just an introduction

No Snacks, no sweets, no seconds. Except on Days that start with S. Too simple for you? Simple is why it works. Look here for questions, introductions, support, success stories.

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anra
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Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2014 6:12 pm

just an introduction

Post by anra » Tue Apr 29, 2014 6:53 pm

hello everybody,

my name is andrea, i am from austria, europe and today has been my third day not-s-ing.
i love it. i am doing fine with it, i enjoy getting hungry for my meals. i don't need to fight down the slightest feeling of hunger by snacking. you can survive being hungry, WHO KNEW? just wait for mealtime, stupid! DUH indeed.

i am 33 years old and i have struggled with my weight since kindergarten. i was 4 when i was put on my first diet (by the pediatrician). talk about damaged by diets... i was anorexic before i turned 12.

i found this system via amazon, i wanted to thank user "oolala53". in her review of roger goulds' "shrink yourself" she mentioned the no s diet and i just googled it.

it made sense, it was simple and clear, so i started right away.

when i was a child, we used to eat like this. breakfast, lunch, dinner. no snacks, just water to drink. treats only on sunday or holidays. e basta.

but: having a mother who struggled with her weight all her life - after all, the women in my family stem from russian and italian farmers and are not at all petite fairies - her weird diet trials sneaked in plus she started working again and shared familiy meals did not happen so often anymore.

plus in the nineties we were all told that the traditional way of eating was no longer in order. you had to do weird food combining. you had to go whole grain. you had to do juice fasts and fruit days. you had to try the "new" weight watchers system.

i must have learned a weird lot from this. up until now i tried eating:macrobiotic, low-cal, low-fat, low-carb, starches only, vegan and low-fat, only veggies and fruit, yadda yadda yadda.

the only thing that stuck: i am strictly vegetarian and i am gluten-intolerant. that helped with digestive and inflammation issues, but the weight is stuck.

because, after all those years - i am an emotional eater AND restriction only leads to bingeing. of course i keep on working on the emotional overeating issue, but having a simple structure helps tremendously.

so. i am brave and sane enough to give up dieting and just eat the normal way, like we used not so long ago. i don't miss the snacks and i don't miss sweets. three normal meals a day feels like a giant liberation! just goes to show how messed up we have become.

and i know i must be doing something right because since i started this i woke up hungry every morning, looking forward to breakfast.

on the weekend i will go and get a slegdehammer to start shovelgloving (my husband wants to try this too).

love+light,
anra
simplicity is the purest form of elegance.

automatedeating
Posts: 5305
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2013 2:16 pm

Post by automatedeating » Tue Apr 29, 2014 7:15 pm

Welcome! So glad you found NoS. :)
Month/Year-BMI
8/13-26.3
8/14-24.5
5/15-26.2
1/16-26.9; 9/16-25.6
8/17-25.8; 11/17-26.9
3/18-25.6; 8/18-24.5; 10/18-23.8;
3/19-22.1; 10/19-21.8
6/20-22.5; 7/20-23.0; 9/20-23.6
4/21 - 25.2

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

Post by osoniye » Wed Apr 30, 2014 4:22 am

Hi Andrea- Austria is a beautiful country!
Thanks for telling us a bit of your story. I trust you will continue to find NoS a very good plan for sane eating. These boards are very supportive and helpful. Welcome!
-Sonya
No Sweets, No Snacks and No Seconds, Except (Sometimes) on days that start with "S".

wosnes
Posts: 4168
Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2006 3:38 pm
Location: Indianapolis, IN, USA

Post by wosnes » Wed Apr 30, 2014 9:25 am

Welcome!
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."

noni
Posts: 613
Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2009 2:01 pm

Post by noni » Wed Apr 30, 2014 11:36 am

Welcome, Andrea. I hope you find peace with food and good habits like many of us here.

eschano
Posts: 2642
Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2012 2:20 pm

Post by eschano » Wed Apr 30, 2014 11:43 am

Hi Andrea,

I'm originally from Austria too :) Welcome to the sanity of NoS.
eschano - Vanilla rocks!

July 2012- January 2016
Started again January 2021

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anra
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2014 6:12 pm

Post by anra » Wed Apr 30, 2014 12:27 pm

thank you everybody for the nice welcome.

the more i read and think about this lifestyle, the more sense it makes.
today is day 4 and i feel so good and SO normal.

(warning, this may be a bit tmi for some ... but i am more than happy to report that my digestion works pretty fine since i started this. i think this is just because my belly has enough undisturbed time in between meals to deal with the food and digest it all properly :D )

@eschano, where are you from? i am living in graz, not born here but we live here for work and study.

and oh yes - can you explain to me what is "vanilla no s"? sound delicious! :wink:

have a nice day everyone!
anra
simplicity is the purest form of elegance.

eschano
Posts: 2642
Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2012 2:20 pm

Post by eschano » Wed Apr 30, 2014 4:13 pm

Hi Anra,

I'm from the Salzkammergut in Upper Austria but live in the UK :) Graz is beautiful!

