Everyday Systems

I can chime in on scale obsession. Even now that I put the darn thing under the bed, I can still see an edge poking out and it calls to me. The scale has a lot of power over me.

buttercreampillow

I did get out the tape measure. It's reassuring because I know that I'm at least not gaining weight. I have clothes that are out of style but now fit that have been in my closet for a few years. What I have to remind myself over and over and over again is that almost no one loses weight permanently without making it their life mission to combat the constant feeling of starvation. I've heard from podcasts on the Rudd Center that some experts think it is impossible to lose more than 10% of your body weight and keep it off without having it be an incredible strain on you. Well, huh, I've lost 8% of my body weight. I have to keep things in perspective. Quick weight loss is not the great prize. Easy weight maintenance is.
Kathleen

I can't get past the "I want it all gone NOW" mode. I'm impatient and I don't quit. I think that's what's getting me past my plateau that I always have bounced up from. We'll see.

Thanks for all the input everyone!

By the way... I'm down 4 for the month so far

I just noticed that I'm on day 29 of a green streak. I passed 21 and flew right on past! I'll go for another 21 consecutive... ooooo! When it's a normal week with the kids at school... I've got it. When they are home, either on the weekends or summer, I have no spine.

You are doing great! WTG. I keep trying and hope the scale keeps making a slow downward descent ~ telling myself, just focus each day on making good choices/habits. This is our new lifestyle

thank you! ... making good habits... making good habits...making good habits... (telling myself)

3/17/09 - start 0 again
4/3/09 - down 10
5/1/09 - down 14 (but I got a new scale that reads 3 pounds off of the last, so actually 3 more lost from now on)
5/29/09 - down 16
6/26/09 - down 18 Slowing, so I reset my goal got to 20 and bounced.. again...and again...and again. I have for years.
7/31/09 - down 18 I seem to only be able to maintain this summer. Difficult temptations when the kids are around.
8/28/09 - down 20
9/25/09 - goal: down 25 --- I did it a week early!!!!
10/30/09- goal: down 30
11/27/09- goal: down 35
12/25/09- goal: down 40
1/25/10 - goal: down 45
2/26/10 - goal: down 50
3/26/010- goal: down 55 I'd like to be down 55 by St.Patrick's day.
4/30/10 - goal: down 60
5/28/10 - goal: down 65
next summer ultimate goal - down 70


I got to my goal early!!!!!


I'm so so so so so so so happy!

You mentioned in a couple of posts how much easier it is when the kids are not around. I have noticed that the afternoons are the most difficult time for me. I know part of it is I'm tired from work, but part of it is also that I pick my son up on the way home and he's justifiably hungry - so I fix him a snack - usually something very nice - his latest favourite is whole milk greek yogurt with a little honey, fresh strawberries and grated dark chocolate on top. It's tough not to have some, too

I have managed to avoid it this week - though he hasn't had such good snacks lately, other than homemade chocolate zucchini muffins. But tomorrow *I'm* having one, too

I don't know why it's so much harder with the kids around. I guess I started getting them snacks 16 1/2 years ago and now that I have 4 kids, and they can get their own when hungry... you'd think I'd be o.k. but if I see it, I want it. With their crazy schedules they eat supper in shifts, so I have to see it twice.

Congrats on reaching your goal early! WooHoo!

my weight still rollercoasters on the weekend by at least 5 pounds, but the trend is going steadily down. My official weigh in is on Friday, so I really want to do well this week.

I had to make cookies today for several events and instead of making several different things and snitching my way through the whole afternoon I... made one tripple batch (of my famous ginger cookies) and I didn't even snitch one single solitary nibble of the stuff. Now let me tell you, I've been baking cookies since I was 9 and cookie dough is my favorite snitch in the entire blue and green earth... and I had not even one tiny crumb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's definitely a first and worthy of applause!!!!!!!!!!! yea me!

Oh, and I put a photo of myself on my sparkpage on sparkpeople (same name)... don't know if I want to here yet... ha! ...or if I even can... I'm electronically challenged.

You can look at my picture with my beautiful cast on my thread...I'm going to go see if I can find yours!

Mimi

P.S. And what a coup with the cookie dough and your *snitchless* afternoon of baking! You rock Renee!

I found it! You're lovely, but I already knew that (i didn't picture you as a blond, for some reason!)

Go you! Making cookies and no snitches! Really doubt I could do that.

mimi wrote: I found it! You're lovely, but I already knew that (i didn't picture you as a blond, for some reason!)

Thank you Mimi... and didn't you notice I was dizzy? I just had to say that because I come from a long line of blonds and have all brown haired kids which tease me about the dizzy blond thing. Actually I have an inner ear issue going on right now and I am actually dizzy and on meds for that so it doesn't help matters any.


