Everyday Systems

Brand new to this.
This is day 2. Stumbled on the concept/diet/principle yesterday and decided to start there and then.
The only thing I'm finding hard to phase out is fruit, so I'm going to have a FAT (fruit at anytime, right?) modification and yes for a newbie I spent way too much time reading the forum already)

Yesterday was a success (with the modification)

Breakfast (6am before work) 2 slices toast
Mid Morning (10am) tinned grapefruit, own juice not syrup so no sugar
Lunch (12.15) cous cous salad with chicken and 2 bananas
Dinner (6.30pm) soup and breadsticks then grapes

Resisted: I nearly went and got more breadsticks out of the packet than I had originally decided to have but realised just in time that would be seconds and stopped myself, also when hubby suggested getting chocolate when we stopped to get petrol, I said 'no I'm ok thanks' huge acheivement for me!

Today success so far:

Breakfast (8am day off) grapefruit, toast and yogurt
Lunch soup and cheese twists but didn't have all the soup because I got full and 2 clementines
Dinner will be onion tart which I am about to bake, with salad, and possibly grapes

Resisted: a friend came over for coffee, offered her biscuits and sat for ages with the tin between us while she had several I didn't touch them, and they are chocolate orange, a favourite of mine.

Tomorrow is an S day, and I'm working, let's see what happens.

If anyone does happen to read this who is more familiar with the rules, does the food all literally have to be on one plate within a meal? Like can I have toast and a yogurt as a meal or does the yogurt have to count as a dessert which I would prefer not to because they are my main source of calcium. If I sit the pot on the plate along with the toast does it make it ok?
When I had soup and breadsticks I put the bowl and the breadsticks together on a plate, does that work?

Thanks

You can eyeball it or 'virtual plate' as it were. If you had a large plateful of food and then a yoghurt and fruit afterwards - that might be too much. If you could fit them all onto one plate if you wanted to, you're alright.

Congratulations on 2 successful days so far!

Soups and salads are always a challenge in determining how much is too much. If I eat a bowl of salad, I usually just use a smaller, mid size plate for the rest of my meal and call it good. With soup, I do the same thing. I use a small bowl for my soup and the mid size plate for whatever else I eat.

The key is that there is no right or wrong to this system. There is no set plate size and no limit on how high you pile your plate. I agree with milliem:

milliem wrote:You can eyeball it or 'virtual plate' as it were. If you had a large plateful of food and then a yoghurt and fruit afterwards - that might be too much. If you could fit them all onto one plate if you wanted to, you're alright.

You will figure out what is reasonable. At first I filled my plates pretty full, but they gradually got smaller.

Welcome and good luck!

Thank you both milliem and r-jean. That's the way I'll think of it, if it would fit all on one plate then I'll count it is one meal but sometimes it's just more practical to have separately.

Anyway yesterday ended well too; made an onion tart which I had for dinner with salad, on the same plate because there was plenty of space with just one quarter of a tart.

Went to the pub and didn't have any crisps despite everyone else at the table nibbling away, then on the way home explained about No S to hubby who is now going to do it with me, which should be really helpful.

SkyKitty wrote: Went to the pub and didn't have any crisps despite everyone else at the table nibbling away, then on the way home explained about No S to hubby who is now going to do it with me, which should be really helpful.

So nice to have that kind of support! And well done on tuning out on the crisps.
Enjoy your S days!

Two S days.

First full N week starting tomorrow....

S days done with, back on the plan today.
Hoping that each week S days will become a little bit less excessive.

I dont see fruit as a "sweet." Other people might disagree.

I tend to think that the nutritional benefits of fruit, vitamins, fibre tec outweigh any extra calorie intake. I can see the argument that it could lead to a 'slippery slope' of snacking on fruit making it seem ok to snack on other food but I'll keep an eye on that.

Anyway, happy to say that yesterday was a success and even went to the cinema and didn't have any snacks or sweets.

You seem to be doing very well. Keep up the good work. My husband has decided to do No S with me too. The support really helps. We can do this.

Pangelsue - glad for you, your husband is doing it with you, it's made a huge difference to my motivation and has been amazingly helpful, although am concerned for him today as he's had to fly across to the UK for a meeting and is flying back late tonight and it will be a really long day for him to go without snacks with all the temptations of being bored waiting around in airports.
Another success yesterday although I discovered that my usual tinned grapefruit is in fact tinned in syrup when I had thought it was in juice so I will have to give it up. This will make the mornings harder as the grapefruit was a real habit and will be hard to break. (unfortunately I have it at work and have no influence over switching brands).

Can you find fresh grapefruit, or can you drain and rinse the tinned fruit?

I do have fresh grapefruit at home, but actually draining and rinsing it isn't a bad idea. I started with the grapefruit becuase where I work I am provided with one meal each shift, but it's a big buffet fry up breakfast and it was the only healthy option really.

Yesterday I had a banana instead and it was just fine, the day was a success overall. Very proud of resisting all the chocolate biscuits at my WI meeting, even more so because it was my turn to be on refreshments duty so I couldn't avaoid them, was stood right next to them the whole time.

SUCCESS

Biggest achievement of the day: baking bread (courgette, potato and cheese bread) and not immediately eating a big slice as soon as it was ready.

Speaking as a bread maker myself, that is quite an accomplishment what with the smell wafting through the house and all. Congratulations. I will have to try that soon if I want to stay vanilla no S.

Well done!!!

Great job! Homemade bread is such a temptation to me that I won't be making any for awhile. Well, at least until I can get used to eating only at meal times, so I won't be tempted to just munch, munch, munch!

