Everyday Systems

Greetings earthlings.

I'm glad to have found this site. I was looking around on Lifehacker for some sort of website or software to easily track what I ate.

Actually, I was at the point of trying to write some software myself for tracking calories. And that's because I thought going through the trouble of writing it would be easier in the long run than any other approach. Oh brother.

Anyway, luckily I followed the shovelglove page and clicked around until I came across No S. When I read the description and realized that the whole diet had been described in a couple paragraphs, I realized this was the one for me... so, this was day one.

Like Reinhard I'm a programmer, and the sitting around has really gotten ahead of my, shall we say, physique.

So I'm going to do No S and also start walking again. At one point in my life I used to walk about 6 or 7 miles a day, and I never felt better... but I've since moved somewhere less walkable. Or at least, I've convinced myself that it's less walkable.

I did end up writing some software for updating my iPod with some stuff to listen to while walking, so hopefully that will help me get back in the habit. Hopefully it will start warming up soon!

Anyways, here's day one:

Success

This looks like a cool crowd!

Hello fellow earthling!
LOL..

Welcome and good luck!
Hope you take to the plan and get back to your pre sedentary physique once again!
Your post was funny

Peace and Love,
Deb

Hey Deb,

Thanks for the kind words.

Where did you get the idea that I WAS an earthling? What, you think we space aliens don't have to watch what we eat?

Welcome to our little corner of the web. The people here are terrific, very friendly and supportive. Hope you enjoy No-S.

Ha ha ha!!!
I should have realized you were from Mars..
Vorpal is the common name over there..
Kind of like Jones here on earth!
LOL..

Hey, wherever you are from, glad you're here now..Anyone who quotes Woody Allen is a-okay with me!
We just had a Woody Allen marathon in the last few weeks..
I rediscovered "Sleeper"..
Oh man! I haven't laughed so much in a while!!!
He is definitely among my very favorite filmmakers ever!

I'm pretty sure you will be happy here too... NoS is a lifesaver...
Really!

Well see you later alien guy..
Or as they say on your planet

Zleeb bleernap quone!
(LOL! That means have a nice S day!)

Peace and Intergalactic love,
Deb

Actually, it occurred to me that I started on an "S" day, although yesterday I was very much No-S. So today I was an S... I had like 3 pieces of pizza. I don't intend to log everything I eat as a matter of course, but I think I will for a while...

breakfast:

hash browns (one potato), 3 vegetarian sausage thingies with some peppers, 8oz Odwalla thingie, coffee

more coffee

then some more coffee

"lunch":

coffee (heh, yes, I like coffee.), and for an "S", one of those ridiculous Starbucks scones with sugary stuff on it. Well, it was good. Heh.

dinner:

3 pieces of pizza, one beer, a salad with shredded cheese... (not so hot, that...also, it's not really vegetarian... )

i have 2 pieces of leftover pizza. I sort of watn to eat them... but it's already 10. It wouldn't be a crime really since I didn't have lunch, but I will see if I can resist the urge anyway.

We'll see if this remains a Success day.

Assuming I don't break down between now and going to bed,

SUCCESS

Well, pretty much. Actually I'm not sure. Here's what I ate:

Breakfast

Same as yesterday, almost exactly:

1 potato fried in olive oil
3 (smallish) vegetarian pseudosausages
1 banana
8oz of an Odwalla Mango.

Too much sugar

Lunch

2 slices of cheese pizza (well, at least I didn't eat them last night...)
a banana
salad with some of this dressing


Ouch on the fat...


Dinner

Spaghetti with this sauce I thought it would have too much sugar, but compared to that Odwalla, it's nothing (Sugars 5g).

A small piece of that leftover scone thingie from yesterday. cashing in Saturday's credit, I guess, hehe.

Actually, I'm not positive this counts as a "SUCCESS" day... but whatever, just getting started. I walked, too.

