Everyday Systems

Hello guys !

I'm coming back to NoS after a year off. I have started on Monday 6/25, and up until now, I had two full-green weeks, plus yesterday.

I simply decided to forge good habits again after my scales told me 91 (kg, that's precisely 200#) I'm 5'8" tall, male, 31 years old.

I also, on the same day, decided to go IC-rangering (Industrial Complex Ranger, my version of Urban Ranger during lunch break) every weekday when I don't have a bike session at my gym on the same day. (on Tuesdays during summer) I am also full green on this subject. I named my HabitCal for this "exert", and count green when I either go ICR, or to the gym.

The S-days (two sets right now) have been a little hectic. Last weekend, I have been nibbling Kinder chocolate virtually all day. But that's okay, the N-days are pretty gentle. I can stick to 3 meals a day rather easily.

I decided not to weigh in for one month, just to let the habits get in place first. Here is a summary of my status right now :
* Weight : 91kg/200#
* Belt notch : no. 4
* Next weigh in : 7/25

7/10 : Another SUCCESS on both fronts (nosdiet and exertion)

Yesterday night, at the gym, we were riding our bikes on old disco songs. That was fun! (Although the moves the coach asked us to do were pretty disco, so we felt extremely ridiculous, but WTH)

Full plate of tagilatelle and bolognes yesterday night. Nothing much to report.

7/11 : Another SUCCESS on both fronts (nosdiet and exertion)

I am beginning to feel tired from this repeated exertion. I was able to go for a 50min walk today, but when I got back to work, I thought of not going tomorrow. But weekend is almost there, and tomorrow is my last day to complete the first three weeks. I have to keep up.

7/12 : SUCCESS again.

It's Friday today. Don't feel like going to my weekdaily walk during lunchbreak, but still, I have to. Today is the last day of the 3 first weeks on habit, and tomorrow is weekend, so I'll get rest then.

Yesterday night, we got invited at a friend's place for dinner. Sticking to one (virtual) plate was OK. I was worried that someone would insist that I take a sweet dessert like everyone else, but in fact, they proposed me to have something else on first refusal, I asked for a fruit, and got a yummy peach!

Yes! I went, although it was only a 35-minute walk. Still, it's a green. My minimum of compliance is 30-minutes, with possible segmentation.

Now, follow no-s until the end of day, and I'll be green for three weeks, woohoo !

SUCCESS on Friday, although I had to use the Cinderella trick (Waiting for midnight to eat some chocolate)

Lots of chocolate during the weekend, with 3 small meals a day. I feel a bit worse than last weekend. Next weekend will be better.

I'm now headed for a fourth week of green!

Another SUCCESS yesterday on exert and nosdiet. Tried to introduce two extra habits in the HabitCal : morning_praise and shawshank. Two-day SUCCESS on morning_praise. Yesterdat was a FAILURE on shawshank. Will try to do better today.

SUCCESS on nosdiet and exert yesterday. shawshank got another FAILURE. I can't seem to get myself into it.

Third SUCCESS on morning_praise this morning. And a first SUCCESS on shawshank, finally!

OK, so I massied some days. I have bad news :

NoSDiet : FAILURE on Friday night. We go tinvited for the first time at some friends' place, and I could not resist the extra french fries and desert. And I used the Cinderella trick when I wanted not to. The weekend was a little hectic also, although I managed to have extended periods when I did not think about food, so it is encouraging. (We were also invited on Saturday night, and Sunday night) Today is going fine, back to the routine.

Exert : Nothing to report. Success !

Shawshank: did not work on Thursday or Friday. Could manage to do something on Sunday, but it was a yellow day. Well. If I cant get a green week soon, I will have to review the system.

Morning praise: Woke up too late this morning, preferring to have a good breakfast... First failure.

Hi TUK,

I'm always happy to read your comments- I'm Austrian so much of your cultural differences also apply to me. (And kinder chocolate too - but only on S days )

Anyways, you seem to be doing great so keep up the good work!
(what's shawshank?)