I am down 6 for the month, so I met my goal of 5 for the weigh-day today!!! And I have to say that Marc's saying that I was setting too high of a goal really kicked me into gear... just don't tell him.

Wooo hoo!


so I'll post my progress here on weigh day...



3/17/09 - start 0 again
4/3/09 - down 10
5/1/09 - down 14 (but I got a new scale that reads 3 pounds off of the last, so actually 3 more lost from now on)
5/29/09 - down 16
6/26/09 - down 18 Slowing, so I reset my goal got to 20 and bounced.. again...and again...and again. I have for years.
7/31/09 - down 18 I seem to only be able to maintain this summer. Difficult temptations when the kids are around.
8/28/09 - down 20
9/25/09 - goal: down 26 yea me!!!
10/30/09- goal: down 30
11/27/09- goal: down 35
12/25/09- goal: down 40
1/25/10 - goal: down 45
2/26/10 - goal: down 50
3/26/010- goal: down 55 I'd like to be down 55 by St.Patrick's day (my birthday).
4/30/10 - goal: down 60
5/28/10 - goal: down 65
next summer ultimate goal - down 70

Hum, oh yeah .. your goal was really too high, Renee ...


This is awesome ! Just what I like to see, working really hard and achieving your goal ... wow ! I was just thinking it would be hard to achieve, not impossible - - as long as you put in the effort.

Impressive work, Renee.

Your goal for the month of october seems just a lil' too high though, you might want to reconsider ... *wink* *wink* ...

Cheers !

Marc

a little over the top this weekend, but still lower than last weekend. When ever I finally reach my goal, I will totally have to stop weighing in on the weekends. Too depressing.

I'm not going to issue a challenge for October... I seem to be doing a more extreme version of no S and I'm trying to not think about food so much. So for October I'm trying a month without a challenge.

I just had to take in tucks in my favorite jeans... headed to the store for some that fit!

Congratulations! You are inspiring a newbie with a lot of weight to lose; I love the way you were able to stick with this through the months of slow weight loss. It's very helpful to see your loss posted, month after month after month.

Yeah, it's a shame when you are gaining weight on the weekends and then it takes you many days to get back to where you were ... depressing ! This is an issue for me too, I am bad one day and then I struggle to make it back ... something to work on in the future : Avoid bad days where I gain 3-4 pounds at once and I'm home free.

Cheers !

Marc

~reneew wrote: I'm not going to issue a challenge for October... I seem to be doing a more extreme version of no S and I'm trying to not think about food so much. So for October I'm trying a month without a challenge.

Just be careful with your *more extreme* version of NoS Renee...don't let it lead you back into *food prison* (as I call it) again!

Mimi

September


1 green and I am so excited to be starting a new month and it's fall!
2 green cuz I'm on a streak and motivated at the same time.
3 green and I'm mentally preparing for the weekend. I think I'll go re-read the S days gone wild thread again. I could always try duct tape.
4 green of course because I'm on the right track... hopefully not the hidden rollercoaster track
5 S day
6 S day
7 S day I had higher hopes for this weekend including lower case s days (just s events), but overall I didn't do all that bad.
8 green
9 green
10 green and great! I've been doing double green days and it helps to compensate for my rollercoaster weekends.
11 green of course.
12 S day and definitely not lime.
13 S day
14 barely green. The kids have no school today.
15 red failure ... cookies again
16 double green
17 green
18 green
19 S day
20 S day
21 green
22 green
23 green
24 green and tomorrow is weigh day so I'm being a very good girl today!
25 green day and I weighed in at 6 lost this month! I met my goal of 5 pounds this month. I am so pumped!!
26 S day
27 S day
28 green
29 green and my favorite jeans don't fit!!!! woohoo!
30 green and very "in a good groove" right now!


To summarize my month, I've been doing awesome during the week, but weekends with everyone around is still hard, but the damage isn't so severe... still working on it.

~reneew wrote:Thanks for your concern Mimi... I'm just trying to cue into my hunger and fullness more now. And it seems to be helping me a lot!

Okay! That sounds like a reasonable goal to work on. Many of us have a tendency to eat when we're not even hungry - usually in response to an emotion, or to continue eating when we're full simply because it's on our plate. I completely understand. I'm glad you still allow your S days because complete denial of treats leads to trouble - at least for me!
I tried to weigh this morning, being the first day of Octover, and on all three tries I got an error message on my scale. I guess one-footed weighing doesn't register...probably a good thing for me right now!
Have a great month of October and reaching your new goal - stay in your *groove*!

