty 3) I'm not skinny by any means but I'm no longer heavy either, just average 4) I fit into my clothes well (no muffin tops, difficulty breathing or a feeling I need to "hide") and can find clothes in stores that fits and looks good. Bad things about where I'm at right now? 1) technicallly I'm still a couple of pounds over the BMI range of "healthy" for my height, 2) I don't look like a super model 3) I can't think of anything else--I'm pretty satisfied.

Future plans? Right now I feel like I'm looking at a balance. Could I eat less and exercise more and probably lose more weight? Yes. Would I need to sacrifice some of my happiness to do it? Probably yes. The question is do I want to? On the other hand, is there a way for me to reduce my calories in a moderate, humane way that I won't really notice very much? Possibly. I could probably do it if I decrease my dinner portion a little (have 3/4 of a plate instead of a full plate) and do some sort of S day moderation (maybe negative tracking? or limit the number of "S events" per weekend I'd have to figure out a good number-4?). Neither of these two mods sound very painful. 3/4 isn't that much less than 1, and 4 S events sounds reasonable, I think I have probably 4-8 per weekend right now. Alright here's what I'm going to do: 1) listen to the mods podcasts 2) try one or two mods until my next weigh in (probably July 2) and see if it promotes weight loss. For the long term: if I am still this weight at my October weigh in I'll declare myself in the maintenance phase.



Later...
Wow I just hit my second page, that's cool!

Anyways, still thinking about mods. I listened to the second mod pod cast and I think it's not such a great idea to modify S days. I think that sense of freedom I get on S days is a big part of my enjoyment of eating this way and that it could easily backfire if I change it. If I start having "failures" on S days that I can see it spiraling into chaos really quickly. So I'm down to 3/4 plates on N-days. However, I had another thought. Maybe the answer isn't to reduce calories. This mod would be a "results mod" as Reinhard put it. Maybe the right thing to do is a "compliance mod." Let's face it, 15minbeachbod is having some serious compliance issues. As far as I see it my biggest problem is lack of flexibility. For example, the last two days I've been sick so I felt like 15minbeachbod wasn't the best idea. Sometimes on Friday nights I'm reallly tired and don't feel like it, or I have some social event/ people over/ dinner out that makes it a problem. On the other hand, on the weekend I'm rarely busy and could easily find 15 minutes to exercise without it being a big deal. Usually if I think about 15minbeachbod on the weekend I don't do it because I'm supposed to be "resting." What if I make a 15minbeachbod goal of 5/7 days per week? If I don't get to it during the week I can do it on the weekend. Pros 1) Flexibility 2) Less failures 3) I'll be less stressed about 15minbeachbod
Cons 1) Decreases "urgency" 2) Harder to establish habit 3) Could totally fail and I won't do it on the weekend AND be less likely to do it during the week

Any mod is dangerous. The 3/4 plate mod could mess up No S, which would be unfortunate because I currently have a high level of sucess. The weekend 15minbeachbod mod couldn't possibly mess up 15minbeachbod because it is in trouble already.

I looked in the mirror at myself this morning. I am happy. I don't see fat or 100 things that need improvement like I used to, I see myself, curvy and healthy. I don't feel embarassed anymore and I don't worry about embarassing the people I'm with because of my size. I don't think of myself as "the fat one" or "the fat sister." I don't feel threated my thin people anymore because I feel good about myself and have stopped comparing myself to others.

I think I'm going to go with the 15minbeachbod mod. I feel that that the goal of that one is to improve my health. The 3/4 plate mod is just to lose weight, which I'm not even very motivated to do. Perhaps I'll change my mind next month or in the future, maybe not. Right now, I feel like this is the right thing to do.

[ShannahR]

6/4/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: EXEMPT

6/5-6/2010
S days!

Well, I've hit another "No S milestone." This weekend *dramatic pause* I didn't feel like eating sweets. I know, it's hard to believe, but it's true. I'm still not sure exactly what happened, I was planning to go shopping Saturday morning and there was nothing I felt like buying as a treat for the weekend. That has NEVER happened to me before, I ALWAYS feel like sweets, even on N days (of course I don't eat them but let's be honest here). Now I finally know what other people on the board mean by "I didn't feel like eating sweets but I did because it was a S day and I am supposed to." Basically, Saturday evening I ate a chocolate bar almost out of "duty" but I didn't enjoy it as much as on past S days, it was nice but not awesome. Sunday, I ate a sticky bun (approx 5 pm, and I wasn't even craving it, I just ate it because I bought it and thought that I should!), and at approx 8pm some dried mango (I overate the mango which made me alittle uncomfortable) and some strawberry rhubarb pie and other stuff for a "dinner" I wasn't really hungry for because I ate the sticky bun. That's pretty much it for sweets, seconds and snacks. I feel like I almost forced myself to eat Ss and that's not good. If this happens again I need to just allow myself to eat as if it's a N day on an S day. I think that will be hard to do mentally because I feel like I "deserve" Ss as a reward for getting through the week. But it's not really a reward if I don't really feel like eating them, right?

I'm not sure the reason for this new development, possibilities 1) N day habbits are finally "leaking" on to S days 2) We just had a 3-day S weekend and I wasn't ready for Ss again yet 3) I couldn't think of a S decadent enough to tempt me 4) I am still recovering from my cold and nothing tastes great yet? (seems unlikely because I usually want sweet things when my taste buds are dulled). Overall, I'm a little disappointed in myself. Why was I unable to just let myself eat the way I wanted? If that was "N-day like" who cares? I think part of the problem is that I frequently ignore the signals my body is giving me in regards to food. For a long time that was because I didn't even hear them. Now, I hear them but I choose to ignore them. Why is that? I'm not sure. It takes a mindset that I haven't achieved yet. I still eat, especially on S days, how I think I should eat based on when I was at my most undisciplined! I take big portions that I don't need and I eat sweets even if I don't want them because I wanted them pre No S! This needs to change, but I'm not even sure how to approach it. It seems to me that instead of "S days" I would need to have "listen to your body days." The rules would be 1) don't eat if you're not hungry 2) when you are hungry, eat exactly what you crave/want to eat 3) practice "mindful eating." Somehow, that combination of rules seems to be the same as intuitive eating which I am totally against. I figure if intuitive eating worked, I wouldn't have gained so much weight over the past several years. Perhaps eating intuitively on S days wouldn't lead to total chaos. The idea is to use it to moderate my eating and concentrate on really enjoying myself and food.

I know I wrote about this in more detail than I usually do. However, I'm writing it here so that I can look back in the future and remember how I felt in this situation and not make this mistake again. I am almost 100% positive no one learns more from reading this thread than I do.

[ShannahR]

6/7/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS, 10 min walk (see below)

I'm still working on 15minbeachbod. I'm thinking that I might turn it into lunch time urban rangering, or at least have that as an option. Yesterday I went out urban rangering for 10 minutes and it was pretty pleasant. I haven't done it up until this point because I always have meetings at lunch time but they are suspended for the summer (except Monday) so I COULD start. I was thinking about 15minbeachbod last night and I just don't have the motivation to do it any more. I'm not sure why, maybe I just need a break. The point of 15minbeachbod is to get some more movement/exercise in. Therefore, if I switch to approx 30 min of extra walking during lunch time or in the afternoon then I would be willing to count that as my 15minbeachbod for the day. I'm going to give it a try I think. I'm pretty much willing to do anything to get my amount of exercise up in a non-painful way.

Everything else is going well. I'm really trying to get back on board with my full line of habits as much as possible. It's going pretty well but still requires effort. I was really derailed last month and that's hard to recover from.

