Family Affair

[NoelFigart]

I was wondering: How many people do No-S as a family?

My family does. Well, my husband and I are pretty strict about it, and my son does have one snack on coming home from school -- a sandwich or something. The boy is sixteen and I suppose I ought to be grateful he's not eating up the whole kitchen like many young men I've known of.

For us, the benefits are beyond just the good eating habits, though those are nice. It means we hold dinner time as sacred -- family time. It's a nice way to reconnect after a long day.

I was wondering how many other people had family members either formally decide to do No-S together or finding themselves effectively moving towards joining in because it seemed like a good way to do things?

[dirkandwhit]

We have always eaten dinner together as a family. My husband feeds the kids breakfast while I get ready - I have to leave earlier so I eat earlier. But one of the main problems I have had with tradional dieting is that I have had to eat something different at dinner, or I binged and am consequently not hungry at dinner, OR worse, I am only allowed to eat when hungry and if I'm not hungry at dinnertime, I sit and watch my family eat. That is NOT fun and I feel like a wierdo just sitting there. No S is so much more reasonable a plan, if only for the social aspect--eating as a social function at mealtimes is just how many families connect.

[kccc]

Not officially. We do eat meals together, and that simple habit tends to anchor our eating patterns.

I generally discourage snacks for my son, with the exception of the after-school snack which I try to keep to fruit or protein. If it's too close to dinner, though, he gets the old-fashioned "it will spoil your appetite" line.

However, my husband is going to do what he wants in terms of snacks/desserts, and since he's a grown-up, he gets to make his own choices. He likes to snack when he's stressed. He likes desserts, and will eat ice cream if there's nothing else. (Actually, most of the time he eats decently- I'm just mentioning where he strays from No-S.)

It's hard to refuse my son a dessert when my husband is going to have something, but I do worry about him expecting there to always be dessert. The best I can do is keep it small.

Still, I think the general meal-time pattern has had an influence on everyone, not just me. My husband eats more vegetables than he used to, because they're there, and snacks less, because he's had a real meal and doesn't need it.

[vmsurbat]

We've always eaten all our meals together (expats in a southeastern European country), but yes, my family's eating habits are changing. I've been following NoS for more than 3 years and the family can see how much of a difference it has made for me.....

We used to have "elevensies" because the gap between breakfast and lunch (main meal, here) was big--the local equivalent of an afterschool snack. On their own (after I'd been NoSing for 2+ years), the kids decided that they didn't need one, that just a cup of tea or juice would be better.

Also, my husband (who is a great nibbler) has gotten much more keenly aware of his habits and is moving towards eliminating random, mindless nibbling, and deciding if he truly needs a mid-afternoon snack to keep from crashing. He's always considered himself somewhat hypoglycemic, and thus justifies "having a little something" which is usually a cookie. But now he is willing to consider that his many little cookies could be contributing to the problem and that a preplanned-only-if-needed mini-meal is the smarter way to go....

And while the children don't need to lose any weight at all, they certainly know what it takes: whenever someone bemoans the fact they need to lose weight, my kids will earnestly inform them about NoS!

[midtownfg]

My husband doesn't officially follow no-S but he has stopped snacking on his own. He used to bring lots of little things to work for lunch - yogurt, granola bar, raisins, apple, sandwich, pretzels - and he would eat them all at separate times throughout the day. He has been working from home since February and realized that he doesn't need to eat anything betw breakfast and lunch or after lunch. He was doing those things only bc he was BORED and avoiding working. At home he only eats his 2 meals with no snacks and has lost more than 5 pounds without even thinking about it. And we are saving a lot of money on raisins and granola bars
He still likes to have seconds with dinner but he is better about asking if I planned to save the food for lunches before he just takes it.