Everyday Systems

[Skelton]

I'm back and committed to the plan until 31st January.

My constant flip-flopping around No S and switching to other diets has been an ongoing issue for me but I'm here again and committing to just over one month on the plan. Between now and the end of January there are more holiday celebrations to handle, plus January is my birthday month.
On 1st February I'll assess my progress and decide if I want to commit to another month of No S or if I want to look elsewhere (again!!).
I'll be working with the Judith Beck book alongside No S as I feel that I need all the support with food issues that I can get!

There are a number of changes and improvements I want to make in my life over the next few months, not just food related.

I want to work on improving my social life. This has been a sticking point for about a decade now. I need to make more friends. I'm not sure where to start with this one though. I live in a rural area so organised social activities and groups are limited here. Making friends through work, which I've done in the past in other jobs, isn't an option in my current job.

I want to declutter and tidy my house and learn to keep it that way. I am horribly untidy and I realised that having so much stuff in my home makes it even harder for me to be tidy. I'm revisiting Flylady, dabbling with Kon Mari (she's a bit too strict for me just now!), and the two sisters whose book I read about a decade ago and who were the only ones who had a system that I followed for any length of time. Can't remember their names right now but I do still have the book and the card index system I made when I read it first time out.

There are other ares that I'd like to work on but food, social life and house sorting are my priorities.
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"We stop looking for the better diet and start looking for a better life." pangelsue

[Skelton]

I've just looked at my 'Joined Date' there on my profile. I started No S a short time before I joined the boards. This means that summer 2017 it will be FIVE YEARS since I first tried No S!

I've talked about my flip-flopping around from one diet to another then back to No S. Rinse and Repeat.

This is crazy. This realisation reinforces my one month commitment. I will NOT wander off to try yet another diet this time. I'm in until the morning of 1st February. The only thing I've achieved by flip flopping around is a weight gain of around a further 14 pounds and more issues around food!
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"We stop looking for the better diet and start looking for a better life." pangelsue

[lpearlmom]

Hi Skeleton!

Your post sounds like me a few years ago. I had a few false starts before sticking to NoS too. I just kept gaining more and more weight and knew I had to do something. I finally decided it'd be worth sticking with NoS even if I didn't lose any weight. It was worth it. Giving me sanity with food for the first time in pretty much ever.

I also had the cleaning/ organizing goal as well as the social life goal. I've tried fly lady & Kon Mari. Fly lady helped me a bit but the book that helped me the most is this one: https://www.amazon.com/Manage-Your-Home-Without-Losing-ebook/dp/B01CXE9M5E

The thing I still struggle with is the social stuff. Being a sahm leaves me a little isolated but recently I've been getting involved in some activist groups and am hoping I'll connect with some other people through that.

My point is just keep trying. Eventually you'll get tired of the constant back & forth and you'll realize there's no point in quitting NoS. The cleaning stuff can be conquered too. It just takes a lot of diligence.

Best of luck. You can do this. A new year a new leaf right?

Linda
_________________
"Every weakness contains within itself a Strength."
Shūsaku Endō

3/14-210 lbs;
3/15- 202 lbs;
1/16- 172 lbs;
9/17-177 lbs;
1/18-162 lbs;
4/17-157.4 lbs

Current weight: 157.4 lbs






Instagram "lpearlmom"

[Merry]

[oolala53]

Are those the ones where one of them told the story of putting her husband's shirt over a spot on the bed where there was petroleum jelly from changing the baby and the back of her husband's shirt had stuff stuck all over it from that, but she let him wear it out anyway?
_________________
Count plates, not calories. Three a day. 8 years & counting
Age 64
SBMI Jan/10-30.8
Jan/12-26.8
Mar/13-24.9 Stayed at +/- 8-lb. for three years Sept/17 22.8 (but more fluctuation)
Mar/18 22.2

There is no S better than Vanilla No S.