[ShannahR]

6/8/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS, 30 min urban ranger

The 15minbeachbod=urban ranger plan is going well. Yesterday I went on a 30 minute walk around the area right before lunch. I have to say that when I got home I was sooooo relieved to be done and not need to worry about making myself exercise! It was definately a huge burden of guilt lifted off my shoulders and it felt good I can see the appeal of fitting in this kind of excersize and I don't think anyone at work even missed me. I'm not sure if I'm into it because it's novel or if I really like it but I'll try it for a while and see how it goes. I can always switch back. The only thing I'm slightly worried about is the air quality, I am walking around in a major city and I'm sure the pollution is off the charts--and now I'm breathing it in .

Lots of improvement in habits these last couple of days. I've got a new method of remembering for morningmulti and it's working. I've also gotten back into the swing of a few other habits.
It feels good!
I used to dread doing all this stuff and thought it would take up all of my time. Now, habits make me happy. Getting back on board with everything gives me a sense of satisfaction as if all of the pieces of my day are falling back into place.

[ShannahR]

6/9/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Moringmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS, 25 min urban ranger

Yesterday was a good day. I got a early morning urban ranger session in, before it started raining hard core. Meal were a bit weird, I had much more fruit that I should have with breakfast and lunch and a big bowl of pasta with butter and parmesan cheese for dinner. Not overwhelmingly healthy but I was really craving it-and I did keep everything to one plate so it wasn't techically a fail, it's just that I like to eat a little healthier than that! Weekend is coming up fast and I can't wait. Not so much because there's some S that I want to eat (there isn't) but rather because I'd like to sleep in, relax, and do some things with my fiance. I haven't had two day weekends before I started this job and I love it. I'll have to think of something decadent to have as far as Ss go--nothing is really striking me right now. If it turns out that I'm not really into Ss this weekend it will be a perfect opportunity for me to look back at last weekend and do things differently so I'm not diappointed at the end of the weekend. There is nothing wrong with having "N-day like" S days as long as you're enjoying them.

[ShannahR]

6/10/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS 30 min urban ranger

I have something pitiful to confess. I'm sore. That's right, sore. After walking for a measly 30 minutes for the last 4 days my hamstrings and gluts are sore. My apologies to the word pititful which is probably insulted for being used in this context.

I think I discovered the key to getting excited about Ss on weekends. Yesterday I couldn't think of anything I wanted and I was preparing myself for a weekend with no Ss. However, this morning I got a groupon for a fancy chocolate place downtown. I decided to buy it and go down after work today to get it for this weekend. I had chocolate last weekend but it wasn't decadent, exotic and new---that was the difference. I need new exciting Ss that I've never had before to spark my interest. I'm going to buy a large box and bring it home to share with my fiance. I can't wait. My sister's coming over too and maybe I'll let her have some if she's nice . The crazy thing about this place is they also have a restaurant--if my fiance likes the chocolate maybe he'll take me there, that sounds super tasty!

Later:
Crap. I can't use the coupon until tomorrow! That sucks. I'll have to think of something else decadent and save this plan for next week--that will be tough because my whole family will be visiting.

[osoniye]

Did you find a suitable alternative? Hope so!

[ShannahR]

6/11/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS

6/12-13/2010
S days!

Another weekend come and gone! Yes, osoniye I was able to find a good substitute for my S day treats. I bought a nice scone from a pastry place at my farmers market--two actually one was originally for my fiance but it had white chocolate which he doesn't like so I ended up eating most of it . and I went to a cupcake bakery that I had never been to before and sampled the wares. I got two cupcakes, strawberry and bananas foster, and ended up eating the strawberry (which was pretty good but extremely sweet!) and freezing the banana one- I just didn't have the space in my stomach for it! No big deal, it will be waiting for me next weekend. Not to mention I might go back and get more cupcakes instead of a father's day cake---it seems like a good idea because then I can get an assortment and everyone will be happy . Not much else going on. I think I need to be little more strict about plate size, I feel a little round this morning! I suppose it could be from the S days but I don't think they were really that excessive. I guess I'll know in a couple of weeks!

One other thing I wanted to mention. This weekend I abandoned the plan to have 3 meals per day on S days. Why? It seems silly to eat a meal you're not hungry for. Example: Saturday I ate breakfast, lunch and then had a scone (it was a big one made with lots of butter and chocolate, I'm sure I don't want to know how many calories it had) for snack at approximately 3. When dinner time rolled around I wasn't even slightly hungry. I decided to skip dinner and had a light snack of fruit later. I think this is better than forcing myself to eat a large meal I don't want.

[ShannahR]

6/14/2010
No S: SUCCESS --strict 1 plate dinner
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: FAILURE

I felt a little "round" yesterday morning but I woke up this morning and it seems to be going away. Must have beens some weight gain from S days. I usually don't notice because I don't weigh myself that often but it was really noticeable this week. I think the problem is not how much I eat on S days but WHAT I eat. On N days I eat pretty healthfully, vegetables, fruits, lean meats, whole grains. On S days I not only add Ss but also eat not so heathfully: hamburgers and fries, biscuits, chinese food, etc. I'm starting to think that might be a problem. I know the ultimate goal is to eat as I do on N days but with the addition of some sweets, but I'm not there yet. Currently, unhealthy food isn't banned from N days, it's just not encouraged. Then on the weekend I pretty much let myself eat anything as long as I don't stuff myself and end up with a stomach ache. If want to continue losing weight I'll probably have to cut back on S days a little. On the other hand I have noticed that if I eat a half portion of the junk/rich food that I want I'm still satisfied. For example, I went out to a burger place with my sister and fiance this past weekend and I found that half the burger was enough. I thought to myself "wow, I'm turning into one of those skinny girls I used to hate who only eats half a burger! " I don't mean to ramble, I'm just still figuring out how to eat moderately. I suspect the learning process will take a good long time.

Oh yeah, on more thing. Last night I started my strict one plate dinner. I think my dinners had been growing over the last month because I started virtually plating fruits and vegetables. However, the result was that they didn't "crowd out" more calorie rich food on my plate. Yesterday I upped the strictness and plated half a plate of veggies/fruit and half a plate protein/starch. I'm going to try to be better about this until my next weigh in, but I'm hoping to make it habit and keep going after that.

[osoniye]

Oooo Shannah, a cupcake bakery! What a great place to visit on an S day!!

[ShannahR]

6/15/2010
No S: SUCCESS strict 1 plate dinner
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS, 30 min urban ranger

Everything is going well here. I'm starting to like urban rangering more and more as time goes by. I'm on my second week of doing it and I've got an established "route" that I've been taking for the last few times which taks exactly 30 minutes. At first, I really took note of the things around me, store and resturants, people, buildings, etc. Now that I'm more familiar with my route, I'm using the time to think. The extra thinking time is good so I guess I'll go with it until I get bored and then change routes. I'm not sure when that will happen, my job is pretty thought intensive so I probably won't run out of stuff to think about .

My whole family is about to descend on my doorstep tomorrow. It's going to be chaos I'm sure. I'm goal is to stick to all my systems and work as regular a schedule as possible--we'll see.

[ShannahR]

6/16/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS 30 min urban ranger

Not much happening on the habit front yesterday. However, I think that's how it's supposed to be. If something is a habit, you don't notice you're doing it and it seems like nothing exciting is happening. I guess the old saying "no news is good news" is trite but true. I should enjoy the peace while it lasts. My whole family is showing up today. My sisters will be invading my apartment which I'm sure will stress out my fiance. Not to mention my parents will probably be needing help. I have a feeling that's going to make for exciting times as far as habits go . I'm going to stick with it! For some reason my family stresses me out which isn't good for habits. On the other hand I really don't want to take any NWS days because I want to save them for something better than stress eating!
I'll keep you posted.

