Everyday Systems

Well, after a long break, I'm back.

I'm back for several reasons:
Moral - I donate to Medecins sans frontiere and the irony of providing funds to help battle malnutrition in various developing countries while I battle obesity, isn't lost on me.

Health - I'm having real problems in my hips and carrying extra weight is not helping me.

Energy - I may adopt another child (have been on the waiting list for nearly 7 years and it may now happen next year....) If it happens, I want to be around for my girls for a looooong time.

Peace of Mind - I love the calmness that No S gives me. When I lose the plot with my diet, it's due to stress. Sticking to the habits gives me a wonderful sense of routine and sanity and generally my cravings for sweet foods diminishes...

Have been No S-ing this week. I'd like to start keeping track of my food again - keeps me honest. Exercise is a bit more difficult as it's restricted for me till my hips heal. (Bursitis following a fall.)

I am going to tweak No-S and add an afternoon piece of fruit occasionally around 4pm.

Wednesday:
Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs and Coffee.
Lunch: Leftover lamb soup, 2 slices of bread, strawberries and banana
Dinner: chicken casserole and rice, mango

Thursday:
Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs, banana, crackers and coffee.
Lunch: leftover chicken casserole and potato.
Dinner: crumbed fish, noodles and vegetables

Shugging and some very mild stretches.

Friday:
B: raisin toast + 2 coffees with milk.
L: caesar salad with smoked salmon
D: 2 small capeseed rolls with banana

Saturday:
B:boiled egg & toast - 2 coffees with soy milk.
L: 2 slices toasted corned beef and cheese
D: steamed fish, steamed potato and sweet potato, green salad, strawberries and blueberries. 2 glasses of white wine.

Sunday:
B: banana + 2 coffees with soy milk
L: shared Chinese meal in a restaurant
D: Leftover spaghetti bolognese (cooked for the kids last night) plus leftover potato and green salad. Mango and plain yoghurt.

Latish S-day snack - cup of ice-cream

Welcome back FF. Your meals look delicious. I love the peace of mind NO S gives me too.

You sound very motivated--like you're really going to stick with it!

Thanks, AnneK.
I hope I do stick with it this time. I derailed myself last time by trying to go gluten free at the same time...just too difficult. Plus the board was going through a bit of a strange time, so I wasn't really checking in as much. And I found the S days a problem - I was ending up bingeing on them. My head wasn't in the right space.

I need to experiment a little with NoS to work out how to make it fit my life better (for me, I think it works better if I treat every day as a NoS day but give myself the option of an S day treat occasionally). I need to get it into my head that NoS is the default every day, rather than S days being a "licence to kill".

I did do NoS successfully for nearly a year in 2007/2008 and lost about 20lbs. I also was much fitter with reasonable muscle tone from walking and shugging. Even with that partial weight loss, my hips, thighs and tummy trimmed right down...

Glad to be back now. NoS does work.

Time to record my starting weight (right back where I started - silly me...)

Height: 5' 4"
Weight: 183 lbs
Goal Weight: 126 - 133 lbs

Roughly 50+lbs to lose.....Time to get started, as I want to lose this weight over the next 12-18 months. No sidetracking this time - just good habits.

Monday:

Breakfast; 2 coffees - wasn't hungry

Lunch: green salad with a boiled egg, steamed chicken breast and home made vinaigrette dressing.

Dinner: Friends over for dinner, so I took a home made meat pie out of the freezer (I made it last week, as a cooking experiment, before starting NoS again. In the past, I've always used pre-prepared pastry. Now I know what goes in pastry! Who knew it contained THAT much fat... Now I know in future to experiment with other ways to do it...)
We ate the pie with mashed potato, green salad and fruit. Not exactly low cal, but nonetheless nutritious and strict NoS...

Great to see you back, FunFuture!

It's great to be back, KCCC. Nice to be in a calm, peaceful, sane place again.

I checked in to your thread - I'm so sorry to hear of your recent losses and difficulties. Am sending you virtual hugs. (((((((KCCC)))))))))

Fun
xx

Tuesday:
Breakfast: 3 rice crackers with chicken slices and avocado. 2 coffees.
Lunch: Restaurant - vegetable stack (roast veg with haloumi cheese and tomato sauce)
Dinner: leftovers - handful of almonds, mashed potato reheated with mixed vegetables and a small can of tuna.

Wednesday:
Breakfast: 1 rice cracker with chicken and avocado. Handful of almonds. Small banana. 2 coffees.
Lunch: 2 slices of buckwheat toast, avocado and a tin of salmon (lemon pepper flavour)

Late edit...
Dinner: Lamb chops, steamed sweet potato and potato and peas. I was still really hungry when I had finished eating, so I also had a handful of almonds. I figure they would have fitted on the plate and I didn't want to go to bed that hungry...(but my conscience is worried they were borderline seconds...)

I discovered steel-cut oats in our grocery store. It's the first time I have ever seen them here in Sydney (Aust), although I have often heard them discussed on the NoS boards.

I tried them this morning - soaked them overnight. Not only were they delicious, but I didn't get lunch till 3pm and found they carried me through that long work morning. Good stuff.

Thursday:
Breakfast: oats + soy milk. 1/4 large mango. Coffee x 2.
Lunch: sardines (tinned) + 2 slices wholemeal bread with avocado instead of butter, handful of almonds, small mango (it's mango season!)

Haven't had dinner yet, but have prepared a lamb casserole in the slow cooker which we will eat with rice and green salad tonight.

(A note on the almonds - I found the first time I tried NoS that I did this - used almonds to supplement a meal and fill me up so I wasn't hungry between meals. It worked for me because I found that after a week or two I stopped using the almonds and settled down to the smaller sized meals.)

Wow--you sure is eating healthy! You must feel great. Are you still gluten-free?

No, I couldn't maintain it over time, although I have cut back on gluten a lot. I try to substitute with buckwheat gluten free bread (but not all the time), and we eat rice or gluten free pasta at home. I use gluten free flour mostly in cooking.

I just dropped by your thread and left a comment there - yes, my basic diet isn't bad. I make a real effort to cook well for my daughter. It's just that it goes all to hell if I'm really stressed and I start mainlining chocolate and just graze all day (on top of my meals). Not a good look.

