Everyday Systems

Hey Imogen,

Boy do I feel your pain. That might be one of my worst issues too. Ironically, that's where counting calories seemed to save me (not suggesting in any way to switch to that). But just for comparison, last year when I found myself alone A LOT with an infant who didn't interact yet, DH working late everydayand being 'out of sorts' with nothing I could really do, I found a hobby in calorie counting (couldn't do courses, read, watch a movie etc for obvious reasons!) but I could take teeny little breaks off and on throughout the day/night and I had the time to count calories so why not, I thought. I came across this website where a woman talked about maintaining her ideal weight which resonated with me at the time, she said: "When I had a full-time job, eating five meals a day made me stop thinking about work and start thinking about food five times a day instead of three. That made it harder for me to lose weight. Besides, I was so busy preparing and cleaning up after all those little meals that I hardly had time to count the calories in them. But then I lost my job. While I was unemployed and sitting around, I thought about food most of the time anyway. So why not eat five meals a day? All those meals made my periods of hunger shorter, and that made it easier for me to lose weight.
You might want to try different eating schedules and see what works best for you at this particular time in your life." At the time all I had to look forward to was eating so it filled the gap, and quite nicely I might add. I agree it may be pathetic, but it worked for me, AND I even got to goal. Having said all that, if you're planned nighttime activities aren't working, I hesitantly say maybe try a different schedule...like a snack after work, dinner a couple hours later, and a drink or tiny dessert/snack before bed? I know that probably sounds crazy to NoSer's and could backfire into a BAD HABIT but I humbly say it worked for me and made me happy during lonely times. I wish you luck!!!

Thanks a lot for your ideas, Sinnie! You've always been so wonderfully supportive and patient with me *hugs*

Tuesday - N-day

B: beans in tomato sauce, 2 slices sourdough, big handful of red grapes
L: wholewheat cheddar sandwich, small cup of cocoa with whole milk and sugar, 2 dried figs
small cup of whole milk
D: pierogi (at a bar)

I'm trying to keep busy without letting myself get overwhelmed with errands. Planning yummy N-day meals I can look forward to helps a lot. And no skimping! If I want to fill my plate with dense food right to the rim, I do it.

Wednesday - N-day (controlled failure)

B: 4 mini frankurters, mustard, 2 slices wholewheat bread, handful of grapes, handful of cherry tomatoes
L: grilled cheddar sandwich on wholewheat bread, cup of hot tomato juice
D: chicken soup with pasta, 1/2 pork cutlet, potato, 2 tablespoons beetroot salad
S: handful of almonds, small bowl of vanilla oatmeal with strawberries, more strawberries with sugar and sour cream

Very sad day today... I'll be attending the funeral of my SIL's father.
EDIT: I didn't space my meals right, so I was very hungry by 6 pm. I ate a normal-sized supper on top of my three square meals, but without binging nor sneaking food.

Thursday - N-day

B: egg salad on two wholewheat slices, 1/2 cucumber, handful of strawberries
L: cheddar/lettuce sandwich on wholewheat bread, banana, cup of cocoa with whole milk and sugar
D: wholewheat pasta with creamed spinach and turkey

Friday - S-day (national holiday here)

weekly weigh-in: 52.9 kg/116.5 lbs -> downward from last week, yay!

B: tablespoon pb, French toast made from 3,5 slice of bread, cherry tomatoes, red grapes, 1/2 square dark chocolate, chocolate pudding with 2 tablespoons of pb
snacks: slice of pizza carbonara, 1/2 bagel with creamed spinach and turkey, 1 crepe with jam, some milk, 3 crepes with curd cheese, 2 crepes with mozzarella and tomato

Feeling like crap. I didn't overdo on sweets, but constant snacking is just as bad. I've never eaten so many crepes in one day! And I didn't even enjoy them... Hunger is essential for real satisfaction.

Imogen Morley wrote:Friday - S-day (national holiday here)...
Hunger is essential for real satisfaction.

Hi Imogen,
Happy Workers' Day!
This lesson about hunger is one I have to learn again and again. But I will say that "Sometimes" I actually catch myself and refrain from overeating, even on an S day, so slowly but surely this lesson will become internalized... I have every hope!

I hear you about hunger being essential for satisfaction! Sorry about the loss of your SIL's father.

