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.
I've wandered in and out of No S for a couple of years. I had some initial success with it for about six weeks - followed it perfectly and lost 12 pounds. Then I fell off the wagon, but I've managed to keep off the 12 - it seems my sweets habit has been permanently reduced, anyway.
To help me get back on the wagon I want to try using the check-in to aid with my particular weakness, which is late afternoon/early evening snacking. I came up with a mod for myself a while back that seems to help a lot, which is: I have to have dinner for my family planned by the time I leave for work in the morning. Knowing what I'm making seems to help me refrain from eating.
I'm able to post from our office, so I'm thinking I'll make it part of my morning work routine to post whether I succeeded. Even if I've failed I'll still have time to fix it before the witching hour arrives.
For today - success! I not only planned it, I got most of it done already with a pot roast in the slow cooker.
Last edited by Miyabi on Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Success this morning, have a plan. It does involve having to stop at the store after work for fish, though, which doesn't always work out. It helps that graduate school daughter is home for the weekend. She was a very fussy eater as a kid, then was a vegetarian, and now has left it all behind to become a full fledged omnivore foodie. She not only ate the pot roast last night, she asked which part of the cow it came from, and examined the side of beef drawing in the cookbook with interest. Now if her younger brother would get on board....
Well, a failure on planning this morning. On the bright side I did realize that I'd failed two blocks after leaving the house, so there's a bell ringing in there somewhere. Mondays are probably the hardest to remember, so should consider checking in on weekends too. I do have a plan now.
The weekend went pretty well. Saturday somewhat wild, but Sunday much better. I grilled a lot of chicken that can go into salad, and will work as a leftover dinner tomorrow - there, tomorrow is planned.....
Success with planning this morning. But I had a red day yesterday due to a failure at the end of the day - my husband wound up eating a business dinner out, and son was otherwise involved, so I wound up snacking my way through the evening. This was after my morning failure at dinner planning. I need some strategies for this situation, which happens at least once a week, and will increase after son goes to college next year.
Planning success. Making one of son's favorites - he will be hearing whether he got into his top choice college tonight, so this will most likely be an attempt at comfort food (since the school has pretty much a negative acceptance rate). Silly because he is not someone who looks to food for comfort, in fact he probably won't want to eat.....
Thanks for the encouragement, NoSRocks. I'm still having snacking issues, but I think the dinner planning will help me in the long run.
For tonight, I'm making one of my childhood foods, Spanish rice, as comfort food for me and my husband. Maybe that will help keep the snack monster away.
Well, I did plan what we'll eat before I left the house - not a great plan, involves frozen entrees, but not random anyway. Last night DH hurt himself running - insists on running at night- and we were at the ER and the all-night pharmacy till 1 AM. He'll be OK but needs attention, and I'm short on sleep, so cooking is going to suffer.
There's a plan for tonight. Really, really simple, and son can start it before I get home. Just trying to get these simple plans accomplished is highlighting some problem spots. It should be in my power to do something about them, sometime....
Well, failed yesterday on dinner planning. Son survived on leftovers, which is fine. I'm not doing this tracking to do a better job feeding my son and husband, but to give myself a break from having to think about dinner in the afternoon and evening.
I'm not going to track weekends for planning. But I do have one for tonight.
OK, made a truly simple plan for tonight. Last night turned out to be not so simple. The chicken was too big for the clay pot - it fit inside, but when it's too big it makes a lot of juice that bubbles over into the bottom of the oven and burns...and I forgot that with H's broken collarbone he can't help with cleanup as he often does. The whole thing took way too long and I wound up munching while waiting, giving me a red day.
Forgot to post yesterday, but it was a planning success. And another today. Lots of other No S failures, and exercise on one day only. My dog has just reminded me that the weekend and his long walks are coming, and I have some good podcasts saved, so looking forward to some nice S days.....
Success for tonight. I feel pretty silly sometimes that this is so hard for me, since I don't really mind cooking, I just mind having to make decisions about cooking. I had a talk with a friend the other day whose husband retired a while ago, and he has taken over cooking. She says she used to stress over dinner planning too, but now she just comes home and pitches in to help and finds it very pleasant. So maybe it isn't just me....