[ShannahR]

6/18/2010
No S: SUCCESS strict 1 plate dinner
Morningmulti: FAILURE
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS, 25min urban ranger

Everyone's here. We went out to dinner last night-chinese/thai/japanese-not overly healthy of course but I only ate half of my dinner (chicken yaki udon) and I saved the rest for lunch. It was tough not to eat dessert (fudge cake and tempura green tea ice cream) but not too bad. I'm proud of myself and I have a tasty lunch. I'm going to go get the chocolate I have the certificate for that I coudln't get last weekend. I'm not sure if I want to share it with the whole fam or just keep it for myself and my fiance. I guess it will depend on exactly what I get and how much . It's a pretty expensive place so I have a feeling that $30 of chocolate isn't going to be that much, but definately worth a S day treat.

[ShannahR]

6/18/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS 25 min urban ranger

6/19-20/2010
S days

Things are kinda crazy here. My whole family was here this weekend. At least my sisters are gone now but my parents are still here and will be here longer than I thought. I love my parents but they are exhausting. Yesterday I actually got a headache I was so tired--and I had already passed out while we watched a movie! One good thing about them being here is I definately didn't eat as much as my usual this past weekend. My dad isn't allowed to have food in him room in the place he's staying so there's no constant snacking. He's also having trouble moving around so it's not convenient to go down to the common eating area. As a result, this morning I was STARVING!
Its always hard for me to keep to my routine with crazy stuff happening. I always tell myself that there is no "normal" and that I have to learn to deal with stuff and keep to my habits. It's just challenging. It should probably make me thankful that I have so much time in my "normal" schedule that stuff like this throws me off!

[ShannahR]

6/21-22/2010
No S: SUCCESS
15minbeacbod: SUCCESS 25min urban ranger
Morningmulti: SUCCESS

Things are still super crazy here. I basically go to work do as much as I can (I'm practically running around like a crazy person--its difficult to fit 10 hours of work into 7), go home early and go over to help my parents. It's exhausting. I know my parents need the help and I'm happy to give it but it makes me tired and cranky. Hopefully my little sister will be here this weekend to help and my fiance and I can take some days off. Not much else going on--there's no time for it. I'm sticking to my systems but it's hard because my mom is always offering me sweets. Not to mention we've got excessive heat warnings in effect and I don't have time to go out and urban ranger during work. I think I'm just going to have to do what I can for the rest of the week and try harder next week. I'm not going to critisize myself for it, I'm under extraordinary circumstances right now.

[lbb (Liz)]

Oh boy it's hard to entertain family, I tell ya.
It looks like you are doing well under the tough circumstances!
Congrats on passing on dessert at the restaurant...those social situations are such a toughy!
Good luck and keep it up!
Liz

[ShannahR]

6/23-24/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: FAILURE

I'm still keeping it together. Some great news for me: my sister is coming down today and tomorrow to stay with my parents. I am actually going to be able to work a full day today I know that sounds weird but it feels like an incredible luxury. I'm starting to feel like I'm getting really behind and that makes me anxious. Today I'm going to relax and actually try to think about everything! I will also get to sleep in tomorrow and spend it with my fiance. I'm a little bit worried about this weekend's S days. I'm feeling put upon and I've been having cravings for sweets all week which I'm sure is due to the stress and lack of time for myself. I just hope I don't binge or make myself sick this weekend. Right now I'm working on finding a nice restaurant for me and my fiance to go to tomorrow night. I think that will help because I can eat whatever decadent thing I want, not have to cook or clean, and there will only be a limited amount of food. It seems like a good plan. I also realized that its time for me to buy my June present! I'm not sure what I want yet but some nice sandals seem like a good idea right now


lbb: Thanks for the encouragement

[ShannahR]

6/25/2010
No S: EXEMPT
Morningmult: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS

6/26-27/2010
S days

I think I did okay Fri, Sat and Sun, all things considered. Friday I stuck with No S all day but decided to take a NWS event for dinner and went out to a nice relaxing dinner with my fiance, including dessert. I know that NWS days/events are not supposed to be used this way. I know that the intention is for you to plan ahead and use them for an event or social occasion that would make you feel too restricted if you were sticking to No S. I've got no excuse or justification. I went out and I enjoyed it. Yes I ate too much. Yes I ate all my guilty pleasures including french fries and I split two desserts with my fiance so I could have some of both. To be honest I don't regret it. I acknowledge that I was using food to deal with emotions and I will try not to do it too often, but it does happen. Not to justify but it was the only NWS day/event in June.
The rest of the weekend was fine. Its funny but lately I've been having trouble telling if I'm having "S days gone wild" or not. At the end of the day I feel like I've eaten alot of decadent food, but when I actually think back to everything I've eaten and list it, it doesn't seem like very much. I think it's because my body is used to N days so on S days it feels like I eat alot of rich food but in reality, compared to how I used to eat, it's relatively mild. It's a very strange feeling.
As a final note I think I might have identified one of my biggest binging/sweet craving triggers. I always thought that boredome was my main problem and if I could just conquer that I'd be okay. Lately, especially this past week or so, I've noticed that my biggest trigger is actually unhappiness. When I don't get time for mysef to do what I want to do---even if that is to sit on the couch in my pjs--I get some serious cravings for sweets. Now that I've identified it, it makes me feel like that behavior is worthy of a two year old stomping her foot when she doesn't get her way. When things are not going my way and/or I'm out of control of a situation--especially when I feel like someone else is telling me what to do and I have to do it, it makes me unhappy and I seek comfort in food. It's not really a comfortable realization, but it does explain my explosion of weight gain in the last 7 years better than "I just like food." Right now I'm dealing with some things I don't want to do, but have to and I can't escape them. It's a "perfect storm." My decision Friday night to finally give in to habit was probably a direct result of my current situation and I have been fighting the urge for more than a week, which is actually a pretty long time for willpower to triumph. The first step of fixing the problem is identifiying it so I guess I've made it that far. However, I don't really know how to fix this one. I know there must be a solution. I can hardly be the first person in the history of the universe to have this problem . I'll see what I can research on line. I know that the solution will involve changing how I react to these sorts of situations. You can hardly avoid everything you don't want to do without becoming a hermit. That "solution" opens up a whole different pandoras box anyways.

[ShannahR]

6/28/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: FAILURE

These last few days have been pretty rough and it all hit the fan last night. I'm not sure what you would call it-mini break down perhaps- but it was unpleasant. I don't know if anyone else relates to this but my emotions are pretty volatile. Usually I'm fine. No, I'm not happy all the time but I can at least stay calm when things go wrong and noramly I'm a pretty even keel sort of person. Every once in a while my emotional house of cards comes crashing down, usually triggered by mix of anxiety, depression and obsessive thoughts. It's very dramatic. Then after several heart wrenching hours I fall asleep and I wake up fine. It's very weird. Nothing has changed since last night and it's like a wall has been built between me and the crazy storm of emotions that was let lose just 16 hours ago. I realize that the bad thoughts that I coudln't get out of my head might not be true, actually come to think of it I realized that last night in my head but my emotions didn't buy it. When I think the same thoughts that last night drove me to tears I don't feel any emotional response, more of a "yeah that might be true, but it might not and it's probably not." I'm not sure what causes that. Perhaps I just need to acknowledge and feel the emotions before they can pass? As far as coping, I used to use food and I considered it last night, but not seriously it was more of a fleeting thought. Instead I fell back on TV and books to distract myself-it always works and it's not a terribly bad habit so why not?

I hope this doesn't sound like the ravings of someone with some serious mental problems. Seriously, I'm normal. I'm not sure if anyone else has episodes like this sometimes, but I suspect at least one other person in the universe must. Sure, I could probably use a little therapy, but who couldn't?

[ShannahR]

6/29/2010
No S: SUCCESS --strict 1 plate dinner
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS 25 min urban ranger

Yikes Total silence in response to yesterday's post. I guess everyone does think I need some help. Oh well.