Saturday - S-day

B: cup of green pea soup, grilled cheese sandwich, red grapes
L: wholewheat pasta with tuna/tomato/cream sauce
D: rice pudding with sour cream and cinnamon
about 3 tablespoons of pb eaten straight from the jar
1 (!!!) homemade oatmeal biscuit

I'm going to bake chocolate peanut butter cake and oatmeal biscuits tonight. Remembering my lesson from yesterday I'll try to refrain from mindlessly stuffing myself, just sample these (hopefully) delicious treats slowly and mindfully. We'll see how that goes!
EDIT: Not too shabby compared to my usual S-days. I'm not happy about my peanut butter snack (come on, eating by the spoonful right from the jar?), but I needed it for my cake, and decided to eat the leftovers, so that they wouldn't tempt me during the week. Peanut butter is my S of choice. Otherwise I'm okay. I ate my biscuit slowly and mindfully, and it worked!

Sunday - S-day

B: 2 slices whole wheat bread with tuna/egg salad, 1/2 cucumber, pear
D: tba
S: cup of green pea soup, grilled cheese sandwich, handful of almonds, cake

Monday - N-day

I've been busy with some project, and totally forgot to post! Sunday was okay. I did eat more than usual (snacks/sweets), but no binging. It was great to enjoy some excess without the pesky out-of-control eating.

Tuesday - N-day

Imogen Morley wrote:It was great to enjoy some excess without the pesky out-of-control eating.

Yay, Imogen, that sounds really good!

Tuesday edit: fail. I had a small snack after dinner.
Wednesday has been red as well - I gave in and bought an ice cream cone in a new parlour on my way home. I really wanted to have a sample, I'm such a sucker for new flavours... Thankfully, I had normal dinner, and didn't let the WTH effect ruin the day.
I'm planning to fail tomorrow. Long story, but it will be worth it.

Thursday and Friday were full of full-blown, WTH failures. I let my diethead take the reins, and started skimping on food, eating less than usual. The funny thing is, the more I eat, the more balanced my plates are, the less plagued I am with cravings. If I eat too much protein and too little complex carbs, I want sugar. Cutting down on bread, pasta, barley and the like is the simplest way to reduce caloric intake but my body doesn't handle it well. So I'll either be 4 pounds heavier than I would like to be, or trapped in diet-binge cycle forever.
I think I'm slowly, very slowly, starting to accept the fact that I won't weigh 110 lbs ever again. It's just too much work, and I don't really NEED to get down to that arbitrary number. NoS truly is the only way to call a truce with food and weight. I can watch my calories for some time, but soon develop intense, soul-crushing cravings. My body is just not designed to function optimally below 114-112 treshold. I need a little protein, a lot of complex carbs - which I love - fruit, vegetables, and some fat, not too much, all served on three plates every day.

Hi Imogene, I'm not sure how old you are but I'm old enough to remember the 70's before the population started to gain so much weight. I remember the adults were not fat but they didn't look like treenagers/young adults either. I think as we age our bodies change and, no, we are never going look like we use to look. but that's ok because we get smarter as we get older.

I really like that you are moving towards focusing on what your body needs and away from an arbitrary "ideal" number. I think that is the way to find the peace you are looking for in regards to food.

Good luck and enjoy the weekend!

As Reinhard has said, don't aim for an ideal weight; aim for ideal habits. Keep it up!

Saturday and Sunday went well. I did eat more than usual, but all was really worth it. My meals were a bit smaller than usual because I wasn't that hungry. I tried a new flavour of ice cream, and enjoyed vanilla cheesecake (which was truly wonderful, I had three slices over the course of the whole day!) and green Turkish cake made with spinach.
I'll be working on eating enough during the week, and keeping my fingers crossed for five green squares in my HabitCal.

Imogen Morley wrote:I'll be working on eating enough during the week, and keeping my fingers crossed for five green squares in my HabitCal.

Hi, Imogen,
I've got my fingers crossed right along with ya'. Let's have a great green week!

Lol, "the hard part is actually using the list". I completely get how you feel!
If you're in a Spanish speaking country: dance lessons Just a self-centred thought as I like Flamenco and salsa.

You always figure it out. As long as I have known you here you always figured out what works for you with some experimentation. I bet it will be the same now.