I love your last post, Vorpal! How do you put the nutrition info boxes into your post?

I finally figured out why your screen name sounded familiar to me...it is from a line in "Jabberwocky": He took his vorpal sword in hand, long time the manxome foe he sought...

Mystery solved!

Jan-Tz wrote:I love your last post, Vorpal! How do you put the nutrition info boxes into your post?

I just googled for the pages with the info, and then I copied the url of the images and put them in an Img tag.

I finally figured out why your screen name sounded familiar to me...it is from a line in "Jabberwocky": He took his vorpal sword in hand, long time the manxome foe he sought...

Mystery solved!

Indeed, that was what I had in mind, but more like, I'm seeking to vanquish my manxome belly.

Eheh.

FAILURE

Well.

I got a soy latte.

Angels are weeping!

A soy latte isn't a failure Vorpal!
That was a cool photo though..
It is an S if it's loaded with extra sugar based syrups..
A plain latte is only soymilk...
I worked at starbucks for four months..
Soy lattes are totally NoS approved!
Really...

Change your post to say "Success"...
NOW!

Deb

Oh, and since you mentioned that you live at Starbucks...
Real S's would include:

Frappucinos of any sort
Mochas of any sort
Anything in their dessert case...

Everything else is just a cup of coffee with milk..
Milk is NoS approved..
Don't worry... Only the desserts will get you fat...
And the price will make your wallet thin!

Peace and Love,
Deb

well, the fritos i just ate blew it anyway, haha!

tomorrow's another day.

Hey don't sweat it Vorpal, or can I call you Vorp for short?
BTW, Fritos are fine if they are part of the meal.. Mmmmm!

Sometimes I am dying for chips and salsa.. That counts as my meal..
Usually I like some guac with that too!

Peace and Love,
Deb

heh, sure, you can call me Vorp.

That's what my mom called me growing up.

No wait... no she didn't.

I'm with Deb on this one. A soy latte does not constitute a failure! No way, no how (unless you loaded it with extra flavoured syrup - then it's *definately* over the line )

For the record, Monday was also a success day. Don't worry about the little things. Just concentrate on getting the 3 meals a day habit down pat and the rest will follow. Yes, your mango drink had a lot of added sugar, but now you know at least! And the rest of the day was just fine, NoS wise.

Ask yourself, are you doing better than before you started NoS? If the answer is "hell, yes!" then there's nothing to worry about! The rest of the bumps can be ironed out once the basic habits are built - hell, I'm still ironing out most of my 'bumps' and I've been doing this for more than 7 months.

Oh, and nice to meet a true alien for once. It's reassuring that you have the same problems as we do here on earth.

C.

You should stop being so hard on yourself. You're doing just fine. Besides that, I love your posts!

SUCCESS

like this

Who is that??? What does she have in her hand?

Success... I think.

I had:

Breakfast

Two thingies of oatmeal and a banana.

Lunch

A roll with a tofu dog on it and some spinach and some of this Thai satay stuff. And some red pepper.

Dinner

Maybe half of a vegetarian burrito at Chipotle... left off the cheese and the guacamole. But I got a Corona.

Hmm. It doesn't really feel like I'm doing much different... but I guess I'm just getting started. It is true that I don't eat snacks, and I pay attention to what I eat a lot more. So maybe it is just taking me a while to change my perspective...

Sad postlogue to the red pepper: I left it on the counter and later found it being grazed upon... by a cockroach the size of a horse. Okay, a small horse. But it was a big cockroach. So I had to sacrifice the pepper to the cockroach gods. (There are a lot of them.)

This is how I feel right now. I am more concious when I am craving though, probably because i keep denying myself

Good job so far!

So, my first really official S day.

I decided I would be one of the start-Friday-night people, Sunday nights aren't particularly celebratory for me anyway, and I think Friday nights should be fun.