2 more s days over.
Saturday went well.
Was an idiot on Sunday.
Regained the 3 pounds I lost.
Still haven't had a failure on an N day yet though.
This week will try to not be an idiot on either S day (Friday and Saturday this week)

SUCCESS

No proper exercise, but work was so busy I was on my feet and active for pretty much 8 hours of a 9 hour shift.

For many of us, the S days are the problem. I did good on Saturday and not so good on Sunday. Result was, had lost a pound and a half on Friday and Monday morning it was back. We will change our mindset if we try. It is the only hurdle we have left to leap over.

SUCCESS

Thank you Pangelsue, it's always good to know you're not the only one. For this week I decided to change my swap Sunday with Friday so I can have coffee and cake when I meet my mum who I don't get to see very often, but it's a 3-4 hour boat journey to get there and the boat has a cafeteria and a snack shop, that's where the problems will lie. I know I could stay away on an N day, just not sure if I can on an S day.

Also tonight we are going to see a (distant) relative, we've only met her once before and she's bound to offer some sort of biscuit or cake with a cup of tea, if it's shop bought I'll be ok saying no, but I don't want to feel awful if she's spent ages making something.

SUCCESS
Went for tea, and biscuits, but I just smiled, said thank you when the plate of biscuits came out then took one put it on a plate, broke it in two so I could start eating it....and didn't. I completely ignored it, carried on talking and when we left both halves were still there and I hadn't offended anyone. I don't think anyone even noticed I hadn't eaten any at all.

If only I'd realised it could be that easy I wouldn't have worried.

Awesome job resisting! Great decoy-- take a biscuit and break it up so no one can tell whether you've had any or not.

Reinhard says you're "building your resistance muscle" and it will be stronger every time.

You're doing brilliantly skykitty, well done!!

It's funny how easily you can resist sometimes.... I tend to find it really easy to resist when someone offers me a snack or sweet, but when I'm left to my own devices and bored/tired/stressed it's just SO much harder!

'Building resistance muscle' I like that, it's a lot more positive than just 'not having something'.

Yesterday was an S day (swapped with Sunday)

Breakfast - 2 slices toast and yogurt
Snack - small baguette with scrambled egg and cheeses and packet crisps
Lunch - starter and half (shared) portion of chips in thai restaurant
Snack - slice chocolate cake
Dinner - cheese and onion toastie

To be fair it could have been a lot more, I bought a choc bar fairly early I then carried around the rest of the day in my bag and still have, and I nearly got another packet of crisps with dinner but decided to see if I still wanted them after I'd eaten the toastie, which I didn't. It feels like I've started to build some S day resistance muscle.

Today, another S day, I plan to have:

Breakfast - 2 slices toast and a yogurt
Snack - grapefruit (tinned in syrup so only on S days)
Lunch - Sandwich and that chocolate bar from yesterday
Dinner - going to a friend's so whatever they cook, plus a couple of glasses of wine (I count alcohol as an S)

The first S day since I started this I've really thought ahead, so I hope it goes to plan.

Great planning! I think that really helps the S days to go less wild!

You're doing really well!

very nice! Great idea to plan ahead.

Thanks for the support, always much appreciated - gotta love this board

So the actual day yesterday looked like this:

Breakfast - 2 slices of toast and a yogurt
Snack - banana and an apple and a handful of sweets from the jar on my boss's desk.
Lunch - sandwich, fresh pineapple and the chocolate bar
Dinner - doritos to nibble on, starter of a rice ball with salad, then pasta in a tomato and chilli sauce with bread and a home-made chocolate mousse. Plus 3 glasses of wine.

Am very happy with that. I think posting on here makes it more real, and gives me more motivation to stick to what I plan.

Today is an N day for me (as took an S day on Friday)

Breakfast - 3 slices of toast and a yogurt
Lunch - 2 cheese and tomato rolls
Dinner - Tortilla (the spanish egg and potato kind, not the doritos style tortilla chips kind) with salad.

With fresh fruit with meals and between meals because I use that modificationand it works for me.

No idea what possessed me at the time to think I needed the third slice of toast, but as the rest of the day is reasonable I won't worry about it too much.

HI SkyKitty. I love toast - I completely understand why you had 3 slices. I could eat slice after slice after slice.... I've had to make it an S day food because I find it so moreish.
Keep up the good work - you're doing really well so far - building lots of 'resistance muscle'.

Actually I was glad of the extra slice of toast. We were going out in the evening and not back till about 8.30pm which is later than I usually eat dinner, so that extra slice meant I could hold off longer and have a later lunch, so not be too hungry by dinner.

Today will be:
Breakfast - 2 slices toast and a yogurt
Lunch - 2 cheese salad rolls
Dinner - salmon with broccoli and a herb sauce.

SUCCESS

Breakfast - the usual, plus a fresh grapefruit

Lunch - courgette, mint and feta soup with a bread roll and some cherries

Dinner -curry, if the lamb defrosts in time, and a peshwari naan.

Also eaten 3 small clementines and a banana and will posibly have some grapes this evening.

OK this is possibly crazy but I woke up with the idea this morning and now i can't go back on it.

Today I am going to make my very first day of Vanilla No S, up to now I've been allowing myself fruit at any time but today I'm going to keep it to meal times.

What makes it crazy is that it's my 21st day of No S today, am I sabotaging my first 21 days? Possibly, but I need to know if I can do Vanilla.