Friday: - Special S day
B: oats with low fat milk and coffees
L: leftover lamb stew plus almonds plus mango
D: Friends' weddings - entree of rocket and seafood salad, lamb rack and vegetables for main, passionfruit pudding for dessert (very small portion).

Saturday: - S day and another wedding! Friends staying over.
B: scrambled egg with tomato
L: plain bread roll, savouries (3 meatballs, one spinach and fetta triangle, one sandwich finger), 1 x champagne and orange juice.
D: stirfry noodles with chicken and vegetables. 2 glasses of red wine.

Tomorrow continues the celebrations - it's the anniversary of our adoption/family day. Another S day thankfully!

I haven't had a weekend like this one for a while - great fun, but I'm exhausted. I feel like crawling into a cave for a week.

B: boiled egg, skim milk latte
L: Spicy Chinese hotpot in a restaurant. I had a largish bowl of rice, some of the hotpot (though I had to take a call during lunch and missed most of it!), plus part of a bowl of dessert made with white fungi. Yum.
D and snacks afterwards: leftover chicken and vegie stirfry, glass of yoghurt, crackers, almonds, cashews and 3 chocolates. 1 x glass of wine.

Am uncomfortably full - don't know why I ate so much tonight except that I am really tired. Should have gone to bed.

Happy Family Day!! My children are adopted as well.

Looks like the NoSing is going well. Good for you!

Monday.

Tired today and felt like snacking.

B: 1 x rice cake with avocado and brie, small banana. 3 coffees (too much coffee, I know).
L: last of the leftover lamb and bean stew with rice, lettuce, almonds, mango
D: steamed fish and homemade fried rice. The cupboard was a bit bare today, so the fish and the vegies in the fried rice were both out of the freezer. Not the tastiest meal, but nutritious.
I also had shared a mango with my daughter and ate it with low fat plain yoghurt.

That's great, Zippadee. How many kids do you have? My daughter is from China and has been with me 9 years now. Boy have they flown fast. She's the light of my life and I can't believe that much time has already past.
You probably know this, but you adopt in a group from China. So we met up yesterday with 3 other families who adopted at the same time and from the same place as we did. It was a lovely day. We don't see them often, but when we do get together, the girls just click - as if they see each other all the time.

B: 2 skim milk lattes (wasn't hungry)
L: salad made with cos lettuce, smoked salmon, 2 boiled eggs, two pieces of buckwheat toast broken up into small pieces, some almonds and cashews, plus homemade vinaigrette dressing.
D: wholemeal spaghetti with a tomato and sausage sauce (olive oil, onion, herbs, chicken sausages, tinned tomatoes).

Worked late and got up early, so went back to bed for a couple of hours later this morning....

B: coffee
L: leftover sausage casserole + 2 coffees with milk
D: frittata made with onion, bacon and tomato, plus broccoli, raw capsicum and cucumber on the side. Fruit salad (banana, kiwi fruit and strawberries) with plain yoghurt. Glass of wine.

THURSDAY:

B: capeseed roll, olive oil spread and vegemite. 2 x coffee with low fat milk.
L: salad of lettuce, capsicum, cucumber and a tin of salmon in brine, plus small banana
D: Shared meal at a friend's house - pork and tofu, chicken and mushrooms, egg and peas, plus rice. Fruit salad for dessert.

B: capeseed roll, margarine and vegemite
L: empanada, mango, small banana
D: - blowout - for some reason, I just didn't have much control tonight - probably because of a bit of fatigue and stress.
3/4 avocado, 3 large corn cakes, 4 small rice cackers, steamed fish, steamed vegies (potato, sweet potato, broccoli, carrot). Definitely a bigger dinner than one plateful.

Tomorrow is another day..

Crazy Saturday. Semi-crazy Sunday.

Back on the horse today.

B: rye and spelt sour dough toast (plain) and a small banana. 2 coffees
L: large corn crackers with slices of camembert. 3 or 4 strawberries.
D: Thai food at a restaurant with friends. I had to virtual plate, but I wasn't quite full when we left, so I think I did ok. The food was fresh and delicious.

B: 1 egg and bacon and a slice of plain rye sourdough toast. Coffee with lf milk
L: sliced turkey breast, cucumber, tomatoes, capsicum, plain corn cakes (x4)
D: 2 x beef rissoles, steamed potato, sweet potato, broccoli, corn and carrot. Glass of strawberries and plain yoghurt.

B: poached eggs on toast, coffee with milk
L: corn crackers with ham and avocado
D: Chicken sausages with noodles and vegetables.

funfuture wrote:B: rye and spelt sour dough toast (plain) and a small banana. 2 coffees
L: large corn crackers with slices of camembert. 3 or 4 strawberries.
D: Thai food at a restaurant with friends. I had to virtual plate, but I wasn't quite full when we left, so I think I did ok. The food was fresh and delicious.

I find Thai food to be absolutely spectacular. Vietnamese food (which the closest restaurant I live to now is 300 miles away) is also amazing.

By looking at your daily check ins, you seem to be doing excellent!

funfuture wrote:I need to get it into my head that NoS is the default every day,
rather than S days being a "licence to kill".

I love the way you put that.

Hi Over43 and BrightAngel,
thanks for dropping by!

Yes, I love South East Asian food. We're lucky as we have a wealth of restaurants like that to choose from near where I live. That type of food suits our sub-tropical climate so it's very popular.

And BA, "licence to kill" is exactly how I behave on wild S days - nothing's safe!

cheers
fun
x

B: rye sourdough x 2 slices with marg and vegemite. 2 coffees with low fat milk.
L: rye sourdough toast - 2 slices with ham and avocado. Locally grown small plums and white cherries. Coffee with low fat milk.
D: stir fry chicken with vegetables and basmati rice. Cup of strawberries and banana with plain yoghurt.

I had a friend over for dinner tonight. It was mostly home cooked but I ate more than would fit on one plate - not a huge amount, mind you - it's 2 hours later and I'm feeling hungry! But, I may make my S days this weekend run from mid-Friday to mid-Sunday - might work better for me this time around. Otherwise Vanilla NoS...

