Everyday Systems

Well, it is time for my second go around with the No S Diet and what better time to start that directly after my 28th birthday. I'll be posting each day to help keep myself responsible and hopefully, maybe, to encourage anyone else.

Thanks in advance for any and all support.

Starting Weight (January 11, 2011): 112 (246 pounds). Living in Japan, the scale is in kilos.

Goal Weight: 190 pounds. 86 kilos.

Success! It's amazing how many times throughout the day I would have eaten something just to eat it without even thinking. The No S diet gives me a reason to actually think about what I'm eating, not just do it in a "barely cognizant of it" state, and I think that is the reason it will be successful for me.

For me, the hardest part is definitely the no snacking, as I stated above that oftentimes I'll just "graze" and barely be aware of it, leading to 100's or even 1,000 extra calories.

The no sweets? Eh, I like them but can do without.

The no seconds? I just load up my first plate, eat slower, and actually enjoy it. One thing that Reinhard said in the book that has always stuck with me (well, since I read it a year and a half ago) was to make meal time meal time. Focus on eating the meal, don't simply do it while doing other things (watching tv, playing on the computer, etc.). This way, you enjoy what you eat, and feel as though you've actually eaten something substantial as well. I think it is great, great advice.

Success!

Great job! I'm with ya...snacking is the hardest one for me too. Sometimes I go to grab something without even thinking about it. This is my second "try" of NO-S. It's amazing.....

See ya around.

Success. Seems as though it is getting easier, although I did notice last night that I was ready and willing to eat a snack before bed. I didn't, but old habits die hard.

Success. Wanted to eat a Reese's PB cup at midnight but decided that playing the "semantics" game only hurt one person: myself. Held off until this morning.

Saturday: S-Day.

Sunday: S Day

Might have over done it a bit with the Reeses Peanut Butter cups but hey, its an S-day. I'm not going to beat myself up about it.

Monday: Success.

Tuesday: Success

Sounds like you are doing really well so far!

Have a great Wednesday!

Wednesday: Success

Thursday: Success

About halfway to the goal of 21 straight successful days and it seems to be getting easier!

Amazingly, I'm not even feeling hungry in between meals, although I should have known this would happen since most of the time I'm snacking I'm eating to eat, not because I'm hungry.

Thanks for the support.

Friday: Success

Saturday: S Day.

Sunday: S Day

Monday: Success

I did eat some banana bread, but I figured this wasn't considered a sweet. Thoughts?

Tuesday: Success.

7 more days until I hit the 21-day club. And although there are times it is annoying to not snack, it hasn't been that hard. Ok, atleast not as hard as I thought.

Looks like you are doing well. Keep it up!

Wednesday:

Success. Not much to say other than it seems to get easier. I almost forget what it feels like to just snack throughout the day. Funny how empty and worthless all those calories really were.

Thursday: Success.

I did, however, eat the world's largest plate of shrimp and lemon pasta for dinner with a whole heaping of herb bread. It fit on a plate though!

Friday: Success

Saturday: S Day

Sunday: S Day

Monday: FAILURE

My goal was 21 days, so what did I do on day 21? Went out and screwed it up. It's not that I had a failure that I'm so bummed about, but more the way it happened. All day I had been good, and then came dinner. I went out with friends, and this being Japan, they gave the world's smallest plates, and we got courses that we were going to share. I had options (such as asking for a big plate for myself) and I debated virtual plating, but once the food came out, all my willpower ran away and I just ate whatever I wanted.

But here is the worst part. Once I realized I was going to have to chalk it up to a failure, I decided to blow off the whole evening. An order of french fries at the convenience store, a bowl of apple crisp and ice cream when I got home. All because I had already failed. That is the part that disgusts me; the fact that I just completely gave up after that.

Anyway, I guess there is some silver lining in the failure. I had been going along merrily, and while it wasn't the easiest thing in the world, I hadn't experienced any hardships with it really. Now I know that it isn't going to be easy, and that there will be times where I really have to work at it to make it happen.

Here's to getting back on the horse!

20 days is amazing. Maybe you wanted to congratulate yourself?

I personally think 20 days in a row is awesome and you should be very proud of yourself. I only wish I could get to 20 days. 9 days is my claim to fame.

Get back on your horse and next time aim for 21 days!

You've done great so far. 1 day can't undo all of your good work.

