Silverstorm's Daily Check-In

Counting carbs/calories is a drag. Obsessive scale stepping is a recipe for despair. If you want to count something, "days on habit" is a much better metric. Checking off days on a calendar would do just fine, but if you do it here you get accountability and support. Here's how. Start a new topic in this forum called (say) "Your Name Daily Check In." Then every N day post a "reply" to that topic as to whether you stayed on habit. A simple "<font color="green">SUCCESS</font>" or "<font color="red">FAILURE</font>" (or your preferred euphemism if that's too harsh) is sufficient, but obviously you're welcome to write more if you want. On S-days just register that you're taking an S-day. You don't have to do this forever, just until you're confident you've built the habit. Feel free to check in weekly or monthly or sporadically instead of daily. Feel free also to track other habits besides No-s (I'm keeping this forum under No-s because that's what the vast majority are using it for). See also my <a href="/habitcal/">HabitCal</a> tool for another more formal (and perhaps complementary) way to track habits.

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silverstorm
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Silverstorm's Daily Check-In

Post by silverstorm » Tue Mar 28, 2006 4:29 pm

Hi Everyone!

I'm starting today (Tuesday, March 28, 2006) and I'm excited about the challenge. 21 days from now is April 18. I can do the 21 test, I know I can. My birthday is next Wednesday, so even though I believe that from what I read, your birthday can be an S-day, I dont want the whole week to turn into an S-week, which it can tend to do in my family.

A bit about me:

I'm 26 years old (almost 27!) married female. I am 5'4.5 and weigh about 145lbs. I like to work out and run, and I get around to working out about 3-4 times a week, but would like to up that to 5. I eat generally very very healthy, but I am a grazer (3 small meals and 2-3 small snacks a day, eating all day pretty much), I have a raging sweet tooth, and I am also an emotional eater--especially when I'm bored at work.

I'm hoping this plan will help me to continue eating my healthy foods, but not only provide structure to help curb the sweet tooth, but also allow myself to not feel guilty when I do indulge (on S-days, of course). The guilt factor is a really big problem with me, that even when I eat healthy 90% of the time, 10% of the time, when I'm eating "junk" I don't enjoy it as much as I should because I feel like I shouldn't. I also don't eat like a "thin person" which I want to learn to do. My thin friends dont fret about what they eat, they actually stop when they're satisfied, and don't feel guilty about enjoying indulgent foods. I dont think they're all very healthy(some of my naturally thin friends that live on potato chips and coke have very low energy levels and I know they're clogging their arteries!) but I do admire the way they dont let food control their lives.