That said, today was really S, and last night was fairly S as well. Which is fine, that's the idea. But I found myself getting back into my previous no-S sort of guilt mentality... and when I get into that mentality, I generally resolve it with, you know, eating a very large chocolate bar.

I will say that the thing that stands out about my first S day is that there is something of a psychological involved in suddenly trying to adopt an "anything goes" mentality.

I also experienced something that I've seen other people describe: I went to get a sandwich, and figured it would be fine to get a root beer and some potato chips along with... none too healthy, I suppose.

Pre No-S I would have put it all away and then ruminated over why those bags of chips were so small and such a rip-off. Tonight I couldn't even finish them, and the rootbeer seemed so sugary as to be too much to finish as well.

But I more than compensated for that by returning to old snack habits at other points in the day.

Anyway, I won't enumerate all the details. I did get off my computer for the afternoon and go walk around in the city (not really urban-ranger-type distances, but enough to listen to a pretty interesting lecture on biology and a couple of chapters of Treasure Island on my iPod).

I feel like somewhere during the course of the day I crossed the line from "nice occasional indulgence" back to my old habits of "overindulgence," and had a bit of the "I feel gross" that goes along with it. The hardest part of it, oddly enough, was the total lack of structure, compared to the rest of the week, where I felt like the simple rules made it clear what was okay and what wasn't.

Maybe I will try to figure out some other simple rule to follow on S days... "3 Ss Only" or some such thing. I know that's sort of against the spirit of S days, but if it helps keep me from feeling "off the wagon" then maybe that's what's best for me.

We'll see how tomorrow goes.

And now I shall sleep because trying to kid myself into thinking that I'll get any programming done at 1/4 to 5 am is the sheerest folly

Oops, forgot to check in yesterday. Oddly, it was very much an N day; I guess I felt a little guilty after Saturday or something.

I think I'll start counting days from today, since I've been on this thing for a week.

Day 1: March 5th Success.

As usual, you inspire me. great job!

Day 2 (Tuesday March 06) Success

PITHY OBSERVATION SECTION

Today I finally got off my ass and took a walk. Even did some weight-ish stuff withsome dumbbells I have, using a (large) exercise ball as a 'bench.' Those thingsare pretty versatile.

It was a nice walk; I found a ridiculously large park in which to (Sub)Urban Ranger. *

I'm still wavering on trying the sledgercize thing... not because I don't think itwould work, but just because i've already had some success in the past with walkingand Pilates. We'll see.

It's funny how NoS makes you pay attention to what you eat, that's what stands out most in my mind. I could tell you exactly what's in my fridge right now, and I could probablyeven give you a rough idea of when I'll eat what.But fear not, I'll spare you.

Breakfast

Oatmeal and a banana, coffee

Lunch

Two smallish burritos with peppers

Dinner

A sandwich with hummus and some veggies. Maybe a little too much popcorn... but no butter, so there!

* But I really wish I hadn't just read this:

Rock Creek Park is home to at least one urban legend, The Bunnyman, or the rabbitman. There is reported to be a humanoid type figure, that is either dressed in a bunny suit, or is half rabbit, that kills people in the wooded areas of the park. The legend is orally circulated among residents of D.C.

Our family may be moving to D.C. next summer. I'll be sure to stay away from that park!

Well, truth be told, a librarian has dug up the real story:

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/br ... yprint.htm

There was a wacko, but no murder

Day 3 ( Wednesday March 08 ) Success

PITHY OBSERVATION SECTION

Oops, forgot to check in last night... er, this morning... See, I'm a vampiric programmer, and so some days I kind of have breakfast at like... erfternoon. So I end up having 3 dinnerish meals. But yesterday I really only had 2, given that at 4 in the morning I really wasn't too hungry.Bad, I know.

"Breakfast"

Well, this was actually dinner -- a falafel sandwich at Lebanese Taverna. It had french fries, which I could probably have done without. Came with a salad and I admit that I got a draft beer.

Mmm. Beer.