Today's plan:

Breakfast - 3 slices toast, yogurt and banana. toast I will reduce gradually.
Lunch- macaroni cheese, which I made yesterday and an orange.
Dinner - home-made pizza and some grapes.

Wish me luck.

Good Luck SkyKitty. I know you can do it!!!!

Good luck skykitty! How did your day go?

I did it!!
And without too much difficulty. I just included the fruit I would have had between meals, with my meals.
This is now my 21 days completed, on my first attempt with no fails!!

Plan for today:

Breakfast - 2 and 3/4 slices toast ( I know it might seem silly, but I'm sure that 2 slices not 3 is the right amount but I want to get there gradually) yogurt and a banana

Lunch - macaroni cheese and an orange

Dinner - home-made pizza, same as yesterday becuase we only used half the toppings, and a grapefruit.


Vanilla all the way for me now, although I still won't call fruit between meals (for me) a failure, I'm going to try very hard not to have it.

*Skykitty skips off to post on the 21 days thread*

SUCCESS
Today:

Breakfast - grapefruit, 2 slices toast, yogurt and a banana.

Lunch - Pub lunch, won't decide until I'm there but it will be just one plate, used to have a tendancy to make any excuse to order at least one side dish but not any more!

Dinner - onion soup and a bread roll.

2 more S days down, and well used.
Went to a big charity benefit with a buffet on Saturday and had friends over for a chinese takeaway on Sunday.
Glad to be back to No S days.

Today:
Breakfast - Toast, yogurt and banana.
Lunch - leftover chinese food (special chow mein, yum) and an apple
Dinner - Home-made fried squid rings with watercress and a dip and some grapes.

Not the healthiest of days but there is some fruit and veg in there along with the chinese and fried food so I'm not too bothered.

Exercise -SUCCESS already today, walked to work, which is just over 2 miles in 35 minutes.

Possibly one of my favourite things about this diet - I can still cook whatever I want. I love cooking, so does hubby and I hate being restricted to only using certain ingredients etc. Home-made fried calamari was gorgeous and a home-made sweet chilli sauce was amazing and there are very few diets I could have enjoyed that meal on, without feeling guilty.

Yesterday was SUCCESS.

Today:

Breakfast - toast, yogurt, banana
Lunch - Oriental noodle salad, noodles with dressing of soy sauce mixed with hoisin sauce and then cucumber, onion, carrot and pepper added. And an apple.
Dinner - Indian spicy vegetable omelette and a naan bread. And some grapes.

Exercise - SUCCESS already today, walked to work and it was a beautiful day for it, 2 miles along by the sea.

SUCCESS
But totally not according to plan. Didn't like the noodle salad I made for lunch, gave up after 2 bites and went and bought a turkey baguette instead. Dinner changed too once I looked at the recipe and realised that I was far too hungry for the time it would take to make what I had planned so I chucked an Amai Udon (Japanese noodle dish) together instead.

Wierd, didn't like the noodles for lunch but ended up choosing noodles foe dinner and loving them, huh.

Today:

Breakfast - toast, yogurt, grapefruit, few raspberries
Lunch - mackeral, onion and potato bake with mustard, some blueberries and a banana.
Dinner - the indian vegetable omelette I didn't have the patience to make last night plus probably some grapes or an apple.

Good job skykitty!

Your meals sound great - I love oriental food, but my repertoire is limited. Reading your descriptions is inspiring me to branch out.

Ooops, didn't get round to checking in yesterday, bad Skykitty!

Still two more SUCCESS days. Plus exercise, Wednesday I hadn't expected or intended to get any exercise but then at 8pm two friends turned up on my doorstep and suggested going for a walk because it was such a lovely evening, so we ended up going down to the beach and covered about 3 miles.

Thank you Snapdragon and KCC.
KCC - I do love cooking and oriental food is often easier than it sounds, although I have to confess my Indian omelette turned out as Indian scrambled eggs, so not always perfect.

Today:
B - Toast, yogurt and banana
L - Home-made calzone with onions, mushrooms and peppers
D - Some kind of soup (haven't decided what to make yet) with bread.

Exercise - SUCCESS - walked to work this morning.

S Weekend plans -

Saturday I'm working then Saturday night is my friend's hen party, and there will be cocktails and a buffet.
Sunday we're going to a street party/barbecue so I'm baking a couple of cakes in the morning to take along - often I'd go to the gym on a Sunday morning but probably won't make it after a hen night!

Oooh seems like a long time since I checked in.

Yesterday - SUCCESS

Breakfast - The usual
Lunch - Cheese rolls an apple and an orange
Dinner - Lemon and soy roast chicken with broccoli and a few grapes

Today -

Breakfast - Usual
Lunch - Home-made calzone with onion, mushroom and peppers, and an orange.
Dinner - Kashmiri lamb stew (hopefully, as I've never made this before) and half a (large) naan bread.

Weekend was great, I mostly kept my S-ing to within what I had planned. A packet of crisps with lunch on Saturday then the buffet at the hen party and a slice of cake, although the buffet wasn't great, it was ALL french fries and doritos. Sunday, had dessert with lunch then out to a brabeque where I had a couple of bits of chicken, a couple of bits of halloumi cheese, a slice of cake a load of crisps and some chocolate. I really enjoyed both events without the guilt of previous attempts at dieting (mostly Slimming World, which is like WW but in my opinion far more sensible).

The weekend did highlight something to me though.

CRISPS ARE MY BIGGEST WEAK SPOT

(that would be potato chips tothose in the US)

I really must keep them to S days, technically they could form part of a meal on N days, but not for me, too much of a trigger food for over-eating.