B: two slices of rye sourdough with a small banana. 2 coffees (made with half cup warm low fat milk)
L: leftover chicken stirfry and rice
D: pork roasted in the slow cooker with onions, red apple, sweet potato and orange juice. Brown rice and green salad. Afterwards I had fresh strawberries, blueberries, soft white cheese and a handful of crisps.

forgot to add 2 glasses of wine at dinner.

S DAY:

Houseguests again.

No Breakfast - slept in
L: mezze plate in a cafe. 3 dips plus flat breads. 2 coffees with milk.
D: chicken casserole (drumsticks slow cooked with sweet potato, carrots, green beans, onion, garlic, chick peas, chicken stock, cumin and coriander), brown rice, green salad. 2 glasses of wine.

S day desert: homemade cheesecake topped with blueberries and strawberries (1 slice)

After dinner snack while chatting (rather mindless really!) - 4 chocolates and one jelly snake.

Just weighed myself. In 3 weeks I've gone from 83 kgs to 81kgs - which I think is 183lbs to roughly 179lbs...

Because of my hip, that's without exercise. So I'm very pleased with that. I'd forgotten how easy NoS is. It fits so well with everyday life. Nice to be back.

Sunday - S day (half day).

B: cereal, lf milk, half a banana. 2 coffees with milk.
L: 4 corn cakes plus ham and avocado.
1 slice of cheesecake from last night, topped with strawberries and blueberries.
D: spinach quiche, 2 small plums, 3 or 4 cherries.

Monday:
B: leftover casserole sauce on brown rice. 2 coffees with milk.
L: leftover chicken stirfry and rice. 2 small plums.
D: shared meal at friends' house - Chinese soup, lamb and vegetable stew, greens with strips of fish paste, rice. Fruit salad.

Went for a long walk despite my hip - 50 mins.

Went for another walk today. I think yesterday's and today's walks have actually helped the bursitis. I'm not nearly as stiff today. I'm sure if I also lose weight around my hips, that will have to help it too, and the best way I know to do that is by walking. The exercise also does my head the world of good - I really noticed the difference in my mood, and how well I felt, when I got home.

Today is weirdly stressful. A large percentage of the staff where I work are taking part in some industrial action - including moi. It's necessary (even our state's upper house voted unanimously - across party lines - to support this action and to censure our Vice Chancellor). But it means that we will be stood down while the industrial bans are in place. Have been waiting for my letter to arrive today telling me that I've been stood down, but guess it will arrive tomorrow. I hate the waiting...and the timing, just before Xmas, isn't great...

Of course, the stand downs won't stop any of us working...Even if we're not paid, we've all got a heap of research, etc, to catch up on behind the scenes...sigh...

Anyway, am meeting friends tonight who I know will be very supportive (we once all worked together on the same newspaper; were all retrenched together when the paper closed down; and we've been meeting every few months ever since - ie, for about 22 years!!). Am really looking forward to catching up with them...

Today:
B: one egg and one slice of dry toast. 2 coffees.
L: 2 slices of toast spread with avocado, mushrooms sauted in a little butter and fresh dill, grated cheese. I was still hungry so I also had two corn cakes spread with hummus.

I also had a frappe in the afternoon - ice with fresh orange and strawberry juice. (Am not counting that as a snack).

Tonight will be appetizers at my friend;s house, then a very late dinner in a restaurant. I'm not sure whether to call it an unofficial S day or not...I might see if I can avoid the appetizers and virtual plate in the restaurant (which I am pretty sure will be some sort of Asian food) - am just not sure I can hang out that long!!

Avoided the appetizers. Stayed true to NoS. Just ate moderately the shared meal in a Thai restaurant. All good. (and for some reason, wasn't so hard...)

Wednesday:
B: poached eggs on sourdough toast. No butter (I'm not always keen on it).
coffee x 2
L: cheesymite scroll (1 and a bit). A mango.
D: chicken casserole and mashed potato

Thursday:

B: 3 corn cakes with hummus. 2 coffees
L: leftover mashed potato cooked up with a small tin of tuna, leek, asparagus and mushroom. Eaten with lettuce.
D: calamari with sweet chili sauce, potato, peas. Small banana with plain yoghurt.

2 glasses or red wine.

Friday:

Went for another walk today - that makes 4 this week. It's not easy - am on anti-inflammatories for my hip, and even with those, I don't have my normal stride or ease walking. Still, the walking has made me feel better overall. I also shugged tonight.

I was stood down on Wednesday. There is a union fund though which is helping to keep unionists financially afloat. It's not an easy time...I keep trying to catch up on my work while I am at home, but it is hard to concentrate.

B: banana, sourdough toast with vegemite and butter, 2 coffees with milk
L: 3 corn cakes with hommos, half a dozen olives, sardines in springwater
D: noodles with sausage, corn, capsicum, leek and mushrooms. A fresh peach sliced in a cup and topped with plain yoghurt.

red wine x 2 glasses

Saturday ...hmmmm....pretty wild S day - was fine till some friends came over for afternoon tea. I baked some biscuits (cookies) and prepared some other sweet foods to make it special. For some reason, that triggered me eating lots. I had dinner at another friend's house - and had more snacks (crackers, ice cream) when i got home...I'm not sure what the trigger food was, but I suspect it was the biscuits...It might have been the wheat and sugar...it was that weird feeling where you eat too much but never feel satiated. I get that from sugar and I suspect gluten/wheat may also be a problem.

Sunday, S day. Not too wild, but I was still full from Saturday. I did have some banana bread at breakfast. And I made some chocolate mousse and took it to friends for dinner, so we ate it with fruit salad for dessert.


Monday: A gorgeous sunny day...

B: 1 egg and 2 corn cakes. 2 coffees with lf milk

L: An old friend visited from interstate, so we ate cold plates made up of a range of things including green salad, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, white cheese, olives, hummus, tofu, bread, boiled eggs, steamed corn...

Dinner - not cooked yet, but it will be sausages with leftover salad things from lunch.

Tuesday:
B: 1 egg,half a rasher of bacon, half a cup of yoghurt, fresh blueberries and a couple of tablespoons of toasted muesli. A large breakfast for me.

