Everyday Systems

Mistress Manners

Me, too! I've been making homemade challah bread on the weekends. Plus blueberry pie. There's something so wonderful about enjoying home-baked stuff on the weekends. So much better than shoveling in oreos all week.

Mistress Manners

I just read your post to Maggie. May I please make a suggestion? For lunch I mean. I'll tell you what I do. I go to the store - buy 5 or 6 low fat yogurts, bread, pnut butter and jam or oven roasted turkey, lettuce, miracle whip and sandwich bags and five pieces of fruit. One for each day. For days ...

Mistress Manners

Oh, definitely. Breakfast is key. That's actually why I eat my oatmeal at work. If I eat breakfast at 9:30, I can easily make it to lunchtime without being too hungry.

Mistress Manners

You're welcome! (And I didn't need to sound snotty, by the way. It's just that if success meant packing my lunch, I'd be done for). The great thing about No S is that even if you're going out, you can still limit yourself to a single plate. Plus, the plate looks silly if there is nothing healthy on ...

Mistress Manners

For what it's worth, I don't pack my lunch. And I eat breakfast at work. You don't need to be superhuman to do well on this diet.

Mistress Manners

Unless Wednesday is a day off for you, I wouldn't. It seems like it'll be harder to get into a good habit, and you'll probably be tempted to splurge on Sundays anyway.

Mistress Manners

Yesterday:

Breakfast: cup of oatmeal with brown sugar and nuts; iced coffee with milk.

Lunch: grilled cheese sandwich. Dried fruit and nuts on the side.

Dinner: (Out): two steak tacos with small serving of rice and beans. Beer.

Mistress Manners

I'm thinking we need a cafepress plate with a big "No S" logo in the middle. Would be great to keep at the office.

Mistress Manners

Breakfast: oatmeal with nuts and fruit; iced coffee with milk and one packet of sugar.

Lunch: Slice of pizza or big salad with nuts, cheese, etc. for staying power.

Dinner: Varies, and we order in a lot. But keeping myself to one plate and making sure there are some fruit or veggies on it keeps me ...

Mistress Manners

Last night, I didn't eat enough for dinner (which had been a slice of kosher pizza at my kid's summer camp family night -- blech!!), and was HUNGRY in the evening. Today, I didn't have a big enough salad for lunch, and am again HUNGRY.

The only thing keeping me from snacking in either case was my ...

Mistress Manners

In other words, original No S, with no additional "tweaks" or "modifications."

Mistress Manners

Are you getting enough protein in your meals, to avoid sugar swings? Drinking enough fluids? (In the summer it's easy to get dehydrated).

If so, why not try allowing yourself a sanctioned 4th small "meal" and see if that works?

Mistress Manners

NWS = non-Weekend S day. So, yes, a "special" S day.

Mistress Manners

That's a good insight, LA. Good for you for keeping yourself honest.

Mistress Manners

The fact that you can't imagine going without it might be an extra-good reason to try it. It's freeing to realize that you do in fact have free will. Why not commit to doing pure vanilla No-S for one week, and seeing how you feel at the end.

Mistress Manners

I've found that the key is being honest with myself about whether I've designated somethign as an S day ahead of time, or have tried to retroactively justify my failure by claiming an S day. The first one's kosher. But I try to make any unplanned S-events red, just to keep me honest.

Mistress Manners

We celebrate Shabbat (i.e. the Jewish Sabbath) which starts sundown Friday night. Shabbat dinner is a special family meal. So I take 2 S "days," on the weekend, but they run from Friday dinner up to (but not including) Sunday dinner.

Mistress Manners

Sorry to stray too far off topic, but does the "s-event" qualify as straying from the "vanilla no s"? I just had my first "s-event day." I will be noting it as a yellow on Habitcal, but I did follow all the rules of an N day with one exception -- I ate dessert at book club, because it's a once-a ...

Mistress Manners

Dude. You rock. A beer and a new episode of Top Chef Masters did the trick. Off to check off a green day on the HabitCal.

Mistress Manners

MMM! A beer! That's the ticket!

Mistress Manners

Everyone makes their own rules. I think it's legit to write your own personal No S Constitution so that your specific version of hot chocolate counts the same as coffee. But then you need to be a strict constructionist when interpreting your Constitution. No heading down the slippery slope of mocha ...

Mistress Manners

If you really want to make that work, I'd define a particular quantity of a particular sweet. (Say, 2 squares of high-quality chocolate). Otherwise, it opens the door too wide, I think. I'm a chocoholic as well, but really, drawing a bright line rule works much better for me than planning to eat ...

Mistress Manners

Today I picked my daughter up from the camp bus and took her to dinner as a special treat. Dinner was at 5. That makes for a loooooooong snack-free evening. I'm white-knuckling it with a cup of tea. Thank god for HabitCal. For some reason, my desire not to see red is giving me the motivation to ...

Mistress Manners

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Well, OJ is sweet, so the whole "unless it's sweet" rule doesn't really work.

Thanks for pointing out my lack of clarity: sweet as in "added sugar" sweet. Naturally sweet, 100% fruit juices aren't verboten in vanilla-NoS rules. But it doesn't mean they should be imbibed indiscriminately as ...

Mistress Manners

Yes. Caloric beverages don't count as snacks.

unless they are sweet.

Thus,

Milk: yes
Choc. milk: no

Tea: yes
Chai Latte with the works: no

OJ: yes
Orange Julius: No

I agree with Mimi that you should strive to enjoy your afternoon "tea" without looking to add a "snack" if at all possible ...