I always feel quite guilty when I eat crisps with a meal on an N day - sort of 'hmm this choice means that I have less room to fill my plate with other yummy healthy foods'. I guess NoS does make you think more about what you are putting on your three platefuls a day!

I've got far more of a sweet tooth though, that's my downfall.

(Although resisting these crisps might not be too much of a problem for you!

Great job, SkyKitty! I enjoyed reading your post. i think you are very wise to be flexible and not ponder every step..you had noodles..tried them..didn't like them so got something else.. . how wise. I know there are many out there who would have eaten what they didn't like rather than switch meals. You eased into vanilla S and didn't try it until you were ready. It takes some of us a loooong time to be as comfortable with No S as you are right now! Continued good eating! Niiiiiiice!

Yep milliem, those evil crisps can stay right on the supermarket shelf - next to the twiglets!

Thank you Grammy, keeping this check-in really does help me to see where the tweaks can be made, I just suddenly felt ready one day to go vanilla. I can't say I won't put my fruit at anytime mod back into play if I feel I need it, but it will be occasional now, rather than automatic.

Yesterday was another day which didn't resemble what I had planned. Lunch ended up being dominos pizza. It arrived at work out of the blue, 2 massive pizzas, because they are trying to bribe us to put their menus in all the hotel bedrooms (not going to happen) I hadn't had lunch yet, so I got a plate and put 4 slices on and gobbled them down without any guilt.

What makes it even better is that on my weekly weigh in this morning I lost 2lbs from last week.

I've had bigger weekly losses on previous diets, but never with so little sacrifice and self-deprivation.

Yesterday SUCCESS
Today -
Breakfast - Usual
Lunch - Cheese salad rolls and an orange
Mid afternoon - Banana and apple
Dinner - Scallops with asparagus and salad.

The mid afternoon fruit is because I'm going to the funfair at 6pm so will be eating late when I get back, Mr Skykitty is cooking tonight, so a bit of extra fruit will keep me on track and keep me away from the naughties at the fair.

Hmm well.. plans changed yesterday because my friend bailed on going to the funfair and I'd forgotten to get the scallops out of the freezer. So I picked up some chicken kebabs from the butchers which turned out to be pretty awful, should have made some myself really. Also Mr Skykitty crashed the car (in a metaphorical diet sense, not an actual car) and ate a whole large bag of cadbury giant buttons right in front of me. Boo!!

Today
Breakfast - usual
Lunch - cheese salad rolls and an orange
Dinner - half a pizza, because it can be chucked quickly in the oven straight out of the freezer so is quick and easy to do before going out to a dance lesson.
Also going to the funfair today (hopefully) after work and before dance lesson, so have a couple of apples stashed in my bag, just in case.

Not the most nutritious day, oh well, I'll try again next week.

Yesterday was a SUCCESS

Breakfast - grapefruit, toast, yogurt and banana
Lunch - pub lunch, ham and cheese bagel with chips, but I didn't eat all the chips, because I didn't need them. Also a handful of strawberries when I got home.
Dinner - omelette with salami, mozzarella and broccoli. Turned out a bit strange but still tasty enough. Also a handful of grapes, and I think I had an apple before dinner.

Today is

Breakfast - usual
Mid morning - already had a banana
Lunch - Either the tortilla I brought with me, or leftovers from lunch served at work, which will be lasagne.
Dinner - No idea, might be going either out to dinner or round to a friend's place.

This worries me as I like to know exactly what I'm having each day and I feel nervous about failing, with being unsure about both lunch and dinner.

On the plus side I'm going back to the gym today after a 2 week break now that TT is over and life on the island goes back to normal. Very much looking forward to it, both the workout and the sauna afterwards!

Well, for all my worrying yesterday was a SUCCESS after all. Mostly because my friends had to cancel plans in the evening so I stayed in and grabbed a portion of chicken and mushroom crumble out of the freezer (pre-homecooked, not ready-made) and had that with some broccoli.

For lunch, I decided to grab the free leftovers at work, but that wasn't available till 2pm, as I eat breakfast at 6am that was WAAAY too long to wait so I had 1 piece of tortilla at 12.30 and virtual plated with the lasagne, left a space for the tortilla I'd already eaten and then had lasane with salad instead of with garlic bread.

Today:

Breakfast - Usual
Lunch - Tortilla again and an apple
Dinner - Chicken curry and naan bread and grapes. I might cook some extra onion and peppers to put in the curry to up the veg in it.

I have the same fears when I haven't decided what to do for dinner - I'm always afraid that a last minute decision will be worse than a pre-planned one!

Well done on all your lovely green days lately though!

Thanks milliem, always good to know I'm not alone with my irrational worries.

I have the same problem this evening actually. We're going out and back quite late and I don't think we'll get food while we're out, maybe home around 10.30ish which is WAAY later than I usually eat. So I've packed a big lunch and might chuck a couple of bits of fruit in my bag just in case, but hopefully a big lunch (home-made calzone) should see me through.

Am quite excited though, we're going to see Elton John in concert tonight, probably the biggest name EVER to come and play on the island. Definately worth a hunger pang or two.

Thank you for your comment on my check-in thread.

What an exciting concert! I'm sure the man knows how to put on a show!

How cool is that?! Enjoy every moment of your concert!

Woo Hoo
Elton John was great! The man can really play piano, he was amazing. Obviously he's a great singer and songwriter but I have to say, live it's the piano playing that really stands out above and beyond.

