Everyday Systems

Tomorrow is my new start . I will write all my non-compliances here.

My mods are: 4 meals and a piece of dark chocolate every day.

Today was a success

I was hungry between lunch and dinner, so I kept reminding myself that hunger is not an emergency.

Welcome! and: well done with your success

Thanks, eschano!

Day 2: SUCCESS

A little about me: I have 40-50 pound to lose, but my primary goal is to achieve emotional stability around food; I know that weight loss will follow. I have food alergies (gluten, dairy, soy), so I don't eat everything even on S days. I eat meat occasionaly. My forth meal is oatmeal cooked on water, and fruit. I am prone to depression, and I've read that it's good to eat 'cabs only' meal in the evening to produce more serotonin ('feel good' neurotransmiter). I want to give it a try. A few years ago I lost 50 pounds on the eating plan that wasn't too 'low carb', but after 9 months on it I was hit by a depression. And you can guess - I was trying to 'cure' my depression by eating, and regained all the weight.

This time it will be different

Day 3 - SUCCESS

It was easier yesterday to endure hunger between meals. Actually, real hunger is not a problem for me. Cravings are worse - not being satisfied after eating, feeling out of control. Eating snacks and sweets triggers cravings for me.

I plan to eat the same breakfast every day - even on S days. It works well for me. I am sooooo proud of my breakfast! It took many years of failures and feeling bad, of figuring out my food allergies and what works for me. For many years I ate muffins and pastries with coffee for breakfast. I eliminated caffeine 4 months ago. I don't dring coffee or caffeinated teas. Now my only source of caffeine is chocolate BTW, I gave up chocolate on N days. I ate it on Day 1 and did not enjoy it. Now I have only one mod - the forth meal.
Here it is - maybe someone else can benefit from it:

1 piece of rice bread
1/2 tsp of mayo
1 hard boiled egg
tomato salad ( 1/2 cup)
2 TBSP chia seed
2 TBSP flax seed
1/2 glass of orange juice

I mix chia seed and flax seed with orange juice the night before.
My breakfast has 17 g of protein (only 6 grams of animal protein) and 18 g of fibre ( recommended daily intake is 14 g per 1000 calories consumed).

Day 4 - S Day

Yesterday I was hungrier than usually. I had snacks and 30 g of dark chocolate. I was planning to keep my S days pretty 'tame'. But, on the other hand, the purpose of S days is to enjoy some food that you don't eat on N days, so you don't feel deprived. Also, it's good to 'trick' your body by varying your intake of calories.

Is anyone doing only one S day instead of two? I am a bit worried how my Monday will look like.

It seems that No S is not for me. I just cannot convince myself that I should do without the afternoon snack. And with my bedtime snack, it's no longer a No S.

I know how you feel. I struggle a lot with the emotional tie to food. And sometimes No S can feel really hard. I am actually returning to No S now after quite a long break from it. It was the only way I could control my intake and lose weight without feeling like I have a complicated diet or lots of rules or can't eat good food!

It sounds like you are pretty careful about what you eat. I mean, you knew you had exactly 30g of chocolate... I don't think you need to measure on No S!

However, if you have certain dietary needs, you may have to be a little more careful. Keep doing your four meals and see if your hunger starts to coincide with your meals. Also, if you always get hungry in the afternoon, I'm curious how many hours are between your lunch and dinner? I know when I have done No S in the past, I usually got hungry again between 4-5 hours later. But I usually ate breakfast at 8, lunch around 1, and dinner around 6. And I went to bed fairly early (maybe 10 or 11) because of classes/work in the morning.

Give it another try! Remember that this is about YOU. I have to moderate what I do somewhat as well, but I try not to have all-or-nothing thinking. Really, the way naturally thin people eat is by following their hunger. When they are legitimately hungry they eat, when they start getting full, they stop. But No S is for those of us who have trouble doing that because of emotional eating, bad habits, etc. So, if you are consistently hungry in the afternoon, maybe have your carb fourth meal then instead? Or have a light snack, just enough to tide you over til the next meal.

Don't give up!! Even if No S isn't for you, you will find a way. And remember to love yourself as is, life doesn't start X pounds from now.

Thanks Sarahkay for your encouragement!

Hey freegirl, sorry to hear you've struggled, but remember this is your first week! Cut yourself a little slack (and give yourself some credit for the green days you've already achieved).

Remember that Reinhard says there is no issue introducing one S at a time. Sounds like you're doing great on no seconds and no sweets, but a few snacks are causing you some worry. If it's not for you, than that's fine of course, no one plan fits everyone. However, if you are doing well with 2 out of 3 S's and just looking to tweak on snacks, I wouldn't say that you are therefore "not doing" No S and need to quit completely.

It sounds from your posts as if you are struggling a bit with turning No-S into a traditional "deprivation" style diet: measuring number of grams chocolate, animal protein, fiber, limiting to 1 S day and so on. I'd be very wary of taking this approach. This is meant to be a way of eating you can stick to forever, not a capital "D" diet that makes you suffer "virtuously" for enjoying your food. I responded to your other post about S days (I don't have any rules for mine), and I think starting out in your very first week trying to make S Days moderate / controlled is pretty likely to overload you and make you feel like you are following too many rules (and therefore quit).

Whatever you decide, I hope you can make peace with food and find something you can live with long term that makes you feel healthy AND happy.

Thank you, Ironchef. I decided to try doing no sweets and no seconds. I'll include one to two snacks for now. Maybe I'll get rid of them later, maybe not. I want peace around food so much. Yes, I also need to lose weight, but that will follow once I achieve stability and peace. I've lost a lot of weight in the past, and gained it all back. That 'out of control' feeling iis terrible.

Great advice from Sarahkay and Ironchef - I hope you're still hanging in there and doing okay!