Thanks for the encouragement, ladies. I'm not doing well at the moment... habit (bad habit!) can be a terrible thing. I'll post more tomorrow, but it's sufficient to say that I have moved so far away from basic NoS rules that getting back on track seems impossible.

You've done it before and more than once. I know you can do it

Hi Imogene, is there a way we can help you to get refocused?

Good luck today. I'll be thinking of you.

Awww, thanks, girls!
Getting back on track is incredibly difficult this time. Like, super hard. I can do it for two, three days, a week tops, but in the end, I binge, and in consequence go to square one. It seems like a sort of a twisted habit. I need to work on my motivation. How could I be so motivated before, and now I give in every time somebody puts a treat in front of me? Where has my willpower vanished? How can I strengthen it? Why hunger was tolerable, even pleasant at times, and now seems unbearable?

Just some food for thought: take or leave as much as you want

Any new stessors in your life? Sleep issues? Work, school or family? Do you tend toward a perfectionist viewpoint and judge yourself harshly? Anything like that can really throw me off my game. Often I see the greatest improvement in my diet when I'm able to solve a seemingly non-diet related issue. I swear by exercise, stress management techniques (meditation, music, dance, creative writing etc.) and a regular bedtime/waketime.

Good luck today

Hey girl, I am going through the same thing. But I can't even make it a day. Sigh. I wanted to try today again, but got unbearably shaky before I could even make it home for lunch. Like, scary shaky that I feel it's unsafe to drive or take care of baby properly type of feeling. It's terrible and mostly very annoying - and I even had red meat as part of breakfast (cevapcici). Anyways, hope it works out for us. I'm not really sure where to go from here.

gingerpie, it's true that I've been thrown off my balance lately: too much work under time pressure, not enough time to unwind, some minor life changes (moving into my own flat, my husband-to-be moving in next week, tackling wedding stuff). So much is happening at once! But the more chaotic my life gets, the more normalcy/routine I crave. Eating basic three meals every day seems like a perfect foundation.
Sinnie, I feel your pain. The longer we've been doing it, the harder it gets. In my opinion, though, it all boils down to commitment: I change my mind way too often, mostly when there's a biscuit in front of me NoS is supposed to quiet your inner chatter and guide you through your day without tiresome decision-making but somehow it stopped working that way for me. It stopped being a rule, and became just a guideline. Perhaps because I know that in my case calorie counting worked better than NoS in terms of losing weight? It did nothing, though, to normalize my eating habits. My heart agrees with Reinhard - there's no ideal weight - but my mind keeps coming up with excuses, bargains, and "but in the past...".

Thursday was okay. I did overfill my plates, though.

Imogen Morley wrote:Thursday was okay. I did overfill my plates, though.

Hi Imogen- I think that's great! Nothing in the world wrong with a full plate when one is having a struggle staying green. Go you!

Friday went well, with moderate plates. I've just baked strawberry pie for tomorrow (big family dinner coming my way). It smells wonderful but fitting into my dresses is just as great

It looks like you're doing well. Yes, at this point, I think just sticking with 3 plates is good, even if they are a little full. Congratulations on the engagement!

Thanks, clarinetgal! The funny thing is, we've been enagaged for 6 years. Time to do something about it at last
Current weigh-in: 119 lbs/54 kg. Feeling a little more optimistic, though. The paper clip method is a nice visual nudge into the right direction, a reminder to stick to my goals.

Saturday, as far as S-day go, was pretty tame. I ate more than usual - extra crepe at dinner, multiple desserts after meals, bowl of soup eaten purely for its comforting qualities, not out of hunger - but I refrained from snacking and didn't let binging mentality resurface. So yeah, I overate, though still maintained some control. Yay me!

Yay for you for sure Overeating happens but you didn't let it throw you. A success in my book.

My Sunday plans got cancelled = boredom eating! Not in industrial quantities, though. Another pretty good S-day. Now I'm going to focus on building the longest paper clip chain possible!

I have a busy week ahead of me. Fewer opportunities for potential boredom eating but rushing through my day makes me stressed and cranky = sugar cravings. We'll see how that goes.

The rest of your week went pretty well! How good is that?

Hey Imogen! Good job this week. I totally hear you on the rushing through the day making you want sugar. OMG me too. Let's be here for one another, we are like twins seriously.

