Newbie!

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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katie1980
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Location: Basingstoke, UK

Newbie!

Post by katie1980 » Thu Aug 09, 2007 4:55 am

Hi all,

I just wrote a long intro, and the computer ate it! So you all have been spared from that, anyway. I don't have the time or inclination to post it all again right now, so suffice to say that I found this through Mark Forster's blog (www.markforster.net/blog/) and thought it was a great idea. I read the info on Tuesday, and started yesterday. So far I'm loving it!

One side effect I'm noticing of not snacking is that I'm drinking more, because I'm substituting a drink of water for anything else I want to put in my mouth when it's not mealtimes. As this was a goal of mine (to drink more to get better hydrated) this is an added bonus!

I'm currently in Malaysia, on assignment from the UK with my job, so am away from home, family, etc. This makes me more prone to snacking, and the heat means I ought to drink plenty to be properly hydrated. Hopefully the simplicity of No S means I'll be able to stick with it. The "no weekends" part sounds like it's the deal-breaker, though, as it's never really that long til the weekend and thus a "fix" for any cravings that pop up in the week!

Great idea, Reinhard, hope I can do you justice.
I'm looking forward to being involved and reading more about how others are getting on (and sharing my own experiences).
{{hugs}} Katie

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reinhard
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Post by reinhard » Fri Aug 10, 2007 3:18 am

Welcome! I think you'll find there are a lot of positive side effects from No-s: not just more water, but healthier, tastier food.

I think you're our first correspondent in Malaysia, I'd be curious to know how No-s jives with local eating customs there.

Sorry to hear about the gluttonous computer... that I'm afraid I don't have a system for.

Reinhard

katie1980
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Location: Basingstoke, UK

Post by katie1980 » Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:19 am

Thanks for the response, Reinhard!

I've just got back from lunch, and we went out as a group for chinese food (Friday special!). The dishes arrive over a short period of time, but I just put what I wanted on my plate, then when I felt I had enough to keep me going, I started eating. I did pretty well - especially as a number of the others were complaining that they'd eaten too much! Generally, the food here is not too unhealthy - lots of chicken and rice, but there's a lot of fast food joints as well, when you go to the shopping malls, etc.

Some people here seem to do nothing but eat, but others are more moderated. One thing I've noticed is that a lot of the locals seem to be either pretty skinny, or pretty huge. There's not a lot of middle ground! So I guess it has a lot to do with whether they eat local food or go for the western style. The chicken has a lot of bones in it - so eating it takes longer. Maybe that helps the locals to listen to their inner clock on whether they are full or not.

As I learn more, I'll be sure to let you know! So far so good - each day I've noticed that it's been later in the morning when I've become hungry, so maybe my body knows it won't be fed until 12 so it might as well not complain! Only 1 bottle of water so far today - I have to drink a bit more this afternoon :)

tomahawkk
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Post by tomahawkk » Fri Aug 10, 2007 10:41 am

Welcome, Katie! Sounds like you have an interesting job. What do you do? I'm new, too.

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Hunter Gatherer
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Post by Hunter Gatherer » Fri Aug 10, 2007 1:54 pm

Welcome!

Yes, the weekend motivator is great. Even when you start off Monday going "Only five more days....." (And that has happened to me occasionally.) Five days is a do-able distance!
"You've been reading about arctic explorers," I accused him. "If a man's starving he'll eat anything, but when he's just ordinarily hungry he doesn't want to clutter up his stomach with a lot of candy."
Dashiell Hammett

katie1980
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Location: Basingstoke, UK

Post by katie1980 » Mon Aug 13, 2007 2:27 am

tomahawkk wrote:Welcome, Katie! Sounds like you have an interesting job. What do you do? I'm new, too.
Hi, tomahawkk!

I'm a Chemical Engineer :) I'm currently working on the revamp of one area of the Petronas refinery here in Melaka. It's a good job - not least because people are impressed when I tell them I'm an engineer. There aren't that many female engineers, so it's a good ego boost! Plus, it's what I'm good at :wink:

How long have you been trying out No S? I started on Wednesday last week, and found it pretty useful so far. I'm even losing weight, which I've not been able to do for ages, because I could never stick to anything, even for 1 day! I'd have a plan to eat heathily, then I'd get hungry, and end up grabbing junk and sugar to fill the hole. I ate well this weekend, but had surprisingly few things I wanted to eat. I did enjoy the desserts at the cafe we went to on Saturday, though, especially as they're famous for them. I couldn't have easily eaten what I did on any other diet! *lol* I weighed an extra kg today than yesterday, but that's okay, because my overall trend is down (thanks to whoever posted the link about moving average trends before!).