Mimi

Thank you Mimi! And you're right... what gets me through the temptations of the week is looking forward to the S days.

I am trying to ignore food and thus... logging on doesn't seem to come to mind. I am still plugging along...

So, how's that working for ya?

Ummm... I guess it's not. I've been gaining. When I don't have kids sick and get to take a breather, I'll need to get a grip and pay attention, huh?

Alright, I've really been gaining and I think I know my problem. Every Christmas I make homeade carmels and every Christmas I gain weight. Last year it started my gain of 20! So I made them last week thinking that I'd just melt them over apples on S days. Yea right. I ate them all weekend and Monday was a red too. So, I've gained and am ashamed to say how much, but at least I'm learning. I am going to do my old emergency trick and freeze them... then for Christmas, I'll thaw them the Week of Christmas and have a few and share the rest. That way I'll still get them for Christmas (I have since birth 42 years ago) and I won't over do it. Maybe this will be the Christmas that I don't gian 10-20!!!

Oh, Not good Glad you put them in the freezer, you've made a good choice, now regain focus and don't beat yourself up ~ lets get going again

I'm back on track, but I need to catch up to where I was. It does come off easier when you've just gained it though.


Stay on track Renee!

Yeah, I had issues too this past week - - Gained a couple of pounds. I'm back with the old routine now though, lining up the double green days again.

When you did good work in the past though it's easier to get back to where you were, all you have to do is to apply yourself in the next week so you don't lose too much time hanging out at the higher weight, Renee.

Cheers !

Marc

Renee, I want you to know that I wish you only the best in your endeavors to honor your body, discover what works best for you, and ultimatey lose your unwanted pounds. You are always such a cheery presence on these boards and I will miss you! Good luck and keep in touch with your progress!

Mimi

Oh, I tried that diet. Of course... I think I've tried almost every diet on the planet. The Weighdown diet was hands down the worst diet for me. That doesn't mean it would be the worst for you, but it was the worst for me.

What I learned, quite simply, is that eating is also a social event. I would eat whenever my stomach growled, and I would skip meals with my family because my stomach hadn't growled. I was constantly belly gazing, trying to determine if my stomach had growled.

I learned two things I hadn't known before:
1. The stomach makes all sorts of noises that aren't necessarily hunger growls. As my son put it, and this is a paraphrase, "Sometimes your stomach makes noises because it is trying to digest all the food you crammed into it."
2. The stomach will growl due to external cues. I literally would notice my stomach making noises if I was near food or was about to go to a social event.

The end result of three months of this -- a two pound weight loss which was reversed and led to an additional four pound gain in six days. During this diet, I constantly, constantly thought about food. I was obsessed with food, with being near food as soon as my stomach growled, with trying to figure out what noises my stomach was making.

I once noted, in the car, that my stomach had growled. My husband, bless his heart, said, "Stop the car! Emergency!" It was funny, but he was making a point.

There is no self deception with No S. That's what I love about it. It doesn't matter if my stomach has growled or not. I know I will eat to my satisfaction at my next meal, and I can wait until then.

Different strokes for different folks...

Kathleen

Good luck, ~reneew. Hope whatever you try works for you.

Check in now and then when you have time.

Thanks for your input and support everyone! I think No S is the most normal way to eat and the best way to kick my food addiction. It's been working for me so far, but I keep making the little mod of a few bites, which if under control (3 max) I think are harmless especially if it's healthy food. The weigh down workshop has had great success and I did too with it, but I have a problem stopping and also with eating with a schedule. The combination of the 2 helps me wait until meal time. A cookie if it fits on my plate is fine, I think, and my big problem is salty snacks anyway.
Bluebunny (Marc) was really put down when he made mods and I don't want anyone arguing over what I do, I'm more sensitive. I just need to try to find what works. I'm still a team of 1 ... I may be back soon.

From all my research into what the leading doctors are doing, it is clear that there is no one magic path to permanent weight loss. It's great to hear from you and for us to share our ideas and experiences, but in the end we're all individuals and may need to have customized programs!

Good luck!

Kathleen

Renee wrote :
"Instead of calling it a "mod" and getting a ton of people upset like they did at Marc"

Here's my one dish plan:

- wait for your tum to grumble, then you get 1 dish (or plate of any food)
- daily heart and soul exercise (opt.)
- if hunger comes before a planned meal, have 3 bites... on your plate.
(This will help train us to guage our hunger and fullness in relation to what we put on our plate.)

Just think "grumble = plate"


-----------


********** Huh, yes ... I am good at making people upset sometimes ... sorry about that ! I just give my opinion, and say what works for me though ... but in the end the only thing that matters is the amount of work you put in.