Yeah! I can feel my willpower muscle getting stronger!
Monday was fine. Some milky drinks between meals were necessary to tide me over, though. I noticed my jeans getting a tiny bit looser this morning.

Tuesday has been green. I planned a really special breakfast for tomorrow: a nice big chunk of smoked salmon on challah bread. Don't judge me. I'm a sucker for salty/sweet combos.

Wednesday - controlled fail. I had soup and second course at dinner, plus one big square of dark chocolate as dessert. 3 Belgian pralines in the evening, too. Fails happen. I didn't go crazy afterwards, so I'm happy anyway. Feeling healthy and strong!

Thursday - success. I'm loving it!

You're doing great!

Hm... I stepped on the scale this morning, and it showed exactly the same number as last Saturday. That's a mild bummer for me, although I keep reminding myself that I've also upped my complex carb intake, it's more or less that time of the month, I've had a few excessively salty meals, and so on. Of course, due to my hectic pace of life I've also stopped exercising. I'll weigh myself tomorrow morning, and then decide what to do next: weigh myself daily to track the general trend or once a month. What's your opinion?

Imogen Morley wrote:What's your opinion?

Hi Imogen,
It's good to see your habits are getting back on track. So much more important than the # on the scales- don't let that (lack of change) discourage you!
I weight once a week in the evening, either Fri or Sat. I track it on a rolling averages tracker (the Hacker's diet one). That way, it's "just a number", it's not my "real weight" because I've eaten that day, it might be an S day, it's in kg and I'm used to freaking out because of a # in pounds, etc. etc. It just gives me a nice guide as to whether the # is generally trending down and if so, how quickly. I really like the mental freedom of it. I think weekly is a nice compromise between daily and monthly. (I also take a waiste measurement whenever I feel like it, to track progress that way.)

Reporting Friday as a full-blown fail. I had some halva at home, and really divine shortbread biscuits for my guests... and I ate 6 ounces of halva, plus two or three biscuits. And in result, my dinner plate was REALLY loaded.
I'll try to refrain from putting conscious restrictions on myself this weekend. Overeating happens. I'll take a darn good walk this afternoon, and eat sweets only after meals. Whatever happens, happens.

_______

Food hangover today after two definitely excessive S-days.

It's a new week

I had a big eating weekend, too. Just get back on track for the rest of this week.

What can I say? Back to square one after 4 weeks of dieting/binging cycle *hangs her head in shame*
today, with an overloaded dinner plate (pierogi, mmm!). The last sentence from ironchef's post in my sleep deprivation thread on the general forum shook me a little. I've been using the same excuses over and over again for the past 2+ years; in consequence, slowly regaining weight. Even though I know why I'm so hungry it does not mean I have to eat more than my three plates. I'm not powerless when faced with my own biology, I've proven it so many times before. I'm just out of practice. Every action is a choice. Let's start making better ones to see the positive change.
(Instead of beating myself up, I've decided to talk to myself as if I was a wise, understanding friend. Feeling funny, but hope it works better than berating myself or feeling guilty all the time).

Well, who cares? You're back!

I'm a newbie - and have been reading and re-reading all the info - I've just read the bit about 'get a few failures under your belt' - in other words - keep trying, and each time you learn something about yourself - sounds like that's what you're doing.
Pleased to meet you!

Welcome back and hope I was not too harsh - always hard to convey tone on a forum.
I'm a big fan of oolala's advice: be strict before a fail; be compassionate after. Habits actually build faster that way, so not only is it much nicer than being hard on yourself, it is more effective too.

I think it's very good that you're treating yourself as a wise friend, as opposed to berating yourself. It's just a matter of getting back on the horse, so to speak, and starting again.

Sounds like a brilliant plan!

with one S-event at dinner (Father's Day here where I live, so I had cake and seconds). Getting used to feeling slightly hungry between lunch and dinner again.

and uneventful day.

Wb & good luck! As you can see you have lots of support on here. We're all rooting for you. I love that advice too iron!!

with one S-event (a little housewarming party - small handful of sweet cherries and a muffin).

Gotta warn you: it's possible to keep failing even when not berating oneself. I speak from recent experience. I, too, know I just have to last through the urge to the next meal. It's only a few hours. SEEMS longer, but that's an illusion. Onwards!

The one thing I absolutely love in NoS is the freedom from counting, measuring, weighing, and thinking about/fearing food.

day with one plate piled high. EDIT: the day turned out in the end. I had snacks and half a chocolate bar late in the evening, though it wasn't as terrible as my usual failures.