Anyway...would love to hear some feedback from you all to let me know how this is working for you and if you think this plan is right for me!

~~~Silverstorm

silverstorm
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Post by silverstorm » Tue Mar 28, 2006 7:16 pm

Okay, it's still day 1 but if I want to be accountable, I feel like I can write more than once a day, right?

So I had breakfast at 8:30 am and when I usually have lunch (between 12 and 12:30) I didn't. I did feel hunger (why am I so afraid of feeling hungry?) and I had some water to combat that. At 1:45 I had lunch. Now I brought my usual: Leftovers (today was quinoa with vegetables and chickpeas), an apple, carrots and cucumber slices, and a slice of soy cheese. Usually I just eat the leftovers and then the veggies and save the apple and soy cheese for a 3 o clock snack. Today I ate it all and I feel stuffed! I even ate slowly (I usually eat too fast) but I guess I'm afraid that if I didn't eat it all then I would be hungry way too soon before dinner.

Anyway, I'm glad I felt the hunger and realized it didn't kill me. :)

silverstorm
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Post by silverstorm » Tue Mar 28, 2006 7:43 pm

Hm...it hasn't been even an hour since my last post and...I've already screwed up. I was done with my lunch and sometimes if it doesn't get me to that satisfied point I can say to myself "well, you have a snack for later" but this time I said "must eat a lot now or else you'll die by the time 5 o clock comes around and dinner isn't until 8...so I found a granola bar in my desk....S is for SWEET. :(

Okay, lesson learned. I think my body was craving some fat. The only fat I've had most of this day was the almonds in my yogurt (fat free), fruit and almond parfait.

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carolejo
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Post by carolejo » Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:34 am

(why am I so afraid of feeling hungry?)
Hi Silverstorm,

Here comes some (unsolicited) advice. Feel free to ignore it if you like! :)

These days we're so isolated from normal, healthy and usual hunger feelings that we've almost forgotten how it feels. So, when you get hungry for the first time in a while, it feels painful and uncomfortable and 'not right'. Because we're so unused to it, it can be quite frightening - especially as (if we eliminate hunger completely) then the only times we feel that 'bad' are when we have a stomach bug or something!!

Even if you tell yourself (quite rightly) that people can survive with minimal problems for DAYS at a time without eating provided they drink enough water, it is quite another thing to really know that you'll be OK if you wait for a few more hours before you eat again.

The only thing I think you can do is try to tough it out. Each time you get hungry but wait for your next meal, you'll show yourself that you can do it and you'll train your appetite and it's responses too. Afterall, hunger is the best 'sauce' around. If you're hungry when you eat, EVERYTHING just tastes BETTER.

As to falling off the waggon, do what I do. Just jump straight back on! Ultimately it's not the 'sticking with it 100%, 100% of the time' which is really important if you want to change your lifestyle and your relationship with food, it's the saying to yourself "well, that wasn't ideal behaviour, but that was then. There's no point wasting time and effort feeling guilty about it cos I did that and I can't change it now! What I ate before has no bearing on the choices I'm gonna make from here on though, so let's just try again."

One final point I'd like to make is that if you're going to 'fail', try to fail safe. When I was starting out, I always made sure there was a piece of fruit around. That way, if I really felt like I had to eat something, I'd eat the fruit instead of going for that chocolate bar. Still technically a 'failure' if you want to be strict about it, but I really don't think that any behaviour which improves on pre NoS behaviour can really be called a failure!

Good luck and keep going. Although there will probably always be days when this feels quite difficult, it does get easier with time.

C.
CaroleJo

silverstorm
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Post by silverstorm » Wed Mar 29, 2006 2:09 pm

CaroleJo, any and all advice is welcome, otherwise I wouldn't be posting on this board, I'd just be writing in a journal or something, right? :D

I do need to reinforce that hunger isn't a bad thing. It isn't going to kill me. In fact, it will help me appreciate the food more! I like that "appetite is the best sauce".

So day 1 was not as successful as I had hoped. I did acheive "no sweets" and also "no seconds" but I was not as successful with the no snacks. I had a granola bar after lunch because I was afraid to be hungry later, and then right before the gym I had another small one because I was worried I wouldnt' make it through my strength training class at the gym. But of course, why would I assume that? I've never not made it through a class at the gym, so why would not eating before have that affect? Anyway...when I finally got home, my husband was cooking dinner and I had a cracker and cheese, BUT I had far less pasta than I usually would have so I guess that's called "virtual plating". Did I get that right?

Overall...not a 100% first day, but maybe 80%. I'll take that! :)

CaroleJo and others, your thoughts and advice are always welcome!!

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carolejo
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Post by carolejo » Wed Mar 29, 2006 2:18 pm

Glad to hear it went OK for you.