Hi reneew, sorry I don't know how to make the squiggly thing in front of your name. I admire anyone who can do weekly menu planning. I've never been able to do it! Maybe if I practice this for a while I can get to 2 days...
Success for tonight because I'm going to a sports "banquet" which is really a potluck buffet and is generally very good. The challenge is to go through only once and avoid the end of the line where the desserts are lined up.
back to grilled chicken tonight. At last night's potluck, I was fine with one plate of non-sweet food. I noticed that hanging around afterwards talking to people was harder, because there were boxes of cookies still sitting out, which I didn't have, but they called out to me.
chicken revsisited, since no one was around to eat last night, with baked potato S can start before I get home. I have to remember to pay attention whether having this in the bag makes the afternoon easier.
Had to eat out for the last two days so no meal planning required, but I should have posted that here anyway to get in the habit. While travelling yesterday I had an easier time with No S than I do at home. The snack cues are missing when I travel....I do have a plan for tonight
started to post this am and was interrupted. I did make a plan for tonight. Have yet another admitted student open house in Boston tomorrow - these tend to be N- friendly days as they run you around on a schedule with free buffet lunch in the middle. Gluttony, or the ice cream sundae bar, could be visibly embarrassing, as various deans, professors, etc tend to appear at your table (though they may just be after the free food too).
success, easy one for tonight. Over the weekend I had - pretty much an N day while running around Boston, in spite of all the opportunities there, but a wild S day at home around the food. I lost a little weight over the weekend, so something to think about is to stay out of the house doing something active at least one day of the weekend!
Easy one tonight because I can make what I had planned for last night. Son actually called me at work yesterday and offered to make dinner for all of us! He's trying to curry favor for going to the costly college of his choice, so we need to take advantage of this for as long as possible.
Last week fell apart with posting about plans, actual plans, sticking to a plan, and in every other way. Have to get back on track here. Tonight we're going out but the rest of the week should be ordinary.
the good thing about a week as messed up as this one is that one days' plan lasts all week. Tonight maybe I will get to cook my super-marinated chicken. ..
Success in planning for tonight. Son has track meets 2 days in a row so I'm doing his pasta carb loading option. I think he is taking advice from the 2-meal Mike guy they are discussing today - he eats 3 meals, but his options are extremely limited. Whatever, next year he's on the college meal plan.
Back to another pre-track meet day, so another pasta night. Last week I didn't post my plans at all. I see I had functions or worked late every night. I probably need to ratchet my definition of dinner down even further (though it's pretty low already) , at least for the next two months.....
Success for this morning. I cut up and marinated meat for a stir fry. I can cut up vegetables when I get home, or if that seems like a lot I think I have a frozen stir fry mix lurking in the back of the freezer.
success for today, but failed yesterday and wound up not posting anything and eating junk in the evening. Had perfectly nice leftovers in the fridge that my son and husband ate but I did not. Have to admit that if I can't/won't take a minute to plan, it means I am planning - I'm planning to have one of my evening mini-binges. Because I think the day will be stressful and I'm going to need it, I deserve it, etc.
Time to get back on track. I have been planning pretty well lately but not checking it in. Yesterday was a success with planning and a green day....this morning I had to get up at 4 PM to take my daughter to the airport, so planned leftovers for tonight!
Have a minimalist plan for tonight involving packaged things. There's a school event starting at 6:30, and two more of those this week. I get home at 6 pm at the earliest, so I'm looking at "cooking" at 8 pm at the earliest.
another school night. I managed to get something in the slow cooker and to throw some of last night's dinner in a lunch bag. But this plus walking the dog left no time for breakfast.....
another school night. Problem is with these things is that I don't want to eat in a rush before going, but then don't feel like a whole dinner when I get back, and have the snacky winey urge instead. So tonight we'll have something sort of snacky that needs no further cooking, and see if that helps.