I never really agreed with the NO SNACKS rule personally. When you don't snack at all your blood sugar level is going down so you are very hungry and weak - - and then you eat too much because you can't take it anymore. My opinion is you have 3 small meals and small 3 snacks. Most fitness experts recommend eating on a regular basis, just smaller amounts of food so you stabilize your blood sugar levels and don't feel so hungry in between bigger meals.

What I do :

Breakfast : 600 calories
Snack : 200 calories
Lunch : 600 calories
Snack : 200 calories
Dinner : 600 calories
Snack : 200 calories

That's 2,400 calories and then there are a few extras, coffee with milk, sometimes a couple of cookies, celery sticks or plain popcorn is I feel hungry in the late evenings, etc.
Total : Approx. 2,700 calories daily.

That's what I've been eating for months now and exercising hard at least 30 minutes nearly every day too of course.

I don't have issues with other rules except the automatic S days on the weekends, I don't have planned S Days, of course sometimes they happen but it's not really planned in advance for me. I prefer to do my own thing, not have rules based on the days of the week.

I like your plan too, Renee, especially the part about eating only when you are hungry, good idea. What matters is the total number of calories for the day and how many you are burning - - that's it. You create a calorie deficit - - and you lose weight slowly but surely.
(3,500 calories = 1 pound)

www.fitday.com + Kitchen scale That helped me to figure out my calories.

Don't worry too much about rules anyway, that's what I say ... you make up your own so you can achieve your goals without feeling too deprived and it's all good in the end when you see you are making good progress.

Cheers !

Marc

Great Job Marc!!!

Renee, while I don't know what happened to Marc (though the fact that he lost 90 pounds suggests his mods worked for him) and what "getting upset" means in the context of a message board, I'd like to encourage you to share what you are doing. This is your daily check-in--who cares what others say/think here? If you're finding success (either through compliance or through weight/fat loss), it's something you should celebrate and (hopefully) share with the rest of us!

While I do strict vanilla no-s and shovelglove, that doesn't mean I think it's the perfect solution for everyone; it just works well for me. I'm interested in hearing about what works for others. I've long had a sneaking suspicion that No-S is a one-size-fits-all type approach that works really well for dudes and some ladies, so I'd love to be able to tell my female friends who aren't getting results through No-S about mods that might work for them.

Anyway, I don't know what sparkpeople is, but good luck with it!

spork...


This is the current plan:

- wait for your tum to grumble, then you get 1 dish (or plate of any food)
- daily heart and soul exercise (opt. )


(If hunger comes before a planned meal, have 3 bites and wait for the meal.)


Just think "grumble = dish"

alright, I'm not doing so hot on my new sparkpeople plan... I'm snacking a lot, mostly due to the lack of support. I see someone started a challenge here. I'm still considering it all.

The mind sure messes a person up!


By the way, I'm back to 21 lost. Yep, I'm gaining... but I refuse to change the 26 lost on my signature.

I've had to revise my goals (on my first page) and I've started November's wannabe club. I am so excited!

Reneew,

You followed that plan for three weeks. I spent an entire summer following a similar plan. When I look back on all the terrible diets I've followed, waiting for my stomach to growl was the worst one I followed. It was even worse than the Cabbage Soup Diet!

Glad to see you back. Personally, I think the only thing bad about No S is the name. There are a lot more S's in this diet than No S's. One of the S's is SANITY! It is a very sane diet. Common sense. Simple. Stupendous!

Kathleen

PS. I went through my journal from those three months. Here's a particularly painful excerpt from 8/8/08 which showed that I gradually realized that I ate a lot after every time my stomach made a noise:

"2:10 PM: My stomach didn’t growl until 1 PM, and I had an entire bowl of popcorn, an entire cucumber, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, 3 nectarines, and a cup of cottage cheese. Now I am no longer hungry. I think I need to allow myself to eat to satisfaction and just have the limitation be that I don’t eat until the next time my stomach growls. It is very important for me to not interpret stomach noise as a hunger growl."

Wow... thanks Kathleen. We live and learn don't we? The problem is when I forget what I've learned, or worse yet, when I ignore it.

I'm writing my mod to the plan here as I'm still trying to figure out what works for me. My plan is to allow sweets as long as they fit on my plate. I don't really have a sweet tooth that haunts me, but cookies sneak up on me and are usually my downfall. Christmas is coming and I think it may help knowing I can have a cookie at dinner if it fits on my plate. I also plan to wait for hunger also, but that's not really a mod. Since it is the same plan as I was using on Sparkpeople, I will update there also on my sparkteam called one dish. I need support and accountability, and that should help me.