"Lunch"

Bagel with hummus and a few strawberries.

"Dinner"

Another bagel with some vegetarian cheese and tomatos.

mmmm falafel. Don't sweat the fries. You're urban rangering and such, right?

Not as a habit, yet. I'm in deep hack as of late, which means I drift further & further into vampire schedule.

Whatever, I'll go all the way around again

Day 4 ( Wednesday March 08 )Success

PITHY OBSERVATION SECTION

Meh, I'm kind of grumpy today. I'm on the vampire sleep schedule. I didn't go off the plan or anything today, but I didn't feel particularly well either.

Usually in such circumstances I would go buy a chocolate bar with almonds.

But I didn't, so yay me, or something.

But bleargh.

Breakfast

A burrito with some onions and peppers. (Yeah, sounds like lunch, but you have to factor in my sleep patterns.)

Lunch

A bagel sandwich with some vegetarian cheese stuff.

Cheese is tricky for me, really. I guess I'm not officially a vegetarian, because on occasion I will eat pizza with normal cheese, which has animal rennet. But other than that I'm pretty much off it... it's becoming easier, too. I recently discovered that Kraft Philadelphia cream cheese is vegetarian.

I gave up Coca Cola a while back, because I was a total addict. It's still pretty hard for me, because like coffee, I guess I'm addicted to the caffeine. I did discover that drinking seltzer water is something of a substitute, because the fizziness is sort of a part of drinking soda. Giving up Coke was much harder for me than giving up meat. On occasion I will break down and get a root beer or a ginger ale, but I just don't touch Coke. Sounds funny, like I'm talking about a drug or something, but I guess in some ways Coke is a drug.

Dinner

Just a (large) bagel with some pesto sauce on it, toasted. I thought I wasn't hungry at the time... but I am now.

Gotta plan better tomorrow.

sugar is a drug, for sure.

I eat non-conventional stuff for breakfast as well. I've never been a big fan of cereal.

I hope you're feeling better my friend.

When I eat in a restaurant, I can usually get a club soda with lime. This has been a good Coke substitute for me.

Hope your schedule gets better!

Day 5 ( Thursday March 09 ) Failure

PITHY OBSERVATION SECTION

Bleargh, I'm afraid today was a fail.

Breakfast

I had a lousy morning & bought a cappuchino, and a bagel with some sort of ridiculous spread on it for breakfast, but that's fine. And even the salad and the spaghetti with pesto for lunch, okay.

Lunch

But the bagel after that with more pesto, that was seconds. And then I was stressed and ended up at Starbucks after work and... I bought one of those ridiculous cookies; that's an S. Buzzer noise.

Dinner

Then for dinner I did the standard Lebanese Taverna deal -- falafel sandwich, cucumber-ish salad, and (cough) french fries, with a beer. So feh.

But, I guess on the bright side, at least I'm learning something... it never really occurred to me how related my mood was too how much I eat. But looking back over the pattern here, I can already detect a relationship. Maybe my issues are more psychological than food related, or something.

Bleargh.

tomorrow is another day. I wouldn't sweat it too much. You're becoming aware of your eating habits. I think that's probably the first step to really changing a habit is realizing where it comes from, right?

Don't be too hard on yourself. Sounds like you're just going through normal stages of this program. Yes...awareness is a stage!

I just wanted to chime in and say basically the same as Jan & ceu. Don't worry. Just pick yourself straight back up and carry on as before. The real trick to doing this for the rest of your life is being able to accept that yesterday wasn't perfect, but it has no bearing on the day before that, or the day afterwards either. Overall you're doing really well. There are many more successes than not and that's what will matter in the long term.

C.

vorpal wrote:Sounds funny, like I'm talking about a drug or something, but I guess in some ways Coke is a drug.

