Sixth 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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DaveMc
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Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2009 12:28 pm

Sixth year

Post by DaveMc » Mon Jul 20, 2015 12:52 pm

Greetinigs, NoSers!

I'm very late for my NoS anniversary update, this year. It's been quite a busy month.

When last seen, I had regained 10 of the 20 pounds I lost in my first year of NoS (followed by a good three years of maintenance):

http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic ... ht=#151807

My plan of just vaguely trying to do better, in acknowledgement of the fact that I'm now over five years older than when I started ... has not worked out. I normally don't weigh myself at all, but I've done it several times in the past week, and I'm now somewhere between 14 and 18 pounds (depending on the day) above my lowest weight. Which means that some days I'm nearly back up to where my weight was when I started, six years ago.

I said last time that I am difficult to daunt, and this remains true. The positives I'm focusing on:

1. I've got well established eating habits that aren't difficult to maintain and prevent me from going too crazy. This another "year on habit", and I agree with Reinhard that this is an important metric.

2. How solid are my NoS habits? Part of the reason I'm posting late is that I just spent four weeks at an intensive workshop where they provided us with snacks, morning and afternoon, every weekday, including freshly baked cookies and danishes. How many times did I have one of those sweets? Zero. Not once, the whole time. Three meals a day, on weekdays, that's what I do. I felt inordinately proud of myself for this, because those cookies smelled *good*. :)

3. There is no way I'd still weigh what I did six years ago, if I'd stayed on the trajectory I was on back then! It's hypothetical, of course, but I'd be willing to bet that I'd be a good 20 pounds heavier by now, if I hadn't started doing NoS.


But at the same time, I do need to do something more active, if I'm going to whittle myself back down to my first-year low. What I've decided to do may shock those who've known my position on scales, on these boards over the years, but here it is: I'm going to start weighing myself regularly. My nifty new phone makes it easy to enter a new data point any old time, and it'll show me running averages and all that sort of thing. I know myself well enough to recognize that I respond well to the task of making a number change gradually over time (I do this with average calories per day of exercise, for example), and if my weight is the number I want to change, I'm just going to have to start keeping track of it.

This is what I did during my very first year too, come to think of it. I took regular weight measurements, and had fun learning some mathematical tricks for smoothing out noisy data using a moving average, and all that. It's just that after a couple of years it started to seem pointless, and even actively counter-productive: my weight was always (nearly) the same, so why bother obsessing over it all the time? But now it seems like I need to establish a "new normal" in terms of portion sizes and S day patterns, and for that I'm going to need to spend some time keeping track of the relationship between what I eat and how much I weigh.

My hope is that a year from now I'll be settled into a new, lower-weight equilibrium, and I can go back to weighing myself once a year. :)

Best of luck to everyone on your NoS journeys! I can definitely say that it's made a long-term, sustainable difference to my eating habits, and I'm sure it's made me much healthier than I would otherwise be.

bjalda
Posts: 123
Joined: Wed Apr 06, 2011 10:17 pm

Post by bjalda » Mon Jul 20, 2015 2:10 pm

Hello Dave,
First, congratulations! Wow - six years on habit! I hope I'll be able to say that one day..

I am impressed by your consistency, especially at the workshop. Those must be some rock-solid habits you've got there!

I also don't think there is a reason to daunt at all! With this deeply ingrained meal-structure I am sure it will be a 1000 times easier to lose a few pounds again. You'll be able to spot excess so easily and gradually improve without any dramatic changes. I'm sure that with your level of habituation it will be much easier. Good luck! And Thanks for the inspiration!
Last edited by bjalda on Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Expectation exists when there is fear.
- Swami

RAWCOOKIE
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Re: Sixth year

Post by RAWCOOKIE » Mon Jul 20, 2015 4:34 pm

DaveMc wrote:
How solid are my NoS habits? Part of the reason I'm posting late is that I just spent four weeks at an intensive workshop where they provided us with snacks, morning and afternoon, every weekday, including freshly baked cookies and danishes. How many times did I have one of those sweets? Zero. Not once, the whole time. Three meals a day, on weekdays, that's what I do. I felt inordinately proud of myself for this, because those cookies smelled *good*. :)
Thank you for posting this update - so inspiring :)
I love Everyday Systems :3

