Sanity Check

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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sanity
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Sanity Check

Post by sanity » Fri May 19, 2006 7:33 pm

This will be my daily checkin of any system I can create this way. I'll add one at a time, to preserve my own sanity.

I am starting it now, on a failure day, to ensure that I actually start. I have a talent for procrastination.

No-S day 1: Failure.

Had a bowl of cold cereal for lunch, then Snacked on some olives. Pretty harmless, but I'm being honest. Slept through breakfast, haven't had dinner yet.

I'll report failures as they happen, and successes the morning after.

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Post by sanity » Sun May 21, 2006 6:36 am

No-S day 1: S-day

Filled with snacks, pudding, and other horrors. I've done nothing useful today, and starting on a Friday seems like an excuse to get two S-days in a row right at the beginning.

However, I think I'll treat S as Sin days, meaning I can be completely unashamed of that. And yes, I'm technically posting the morning after a success, but it's an S-day anyway, and I'm staying up late, and procrastinating...

I wonder if it'll last beyond Monday...

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Post by sanity » Mon May 22, 2006 5:21 pm

No-S day 2: S-day

When I can't remember exactly what I had to eat, something's wrong. It's not that I have a short memory, it's that there was so much of it...

For Day 3, I woke up late and missed breakfast, and I'm eating pizza for lunch. Not great, but it fits on a single plate, I know I won't be hungry till dinner.

No, I don't plan to do things like this all the time -- aside from there being a limited amount of pizza, the biggest reason I had this today was it was easy to prepare. I think I can help prevent this tomorrow by actually planning a decent meal tonight.

Besides, it's only cheating myself.

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Post by sanity » Tue May 23, 2006 2:08 pm

No-S day 3: Success.

Only had lunch and dinner. Lunch was the pizza I wrote about yesterday, dinner was a delicious Thai dish I cooked with my mother.

Each of these meals fit on a single plate, or in a single bowl, and with each of them I was pushing the limits of a single serving. I think I've trained myself on one thing, anyway -- eating a huge meal is worse than eating a normal-sized meal. The huge meal leaves me feeling stuffed afterwards, but won't stop me from being hungry between meals.

I wasn't planning on huge meals, although I was partly trying to avoid getting too hungry between meals. But, it didn't work at all -- I suspect that eating a smaller meal leads to a smaller appetite, in a relatively short amount of time.

My father has been doing this: http://www.bodyforlife.com/

He encourages me to try it instead, and the diet plan is familiar -- smaller meals, keep your metabolism up, all neatly engineered. He claims it's simple, and it works for him, but I doubt I could stick with it.

It's all about simplicity and flexibility -- I can eat anything I want, so long as it's not dessert and fits on one dish. This takes more planning than random snacking, where I could eat whatever I could find in the kitchen, knowing I could come back for more, but it takes significantly less planning and effort than following an engineered plan, with a specific menu of possible meals.

I have another way of keeping my metabolism up, anyway: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_Dance_Revolution

There is one important thing in common, though. No-S gives us two S days per week, minimum. My father's died gives him one "day off" per week, maximum. The idea is the same -- you can always wait for your day off (or two) to have that Twix bar, but if you're on the plan five days a week (or six), you're probably not going to eat 30 Twix bars on your day off (or S-days).

Had a bowl of cold cereal this morning, topped with sliced, fresh strawberries. It's going to be a good day.

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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Tue May 23, 2006 3:54 pm

Go Sanity!!!!

(Your name reminds me of that old Marx brothers joke about how there "Aint no Sanity Claus"... LOL)

Peace and Love,
8) Deb
There is no Wisdom greater than Kindness

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Post by sanity » Tue May 23, 2006 4:10 pm

I suppose I should provide the history of my name, then.

When I was maybe 10 or 12, I was trying to pirate games from sites such as Warez.com. I have no idea what it's like now, but the one thing I remembered (other than the porn ads) was the slogan: "The Ultimate Sanity in Anarchy".

So, I often have a name of SanityInAnarchy, or shortened to Sanity.

I believe Ian Clarke uses the name "sanity" on the Freenode IRC network, and I once caused some confusion when I joined the #freenet channel asking for help with Freenet. Ian Clarke is the original author of Freenet. I was flattered, but I'm not Ian, and since Sanity is a dictionary word, I doubt I'm incredibly unique.

Still, it's a nice reminder now and then.

Sanity checks, by the way, sometimes refer to assertions in code -- if we're using integer math, and 2+2=5, then the sanity check fails, and the program dies. There are much more examples I could give you in programming (before attempting to compile a program, make sure your C compiler can compile 'main(){}'), and much more concrete examples -- for instance, if you're trying to reply to this post, and your reply won't go through (page is still loading), you might want to check if your network cable is still plugged in.

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Post by sanity » Wed May 24, 2006 3:46 pm

No-S day 4: Success.

Cereal for breakfast, as I said before.

Lunch was ramen with vegetables and tofu. My mother is teaching me to feed myself for about a dollar a day, which is awesome.

Dinner was a mexican pizza: refried black beans on a tortilla, topped with spinich, cheese, and turkey bacon. Turkey bacon because my family likes to think of itself as vegetarian, but we eat flying and swimming vegetables. Pointing out that turkeys can't fly will get you nowhere.

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Post by sanity » Thu May 25, 2006 8:25 pm

No-S day 5: Success.

Cereal for breakfast, as usual.

Some sort of frozen vegetable burger for lunch, made into a sandwich: lettuce, tomato, and mustard. Looked very small on my plate.

Dinner was another mexican pizza.