L: last of the leftover lunch foods from yesterday - a boiled egg, some flavoured tofu cut into sticks, 4 olives in brine, half a dozen small rice crackers, a small piece of white cheese, 2 small apricots.

Dinner: roast chicken with baked carrots and baked garlic, plus steamed asparagus, broccoli and corn. 2 glasses of wine.

One small tweak - I think I've been cheating a bit by having plain yoghurt and fruit after my evening meal - admittedly, a small portion, but still....
So I'm going to switch things around and try having my fruit and yoghurt for breakfast. We'll see how that goes.

B: white cheese, blueberries, crackers. 2 x coffee with lf milk
L: Xmas party - one plate of meat and different salads. 1 x glass of white wine.
D: At friends' house - virtual plated - vegetable soup, rice, chicken casserole. Glass of wine.

B: half a mango plus half a cup of yoghurt. 1 coffee with milk.
L: Xmas lunch at Mum's nursing home. One plate - roast dinner - ham, turkey, potato, peas, gravy. (Not piled up. And surprisingly good - I was expecting it to be much much worse...most of mum's food is pureed. )
D: homemade pizza (small flat bread, leftover chicken, mushroom, capsicum, cheddar cheese, tomato paste). Sliced cucumber. A cup of a very light vegetable soup. I knew it wouldn't be filling enough so I added Yoghurt and berries to the meal.

I was dying to snack last night. I've been pretty strict on the vanilla NoS this week and consequently have been feeling a bit hungry each night. Not so hungry that I can't sleep, but enough to be aware of it. But last night I was dying to snack on something chocolate. I resisted though I let myself look up a chocolate pudding recipe to make over the weekend as my S day snack, -but that's as far as it got. This morning, I woke up feeling strengthened by my resistance!

Meanwhile, the industrial action goes on. Am still not being paid. Am hoping it all gets resolved this week, otherwise, nothing much will happen till early to mid January....sigh....

B: Greek yoghurt and mulberries.
L: 2 x wholemeal sandwiches with avocado and processed chicken slices. (The bread loaf is quite small, so one wasn't enough.) Mango.
D: At a friend's house - roast lamb, potato, sweet potato, rocket, cherry tomatoes.

Hi funfuture - well done on resisting the chocolate. I hope things are resolved with your job very soon. That must be very frustrating - and very worrying.

Thanks, idon'tknow...it is worrying...I too hope it will be resolved soon.

S days - ok in the mornings - not great in the afternoons - seemed to be a chocolate fiesta...

Today - Monday.
B: - banana and skim milk coffee
L: capeseed roll with mayonnaise, tinned tuna, tomato and lettuce. 1 x mango.
D: - not sure yet, but probably stir fry with rice and leftover chicken casserole...

Tuesday:

B: 2 slices of toast with butter and vegemite. 3 coffees.
L: capeseed roll with tinned salmon, mayonnaise, tomato and lettuce
D: sausage with leftover stirfried vegetables and rice. Am about to have some mango, strawberries and yoghurt (I know I said I wouldn't do this in the future, but I haven't had my fruit today, a cup would fit on the plate, and I'm starving!)

Well the industrial bans have been called off - but I can't see that much was achieved. There have been no concessions made by the university management to settle the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement. All a bit frustrating and disillusioning... It's been a very stressful time, but hopefully things will settle down a bit now (though I suspect not...)

B: 2 pieces of toast with avocado and a boiled egg. 3 coffees with low fat milk.
L: chicken and salad sandwich. Tea with skim milk.
D: mince with vegetables and rice. Yoghurt and a sliced peach. 2 champagnes.

Still can't quite drop that yoghurt and fruit...but I'm working on it.

B: 4 corn crackers with avocado and cheddar cheese. 2 coffees with lf milk.
L: capeseed roll with salmon and mayonnaise
D: Leftover mince and rice, plus some instant noodles, scrambled egg with tomato, plain yoghurt and blueberries.

Looking back over my recent entries, I suspect that nutritionally, I'd be better off switching to black coffee or tea and leaving in the yoghurt and fruit...just a thought. Am not going to try to tweak anything for the moment though till I feel more settled. I've learned the hard way not to try to tweak too soon.

It's very late here now - about 1.30am on Christmas Eve. The night is warm and peaceful. DD is fast asleep. Santa's already been - at least his glass of champagne is finished - and there are more pressies under the tree. Feels a bit blissful really - tired and content.

B: toast with avocado and flavoured tofu. 2 x coffees with lf milk.
L: Green salad with chicken, Vietnamese dressing.
D: Chicken baked in the slow cooker with potato and carrots. Peas. Fresh blueberries and cherries for dessert.

We had Christmas lunch with cousins - a beautiful lunch. Lots of delicious food. Cold turkey, salmon and ham, Greek salad, cold roast vegetables with rocket, chocolate ice cream cake with strawberries, trifle, Christmas pudding...(I skipped the latter but thoroughly enjoyed the ice cream cake - so much that I'm making it myself for guests tomorrow). Permasnacked in the evening though - think I was overtired - and ended up feeling awful.

Today has been better. Toast with vegemite for breakfast. A small piece of nut sweet that Spanish friends insisted I try this morning at their house (a traditional seasonal specialty). Salmon sushi and miso for lunch. Not sure about dinner, but something simple - maybe leftovers or scrambled eggs.

Tomorrow is going to be full-on, but I'm aiming for moderation in the feasting even though it will be an S day for me.

Ah, well yesterday was better until I wrote that message...I ended up eating chocolate ice-cream after dinner. I was up late again cooking and ate a chicken leg late at night.

Today, I forgot to have breakfast, but then sat down to a lunch which went all afternoon - 5 hours at the lunch table. Mostly cold meats and salads, but also desserts. It was a feast. Am writing it off as an S day as I had planned. It was excessive (I had some of all the desserts), but there was no bingeing or any out-of-control eating.

Hopefully back to normal tomorrow. We're holidaying from tomorrow so won't have much control over food, but am hoping it won't be excessive food from now on.