I'm on day 4 of my wannabe club. I "wannabe" a repeater to the 21 day club. And I'm going to do it!!!

YES

my lunch plate was a bit... quite a bit big, but I'm on day 5.

Well, your doing good ~ one plate is good, even if it was a bit big! Day 5, did you start on Sunday??? You go girl, try for a bit smaller plate tonight

In answer to a poster's problems: I wrote...

If I wanted to eat like a rabbit, I wouldn't be here. I eat what I like. As far as the S days go... that's my problem and like Kathleen says:
Kathleen wrote:
"I have resigned myself to the reality that I will always eat like an idiot on S Days, so I'm in the process of reducing the number of S Days. I seem to need the ability to eat like an idiot. I don't know why, but I suspect it has something to do with 30 plus years of restricitve eating."

Me too. I can't stand the thought of restricting my S days that I live for. I definitely over do my pizza on the weekend. I am still working on it. I'm slowly but surely figuring out what doesn't work though. Eating without a plate DOES NOT WORK!!! Making a humongous pizza with my favorite toppings doesn't work even if I tell myself I'll only have so many... going out and over-ordering (to have leftovers to bring home) doesn't work... making homeade pizzas on mini pizza pans for everyone in the family works if I don't make any extras (they become "mine".)

Reinhard told me that if you keep doing it "you'll eventually build a psychological ring of fire around the S es." I'm working on that. I do know that it gets easier when you honestly follow the rules.

I felt the need to post that here because I find I need to remind myself what I've learned.

plan: I'm back to the original Vanilla No S.

Reneew,
See how much you've learned! Part of this diet is figuring out what works for you. My S Days are more moderate, but that's only because of the awful stomach aches I got after some of my truly memorable S Days, like having 4,000 calories of caramel macademian clusters. Never, ever, ever again am I going to have that much! S Days are at least somewhat self-correcting. Maybe I'll never eat other than like an idiot, but at least I won't eat like someone who just got out of a concentration camp!
Kathleen

wosnes wrote:

I think that there are very few days that should be S "Days" -- I've listed them in another post, but basically national and religious holidays, your birthday and so on -- days when you can (and maybe should!) throw caution to the wind. That's less than one per month, though two of them do come within a week of each other. Everything else is an S event. Not a day when you can go wild, but a meal or situation when you can relax and enjoy a little without guilt.

I like that... I'll think a bit on this.

And Janette wrote this:

Incredible...For a while now, I've noticed (with a bit of disbelief) that when I stroll into Whole Foods, which houses some of my all time favorite sweets, that I can just walk in and not succumb to temptation..At first I thought it was a fluke - that I was just having " a damn good week"..However, it now happens with enough consistency to make me ask the question: Is it just because of my S days? It wasn't until I came across some interesting research that proved the following:

"Alain Dagher, a neurologist at Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University, used imaging technology in a study of smokers to learn how anticipation influences brain activity. All his participants had brain scans, but only some were told in a advance that they would be able to smoke immediately after the test was completed. The others UNDERSTOOD that they COULDN'T have a cigarette for another four hours and that a carbon-monoxide monitor would be used to ensure that they complied. Dagher's MRI scans showed that areas of the brain involved in arousal and attention were essentially SHUT DOWN in the population that did not expect to be able to smoke afterward. The Study confirmed that you could reduce the behavior response to cravings by reducing expectancy of the reward..Somehow those people had the ability to suppress the cravings. If a reward is deemed and truly believed to be unavailable, it affects our arousal center in the brain that is responsible for us breaking so many diets." So, basically, it's more than just knowing I have some sugar coming on Sat/Sunday..Having truly internalized the N day rules, has literally changed the way my brain handles cravings.. Freakin amazing..

It shows more evidence that habits and attitudes like "snacks are just not an option" help us fend off temptation.

I'm on day 10. Just needed to see it written.

Day 11 and its going good Way to get back on track Heart and soul helps as well ~ good work

Kathleen and I seem to have similar thoughts and I always enjoy reading her check-in. She seems to voice exactly what I've been thinking off and on, over and over. I tweak and tweak and tweak. We are both headed in the right direction. Looking at her progress looks quite impressive. I guess mine does to others too (page 1 of my check-in) but I know the frustration of wanting it all off now with no lasting issues of food addiction. I truly feel at a loss of self-contol at times, and the mental struggle can help me and/or hinder me. Keep going and try no to "deny" yourself too much. It can back-fire.