Anyways, yesterday was a good day. I was finally able to start doing urban ranger again, which I enjoy. I looked at the weather and it looks like the rest of this week is going to be significantly cooler so urban ranger here I come. Habits fell into place yesterday with no problems. I even had a strict one plate dinner--everything on one plate including 1/4 a personal watermelon (it was a pretty big plate) which I'm sure helped crowd out the not so healthy stuff. I'm actually coming to accept the fact that I LIKE eating healthy food--and by that I mean "real food, mostly plants and not too much." Having lots of fruits and veggies makes me especially happy. Thank goodness it's summer!
One last thought, it seems like my new jeans are getting baggy. How can this be? I don't feel like I lost any weight--and I can usually tell. Maybe they are just stretched out already? Or maybe my body has changed so much in the last few months that I can no longer tell when I lose a few pounds? I guess I'll know in a few days because weigh-in is on Friday. This is a good time to remind myself that I decided to "give up" control of the weight thing to my body. I'm supposed to eat healthfully, in a way that I enjoy and satisfies me and let my body figure out what my weight will end up at. I know that's the idea but it's harder said than done.

[sophiasapientia]

Hi Shannah -- I'm glad that you're feeling better. It sounds like things have been rough lately. I know that I'm most likely to experience emotional ups and downs due to PMS or during times of extreme stress. *shrugs* Exercising consistently and daily really, really helps me in that regard and it hasn't been an issue at all for a long time.

Way about the baggy new jeans. It could be that you're losing inches (and/or pounds) ... Either way, that's awesome!

[ShannahR]

6/30/2010
No S: SUCCESS-strict 1 plate dinner
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS 25 min urban ranger

Hi Sophia! Thanks for letting me know I'm not a tota freak. I have heard that exercise is good for "emotionally volatile" types. However, I'm not sure how I'd fit more in in a sustainable way. I'll think about it. Thanks for the advice!

Month in Review

Another month come and gone. I've finished my 6th month on No S now (I'm cheating a little bit by counting all of January). Which is great, this is probably the longest I've stuck with a New Years resolution, and a healthy eating plan (they usually last 2-3 mos at most).
Habit roll call:
No S: Healthy eating is going well. Sticking to 3 meals a day is pretty easy unless I'm under extreme duress. I "wandered" to eating some vegetables and fruits on the side of my plate last month but I've been trying to get them beck on the plate this month and that's going well. S days haven't been too over the top. Everyonce in a while I over eat intentionally, I'd say 1-2 times in the last month. That's always on S days though. It would probably be good to cut down on those-they are usually triggered by stress.

Morningmulti: Great success here. I'm way up in compliance this month. I'll try to keep it up for next month.

15minbeachbod: Great success here. I didn't achieve my goal of 18 times this month but I did get to 15 which was great improvement over last month. Urban ranger has been a huge success. The only problem is that it's hot here an it's only going to get hotter. I might need to come up with something else for July and August.

Results:
Monthly weigh-in: I'm down another pound this month (assuming last months 0.5 lbs was real if it wasn't than I'm down 1.5lb) which means I've hit 10% of my weight lost! And I achieved my goal to lose it before my 30th B-day (July 6). That's really awesome. My weight loss has pretty much slowed to a crawl but I'm okay with it. Losing around 1 lb a month isn't too bad if you keep at it, and I intend to continue with No S forever. Hopefully I can keep up this rate of weight loss for some time to come.

Future plans:
Current systems are pretty good. That leaves me with two questions. 1) should I modify? 2) Should I add a new sytem?
I'm pretty happy with my life as it stands. There's nothing that I really think I need to add in the way of system. I would like to lose a little more weight but if I keep losing slowlly eventually I will. Not to mention if I mod No S it's for results reasons and I'm trying not to do that. Hmmm...maybe I'll think about that a little bit more.

I need to update my testimonial thread From the responses I've gotten it seems that people are interested in how No S weight loss goes when you're closer to your goal.

[ShannahR]

7/1/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS

7/2-5/2010
S days!

Back from our weekend in VA beach. It was pretty much fun, we went to the beach, the aquarium, saw relatives, that sort of thing. Unfortunately, everyone knew that I have a "special diet"-not no S, I have a pretty long list of things I don't eat aside from the No S thing-and everyone kept making "special" things for me to eat. Now, on the surface, that might sound nice and considerate, which it is. The problem is that if someone makes something especially for you, you pretty much HAVE to eat it. Which sucks, especially if it turns out that you don't like it--and then you have to lie and say you do which makes me feel bad. I much prefer not to tell people about my eating "rules" and then just pick what I can/will eat from what they make. Unfortunately, that doesn't always work because sometimes they don't make anything I can eat and then I don't eat anything and they ask why...and then I feel bad again. Somehow I can't win, I've been struggling with this for my whole life and I've never come up with a satisfactory answer...
The reason I bring this up is because by the end of the weekend,which I took as all S days, I would have killed someone for some chocolate-everyone kept making special deserts for me and they were all fruity! You can't really refuse to eat a birthday cake someone bought for you (it was really good but I needed chocolate)! I hate it when I can't eat what I want to eat on S days. I've adressed this before but it's still true. When I don't get to eat what I want on S days, it makes me very upset, and I feel like I "wasted" the S days,and it makes me want to eat more!!

Anyways, today is my birthday. I'm taking it as an S day eventhough that makes me feel alittle guilty because I just took an extended S day weekend. On the other hand, all I'm planning is a nice B-day dinner so shouldn't I give myself permission to celebrate my 30th?

[ShannahR]

7/6/2010--Happy Birthday to me
No S: SUCCESS/S Event Birthday dinner
Morningmult: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: FAILURE-it was 102F here yesterday, 'nuff said

Yesterday was my birthday and I had a good day. I got back into the swing of things at work, I skipped urban rangering due to the serious heat wave, and I went out to a new restaurant for dinner with my fiance. It was definately the best steak house we've found since we moved. We always do steak houses for birthdays and anniversaries and the last one we went too wasn't too good. This one had great, dry aged steak and they even held up in the most important test: dessert. It was potentially a point of contention because the waitstaff knew it as my birthday and gave me a complimentary dessert. Now, that sounds nice and all but if you've been reading my posts lately you know that not being able to pick my own sweets about drives me up the wall. So, I graciously accepted their dessert (I could tell my fiance could see the time bomb ticking in my eyes- he immediately told me we'd order a different dessert if I wanted) and I tried it...and it was so good that I wasn't even mad they picked it for me! It was a delicious layered chocolate cake and mouse concoction...super yummy! And then we went home--a good birthday all in all.
Today I'm back to the normal schedule. It's a short week though and I've got lots of good things to think about.

[Starla]

Happy Birthday, Shannah! I'm glad you were able to enjoy it, and happy that you gave yourself an S day for it.

I think your philosphy of eating in a way that is healthy and enjoyable, and leaving the weight to your body, is just so.....sane. I think ideally that's where No S is supposed to lead. Congratulations on reaching the 10% goal, too! I saw your testimonial, and I think it will be a big help to people with less to lose.

[ShannahR]

7/7/2010
No S: SUCCESS--strict 1 plate dinner(its becoming habit )
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: FAILURE-it was >100F again!

Alright, that's it, time for action! Mother nature has declared war on my urban rangering. My fiance assures me weather this extreme is unusual for this area (I've only been here for 8 months so this is my first summer) but this is ridiculous. Eventhough I've only been urban rangering for 1 month I've come to like it, and I notice that it really helps me when I have to sit at my desk all day. It allows me to get some of the energy out which allows me to work more efficiently. Or at least it seems like that. I'm every bit as smart as mother nature is, and twice as sneaky. Time to come up with an alternative. Turns out that several of the buildings at the place I work are connected by indoor hallways...I think you see where I'm going with this. Time to develop a new route and give it a try--I'll time it and see how many "laps" I'd need to do to get in 30 minutes and I'll try not to get lost.