Hear, hear.

Saturday - S-day Oooh man, that was one wild ride! Totally unsatisfying though: permasnacking ruined my meals, and I went to bed feeling like a beached whale.

Hope you're having a better Sunday. "Sometimes" is one of the harder lessons for some of us.

Sunday was only a little bit better. Oh well.
I keep reminding myself that I'm "falsely extrapolating", in the words of our dear leader, expecting that my S-days will ALWAYS be that wild. They may eventually calm down, but it requires a lot of patience... which is not my signature strength. Trying not to panic, though. At worst, I'll be maintaining at 119 lbs/54 kg. That's not too shabby either.

Since I haven't weighed 119 since I was 13 years old, it sounds pretty darn good.

I guess 119 lbs is perfectly fine even for such tiny person as I am... but it's still more than I used to weigh a couple of years ago. Yeah, yeah, I know - first world problems.
yesterday - I had an ice cream bar, a small handful of peanuts, and two tablespoons of creme brulee ice cream. No binge eating though, so that's still something.

Habit theory says to celebrate improvements! Good going on small amounts. Next time, you will skip them.

Still here, still plodding on. I had a row of sick days. All my upset tummy wanted was ice cream, so I ate a lot of it, sometimes in place of meals. I'm glad it's over!
I had fairly moderate S-day yesterday, with more disorganized eating today. The current heatwave in Europe combined with upped sodium intake makes me feel like a balloon ready to burst. Ugh.
Not much change in weight department. I seem to be continually losing and gaining the same two pounds. Perhaps it's the time to have a long hard look at my plates at last...

Sorry you were sick. I hear you about the heat! We're having an unexpected heat wave in my area, too. I'm still plodding along, also, and I'm also trying to revamp my eating. Good luck to you!

Maybe those two pounds are your proper range.

After a brief fling with calorie counting, my weight reached 123 pounds/56 kilos this morning. What was I thinking???

B: scrambled eggs with mushrooms, 2x bread/butter, 2 small peaches
L: vegetable stir fry with soy "kebab", banana
small cup of cafe au lait with sugar
D (BIG, heaping plate): chips with mayo sauce, chicken gyros, yellow string beans in cream sauce
glass of mango Lipton Ice Tea (I needed to kill my hankering for something cold and sweet)

SUCCESS

Back after my looong and wonderful Croatian vacation. Miraculously, I've been maintaining at 54 kg/119 lbs the whole time. "Extra tolerance for screw-ups" was enough to keep me sane, but now I'd like to tighten up the reins a bit. One mod I'd like to introduce for several reasons is having Friday after work and whole Sunday as my S-days. Sundays are always about socializing and big family meals, so they have to stay. Saturdays, on the other hand... I usually spend them at home, often working = boredom eating, eating just because I can, physical inactivity, all make me feel just horrible when I wake up Sunday morning. I'd rather enjoy part of Fridays instead, have a treat with my afternoon tea or after movies. Friday afternoon has always felt more special to me than Saturday, when I'm usually stuck at home and stuffing my face all the time - the fridge is dangerously close to my workspace... We'll see how that goes.
I'm happy to be back here, expecting a lot of bumps along the road, but feeling optimistic at the same time. I love this community with all my heart and am still convinced that although NoS may not get your weight down to some arbitrary "goal number" (which I still lust after!), it's the most humane and sustainable compromise between hedonic eating and controlling your weight ever imagined. Good enough is good enough. Cheers and enjoy your S-days!

So good to "see" you here! Glad to see you're doing well.

Keep on using this forum in whatever way you feel is helped. I "fail" in tiny ways almost daily but I'm basically still doing NoS and I'm continuing to lose (slowly) so I don't worry about it.

Linda

Hi, Imogen- Glad you had a good vacation and found weight maintenance to be relatively pain free! Your Fri/Sun S days idea sounds interesting. Maybe that would give you the chance to make the 3 plates on Saturday really count by preparing something special for your meals, to make the day extra enjoyable, while still keeping it Green. (I would think it might be difficult to avoid focusing on food at all if you are at home, near the fridge, etc...)