We were standing, so walking there 30mins, standing (well, sort of dancing really) for 3 1/2 hours then walking back I was certainly no couch potato yesterday.

Ended up having a banana before I went, then eating an orange halfway through and by the time I got home at 10.30 I didn't really want to eat, but didn't want to not eat either So I had a fried egg on toast (comfort food from childhood). BeforeNo St would have been 2 eggs on 2 slices of toast but now I realise 1 is enough for my level of hunger at the time.

Today:
Breakfast - usual
Lunch - 2 cheese and onion rolls and an orange
Dinner - soup (courgette, feta and mint) and some raspberries.

Tonight is our usual dancing lesson, it's active, about 90mins but I'm not sure if I can really call it exercise as the argentine tango is quite slow really.

Friday - SUCCESS

Very good weekend.

Today:

Going to the gym. 20mins hard working out (short but intense) followed by 30mins in the sauna and steam room, bliss.

Breakfast - Usual.
Lunch - 2 cheese and ham salad wraps, a handful of strawberries and an apple
Dinner - Chicken salad and a handful of cherries.

I will probably find it easier to eat lightly this week as Mr Skykitty is away all week, even though he would happily eat quite light meals, I always feel an urge to provide 'decent' meals. I wonder why this is?

Sounds like you feel you would be shirking an obligation as a good wife not to make "good" meals, and it's not acceptable to you not to be a good wife. I think sometimes underneath those things is a little idea that men will make stupid nutritional choices, living on fast food, if it weren't for the more mature-minded woman doing the right thing. Or maybe you really do like sharing the better meals? Or you think he's just being nice, not wanting to trouble you, but he really does want more fuss.

I call this the realm of the unseen. We just don't know what is really going on... sounds minor enough.

Congrats on your workouts.

I think there is something to the 'being a good wife' thing Oolala. Mostly though I think it's a 'showing love through cooking' thing. Nobody ever comes to my house without being fed, and I love to share, just a genuine enthusiasm for cooking and creating nice food.

It's one of the things I love most about No S, as I think I commented before but it's worth saying again, I love being able to make whatever meals I want and not having to worry about weighing and measuring or can I use this ingredient or is it too many points? I can really enjoy cooking on this diet.

Anyway I digress slightly because the reason I came on now is to share a massive victory with the world (or anyone who might be reading)

I just calculated my BMI and I am no longer obese!!!!
I (only just) dropped back into the overweight category.

Skykitty dances round the room with joy!!!!

Super awesome!!!!

That is fabulous news! I've crossed that line a few times, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to cross back over again. I have no idea I'll get to the normal range as the last time I was there, I wasn't eating much and was exercising enough to get injured. But I'm refining my choices all the time and noticably (to me) being satisfied with less food at random meals. I'm not going to force it but I'm not going to oppose it, either.

Congratulations on hitting that milestone! So exciting!

Thank you for sharing my excitement, gotta love this forum, it stops me being a complete and utter diet bore to everyone I know, I can just put it all down here with people I know understand.

I have been here at this poni before on my last diet (Slimming World) which I did get on well with but then moved to an area where they don't have any classes, it's the first time since I moved and stopped doing that diet that I've got back down to under an obese BMI.

So yesterday was a SUCCESS and the gym was hard work but the spa was great.

Today (looks a lot like yesterday because that's the food I've got in:

Breakfast - Usual
Lunch - 2 ham and cheese salad wraps, an apple and a handful strawberries.
Dinner - Chicken salad and a handful cherries.

Exercise today SUCCESS walked to work.

Congratulation on the milestone, Skykitty. I loved that you danced around in celebration. I know I would too. Enjoy you new "status" in life.

Good for you!!!

Congrats on the milestone! You're moving right along! My husband's aunt lived in England and did Slimming World. She lost a lot of weight and loved that program. Of course when she moved back to the US she was unable to attend it cuz we don't have it here. BUT No-S seems like the answer for us who love to cook! I am totally enjoying myself too! I can make any of my favorite breads, et cetera, and not have to worry about points or carbs or calories. Fun!!! I love that No-S is not a diet. Moderate eating habits is the answer!

Let's rock this coming weekend!

Moderate eating habits truly are the way forward, and No S is absolutely right for me now. I did get on well with Slimming World when I did it, and I made some good friends in the class, four of us used to meet in the pub across the road for a (diet coke) drink before the class. I think that's another reason I really like No S because I feel like I get that social interaction on the forum and there's people I can talk to about the diet without seeming like a crashing bore!

Yesterday was a SUCCESS.

Today -
Breakfast - Usual plus a handful of strawberries
Lunch - Mackeral and potato bake and an apple
Dinner - Chicken and mushroom crumble with peas and broad beans, plus some grapes.

Exercise - I was planning to go to the gym today but am now a bit banged up because I came off my motorbike on the way to work about 30mins ago. Nothing serious but I ended up enderneath it a bit and am feeling a little bruised although not limping so clearly not really injured. Think I'll go anyway but do 20mins walking on the treadmill instead of my usual work-out, and then treat myself with the spa as usual.

Congratulations Skykitty on your bmi success!!
That is very inspiring to hear! I hope to join you in that respect soon
I've been reading your posts and you seem to be doing very well This board is such an encourager!

Yesterday was a SUCCESS. I walked on the treadmill at the gym because my knee was still a bit twisted from taking a spill off my motorbike but I'm glad I still did something.

I did dream that I had a failure though, I dreamed my friend made a chocolate cake and I had some even though I didn't really mean to. Ooops. Woke up slightly annoyed with myself for a moment until I realised it hadn't happened.