I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

Urban Rangering: SUCCESS! I couldn't wait until tomorrow I figured out a route that takes me in a full circle, it goes through several buildings. I got lost once but I went around the other way and figured it out from there. Some of the connections betwen buildings are extensively marked, you can't miss it. Some of them are a little bit more hidden. The total "lap" is about 7-8 minutes so I'd probably have to do 4 or so to walk for 30 minutes. That's not too bad. At least I have an option for when it is or feels like 100F outside. I think my rule will be if I am walking from the train station to work in the morning and it feels super hot I'll do the inside. I like the outside better but there's a limit, I can't be too gross and sweaty at work!

[ShannahR]

7/8/2010
No S: SUCCESS strict 1 plate dinner
Moringmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS 25min indoor urban ranger

I got so busy this morning reading other people's threads that I forgot to write my own . Anyways, everything is going fine here. I did my "short" outside urban ranger route this morning, it wasn't too bad but it's still pretty hot here. I like the outside one much better though. I have been having a craving for a triple chocolate scone this whole week. I fully intend to buy one tomorrow at the farmers market. That's what No S is about, right?

For some reason I'm really hungry today. I like to wake up hungry, I interpret that to mean that I ate the right amount of food the day before. I only wake up not hungry or even full if I eat an outrageously large or late dinner. But today I was seriously hungry-like loud stomach growling-30 mins before lunch and now again 2h before dinner. That's weird, I haven't changed how much I eat and I usually don't get this hungry. Yeah I think about wanting food before a meal but I don't usually get physical symptoms. Oh well, I'm ignoring it. It's Friday! I can't get a red on my HabitCal now, I'm too close to S days!

[idontknow]

I know exactly what you mean! I have been so hungry this week. The upside is that I do housework to take my mind off it. My house is sparkling

[ShannahR]

7/9/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS

7/10-11/2010
S days!

Phew! S days are over! I think I ate a little bit more than I should have. However, when I think back over it, it wasn't really that wild. Saturday I ate pretty normally but I did have a small incident with dried mango that evening . I didn't eat that much, but it was more than I should have. Sunday was more moderate than Saturday (breakfast=muffin lunch=2 pieces of pizza, cola dinner=hamburger, fries, blueberries) but I had a chocolate bar right before I went to bed and I ended up with a sugar stomach ache. I've still got a sizeable disconnect between what my brain thinks I can eat and what my stomach can accomodate. For some foods I've figured it out for example I can't eat an entire chocolate scone (I get them from a pastry place at my farmers market, they are to die for) I know I can eat 3/4 of one. I stop there ad I'm fine. This weekend I learned I can't eat an entire chocolate bar . It's going to be tough if I need to learn this for every single S.

On the plus note I got alot done this weekend. Lots of bargin shopping. I've lately become addicted to couponing and getting stuff for cheap or free. The danger there is it makes you want to buy stuff you don't need just because you can get it for 50 cents. I've got to be careful of that. However, I got lots of good deals on stuff I actually need this weekend.

Additionally I cleaned out the "scary closet" where I keep toiletries and cleaning stuff. My fiance was so scared of it he wouldn't go in there for fear of everything falling on him. After I was finished I realized that it wasn't that we had too much stuff, it was just that it was so disorganized that it SEEMED like we had too much stuff. It was also fun to "find" things that had gotten "lost" in all that clutter. I like projects like this, I feel irrationally good about myself everytime I look in that closet now.

One last thing I'm excited about: Kinect for Xbox360. I have to admit, I'm a little bit of a nerd. I own an Xbox. I play video games. Mostly, I keep it on the down low, I am after all a 30 year old female. However, I'm super excited about a new game called Dance Central. Basically, it teaches you to dance to popular songs. Then it tracks your body and give you a score and as you become better it teaches you harder moves and becomes more challenging. I can't wait and as a bonus it sounds like a great (and fun) way to burn calories. It comes out in November which is a perfect time because it will start to get cold and it will be perfect exercise over the winter! I can't wait! The only problem is my fiance wants to give it to me as a Christmas present and I think I'll probably burst if I have to wait that long.

[ShannahR]

7/12/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I did my outside urban ranger, my full route. It was pretty much at the limit as far as sweatiness is concerned but I still liked it. I just came back in and toweled off. Today it looks like urban ranger is doomed. It's raining hard and I was soaked just walking the block from the trainstation WITH and umbrella. I guess today will have to be the inside route

[ShannahR]

7/13/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: FAILURE

Well yesterday turned out to be pretty miserable. I got soaked from the rain when I came into work and was wet all day. The air conditioning failed at my work so then I was hot and wet. I should have done inside urban ranger but I was lazy and didn't feel like it after all that going on. I didn't get much done work wise either. Today is a new day. I'm going to do my outsde urban ranger route, its cloudy but weather.com says it won't rain if I get out there by 11. I've got some presentations to make and I'm ready to go on those.

As far as No S goes I've run into a small problem of late. Last night before I went home I realized I would be very upset if I had to eat our planned dinner. I didn't really enjoy it on Monday and I wasn't eating it again. It's not even any thing gross: grass fed beef roast that we marinated and slow cooked, sounds good right? I've enjoyed it in the past but no longer, I'm wondering if my tastes are changing. Could eating healthier be changing my tastes so I don't like meat as much? It's possible I suppose, I would much rather eat fruits, vegetables and grains than meat.

One other cool thing: last night we ate our first tomato from the "garden." Garden is in quotes here because I live in an apartment on the 9th floor and garden actually refers to a topsy turvy tree that I put out on the balcony . However, we planted 3 tomato plants we got from Burpee in it and we've got over 25 tomatoes now in various stages of ripeness. They came out smaller than we thought they would according to the catalog but that probably has to do with growth conditions. They are quite tasty and that's what counts!

[ShannahR]

7/14/2010
No S: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS 30 min outside urban ranger
Morningmulti: SUCCESS

Jumped back on the urban ranger horse yesterday! I did my outside route which was good. Unfortunately, I ended up bathed in sweat. I really need to start doing the inside route, especially because we're back to the excessive heat warnings for today and tomorrow . I never knew this area was so hot, I'm just 4 hours south of where I used to live!

I read an article yesterday on one of my favorite health blogs that was discussing whether fruit is bad for you:
http://summertomato.com/does-fruit-make ... t-and-old/
I was very upset by this article. She pretty much concluded that it wasn't bad but you should limit it to 2-3 servings a day. I was like are you kidding me? It might seem like an exaggeration but fruit is one of the things that keeps me eating healthy! When fruit is around corn syrup laden processed crap seems competely unappealing. I would say I eat approximately 4-5 servings a day. I'm not willing to cut down either! I do enjoy this blog but sometimes I feel like she takes too extreme a view on some issues!

[ShannahR]

7/15/2010
No S: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: FAILURE
Morningmulti: FAILURE

I fell apart a little bit yesterday but I'm not sure why. Again, it's too hot for urban ranger but instead of doing it inside I just didn't do it at all. I had a breakfast meeting and instead of taking my multi to the meeting or having it later, I just didn't do it. The meeting thing usually throws off my schedule and that messes up systems easily--it's like I don't get my usual reminders so I just forget about it. Well I'm doing better today already, I took my multi and I've already done 20 minutes of urban ranger. I'll probably do some inside urban ranger this afternoon too to increase my total time.

Another reason I know I was falling apart yesterday is I went home early and wanted to at an unhealthy dinner. That's always trouble. I ended up resisting the urge and instead piled my plate almost to the ceiling with food . Of course I couldn't eat all of that, however my body let me know when to stop with an intense wave of nausea. That happens to me sometimes, not after I eat alot, just after I've eaten a little bit past the amount it takes for me to be full--maybe its because I'm eating too fast?. It's weird. Anyways, if I stop eating for a while I can usually start again in 5 minutes or so but this time I just stopped. A small miracle but I'll take it .