Seriously though, when I started out also thought that I wouldn't make it through. I 'allowed' myself up to two extra portions of fruit or raw veg every day if I wanted them, surplus to my 3 meals. Starting out, I ate at least one of these most days, but now I hardly ever do that. (The fruit makes it onto my mealtime plate instead of something less healthy most of the time, so I haven't just stopped eating it :) ) It's not something I deliberately forced upon myself, I just let it happen as my body adjusted. Perhaps you might try something similar. Make the Granola bars into an S (most of them have a pretty high sugar content anyway) but eat some whole fruit instead.

The main thing is just to find a way of doing things which will enable your body to find a balance point and maintain your weight, without it being difficult to sustain for the rest of your life.

Good luck! I'm sure you'll be fine though.
C.
CaroleJo

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Post by silverstorm » Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:42 pm

CaroleJo, I agree that granola bars should be strictly S's. They're great to have in my desk in case of emergency, but having an apple is all the better.

Today I had my breakfast at 8:30 and then at 12 there was a luncheon that I had to attend. I wasn't really hungry, but I had to eat then because for the next 2 hours we were talking. Instead of fretting over what to choose like I usually would have done (gasp, REFINED CARBS!) I took 1 plate and filled it with a sandwich, a bit of pasta salad, and a peach. There were cookies and brownies, but I didn't have one! Go me!

I ate it all. At 2 when I got back to my desk, I saw the apple and almond butter that was going to be a part of my home-brought lunch (forgot about the work luncheon) on my desk and it was calling to me, so I ate it. While it definitely could have fit on my plate at the luncheon, no, I didn't need it. Not a terrible thing, an apple and 2 tbsp of almond butter, but it was defintely a snack and I wasn't even hungry! Baby steps, right?

I always have fruits and vegetables to snack on, but I always ate them because I could, because they were good for me, not because I needed them, per se. I also include fruits and veggies in my meals, so that's not a problem, it's not crowded out by other less healthy options, it's just that I eat out of habit, not out of hunger and that's what I need to retrain myself to do.

I am still proud of myself for avoiding the cookies and brownies. The brownies looked awesome!

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ceu
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Post by ceu » Wed Mar 29, 2006 9:42 pm

good for you on the cookie front. :)

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Post by silverstorm » Thu Mar 30, 2006 2:06 pm

CEU, thanks for the cookie support. :lol:

So yesterday was *almost* a NO-S day. I feel like I am going to need count this as a practice week until I get a full no-s day. I had no sweets yesterday, and no seconds, but the snack thing is still getting to me. I know it's not a big deal, when you're starting out, to have an afternoon snack such as a piece of fruit, so at 5:00 I went for a banana. Fine right? Well it would have been, but eating it made me feel so good that I also had a slice of soy cheese and two Special K bars, which I devoured one after the other. They are small, but I do need to get the granola bars OUT of my desk at work. I would have been just fine with the banana.

I am counting this week as practice, and will start being official NO-S on Monday morning, with the only snacks being fruit and only if I really need it.

I've already made big strides with the no sweets thing which I am SO proud of! The thing is, I'm not craving it as much as I thought. Maybe because I know it's coming this weekend? It's so exciting!

silverstorm
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Post by silverstorm » Fri Mar 31, 2006 2:38 pm

Well, I know this is a learning curve but, man, I was not successful yesetrday :oops:

I started out fine. Breakfast. Then I ate my lunch at 1. Then I really did need to eat something before my kickboxing class because it's really intense and I was feeling lightheaded at 6 so I had some air popped popcorn. No problem. Didn't get home till 8:30, made dinner and sat down to eat it at 9. I had a NO-S success in that I didn't have a snack while I was making dinner, which I ALWAYS DO. Well I had my dinner of spaghetti squash, veggies, pasta sauce and boca burger, and an apple with almond butter. Then I dont know what came over me, but an hour later I had 3 pieces of dark chocolate, a packet of soy nuts, a 100 calorie pack of chips ahoy, and about 2 cups of kashi crunch cereal. :(

I definitely paid for it last night--I couldn't sleep for all the digestion stuff going on!

Sometimes I wonder if I'm kicking myself in the tush for eating so healthy most of the time? If I was eating more satisfying foods maybe I wouldn't have these mini-binges?

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Post by Schnebit » Fri Mar 31, 2006 4:32 pm

For what it's worth, silverstorm, I've found this to be the case for me.

I've started eating more of what I wanted (in line with No S), even if it's considered "less healthy", and that has made it MUCH easier!

I'm actually enjoying my meals more than I have in the past, and I feel more satisfied to boot!

I've only been doing this for about three days, so it's hard to say whether or not I'm losing weight.

However, I can say that my sleep has been much better since I cut out eating at night (even though what I *was* eating at night would be considered healthy).

Jim

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