I think I stole the paraphrased quote at the bottom from an entry somewhere on No S. I apologize to the writer and will gladly provide an attribution if you give me one.
I have been sick for the past 5 days, so I wasn't able to get my law school work done and have been reading various diet books and websites instead. I don't really want to lose weight, although I wouldn't mind dropping a couple of pounds or at least a couple of pounds of fat, but a medication I need to take on an ongoing basis has caused me a lot of problems with hunger and craving sweets. Before this one, I was on another that seems to have controlled my appetite -- so much so that food and how much to eat, long a source of anxiety for me, became a non-issue. I was actually effortlessly too thin, and my weight did not budge for 11 years. For that reason, I was willing to tolerate obnoxious side effects, until they got so bad and I got so desperately sick that I realized I was going to have to go off the drug. This new one is associated with huge weight gains in some people - I mean over 50 pounds - especially at the low end of the dosage range where I am. But it has really helped me to be able to exercise, and while I was taking it regularly I was free of relapses for 7 months and working out over an hour a day. But tired of being starving at night - and I mean painful hunger pangs from trying to limit myself to 1600 calories a day despite all that intense exercise - I weaned myself off the drug, only to find that within a month I had begun to relapse, and I have not yet come out of the cycle and recovered. So I went back on it and need to find a way to deal effectively with the cravings.
I am a believer in intuitive eating in theory, and it worked well for me in general before I had to start taking medication, but it doesn't work nearly as well since then by itself. I read 2 books in the last few days that weren't really "diet books" - Michael Pollan's Food Rules - a slim book but a cute summary of The Omnivore's Dilemma, which I read a few years ago, that expands on his basic rules "Eat food, mostly plants, not too much." I also read Brian Wansink's Mindless Eating, a wonderful and also very quick read about his years of doing research into what drives us to eat the quantity of food we do, and how much of it is visual, and how easily we are deceived. From these 2 books and back and forth (I started with Wansink, then found No S, then found Pollan's book through the link in Reinhard's blog--and by the way, I think it stinks that he didn't credit Reinhard when he mentioned No S, but I imagine he didn't realize it was stolen from him) I wound up here.
I thought at first that the 3 meals would be too hard - after all, in the last 8 months since I've been struggling with this, I keep reading about the need to snack. Then I remembered that before the medication change - I only ate 2 meals a day. So this is a bump up. In the past, I recall being weak late in the afternoon without a snack, and then crashing and having to lie down for an hour after eating dinner (I told you I was really sick --it was no joke and I was bedridden for a year at the end) or waking up at night with hunger pangs without a bedtime snack. But I think I just wasn't eating enough at the meals, and breakfast makes a big difference. Also, because I've been too sick to do my usual exercise, and too sick to exercise at all for the last few days, that might make a difference. So I'll see - I've already given myself permission to get a banana and some cottage cheese if I wake up too hungry to sleep. But so far, the three meals have been just fine and I have not been too hungry - maybe a bit in the afternoons, but that could also be the relapse. Haven't had the after-dinner crash, so I think it's not related to skipping the snack. I intend to eat whatever I want and how much of it I want at the 3 meals- so I get to use my intuitive eating - but following the rule that it must fit on one plate and be fully plated out before I dig in (allowing myself a little virtual plating for what is not yet available to put on the plate)
I confess that I am also using Sensa, a "sprinkle-on" product that helps one to feel full sooner - and it does help me, and eating these little bran crackers called GG bran crispbread that do help me stay fuller -- and they are great healthy little things that are not expensive and the easiest way I have found to get enough fiber. But I am embarrassed to add that these 2 have not been enough. Last Monday was a holiday and I enjoyed myself thoroughly at the dinner and ate my favorite foods that we only get for one week a year and my favorite holiday desserts and put on half a pound and was fine about it. But that somehow led to 2 days when I managed to eat way too much in a couple of hours each afternoon--the very reason Reinhard says not to snack. So I am hoping that by following the No S "diet" --especially the visual plating of everything before eating --that will help, and I will be able to stop using the Sensa, which is ridiculously expensive. I figure I'll follow No S for 30 days straight - easy in my case since I started April 1, and then see if I can do it without the Sensa once the habit is established.
So far, I have followed the "vanilla" No S diet except that there were 2 S days since I started on Thursday, counting today, and I have happily planned out tonight's dessert. Only modification I am making is to plate out my dessert in advance on the S day, at least for now.
One of the many things I love about No S is the emphasis on habit rather than the scale. For one thing, as Reinhard says - the scale is erratic, even though I have one of those fancy ones now that tracks body fat and muscle, but more importantly, the number is not under my direct control the way the habits are. Another is that I felt uncomfortable and was totally ignored when I posted to the Sensa site because there is so much emphasis there on how much weight people have to lose and how overweight they are, and I am not overweight, even though as a "restrictive eater", I am in need of support around these issues. But the big thing is that it is all about forming the new habit, which has been very difficult and elusive for me with every other plan I've tried. And I counted them - I think this is number 13 or 14 in the last 8 months, maybe a record - above average based on the number Reinhard cites in his blog of 12.
In a way, although I appear to be a classic "restrictive eater" - my response is a rational and healthy one. Because I do believe that if I let myself go, the effect of the drug would be for me to gain 50 pounds or more. I have put on 7 pounds, some of which I needed, and I am fine to let my weight settle where it does with reasonable eating and a reasonable amount of daily exercise 5 days a week. I am hoping the simple No S rules turn out to be the answer to my prayers and allow me to finally relax and enjoy food again. I am going to follow it and will report in. And I will buy the large size mug as a gift to myself when I have followed it for 30 days.
I wish Reinhard would market a line of products with the message "Practice extreme moderation." I think that's a message we all need to get out into the world, and I would do my bit to promote it.
Thanks for everything, Reinhard.
You cannot judge another until you've walked a mile in her shoes. Then you're a mile away and you have her shoes.
! 
). So even though I never felt overfull - in fact even though I thought I underate slightly at lunch and dinner, I have still gone up a pound in the last 2 days. But then this seems to happen sometimes. The main thing is that I have not changed my No S habits. I guess when you are a slightly built person who is sick and inactive and on a drug that makes you hungrier, you can be fooled into thinking you are undereating pretty easily.
- and that's very bad for me.