Sonya, that's exactly what I plan to do. On Saturdays I often have more time to cook elaborate meals, and something savory yet special would be enough to make me feel satisfied with simple N-day routine. As I said, we rarely entertain or go out on Saturdays, and if we do in the future, I'll just make it NWS day/event.
Friday was fantastic. I had a piece of my friend's apple pie after dinner, and in the evening we went shopping, and stopped by that lovely artisanal bakery where I got custard slice and a piece of some other pastry. Later we shared some crisps. I realize it was quite a lot of sweet stuff, but I was okay with it - I ate what I really wanted, and yummy food was a very enjoyable part of my early weekend. Yay!

Sounds like a great day! Hope you saw my post welcoming u back if not--good to see you back!

Linda

Congrats on maintaining while in Croatia, though I suspect you've gotten to the point at which it actually feels better NOT to overeat much on vacation. There is so much more to "fill up" on!

It sounds very reasonable to modify your S days since Saturday sounds almost like a work day for you. The original intent I'd say was to allow for more freedom because of altered schedules and possibly more social events. This fits the bill more for you.

Onwards!

I had one major binge-fail (Thursday), and one minor fail. Also, my plates were loaded, my physical activity non-existent. Curious about my weigh-in tomorrow morning! Whatever happens, happens.
I don't have any treats planned for the weekend. Nothing sounds good, so I'll just go with the flow. The thing is, when I eat something I don't really crave, I end up feeling dissatisfied, disappointed, which leads to... more eating! You know, maybe this next thing will fill me up at last.

Excessive weekend. Ugh. Still learning after 5 years! The good news: current weigh-in 119 lbs, so I'm maintaining despite miserable fails at least once a week and overloaded weekends.

A pretty good deal.

oolalala, I'm learning to accept that NoS is good enough... and good enough is enough in itself.

Monday - near miss. My mom brought us cake she made with unique ingredients she had bought during out last trip to Croatia, so I consider it a fail-worthy treat. Otherwise my day was green. I'm not too happy about half a glass of pepsi I had in the afternoon. Normally I avoid that kind of stuff, simply because I do not like fizzy drinks, but I was super thirsty and pepsi was the only thing available at the time. It made me hungry, and my mouth felt icky afterwards. I'm thankful that despite my massive sweet tooth, sweet drinks never appeal to me.
Tuesday - near miss. Coworker brought German stollen cake as a souvenir. It wasn't that good, but I ate it (one thin slice) anyway.

Curious: what's the difference between a near-miss and a fail?

Isn't it funny how you would probably never think these days to bring something sweet somewhere on an N day? So many other people take it for granted.

I might be wrong but I just can't imagine a French office where there are all kinds of pastries sitting on the counter in some back room and people wandering back there to nibble.

oolala, I can honestly say that after 5+ years of NoS (on and off vanilla) one habit is very strong: there has to be some limit to snacks/sweets/seconds, either in the form of weekend boundaries or some specific S-events. The idea of having sweets whenever I want or even keeping them at home without any pre-determined purpose (like baking chocolate in the cupboard or biscuits bought on the afternoons we have people over) is so alien to me now! My compliance is far from perfect, but it's been enough to maintain or periodically increase my 10 kg/20 lbs weight loss during the last 5+ years. Not too shabby. Trying to be grateful for what I can - in a relatively painless fashion - have!
Re: "near misses". Hopefully I haven't mixed anything up linguistically, because English is my second language By near misses I mean occasions when I do indulge, though my treats are contained and don't lead to binges later on. For example, if I'm personally offered something really special which I can't just freeze or bring home to have on the weekend, I eat. I allow myself only one "near miss" per N-day, otherwise it would certainly be an EXTREMELY slippery slope. Failure I define as loss of control over my eating - binges, multiple "near misses", basically - eating on a whim. One transgression doesn't have to end up in a binge UNLESS I call it failure straigth away and mark it red in the Habitcal, which to my brain is just excuse to stuff my face.

Good distinction. Thanks!

Quite predictably, I fell off the wagon. Disappointed with very, very slow weight loss I started tampering with the basics, and on Saturday I found myself at 56 kg/123 lbs.

MONDAY
B: white bean/prune spread on graham bread, slices of cucumber in brine, orange
L: millet flakes with milk, dark chocolate and walnuts, banana
1/2 cup milk
D: two small slices meatloaf, braised beetroot salad, pearl barley

14 minutes

Please remind me how tall you are. Please also go easy on yourself over a few pounds. More important is the good feeling physically we get from moderation. The body is going to do what it does. Enjoy good meals and enjoy the benefits!