Actually, that's absolutely true. Caffeine is a stimulant, as is sugar (quick boost), and so one really does feel better in the short term with sodas. John Hopkins University has done a study that shows people can suffer withdrawal symptoms after regular consumption of only 1 cup of coffee or the equivalent per day

From the report
The researchers identified five clusters of common withdrawal symptoms: headache; fatigue or drowsiness; dysphoric mood including depression and irritability; difficulty concentrating; and flu-like symptoms of nausea, vomiting, and muscle pain or stiffness. In experimental studies, 50 percent of people experienced headache and 13 percent had clinically significant distress or functional impairment--for example, severe headache and other symptoms incompatible with working. Typically, onset of symptoms occurred 12 to 24 hours after stopping caffeine, with peak intensity between one and two days, and for a duration of two to nine days. In general, the incidence or severity of symptoms increased with increases in daily dose, but abstinence from doses as low as 100 milligrams per day, or about one small cup of coffee, also produced symptoms.

I'm trying to cut back myself, limiting myself to my S days only.

On the failure, don't sweat it. That's part of the process. You'll become much more aware of what you're eating, and eventually even your failures will be less destructive than your normal pre-No-S eating pattern. Keep the faith.

On the failure, don't sweat it. That's part of the process. You'll become much more aware of what you're eating, and eventually even your failures will be less destructive than your normal pre-No-S eating pattern. Keep the faith.

Precisely!
Very nice thoughts there Guy...
Good for you!

Have a nice weekend!
Peace and Love,
Deb

That guy wrote:

vorpal wrote:Sounds funny, like I'm talking about a drug or something, but I guess in some ways Coke is a drug.

Actually, that's absolutely true. Caffeine is a stimulant, as is sugar (quick boost), and so one really does feel better in the short term with sodas. John Hopkins University has done a study that shows people can suffer withdrawal symptoms after regular consumption of only 1 cup of coffee or the equivalent per day

I'm trying to cut back myself, limiting myself to my S days only.

Hey, aren't that guy?



Thanks for the links. Coffee and I have a rather pathological relationship, I think. To be honest, I find it difficult to even imagine giving up coffee. It's a huge part of the way my life is organized.

The thing is, coffee for me is just like Coke was. I don't think I could cut back, I would have to cut it off entirely. If it were an S-only kind of thing, then wouldn't one be dealing with the withdrawal symptoms every Monday? That would be worse for me, I think, than the bad side effects. And less feasible in the long term than just cutting off coffee completely.

I'll take a look at that study, thanks for the pointer! It's nice to find someone else out there who's not afraid to be analytical about their coffee intake...

but... but.... it's coffee!

I've stopped recreational drugs, alcohol, smoking... coffee. I dunno. I don't think I could do it. I'm weak!

Actually that's my attitude too. I don't think that coffee is necessarily that bad for you... even the withdrawal symptoms that That Guy describes from the study are pretty mild, all told. And it's also true that coffee is just about zero-calorie, so...

I'm not really sure why I feel sort of guilty about drinking tons of coffee (and actually, I've toned it down somewhat of late). I guess it's the fact that it seems to fly in the face of the concept of moderation, which is what most people (and No-S) will tell you is at the heart of a healthy life.

But yeah, I'm not giving up coffee any time soon. It's my social life, after all.

Day 6 ( Saturday March 11 )Success

PITHY OBSERVATION SECTION

Oops, I forgot to check in on Friday. All in all, things were fine. I'm one of those heretical Friday-night is an S people.. . we are a secret cult and we sacrifice marmots on Fridays and eat them. But before that, normalcy.

Breakfast

1/2 a mango (! ... this would have been impossible for me before starting No S.)
Some toast with cream cheese.
Ice water with a lemon squeezed to a pulverized pulp by my mighty fists of doom.

Lunch

The rest of that mango...
Hmm a salad I think? Can't remember.

Dinner

(Victimized food and beverages to remain nameless.)

marmots have feelings too.

Hee hee...
You guys are cute!

