Sonya's first year

(New!) Read (or post) about people who have stuck with No-S for 10 or more months, lost 10 or more pounds, or 10 or more percent for their starting weight. Periodic updates strongly encouraged -- you can think of it as "Yearly Check In."

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osoniye
Posts: 1257
Joined: Sat May 22, 2010 2:19 pm
Location: Horn of Africa

Sonya's first year

Post by osoniye » Mon Jun 06, 2011 2:46 pm

Hi Everybody,
Well, I'm 1 year into NoS and my net weight change is a gain of 3# (starting wt.149#, current wt.152#). I hesitated to post, because I thought, "Who is going to be encouraged by reading about a 3# weight gain?", but then I thought of a few factors why even this is a postive tesimony to NoS.
For one thing, when I heard about NoS, I had recently come off a very strict low calorie, low-ish carb regimen, on which I had lost about 25#. It is pretty amazing that I didn't end this year after that diet with most of the weight gained back. The friend who told me about NoS had read about it and knew there was a website, but isn't on the diet, believe it or not. She is quite overweight, and not happy about it, but for some reason hasn't taken NoS on for herself. Anyway, I was bemoaning to her the fact that I had recently lost weight and was slowly starting to gain it back by eating "normally" and wasn't sure what to do, as the diet had been so strict, I couldn't see going back on it with the same fervor again. She was telling me that NoS made so much sense to her, I should check it out. I have been really impressed with the message of moderation, and the not so new concept therein of delayed gratification. I think that's the key for me- making choices, "I can have this now, or wait, and enjoy it more later because I'm not eating to excess.
Something else that could have put more weight on me is that I've moved and have not had access to the safe area I used to walk at 5:30 am, often starting in the dark. (I don't have a car to get there, either.) That used to be 1 hour of light exercize almost every day. I also was swimming a lot and have gotten out of the habit. So now I still walk a fair amount just for daily activities, and try to do weight traning a few times a week, but it's not nearly as much as I was doing a year and a half ago.

The other big factor in why I think I would be heavier right now without NoS, is that in the middle of this first year, I went on a 2 week vacation with an eating buddy to Asia, and thoroughly enjoyed eating my way through Singapore and Malaysia. This involved a lot of fried foods, large servings, syrupy sweet drinks, and exotic desserts (never knew you could do so much damage with durian... in the form of durian cream puffs and iced desserts, and jelly candies!) That wouldn't have been so bad in and of itself (I'd be happy to do it again, and count it all yellow days), but it set me off in a sort of happy to binge mindset, and for the following 5 weeks, I couldn't seem to regain control, which involved way too much chocolate and Dorittos. So, there was a big blip on the screen where I was off NoS principles, regained, and then subsequently relost about 11# up to now. Just imagine, if I had avoided that weight gain and still lost the 11#... but I digress...
My ideal eating regimen on N days would be 3 fairly low carb plates of food, but I no longer stress, as long as it's 3 plates of any non-sweet food. This seems to work for me, to have an "ideal" and an "acceptable" that still keeps me within reasonable boundaries.
I haven't been able to work Vanilla NoS, as I have an active social life on weeknights and really lame weekends. Therefore, I am doing floating S days, based on what's going on that week. This is working well for me. (I was doing S events/occasions for a while, but that was way too complicated and not so helpful.)
I count the S week from Monday to Sunday, so if I've taken 1 S day, and another snack or sweet event looms before me, I have to decide, "Would I rather have whatever that is, or wait till Sunday and have my favorite desert with a scoop of ice cream and coffe on Sunday afternoon at a cafe?". Usually that puts things in perspective, because I really like that Sunday treat, and seeing it as a choice, where I can have the whatever now or wait for the really good thing, is building muscles of self control. This week, as I type, I had an S day on Monday (3 plates of pasta *yeah, I know*, followed by cookies and chips) and am now trying to choose between an afternoon dessert farewell (Fri), an embassy snack function (Sat) or a friend's daughter's 14 year birthday party (Sun). I'm thinking of drinking coffee at the farewell, eating a single plate of non-sweet snack foods and considering it lunch (Sat) and taking the S day on Sunday. It's nice to have choices and not see the diet as a ball and chain, but also not to have the proverbial monkey on my back of thinking "Oh, why don't I just eat this thing now and restart my diet tomorrow?". There is really no genuine freedom in that.
So, I want to say "Thanks" to Reinhard and all of you out here who post and interact on the various joys and struggles on this happy NoS road. I appreciate all of you, and know I wouldn't have stuck with it this long without the encouragement of us doing this together. Have an enjoyable 3 plates of savory food today (or a very happy S day)!
-Sonya
-Sonya
No Sweets, No Snacks and No Seconds, Except (Sometimes) on days that start with "S".

jellybeans01
Posts: 232
Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 3:10 pm
Location: San Antonio

Post by jellybeans01 » Mon Jun 06, 2011 3:11 pm

thanks for you post. Being that you are as tall as you are I'm thinking that 140's are really good. Of course it is great to go an entire year and gain only 3lbs. It really sounds like you have found an eating pattern that totally lets you enjoy life and that is wonderful success.

Clarica
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Joined: Fri Dec 12, 2008 5:02 am
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Post by Clarica » Mon Jun 06, 2011 3:11 pm

excellent testimonial! thanks. :) avoiding gradual weight gain alone is awesome, but coming off a low-cal diet, then having a food celebration that turned into an excess of food relapse, and then having these habits correct (most) of the damage done, is fantastic!

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sophiasapientia
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Joined: Tue Nov 25, 2008 3:09 am
Location: Michigan

Post by sophiasapientia » Mon Jun 06, 2011 3:22 pm

Sonya -- Thanks so much for sharing your update! I completely agree with the others that gaining a mere 3 pounds in a year after coming off a strict low-cal-carb diet, etc, is a tremendous success and it sounds like you are in a great place all-around ... Just awesome! :D 8)
Restarted No S (3rd times a charm!) January 2010 at 145 lbs

Who Me?
Posts: 969
Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2011 2:18 pm

Post by Who Me? » Mon Jun 06, 2011 6:48 pm

Thanks for this.

(I've been durian-curious for a while, now.)

vmsurbat
Posts: 499
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:12 am
Location: Montenegro

Post by vmsurbat » Tue Jun 07, 2011 4:15 am

What an excellent testimony on the great "long haul" aspect of NoS! And I especially appreciate these thoughts (emphasis mine):
My ideal eating regimen on N days would be 3 fairly low carb plates of food, but I no longer stress, as long as it's 3 plates of any non-sweet food. This seems to work for me, to have an "ideal" and an "acceptable" that still keeps me within reasonable boundaries.
I've come to the exact same realization and life is so much more enjoyable when I don't sweat the small stuff....

Congrats on a great year!
Vicki in MNE
7! Yrs. with Vanilla NoS, down 55+lb, happily maintaining and still loving it!

kccc
Posts: 3957
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 1:12 am

Post by kccc » Tue Jun 07, 2011 1:27 pm

I like the "ideal/acceptable" description as well - very much.

And yes, this was definitely testimonial-worthy!

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