THE NO S JOURNEY CONTINUES...ONE YEAR....20% LOST

[r.jean]

THE NO S JOURNEY CONTINUES: ONE YEAR: 20 % LOST

FEMALE; 55 YEARS; 5 FT 6 IN
STARTED 12/20/10
STARTING BMI: 36.2
CURRENT BMI: 28.9
GOAL BMI: 24.9
WEIGHT LOSS GOAL: 70 LBS
LOSS IN FIRST YEAR: 45 LBS
PERCENT LOST IN THE FIRST YEAR = 20 %
MONTHLY LOSSES: I HAVE FOCUSED ON MAINTENANCE AND HAVE NEVER GAINED AT A MONTHLY WEIGH IN. THERE WAS ONE MONTH WHEN I STAYED EVEN. THE OTHER MONTHS VARIED FROM .2 LBS TO 8.2 LBS WITH THE BIG LOSSES COMING IN THE FIRST FOUR MONTHS. I NOW AVERAGE 1-2 LBS PER MONTH.

HOW I GOT HERE:
I come from a family of mostly petite women. I have never been petite, but growing up, I was not large either. I just felt large compared to others. My BMI probably averaged about 22 until I hit college and gained weight. I drifted up to about a 27 BMI during college but lost weight after college. The next gain came with my first two children, but once again I successfully got down to the upper average BMI range by the time my second child was 2. (I used Weight Watchers.) My third child was born in my early 30s, and the weight creep went up from there. I temporarily lost some weight in my mid 40s on a low carb diet, but that weight (and then some) came back within a year or so. Then, in 2010, the slow creep accelerated, and I gained 20 lbs. in one year.

In December 2010, I bought the No S Diet book on a Christmas shopping trip in a bookstore that was closing. I was browsing bargains, and the No S Diet book intrigued me. I started the plan right away and have never quit.

HABIT CAL AND POSTS

Habit Cal calendars were very important to me at the beginning. I hate to track what I eat which has always been a problem with conventional dieting. The calendars are an easy way to be accountable without much work. I still do two calendars every day. The first calendar is for compliance with Vanilla No S rules. I average two reds a month. The second calendar is for exercise. My exercise goal has been the same since I started. The goal is 30 minutes of exercise a day with one floating exempt (yellow) day every week. A second day of no exercise in a week is a red. Excluding the first month, I only had one red the rest of the year. I generally use 2-3 yellows a month but have gone entire months not using any.

I sign on to this website almost every day. I skim new posts. I sometimes post comments. I keep a daily check in, but I do not always check in. I was logging my exercise on my daily check in, but now I keep that on a document on my desk top. This routine is important to me. It keeps me going. It is interesting and sometimes inspiring to read the posts. I also get positive feedback on my which always feels good.

I used to have a calendar to track alcohol consumption, but it did not seem to really affect my habits so I got rid of it. I am more concerned about the extra calories that alcohol provides than I am about how much I am drinking. I am a conscientious social drinker.

NO SWEETS

This has been one of the amazing successes. Once I quit eating sweets, I stopped craving them. I do not even eat sweets that much on weekends. When I do have sweets, it is usually something fruity. Chocolate used to be a daily binge, but I can indulge in chocolate occasionally now without going off the deep end. I ate more sweets this past weekend than I have had in a long time.

SECONDS

I still work on this one. Some of my plates are very full, and I still love to eat. Comfort foods are my downfall. I have a special weakness for mashed potatoes.

NO SNACKS

This is easier than I thought it would be. I used to permasnack every evening. I was truly amazed at how quickly I conquered the evening snacking. In the case of true hunger between meals or at bedtime, I occasionally have a glass of milk to tide me over.

S DAYS

My S days were sometimes wild at first but are pretty mundane at this point. I continue to eat like I do during the week, but I give in to temptations at times. I sometimes eat four times a day. I sometimes have a dessert or a snack. The holidays (NWS days) are the exception. I am more likely to go over the top on my eating on major holidays.

EXERCISE

Exercise is my greatest success. I had gotten pretty sedentary during the year before No S. We do race events as a family, and I was walking most of each 5K and was skipping anything longer than a 5K. This past year, I have been slowly building up my running. I still walk some of the time during my races, but I am improving. My first 5K of the year was 41:55. My best was 34:08. My current average pace with my walk/jogs is 11:30 per mile. I hope to gradually be able to run an entire 5K again.