Brush off the mud. Have a laugh at yourself. You already know what to do with the horse.

You're doing great. Really. You're doing great.

Tuesday: Success

Wednesday: Success

Thursday: Success

I've noticed that once you give in to a failure, it is much harder to start up No-S again...after the first couple of days of No-S in the beginning, I started cruising along, and the days started piling up. Then, Day 21, I had a failure, and now it has only been 3 days but it seems soooo long...it is that whole "getting started" thing again that becomes a major pain.

Maybe that is motivation not to fail again? It's no fun to see those low numbers like 3 and 4.

Friday: Success

Saturday and Sunday: S Days

Monday: Success (and relatively easy)

Tuesday: Success, but found myself very hungry and yearning for a late night snack after dinner

My strategy for dealing with failures is to assume that they will happen and to not get too excited about it as long as they are minor failures and as long as they do not get too numerous. One to three minor failures a month (such as one large meal or one snack) is no big deal.

I still put a red box on my habit cal calendar but do not get too upset about it unless they start to pile up.

On the other hand, I find that an all green calendar so far in February is spurring me on to make this an all green month. Just like you resisted the Reese's.......

Day 30: Wednesday: Success

Day 31: Thursday: FAILURE I knew this would probably happen, since I left for a long weekend on Thursday morning and was planning on taking an S day on Friday anyway. However, my goal was to still make Thursday a Non-S day and a success....unfortunately, I caved as soon as I saw the fresh-baked cookies and vanilla cream scones at the airport. A big old failure for me.

Day 32: Friday: Planned S Day.

Day 33: Saturday: S Day

Day 34: Sunday: S Day

Looks like I'll be starting back at 1 again in my quest to go to a whole 21 days of green. Oh man.

Monday (1st day of the elusive quest for 21)- Success

Tuesday: Success

Wednesday: Success. My students today made peanut butter cookies and crepes in our last class together and I still held off from eating them. Drank green tea (ick) instead.

Thursday: Success.

I will admit that I'm starting to get a little bit impatient with the process though. I know, I know, it has only been 38 days, barely a month. But I just can't help it. And I know, I've tried all the diets in which you lose weight quick, and its never been sustainable. And I know that weight isn't the only way to measure success (body composition, muscle mass, etc.) and is probably one of the worst ways, but still.......

I'm getting so antsy to try a "quick fix" since I haven't seen any progress. It seems like my clothes are fitting a little looser, but that is such an inexact thing. I mean, my clothes will fit looser after I've worn them once or twice than after they just came out of the dryer, so really, how can you really tell?

And I promised myself I'd stick to this because in my mind I know I'm eating less and eating better, but its hard when you don't see the "big time" results like weight loss.

I think we can all empathize with the frustration over the slow losses. It does get easier.......

It's not that I'm having that hard of a time with the diet itself (although its really more of an eating plan). It's just that I'm not seeing really any results, at least weight-wise.

That being said, I took some body measurements (chest, waist, abs, butt, etc.) and it seems that I've lost about an inch on my chest, an inch on my stomach, and an inch on my waist. Of course, this is hard to have an exact calculation, since measuring itself is an inexact science, atleast with the tape measure I have. Still, things seem a little looser.

I guess its just hard having so much weight to lose (50-60 pounds) and not seeing that scale move any.

That being said, I may also start combining the No-S diet with the slow carb diet I've been reading up about, since I eat a ton of carbs and those aren't great for you, no matter what diet you're doing.

Friday: Success.
Saturday: S Day
Sunday: S Day

Went a little crazy with the snacking, especially on candy, which I don't usually even like that much. Family from America sent us a box full of different candies and I haven't eaten any all week. Well, you can guess what happened on Saturday and Sunday. Since they were around, I couldn't help myself from eating all those "fun size" bars and probably ate between 12-15 throughout the weekend. That, on top of some cookies here and there.

Oh well, its a cheat day, but next week, I'm going to try to reign it in some. Best way is to have that stuff out of the house.

Monday: Success.

Tuesday: Success

Wednesday: Success

Day 45 Thursday: Success

Day 46 Friday: FAILURE! I can't really remember why it was a failure, I know that it was something stupid. I think it may have been taking half a helping more at dinner on Friday. So dumb. At least I didn't blow the day up.

Day 47 Saturday: S-Day.

Day 48 Sunday: S-Day

Day 49 Monday: Success.