Peace and Love,
Deb

Day 7 ( Monday March 13 )Failure

Aarrgh.

you can do it! don't let it get you down. *HUG*

Well, I guess today was sort of a success. I am lately sort of back to chaotic eating patterns, because I have been really busy. I will say that it takes a fair amount of planning, not just resistance, to pull off No S. I've got a friend coming to stay with me this week, we'll see how that goes. I suppose there will be some Illegal S'ing. Mostly beer, heh.

Day 8 ( Tuesday March 14 )Success

PITHY OBSERVATION SECTION

Well, I guess today was sort of a success. I am lately sort of back to chaotic eating patterns, because I have been really busy. I will say that it takes a fair amount of planning, not just resistance, to pull off No S. I've got a friend coming to stay with me this week, we'll see how that goes. I suppose there will be some Illegal S'ing. Mostly beer, heh.

Breakfast

Some toast, and a mango/banana smoothie.

Lunch

A couple slices of pizza.

Dinner

A burrito.

Somewhere in there was an illegal banana, but let's just pretend that didn't happen. MMMMKAY?

Day 9 ( Wednesday March 15 )

N/A

PITHY OBSERVATION SECTION

Have a friend visiting so I'm pretty much on the S for a few days. Oh well.

good luck.

Remember: avoid the illegal bananas, and... STACK THE LINENS!

You can find a study to prove absolutely anything. It's like proof-texting the Bible. No way would give up coffee.

I think it would be hard to get too worked up over "illegal bananas", even on No-S. Do you use your vorpal sword to open them up? Slash, slash?

Day 10 ( Tuesday March 21 )Success

PITHY OBSERVATION SECTION

Golly, I've not been around for a while, eh? The "few days" turned into a week, which was okay I suppose. I didn't actually go too overboard, though there were probably 2 or three illegal S days in there, all told. I needed a vacation anyway, believe me. I'm back to business now, in any case. I'll do yesterday now, and today later.

Breakfast

Some pancakes with a little syrup. Half a leftover bagel. A mango.

Lunch

That falafel sandwich deal I've described before... I think they know me at that place now.

Dinner

Two mangos and some strawberries with some soy milk blended into oblivion.

A sandwich which really didn't work out so well. I think I need to find some more vegetarian sandwhich options... somehow hommous just seems to end up making the whole endeavor kind of... er... gooey and gross.

Might wanna slip a portabello mushroom sandwich in there occasionally. I used to do the veggie patty thingies too, but tried to keep those to not-very-often cuz they have so much salt. *ponders other veggie sandwiches* I ate cheese so I did cheese and tomato sandwiches as well.

ps. thanks for the engagement congratulations. *HUG*

*poke*

Day 11 ( Monday March 27 )Success

PITHY OBSERVATION SECTION

Erm yeah. I haven't been updating of late huh. Will try to keep up. I have to say I've been pretty much on this thing for a couple weeks, with minor infractions here and there... and I don't feel like it's made much of a difference. But I guess it's just a goes-through-stages thing. Or something. Not gonna give up, anyway.

Breakfast

Woke up late (programming again), so I made a portabello sandwich. (Good call, céu.) And a mango/banana + rice milk thing.

Lunch

2 slices of pizza and... a Sprite. I hate Sprite. But they only had soda. It sounds like an evil thing but the fact is, I really don't like soda any more and I rarely, rarely drink it.

Dinner

Pita + hummous, a banana. I feel kinda icky tonight so I'm not real hungry.

have you eaten guinea pig as well? I know they are a south american delicacy.

Probably, heh. They have this weird thing down there called "rodizio" where the waiters just come around with skewers of all kinds of meat, and they just give you more. Chicken hearts... those I remember. Because, they look like... er... hearts.

Grodyrama!