Today -

Breakfast - Usual 2 slices toast, yogurt and banana.
Lunch- mackeral and potato bake, anb apple and grapes
Dinner - Fennel lamb stew with broad beans and peas, and strawberries
and blueberries.

Exercise today SUCCESS, walked to work

Wow, seems like ages since I checked in. Still, no fails though.

Today

Breakfast - Usual
Lunch - cheese, ham and salad rolls, apple and orange
Dinner - Scallops with salad and bread roll, probably a handful raspberries.

Yesterday had a wobble when we ate out and I couldn't eat what I had ordered, it was fish and I thought it was undercooked (I'm quite paranoid since a bout of fish-induced food poisoning earlier this year) but lovely hubby swapped meals with me! Yay!

Exercise - none yesterday but on my feet at work all day.
Today - walked to work.

Yesterdays dinner was yummy, definately doing that again!

Today -

Breakfast - Usual
Lunch - Cheese and ham salad rolls, orange and apple
Dinner - Vegetable pie (home-made so hopefully more nutritious, with home-made pastry too!) raspberries and strawberries.

Exercise - Yes, walked to work.

Am nervous about tomorrow though. Going to meet my mum, which is emotionally strained at the best of times. Last time I did it I swapped an S day, this time I'd like to do it as an N day. it's just a long day. The last time I made the mistake of having breakfast before going to catch the boat, big mistake I was ravenous by 11am. This time I will cough up for breakfast on the boat. If I then just have one plate at lunch and dinner on the boat on the way home I should be ok.

Problem is long days like this when I'm out of my routine are snacking triggers for me, and I've come to associate meeting her with having coffee and cake and it will be difficult to break the cake habit.

Fingers crossed.

Sounds like a good common sense plan. I feel that way about being with my sister. Who was it said "our friends we can pick, our family we are stuck with."? Good luck. It is an experiment and if it doesn't work, it is not a failure. As Edison taught us, a failed experiment is not a failure, it just shows us another of many solutions that didn't work. We look for another one.

Well after a success on Thursday and a success on Friday, this train truly left the tracks over the weekend.

Saturday -

Breakfast - usual plus a grapefruit
Lunch - Cheese toastie with coleslaw
Snack - packet of crisps after the gym and 2 chocolate biscuits
Dinner - One plate of buffet food at a wedding reception, 2 slices of cake and 2 chocolate mints.

OK so thats not too bad, and I try not to beat myself up too much for S days, but Sunday....

Breakfast - 2 slices toast, and banana plus the chocolate novelty favour from the wedding
Snack - 2 muffins and a handful strawberries (the muffins were because I baked some for our tango instructors as a thank you for changing our usual lesson time for us.
Lunch - 2 large sharing bags of crisps and 2 chocolate desserts.
Dinner -2 slices cheese and tomato on toast
Snack - 5 small amaretto biscuits.

Looking at it written like this I can take responsibility instead of sweeping it under the carpet and also look to see where I went wrong.

I think my downfall was breakfast on Sunday. If I start badly I tend to carry on badly. I didn't need, or even really enjoy the chocolate with breakfast on Sunday and it put me in the wrong frame of mind.

Lesson to be learned for the future, stick to my usual braekfast on S days.

Hi SkyKitty - I was just passing by - greetings from a fellow tango fan. There's no dance I know to equal its charm.

I've had to learn the lesson about S day breakfasts the hard way too. I've found that for me starting the day with sweets and/or snacky breakfast leads me to an entirely messed up day. Now that I know this, I (almost always) eat one of my regular breakfasts even on weekends and it's really made a difference.

Learning these lessons is a big part of this -- so congrats on that part!

Julie

Thanks thtrchic, yep lesson definately learned now. Chocolate for breakfast BAD, BAD idea even on an S day.

(although it strikes me that most people wouldn't even need to learn that lesson, they would automatically know that. Oh well, I got there in the end)

Today should be a good vanilla success like yesterday was.

Breakfast - Usual 2 slices toast, yogurt and banana
Lunch - 2 ham salad rolls, grapes and an apple
Dinner - chicken and salad

In fact today will be exactly the same meals as yesterday, I marinated enough chicken for 2 days in a yummy nigella lawson recipe which was

80ml Worcester sauce
4tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tbsp apricot jam (but I used 2 tbsp)
2 tsp english mustard powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1 onion chopped finely.

I had been planning to make a different marinade but found I was out of a key ingredient, imagine my delight when flicking through I came across this and I had everything I needed!

(Graham, what tango do you do? Ballroom or argentine, we do argentine - it's been 2 years now and we're only improving very slowly but the actual learning is fun so we don't mind too much)

Mmm that chicken marinade sounds delicious! I'll definitely have to try that....

I'm also struggling with S days, but the way I see it the more we struggle the more we learn what we don't want!

Hi SkyKitty, I've been learning Argentine tango, for about 3 years now. I have also found it slowish going, I'm not particularly gifted, but I love the music. Milongas and classes are available every night of the week here, though I wouldn't want to go to some of them. I was lucky enough to come across a very good teacher who suited my learning style within a short bike ride of my home, and I plug away, hopefully not driving him insane over my slow progress.

Hmm, well yesterday wasn't entirely as planned. After an upsetting phone call with my mother I had the hugest attack of emotional hunger, I really, really wanted to eat.

I didn't though, I waited till dinner then instead of the chicken salad I made it into wraps and had 3, with the chicken and some stir-fried chinese leaf. It was just what I needed, at the end of the day salad is just never going to cut it as comfort food for me, and last night I really needed comfort food.

