Everyday Systems

Tried No S before. Didn't lose much weight. I am back again. In the past I've tended to binge on the weekends, which always set be back.

I weighed myself this morning and was at an all time high. I need to monitor my eating better.

I have been running and hitting the gym six days a week, so for exercise I am good. However, I am a big time binge eater, especially at night. All the exercise in the world won't offset that.

So I am starting No S with the No Solitary Snacking rule for the weekend. This should greatly limit the binging.

I also like the Reinhard's solution to "the what the hell" phenomenon and I'll be trying that out too: describing in full gruesome detail my failures!


Start Weight: 280 lbs

S - Day yesterday

Did No SS

Weighed myself today: 276.2

Lost almost 4 lbs in one day! Gee, I wonder if that was real.

I am weighing myself everyday on the weekend to encourage myself not to go hog wild.

S- Day

No SS - check.

No S check

No S check

No S - check.

No S check

No S check

Weight on Saturday AM: 274.2

Saturday S Day - can 't officially fail!

However, I did "unofficially" fail. I stayed up too late and totally binged on a disgusting amount of food. I felt like I did not even want to eat it it, but just kept shoveling it in. This was the "all or nothing" mentality kicking in.

Public humiliation: between 10 PM and 11PM I ate a gigantic bowl of popcorn (probably 6 normal servings), 1/4 # of cheese, and a whole box of granola ( 9 servings). Old habits die hard.

I was perfect during the S week. However, I was not allowing myself to decompress during the day, though. I was attempting the "no-solitary" snacking mod. That is likely too restrictive for me right now. I will stick with vanilla no-s with no extra rules. A binge might happen on the weekend but that is what it is. Hopefully it goes away on its own.

Also, I am supposed to weigh myself: 276.6 today. I gained 2 lbs from the binge yesterday.

S Day yesterday. Ate very reasonably for an S Day. Did not gorge myself but made sure that I took advantage of it being an S Day by having dessert.

No S check

No S check

No S check

No S check

No S Fail

I convinced myself that Friday night should be an SDay. Then I commenced to eat a whole box of granola and 7 cookies.

Note that this was after drinking 4 glasses of wine.

I have a history of binging after drinking, especially alone. I typically drink 1-2 drinks a night but I was feeling like I needed to relax after a long week. Hence drinking too much, leading to a major binge.

Starting by S Day on Friday night seems dangerous. I am back to normal No S on Monday.

On the plus side, I feel so sick this morning that I am sure binging tonight is out of the question.

I think I'll not weight myself today. It will be artificially high and I don't want to diminish my positive success of following No S religiously for 4 days!

Hi, I struggle with my S days as well....I read on one of the posts that mimi replied to about Sunday's...I wrote them down to read with my other 3x5 cards to help me thru things...thought you might be interested deb

1. Plan ahead. Decide in advance what your treats/sweets will be.

2. Eat only worthy, high quality treats. Become very discriminating about your snacks and/or desserts.

3. Basically keep S days looking the same as N days, with the addition of one or two very special treats.

4. Buy and bring into the house only the treats you will eat on Saturday and Sunday. If it's not there you can't graze on it.

5. Make sure your meals themselves are filled with foods that are yummy and satisfying to you. Then eat them slowly and savor every bite.

Every time you have the thought, "This is the last day to eat what I want," counteract it with a thought similar to this: Today is Saturday/Sunday and another opportunity to eat a really special treat like ______________ that

Thanks No Snacker!

The rest of the weekend went well. No binge eating. Friday was a fail but I am ready for N-days tomorrow.

I weighed myself this AM: 274

Congrats on not binge eating this weekend!!!!

Yes N days do bring some relief!!

I just posted somewhere, where we have this love / hate relationship with food..for me it is at it's worse on the weekends...

But I'm hopeful they will tame down

Have a great Tuesday!!!

motorin wrote:I convinced myself that Friday night should be an SDay. Then I commenced to eat a whole box of granola and 7 cookies...
Starting by S Day on Friday night seems dangerous.