Vanilla NoS is following the rules of NoS without any modifications (mods, such as what you eat or how many sweets you can eat and so on). I strongly recommend doing Vanilla NoS for at least 6 months if not a year before you start experimenting with mods, even if your S days are wild.

This lifestyle is amazing - so happy I found it. I'm sure you'll have just as much fun with it!
eschano - Vanilla rocks!

July 2012- January 2016
Started again January 2021

heatherhikes
Posts: 181
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2011 5:57 pm
Location: uetliberg

Post by heatherhikes » Wed Apr 30, 2014 5:26 pm

Welcome Andrea!

I live next door in Switzerland, near Zürich :)
_____
h

oolala53
Posts: 10059
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Location: San Diego, CA USA

Post by oolala53 » Fri May 02, 2014 3:35 am

I feel a little bad for Dr. Gould that you found No S through my comment on his book on Amazon, but I'm glad you're here and enjoying your meals.
Count plates, not calories. 11 years "during"
Age 69
BMI Jan/10-30.8
1/12-26.8 3/13-24.9 +/- 8-lb. 3 yrs
9/17 22.8 (flux) 3/18 22.2
2 yrs flux 6/20 22
1/21-23

There is no S better than Vanilla No S (mods now as a senior citizen)

automatedeating
Posts: 5305
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2013 2:16 pm

Post by automatedeating » Fri May 02, 2014 12:19 pm

LOL Oolala! Now I'm going to have look up that book, although the title gives me a fairly decent idea of what it's all about. :)
Month/Year-BMI
8/13-26.3
8/14-24.5
5/15-26.2
1/16-26.9; 9/16-25.6
8/17-25.8; 11/17-26.9
3/18-25.6; 8/18-24.5; 10/18-23.8;
3/19-22.1; 10/19-21.8
6/20-22.5; 7/20-23.0; 9/20-23.6
4/21 - 25.2

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mimi
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Location: The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia

Post by mimi » Fri May 02, 2014 4:52 pm

Welcome Andrea! Best wishes on your NoS journey!
Mimi :D
Discovered NoS: April 16, 2007
Restarted once again: July 14, 2011
Quitting is not an option...
If you start to slip, tie a knot and hang on!
Remember that good enough is... good enough.
Strive for progress, not perfection!

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anra
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2014 6:12 pm

Post by anra » Sun May 04, 2014 4:41 pm

hello neighbours and everybody.

the first weekend with s-days went pretty good. i ate my 3 plates plus i was allowed some sweet treats with the afternoon tea.
i had 2 pieces of my choice and was happy and satisfied. no binging or overdoing it.
we have a locked box that contains little chocolates, glutenfree mini-cakes and cookies that only gets locked open on occasion. i got the idea when i read that sugar containers used to have locks in the olden days. i seemed a bit drastic, but my hubby takes the key with him when he is at work - but it works! i know that there are no sweets available so i don't have to negotiate with myself if i can have a piece or not.

i intend to do this as long as my relationship with food and treats becomes totally normal and sane.

eschano - thanks for explaining vanilla no s. since the plan works for me as intended by the inventor i don't think i will have the desire to modify anything.
so, i guess i'm vanilla too 8)

oolala - i have a feeling that dr gould is a very sane and reasonable man :lol: and i think he would support anything one can do to come to a normal way of eating, even more so if it can keep emotional eating at bay.

i'm full week in and i love it. the sanity and doability of this is even more important to me than weightloss. i do not weigh myself until i'm about 4 weeks in and i think in longterm goals ... how will i be in one year? that takes the pressure off.

love+light,
anra

ps - i started shovelglove. ouch.
simplicity is the purest form of elegance.

oolala53
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Location: San Diego, CA USA

Post by oolala53 » Sun May 04, 2014 6:20 pm

Gould's focus was on analyzing the reasons behind the emotions and came up with all kinds of labels for them, plus an emotional persona he even named for the eater. I'm very much in favor of trying to create distance between "me" and my disturbing thoughts, but giving them another personality in me thinking them complicates things, IMO. But he did recommend rules of reasonable eating and one of them was having routines of meals and snacks. I did that for years. Still binged. And I could never figure out how to do all the figuring out what was wrong and what to do about it until I just accepted that no matter what, I wasn't going to eat until it was mealtime.

It's possible I am a bit stalled now because I had been trying to find a few more ways to spend that between-meal time to actually solve problems! Found out it's still too hard. But I can do less productive-yet-effective things to get me through, and that is good enough for now. He might say my most important work is ahead of me, but I agree that he would probably approve of not giving in to eating while I figure things out.