Hmmm - have definitely been in holiday mode for the last two weeks. Back home tomorrow. Back to Vanilla NoS. I have another week's break at the end of Jan and want to keep on NoS during that one. (Definitely haven't over this Xmas break.)

We've had a glorious time at the beach. So relaxing. I'm sitting here now looking out across the arc of yellow sand, laced by the breaking surf, and across the headland with its famous lighthouse to the ocean. There is enough breeze to make the air misty with salt, obscuring the white sails of the distant yachts from clear view. The pealing of the wind chimes on the verandah accompanies the swaying arms of the apricot bougainvillea. It truly is heavenly here...

We've had ten days of swimming, walking, boardgames with the kids, laughter and some shared tears over an absent friend. It's been a good time for all of us.

Am back in the saddle...Vanilla No S for 21 days...

B: 2 coffees with milk (wasn't hungry after all the recent excess).
L: Pre-made pasta pockets (ricotta and spinach) with fresh tomato and avocado mixed through.
D: home-made caesar salad using leftover chicken, rice crackers, egg, lettuce, capsicum, cucumber, mayonnaise. Raw almonds.

2 glasses of white wine.

Wow! Your holiday location sounds idyllic - you sound as if you have had a lovely time. I love the way your Christmas eating is summer food - apart from Christmas pudding! Good luck with the next 21 days

Thanks, idont'know. It really was lovely. It's just once a year we get there, but I realise how lucky we are to have that opportunity.

One year it would be lovely to have a white Christmas - if only to make sense of all our reindeer and Christmas lights and Santa, etc...but perhaps in the northern hemisphere - am worried enough about climate change!

Have been on track since Thursday. I opted not to have S days this weekend - mainly because I didn't really want them. It was an excessive holiday food-wise and I was very relieved to come home to the sanity of NoS (which begs the question of why I couldn't just follow it while we were away...hmmm....)

Saturday:
B: scrambled eggs, almonds, cucumber, 2 x coffee with milk.
L: Thai beef salad.
D: fish with mushrooms, kale and garlic. 1 x glass of white wine.

Sunday:
B: coffee with milk + 2 nectarines.
L: 1.5 sandwiches with ham, tomato, lettuce and mayonnaise. 1 x coffee with miilk.
D - am not sure yet - am just about to go and rootle around in the fridge...possibly a soup with leftover salmon and some brown rice.

Did have the soup for dinner on sunday - homemade with brown rice, miso, fresh bitter greens and some leftover fresh salmon. Very Japanese.

Monday
B: forgot again except for flat white coffees - silly
L: Was hungry so I ate everal large corn cakes (puffed corn) with avocado and cheddar cheese. Fresh lychees.
D: Steamed salmon, sweet potato, carrot and corn. Lettuce. 2 x white wine.

Tuesday
B: 2 slices of high protein bread with margarine and vegemite.
L: capeseed roll with 2 boiled eggs, raw carrot, capsicum and cucumber.

Dinner - am thawing some mince to make meatballs and pasta.

Ended up having dinner out in an Asian place - My daughter and I both felt like soup. I had a bowl of chicken laksa. Yum.

Am reposting this from the main board so I keep track of it...

I love this idea too and have been wondering about what word to pick. I've been tossing up between "healthy" (because I really do need to focus on my health this year and make it a priority. I've been hobbled by pain in my hips and neck, particularly. I'm overweight and unfit and not getting any younger...) and "creativity" because I'm dropping some admin work this year and really want to get some creative work done while I have the opportunity. One of my issues with the latter is that I have a bit of a mental block about creative work and being published. I've been tossing the two words around and have come up with a third one which is resonating well with me - "painless". That works for me on a number of levels - I want to finish 2011 in a pain-free, healthy body. Focussing on that word might help me to remove my mental blocks about exercise or good eating habits being difficult. If I bring the concept of "painless" to developing new habits then I'm approaching it with a much better attitude. Generally dropping the idea that things have to be difficult or a struggle would be really useful. It's also a concept I can bring to my work generally (which has been very fraught with industrial action and other problems this year) - to my relationships at work, to my teaching, research and writing. It's something I could bring to life generally. It would also benefit our family life - focussing on ease and fun and in my extended family, not buying into painful agendas from the past. This year will bring a lot of change for my immediate family - good and bad - but approaching those changes with the idea that they can be "painless" will help, I think, to realise that adjustments to change are just that - adjustments - and how we react to them is very much up to us. It may help me also help those closest to me through some difficult changes that are likely to come up in the next few months.

So there you go, I think "painless" will be a useful concept for me this year.

FunFuture,

Meant to tell you how insightful I find your choice. I remember a few years ago, I had started "back-sliding" on No-S (excess creeping in, mostly because I'd let boundaries get fuzzy). I started to fall into frantic mode again, but managed to talk myself down by identifying "tiny, painless changes" that I could live with.

And they had the desired effect, of course. Most effective actions don't have to be at the grit-your-teeth-heroic level. Babysteps and incremental changes get you where you want to go.

The last issue of YogaJournal (officially Feb, I think, but out now) had a lovely article on "self-compassion" that also fits with this general idea.

Anyway, I think this is a GREAT word. Good luck with it!

KCCC

Not trying to hijack...

Hi KCCC,
Welcome! It's great to have you drop by.
Thanks for your comments re my choice of word. I like yours too - "open" - it's resonates with me as well. Particularly as it relates to acceptance. The notion of accepting what is - of surrendering while also moving forward - is an interesting one for me. Thanks to you and Zipadee for starting the discussion - very fruitful.
Fun
x

Wednesday:
B: 2 slices of high protein toast with margarine and vegemite. 3 coffees with skim milk (not enough sleep).
L: crackers with tinned salmon, cherry tomatoes, capsicum, mulberries.
D: sushi train (yum - a delicious indulgence). 2 glasses of white wine.

I love it that sushi is No-S approved.

Agreed, Noel.

Thursday:
B: 2 slices of gluten free toast with smoked salmon. 2 x coffee with lf milk.
L: homemade quiche plus half a peach.
D: BBQ chicken + 2 slices of bread and avocado.