I've noticed that every time I start doing well, I've been reading the book called "the diet alternative". It's a Christian view on eating. It talks about how the bible never mentions "lunch", just eating in the morning and at night, and that giving a meal to God is sewing to the spirit. It totally fits with no s, but gives another way of looking at it. It's kind of a slight mod I guess, though Reinhard said that he technically never tells us how many meals to have, just suggests not more than 3, and that 2 is fine. I normally eat brunch and dinner because I'm not normally hungry until 11:00, probably due to the volume on my dinner plate the evening before. I've also learned that I have a big problem with stopping once I start. That's why the one plate works so well. I find that fasting until dinner shrinks my tum and so I don't want to over eat. I've read so much about metabolisms as I have hypothyroidism, and I firmly believe that my (or anyones) metabolisms will not get messed up in a 24 hour period by fasting until lunch. So, my current plan is this: doing vanilla no s with a "spurt" twice a week of waiting until dinner (5:00 - 5:30) to eat. When I do it on Monday it really helps me to get on the right track after my S day. I also know that I'd do really really well if I didn't do S days on both Saturdays and Sundays. But that's another tweak.

Reneew,
I'm sorry, but I had to chuckle when I read your post. I tried fasting until dinner on Fridays in Lent. It backfired! That doesn't mean it would backfire with you, but the fact that we both came up with the same tweak is amusing!
Kathleen

"Delayed gratification doesn't necessarily mean deprivation." I love that quote!

Kathleen... I hope you see this. For me, eating is like opening up a can of worms, and I have trouble stopping and frequent the kitchen more often all day long. If I delay the opening of the can, I overall, eat way less. I did it for 6 weeks and was loosing, so I'm back to it. A pastor friend of mine did that daily every winter for a couple months to loose all that he gains summer through Christmas. It's like a little boost, and doesn't seem to mess up the rest of my days either. Friday is the hardest day. Monday and Wednesdays seem to be the best for me. I used to fast on Wednesdays during Lent. All day. Consecutive days of waiting for supper are more difficult. If anyone is interested in trying, I suggest Wednesdays, and get busy with something that will help keep you out of the kitchen! And I drink a lot of ice water with a splash of juice.

Oh, and kathleen...I had my 4th in 2001 also. I'm also a Minnesotan at heart because I lived there up until 4 years ago... and I'm 42. I'm only 5 miles into Iowa... the Boji area. Funny, the similarities!

Hey there !

Nice to see you are not quitting. What's this about quitting ??? Isn't it my number one rule ?? No quitting, lol !

I never weigh myself at night anymore, it's just not a reliable number ... one night I weigh myself and the next morning I've lost 2.4 pounds and the next day I've only lost 0.6 pound during the night, it's not reliable at all ... it's just depressing when you've been working out (and drinking more water of course !) and then you weigh yourself and you think you've gained weight despite being good all day long ??

Also I try to weigh myself around the same time every morning - - first thing (After urinating of course !!) So the conditions are very similar. I find that if I get up earlier and I weigh myself a couple of hours earlier - - or a couple of hours later if I get up later - - the result is also quite different. So I picked a time in the morning when I am usually up and that's when I'm weighing. The conditions are exactly the same every day, so I get a reliable number.

Cheers !

Marc

bluebunny27 wrote:Hey there !
Nice to see you are not quitting. What's this about quitting ??? Isn't it my number one rule ?? No quitting, lol !


Also I try to weigh myself around the same time every morning - - first thing (After urinating of course !!) Marc

Quitting... who's quitting?

You forgot to mention blowing your nose, taking out a mouth guard or retainer, taking a dump, removing jewelery and spitting!

I'm in the clear - -

No cold at the moment - no mouth guard - - I never defecate that early in the morning either - no jewelry and spitting huh - - I don't think so.

I am always 100% nude when I am weighing though.

Buns of steel, woo hoo ! Well, almost steel ... heh.

I've done so much lower body & cardio exercise that my calves/legs/thighs/butt are actually quite muscular now - - it must be those hundreds of hours of running - cycling - squatting - jumping jacks and whatnot this past year ... also when you lose some fat you see the muscles underneath better, lol !)

Cheers !

Marc

Ummm... changing the subject...

I don't know if I'm going to get to my goal this month... my stupid detour has thrown me for a loop and I'm just getting back into the groove. I should have just stuck with the no-nonsence No S!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I'm pretty unhappy with my detour, too! What matters is not that we lost a few months but that we get back on course.
Kathleen

I'm still struggling to get back into the normalcy (sp?) of No S. Remind me next time that I'm getting impatient, if I drop out... I gain!

