Resistance was futile

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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Chotzinoff
Posts: 35
Joined: Thu Oct 26, 2017 6:41 pm
Location: Austin Texas

Resistance was futile

Post by Chotzinoff » Wed Mar 07, 2018 8:22 pm

I have been no-Sing since late October. I keep thinking I have it figured out and then realizing that I've logged a bunch of red days. Don't even talk to me about weight loss! I think I finally get that I really need to check in daily for a while--if nothing else, as a hedge against the what the hell effect.

So, yesterday. It was a compliant day until after dinner. I should mention that before dinner, my husband found out the newspaper he works for had been sold, to an evil company, and he will probably be unemployed in a few weeks. We may have drunk two cocktails instead of one. While I was cleaning up the dinner dishes I started popping leftovers into my mouth. The first time, I consciously though: I'm going to lie about this to myself and mark this day green. After the fifth bite I realized that wasn't going to fly. So I left the kitchen and went to bed.

Really had to fight my inner critic this morning, but I finally just got out of bed and so far, so good.

So, just checking in.

jenji
Posts: 661
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2017 5:00 pm
Location: Cambridge

Post by jenji » Wed Mar 07, 2018 10:30 pm

I'm sorry that your husband's job is in peril or at least in the care of bad people. Good for you for interrupting the cycle and going to bed. Nothing positive comes of eating leftovers standing up in the kitchen, half drunk. (Yes, I've done it, too.) :P
I'm a 53-year-old mom and non-profit CEO
I am 5' 7.5"
Began No S at 184#, BMI 28.4 - 9/25/2017
Current weight: 181#, BMI 27.9, 12/19/2022

Chotzinoff
Posts: 35
Joined: Thu Oct 26, 2017 6:41 pm
Location: Austin Texas

a victory for the resistance

Post by Chotzinoff » Thu Mar 08, 2018 2:09 pm

yesterday was a good, compliant day. Not to be hyperbolic, but I was STARVING between meals. We usually eat dinner around 7:30 pm, but yesterday, I was going strong in the kitchen at 6:10 pm and I really piled that plate with food, a lot of it leafy. This showed how lax I have been in recent weeks with my no-S practice not feel any hunger in all that time. When I'm actually eating just three meals per day, on a reasonably-sized plate, I naturally experience hunger in between. It feels like a big drama now, but I know it will subside, and in any case I only have to wait a few hours, at most, before it's time to eat again.
I used to have a lucky plate with a swordfish on it, but my dog broke it. (He must have also been STARVING.) Yesterday I purchased a new lucky plate with a cow and some French ad copy about camembert cheese. Lucky plate size is in between a side plate and a dinner plate, so I use it for breakfast and lunch, but all bets are off at dinner time.
This morning, I'm trying to delay breakfast a little, so as to reduce the time between breakfast and lunch. I've been awake three hours. Time to eat.

Chotzinoff
Posts: 35
Joined: Thu Oct 26, 2017 6:41 pm
Location: Austin Texas

Post by Chotzinoff » Fri Mar 09, 2018 4:10 am

success today. Wouldn't you know it--I have emotions when I don't eat constantly. Well, I had them and I am okay.

Chotzinoff
Posts: 35
Joined: Thu Oct 26, 2017 6:41 pm
Location: Austin Texas

Post by Chotzinoff » Sat Mar 10, 2018 5:33 pm

Yesterday was great, but I had to give myself a fail because after dinner I ate a few bites of challah while I was cleaning the kitchen. I went through a hilarious justification process, thinking I could mark it green, but then I realized that way lies more and more. . .lies. So, can I say it was good, compliant day, right up until the end? I wish there were a color for that.

Chotzinoff
Posts: 35
Joined: Thu Oct 26, 2017 6:41 pm
Location: Austin Texas

chotzinoff's checkin

Post by Chotzinoff » Tue Mar 13, 2018 3:05 pm

I am beginning day 4 of my 21-day streak. It really helps to read the stickies post. Today I'm thinking of:

if you're going through hell, keep going

and

3 meals a day with LIFE in between

jenji
Posts: 661
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2017 5:00 pm
Location: Cambridge

Re: a victory for the resistance

Post by jenji » Tue Mar 13, 2018 3:58 pm

Chotzinoff wrote:yesterday was a good, compliant day. Not to be hyperbolic, but I was STARVING between meals. We usually eat dinner around 7:30 pm, but yesterday, I was going strong in the kitchen at 6:10 pm and I really piled that plate with food, a lot of it leafy. This showed how lax I have been in recent weeks with my no-S practice not feel any hunger in all that time. When I'm actually eating just three meals per day, on a reasonably-sized plate, I naturally experience hunger in between. It feels like a big drama now, but I know it will subside, and in any case I only have to wait a few hours, at most, before it's time to eat again.
I used to have a lucky plate with a swordfish on it, but my dog broke it. (He must have also been STARVING.) Yesterday I purchased a new lucky plate with a cow and some French ad copy about camembert cheese. Lucky plate size is in between a side plate and a dinner plate, so I use it for breakfast and lunch, but all bets are off at dinner time.
This morning, I'm trying to delay breakfast a little, so as to reduce the time between breakfast and lunch. I've been awake three hours. Time to eat.
I laughed out loud when I got to the bit about your starving dog. You are funny, you.
I'm a 53-year-old mom and non-profit CEO
I am 5' 7.5"
Began No S at 184#, BMI 28.4 - 9/25/2017
Current weight: 181#, BMI 27.9, 12/19/2022

Chotzinoff
Posts: 35
Joined: Thu Oct 26, 2017 6:41 pm
Location: Austin Texas

Post by Chotzinoff » Wed Mar 14, 2018 3:49 pm

Another green day yesterday. My younger daughter is home from college with 5 friends, plus we have a friend from colorado staying with us. (This was all my idea. I miss them all and love having a full house.) Of the 9 people in the house, there are 3 vegans, 1 old school vegetarian, and 1 person who eats no meat but does eat fish. I love to cook and am having to make a lot of different things to accommodate everyone. Last night we had some fried chicken sandwiches that would have fallen into the cheat category before I discovered no-S. You know, because they're so fatty and indulgent. This time the chicken pieces turned out so huge that I cut them all in half and somehow ended up with a tiny little chicken morsel and 3 different leafy green sides. So I went to bed very hungry after a "bad for you" dinner. Always something to keep me off balance, I tell you. But I kept it green anyway.

Chotzinoff
Posts: 35
Joined: Thu Oct 26, 2017 6:41 pm
Location: Austin Texas

Post by Chotzinoff » Fri Mar 16, 2018 2:31 pm

Damn. Declared a NWS day yesterday, and I have to start my 21-day streak over again. I live in Austin Texas and it's south by southwest time. I went out Wednesday night to hear some music with my friends and my college-age daughter and her friends and all danced and then walked through the neighborhood like teenagers and it was a magical night. However. I drank a lot of alcohol. I will have a drink most days, but I can't remember the last time I had a hangover. Yesterday, I had a hangover. I put a lot of greasy food on my one plate and thought, well, it still counts as No-S, as it fits on a plate. But by dinner, I just gave in and had dessert, thinking it would. . .make my headache go away? Who knows.

Oh well. Mark it red. Move on.

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