I'm pleased I've proven to myself that I can get the better of emotional hunger if I'm stubborn enough to just refuse to cave in.

Tonight I'm going to a friend's for dinner, I haven't seen her for ages. I might have dessert, I've decided that if there is dessert which is shop-bought I will politely say no thank you, but if she has made something herself I will have some and the fail will be worth it.

Well yesterday was a FAILURE but I feel like it was a failure on my terms. I thought I'd got away with it when, shopping for stuff for dinner my friend asked if we should get something for dessert, I said, no we'll be fine without dessert. Cue Skykitty thinking, woohoo no failure for me today.

But then we got to hers and she started baking cookies, fresh cookies, so I thought wow, I'll have two of those.

So I had two. Exactly as I planned, because they were home-made, exactly as I'd decided. Still felt in control.

And I did enjoy those cookies, without guilt.

I'm not sure I could ever feel guilty at eating home-made delicious cookies... not necessarily a good thing but hey ho! Congratulations on your successful fail!

Finished up last week with 2 more SUCCESS days.

S days not too wild, and I had some lovely treats.

Today will be
Breakfast - Usual
Lunch - Mackeral and leek pasta bake I put together last night. Plus an apple and some strawberries
Dinner - Spicy turnip and lentil soup, some friends gave us a turnip, the largest I've ever seen, from their allotment which I hope to put to good use. I'll probably have a piece of naan bread with this, got some in the freezer. And some fruit, maybe grapes.

Exercise - walked to work.

Well yesterday was a SUCCESS.

The next few days maybe not.

I go away this afternoon for a really hectic few days; I'm seeing my oldest friend from childhood who I've not seen since November and we'll be celebrating her being accepted onto a PhD course, seeing an old friend from school and meeting her now 6month old daughter for the first time, seeing my mum and hopefully my brother who I haven't seen since Christmas, going to a wedding and then a Sunday brunch with another friend before heading home. This with lots of travel on boats and trains. The wedding and brunch will be on S days anyway but I think I will relax a little on the other 3 days and see how they go.

See you all next week.

Wow, I had a busy few days.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday all SUCCESS. Not necessarily really healthy meals but within No S rules.

Weekend was all over the place though. Firstly the wedding was cancelled, called off by the bride (a good friend of mine) the night before, so we ended up meeting up with some friends we would have seen at the wedding for lunch, then taking the bride out for a burger and to the movies that evening on what would have been her wedding day to cheer her up. Then on Sunday my boat home was cancelled due to bad weather so I had to splash out for a hotel room overnight, and didn't get home till 4.30pm although somehow managed to still have a SUCCESS yesterday.

Today I'm glad to be 100% back to normal routine at home, even though it was great to catch up with friends.

Yesterday -
Breakfast - bacon sandwich, watermelon, kiwi and an orange
Lunch - Club Sandwich, grapes (on the boat in a force 6 gale)
Dinner - Chicken salad, raspberries and more grapes.

Yikes that sounds like a dramatic weekend! Hope your friend is ok :/

Well done on the successes though, it's amazing how flexible NoS can be if you want it to be!

Very dramatic
My friend is actually okay, which more than anything makes me think maybe she made the right choice, I've got a feeling if she hadn't called it off the night before she might have turned and fled down the aisle in front of everyone which would have been worse.

I was amazed I got through those days sticking to No S rules, it was easier than I thought it would be. It was enough of a treat to be with the people that I was with that I didn't need food treats.

I did go mad enough on the S days that I gained a bit, but I don't mind because I know that both days were out of the ordinary anyway, and I'm proud to have eaten sanely on the N days.

Today
Breakfast - Usual
Lunch - Ham and watercress roll, with blueberries and an apple
Dinner - Hm chicken chasseur with cauliflower and green beans, with strwaberries and an orange

So that really happens that someone walks out on their wedding. Amazing. Sounds like a movie plot but good for her. Better to have one moment of craziness instead of years or a lifetime of misery married to the wrong person. You did terrific considering the circumstances. Congratulations.

Wow, quite a few days since I last posted.
No failures, all success or S days. I've been quite good at sticking to the rules, I think it's because I'm far too stubborn to fail most of the time. I've ended up digging my heels in, crossing my arms, sticking my tongue out and declaring

'No, I won't eat that snack because it would be a failure, and YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!!'

Yesterday was
Breakfast - Usual
Lunch - 2 ham salad rolls, blueberries and an apple
Dinner - African marinated chicken with greens, made into wraps. I thought three wraps was a decent main meal, but couldn't finish all of them, but then still had raspberries and grapes afterwards to get in my 5 a day.

I've got a job interview today. Haven't told anyone except Mr Skykitty because it's awful if you don't get it, but I'm so nervous and Mr Skykitty isn't even here he's away on business and my interview is after work, where I am now, posting because it's boring (hence looking for another job). So I'm really on edge and have to get on with work as normal, when I want desperately to be able to come in tomorrow and quit and of course I have to GET the job first.
Arrggghh!! i want chocolate!!

You're doing so wonderful!!! Good luck on your interview!

Can you tell me what's in African marinade? Sounds great!

Sounds like you're doing well!

Well I managed to resist munching on chocolate to calm my nerves but mostly because I didn't have any as I was at work.

The interview went well, I think I am what they're looking for and I think they liked me but it sounded like they had a lot of interviews so there will be a lot of competition. I won't hear until next week, so fingers crossed.