Thinking back on it totally grosses me out

Day 12 ( Tuesday March 28 )Failure

PITHY OBSERVATION SECTION

Bleargh, failed today. I have detected a pattern: it's *really* hard for me to stay No-S because of my crazy sleep schedule. I will often work for 18 or 20 hour periods, and then sleep a long time. That right there is not healthy, I know. But after having not eaten for 4 or 5 hours, it's really hard not to eat a banana or make a sandwich or something. I'm really not sure how to resolve this problem, becauseI have an established working pattern that's hard to break... it's just the way my brain goes in terms of prgogramming, and I can't just fix it immediately.

Breakfast

Mango, banana and rice milk.

Lunch

Grilled cheese, a banana.

Dinner

A rather ridiculous sandwich from a place Potbelly (yeah, no kidding), with some potato chips and a ridiculously sugary drink. (What was I saying yesterday about not drinking soda? O.o)

The part where I blue it: round about 4 a.m. I had 2 slices of white bread with cream cheese on them. And a banana.

Sigh.

Pig and Horse say: Hey dude, at least it was only bread and creamcheese, and not a guinea pig souffle.

yeah. they wanted me to tell you that.

I hear you on the weird patterns. It's just as well the weekends are S days b/c I go like 10 hours without eating, then pig out.

Day 13 ( Thursday March 30 )Success

BIG QUOTE BOX IN WHICH HE VENTS.

Meh. Technically speaking, today was a failure I guess... but mostly it was mre like "not really paying attention." I don't think I ate more than 3 straight meals though, so I'm gonna let myself off the hook. No extravagances, just kind of a wacked out schedule.

Breakfast

A fried potato.

Lunch

A pita with humous, spinach, peppers, mushrooms. ← This was good. Going into rotation.

Dinner

Subway.

Somewhere in there I had a piece of bread. I know, I'm a sinner.

lunch sounds delicious.

Day 14 ( Wednesday April 05 )Failure

Meh. Honestly lately I'm feeling a little dubious here. Been pretty much doing Noes for several weeks, admittedly with some failures along the way (like today), but I would have expected to have had *some* result by this point. Nuthin. Exacly where I started.Dunno, guess I need to... meh. Just dunno. Hence the lack of updates of late.

Hi Vorpal!
How frustrated you must feel!
I'm sorry...
Do you mind me asking if you do any daily exercise?
NoS really doesn't work without some activity too...
Especially with "F up" days included...
NoS is primarily geared towards maintenence but you can lose weight too..
Keep in mind, Reinhard and other successful folks here have some kind of exercise they do regularly..
Sorry if I'm making any incorrect assumptions that you aren't exercising, but I scrolled back and couldn't find any mention of it.... At least on this page

Keep on plugging!
You will find the piece of the puzzle that makes this work for you!

I'll be thirty nine in June... Reinhard is 35 and started NoS when he was a mere babe of 31 I think...
If you are closer to my age, you may just have to put in much more "output" effort to make Reinhards plan work for you...
I know I have to, and I'm definitely not as strict as he is about NoS...
Only manage to be good about 75% of the time...
Be patient!
I promise you will make this work!!!

Good for you on posting...
We all have bad patches... Sorry your's is right at the beginning, but don't give up!
I lost 3 lbs the first week and then I totally stopped losing for months....
Then it increased to about 7 lbs total, by Christmas (I started in August 2004) and then, again, it totally stopped during February till like April....
Then I lost track and changed scales, which totally threw off my count..
But the whole time, I lost inches and once in a while the scale would smile at me....
I hope you don't give up!
You are the nicest alien I know!
Peace,
Deb

thanks for the kind words, deb.

i think i'm just going to stop stressing my self out thinking about this stuff for a while. it's gotten to the point where the strain of dealing with it is worse than the strain i feel over been unhealthy in the first place.

i might come back, i dunno.

thanks you're very sweet

I've been noticing I see less results when my plate is a plate of food prepared by a restaurant: hidden fat and sugar mostly I think.

I've been sorta sliding of late myself. Don't worry about the short term. It's long term results we're hoping for. *hug*