But I know the frustration of not being a rookie but seeming to make rookie mistakes. There are people here my height or taller who weigh 10-20 lbs. less than I do! But they are in the extreme minority, here AND in the culture. And who's comparing anyway?

I'm 5'2" (157 cm). Anything over 55 kg, and I start looking a bit heavy around the hips.
I totally agree on moderation being the goal rather than some arbitrary number on the scale. Sadly, I'm far from it right now - my food and exercise habits are all over the place!

TUESDAY (near miss)

B: white bean/prune spread on graham/seed roll, banana, cucumber in brine
L: graham/seed roll, camembert, arugula, some pesto, apple
D: pierogi with sour cream

14 min

banana, tomato juice - I take medication which gives me terrible muscle cramps; eating bananas and drinking tomato juice helps a lot

Where are you from again? Your meals sound so interesting!

Poland, plus I come from a family of foodies. We always experiment!

WEDNESDAY <- near miss

B: salmon spread, eggs, arugula on white bread, orange
coffee with milk and sugar
L: pb&jam on graham bread, milk
D: red lentil soup with smoked paprika and pasta

4 pieces of baklava, handful of saffron rice - some people from the Embassy of Azerbaijan brought us dolma, pilaf, and sweets. Since I have a huge soft spot for baklava in my heart, I decided it was a fail-worthy treat. So again, near miss - I stumbled, but did not fall!

14 min

Baklava is so worth a fail! I hope you were able to enjoy it!

A good baklava is absolutely worth a red!

Looks like you're doing great overall & your food looks delicious as usual. &#128512;

THURSDAY near miss

B: Swedish-style fish spread and eggs on graham bread, banana
coffee with milk, 2 pieces of baklava
L: bean and mushroom enchilada in tomato sauce, fresh vegetable salad
more baklava...
D: potato/parsley soup, 3 crepes with curd cheese filling (large plate)

I'm kinda torn about the "near misses" thing. On the one hand, it helps me avoid the "WTH effect" where a single transgression, no matter how small, inevitably leads to binging. On the other, it's a slippery slope, and builds tolerance for failures. And even tiny failures add up.

FRIDAY

B: fish spread on white bread, orange
L: more fish spread on graham bread, apple, cherry tomatoes
D: 2 small hot dogs with cabbage and ketchup

+ a darn good walk

SATURDAY S-day

B: 2 ham&cheese paninis, banana
2 pralines (eaten purely because of the fear of missing out...)
L: 4 crepes with curd cheese filling
D: tba

Nothing sweet sounds paticularly interesting today. I'm going to bake coconut cake tonight, and I'll definitely take a slice or two, but otherwise - I think I'll just allow myself larger plates of especially yummy meals.

Maybe you can think of the small slips as weaning yourself off WTH for now. When you feel more stable with small ones, you can aim to wean yourself off them, too. Intermittent reinforcement takes longer to overcome, but it's been shown to be effective in the long run. Comes from the concept of harm reduction in addiction treatment. Elimination works a lot better when the person comes to the conclusion on her own from experience that the habit really isn't serving her, and it's worth the effort to drop it.

Wow. Long time no see.
My weight has been pretty stable, despite Easter indulgences and terrible (or rather, lack of) food habits. And you know what? 6 months of freedom from any exercise/meal systems hasn't made me any happier. Quite the opposite, truth be told.
I crave structure and simplicity. I even miss being pleasantly hungry before meals. One would think that "free eating" is the best way to nourish oneself - honoring every craving, piling up pasta whenever I feel like it, and so on. If weight was my primary concern, then I should be now amazed and excited that months of eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted haven't made me gain more than a pound or so (and that's mostly water weight anyway). I'm disappointed and dissatisfied instead, can you believe that? I think about food much more often than I did when I was following NoS. I constantly snack. Sweets are not special anymore - I eat them every day, as snacks and desserts. Weekends are still great, sure, but something is missing. Who would have thought...

What, is April the time when all NoSers pop in for a hello and rejuvenation?

Welcome, Imogen! Ironchef and myself just popped back in recently, too. And who knows who else.

I know. I'm so happy--I missed you guys!!!