OK, so *ahem*:

NoS : SUCCESS on Monday, but FAILURE again yesterday. I had 3 pieces of chocolate, an ice cream and a part of leftover apricot cake at 11pm. We were rather unorganised yesterday night, and the kids went to bed at about 11pm. I wanted to spend a part of the evening alone with my wife, so I stayed up and was extremely tired. No more strength to resist.

exert : Bike at the gym yesterday night, walk on Monday, so two SUCCESSes.

morning_praise : Did it yesterday morning and this morning ! so SUCCESS and SUCCESS.

shawshank : Monday was a SUCCESS. Yesterday was a FAILURE. I'm waking up late these mornings.

And first weigh-in today. +2lbs in 1 month. Next weigh-in in one month, i.e. 25/8.

Spirits high!

eschano : Thank you for your encouragement!

About shawshank : work 14 minutes every weekday to escape wage slavery. (i have an opportunity to create my own company, and got authorization from my employer.) It feels like homework, so I am doing everything at the last minute. I want to work everyday instead of procrastinating everything to the last minute.

A little bit of thinking while I was walking, and a decision. The shawshank system is an utter FAILURE as is. I don't get any routine to start on the task everyday. The moment I have most energy to dig my tunnel is in the morning, but I get up indecently late these days. The evenings are a no-go, as I need HOLIDAYs (they're coming... soon enough... on friday evening... 3 weeks off!)

So I dismissed the shawshank system for now, to turn to something more fundamental : waking up at a decent time every morning.

I know from experience that the time at which you get up in the morning has less to do with what time you go to bed, than with how your sluggy self reacts to the alarm clock ringing. (That's what the "clocky" is all about)

Of course, there is no magic. The time you go to bed has an influence: not on the time you get out of your bed in the morning, but on the time you fall face down on the couch in the evening.

I used a little system at the beginning of the year, which worked incredibly well for 4 months, until when I changed houses and habits: I call this system "The Gillette(R) Clock: two blades, two scars". It is as simple as setting two alarm clocks (with different ringing tones) at the same alarm time, counting on the fact that they are set many minutes apart anyway.

The first wakes me up, the second reminds me "Hey, get up, you slug!" After some time using the system, I ended up getting up on the first alarm clock and disabling the second, and even, on some mornings, getting up two minutes before the first rang.

This should help me get time in the morning to dig my tunnel out of shawshank. And maybe undertake shovelglove at some later point.

Starting tomorrow, on weekdays. GO!

If you were in the neighbourhood, I could let you borrow one of my "alarm cats". They're very effective at getting me out of bed, the only problem is that they are set by their own cues. By which I mean angsty existential drama caused by empty food bowls. Is this a "pets resembling their owners" contest?

Can you time your first coffee for shawshank time? If the two are linked, you're building onto an existing habit rather than creating an entirely new one.

Hello Rachel,

Thank you for the offer I'm unfortunately allergic to animal hair. I let my wife buy a rabbit and a Guinea pig, but they're sleeping outside the house.

About shawshank, I identified the core problem as "not waking up early enough" which is true. I don't feel any resistance to work on it once I get into it. I have only half an hour between my current "shut-the-alarm-off-without-even-being-awake" average wake up time and the latest time I can leave for work.

"gilette_clock" is not a new habit for me. I actually woke up strictly by the clock from January to March inclusive, until we moved into our new house and got derailed. I just wanted to track it in the HabitCal. I even have a morning routine all set up for having breakfast, say hello to the Lord, tidying the previous evening laziness, and have some free time. So yes, I am linking everything together, like you are suggesting.

Today, I tried the gillette_clock system, and it was a SUCCESS. I woke up at 5:40am, and took 25 minutes preparing and having breakfast, 10 minutes tidying the house, 20 minutes praying, 25 minutes of shawshank! I could leave the house at 7:30am, all ready and set, and be at work at 8am.

I think the problem with just saying "work 15 minutes a day" cannot establish a habit, because everyday I have to consciously choose a moment to get my green on HabitCal. HabitCal is then not just monitoring.

So, Wednesday 7/25 :
NoSDiet : SUCCESS
Exert : SUCCESS
Morning praise : SUCCESS
Shawshank : not monitored until further notice.

Thursday 7/26 : Shee-ha !
NoSDiet : SUCCESS
Exert : SUCCESS
Morning praise : SUCCESS
Gilette clock : SUCCESS
Shawshank : not monitored until further notice. (although I could do 25 minutes yesterday and 30 minutes today)

Everything is going fine today. Now, tonight we're invited again. My plan is : stick to NoS, and no Cinderella trick.