I remember one thing that Dr. Phil (yea..once in awhile he makes sense!) said a few years ago about weight loss . I think I've posted it somewhere before this. He said you can control what you put into your body but you can't control how your body is going to use that fuel when it comes to weight loss. So we should make our goals about the food we eat and not how much weight we expect to lose each week. I am sure he said it in a much better way, but you get the idea! We set ourselves up for failure when we are doing everything "right" and we still do not lose that three pounds we planned to be down by the end of the week/month/day. I know that is a problem I have and is probably why I like and remember what Dr. Phil said. This is also why I like noS.. we are charting our compliance with the rules.. not if we are losing xx amount of each week. The weight loss "is what it is" as we work on our eating and exercise habits. At least, that's how I feel about it! Hope this thought was helpful! I do follow your entries and appreciate your honesty and hard work! Good luck as you stick with it!!

reneew,
What threw me was having a weight goal. Now I have a habit goal but no weight goal. I will monitor my weight once per month, but I have no goal except to follow the diet as I have tweaked it. If there is no goal, then there's no temptation to tweak the diet when the goal is missed.
Kathleen

Thank you Grammy and Kathleen for reminding me that the numbers aren't what I should be following. I do however feel it in my waist line more than the numbers this time. I had taken in a tuck in a pair of my jeans, and had to let out the tuck yesterday, so I know I'm bigger. I'm not back in the good habit yet.

That is the worst -- to see that you have gone backwards and actually regained some weight. I'm in that same boat, too, as my jeans are tight again. The good news is that, this second time around, I seem to be adjusting more quickly to "perfect compliance" on N Days. It helps, too, that tomorrow is Thanksgiving! I'm going to try making biscotti from scratch this afternoon, and it will be my breakfast tomorrow morning.
Kathleen

Mmmmmmmmm ... I've always done pretty well setting goals and trying to reach 'em ...

That seems like real work to me then, something I have to achieve, etc. It would be a lil' strange to be on a diet and not have goals set from the get go ...

Setting goals is the first thing I did both times I lost some weight. (I set the goal for the whole journey and then the goals for each and every month ... and then on the first day of the month I would add even more goals for each week of that month, I had so many goals you wouldn't believe it !)

When I read : "Oh, I don't want to set any goals, I don't want to focus on numbers, bla-bla" I don't really GET IT cos' it's really the first thing I would do.



Cheers !

Marc

Nov. 1st 2008 : 280 pounds
Nov. 1st 2009 : 190 pounds (-90 pounds)

Marc,

Both reneew and I got off habit because we didn't lose weight as quickly as we expected.

Kathleen

Well, I made it to 21 again, but I think I still feel full from Thanksgiving. I find that after I stuff my self on Thanksgiving, I don't reach "hungry" for quite a while. I eat when it's time, but I'm still not hngry yet. It's hard to wait especially when the kids are around!

Marc...I was going to speak for Kathleen, reneew, and myself but I think I best stick to what I think. this noS is not a diet for me..it is going to be the way I eat view food for the rest of my life. Yes, losing weight is important but i know from experience that I can't count evey bite I take for an unlimited time. If you can, and that works for you, great!! You found your answer!!
reneew..bummer !! hope your next holiday is better!

This is how my November looked:
I was gone from No S for a quick and stupid detour and gained... So, I came back to start anew!!!

7th - s day
8th - s day and fairly in control! Wow!
9th - yea
10th- yea I feel that I'm on track
11th- yea but big plate at lunch, when it's usually small
12th- yea
13th- yea
14th- s day
15th- s day
16th- yea and an excellent day it was!
17th- yea
18th- yea
19th- yea
20th- yea
21st- s day
22nd-s day though I really took unfair advantage of my S day
23rd- yea but big plates
24th- yeaI definitely don't feel that it's a habit yet!
25th- yea Today my Thanksgiving starts... I hope it really helps knowing that I'm on day 19!!! I will report back after the day.
26th- s day blah- Thanksgiving
27th- yea I made it to 21!!!
28th-s day
29th-s day
30th- yea



On to December!

Back on track -- that!s great!
Kathleen

I've just started a December challenge. I'm excited! I need this. For those of you who may be reading this, if you look at my progress on page 1 here on my check-in, you'll see that December is my tough month. I started my gain of 20 last year in December.

Renee Renew---ing, yes !

The main thing is to form good habits and then you adapt to your personal situation ... depending what happens. etc.

You have to be super quick sometimes.

Example, just this past week I started struggling for some reason, I was exercising, everything was going well, but for reason unknown I was getting really hungry around 8-9pm at night (Rare !! Usually when I am having issues, it happens later, around 10-11pm ...)

So I had a few bad days, problems around 8-9pm, I gained a couple of pounds eating cookies & crackers excessively. and I was a lil' depressed for a couple of days.