Friday:
B: 2 coffees with lf milk. 2 slices of high protein toast with marg and vegemite. Some left over BBQ chicken.
L: homemade caesar salad (sort of) - lettuce, 2 boiled eggs, the last of the leftover chook, cucumber, vinegar and olive oil dressing.
D: chicken casserole - chicken, sweet potato, onion, green beans, stock, cumin, mixed herbs, chick peas, red capsicum. Plus rice. (Enough with the chicken already...). Fresh blueberries with Greek yoghurt in a cup.

Not out of control, but an indulgent S day.

B: 2 slices of toast with vegemite. 2 coffees with lf milk.
Snack: 2 chocolates
L: Salads and cold meats, fruit salad
Snack: slice of plain banana bread
D: McDonald's wrap and fries. Chocolate icecream. (We were on a long car trip - well that's my excuse anyway....)

After the very indulgent Saturday, I was planning not to go wild on Sunday. (Mind you, I'm not sure indulgent is the right word - I don't even like McDonalds...) Sunday did not go that well. The meals were fine - cold meats and salads, but we had guests all day for a potluck lunch and I ended up having a bit of everything, including the desserts - homemade coconut tart, chocolates, icecream and a pastry. Totally not paying attention to what I ate. But it was an S day. Am drawing a line under the weekend and moving on. Still, it's a relief that it's Monday...

I think I'll start recording my S day food here regularly - it feels a bit shameful to have to face what I actually did eat. I think it might be a good way of keeping a check on myself...

Monday:
B: Forgot. 2 coffees with skim milk.
L: Leftover cold meats and salads from Sunday.
D: 3 slices of restaurant pizza plus 2 glasses of champagne.

Tuesday:
B: 4 puffed corn cakes with peanut butter (ie two sandwiches which I had to eat on the go this morning)
L: Leftovers from Sunday again - homemade quiche, chicken, ham, boiled egg and some cherry tomatoes.

Not sure what dinner will be yet. We will have at least one of DD's friends with us and I didn't prepare anything when I rushed out to work this morning...Will be something simple and kid friendly - possibly bangers and mash.

I read on KCCC's blog about the snow they've been having. Our city isn't affected but we've been having terrible floods. Very large areas of the eastern part of the country are under water. Here is a link to some pics of the city of Brisbane...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/infographics ... eafter.htm

And here's a very scary one of a flash flood in Toowoomba.
http://media.brisbanetimes.com.au/natio ... 27942.html

Wow! The video is very scary - I can't believe how easily and quickly the water takes the cars. They look like toys! I've been watching about the floods on the news here - so much damage and disruption. I'm glad you're ok

Yes, we're all fine. Thanks, idon'tknow. We are travelling to Queensland next week, but not to a directly flood-affected area.

B: corn cake sandwiches made with PB x 2. 1 coffee with milk.
L: Leftover quiche, chicken and egg.
D: sausages with steamed potato, kumera, peas and raw tomato. Plus rice crackers and cheese while waiting for the dinner to cook (which adds up to a fail for today - I could pretend and virtual plate, but in reality, it was snacking...)

BTW dinner on Tuesday night was vegetable laksa in a food hall.

B: 2 x sandwiches made of corn cakes and PB. 2 coffees with skim milk.
L: chicken casserole, watermelon, blueberrries.
D: takeaway Indian food - rice, mango chicken and vegetables. Meat samosa.

Boy have I eaten a lot of chicken lately. Lucky I'm not starting to sqwark. Is that how you spell "sqwark"?

Friday:
B: 2 x corn cake sandwiches made with PB. 2 coffees with Lf milk.
L: leftover chicken casserole
D: Fish, chips and salad.

After midnight - technically on Saturday - succumbed to chocolate in the cupboard. I'm going to count it as a Fail because I think S days start the next day - after you wake up! It was a response to stress - a dear friend had a mild stroke yesterday when we were minding his kids. Am still counting it as a fail as I need to learn other ways to cope with emotional things.

Am back.

The good news is that my friend is ok. It turned out to be a rather nasty virus rather than a stroke. He's still recovering but well on the mend.

Have been away this last week - holidaying again with family - ah, it's a tough life. This time around I stuck to NoS.

I weighed myself yesterday. I've been on NoS since mid-November with many distractions, etc. But I've gone down from 83 to 80kg since I started. That's 183 to 176.5 lbs (roughly) - ie 6.5 lbs down in 10 weeks. While it may not sound like much, it has to be said that I stopped NoS for 2 weeks over Christmas (went a bit wild really while on vacation - very silly) and also haven't been exercising regularly yet. I'm happy with that loss as I'm surprised the weight has come off - I'm ready to settle down properly into the NoS way of life for the long term now, particularly with the school year beginning tomorrow and a return to normality for me.

We're heading into our last month of summer - the hottest month of the year. I'm savouring the tropical fruits, knowing this abundance won't last and that we'll be living on apples, bananas and citrus through the winter...sigh....Out-of-season fruit is prohibitively expensive - and not that nice. Despite the floods up north, at the moment rockmelons (canteloupe) and punnets of blueberries are both the price of a takeaway coffee or a chocolate bar. Although the mango season is pretty much over, there is a roadside stall that I pass on my way home that is selling trays of mangos for $10. Bliss. I'm planning to pick up a tray tomorrow. (We probably won't finish them, but I can freeze the fruit pulp for future use.)

It was hard to settle down today after a fairly wild weekend. I was fine on Saturday - the habits were carrying me through - till I ate some chocolate and that triggered off a bout of snacking and grazing on carby/sweet foods. Sunday was marginally better.

Monday:
B: 2 pieces of toast plus egg. 1 x coffee with LF milk.
L: salad (lettuce, capsicum, cucumber, red onion) with flavoured tofu. 2 slices of sourdough bread.
D: cottage pie (was using up some potatoes that had started to sprout) plus fresh fruit salad. 1 x glass of wine.

Tuesday:

B: capeseed roll and a banana + 2 coffees
L: capsicum, cucumber, smoked salmon, tofu, slice of sourdough. Blueberries.
D: chicken and corn soup + 1/2 serve of beef, vegetables and noodles. 1 glass of wine spritzer.