I envy your mild first weekend, but it's totally normal, too. Not everyone has to go through great turmoil!

I think the lockbox is a reasonable training wheel to simulate lack of access as it used to be. Maybe even a permanent strategy, though my mother hiding cookies didn't work on me. I don't keep sweets around anymore , though. I live alone, so no one else wants them. I gave up judging myself for not being able to have them around consistently without overeating them. Plus, I have small storage spaces. It doesn't make much sense to keep stuff around I eat so seldom. I allow myself sweets only in company these days. (I instituted that mod, the only one I consider official, at 2.5 years in.) I'm trying to do the same with all foods, though it does make sense to buy in bulk for some staples.

Have a lovely week two!
Count plates, not calories. 11 years "during"
Age 69
BMI Jan/10-30.8
1/12-26.8 3/13-24.9 +/- 8-lb. 3 yrs
9/17 22.8 (flux) 3/18 22.2
2 yrs flux 6/20 22
1/21-23

There is no S better than Vanilla No S (mods now as a senior citizen)

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MerryKat
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Location: Sunny South Africa

Post by MerryKat » Mon May 05, 2014 1:32 pm

Welcome Anra!!!

I love the idea of a locked sweet box!!! Makes me think of the way they keep dynamite locked up!!! LOL!!!
Hugs from Sunny South Africa
Vanilla No S with no Sugar due to Health issues - 11 yrs No S - September 2016 (some good, some bad (my own doing) but always the right thing for me!)

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anra
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2014 6:12 pm

Post by anra » Mon May 12, 2014 11:50 am

today is day 16.

i just had lunch. i made myself some nice fresh cornbread as a side dish. (an authentic southern us recipe :D )

fresh warm homemade bread is my weakness, and cornbread is even lovelier.

before no s i would have been overeating because it's so good.

today - i stopped after one piece and i could not go any further.
even though it would have been so so so soooooo good ... i did not eat on because i just cannot stand being stuffed anymore. in fact, i just eat until i'm about 4/5 full, because that's when i feel satiated but i do not get tired or braindead after a meal.

THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE!

years and years i struggled. and now, in two weeks, 13 little words stuck in my head make all the difference.

Wow. JUST WOW.
simplicity is the purest form of elegance.

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anra
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Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2014 6:12 pm

Post by anra » Mon May 12, 2014 11:53 am

hey merry kat,

that's a great reference =)

the locked box still works ... but i don't think about sweets a lot anymore.
on the weekend (my second s-weekend) the husband had to remind me that i could have something from the box ... i had forgotten about it. :lol:
simplicity is the purest form of elegance.

noni
Posts: 613
Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2009 2:01 pm

Post by noni » Mon May 12, 2014 1:19 pm

Way to go, Anra!!

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anra
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update

Post by anra » Wed Jun 04, 2014 6:41 am

hello everyone,

i am quite busy with exam prep at the moment so i am not active here at all, not even reading or lurking.

but i just wanted to give a quick update - last weekend was my first official weigh-in (after one solid month in) and i am a bit more than 1 kilo down. i am even more delighted because i did not have an eating binge in about 6 weeks. yay!

i am content with this, because 1) i feel lighter than just one kilo and i look slimmer and flatter around the waist and the stomach area and 2) i had a great time eating, everyday.

this really is the way to go.

love + light,
anra
simplicity is the purest form of elegance.

clarinetgal
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Location: Western Washington State

Post by clarinetgal » Wed Jun 04, 2014 6:53 am

Great job!

Mustloseweight
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Location: UK

Post by Mustloseweight » Thu Jun 05, 2014 2:28 am

Very inspiring post. Good luck!
September 2017 - Starting weight: 19st 9lbs
March 2018 - 17st 2lbs
July 2018 - 16st 4lbs
July 2020 - 17st 10lbs 😟
Target Weight: 11 stones

vmsurbat
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Location: Montenegro

Post by vmsurbat » Thu Jun 05, 2014 2:20 pm

Woohoo! Good for you!
Vicki in MNE
7! Yrs. with Vanilla NoS, down 55+lb, happily maintaining and still loving it!

oolala53
Posts: 10059
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2008 1:46 am
Location: San Diego, CA USA

Post by oolala53 » Thu Jun 05, 2014 7:59 pm

No bingeing for 6 weeks; now that is a real victory!
Count plates, not calories. 11 years "during"
Age 69
BMI Jan/10-30.8
1/12-26.8 3/13-24.9 +/- 8-lb. 3 yrs
9/17 22.8 (flux) 3/18 22.2
2 yrs flux 6/20 22
1/21-23

There is no S better than Vanilla No S (mods now as a senior citizen)

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