13.6.15 124.25lbs
11.11.21 101.00lbs

osoniye
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Re: Sixth year

Post by osoniye » Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:28 pm

DaveMc wrote:There is no way I'd still weigh what I did six years ago, if I'd stayed on the trajectory I was on back then! It's hypothetical, of course, but I'd be willing to bet that I'd be a good 20 pounds heavier by now, if I hadn't started doing NoS.
Good to see you DaveMc- Glad you still have the habits down. I think what you wrote is very likely true, even though you haven't maintained, you aren't where you would have been without NoS. I'm confident you'll be able to tweak portion sizes and get back where you want to be soon!
Best of luck.
-Sonya
No Sweets, No Snacks and No Seconds, Except (Sometimes) on days that start with "S".

eschano
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Post by eschano » Wed Jul 22, 2015 3:25 pm

Congratulations!
eschano - Vanilla rocks!

July 2012- January 2016
Started again January 2021

GregMcD
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Post by GregMcD » Fri Aug 14, 2015 3:48 pm

I've told you ITRW (I think) and I'll say it again here: I'm proud of you, D, and can't thank you enough for introducing me to the whole idea of No-S. I admire your positive outlook and ability to not beat yourself up. Good luck with the new goals.

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reinhard
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Post by reinhard » Mon Aug 17, 2015 6:21 pm

David,

Thanks so much for this detailed, honest, optimistic update! And sorry it's taken me forever to weigh in here.

First off, congratulations! Six years on habit is a huge achievement.

I'm deeply impressed by how well you've put the weight uptick in perspective. Our bodies are moving targets as we age, and that bit about "trajectory" is wise and true.

Looking forward to year 7,

Reinhard

oolala53
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Post by oolala53 » Sat Jul 23, 2016 1:34 pm

I'm always curious about whether people are actually (maybe secretly?) aware that they are eating more and the weight gain is no surprise but maybe a confirmation. Or did you really feel you were eating about the same and the body turns out to need less at this point? I know my hunger levels have changed and it has thrown a wrench in Vanilla.
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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DaveMc
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Post by DaveMc » Mon Jul 25, 2016 2:20 pm

oolala53 wrote:I'm always curious about whether people are actually (maybe secretly?) aware that they are eating more and the weight gain is no surprise but maybe a confirmation. Or did you really feel you were eating about the same and the body turns out to need less at this point? I know my hunger levels have changed and it has thrown a wrench in Vanilla.
We may be a year out of date, here, but that's a very good question! And one that I don't really think I can answer ... You're right, it's quite possible that there was some sloppiness born of complacency, after many years in a row of maintenance -- I certainly can't rule that out.

Vague calculations based on the calorie content of fat suggest (and it's more complex than this, I realize) that the difference between gaining or losing ten pounds in a year is something like plus or minus 100 calories a day, or somewhere under 5% of my usual intake. So that's a pretty small deviation, and it would be easy for it to be lost in the noise. So without the kind of detailed tracking I'm specifically trying to avoid through NoS, I don't think I can say whether I really kept my intake the same and just crept up because of a change in my body's response, or whether I did just end up eating a bit more than I used to ... Definitely a point to ponder, though! For all I know, the idea that weight creeps up as we age because of some change in "metabolism" is a myth, and it's really all about eating vs activity.

oolala53
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Post by oolala53 » Wed Sep 14, 2016 6:13 am

So, you're not conscious of getting a bit fuller or of thinking, oh, this won't hurt. I certainly don't mean are you calorie counting! It's just that the times I've fluctuated upwards, I was very aware I was eating more or failing. The scale or pants were just confirmations. No surprise!
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)

Tombo
Posts: 97
Joined: Tue May 01, 2018 2:18 pm
Location: UK

Post by Tombo » Wed May 09, 2018 2:35 pm

Thank you for sharing, well done with the cookies!

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