[Skelton]

I'm still here!
I haven't No Sed perfectly, far from it, but I have NOT strayed to something else.
I'm still here!
Hope to spend more time around the boards soon. In the meantime I'm working on vanilla No S.
_________________
"We stop looking for the better diet and start looking for a better life." pangelsue

[oolala53]

Fantastic! Hold out for your delicious, full, one-plate meals! You can adjust them later as needed. Try not to give yourself any reason to go red.
_________________
Count plates, not calories. Three a day. 8 years & counting
Age 64
SBMI Jan/10-30.8
Jan/12-26.8
Mar/13-24.9 Stayed at +/- 8-lb. for three years Sept/17 22.8 (but more fluctuation)
Mar/18 22.2

There is no S better than Vanilla No S.

[Merry]

[Skelton]

[Skelton]

I'm still here!
I've even been getting a few green days also. Consecutive green has been difficult for me as I have been struggling with serious hunger at times, but I do feel I'm making progress.

I'm making sure to prepare food that I enjoy and actually look forward to eating rather than trying to restrict my choices. Most of it is pretty healthy actually. I work mostly at home and I don't live close to any fast food outlets which helps!
There is a small shop in the next village that makes pizza to order and of course a fish and chip shop in the town a few miles away. I've enjoyed each of these but only once a month or so.
Also, I've ordered their smallest serving size of each. Normally I'd be thinking ahead to my next diet so I'd order large knowing that pizza and fish and chips would be off limits soon enough. Now it's different because I know that I can have either of these pretty much whenever I want so I'm happy with a smaller amount.
Overall, plates haven't been too big either. Some days I'm naturally more hungry than others so that leads to a bigger plate otherwise I'm satisfied with my serving sizes.

I haven't weighed for a while as I find it can be problematic.
_________________
"We stop looking for the better diet and start looking for a better life." pangelsue

[oolala53]

Not really much reason to weigh, especially if you're not having fairly green weeks. Hope you can see the hunger as a good thing. Enjoy those meals!
_________________
Count plates, not calories. Three a day. 8 years & counting
Age 64
SBMI Jan/10-30.8
Jan/12-26.8
Mar/13-24.9 Stayed at +/- 8-lb. for three years Sept/17 22.8 (but more fluctuation)
Mar/18 22.2

There is no S better than Vanilla No S.

[Skelton]

I was 'led astray' for a few weeks. All that needs to be said is I was triggered by a small weight loss and thought it would be a good idea to switch to a low carb diet. The usual huge mistake with a 3lb weight gain as a result.
Drawing a line under the experience literally and figuratively! I'm back to No S.

______________________________________________________
_________________
"We stop looking for the better diet and start looking for a better life." pangelsue

[oolala53]

You're not the first.

I'm always amazed by people who say the weight "just melted off" or "just fell off" with low carb. I suspect there's some missing information.

Which is not to say I don't sometimes have meals with little carb.

Nice to see you again.
_________________
Count plates, not calories. Three a day. 8 years & counting
Age 64
SBMI Jan/10-30.8
Jan/12-26.8
Mar/13-24.9 Stayed at +/- 8-lb. for three years Sept/17 22.8 (but more fluctuation)
Mar/18 22.2

There is no S better than Vanilla No S.

[Skelton]

[oolala53]

It's been a few months. I'm sure Team 2017 would love to hear how you're doing!
_________________
Count plates, not calories. Three a day. 8 years & counting
Age 64
SBMI Jan/10-30.8
Jan/12-26.8
Mar/13-24.9 Stayed at +/- 8-lb. for three years Sept/17 22.8 (but more fluctuation)
Mar/18 22.2

There is no S better than Vanilla No S.

[oolala53]

Still would. Have you found something else you like better?
_________________
Count plates, not calories. Three a day. 8 years & counting
Age 64
SBMI Jan/10-30.8
Jan/12-26.8
Mar/13-24.9 Stayed at +/- 8-lb. for three years Sept/17 22.8 (but more fluctuation)
Mar/18 22.2

There is no S better than Vanilla No S.

[Skelton]

Hi oolala, no, I didn't find something else I like better! thanks for checking in on me.

Here's what happened the final months of 2017.