Mistress Manners

On second thought, I think you might want to consider "plating" the ingredients before you put them in the blender. (In other words, put the yogurt, banana, fruit, etc. on a plate). If it fills up the plate, I'd call it a meal in itself. If there's room for nuts or whatever, go for it. But I think ...

Mistress Manners

Yes. Caloric beverages don't count as snacks.

Mistress Manners

I'd count it together with the nuts/toast as a meal. With all the yogurt etc it's not really a beverage.

Mistress Manners

KCCC -- I'm doing Couch to 5K too. It's terrific. I love Robert Ullrey's podcasts, if you haven't found them yet. I started Week 3 this weekend.

Mistress Manners

Here's a positive mod: I say a blessing before my meals. Because I'm Jewish, the particular blessing depends on what is on my plate (fruit gets one blessing, bread another, etc.) This forces me to: (a) acknowledge the beginning of MEAL TIME; (b) be grateful for what's on my plate; and (c ...

Mistress Manners

Also, you don't have to leave all the food on the plate once it's been there for purposes of measuring. Last night I plated my food so I could eyeball it, and then set my cherries aside on a napkin for "dessert." Maybe I'm 5, but I don't want my fruit touching my quesadilla. The key, though, is to ...

Mistress Manners

My salad was my meal. (It had proteiny things in it as well as veggies). So I think I'm just going to say 1 bowl = 1 plate.

Mistress Manners

Today is my first day of my return to No-S (after a too brief trial run last summer). I'm pretty excited, since I've finally gotten zen about my weight and have decided that I will measure progress on days-on-habit for both No S and the Couch to 5K running plan.

So here's my question: How do you ...

Mistress Manners

You need more food when you're breastfeeding. 500 calories a day more. So yes, I'd add a 4th meal. And really, there will be plenty of time to lose this weight. Your body is storing up energy to make food for someone else, and that's a big deal. I've never successfully lost weight till I've weaned ...

Mistress Manners

I've not been seeing results, but I realized last night that I've been doing a lot of virtual plating. I need to get back to a real plate so I get the visual impact of what I eat.

Mistress Manners

I was thinking about this over the weekend, and was just going to come back and suggest fruit. The good news about cutting out other sweets is that fruit tastes AMAZING. Try using some of your platespace for fruit, and save it till the end. I bet it will give you the sweet kick you need.

Mistress Manners

I think the soda with lunch is fine, but I'd count the pudding as a sweet. (And probably the chocolate milk too). From the habit prespective, it doesn't matter whether the sugar's real or fake -- you're trying to break the habit of always having something sweet after a meal.

I've found that having ...

Mistress Manners

I am thrilled not to be counting calories. However, I do find that my WW experience is helpful in deciding how to fill my plate. I know where those hidden "points" are, and if I can find a way to fill my plate in a way that is just as satisfying while using fewer points, I will.

But on WW, my diet ...

Mistress Manners

For the first week, when my body was adjusting, I chewed lots of gum in the late morning and late afternoon (my snack times). But I find I don't need to now.

Mistress Manners

One thing that's really helped me so far: I brought a plate to work. (I tend to eat at my desk). It keeps me from fudging by "virtual plating" and also makes me feel like I'm a real person eating a real meal. Getting up to wash my plate at the end is a nice signal that mealtime is OVER.

On a side ...

Mistress Manners

OK: Newbie question. How do you deal with stackable foods? For example: I like eating small tortillas with my dinner. If you put 2 side by side, they take up a disproportionate amount of the plate. OK to stack? (I guess toast would be a similar issue, or pancakes if they weren't an S food). If so ...

Mistress Manners

GoLean Crunch is also great -- lots of protein and fiber, and lots of crunch. It'll satisfy your sweet craving, but the protein will take you through till lunch.

Mistress Manners

I wouldn't count frosted mini wheats as a Sweet. (Now Froot Loops, on the other hand . . . ).

Mistress Manners

I bet you don't actually need 8 packs of sugar in your tea. Try less and see how it tastes. I know this is a regional thing, and where you are "sweet tea" is probably the norm. But FWIW, I put one packet of sugar in a "venti" iced tea from starbucks, and that works fine for me.

Mistress Manners

Eh. Half a beer at night helps me relax and unwind without stuffing my face full of chocolate and other treats. I'm not sweating it.

Mistress Manners

I've been tempted to do the "one bite" thing in reverse by saving my fruit for later. "Hey, it fit on the plate, so does it really matter when I eat it?" But I know that the answer is that if I'm already full and don't want to eat the fruit, then I put too much on my plate to begin with. The answer ...

Mistress Manners

My husband called me to tell me he'd started No-S this morning. He made it till 11, at which point he had a snack. He cracks me up.

Mistress Manners

Hey there. I'm new (4 days of success!). I was reading the book last night and saw the section where Reinhard said to add your own sugar to yogurt, cereal, etc. Does this mean I can have oatmeal with brown sugar I add myself on N days? If so, woo hoo. On one hand, it's really not much. Is it more ...

Mistress Manners

I buy an iced coffee (I add my own milk) on the way to work, and sip it all morning till lunch. (Actually, about half the time I drink an iced green tea instead). It helps me push lunch a bit later and keep from snacking.

Mistress Manners

Only on day 3 here, but so far I've noticed that I'm eating a much bigger variety of foods, and that I'm eating more fruit and veggies as well. Once a sandwich is on your plate, it just looks wrong to put other random crap on there. It sort of invites a banana or some edamame or something. Because I ...

Everyday Systems

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Re: Hi Mistress Manners

In Praise of HabitCal

ACK! Early Dinner = Hungry

Salad and other bowl foods

Bring a plate to work! (And other newbie musings)

Stacking

Brown sugar on my oatmeal?