Well at least I made it to the weekend. I'm doing the S day slide this weekend because tonight I'm going to happy hour with my sister and fiance. It should be fun, I think I've found a new "compromise" restaurant which has things everyone should like-a minor miracle. We'll give it a try at least. The highlight for me is it has chocolate fondue on the menu! I can't wait to try it! I'm also going to the spa this weekend with my sister and the huge mall that I"ve never been to eventhough it's only half and hour away! Should be a great weekend!

Happy weekend everyone!

[ShannahR]

Well I haven't written in a while. Why? I don't really know. Since July 15 when I last wrote things have been rough, I've been unhappy, I've had some No S failures as well as failures of my other systems. I think I've gained a few pounds. I've decided to try to put a halt to the slippery slope I'm sliding down right now. I know that I need to address whatever it is that is bothering me before it will be totally fixed but right now I'm going to fix my habit and "detox." I'm going back to strict No S (I'm not anticipating any problems, I only had two failures afterall) and the word of today will be water--I'm going to try to drink as much as possible to flush out toxins from my weekend binge. I'm really thristy anyways probably from rich food and not drinking enough. I"ve got urban ranger scheduled for an hour from now and I ate a whole grain muffin and banana for breakfast. Everything is good so far.

I don't really have single reason for my departure from my habits. It kinda start as a "celebration" last weekend, I was fine during the week and then had a total breakdown on Friday as my TOM came early. I think I feel pretty guilty about that but I'm not going to let it put me in to a "guilty spiral" where I feel guilty, eat to feel better, lather rinse repeat. I'm pulling out of it today. As far as causes I'm going to think about that. I'm going to start with the usual suspects: is something upsetting me that I feel powerless to fix? OR Do I feel that I deserve punishment/ have had something good happen to me that I don't deserve? This stumble could habe been about emotions or hormones, it's always difficult to figure that out Hormones do crazy things to emotions-but I'm going to try to stick to my excercise this week and hopefully things will settle down.

I think I'm going to be okay today but if I start faltering I'll be back to post.

[dmarie710]

Good to see you back posting. I know hormones can do some funky things to us ladies. I'm sorry you've been out of sorts, but glad your getting back on the wagon so quickly.
Denise

[ShannahR]

Hi Denise- Thanks for the encouragement. Hormones are so unfair, right? When ever I get into one of these moods I try to explain it to my fiance and he looks at me as if I just landed from Mars or something.

I'm feeling better today. It's amazing what one day of moderate exercise, eating healthy and continuous water drinking will do to a person (other than require the extensive use of the bathroom). Anyways, my goal is to keep it up today--I'm going on my walk in 1 hour, I've already started my water drinking, 0.5L down so far, and I had whole grain (fiber loaded) cereal with banana for breakfast. Today I'm going to try to slow down a little at work--I've been rushing around and not fully thinking things through, that's not great. Maybe today's watch word will be breathe--that's a good one, a few extra deep breaths are always calming.

Just a note: My goal is to regain my balance this week-which will probably result in some bizzare posts. After I'm "back to normal" hopefully my posts will be too. Also I've got a weigh-in coming up next week. I think I'm going to skip it. Here's my reasoning: If I really have gained a lot of weight I think it's going to be a devastating blow and I'm not sure how I'll handle it. My thinking is it's better to just focus on habit and not worry about results for a while. I don't want anything else derailing me right now.

[ShannahR]

Okay, day 3 of "rehab."

Yesterday went well, success in No S, urban ranger and morningmulti. I didn't do a very good job with the breathing thing but water is going well. Today I've had a fruit and whole grain cereal breakfast and started on the water. I feel alot better in body at least-the "sick" feeling of eating too much crap has completely gone away and I feel more like my "healthy" self. I thought I had put on some weight but now I'm thinking maybe it was water because it's going away rather quickly.

On the other hand emotionally I'm still having problems. It might be time for some research--perhaps a book? The problem is hard to explain-I'm fine until something upsets my boat, then I realize there are sharks in the water and I can't figure out how to right the boat and get back in. Huh, that rather vivid description sounds kinda like a night mare. Eventually, and usually slowly, everything returns to normal, but I'd like to cut down the time it takes or stop these occurances all together. I don't know, it's a tough problem. I don't really want to talk to anyone about it either-I have a pretty extreme sense of personal privacy .

[ShannahR]

Day 4 of "rehab"

Yesterday went okay I suppose. I was successful with morningmulti. I ended up doing urban ranger outside against my better judgment so it was shorter than usual but I'm marking it a success. No S was fine as far as Ss went, but it wasn't a very healthy day. When I came home my fiance was really craving a burger so we went out to eat. That in and of itself was fine but I ended up having a burger and fries too, which fit on one plate BUT I was trying to eat lots of fruits and vegetables and drink lots of water! That totally ruined my hydration plans-I woke up today with "salt mouth" again--yuck! I'm already drinking alot this morning but waking up with a dry mouth due to salt is such a bad beginning to a day. There is nothing wrong with that particular restaurant, they have salads! Next time we go there, I'm resolved to think again to "salt mouth" and stick with a nice big salad!

I also want to give myself some credit for willpower. I have known about a chance to get free chocolate and I have not done it for fear of what might happen if I do. Good job me. I have permission to obtain this chocolate on Saturday if it is still available. Or ask for a raincheck if not.

[ShannahR]

FINAL DAY OF "REHAB"!

Yesterday went well with success on all systems. I ate well, drank lots of water, took my multi and even did inside urban ranger which I don't particularly like doing. I"m starting to look forward to the weekend--not really for Ss even though those are nice more for free time and doing what I want to do and relaxing. I've written out my shopping lists and I"m ready to make some Italian bread and vegetable stew. Wow, I'm really feeling happy today--I hope it lasts

I should think of some really decadent treat for this weekend. I'm not sure what that would be it might require some thinking.

Today is good so far, I've eaten a nice breakfast and I'm planning on doing urban ranger in 0.5 hrs. This morning I made a good call..I was tempted to get myself a fruit bowl from a vendor but I decided to use that money tomorrow towards a sugar baby at the farmers market. I've been eyeing them for weeks but I never have enough cash to buy one after I've gotten all the vegetables...no longer! Awesome watermelon here I come!

[ShannahR]

7/30/2010
No S: SUCCESS (S-day slide)
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS

7/31/2010-8/1/2010
S days!


July: Month in Review

It's the first week day of August so it's time for a review of July. No S compliance in July was spotty. There was a 4th of July/Vacation to Virginia beach that used 2 NWS days. Additionally, I had two red days. This was definately one of the toughest months for No S I've had since the very beginning. These last two weekend I've also been getting stomach aches on the weekends, indicating either too much sugar or too much food period. I feel like if I continue on this way I could gain weight back or at least definately not lose any. I feel like a total failure this month, but I think that I just feel that way because I had alot of trouble at the end. I need to recommit to having August be a great month for No S. I'll try to eat a little less on weekends and have NO RED DAYS! I'm going to a wedding at the end of the month and I need to be able to fit into my dress! Of course that's not the only reason to firm up my habits, but it might help to think of it.

Morningmulti: Good job this month!

15minbeachbod: A little spotty this month but not disasterous. I got better as the month went on. I'm glad I'm still trying to work on this!

August goals: Increase strictness on No S!

Weigh-in: I'm of two minds about it. Usually I'd weigh in Wednesday or Thurs of this week. On the one hand I think that having proof I gained a few pounds could "shame" me back into being stricter on No S. On the other hand it could depress me enough to throw me off the wagon. I'll have to think on it some more.


Have a great August everyone!

[ShannahR]

8/2/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS

Everything is going alright. I can't believe it's August already--what happened to the summer? Anyways, I snapped back to healthier eating yesterday with no problem. Despite the fact I'm starting my 8th month on No S that never ceases to amaze me. I usually lose the "drive" for sweets by Sunday afternoon and by Monday I'm over it.