Well, I didn't get our mangoes - we're having a bit of a heatwave and it was way too hot for the stallholders, I suspect. They weren't there when I drove past. In fact, it was so hot (41 degrees in my area, so probably hotter out where I work) that my car kept stalling and i was very lucky to make it home. Had to take DD to the doctor in the late afternoon, but I didn't want to risk driving in the heat again, so we took the bus. Has been a bit of a day, really...

Hopefully it will be cooler tomorrow.

The day was cooler and the stallholders were back. I came home with a bag of mangoes and a bag of small peaches (just coming into season now). It's Chinese New Year, so I will take some of the fruit to friends tomorrow, along with a special celebratory cake that we bought in Chinatown.

I think tomorrow night's dinner will be a planned S event.

Today - Wednesday:
B: banana + 2 coffees
L: drumstick,salad of raw cucumber, carrot and tomato. 2 slices of sourdough.
D: brown rice with a stirfry using up food in the fridge - a small piece of fish, chickpeas, red cabbage, corn, mushrooms, tomato, frozen peas (for the green).

1 x white wine spritzer (half wine, half soda water).

I've been thinking a bit lately about why I fell off the NoS wagon before. The first time around I was doing very well, but I hit a long plateau - I think caused by bingeing on S days. The second time I only did NoS for a few weeks and my head wasn't really in the right space. I was also trying to juggle being gluten free, which was a mistake (I couldn't manage both habits at once...)

Despite the psychological triggers, what happened in practice is that the Sday bingeing began to erode my N days. Instead of my N Days forming a barrier around the S days, the opposite began to happen. I also dropped the exercise because my work became uncontrollably busy.

This time around, I want to be aware of the dangers in advance and keep those N days iron-clad. And get back into regular exercise.

Thinking in terms of NoS events should help. And keeping my treats to meal times when that fits with S day social life. What I find is that once I start snacking on an S day, it spirals out of control, so I just want to watch that and find ways that work for me to keep the S days within their proper boundaries.

Thursday - Chinese New Year - Special S day

B: 2 sandwiches made with corn cakes - 1 x peanut butter, 1 x vegemite and margarine.
L: large chicken, mayo and salad sandwich.
D: CNY with friends at their home. Shared (delicious but very very simple) Chinese meal, plus a slice of chocolate cake.

That's definitely what I find. I do very little snacking on S days (unless I've been working hard outside or something).

funfuture wrote:I
...
And keeping my treats to meal times when that fits with S day social life. What I find is that once I start snacking on an S day, it spirals out of contro
...

That's interesting, Kevin. I do think it might be the way forward for me to help me stick with the basic principle of "moderation".

B: leftover soup. Black coffee.
L: Leftover stirfry plus lots of rockmelon.
D: fish & chips. 2 wine spritzers.

I noticed you thought you were cheating by having plain yoghurt (yogurt) and fruit after your evening meal... would that little serving fit on your plate (in a small bowl, for convenience)?

I find that meals should have at least four things to be satisfying (I wish I could remember who it was that recognized this first on this forum, but I can't). I strive to make every meal have some starch, some protein, some vegetable (or two!) and some fruit. I just don't get as hungry after a meal like this - and it's not just the size of the portions, it's the variety.

Hi Kevin,
I think what I was doing was having a full meal AND yoghurt and fruit. It was too much. But, funnily enough, I didn't deliberately stop doing it after all. It just dropped off of its own accord with NoS over the summer. I'm not eating as much at mealtimes.
cheers - and thanks for stopping by.

I realize now your post was from long ago. Sorry to be irrelevant.

funfuture wrote:Hi Kevin,
I think what I was doing was having a full meal AND yoghurt and fruit. It was too much. But, funnily enough, I didn't deliberately stop doing it after all. It just dropped off of its own accord with NoS over the summer. I'm not eating as much at mealtimes.
cheers - and thanks for stopping by.

Not at all, Kevin. I welcome your visits.

My Sunday was also a pretty wild S day. Back to "N"ormality today - and it's welcome.

I was reading a book last night about achieving higher measures of "Happiness". I've been following the movement for a while and occasionally check into Gretchen Rubin's site. This book is based on a series of documentaries made here in Sydney following 8 people who were challenged to follow the science and achieve greater happiness over a set period. It's fascinating. One of the recommendations is to write down the improvements you are making on a regular basis - such as using habit cal or these blogs that Reinhard has set up.

So, I'll keep marking down my food intake. And I need to find a form of regular exercise I can do with my hip (a longish but gentle walk on the beach last week was too much and set me back by about 3 days...sigh). I'd also like to re-start meditating daily. Those three things are a good basis for the rest of the tweaks to improve happiness ratings - mind you, my rating isn't too bad to begin with.

When I have the book with me, I'll write down the 8 main points...

Monday:
B: egg, small rice crackers, watermelon
L: Bought sandwich with avocado, smoked salmon, lettuce and cucumber. Plus a boiled egg. Milky coffee (Am giving up milky coffee, but it was bought for me by a friend, so I couldn't really ask him to take it back!...)
D: Mixed plate of leftovers from dinner at our friends' last night (they know I can't use my kitchen properly till after Thursday - very kind of them...)
2 glasses of wine.

Tuesday:

B: plain yoghurt and a peach. Coffee
L: tin of salmon, bread roll, mango
D: at a Chinese vegan restaurant - Taiwanese style eggplant, salt & pepper tofu and steamed rice.

We have a colleague from overseas visiting our work. I gave him a lift this afternoon and dropped him at a restaurant owned by some of his friends. They gave us tea and their homemade Turkish Delight. I declined the TD and accepted the tea, but my colleague pulled me aside and said I was causing offence - so down the hatch went the TD. I drew the line at one piece, and made my daughter eat the other one (bad mother!). As it was under duress, I refuse to count it as a fail... LOL.

Oh yes, my father's family is Jordanian and if you turn down food it's like you turned them down personally as an individual and they're crushed. Luckily, the food is pretty awesome When we went to visit them when we were kids, me and my brother particularly came back waddling.

Lol, amake616. I once had a Lebanese friend who was a salesman (of sorts) and he really struggled to keep his weight down because he had to eat everytime he visited a house. He would never eat at my place - he was just thankful he could refuse to, I think.