No-S day 6: S-day, because my parents were doing a presentation, and there is a party tonight -- unrelated -- and the presentation is something done maybe once a month. However, I haven't gone far off -- two cookies at lunchtime, to compliment an otherwise small lunch. I could "virtually plate it", but they are both sweets and a second.

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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Thu May 25, 2006 11:17 pm

Some sort of frozen vegetable burger for lunch, made into a sandwich: lettuce, tomato, and mustard. Looked very small on my plate.
Well, you either have a large plate or your eating too little...

The way you look at your meal and take it in mentally, is part of your total feeling of either satisfaction or deprivation...

Of course if you felt fine eating that, but it just looks too small, you can eat on smaller plates so it doesn't look like too little food...

Have a nice evening!
Peace and Love,
8) Deb
There is no Wisdom greater than Kindness

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Post by sanity » Sat May 27, 2006 10:17 pm

Well, my father prepared it and put it on one of the biggest plates we have. That said, I usually eat more, but that was enough.

I was raised Jewish, and we used to fast one day a year, on Yom Kippur. The rest of my family still does. But at any rate, sometimes being hungry between meals is almost a good feeling, especially when I know I'm going to eat soon enough.

No-S day 7: Success. I can't remember exactly what I had for breakfast, but I know I had it pretty late, so lunch was almost a "second", an hour later. Maybe I should set a time after which I'm not allowed to have breakfast. I did have a turkey & cream cheese wrap and some leftover tuna salad for dinner -- fit easily on a small plate, and wasn't too much at all.

No-S day 8: S-day. I'm enjoying it -- ice cream and snacks. Weighed myself this morning and I'm down to 246. That's 8 or 10 pounds, and seems too good to be true, but there's definitely improvement. I'll check again in a week.

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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Sat May 27, 2006 11:28 pm

Thats awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great news!!!!!!!!
I am sure it's not too good to be true..
It's just true!

ps.. I had some really good treats today!
Enjoy yours!

Peace and Love,
Deb 8)
There is no Wisdom greater than Kindness

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Post by sanity » Sat May 27, 2006 11:34 pm

By "too good to be true" I mean, I strongly suspect that it'd also be losing as much or more weight than I'd lose by eating nothing at all. But then, I'm not sure where I heard that...

Anyway, I don't mind. I'm patient about this. I'm much less patient about other things -- don't buy notebooks from Sharp.

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Post by sanity » Mon May 29, 2006 4:28 pm

No-S day 9: S-day.

No-S day 10: Faliure. Went to someone's house to help them with a computer issue, they offered a Ginger Ale, and I didn't even think. I'm counting it as a Sweet.

Rest of the day is still on track, so I'll start counting again tomorrow...

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Post by Jammin' Jan » Tue May 30, 2006 11:06 am

I finally got caught up reading your posts. You are doing really well. Don't feel too bad about the ginger ale. Bad enough not to do that again, but that's the limit.

Are you getting enough to eat at your three meals? Piling in the beginning is expected and useful. Later it trims down to something more civilized.

Go, Sanity! :D

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Post by sanity » Tue May 30, 2006 3:34 pm

Thanks, Jan.

Yes, I'm getting plenty. No, I don't feel bad about the ginger ale. I almost wouldn't count it, but I was already on thin ice with the cookies at my parents' presentation. The rest of the day was perfect, and today is turning out ok...

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Post by sanity » Wed May 31, 2006 5:04 pm

No-S day 1: Success. Cereal for breakfast, a frozen burger for lunch, and homemade millet burgers for dinner. Yay for learning to cook.

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Post by Jammin' Jan » Wed May 31, 2006 7:30 pm

Would you share your recipe for the homemade millet burgers? Thanks!

Jan

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Post by sanity » Wed May 31, 2006 7:58 pm

I will, but not today. I have to design a database for these anyway. Reinhard will understand why -- the same reason my resume is the way it is...

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Post by Jammin' Jan » Wed May 31, 2006 9:54 pm

Whenever it's convenient is fine. :D

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Post by sanity » Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:52 pm

I haven't been checking in, or keeping a log of everything I've been eating, but it's usually been cereal for breakfast, something quick (frozen) for lunch, and something I actually cook for dinner. So, that means:

No-S day 2: Success
No-S day 3: Success
No-S day 4: Success
No-S day 5: S-day
No-S day 6: S-day

I think I'll start Shovelglove next week.

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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Tue Jun 06, 2006 2:27 am

Go Sanity go!!! :)

Great job!!!
Peace and Love,
8) Deb
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Post by sanity » Tue Jun 20, 2006 3:23 am

I've been mostly on-track since I last checked in, but obviously any attempt I've made at a procrastination system is not working...

By "Mostly" I mean, one possible second at lunch, one day. The problem is, I can't remember what day it was, so I think I'll cheat and count it. And, counting these up, I think this is

Day 21: SUCCESS

I'm counting it now because I'm now immune to midnight snacks, and I had a late dinner anyway.

So, time to start something new:

Suburban Ranger Day 1: Success!

I live in a small town, with maybe one block that could be considered "urban". The rest of it is green and residential, thus "Suburban Ranger".

My father has taken the car that I usually drive. I'm only going to physically be at work two days out of five -- yes, I got a job! Things happen when you forget to check in...

So anyway, there is really nothing in town that I can't walk to in less than an hour. It requires a bit more planning, of course -- if I forget something and have to go back home, it takes much longer to go back and get it.

I've done this one before, but never with a daily check-in. Formalizing should make it easier to avoid the temptation to take a ride when someone offers. It's been awhile since I walked much, but it's still somehow not as strange and intimidating as picking up a sledgehammer.

Oh well, I'll do that later. One system at a time.

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