I usually don't talk about food because it's boring but I feel like it today. Here comes an extensive discussion. I'm giving you warning here in case you want to skip this section:

I'm thinking of switching my breakfast up. I've been having cereal and fruit, but I read on one of my favorite blogs how she enjoys plain yogurt, muslei (sp?) and fruit even though she's lactose intolerant. I would like to get some probiotics in there to help with things. Maybe I'll try it next week. I'm not sure how I'll react to plain yogurt--I've never had it before. My fiance always has this breakfast so switching will be no problem--even though he might look at me a little funny.

I tried Trader Joes wild salmon patties yesterday for lunch. They weren't bad and I definately don't eat enough fish. I'll finish the pack for sure but I'm not sure if I like them better than Trader Joes Sardines--but the patties are cheaper.

For dinner this week we made a vegetable stew from a recipe from Crete and Italian bread. We've been experimenting with different kinds of bread because we're in charge of it for Christmas dinner with my fiance's extended family. Yes, I know it's August but believe me, it's better if you practice a bread first before you present it to anyone else. We tried French last week and it was pretty awesome. We tried Italian this week and it's quite good too. Even though the only difference was 1 Tbsp of oil and 1 Tbsp of sugar somehow it tasted totally different. Well, that's not fair I guess we did some pretty fancy pre dough fermentation with the Italian that probably contritubed to the flavor difference as well. Homemade bread is awesome! It's pretty easy too. We have a very fancy bread book and a kitchen aid but I'm sure you could do it with less. We don't really ever just do something a little bit, we like to go all the way .

I'm thinking of biting the bullet for the weigh in this week. I think it might be good for me. I realized the other day that my weird "diet mentality" goes both ways. On the one hand I think that the second I start dieting I should see results on the scale. On the other hand, I also think that if I have one red day or eat "too much" on the weekend I'll gain 10 lbs. I realized the other day that was why I'm scare to get on the scale this week, and it is totally ridiculous. I'm still convinced that the main reason I gained weigh these past few years was out of control after dinner snacking. I've totally gotten rid of that habit--it doesn't even cross my mind any more. I doubt that I could eat so much on weekends that I'd gain back all the weigh I've lost without doing some serious damage to my internal organs. If I've gained a few pounds I wouldn't be surprised but I'm starting to think that it's important for me to link up behavior with results in a realistic picture. Not the one that I have currently which says that one bad day=10 lbs. Obviously, thinking like this leads you to telling yourself it's okay to keep eating unhealthfully once you've started because you've already gained 10 lbs after one screw up!

[ShannahR]

8/3/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS

Everything went well yesterday. I got out for my urban ranger early so it wouldn't be too hot. I've gotten in the habit of walking half my walk (approx 15 mins) and stopping at CVS. This sounds weird but I've been on the look out for deals and coupons for my other hobby--getting free stuff, also known as the drug store game. The drug store game is addictive to the highest degree. Basically you try to figure out how to get CVS to give you free stuff. I've gotten a lot of great stuff in the last month or so for free or almost free--it's a good time. Anyways, going to CVS definately ups my compliance with urban ranger.

No S is going well this week--but I think I need to switch up breakfast ASAP. I can tell because I'm not really enjoying it anymore and I keep thinking of other things I could get to eat. Sometimes I even get to a point where I'd rather be hungry than eat what I have packed. I'm going to try to avoid that.

Thank goodness it's Wednesday--hump day! I'm not sure why I'm excited about that though. This weekend we're going to visit my fiance's parents and grandparents. I like them and all, it 's just that I don't usually like what they eat and that causes problems. I'll just have to suck it up but because it's S days that's going to build some resentment. Hmmm...that could definately be trouble I might need to think of a work around for that.

[ShannahR]

8/4/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS

Well I bit the bullet and weighed in today. It looks like I'm up 1.5 lbs. I'm sad about this but it's not devastating. I think it's because of two main reasons: 1) this is probably well within the "error" range of my scale 2) no one notices if you gain/lose 1.5 lbs--it's just not enough to be visible. All my new clothes still fit and I don't really notice those lbs in the mirror. Not to say I want to gain anymore! I'm just saying that I can probably lose those in a few months if I get some discipline back!

I have decided to add an S day mod. I was against this for a very long time because I didn't want to be crazy on S days. I thought it would eventually lead me to a full fledged binge because I would feel restricted all the time. In light of these thoughts I've chosen to do the "negative tracking mod" that Rheinhard describes. For the rest of the month of August, on S days, I will write down all of my Ss BEFORE I eat them. I will not attempt to limit them in any way...just record. I'm hoping this will show me exactly how many Ss I'm eating and naturally limit them as I will look back over all the others everytime I write down an S. I am willing to try this for one month and see if it works. I expect it to be a pain in the ass but if I can get back on the losing train it will be worth it.

[ShannahR]

8/5/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: FAILURE
15minbeachbod: FAILURE

Yikes! I just realized yesterday wasn't great for habits. No S was okay but I didn't eat very healthfully. It was a stressful day and I mostly ate carbs...not awesome. Morningmulti was brushed to the side because of a morning meeting and it was just too hot to do urban rangering. I know it's important to be strict but I think I might cut myself some slack here. I'm doing WAY better than before I started my habits on the exercising and taking a multivitamin. Four times a week isn't bad, it just has room for improvement .

I've been having trouble with cravings all week. Wednesday and yesterday I was definately tempted to have a red day. Yesterday all that kept me together was getting into bed right after dinner. It weird but if I go to my bed room I'm that much further from any sweets. It's like that extra 10 ft keeps me away from any kitchen temptation . I guess I should just go with it for now until my emotions settle down a little.

I know I need to work on the emotional turmoil a little but I'm not sure how or when. I'm going out of town this weekend to my future in-laws and you can bet that's not going to help me regain my balance. As a consequence, I'll have no time to myself this weekend and that usually makes me more upset, not less. My boss will be back next week so the work stress will increase. It's almost impossible for me to carve any time out for myself during the week. I wake up early, go to work, work, come home, eat dinner, get ready for the next day, spend time with my fiance and go to sleep. I think part of the problem is that my fiance come home from work approximately 2 hours before I do. Therefore, he has already worked out, taken a shower, relaxed, and done some chores before I get there. That means the second I walk in he's ready to talk about his day and spend time together and I still haven't unwound from work yet. It's totally not fair--especially because some of it is just a commute difference--his is 15 min and mine is 1 hr--EACH WAY! He compensates by doing extra chores but I don't think he truly understands that I just need a few minutes when I walk in the door.

I had a stunning realization this morning. I was watching TV as I got dressed and there was a stupid commercial on about a mother getting her daughter ready to go to first grade. It was for Target or something so they were showing all the things they bought. The girl sits down, get out some sparkly pen and turns to the girl next to her and that girl has it too. I know it seems like a typical commercial but it got me thinking back to my childhood. I was thinking how that never happened to me at school because all the other kids had new stuff but mine was always cheap/free and used. I remember I always felt like everyone's stuff was better than mine--which I realized I had internalized into everyone else is better than me. It might seem obvious, but I realized that I'd been living for the past 25 years thinking everyone else was better than me because I grew up without much money. It finally clicked why I didn't feel any satisfaction about graduating or anything because I still consider everyone better than me. Until I change this way of thinking, probably nothing I achieve is going to make me feel good about myself in any meaningful, lasting way. This has always been my problem. Any thing I achieve makes me happy for a day or two and then the "shine" wears off and I'm unhappy again. It's even like that for my weight loss which might be why I'm having problems sticking to No S now. Well this gives me somewhere to start. I'm sure there are books about this, I can't be the first one to have this problem.