Yep, dangerous! For me it's like sticking my foot in the door that's actually flood gates ready to burst.

Wow I could have written your "introduction post" myself! Exerciser but problem binge eating. You can do this. Stay Vanilla. And don't tweak until the habit is WAY down!

Thanks for the support nosnacker, ~reneew, and lbb!

No other way to do this thing but to accept a failure and keep moving on!

I agree Vanilla NoS is the simplest solution and also the most likely to succeed given patience.

On second thought, I do think that I will tweak No S very slightly. Since I have a strong history of binge eating and binge eating is a very private activity done in total isolation, I fear succumbing to this on S days. I actually not only fear this, but based on my history know that it is more or less inevitable. Binge eating has been the MAJOR source of my weight gain. I therefore need to, psychologically, reward myself for eating socially.

Therefore, on S days I am going to re-incorporate the No Solitary Snacking mod. This is an extra rule and will probably add some stress. To offset this, I am going to be more lenient on N days.

I do find that sometimes, being on No S can cause me to be a little unsocial at times (although nothing like other diets can cause). For example, having friends over for a meal often involves dessert or some kind of treat. Or going to the movies with friends involves popcorn. Or having a party involves snacks. Or someone's birthday at work involves cake. I know none of those things HAVE to involve food, but they most naturally do. And when they do, I need to use a tremendous amount of willpower to not engage in this social eating. This means that I consciously try to limit social gatherings to weekends only and unconsciously creep into isolating behavior. It is really not practical or healthy to only be social on the weekends. Therefore I will allow myself social occasion snacks, seconds, and sweets on N days if there is an occasion for it. I will account for this by marking my HabitCal calendar with a yellow sign if an event like this comes up.

I know it is dangerous to tweak the system, but my binge eating in isolation is the major source of my being overweight and this plan helps me be more social and hopefully I can cut out the anti-social binge eating.

Worst case scenario is that I take total advantage of this program and every single minor social event turns into an excuse for snacking, sweets, and seconds. Given my personal history, even under this worst case scenario I will be better off than if I binge eat on S - Days. I can do some MAJOR damage (sometimes 10,000 calories or more in a single S-day binge) on S Days. Unfortunately this often leads to the "what the hell" phenomenon and occasionally leaks over to Monday or starts on a Friday.

HabitCal Tracking Summary:

1. N Days get a green in habitcal if I follow Vanilla No S.
2. N Days get a yellow in habitcal if I have seconds/sweets/snacks in social situations. Typically this would be some kind of pre-organized social event, not just random social eating.
3. S Days get a green if I have seconds/sweets/snacks only in the company of others. Note: there does not have to be some kind of special pre-organized event for this to occur. I can eat a doughnut in front of my wife, for example, but not in the car by myself.
4. All else gets a red

A consequence of this is that I can get a red on an S Day. But this is to help me get my S Days under control.


The next question is : Is this No S anymore?

By definition, probably not, but I got to try the experiment!

Who knows, I might be back on Vanilla No S by Monday!

No S check

Had an S event tonight. Went to a movie with friends and had candy and popcorn. Otherwise no S all day.

S event: small cupcake and small cookie at daughter's end of school program. Otherwise No S all day.

I am a big Vanilla No S fan, and I lost a lot of weight the first year by sticking to the basic rules. In my second year I instituted one mod, and I did it for some of the same reasons you did. Many of my friends are retired and their social activity tends to be during the week when places are less crowded and sometimes cheaper. Because of this I now take one S day on the weekend and one during the week. I had a plateau at the beginning of my second year and became somewhat lazy and complacent. This mod has helped and I am losing again.

I am still glad I did a little over a year with no mods though.

Thanks r. jean. That is really helpful!

Yesterday there was one S event: small ice cream cone at Dairy Queen with my daughter. Otherwise all No S.

Weight this AM: 273.2

Total lost so far: 6.8 lbs

S Day - no SS too. Actually tried some peanut butter cheerios by myself, but it was not a binge so I am counting no SS.