African marinade is yummy, it's a Nigella Lawson recipe,

I onion diced
80ml Worcester sauce
2 tsp english mustard powder
1 tsp ground ginger
4 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tbsp apricot jam

Nigella Lawson is never particularly authentic, I doubt this is a traditional african recipe but it's nice all the same. Yesterday I used my other favourite marinade combination which is sesame oil, soy sauce and honey.

Today -
Breakfast - Usual
Lunch - Mackeral and leek pasta bake and strawberries
Dinner - Soup, an orange and grapes.

Tonight I'm inventing a soup! I had a load of red peppers in the fridge and remembered making a recipe for red pepper, feta and mint soup.
So now I have bought the feta and mint I checked the book and there is 1 recipe for red pepper and goats cheese soup and one for courgette feta and mint soup. I'm going to go with red pepper, feta and mint anyway because I've bought it all now!!

Hi SkyKitty, best of luck with the job, it sounds like you're in with a good chance!

My friend brought me some of her leftover Christmas cake when she came to stay at the end of December last year and it was the most delicious fruitcake I have ever eaten, really moist and yummy. It turned out it was a Nigella recipe and the secret is creamed chestnuts (I think). In any case, she seems to know her food regardless of authenticity!

That soup sounds rather good, I would never think of putting feta in a soup. Would love to know how it turns out.

Sarah

The soup was nice, not as smooth as I usually like but I think that's because I've got a cheap stick blender rather than a problem with the recipe/invention, anyway there are now another two portions in the freezer for when we get back from holiday.

Yesterday was a FAIL.

I'm not too bothered because it was a fail for a reason rather than mindless eating, I baked (lemon shortbread) and had a slice to check it was ok, then another because I wasn't sure. Turned out I was right not to be sure - I had only used half the amount of butter needed, and I think it needed a second lemon zested into it to really give it a proper lemon flavour. It all went in the bin and I will make some more tonight, but probably not try it, the first attempt was close enough to right that I'm confident that with these two tweaks it will taste good.

Today -
Breakfast - Usual
Lunch - Mackeral and leek pasta bake, strawberries and an orange
Dinner - TBC, I am feeling a bit of a craving for cheese on toast with sliced tomato though so maybe that, and whatever fruit I buy on the way home.

Yesterday was indeed cheese on toast with sliced tomato, yum! With grapes and a peach. SUCCESS
I burned the second batch of shortbread so had to make a third, which is now sitting in a tin ready to go tonight.

This evening I'm going to a milonga, a sort of tango social evening. We all take food and have a bit of a buffet.

My plan will be to stay on plan, have one good sized plate of savoury food (I'm making sausage rolls) and none of the sweet food.

I feel a fail coming on...... and am then going on holiday for a week tomorrow morning.

On holiday I think I'll be prepared to break No S rules but only if what I'm going to eat is worth it. So no mindless eating but if we go out and there's a really good dessert then I will have it.

Back in the routine after holiday, ooh except I will hear about this interview while I'm away so fingers crossed I might be starting a new job.

SkyKitty wrote:
I feel a fail coming on......

Don't plan a fail before one even happens! That's a sure-fire way to DEFINITELY fail! You'd be surprised how you can stick to NoS even at social events if you plan how you are going to do it beforehand

Have an awesome holiday! I'm sure you'll find a good balance of managing your S's

I'm back.

I did have a FAIL on that last Friday before I went away, but it wasn't an epic fail, I had 2 small plates of buffet food, most of a slice of chocolate birthday cake and a slice of shortbread I had made.

As for while I was on holiday, I pretty much ate whatever, whenever but I tried not to eat until I was too overly full, and we cooked in the cottage most evenings so only had lunches out which help. Lots of chocolate, lots of fries and savoury snacks and a fair amount of fast food while travelling down there and back.

However, the most important thing was that yesterday was a SUCCESS:

Breakfast - 2 slices toast, yogurt and a banana
Lunch - 3 slices cheese and tomato on toast with strawberries and blueberries.
Dinner - Courgette and blue cheese tortilla with salad, orange and an apple.

Today should be good too. Also I didn't put on as much weight as I thought. I was expecting to see a figure about 4 punds higher than I did see.

All back on plan now....

Sounds like you're doing well.

I think it is going well. This system suits me with it's guidelines but not too many strict rules.

Last night I went to a new pottery class (I'm the least artistic person in the world, I can't even draw stick people, but it sounded like fun to do something completely alien to me) and there was a big plate of scones with jam and cream for everyone to help themselves. I just smiled and had a cup of tea and ignored them.
When I got home I was really hungry but I had a hot chocolate instead of the toast I would have had pre-NoS and was fine. This evening I am out again, and there will also be refreshments but I will ignore them again.

I find holding a cup of tea with both hands helps, I weld my hands to the mug so I don't have a free hand to sneak towards the biscuits.

Today -
Breakfast - Usual
Lunch - 2 cheese and coleslaw rolls, strawberries and an orange.
Dinner - Mexican chicken salad with tomato and black bean salsa. Cherries and probably grapes.

Woo, another SUCCESS, ended up making roast chicken with roast potatoes, peas and Hm onion gravy for lunch yesterday, most unusual when it's just me at home on a day off, normally it would be leftovers or cheese on toast, not sure what came over me.
Did have a very light dinner though, some fish and crudites, (pepper and cucumber), went to bed a bit hungry but was ok.

Today -
Breakfast - Usual
Lunch - Cheese rolls, strawberries and an orange
Dinner - Soup. (and some fruit)
Looking forward to a quiet weekend.