Diligence's Autumn 2017 Check-In

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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Diligence
Posts: 80
Joined: Wed Dec 11, 2013 6:09 pm

Diligence's Autumn 2017 Check-In

Post by Diligence » Tue Sep 26, 2017 4:41 pm

I like Allisonmeg's idea of seasonal check-ins. I am resuming a periodic check-in, and my goal for this season will be to re-establish a healthy relationship with food--more specifically, to follow the No-S rules without fear.

Even more specifically, as someone who has, in the past, often eaten just two--sometimes one--meal without snacking between and without worrying about hunger between meals, I don't want to deliberately eat three meals/day or pile up my plates out of a fear of hunger between meals on an N-day. I also don't want to be ruled by S's on "S days" and go wild consuming them (or even have them at all) unless I think it is worth it (worth it = either the taste or the reasoning is good enough to deal with potential cravings later; good reasoning = showing honor and gratitude to the person who especially prepared it... gracious manners under circumstances in which offense might be taken). I also want to get out of the mentality that I have to use the S-day out of fear of having difficulty during the week because I didn't have sweets, snacks, and/or seconds when I could have.

All that said, here's how the past week-ish went (Note: I'm not sure how often I'll post, but I do want to be accountable for changing my mental/emotional approach to food in relation to living No-S.):

9/17: S-day -- decided midday to restart No-S
9/18: Success
9/19: Success
9/20: Success
9/21: Success
9/22: Success
9/23: Success -- Although this was a Saturday, I didn't feel the S's were worth it and treated it like an N-day.
9/24: S-day
9/25: Success

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

Post by jenji » Fri Oct 13, 2017 7:27 pm

I hope you had a good week. I started the same time you re-started, I think.
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

Diligence
Posts: 80
Joined: Wed Dec 11, 2013 6:09 pm

Post by Diligence » Mon Nov 20, 2017 5:32 pm

Between computer problems and a demanding schedule, I've not been on the board, but I have been keeping up with No-S. I've only taken one weekday S-day thus far. Unfortunately, I feel a long way from my autumn goal of re-establishing a healthy relationship with food, and I've found a "need" to further modify No-S to help me get there.

The difficulties include:

-- eating 3 times a day out of fear of hunger with No-S restrictions rather than 1-2 times a day, which tended to be my usual

-- filling my plate at mealtime out of fear of hunger, especially with certain "comfort foods"

-- feeling panic and despair because of not seeing the kind of changes in the scale I'd really like to see

-- overindulging in S's on the weekends out of fear of missing them during the week and also not wanting to have certain foods still in the house during the coming week

I forget when I modified, but it was still relatively recently. The modification I've found it needful for me to add is no starches in the form of flour and potatoes during the week unless absolutely necessary (ex., on the road, no way to delay the meal, no reasonable alternatives, and not due to my own lack of preparation--i.e., was I subconsciously planning on this happening?). The scale had been going in the wrong direction, and my desire to eat had increased significantly since I had been including these ingredients. I can't say that things are easy now, but I've been able to keep my meals more sane in quantity and frequency, and I'm making a sincere effort to plan ahead.

I'm mourning the reality the flour and potatoes are not my friends--that I indulge too much and too frequently when I eat them, that I put on weight when I eat them. Same goes with sugar/sweeteners. I found these to be true before when I did No-S faithfully for a long time without improvement until I incorporated an elimination diet into No-S and then finally lost weight. I'm mourning that I can't be like others on No-S who can eat whatever they like within the rules and lose (or at least maintain) weight and that I'll probably have to go entirely flour-, potato-, and sugar-free to create lasting improvements. There may be other foods to cut out, but this is my starting point.

I am thankful I have No-S to help me work back to that while I work to accept these as necessary changes. For now, I've limited my sugar S's to only being available on Sundays. I don't know how long it will take for me to part ways with these foods altogether; but I realize that improving my relationship with food will hinge on me accepting that certain foods are "toxic" for me and cutting them out of my life. As you can tell, I'm still sad about this. It'll get better for me; it's just going to take time.

oolala53
Posts: 10059
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2008 1:46 am
Location: San Diego, CA USA

Post by oolala53 » Mon Jan 15, 2018 7:21 pm

Hi, D. I'm on break from my job (even without its being MLK day) and doing some browsing. I wondered how you rode the wave of season's eating.

I've been working on decreasing flour foods for years, actually. I felt I was doing fine enough with them for my first years on No S, but when I found myself still eating half a loaf of Trader Joe's whole wheat artisan bread at a sitting, and still being seduced by and overeating breads on the bargain shelves of some local markets even though I was usually able to find high fiber versions, I decided I wanted to get more selective. I can still do a number on potatoes, but am willing to wait on them, since the plain versions of them rate pretty high on the satiety index, and I am cautious about making food choices more narrow than I need. To some degree, some of my more recent rocky rides I think have been backlash against my having already become more narrow in my choices because of old lady concerns with the relationship between Alzheimer's/dementia. I was actually doing a lot of things "right" already, but limiting fast food enough wasn't one of them. I didn't know how much of a role they played until I had to fend without them. That road has been rockier than Vanilla was for sure, and belies some of what I spout about on the board.

I also wanted to say to try not to feel too bad about needing to adjust what's on your plate a fair amount. In my spending way too much time on this board, I'd say it's actually the norm that people eventually change what's on the plate and not just decrease what they were already eating, but I think it's often done gradually, so it's not as noticeable. And there are a fair number of examples where it was quite pronounced with success, sometimes after having abandoned then returned to No S, some without ever leaving.

Once again, I've gone on and on about me and MY thoughts. I hope this has been helpful and not just a sermon you don't really need, thank you, especially since you certainly didn't ask. It's helpful, or at least gratifying to me, to prattle on about these topics, which I continue to find fascinating. I wish I could make some dough off them, so that it would seem more like a passion than an obsession.

If things have fallen into place, ignore all this and carry on. Ideally, one should be able find the systematic moderation that takes less monitoring so that life between meals becomes more of the focus.

I can imagine some techniques for systematic moderation of this obsession, but I just ain't ready to!
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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