I also walk (a lot), do some shovel glove, use exercise DVDs, etc. I occasionally do water aerobics, go to dance classes, play volleyball, and look for other ways to stay active.

BODY IMAGE

My clothes fit better, and I feel better. I have gotten rid of some clothes and I am wearing things out of my closet that I have not worn in years. I feel pretty good about how I look....in clothes.

I still am overweight but no longer obese. I still have a lot of ugly sag. At first I was very concerned because the sag was more pronounced with the early losses. However the losses slowed down, and slow loss together with exercise is working. I am optimistic that I will eventually be comfortable in my skin again. It has been many years since I have been able to say this.

PHASES:
I lost weight pretty easily during the first four months, losing 10% of my body weight. It took me eight months to lose the next 10%. When I reach my final goal, I will have lost close to a third of my starting body weight.

The beginning four months are documented in my first testimonial post. I had good losses for the most part, but I faltered in the third month. I tried to restrict my plates to very moderate amounts with very healthy food choices. Of course, I was feeling totally deprived, and my weekends became more wild. Also, there were weekdays that I was compliant but crammed as much as I could onto my 3 plates. I started a cycle similar to my past cycles of trying to lose weight. I would deprive myself, then overeat, deprive myself, then overeat again. At the end of the month when I weighed in, I was exactly the same. This made me stop and think about what I was doing. I settled into a more relaxed mode and concentrated on Vanilla No S. I still try to make healthy choices, but I do not deprive myself, and I refuse to eat food I do not like just because it is healthy.

Each season brought a new challenge. Summer has always been a time of weight gain for me. I love BBQs...brats, burgers, beer and pasta salad, potato salad, and corn on the cob. I also tend to slack off on exercise in the heat. No S helped me to moderate my behavior, and the heat did not bother me as much with less weight so I exercised more. Although the early losses slowed down, I continued to lose. Vacations were not as much of a challenge as I thought they would be. I took two lengthy vacations of 15-16 days each and several smaller trips. For the longer vacations, I marked yellow on my habit cal and did not track. However, I maintained the 3 meal structure for the most part, and I only ate the most tempting sweets or snacks.

Extended family celebrations are my biggest issue, from the family reunion in the summer to visiting relatives and multiple days of eating during major holiday times. During the Christmas season, I did a good job at most of the holiday parties that were work related or for casual friends, but the multiday family fests were over the top.

GOALS AND CHANGES:
I have been setting small goals for myself at the beginning of every month. These goals are not only about weight loss or exercise. They are also about personal habits. My primary goal is always to maintain the successes from previous months and hope for some improvement.

So I hope to at least maintain my 45 lb loss. I would be ecstatic to continue to lose 1-2 lbs a month. I hope to at least maintain my walk/jog pace. I would love to gradually drop my average pace.

And so on....

[NoSRocks]

GREAT POST! MANY CONGRATULATIONS!!

[reinhard]

Dear r.jean,

Congratulations on your substantial, sustained success and for letting us know (and in such detail!)

The details really are enormously helpful -- both in terms of what techniques you found useful (the habitcal and how you used it, checking the website) and in terms of where you are coming from -- a lot of petitish women with significant of weight to lose have reported a sense of despair that this or any other diet/exercise program could ever work for them. It's informative and inspirational.

I'm also always interested to hear which esses people find the most difficult to grapple with, seasonal issues, vacations, and the perennial issue of "S-days gone wild."

Thank you again, congratulations, and best of luck going forward (or at least sideways!) in 2012,

Reinhard

[Too solid flesh]

Congratulations, r.jean! That is really impressive, and as Reinhard says it is helpful to have so much information about how you have achieved your impressive loss. Very best wishes for the coming year.

[Clarica]

yay, congratulations!

[vmsurbat]

Congratulations! What an inspiring post!

Enjoy the journey. I am!

[r.jean]

Thanks everyone for the feedback! It always helps to get those pats on the back.

I just reread a post from Sinnie and I am inspired to continue the journey until I am as relaxed as she is with her eating habits. Of course, her join date on this board is 2005 so I have a ways to go!

It is good to see other members of this forum like Sinnie and vmsurbat and others who have been doing this for awhile and are feeling good about it. I want to continue to enjoy the journey.