I got back into No S in August and managed much more consistency and success than I have had previously. I stayed away from all diet talk, weighing, diet blogs, even the No S board. I was doing Vanilla No S and felt great. I felt so good and had much more control around food. There had been the odd slip, sometimes even a big slip but I'd always come back onto plan quickly afterwards.

Fast forward into 2018 and everything was still going very well until I decided to get weighed.
It turned out that I'd lost about 7 pounds since September.

Unfortunately the scales still hold such power over me. I had another of my great ideas! I'd lost 7 pounds, I could go low carb and lose 7 more. And more.

Huge mistake, as always. I've been off plan, off ANY plan, since mid January. Have definitely regained those 7 pounds and possibly a few more.
I'm back again starting today.

I'm going to start a 2018 Check-In thread. Will copy this post over there.
_________________
"We stop looking for the better diet and start looking for a better life." pangelsue

[oolala53]

You poor thing! I know exactly what you're talking about. That has happened to me over the years, too, and even a little bit right now, having done my spring weigh in and finding I'm low. "Well, if I experiment with X or Y, could a little more come off? Because there are people here with lower BMI"s than mine, and I know my age/weight peers think a few pounds lower is actually ideal. I never thought I could come close, but could I really get there?" I'm so sure that this is a ridiculous 20th-century inspired false idol, but it's such a convincing illusion. But I also can't say it isn't very convenient to be thinner.

I think sometimes I need to severely limit my presence here and on Spark. I admire that you shifted away.

And on that note... I have to check other No S-ers emails.


_________________
Count plates, not calories. Three a day. 8 years & counting
Age 64
SBMI Jan/10-30.8
Jan/12-26.8
Mar/13-24.9 Stayed at +/- 8-lb. for three years Sept/17 22.8 (but more fluctuation)
Mar/18 22.2

There is no S better than Vanilla No S.

[Skelton]

I'm still here, just about.
Finding it very hard to get back on track after that little exursion to diet land.

Dieting is definitely, absolutely, undoubtedly my biggest issue. As I wrote above, even coming here and reading about variations on Vanilla No S triggers my diet head. I need to learn to handle it better because let's face it, diet talk is everywhere.
_________________
"We stop looking for the better diet and start looking for a better life." pangelsue

[oolala53]

Well, I hear NASA is making progress on a manned mission to Mars. Do astronauts worry about weight gain?

I get mildly disturbed by some talk of the variations, too. But you're right. If I want to socialize, virtually or literally, it could come up. My usual group is pretty thin, but they can be the vegan, gluten-free, etc. types. I'm trying to remember, note to self: if I decide to do something like that, keep my mouth shut about it unless the other person brings it up first. And even then, possibly change the subject politely.
_________________
Count plates, not calories. Three a day. 8 years & counting
Age 64
SBMI Jan/10-30.8
Jan/12-26.8
Mar/13-24.9 Stayed at +/- 8-lb. for three years Sept/17 22.8 (but more fluctuation)
Mar/18 22.2

There is no S better than Vanilla No S.

[Skelton]

I must say, Oolala, that my closest friend is very good about avoiding diet and body image talk. She's naturally slim, in fact she's the only person I know in our age group (mid/late 50s) who is naturally slim. She has a relaxed attitude around food. So I'm ok to spend lots of time with her.

Other people I know socially - I don't really have lots of friends so these are acquaintances - are all either obese or struggling constantly on diffferent diets and talking about those diets incessantly!

Spot on about the astronauts, I wonder if Elon Musk needs an obese middle aged woman as a member of his future Mars mission?
_________________
"We stop looking for the better diet and start looking for a better life." pangelsue

[automatedeating]

Hi Skelton! Nice to see your check-in. I hope that you start to find some of that consistency in your eating that you lose when you try to tighten up the restrictions.
The mods. The mods. They are the bane of NoS. But we all wonder, don't we? Grrr.
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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

[Octavia]

Hi from me, Skelton! I quite often think of mods, but Vanilla seems to have a magical power of habit-friendliness. I’ve been doing Vanilla since December and although my weight loss has been very slow (about a pound a month) I enjoy the routine so much that I’m not really tempted to alter it....for now....!!!