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.
This article has something that may hint at why telling people to eat healthy snacks isn't enough:
In an interesting bit of irony, the majority of snackers found it important to only snack on healthy food items, but the most commonly consumed snacks were chips and soda.
If people who cut out snacks on No S are mostly cutting out things like chips and soda, it's not much of a mystery why No S is helpful. I know the "no snacks" rule cut a lot of junk food out of my diet.
I've tried snacking, and it is darn hard to only eat healthy snacks. It was far too easy to allow myself those extra chips, some junk food, etc... Plus, I hated the feeling of never being satisfied after a meal, because I had to eat smaller meals to allow for the snacks. I do allow myself a small, pre-planned snack, if I have to exercise at night and I do an intense workout, but other than that, I much prefer sticking to 3 meals a day.
leafy_greens wrote:Aren't chips allowed during a meal?
Yes, they are! We had chips yesterday, along with sandwiches, veggies, and dip. Yum! But when they are part of the meal, chips are much less likely to be consumed mindlessly and in surprisingly large quantities.
The smallest bag of chips I can purchase easily serves two people if part of a meal. But if I was snacking (and most snacking is solitary), I'd eat the whole bag--one bag, one snack. So I'd eat more chips snacking than as part of a meal, PLUS I'd eat more overall because studies have shown (and I can personally attest), that I really don't eat less at meals if I've had a snack. NoS is brilliant on so many levels!
HTH,
Vicki in MNE
7! Yrs. with Vanilla NoS, down 55+lb, happily maintaining and still loving it!