[sophiasapientia]

Hi Shannah,
I hope that you have a good visit and are able to carve out some time for yourself during your trip. I'm an introvert -- meaning, I need to go within to refresh and get my energy -- and I've found that I absolutely need that time everyday to be healthy, happy and sane. Normally, when visiting the in-laws and the like, I excuse myself for an hour and go for a walk or do a workout. That kills two birds with one stone.

Good luck, too, with sorting through the emotional issues. Hard work but definitely worthwhile, I reckon. There have been a couple times when I've felt that I was in over my head -- working through some childhood "stuff" as a young adult and when I was going through a rough patch several years ago -- and opted to go to a counselor on a temporary, short term basis. I think sometimes having a neutral party, and especially a neutral party with good resources/insight, to listen can help tremendously. I know for myself, anyway, it gave me the support and tools I needed to proceed. I know that seeing a counselor isn't for everyone but it is definitely one viable option ... Journaling (or maybe even doing the audio diary that Reinhard recommends?) can help too.

Take care,

[ShannahR]

8/6/2010
No S: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS

8/7-8/2010
S days
Sat: Lunch: seconds:peach Sweet/Snack: 2 doughnuts Dinner: seconds: ear of corn
Sunday: Breakfast: seconds english muffin Lunch: seconds: chicken thigh and grilled vegetables dessert: 1/2 piece cheesecake snack: dried mango
**Note: Negative tracking helped me eat a little less Sunday night because I remembered I wanted to eat my cheese cake and that I would enjoy it less if I ate sweets before dinner. Also I ate way fewer sweets than the last few weekends and I feel much better this morning. It is definately worth trying to cut back on sweets if I can get rid of the Monday morning "sweets hangover."

Weekend went pretty well. I was fine at my fiance's parents and grandparents house. Due to the short time frame it went rather pleasantly. Lots of grilling. We got back on Sunday and shopped and cooked.

WARNING: I'm working on figuring out new foods, skip this paragraph if you find that boring.
I decided to be nice to myself and bought and cooked an excellent breakfast and lunch to eat all week. I'm trying my new nonfat plain yogurt/granola/fruit (banana and peach) breakfast. It's not bad, plain yogurt has a zing to it that I like. I overestimated how much I could eat and had to throw a little bit out but I'll know for tomorrow. I actually feel more full than I do after my usual breakfast so we'll see how it goes. For lunch this week I made my approximation of bi bim bap. I grilled slices of beef in Korean marinade (thank you Trader Joes) and cut up thin slices of cucumber, zuchinni, carrots and bought pea sprouts (to stand in for mung bean sprouts) and hearts of romaine. Add that to my favorite brown jasmine rice and it should be ultra delicious. We'll see, the only thing I forgot was the toasted sesame oil. I'll try it without today but I might need to add it in the future--I love that flavor!

I got my hair done last week and yesterday I did it myself for the first time. We'll see how it goes. Of course they can make it look like anything they want at the salon, the real test of a haircut is can you do it yourself at home.

I've got to get on the urban ranger thing ASAP today. It's really hot and humid already and if I don't get out there soon it won't be pretty!

[kccc]

Shannon, just wanted to say how much I enjoy your thread - you're very articulate and thoughtful, and have a strong problem-solving mentality that clearly serves you well.

(And I do "5 of 7" for my exercise too - works very well for me. Though my "baseline" is "15 minutes of ANYTHING," so it's extremely flexible. Hard to justify not getting in that much!)

Your bi bim bap sounds great. We don't have a Trader Joe's here, but I have heard rumors one is coming - looking forward to that!

Cheers,

KCCC

[ShannahR]

8/9/2010
No S: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: SUCCESS
Morningmulti: SUCCESS

Yesterday was successful all around. I did have some chocolate cravings but I ignored them.

WARNING: In depth discussion of food to follow:
My new breakfast routine is going well. I reduced the amount of yogurt this morning and that helped--I think I'm actually starting to like it. I'm always a bit wary of eating dairy products because I'm lactose intolerant and you get some negative associations going on if you know what I mean. However, I'm eating approximately 1/2 cup, which is only half a serving. I thought that might be a problem calorie wise-it's only 60 calories which isn't very much-but it's greek style so it's almost pure protein so that's good. I think I'm going to look into making my own muslei. This week Trader Joes was out of muslei so we bought granola. I don't like granola because it's "sugared" and fried. Trader Joes only has one kind of muslei--that's a good reason to make our own right there.
Lunch was super tasty too. Its amazing the difference it makes in my day when I have a lunch that I look forward too. I noticed I was being unfair to myself a few weeks ago. I ALWAYS make sure my fiance has a good lunch to eat, but I never do that for myself. If something goes wrong with dinner I always sacrifice my lunch and we eat it for dinner. Last week I realized that was totally unfair and not very nice to me. When I told my fiance I was making bi bim bap he was like "great, we'll have it for dinner" before I thought about all this I would have agreed. This time however I was like "no, I'm having this for lunch, we need to think of something else for dinner" he was fine with it because he doesn't really like it anyways. When I was cooking it on Sunday he even came into the kitchen and tried to help! I totally didn't expect that because he wasn't going to be eating any of it! Obviously, he was just trying to show me how much he cares. I made up for it by asking him to set up something that I bought (a new automatic hand soap dispenser). I know it's not good to make someone else feel useless and he just "hovers" if he isn't allowed to help.

Urban ranger yesterday was good as always but a little sweaty. Today it's definately not going to happen outside at least. We've got an excessive heat warning and it was hot and nasty an hour ago. Part of me wants September to hurry up and get there. The other part of me doesn't because I love summer!

I haven't made much headway on personal stuff lately. I'm putting it off as usual. I'm not very motivated. It seems like everything you do just heaps more on you. I guess that's a very short term way to look at it. Taking care of yourself now will ultimately lead to better health later. It's just scary and I don't like it.


KCCC-Thanks so much for dropping by! It really means a lot to me that you read my thread! I think of you as one of the "pillars of the No S community." You advice has definately helped me get through some of my troubles during my No S journey.
I hope Trader Joes comes to your area. I love it there and we practically don't shop anywhere else. It does have a limited selection but pretty much everything is good. If you're flexible about what you eat and want your food to be healthy (well not everything in there is healthy ) , delicious and free of artificial stuff it's a awesome

[kccc]

KCCC-Thanks so much for dropping by! It really means a lot to me that you read my thread! I think of you as one of the "pillars of the No S community." You advice has definately helped me get through some of my troubles during my No S journey.
I hope Trader Joes comes to your area. I love it there and we practically don't shop anywhere else. It does have a limited selection but pretty much everything is good. If you're flexible about what you eat and want your food to be healthy (well not everything in there is healthy ) , delicious and free of artificial stuff it's a awesome

I'm complimented. Thank you. I sometimes have time to read other people's threads, and sometimes not... when I can, I enjoy thoughtful ones like yours. And I learn from you as well. (The reason I'm here so much is that it keeps ME focused, and I learn so much from other people...) For example, I tend to "short myself" on lunch too - we pack leftovers, but if there isn't enough, I usually give them to my husband and scrounge for myself. Hm....

We have EarthFare, which I love, but I've been to Trader Joe's in other cities so am really hoping that we get one too. Would be a great addition!

[ShannahR]

8/10/2010
No S: SUCCESS
15minbeachbod: FAILURE
Morningmulti: SUCCESS

I had a failure yesterday for my urban rangering. It was too hot outside and I intended to do it indoors but I got too busy. Oh well, I can't change the past but I can do something about the future. Instead of feeling down on myself I'm going to make sure I get the inside ranger going on today.
I woke up hungry today and my pants feel loose! Yipee! I don't know quite how to describe it but my body feels different -better-when I'm eating healthy and doing some moderate exercise. It's like it's my body's way of rewarding me for taking care of it. I like it alot .
Thank goodness for Wednesday-hump day. I'm going to try not to stress out today-only 2 days until weekend!