Weight: 272.8

Weight loss: 7.2 lbs since 4/29/2012

You are doing great - keep it up! I can relate to the binging completely.

Thanks for the encouragement Sinnie! Glad there are people that understand about the binge eating. It is embarrassing but also difficult to unlearn. So far my slightly modified No S seems to be working.

S Day. Followed No SS with the exception of a few crackers. No binging though!

Going on a mini-vacation with the family. Won't be checking in for a few days.

GREAT JOB, motorin! Enjoying your posts and it sounds like you are indeed doing absolutely great on the plan! Also (as a binge eater myself or should I say former binge eater? its great to hear that the mods are helping you so much and you don't get stressed out or over think it... as I often tend to do.

Well done and have a fabulous vacation with your family. Looking forward to reading your future posts!

Hi motorin! I really enjoyed reading your last few posts re: bingeing and your mods. I relate so much to isolation eating. Just yesterday I found myself taking job in escaping and sneaking food.
That is my biggest weakness. I can eat with others and not have the same affect as my binges.

Since I don't have much weight to lose, I think, if you don't mind, I'll use your mods.
I really have been toying with a tweak since for the most part once/week my family (perhaps not on the weekend) will go out and get an ice cream cone or something.
That's not what makes me gain weight. I gain weight from the king size bar I ate in bed last night. The chips in my purse I hid.
Etc. etc.

So, again, thanks for your mod. I will copy/paste and attribute your name but allude to your post in my thread.

Thanks and good luck. Keep it uP!

Hi No Snacker and Liz,

Thanks for the support! Liz, you can absolutely use those mods. No need to credit me.

The vacation was short but sweet. We have a 1 and 4 year old and vacations are both fun and a chore at the same time. I did not worry about No-Sing at all while on vacation but also had no real time to binge eat. I was in the constant company of others. I did have sweets and snacks but nothing over the top. I was amazingly able to stop eating when I was full.

Well, last night I could not sleep so I ate a snack. Not a binge but a fairly large snack. I was able to stop myself from my usual "what the hell" response when I break a No S rule.

I'll consider it a personal moral victory but still a red on the habitcal.

No SS check

S day. Can't fail.

However, I did have a binge at night. Unsurprisingly it was after a few drinks. I had a few beers with the significant other last night at home and proceeded to eat too much after they went to bed.

Old habits die hard. I hope by documenting them here I am owning up and thus will eventually kick them.

Might go back to Vanilla No S! We'll see...

Hi there, the most important thing is to not give up. I eat too much on the weekends, but yesterday logged what I planned on eating for my 3 squares, my snacks and dessert. Had 2 extra snacks when not even hungry, that is the worst part of this whole thing...

Eating just because one is bored or thinks entitled to...have it coming so might as well have it..

Crazy thinking for sure..why would one eat when not hungry...a habit I'm trying to work on..

Have a great rest of day.
deb

I relate, I ate far too much yesterday as well.
Old habits DO die hard. The whole "get the most for my money!" (or day)
I found myself using food to procrastinate some stuff I had to do.
Vanilla No S? Possibly. I always feel that way on S weekends, but maybe I need it.
Take care today.

Thanks again for the support No Snacker and Liz. I appreciate it.

Well yesterday was a good S Day. No binging. Today was a holiday S Day also but limited myself to dinner esses.

No S check.

No S Check

No S Check

Weight this AM: 270.2

S Day yesterday. Did really well until evening. Binge ensued. Can't fail an S Day but I am not proud.

S Day yesterday. Good day, no bingeing.

No S check

No S check

No S Check. Was very tempted to binge last night but actually stopped myself.

Big Fail last night... ugh.

Yesterday, another fail. Ugh.

Trying No S again. I have read some stuff on binge eating and have worked to get that under control (mostly). Great book: Brain over Binge.

I need to get my weight under control but I need to do it without weighing myself (ironically). Scales suck.

No S is a good plan for me.

I'll be checking in periodically. More than that and No S becomes an obsession. Obsessive focus on diet (including No S) goes against the core of the No S diet!

I gotta get rid of that signature too!