Wednesday:

B: 2 slices of watermelon.
L: Leftover casserole
D: Fish fingers plus steamed potato, vegies and salad. Fruit. 2 glasses of wine.

(I'm yet to have the mango and the second glass of wine, but hey...may as well write it down while the computer is open and I'm passing.)

I'm not going to bother writing down tea or coffee if I have them black - not really much point.

DD must be having a growth spurt - she is as skinny as anything (as her grandmother would say - she has to zigzag in the shower to get wet) but she just ate 11 fishfingers! plus her vegies and salad. Now, of course, she wants dessert. Unbelievable.

Starting Weight 83kg (mid-Nov, 2011)
Current weight 80kg (9/2/11).
Goal weight 58-60kg.
T-110; W- 97; B-109;A-35; T1-65.

Are you a time traveler?

funfuture wrote:Starting Weight 83kg (mid-Nov, 2011)
Current weight 80kg (9/2/11).
Goal weight 58-60kg.
T-110; W- 97; B-109;A-35; T1-65.

Oh no, don't tell me I'm going to gain wait by November and be back where I started!! No, No, No...

That should, of course, be 2010.

And I didn't have the second glass of wine. I sort of wanted it, but not really. I haven't been that much of a drinker in the past, and I don't want to develop that as a habit now as a substitute for sugary food.

In light of a discussion on the main board, I'm amending my goal weight...

Here's what I wrote there:

I've really appreciated this discussion because it has made me review my goal. At 5' 4" I thought I should be down around 57/58kg (125-129) which is bang in the middle of the healthy BMI suggested for my height, but I suspect that would be very very difficult for me to achieve. In fact, as an adult, I've only achieved it once, when I starved myself at Jenny Craig. And while I liked the way I looked in clothes (jeans), I hated my drawn pinched face and the way I lost my curves (too much info, I know, but my breasts deflated and looked like pancakes). What threw me from that diet was that I asked to go off it when I reached 57kg (125/6 lbs) and my "personal counsellor" insisted I keep going and try to reach 53kg (116). I just didn't want to do it. I told her I wanted a plan to maintain my weight around 60-62kg (132-136). I was sent to see another counsellor after that. But she too treated it as a failure of willpower and motivation on my part. They just wouldn't listen. I'd forgotten that till this discussion.

These days (post-menopausal, sedentary job, etc,) I'll be thrilled if I get to 135 and it's maintainable.

Amended stats:

Starting Weight 83kg (mid-Nov, 2010)
Current weight 80kg (9/2/11).
Goal weight 65kg (if I get below that, great - if not, so be it).
T-110; W- 97; B-109;A-35; T1-65.

Weight to lose - 15kgs or about 33lbs (that's still a lot!).

I'm setting myself 3 small goals of 5kgs each.

My next goal is 75kg, then 70, then 65. I don't know how long that will take me overall, but it would be great if it could be achieved over the next 12 months...

Well done on the weight loss

Why, thank you, IDK.

Today:

B: boiled egg plus peach (on the run)
L: sourdough roll, salami, avocado, lettuce. 2 fresh figs (They're in season locally and very inexpensive at the moment. I bought 8 of them for about $3 today. Love them - am thinking of grilling them on Sat evening when my brother comes to stay and then serving them with maple syrup and ricotta as an S day treat.)
D: potato and egg salad with mayonnaise; ham and vegetables stir fried. Slice of watermelon.

Sounds like you're making a LOT of progress on many fronts. Congrats!

I check into Gretchen Rubin's site occasionally as well. Would be really interested in hearing more about the book you're reading.

Thanks, KCCC.

The book is "Eight Steps to Happiness" the science of getting happy and how it can work for you" by Dr Anthony M Grant and Alison Leigh.

It's based on a TV series called "Making Australia Happy". The website for the series is at: http://makingaustraliahappy.abc.net.au/
That website also has a link to the book.

The TV series took a group of volunteers from a Sydney suburb that was found in a national survey to have the lowest rates of "wellbeing" in Australia. They then filmed them over a couple of months as they took the "8 steps to happiness".

The website's a bit of fun. You can take a test on it that measures your happiness levels. The idea is that you test again once you follow the steps they suggest. The happiness ratings of the 8 volunteers skyrocketed as they completed the course.

The people who made the show tested the participants before and after in a range of ways - psychologically and physically. They found their cortisol and stress levels dropped; melatonin levels increased by an average of 60%; three people in the group had high blood pressure to begin with but this dropped significantly (35/16); cholesterol dropped by a minimum of .5 of a point; immunoglobulin levels increased; pain tolerance increased markedly; neural activity decreased by an average of 50% (a quiet brain is a happy brain)...etc...

The website gives activities to complete that are part of the first three of the eight steps to happiness (a taste of the program).

One of the first things the book and the program recommend is that you write your own eulogy - so that you get a good feel for your own values and how you want your life to turn out (ie not based on the expectation of others, but on what you really want).

It also recommends that you eat well, exercise regularly and get enough sleep as health is a good foundation for happiness.

But the 8 actual steps are (or the headings for them are...)
- Goals and Values
- Random acts of kindness
- Mindfulness
- Strengths and Solutions
- Gratitude
- Forgiveness
- Social networks
- Reflect, review, renew.

The book has a section on the science behind the recommended program.

I've been dipping in and out of it, but so far I've found it very interesting. What's surprising about it is the science behind it - Basically, the 8 steps boil down to what our mothers always told us...That a "good" life involves
- having compassion and kindness towards others - being altruistic
- staying true to ourselves
- appreciating the moment rather than living in the past or the future
- appreciating what we have - gratitutude
- letting go of resentments and anger
- working on relationships with friends, relatives, etc. Strong social networks increase happiness
- expressing yourself openly and honestly (journalling your thoughts and feelings, e.g., is apparently a very effective stress release and promoter of happiness).
- self-reflection - understanding our own role in our circumstances and taking responsibility for our own lives/futures.

But it is fascinating to see hard evidence of the difference taking the course made to the volunteers - psychologically and physically.

Interesting stuff.
cheers
fun
x