I'm so pleased to have found something that is easy, *and* not antisocial :)

I'm really interested in reading how other people are getting on, and seeing how they do things. It's great!

Katie xxx
Last edited by katie1980 on Mon Aug 13, 2007 2:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

katie1980
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Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2007 3:51 am
Location: Basingstoke, UK

Post by katie1980 » Mon Aug 13, 2007 2:37 am

Hunter Gatherer wrote:Welcome!

Yes, the weekend motivator is great. Even when you start off Monday going "Only five more days....." (And that has happened to me occasionally.) Five days is a do-able distance!
Five days *is* doable. "Until I lose this damn weight", not so much! *lol* That's one reason why I wasn't doing so well, I think - the unhealthy foods just called to me! But last week I found they weren't so tempting, because they weren't off limits. :D Just I had to wait for them. When I'm snacking, I don't often taste what I'm putting in my mouth, because it's not uncommon for me to be snacking out of boredom or habit, instead of hunger. And there's obviously the thirst thing, too. I find water really boring, but since I can't put anything except that in my mouth between meals, I'm getting more of it :)

I only did 3 days last week, because I started on Wednesday, but the great motivator to do it again this week is that the scale reading is heading in the right direction. And I like the daily weighing, too. With a weekly weigh, you can have a mad day, put on more than you've lost over the other days, and think it's stopped working. So you can give up. But knowing that it was just that one day means that you know it's working, still, and so you have better motivation to continue.

So far, my motivation is high, and my weight trend is heading down. It hasn't done that for a while - my weight has been pretty static (not going up, which is good) but I weigh rather more than I ought to (I'm heavier than my fiancé, which I hate!). This seems like a really sesible and doable way to lose the excess pounds for our wedding day - and then I ought to have photos that I'm happy to look at, instead of hating myself for not being able to lose the excess! This is my goal, and I am determined to reach it, because this plan is one that I can stick to! :D

Brandon
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Post by Brandon » Mon Aug 13, 2007 6:41 pm

katie1980 wrote:I only did 3 days last week, because I started on Wednesday, but the great motivator to do it again this week is that the scale reading is heading in the right direction. And I like the daily weighing, too. With a weekly weigh, you can have a mad day, put on more than you've lost over the other days, and think it's stopped working. So you can give up. But knowing that it was just that one day means that you know it's working, still, and so you have better motivation to continue.
Hi Katie. I agree with you on the daily weighing thing too, but it requires a bit of emotional distance from the daily numbers. Being a datahead (I'm also a ChemE) I have spreadsheets of my daily weight and %BF. Both of them are heading steadily down on NoS over the last 12 weeks. Best of luck to you on NoS to do the same.

katie1980
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Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2007 3:51 am
Location: Basingstoke, UK

Post by katie1980 » Tue Aug 14, 2007 12:24 am

Brandon wrote:Hi Katie. I agree with you on the daily weighing thing too, but it requires a bit of emotional distance from the daily numbers. Being a datahead (I'm also a ChemE) I have spreadsheets of my daily weight and %BF. Both of them are heading steadily down on NoS over the last 12 weeks. Best of luck to you on NoS to do the same.
Aww, thanks :)
Yep, I agree over the emotional distance thing. Both ysterday and today, the numbers were a touch higher than the previous days. But I'm not going to worry about it yet. Because I know that often, the numbers on the scale can lag behind the truth a little, though I'm not quite sure I understand the science of it! :lol: And as I'm following what I need to do (i.e. no snacking, really), I'm happy that things will improve. If I end up back where I started, I might need to tweak things a little, but as I'm back on track after my S days at the weekend, we'll just see how it goes.

It's my birthday on Sunday, so no "extra" S day this year, but I think that's a good thing really! I'm just not going to restrict myself on that day, and eat as much birthday cake as I want to assuming I find a good one in the shops over here! (At least in the UK I'd know exactly where to go for my cake! :wink: ) I might try to have a moderate S on Saturday, but again, I'm not going to stress over it. Better to have a good week and go a touch OTT at the weekend, than restrict myself too much and "break out" in the week instead!

Sorry, I have a tendancy to ramble!

Well done with keeping the numbers on a downwards trend, that's really great! I bet you feel really powerful, too :)

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