Friday 7/27 :
NoSDiet : SUCCESS
Exert : SUCCESS
Morning praise : SUCCESS
Gilette clock : SUCCESS

And, more than that, no Cinderella trick on Friday night! Good thing.

On S days, I went a bit overboard with chocolate. My wife, also, invited her cousins on Saturday night, and she made Italian ravioli, so I was euphemistically full.

I'm on vacation now, and it is hard to maintain my habits. Gillette clock FAILED this morning, I could not resist staying in bed, since I don"t have to go to work. I think I'll be a bit more relaxed on Gillette during the three next weeks, like setting the clocks at 7am (which should get me going well) instead of 5:40am. Instead of going ICRanger during my lunch break, I went for a 45-minute walk right after breakfast.

Okay, I've been on holiday for 2 weeks now. One to go. The first week was a bit tricky, so I did not make it green.

I got 1 mid-week chocolate event last week.
I could exercise (walk) everyday.
Twice, I could not wake up with the gillette system: The fact that I was on holiday and I could sleep in won, which led to my not praying in the morning.

I made the second week green with the help of the wedn-S-day.

Only, I used the Cinderella trick twice, once on Tuesday night, and once on Friday night. But, I'm going strong to-S-day. I had a good breakfast, a normal lunch, and sofar, no snacking. My intention is to make this saturday no-Snack, and not to succumb to the Cinderella rush on tomorrow night (i.e. eating chocolate before midnight because it is almost Monday)

Aaaaaand...

I got a 9# sledgehammer on Friday So on Monday, l'll start on shovelglove.

My three-week vacation is over. Finally, I'll get back to the comforting structure of my day job.

I got some FAILUREs during these three weeks. The most recent was on Friday. I woke up early, took my N-day breakfast as usual, except for one tiny detail: The only coffee pack available was decaffeinated. I felt dizzy and weak, and when my wife woke up, I took a second breakfast out of fatigue.This was far from useless in the end, because I found myself battling with a large buried rock using a pickaxe in the middle of the morning.

There followed two S-days, with clear excess on sweets. I'm glad to be back on Monday and at work. I started on shovelglove, going strong.

I know what you mean about the comfort of routine - I am looking forward to school starting up again so my kids and I have ours back...

Have a nice day back at work!

Okay. This week has been full SUCCESS up to now, EXCEPT for two things :
- I had a bigger dinner yesterday, with some sweets (milka chocolate and an ice cream) So NoS on Thursday is a FAILURE. Today is a yellow day, but I intend only to indulge during the dinner. I'm taking my wife out for our anniversary.
- This morning, I was feeling kind of tired, and shovelglove was half-essed. I made 8 minutes instead of 14. I count it as a FAILURE. I have all eternity to indluge.

Looks like you are doing great. Hey, eight minutes is better than nothing, your still establishing a habit!

I so miss peaches from France! It ruined peaches for me forever. The peaches I get here were picked before they ripened and they just don't taste the same.

Keep up the good work, it's okay to flall, just keep getting back up!

Hello snapdragon,

Yes you're right. Peaches we get here taste awesome!

Okay, so. Here is the current situation.

My latest weigh-in was on Staurday, and read 96.5kg, which is 213#.
That's +11# with regards to last month, and +13# overall.

Time to take measures! I decided to eat more fruit and veggies, and less grain on N-days. I've been doing good on that matter since Monday.

I'll also try to tame my S-days with regards to sweets. Last weekend was not so bad, I only ate sweets from 4pm on, both on Saturday and Sunday.

About compliance, all green except :

Monday "exert" : YELLOW. That was accounted for. I took the afternoon off in order to drive my son to the pneumo-allergologist's. Could not walk during lunch break.

Wednesday "exert" : FAILURE. I changed to my sports clothes, went out to walk, and it was raining. I turned back, changed back to my working clothes, and it was raining harder. The rain calmed down some minutes after, but I did not have the courage to change back again. I count it a FAILURE because I have to find a way to cope with these situations.

Today "Gillette clock" : FAILURE. I just forgot to setup the second alarm clock, and I fell in to temptation to sleep in.

FAILURE yesterday on shovelglove as well. Waking up late, I did not want to arrive too late at work so I skipped shovelglove in the morning, intending to do it in the evening. Did not. Watched Bones' Season 6 ending instead...