Then I changed my daily plan so I now eat 5 times per day, it's more balanced ... same total number of calories only spread out over 5 meals instead of 3 ... this seems to have helped a lot.

Also I traded the cookies I was having as a maintenance-phase-treat now for some plain old oatmeal. Instead of having 3 cookies and then feeling hungry 10 minutes later I eat a small bowl of oatmeal, fills me up and I'm alright for 2-3 hours straight until my next MINI-MEAL, problem solved. I'd rather eat plain oatmeal and not feel hungry than eat something tastier like cookies/crackers and then feeling hungry again right away.

I traded empty calories from the cookies/crackers for calories that are actually filling me up nicely (Plain oatmeal with a lil' bit of plain yogurt mixed in) Problem solved and I'm back to my FIGHTING WEIGHT after struggling a lil' bit.

I was proud that I was quick on my feet and changed my plan right away to make it easier on me : Cookies out, oatmeal, in and spreading out my daily calories even more than I was before.

You definitely have to keep up with the exercise though, I mean even in the maintenance phase, you just can't quit everything (Diet&exercise) and think you're gonna be fine and remain at that weight 4-ever without some hard work. You can ease up a lil' bit but I need to fine tune this set up in the next few weeks / months to know by how much.... I can see how someone could regain a lot of weight back quickly - - if they are not careful !

I freak out gaining 2-3 pounds so I guess I'm alright for the moment, lol ! I know everything I have to do to make it long term though, so I am really confident, it's not like I have no idea what I should and shouldn't be eating, what I should do to exercise, etc. I've been doing this for 13 months straight now so it's like second nature.

I manage better when I know I can't have cookies instead of allowing a few cookies in my diet here and there and then getting intro trouble because those empty calories are wasted and I'm hungry again very quickly after that and then it's easier to have another handful of cookies...

Cheers !

Marc

Nov. 1st 2008 : 280 pounds
Nov. 1st 2009 : 190 pounds (-90 pounds)

Go Rene!!!!
Debs x

I'm really trying to put off making all of those Christmas goodies! It's tough! Last year by this time I'd have eaten dozens by now. I feel guilty about not making them for my hubby and kids. I know that I shouldn't they don't need them either... but then they are all thin, but then I guess maybe that's why I'm the one wanting them so bad. Hmmm....

~emilyr wrote: make a single batch!

Me? Yea, right! Anyway, as it turns out the timing was perfect for making the big batch of cookies. The kids had a day off of school and I had a dentist appointment. While I was feeling nausiated from all of the drilling, my youngest daughter made a huge batch. While my pain started to come back, she rolled out and cut them all. I only snitched 1 bite (ONE), which I am not counting because cookie dough is my big downfall and 1 bite is a huge success. Now we are all banned from the 2 cakepans full of cookies until we have time to frost them. There is a snow storm on the way, so it may be earlier than I want, but all is going well so far on the home front.

yea, today went real well. RED!



I sometimes wonder if I should allow a single sweet for supper if it fits on my plate, then skip my weekend S days. I'd take my special days, but I wouldn't have my usual 5-10 pound weekly gain from the weekends. I do need a snack on Saturday evening, and I could save one of my meals for that. It has worked in the past. As it is now I eat on Saturday and Sundays simply because I can. My plan basically would be 3 dishes a day. PERIOD. Hmmmm... thinking about it....

You and I are addicted to sugar ~ I say none except on the weekends. No changes, remember You've gone down that path, come on, stay strong ~ you can do it, tie a knot, do what you need to get right back on track. We are having another snow day today too, ugh Be prepared, thats what I say!

O.K. No sweets unitl the weekend. Maybe I should skip the S days though... I'll maybe use one and bank one. If I'm able. Maybe I should wait until the new year when I have much more willpower.



Edit: The blizzard threw me for a loop. Cookies! I didn't do it... my youngest daughter did it. It's her fault. I really didn't have too very many, especially when I compare to other Christmas seasons, but I'm a cheater and I need to confess. I plan on making up for it on Sunday, then re-coloring it to remove the red. This is a December-only new rule of mine.
_________________

NO Must I keep reminding you This is for the rest of our lives, we can't keep waiting until the timing is better, come on you can do this. (I'm referring to your January thought). Put a box in the freezer and fill it every time you want one of those sweet morsels and then enjoy them on Saturday and Sunday. Remember what happened last Christmas We don't want that again ~ plain old vanilla no s, we can do it, I know you can, come on lets make this happen!

The only non-vanilla thing is that I'm going to try to do an N day on Sunday to make up for the Fail yesterday. All other thoughts of mods are on hold. O.K.??? Love you guys!

Okay, the only problem I see is the word try, lets just say you are going to!

I'm gunna